Nice sleeveface, sleeveface!

This is totally awesome. Useless and impractical, but really, really funny.

They are sleevefaces. They are people taking photos of themselves with record sleeves strategically placed to become one with themselves. Then these sleevefaces upload their pics to Flickr, tagging them under "Sleeveface". So far more than 700 photos have been submitted, and they're great.

Link to the Flickr group

I'll have to see if I can add my own sleeveface to the mix this weekend...

cn

PS I guess this is one thing you can do with vinyl records that you can't with MP3s.

More news on the resurgence of vinyl

This time it's, well, Time.

Time magazine has published a (fairly brief) story about the resurging popularity of vinyl records in the modern music world.

Now, records account for less than one per cent of all "albums" sold, and the freefalling CD format still accounts for nearly 90 per cent of all albums sold. But vinyl sales did go up 15 per cent last year, bucking the sliding trend of the CD.

Link

cn

Make some beats with a web 909

Programmer Andre Michelle has created a Flash-based version of the classic Roland drum box, the TR-909. Check it out and make some beats in your browser instead of, you know, working or something. :-)

Link

cn

Top 10 Albums of 2007

Looking back at 2007, I have to say that despite all the turmoil in the recording industry, the year in terms of actual music was a pretty damn good one.

Here's my list of my Top 10 albums, for what it's worth. If you have your pick for favourite album, or a top 10, please post it here too!

1. Maps - We Can Create Hands down, my album of the year. Found by accident by perusing iTunes, and what do they say -- sometimes the accidents make for the most memorable moments? The sound of this album strikes such a deep chord with me emotionally. It wasn't until long after I bought it that I discovered that Maps is one guy, and he recorded the thing in his bedroom with a 16-track recorder and no computer. So it's also inspirational from a creative point of view. Highly recommended. I love this album.
2. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero On their own, the individual songs on Year Zero aren't as strong as on the last album, With Teeth, but taken as an overall album Year Zero is sheer aural genius. It was also the most groundbreaking album of the year, period, in terms of how it was released.
3. Underworld - Oblivion With Bells More subdued and melancholic than the driving beats of 100 Days Off, but still hypnotic, dreamy and pulsing with electronic energy.
4. Erasure - Light at the End of the World These guys are amazing, and I hope when I'm in my 40s I can make as well crafted a pop album as Vince and Andy continue to do.
5. Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis Pulp's frontman (and one of my favourite songwriters of all time) releases a solo album that isn't that far off from being a proper Pulp album (a good thing) and contains my favourite song (and video) of the whole year, Don't Let Him Waste Your Time.
6. Buck 65 - Situation The Wired review was wrong. This album - a return to lo-fi hip hop beats and imaginative lyrics, as much as it is an homage to 1957 - is great.
7. Dragonette - Galore Fun, catchy, danceable, synthy, sexy. I don't know why more people don't love this Canadian band.
8. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible I just borrowed this from the library late in the year, I didn't buy it, but regardless I say it's a fantastic and worthy successor to Funeral.
9. David Usher - Strange Birds No one has this on any of their top 10 lists. I don't know what to say, other than the world is full of idiots? Smartly crafted pop rock 'n' roll with good hooks, real emotion, thoughtful words and skillful arrangements. Geez, who likes that?
10. DJ Jazzy Jeff - Return of the Magnificent Any time I start to think no one can make a good hip-hop record anymore, someone proves me wrong. Last year it was Jeff who took me to school.

Also enjoyed - Feist, Chromeo, Blaqk Audio, Rufus Wainwright, Pet Shop Boys, and a whole bunch of stuff that was released earlier than 2007.

Best live show - John Mayer @ Rexall Place.

Hated - I know Crank That was dumb and annoying, but have you attempted to listen to any of Soulja Boy's, um, other tracks from that Souljaboytellem.com album? Worst godaweful shit I've heard in a long, long time.

Guilty pleasure - Kylie.

There you go. I hope 2008 produces as much cool music as last year did, that's for sure!

cn