Amazing Grace (featuring Frank H. Carter III)

Songboy3 aka Frank H. Carter III is one of the finest vocalists at ccmixter.org. His vocal tracks are both inspiring and excellent, and to have access to them and be able to create new musical works with them is a real treat.

I'd been wanting to do something with this for some time, and had no excuses yesterday as I was recording the latest Cool Music show. For this, I recorded 2 tracks of 1-take live beater Sigma guitar, a DI track with my P-Bass, and a whole bunch of hummin backing harmony vocal tracks. With the song itself being such a classic traditional piece, and with Frank's beautiful interpretation, I didn't really want to clutter it up with too much, or detract from his vocal track.



Download the track here

Big Guardian Angel

New remix I posted recently featuring the wonderful vocals of Jacinda Espinosa. Actually, it's more like I worked up a simple acoustic arrangement based on her vocal track. I made some minor changes, like where the bridge comes in, but i more or less kept it intact. Recorded with my beater Sigma acoustic into a large diaphragm condenser, as well as with a P-bass direct in to an MBox/ProTools.



Download the track here

The Secret Mixter

Just wrapped up a couple new remixes for the "Secret Mixter" project over on ccmixter.

"The Orchestral Movements of 1932" features Jackson Torreal, Calling Sister Midnight, and MiElle of the BO Crew. It tells a story. You can read more about it from the download link below.



Download the track here


In addition, Loveshadow performed the daunting and most admirable task of slicing up a ton of my Cool Music voiceovers and turning me into a beat poet with "Things I Love Things I Hate".



Download the track here

2 more recent remixes

A flurry of activity lately! In addition to the recent "If I Wait" remix, I did a couple other remixes over on ccmixter.

"The Love Connection" features Loveshadow and Jhon Black. Lots of bounce per ounce on this one.



Download the track here


Ciggiburns is a dynamite english singer and one of ccmixter's best kept secrets. My nickname for her is "the voice". I know, it's unoriginal but it's the first thing I think when I hear her sing. She also does great radio promos. I've been wanting to remix her for some time, so I took CiggiBurn's vocals into the far depths of MIDI space with "Small Back Room - The Space Station mix".



Download the track here

If I Wait

Just wrapped up a new song/remix which I really like. The vocals are by Sunbyrn, and I do the rest. The drums are looped, but all the rest is me playing live.




Download the track here

Cause it needs to be rocked, you know?

Just wrapped up a new remix/mashup for the latest Remixfight. It features source music from Subliminal, with flow by Forensic, courtesy of ccmixter. Check out the others and pick your favorite one.



Download the track here

Scomberella

"Scomberella" is the young daughter of prolific ccmixter artist Scomber. He recently shared a bit of spoken word he recorded with her, and I set it to a cool swing jazz arrangement using source from Musetta.



Download the track here

Sola Solita

New remix I just put up over on ccmixter which I had fun with. Combined a loop based mix with some live guitar and synth I recorded. I literally had to dust off the old Guild F4. The really hot vocal track is by Andrew Franco.

No Apologies Necessary

Snowflake is a very talented singer and songwriter otherwise known as Emily Richards, and she's put together a cool little contest to help celebrate Earth Day 2009.

I threw together my own little remix here.

Grab her source and submit a remix to ccmixter.

Remix Kutiman for CBC Radio's Spark

CBC Radio’s Spark has a CALL FOR REMIXES (that’s in bold and all caps so you won’t miss it) with a deadline of April 6th, 2009.

They are asking interested parties to take this source (make sure to download both files) and edit down a 1 min. remix. Submit remixes to ccmixter through the typical ccmixter remix upload process.

The winner will hear their remix aired on their April 8th program and podcast, and score a nifty thank you prize.

So get off your butt and answer the call! :)

A Salty Salute to Admiral Bob

A salty salute to Admiral Bob, one of my personal favorite ccmixter source artists.

The Fair Use Meme Goes Mainstream

Images by Manny Garcia/Shepard Fairey


Interesting stuff taking place with regards to one Shepard Fairey, whose ubiquitous poster of Barack Obama has become such a cultural phenom, it's being reinterpreted from all different angles by thousands of people. This process is nothing new for Fairey, a well known street artist whose reputation is checkered by charges of plagerism and unoriginality. Andy Warhol probably ran into similar criticisms as an artist, yet in retrospect, is today hailed as a pioneering artist and cultural icon. So one could argue the similarities between Warhol and Fairey, and argue that this type of "fair use" has been going on for quite some time.

Jasper Johns earned his legacy by lifting the national icon. Or Roy Lichtenstein, whose work hangs in the most important art museums in the world. Lichtenstein used oil and Magna paint in his best known works, such as Drowning Girl (1963), which was appropriated from the lead story in DC Comics' Secret Hearts #83. (Drowning Girl now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, New York).

This plays right into Larry Lessig's view of the remix. It's obvious to even the most casual observer that Fairey's poster was "inspired" by the photograph. Perhaps it was the composition, or it could have actually just been the ability to capture that exact moment with Obama that made that photo inspire Fairey to create his poster. But his poster definitely "reinvents" the photo, or perhaps a better word would be "the image" (and the photo just happened to capture the original image). In that sense, Fairey appropriated, and added artistic value to the image.

Also nice to see Dr. Lessig is on it.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that this huge cultural phenom is now going to be discussed in broader terms than just how cool the poster is. It will bring the debate into the mainstream in a manner that can be understood by the masses, and debate on this is a good thing. It's time for a larger discussion of intellectual property reform as technology enables more open, easy, and free widespread distribution of ideas.

bring it on.

Follow Me

or more accurately, follow my "Cool Music" virtual radio show, every week.

I added a new widget called "followers" to my blog for it. Just click the link on the right sidebar about halfway down. Come join the cool kids :)

Lessig vs. Colbert

"do not remix this". we all know how much we like being told what not to do.

Brad and I Visit Harvard

My buddy Brad Sucks and I are featured in the latest podcast from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research group based at Harvard Law School whose purpose and mission is to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. They represent a network of faculty, students, fellows, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and virtual architects working to identify and engage with the challenges and opportunities of cyberspace.

The podcast features Brad's original title track from his latest CD "Fake It", as well as my remix of Shannon Hurley's "We Are In Love".

Slices of the Digital Music Business

I found this cool presentation online. Some interesting facts, well designed, very professional. Guess who's also in it?

If you click that little thing in the top right corner, you can see it full screen. and blow it up. pretty cool little app.

Slices of the Digital Music Business Early 2008 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Fake it with Brad Sucks

My friend Brad Sucks was featured in one of the early remixfights (Number 11). Brad’s new CD is coming out next week and we’ve brought him back for an encore performance, and he’s given us first crack at remixing “Fake It”, one of the soon to be released tracks on the new CD.

Check out Brad’s website and pick up a copy of his new CD on September 9th!

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This month over on Remixfight, we are featuring remixes of David Barnes reading "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights", the ground-breaking document ratified by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. It defines the fundamental rights of individuals, and exhorts all governments to protect these rights. The UN has translated the document into over three hundred languages and dialects. David Barnes is a frequent contributor to LibriVox, an amazing online resource that is reproducing many of the world's most important written documents from the public domain into spoken word tracks available without licensing restriction through LibriVox. Check out the remixes and please share the link and spread the word. The Olympics take place next week in Beijing and the timing for this could not be more appropriate. Thanks to mixter regulars Gurdonark, Radiotimes, Minus Kelvin, and everyone that participated. Help us spread the word!

Artwork by Ralph Steadman.

Cool Music

I'm going to start doing a weekly virtual radio show which will highlight my favorite tracks over on ccmixter. It seems like so much gets submitted these days, it's hard to keep track of it all since it gets lost and buried kind of quickly. So each week, I'm going to go back through the past week's submissions and share my favorites. They might not be the best for everybody but they're the best I came up with, and I'm hoping to also try to highlight the wide diversity of the artists there, and show how all styles and genres of music are accepted and embraced.

also thanks to teru for the intro of my dreams. there's no way a better intro could be created, therefore it will become the permanent intro.

Shannon's Songs

I've been remixing alot of Shannon Hurley, a very talented singer songwriter. "Overboard" is a pretty straightforward pop remix. "We are in Love" channeled my inner Burt Bacharach with some exceptional flugelhorn. Finally, I channeled my inner Tom Petty for "Where I Stand". Enjoy.



photo: curran clark photography