 The Robot InvasionJune 23, 2008The Trons are coming! Engineer Greg Locke literally put the band together and they're becoming a sensation on youtube and myspace. The name is derived from the nickname given to the locals of Hamilton, New Zealand. Greg's day job is building robotic blueberry sorters for the local farmers. Read about their " influences ".
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 Is it Upbeat?June 16, 2008 Meanspeed.com is a blog about music and their tempos. Sounds a little dry? It features beautiful graphs of 1000 songs and what appears to be an analysis of each songs data.
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 Forecast for BrooklynJune 9, 2008 2008's answer to the Sparks , Project Jenny Project Jan have just released their new video about the weather in Brooklyn. The catchy tune is sure to be a hit. Look for cameos from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. " It's Always Sunny in Brooklyn "
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 Adem Covers AlbumJune 4, 2008Adem's bowed-glockenspiel version of Bjork's "Unravel" is a highlight of his new covers album.
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 Submarines LaunchMay 29, 2008 More MFP alums The Submarines have released their album Honeysuckle Weeks on Netwerk. You may have heard Jack & Blake's "Brighter Discontent" during the finale of " Nip Tuck " where the characters of the series lip synced the song. Be sure to see The Submarines on tour this Spring.
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 Mates of State New AlbumMay 22, 2008 MFP alums Mates of State have released their album re-arrange us on Barsuk Records. We were lucky to catch a great performance by the duo last night, and recommend keeping an eye out for them on tour. Congrats to a favorite power couple.
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 In the StudioMay 12, 2008Jennifer O'Connor was in the studio this week recording vocals for a special project with Peter. She brought a copy of here new Matador release "Here With Me". Look for it's public release in the late Summer. We're all very excited for JOC!
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 Cello HeroApril 30, 2008The Berliner Philarmoiker has taken a cue from 'Guitar Hero' and are offering people the chance to compete online composer Camille Saint-Saens. Use your mouse and to control the bow. It's pretty tricky and the sound tends more toward the avanr garde.
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 Battle of the BandsApril 14, 2008Using the 'wonders' of web 2.0, Songkick.com has created a virtual stockmarket comprised of band notoriety. Using data based on MySpace page views, Amazon rank, Songkick ranks as well as other public music feed information, values are 'calculated' on that groups value at different times. Here is a quick sampling I did. The power of four , change the channel and alphabet rock .
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 Andrew Bird at nyt.comApril 9, 2008 Read Andrew's post in The Times' 'Measure for Measure' blog. Fun recording stories and musings. A gentleman, a scholar, and an MFP alum.
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 Klaus Dinger 1946-2008April 3, 2008 His landmark drumming style, a
propulsive almost surf-like repetitious groove defined the term
'motorik' and has had a profound influence on a huge range of
artists such as Primal Scream, Stereolab, Wilco, David Bowie, The
Boredoms and Four Tet. The fact that he was an original member of Kraftwerk, Neu and La Dusseldorf demonstrates his profound contribution to "modern rock" as it's known today.
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 SXSW 6 Words or LessMarch 19, 2008 Writer Paul Ford, author of Gary Benchley, Rock Sar, has listened to the mp3's from each of the 763 bands appearing at Austin's SXSW music festival this year. He's encapsulated his thoughts about each recording in to a six word review. "Fills a Billy-Joel shaped chasm.", "Looks like Stella, tastes like Pabst."
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 Murdering the ClassicsMarch 5, 2008Since 1996 Yo La Tengo has been performing requests on the air at WFMU as for their fundraiser. "Murdering the Classics" is becoming a classic in itself with past shows available for download. The unwritten rule is the weirder the song choice the more you should donate. Visit this year's broadcastand experience the fun! |
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 Bent FestivalFebruary 27, 2008Start weeding through those old boxes in the basement; the Bent Festival may be heading your way. Circuit-bending at its finest comes to LA, Minneapolis, and New York this spring, turning toys and discarded electronics into, well, music.
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 Black List Sundance PremiereJanuary 16, 2008 Associates (and family) Chris McKee and Michael Sloane share in the premiere of The Black List at Sundance this week. They co-produced the film, conceived by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (l) and Elvis Mitchell (r).
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 Voodoo FunkDecember 12, 2007 His name is Frank and he travels around Africa, buys tapes and singles, rips them, and posts them. There are actually several blogs like this, but he sometimes combines several into a mix, so you can listen for a while instead of going back to a new posting of his every six minutes for two more songs. Enjoy this weeks posting 'Groovy Christmas' on Voodoo Funk.
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 Live from New YorkDecember 6, 2007NYC's Other Music has had some great in-store performances over the years, and now they've begun to produce short segments to show them off. "Boooring," you say? Well, these smartly produced clips are better than that. Check out St. Vincent in Volume 1 . |
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 All Night AlongNovember 19, 2007I came across this amazing movie the other night. It's a 1962 version of 'Othello' set in England using jazz musicans instead of royalty. Charlie Mingus, Dave Brubeck (and many other American musicans) are all "members of the court" . They're having a big jam session in the background as bandleader "Johnny Cousin" plants the seeds of jealousy in the mind of a more prominent bandleader "Rex" about the fidelity of his retired singer wife "Delia Lane". If you like Shakespeare and jazz this is a must see. Also performing at the "session" were Keith Christie, Bert Courtley, John Dankworth, Ray Dempsey, Allen Gantley, Paul Harris, Aurelius Rex, Tubby Hayes, Geoffrey Holder, Patrick McGoohan, Johnnie Cousin, Keith Michell, Barry Morgan, Kenny Napper and Colin Purbrook. - Peter |
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 Graboff in the HouseNovember 8, 2007We lucked out in having multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Jon Graboff in the studio this week during a short break from touring the world with Ryan Adams and The Cardinals. Long live the pedal steel and all those who can tame the beast. |
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 Thao Kills Rock StarsNovember 6, 2007Thao Nguyen, who impressed us with her 2006 debut Like The Linen, has signed with Kill Rock Stars. She recorded We Brave Beestings And All, which will be released early next year, with producer Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Laura Veirs, Mudhoney). |
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Amazon MP3 LaunchesSeptember 26, 2007 Without much fanfare, Amazon launched its DRM-free mp3 store yesterday, offering most downloads at a discount to iTunes, and some albums and songs at true "sale" prices. But you'll still have to pay the full 89 cents each for tracks by Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra. |
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That Giant Sucking SoundSeptember 12, 2007The Wall Street Journal today asks the painful question, "Are you listening to music more but enjoying it less?" Many people have had a conversation about declining audio quality in an mp3 era, but myspace's ubiquity has taken the suckiness to another level. The article offers audio samples for comparison. |
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 Os Mutantes for ShellSeptember 5, 2007Os Mutantes were formed in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1966 by brothers Arnaldo Baptista (bass, keyboards and vocals) and Sérgio Dias (guitars and vocals) and lead singer Rita Lee. They released two albums heavily influenced by the Brazilian Tropicália movement, which blended Psychedelic Rock with other forms of art. Beck has sited them as a large influnece & David Byrne is a big fan. Take a look at some of their strange ads for Shell Oil. |
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 No SkateboardingAugust 29, 2007Artist Bill Shannon dances and skateboards - on crutches no less - around downtown Brooklyn in Director Joey Garfield's continuous shot video for RJD2's "Work it Out." (No, it's not the song from HSM2.) |
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 Bishop Allen`s EP a MonthAugust 20, 2007When Justin & Christian mentioned they wanted to record an EP a month for their fans I thought this would be a fine test for "the hardest working band" in Brooklyn. We did some overdubs at the MFP and helped with their remote setup. The EPS compilation "Broken String" has recently been released. Be sure to check them out when they come to your town. They undoubtedly plan to at some point. - Peter |
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 Ingmar`s Ads!August 6, 2007In 1951 Ingmar Bergman signed a contract with the Sunlight Corporation to make nine
commercials
for Bris soap . Each commercial had to contain one of two slogans:
"Perspiration alone does not smell; it is the skin bacteria that
cause the smell when they come in contact with perspiration" or "Bris
kills the bacteria—no bacteria—no smell." Bergman
had fun making the commercials, though he had some difficulty fitting
the Bris text into the films. |
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 Balkan Mixtapes!July 26, 2007Typsy Gypsy from Belgium mixed a double sided
mixtape full of Balkan, Gypsy, Klezmer and everything over 150 bpm!
Together with Sam Rabam Typsy Gypsy forms the dj collective Balkan Hot
Stepsoundsystem. As they like to say "We play everything that makes you go 'HOPA' !!!" |
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 We Love the Brazilian Girls!July 24, 2007 What better way to spend a sunny Sunday afternooon than dancing away to
the sounds of some of Music For Picture's favorite collaborators?
That's what I did this weekend, heading to Central Park Summerstage to
hear an awesome show by our friends the Brazilian Girls! Rounding out the bill was another MFP collaborator, Kenny Wollesen, with his 89 person marching
band Himalaya's, and a little piece of home for me in the form of Australia`s Cat Empire. -Karlie
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 PJPJ Tour with Fujiya + MiyagiJuly 19, 2007Project Jenny Project Jan, the duo of Jeremy Haines and MFP's own Sammy Rubin, have returned from a short tour with Fujiya & Miyagi, during which they brought their alternatingly quirky and bombastic sound to new fans in the Northeast. "An incredible experience," said Haines. Watch this space for more on these rising stars. |
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 Spinal Tap Bass ArmyJuly 9, 2007"the loudest and most punctual band on Earth, this is Spinal Tap!" .-manager Marty DiBurghi The veteran rockers then ploughed through three of their 'hits'. However the real centrepiece of the performance came before the closing 'Big Bottom' , before which 'David St Hubbins' introduced "every bass player in the known universe...". Joining the band were Foo Fighters' Nate Mendell, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Bloc Party's Gordon Moakes and Madonna's bass player and producer Stuart Price. However, Metallica frontman James Hetfield and the entire Beastie Boys also made it onto the stage to join in the fun. |
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 Manu Chao at Prospect ParkJune 29, 2007MFP had a chance to relax and enjoy the music when we attended the Manu Chao concert in Prospect Park. The event was part of the summer-long Celebrate Brooklyn festival, which offers free concerts a few nights a week. Some of our collaborators (such as Catherine Russell and Steven Bernstein) can be seen performing there this summer. - SammyCelebrate Brooklyn |
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 Super Deluxe ComedyJune 25, 2007Our old friend Eugene Mirman has a series of "shows" on www.superdeluxe.com about talkshows of the future and lonely djs writing in their diarys. As Peter does for all of his old friends, he wrote the theme songs for both of the series. |
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Summer Rock!June 20, 2007Between Summerstage, River to River , Celebrate Brooklyn, and other NYC festivals, the summer music season is in full swing. The first of many MFP alums to rock the city stages this summer are Martha Wainwright and Jim Campilongo, sharing a bill sponsored by The Living Room for River to River June 26th. |
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 Sharon Jones New Single
June 11, 2007
"I'm Not Gonna Cry" from Sharon Jones and the Dep-Kings has just been released and it's mighty good. Daptone Records is fast becoming the Stax of Brooklyn.
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 Passing StrangeMay 21, 2007"Does the world really need another 'musical for people who hate musicals,'" you ask? In this case, yes. NYC is lucky to have Stew's play / concert / monologue Passing Strange at the Public Theater through June 3rd. "It dares in its playful way to honor those big
questions that have set adolescent souls yearning for centuries," Charles Isherwood writes in the New York Times. "How to
discover and be true to your convictions, how to live a meaningful
life, and still pay the bills, how to find the understanding you need
with out throwing away the love you’re offered.” And the band seriously rocks. - Ben |
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 Sex Mob + Catherine RussellMay 17, 2007Sex Mob and Catherine Russell
were in the studio this week in what turned out to be an inspired
and joyous collaboration (and we can only hope, the first of many for them). The
project is double-secret-triple-hush so that's all we can say right now, but we're looking forward to sharing the results soon! |
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 CNN meets MTV?May 14, 2007Boston rocker and leader of the group 'The Gentlemen", Jake Brennan is singing op-ed commentaries about current events. The feature 'Pop-Ed' can be found on Boston.com . What's next? A comedy show about news events? - Peter |
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 Tango in Shoot Top TenApril 27, 2007Our track for Nabisco "Tango," composed by Jared Hunter and featuring accordion by Rob Burger (Rufus Wainwright, Tin Hat Trio) and violin by Leonardo Suarez-Paz (Cuartetango, Avantango), enters Shoot Magazine's top ten music tracks for Spring 2007. |
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Useful LunacyMarch 30, 2007Our pal Tim Brunelle, Carmichael Lynch CD of Interactive, begins his Useful Lunacy blog on all things creative. Our very own New Music Review makes it to his March 29 post, "Geek Squad Remote." |
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 Run Granny RunMarch 14, 2007Filmmaker Marlo Poras and composer Ian Kane were in the studio in February to record score for Run Granny Run, winner of the 2007 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award for Feature Documentaries. The film follows 94-year-old Doris 'Granny D' Haddock in her grassroots New Hampshire campaign for U.S. Senate. Ms. Poras' first film, Mai's America, won the Audience Award for Feature Documentaries at SXSW in 2002. |
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 New truth SpotJanuary 30, 2007Hear Music for Picture's track for truth's recent infection "Sodium Hydroxide." And send some hairy mail while you're at it. |
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 Balloonamentary PremiereJanuary 20, 2007In Music for Picture Alumni News, our former intern Sara Taksler (During Sara's first week here, Sara was offered a job at The Daily Show, at which time she chose to pursue her real passion: comedy. True Story. But once a friend of MFP, always a friend of MFP.) has co-written, produced, and directed "Twisted: A Balloonamentary," which will premiere at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival this March. Watch the trailer here. |
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 By Popular DemandJanuary 15, 2007For the many good people who asked, here it is: Jagielky's of Ventnor. And for those who are making the pilgrimage: Krispy Fluff. |
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