June 23rd, 2009

Macroform is an ambient electronic artist whose music can be a little tricky to find all in one place. The most comprehensive sources seem to be a page on OPSOUND and a Bandcamp website — complete with visualizers. I also came across what appears to be Macroform’s blog. The song featured below, Seeing In Purple, inspired me to do something a bit different with the video than I normally do; I hope you like it.

Macroform is an artist from the Troy, Ohio, USA. He is a musician, drummer, percussionist and computer musician, who also dabbles in guitar and piano and found sound in general to create sketches and compositions reflecting the worlds both internal and external. He draws from a broad range of musical influences from alt. rock to the net label scene at large. Many have found his music both cinematic and evocative. Delve in and find out how much your ears will find.
June 16th, 2009

Jonathan Coulton just has too many great songs for him to not be featured multiple times. Last time I rode “Always The Moon” from the ever-growing album The Aftermath, but this week is for the acoustic version of “The Future Soon”, which is from JoCo’s demo album Other Experiments.

Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970, in Colchester, CT), affectionately known as JoCo to his fans, is a musician best known for the geeky subject matter of many of his songs and the nontraditional licensing and distribution of his music. His most prominent accomplishments include his Thing a Week project and his songs Code Monkey, Still Alive, Skullcrusher Mountain, and The Future Soon. Jonathan is largely associated with the folk rock genre, though he occasionally experiments with other styles. Jonathan’s primary instrument is the guitar, but he also plays each other instrument in most of his recorded songs.
June 9th, 2009

The La Mirada, California-born YTCracker is a former hacker-turned-rapper and is now one of the most prominent artists representing the Nerdcore Rap genre. This week’s Audiosurfing track was generated using “Meganerd”, a song from YTCracker’s free album Nerdrap Entertainment System.

Bryce Case, Jr. (b. August 23, 1982), otherwise known as YTCracker (pronounced “whitey cracker”), is a rapper, former cracker, and Internet entrepreneur. YTCracker began producing rap music in 1998 in the genre that has since become known as nerdcore hip hop. YTCracker is a self-proclaimed “jack of all trades”, also making a name for himself as a professional disc jockey, computer programmer, graphics designer and webmaster.
June 2nd, 2009

I thought I’d kick off June with the appropriately titled “June (I Hate This Month)” from Los Angeles-based artist Monk Turner’s Calendar album, where he’s written and recorded a song for every month of the year. As a self-described “Concept Artist,” Monk Turner makes all of his music freely available under Creative Commons via Archive.org’s Open Source Audio repository.

“With Creative Commons licenses, I have the ability to distribute albums freely to anyone in the world without the need for a distributor and without worrying that someone could be using the songs outside of their intended purpose. I couldn’t do what I do without Creative Commons.” — Monk Turner
PseudoKnightMichael JT Smith
Author

TAGS

May 19th, 2009

This week we find ourselves audiosurfing some rockin’ tunes from some friends here in Portland, OR. From their recently released album Swim, SweetJuice plays something “Beautiful.” (music and lyrics by Kris Deelane)

SweetJuice style of Alt/Art/Rock is hard to pin down. The band’s live shows are known for powerhouse performances, infectious energy, catchy songs, and intricate vocals and harmonies. It’s like Elvis Costello meets The Indigo Girls at a Neil Young and Crazy Horse show. And with both a female and a male lead singer, each of whom contributes songwriting and arrangement skills to the group, they may be the 21st Century’s answer to Fleetwood Mac. Based in Portland Oregon, SweetJuice has toured the west coast, playing festivals and clubs, sharing the stage along the way with the legendary Brian Wilson, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, The Zen Tricksters, Little Sue, The Paperboys, Casey Neill among others.
May 12th, 2009

Today’s song, March of the Zombies, I’m proud to say, was created by our friend, the funk-nificant Rob Geboers, A.K.A. “Rob Goobers”, A.K.A. “Doctor Soul”, A.K.A. Schnauzer Radio Orchestra. You may be familiar with some of Rob’s work from the numerous theme songs he has composed for such podcasts as ExtraLife Radio, The Final Score and Comics Coast to Coast. You can hear more of Rob’s music at SchnauzerStudios.com, or the Schnauzer Radio Orchestra MySpace page.

May 5th, 2009

The Kyoto Connection is an Argentine band who create music they describe as “a sweet mix of electronic music with traditional japanese sounds”. A short documentary about the group can be seen on YouTube. This song, “Painting With Lights”, along with their other music, is available for free under Creative Commons at the band’s website TheKyotoConnection.com.