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One of our favorite up and coming indie bands, The Farewell Circuit, have been hard at work playing shows this past summer and gearing up to record their next batch of songs. We had a blast pulling their debut EP together (you can hear some before and after tracks at my producer site), and - line-up tweaks notwithstanding - they’re getting ready for their next few steps (writing, showcasing, yadda yadda…).

For starters, Danny, Geoff, Evan and DJ will be interviewed on Kramp & Adler’s morning show this Friday morning October 5th at 9:30… on the dial at 102.1 in Milwaukee. For those outside the region, or if you just dig the non-terrestrial-broadcast-thing, check out the 102.1 website for a live stream, and make friends with the hosts at Kramp’s myspace page.

TFC will also be playing at the Miramar Theatre this Saturday, October 6th, for Snapdragon Fest. We do like our festivals in Milwaukee, but we’re not sure you’ve ever had an opportunity to take in this much shoe-gazing, parent-loathing emo or petulant and frenetic ska in one weekend. Of course we dig Snapdragon Records… we rep some of their artists for music licensing opportunities at Burst Labs.

And the boys are headed to Nashville for an October 17th showcase with a few major label affiliates after building on the connections that their new guitarist, DJ, brings to the team (he was a member of This World Fair, whose song Don’t Make Me Wait was featured in the thriller Disturbia).

Be sure to check out all of The Farewell Circuit’s songs that are currently available for licensing at Burst Labs, and wish them luck at the Farewell Circuit myspace page… or head over to Third Shift Recording Co. and buy a copy of their debut EP (or grab your favorite song at iTunes). [dh]

The new Maritime CD is set to drop next month and we’ve got a sneak peek for music supervisors and producers who haven’t received a pre-release copy.

Dare we call them indie darlings, but hey - when you’ve had members of The Dismemberment Plan, Promise Ring, and The Arcade Fire grace your songs, you’re bound to attract some indie blog love.

from the Pitchfork review :

“… unrepentant and finely executed…”

“Davey von Bohlen’s melody bobs and weaves around the guitar-less verses, and I’ve never heard the lyric ‘freaks come out at night’ sound quite so innocuous. But this one’s all about the chorus, coming on so strong it takes a few listens to find out how sweet it is, with reaching, swooning vocals that cement von Bohlen as the star here.”

Here’s two songs recorded and mixed right here at Burst HQ by Stuart Sikes (Cat Power, Cerys Matthews, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse), who handled the music production duties on this new set of killer tracks :

Maritime - For Science Fiction


Maritime - Guns Of Navarone

When they were working in Studio A back in April, Davey confided to us that this felt more like a rock record, more like themselves than their previous effort, harder hitting, with more hooks… and they were ecstatic with the results at that point. I have to say, after hearing the completed disc, mission accomplished… can’t wait to see what’s in store for these very talented - and super kind - hometown heroes.

Thanks to Flameshovel Records, who brought you Maritime’s previous - and critically acclaimed - We, The Vehicles. Their latest release, Heresy and the Hotel Choir, is out Oct. 16. [dh]

Maybe you were like us and spent every waking minute of afterschool afternoons playing with your joystick.

Wait… let me rephrase that.

You remember the classic game consoles of 70s and 80s? Right after Pong, but before the Sony Playstation.

Atari 2600. Nintendo Entertainment System. IntelliVision. ColecoVision. And the minty Commodore 64.

Mario Bros. Pac Man. Donkey Kong. Missle Command. Kaboom! Pole Position. Sword Quest. Pitfall. Breakout. Adventure.

Forced to get my gaming groove on with an über-sexy TI-99 4/A, being raised in my family allowed me the special privilege of loading games from a cassette tape! Of course, we gave up on Texas Instruments the day we saw an Apple Macintosh at the mall - been a total Mac geek ever since, proud to say.

The soundtracks to these video games were annoying, low-res, and spare - quite unlike the fully scored orchestral masterpieces of today’s 5.1 game consoles. But there was something about them - a quirky romance, if you will - that warms our digital hearts.

So at Burst Labs this past week we set about creating some new classic videogame scores. Never forgetting our love of the joystick and trying to honor our past, we composed our new retro videogame music collection, Degenerate Gamer, using sound cards directly from these old games, low-bit resolution recording techniques that were all the rage at the time (well, it’s all they had), and by partaking in the Gamers Diet - Mountain Dew and Doritos.

Video Game Production Music Highlights

From the cute and cuddly department, we bring you 4 undeniable tracks full of rainbows and mushrooms and gold sparkle flowers :

Adorable Pixels
Bits & Pieces
Bonus Round
NoFriendo Entertainment System

And we have manic and crazed energy tracks, too :

Dungeon Maze
Frenzied Arcade
4 Bits To Freedom

How about some dramatic adventure :

Snake Raid
Mythical Adventure

And the requisite modern quasi-remix take on the classic sound of video games :

Final Fantasy Football

License This Music

Please feel free to license our classic video game production music where irony, sarcasm, humor, or genuine warm-hearted musical nostalgia are required. Batteries not included. [dh]

UPDATE : looking for a great emulator to play some classic Atari 2600 games? Try Stella.

We got an email last week from one of our friends and sonic heroes, Eric Persing (of Spectrasonics). He had a project for us.

Located : one vintage Vako Orchestron polyphonic organ, the successor to the Optigan.

Our mission : head to a basement in ‘Stallis (West Allis for those of you outside the Milwaukee area) and record samples of this rare and coveted beast.

Happy to say, the fine gent who was brokering this gorgeous piece of synthesizer antiquity, Jim Davisson, could not have been nicer or more accomodating, and our recording session was a complete success. Jim had done a remarkable job of restoring the instrument after having finally convinced his long-time friend to sell it, and we were able to grab some super clean samples of the entire keyboard (and most of the limited soundset).

I know Eric has some surprises planned for the sounds, and he always does amazing work, so we’ll be super stoked to finally get Spectrasonics’ new software instruments (next year?)… until then, the only place you can hear this incredible bit of music technology history is in music produced right here at Burst Labs.

We’ll post an update when some of our latest tracks featuring the Orchestron are uploaded.

For those among you with two feet solidly planted in the world of music-technology-geekery, Jim has agreed to come by Burst HQ and talk about the history of the Orchestron and his restoration process. Check back here for an update soon. [dh]

While we’ve been weighing in on ringtones and Kanye v. Fiddy, things have also been furious at Burst Labs where music is concerned. We just released a collection of borderline offensive and evil halloween music (plus some Creative Commons Licensed sound effects for you to use, too).

And we’ll be adding two more highly anticipated volumes to our library of production music very soon :

Degenerate Gamer features the sonic backdrop of our youth, with vintage and retro video game soundtracks, and Naughty + Nice is a compilation of holiday-themed songs arriving just in time for your winter productions - including some ridiculous new arrangements of your favorite public domain Christmas carols, plus some Hanukkah flavor and Auld Lang Syne.

Much more music coming soon to Burst Labs. Be sure to let us know what you want to hear next (drop us a comment below or send us a request via email).

There’s been a lot of Mark Ronson, Aesop Rock, Feist, Kanye West, and Sigur Ros cued up in our iTunes lately. We’re neck deep producing brand new instrumental music and full songs - in genres such as Chill, Quirky, R&B, HipHop, ElectroRock and TripHop.

So stay tuned. Or simply subscribe to our RSS feed to get the latest updates as they happen. [dh]

Rocketsurgeon highlights a new feature in iTunes where typing in the ‘Search’ box at the iTunes Music Store brings up a continuously updated list of options based on what you’re entered.

For those of you who utilize the DVD-packaged version of our production music catalog, you’ve always been able to find music even faster by searching the tags included in our MP3s and AIFFs/WAVs. Everything from the expected (’rock’, ‘jazz’, ‘dramatic’) to the more unique (’horrorcore’, ‘vocoder’, ‘melodica’) can be found by searching our library of tagged music files.

Of course, we kinda dig our online efforts for music discovery where All Things “Green” are concerned… but we know there are some of you who prefer having all of your production music in one location, at your place, within arm’s reach (or keyboard’s reach, as the case may be).

Our tags work especially well with Soundminer, too, as we consulted with them before embedding our files. They’re doing some super cool things with regard to making the lives of post engineers and producers much easier and better organized.

Want to know more? Send us an email or check out How To Get Burst Labs Music. [dh]

In producing the Halloween-inspired tracks for our production music catalog at Burst Labs, we created a small library of original sound design and sonic effects.

As a companion to our Ode To All Things Evil, The Boogeyman Cometh, we’ve recorded the requisite screams, thumps, chains, and a few dozen gross unmentionables, and have decided to offer them to you completely free as a Creative Commons Licensed download pak (one .zip file, approximately 5.3 MB).

Pretty big news out of Europe today, as YouTube agrees to a music royalty deal with the MCPS-PRS Alliance for upwards of 10 million pieces of music to be used on the British version of the Google-owned video sharing website YouTube.

More good news where production music licensing is concerned from the AP story :

Andrew Shaw, the Alliance’s managing director for broadcast and online, said the deal with YouTube would cover both user upload and content.

Shaw said that YouTube was in a unique position among broadcasters as it did not have full awareness of content on its site and that it had agreed to explore and implement technology to search out music.

“We do have an agreement from them to put in place various technologies that will allow them to identify music that is being used, to report that back and to make appropriate distribution payments,” he said.

Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube said the company has tried to “explore new and creative ways to compensate music creators.”

Yes, the technology will not be immediately forthcoming, nor flawless, to be sure… but we’re feeling pretty good about our British alliances at this point and are happy to have a solid, if fledgling, relationship with the royalty behemoth. In fact, look for announcements this fall regarding European distribution of the Burst Labs production music catalog. [dh]

Awww, we’re just messin’.

But, hey, the old axiom is indeed true : imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It’s just that usually we’re inspired by Pitchfork, not the other way around!

Check out our original post on the new misguided ‘Indie’ compilation, then head over to Pitchfork and compare.

An excerpt from Pitchfork :

“Indie’s Biggest Hits”? “Volume 1″? “NOW that’s what I call indie!” jokes aside, This Is Next is a baffling artifact of music biz cluelessness. Drawing one track each from 15 recent high-profile indie releases, This Is Next seeks to exploit indie’s recent surge in popularity while entirely ignoring the cultural and technological shifts that have made this surge possible. I’m hard pressed to think of who the audience for this would be. Anyone with a cursory interest in the music featured on This Is Next would have no problem freely and legally downloading or streaming most of these songs. And, if you’ve never heard any of these artists, I can’t imagine what about this compilation would compel you to take notice and suddenly drop 14 bucks at your local Wal-Mart (certainly not the cover art). Even if This Is Next racks up plays at a clothing store or boutique or Starbucks, it would largely be competing with the latest releases from Sufjan Stevens, the Decemberists, or Feist– not to mention every artist featured on This Is Next.

So kudos to Matt (Burst’s Matt) for a great initial post, and kudos to Matt (Pitchfork’s Matt) for, in essence, agreeing.

In all seriousness, we dig Pitchfork. We don’t feel violated… more like validated somehow. [dh]

Star Trak is the new record label headed by the one and only Pharrell, and their latest signing is a fantastic duo with Milwaukee ties, Chester French.

These two recent Harvard grads (D.A. Wallach and Maxwell Drummey) have managed to conjure the spirit of the Beach Boys while mixing in Air and Beck and some Hip Hop love. Definitely worth a listen, as they’ve received the coveted Entourage Stamp Of Approval : being featured in the closing credits for a recent episode of the smash hit comedy on HBO.

We tracked horns in Studio A at Burst HQ (trumpet, trombone, french horn, and tuba) on a few songs for their forthcoming full-length debut, “Love the Future.”

They certainly come to the party with considerable cred, having produced remixes for Slim Thug and Jay-Z, both available for review on their myspace profile. Go on and check them out (at myspace) so you can say you heard them way before the cool kids did. [dh]