Combine that with all of the changes and increased workload here at Burst, and you get an “I didn’t get around to this post last month” salad. So, in deference to you, dear readers, I will be making this post 2x better than the last Music Supervisor’s Cheat Sheet (which, I’ll be honest, I wrote on the crapper).

Onward and upward!

Suburban Kids with Biblical Names – “Funeral Face”

[See post to listen to audio]

Ok, so this is a no brainer for the indie-centric music supervisor. Imagine Vampire Weekend fronted by a guy who sounds like a cross between Jens Lekman and Stephen Merritt (he of Magnetic Fields and Volvo commercial fame). Did you just get a little turned on? No? Well, then you need to find a new line of work.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme – “Trading Things In”

[See post to listen to audio]

Ramshackle, Elephant 6-aping, and ridiculously catchy. This track says to your consumers “We don’t take ourselves TOO seriously.” Your customers will then respond “The fact that you used this song for your commercial makes me want to buy your product instead of your competitors.” Which is, you know, kind of the idea.

Sam Sparro – “Black & Gold”

[See post to listen to audio]

Aside from this track being inescapably cool, it would probably serve you best if the product you were shilling was mainly comprised of the colors black and gold, and if your core audience were metrosexual, club-going hipsters. I’m looking directly at you, generic energy drink that wishes to crack Red Bull’s hold on the caffeinated alcohol market.

Munk – “Live Fast Die Old (Ed Banger Allstar Mix)”

[See post to listen to audio]

I just really want to hear that freak-fest synth line on broadcast television. Honestly, I have no idea what the phrase “Live Fast, Die Old” could work for… the Lincoln Town Car, perhaps? Somebody use this one, for me.

Blitzen Trapper – “Furr”

[See post to listen to audio]

OK, so hear me out. What the Discovery Channel needs is a show about a baby that is given up at birth to a family of wolves, who raise it as their own. It would totally be better than “Meerkat Manor,” and that show pulls, like, millions of viewers a week (I’m sure there’s research somewhere to support this). This song was made to be the theme song of that show.

Creaky Boards – “Songs I Didn’t Write”

[See post to listen to audio]

For the uninitiated, here’s the back-story :

Coldplay lands the song “Viva La Vida” in an iTunes commercial. A band called Creaky Boards makes a stink about Chris Martin seeing them perform a year earlier, and then lifting one of their melodies. The internet is fired up for 10 minutes, and it all ends in a weary “meh.” What better move for Microsoft to make than to license the Creaky Boards’ song for a Zune commercial? It’s perfect, it’s a way for Microsoft to go to bat for the smaller indie band while Apple courts the stadium fillers. NOT making moves like this is something Bill Gates would do. Steve Ballmer, you’re in charge now, step up to the plate and hit this bastard out of the park!

OK, so I lied, that was only like 1.5x better than the last MSCC. [ms]

First off, the album. Girl Talk is the undisputed world champion of the schizophrenic, yet somehow cohesive, mash-up. “Feed The Animals” is, by any standard, more comprehensive, more varied, and more visceral that “Night Ripper.” The samples fly by with such effortless fluidity, that just as you think “Hey, I love that song!” he has moved on to 3 other songs you love. The result is a masterful, hugely satisfying piece of work.

Now, with that out of the way, I need to separate the music lover in me from the music creator, the one who makes a living through licensed music…

Grapefruit Balls

No one would deny that Girl Talk has got balls the size of grapefruits for suggesting that you should pay HIM for constructing an album completely from unlicensed samples. As an example, I did a quick, and by no means comprehensive, list of the artists sampled in the first 3 tracks (though I’m sure that by the time this is posted, a comprehensive list will be available on Wikipedia).

Play Your Part (pt. 1):

Spencer Davis Group
Pete Townshend
DJ Unk
Twisted Sister
Temple of the Dog
TI
Sinead O’Conner
Jay-Z
DJ Vortex

Shut The Club Down:

Avril LaVigne
Dolla
Butthole Surfers
Rod Stewart
Ahmad
Cool Kids

Still Here:

Procul Harem
Youngbloodz
Blackstreet
Kanye West
The Band
Cassidy
Ace of Base
Fergie
Kenny Loggins
Salt ‘N Pepa
Beastie Boys
Cat Stevens

Impressive? Absolutely.

Illegal and insulting? Well, yeah, that too.

Opting To Pay $0.00

Knowing, to a certain extent, what I was going to get, I chose to pay nothing, and was greeted with this screen:

To its credit, there is, to my mind, no judgement here, just an attempt to gather information. That said, I’m going to go over the choices, and the reasons for my choice.

I may donate later
Well, yes, but not by buying an album. When Girl Talk comes to town, I will be front and center, all sweaty and such.

I can’t afford to pay
If I couldn’t afford a dollar, I would hope that I would be working instead of obsessing over a blog post.

I don’t really like Girl Talk
OK, this one made me laugh.

I don’t believe in paying for music
If you’ve read any of my posts, you’ll know this is not the case.

I have already purchased this album
Um…. no.

I don’t value music made from sampling
Absolutely not the case. There is value in all music. Which is exactly my point. By not using licensed samples, Girl Talk is devaluing the very music he thrives on.

I am part of the press, radio, or music industry
Well, yeah, kinda, but that doesn’t entitle me to anything.

Other reasons
I would have preferred a box here that allowed my to explain my “other reasons”. It would have gone something like this:

Like I’ve said, brilliant album, talented artist, important work of art, terribly indecent piece of commerce. I wish him best and hope he finds a way to make more music, which I will, no doubt, listen to and enjoy. However, I refuse to be complicit in a musical black market. [ms]

The Hype Machine is an online music blog aggregator that surfs the web for blogs sharing (for the most part) illegal MP3s. Users then listen to the MP3s, and download them if they wish. It is a portal into a world that major labels tend to look the other way on, a world of sharing copy-written material for free in the name of “promotion.” Not that I’m against it, mind you, it’s a tremendously valuable music discovery tool.

Image via WikipediaViacom is a multinational media conglomerate who’s holdings include Paramount, Dreamworks, MTV, VH1, CMT, and Comedy Central. They have reportedly offered to buy The Hype Machine for $10M.

What is the end-game in this crazy time of media moguls snapping up music sites for insane chunks of change? Where are the profits going to come from? And don’t lay that tired “advertising revenue” smack on me. Does nobody remember the first dotcom boom and subsequent bust? Huge corporations don’t make something cool, they co-opt it, suck the cool out, and serve the reheated leftovers.

Somebody please make this make sense to me – obviously Viacom can’t openly endorse a service that shares (or promotes the sharing of) copy-written material, so in buying it, wouldn’t they have to change it? And if the strategy is to pay $10M for an architecture that you can fill with your own content, it perfectly illustrates the erroneous mindset of the modern music industry. Jesus, spend half that much and MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN THING. You cannot tell me that you couldn’t have a team of programmers whip up a site that aggregates content from multiple other sites for less than 10 million dollars.

Is it the built-in traffic? I’m sure that Hype Machine gets a significant amount of traffic daily, but guess what? Once Viacom strips away what’s there and installs its own ass-backwards system of ad-supported DRM-laden offerings, that glorious traffic they are so enamored of AIN’T COMIN’ BACK. In fact, in this day and age, what will happen is somebody else will build a newer and better site that does what the old Hype Machine did, get all of the traffic that is no longer going to Hype Machine, and then get bought out by Viacom, who were wondering why all of their Hype Machine traffic left.

The spiral that started with Napster is getting tighter and faster. I wish I could offer a solution, friends, but that’s the scariest part… so far, nobody’s got one. I only know that this isn’t it. [ms]

I like to think of myself as the production music world’s Sally Struthers… if I help just one person, it will all have been worth it.

Alphabeat – “Fascination”

[See post to listen to audio]

I would buy anything from a company that seduced me with this song. It’s one of those songs you want to feel superior to, but then find yourself singing it in the shower.

Walter Meego – “Girls”

[See post to listen to audio]

Just reeks of a montage of nerdy boys attempting to make themselves desirable to attractive girls. Perhaps one of them find success by dousing himself in a quart of Axe Body Spray (hint, hint)?

Does Offend You, Yeah? – “We Are Rockstars”

[See post to listen to audio]

Part hipster dance jam, part vocoded Daft Punk-y rave-up, this seems suited for some tech company that doesn’t mind to loosen its tie a little and bang the hell out of a cowbell.

Plastic Operator – “The Pleasure Is Mine”

[See post to listen to audio]

(a phone rings)
Daughter: Hello?
Dad: It’s Dad. How is school going?
Daughter: It’s hard being away from all of my friends.
Dad: Well maybe this will help you make new friends. Look outside.
(Daughter looks outside, Dad is standing there in front of an Audi TT convertible. There is a bow on it.)
VO: Audi… make people like you.

The Aluminum Group – “Headphones”

[See post to listen to audio]

The repeated use of the word “headphones” somehow evokes an image of someone walking around, wearing headphones. Perhaps the headphones improve this person outlook on life, turning everyday mundanities into quirky little dance sequences. Perhaps.

The Ting Tings – “Great DJ (IDC Rerub)”

[See post to listen to audio]

A feel good club song with a party theme. Catchy-as-herpes chorus featuring girls and handclaps, plus very few lyrics, so as not to confuse people.

El Debarge – “Who’s Johnny”

[See post to listen to audio]

OK, I issue this one with a challenge. With the news that the greatest robot-feels-up-Ally-Sheedy movie ever made is going to be remade, my hope is that El Debarge’s paean to early-stage Alzheimer’s will find its way back into cultural ubiquity. You could get in on the ground floor with this one. Don’t waste an opportunity here.

And here’s another way we’d love to help… if you end up using any of these tracks in your projects, drop us a line and we’ll post the results here. [ms]

Last week brought the news of the relaunch of Peter Gabriel’s TheFilter.com, a service that vows to ‘filter all online media habits… and offer advice about all of their entertainment and information options.’

This got me thinking about what I like…

With sites like TheFilter, Pandora, Last.fm, Myspace, TheSixtyOne, Virb, Mog and FameCast all vying to be the number one purveyor of the things you like, in the end, what’s the point? If the things you like are the same things everybody else likes, won’t all the sites end up looking the same? And if you tend to like things that aren’t as popular with other people, it’s all just a vain effort.

I Haven’t Heard Of Your Band, Nor Do I Want To

I have accounts at MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pandora, Virb, Muxtape, TheSixtyOne, and many more that I probably forgot about a day after signing up. There is 1 band that I discovered directly from any of them (and it was Pandora). That band is Architecture in Helsinki, and they’re awesome. But think about that – every friend request from some shitty metal band, every deep cut on my Postal Service Pandora channel, every Tumblr post featuring some live video of some band – they’re all pointless.

I can’t stand that Pandora puts a limit on how many tracks I can skip (I know, it’s not their fault, but it still cripples the service they’re trying to offer).

I don’t listen to bands on MySpace because, chances are, they’re not very good, and I don’t have the will or patience to pull weeds.

Coincidentally, if you put any stock in the number of plays a band has, you’re being seriously snookered. Wired is reporting that TuneBoom Pro has been making money off of major labels by artificially inflating the play counts of artists, to the tune of $747 per every 300K plays. Payola for the social-networking set, and it’s absolutely meaningless.

Is My Time More Valuable Than Your Music?

I get that I’m not normal – I don’t have the same knowledge, or appetite, or technical savvy of the “average joe” – but I am pretty similar to the average Idolator commenter, or Tumblr user. Are there enough of us to create revenue for every single “music recommendation” start-up that cons a venture capitalist (whether CEO’d by Jakob Lodwick or not), or are we all getting a little sick of it as well?

Personally I’m torn, because while I get tired of waiting for the next big thing, my job requires that I be at least somewhat familiar with the current landscape, both musical and technical. I sign up for accounts, receive the invariable underwhelm-ment, and never visit again.

Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we expect something that a web page could never deliver. The MySpace and Facebook experiences, say what you will about them, but they are what they are because of the time spent developing their respective environments. Pandora is what it is because of the time spent teaching it who you are, and frankly, I just don’t want to invest more of my time. I already waste too much time with Peel.

Peel, if you’re not familiar, is basically an aggregator for music blogs – a sort of software Hype Machine. It scans all of the blogs you’re following and looks for any new MP3s at the site, which you can then preview and download. Great, right? Well, there are currently 383 songs I have yet to listen to… since yesterday.

The Only Filter Worth a Damn is You

The fact is, there will always be more bad music than good, and by extension, more songs you don’t want to listen to on whatever music recommendation site you use than song you do. Furthermore, the fact that I like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” doesn’t mean I’m willing to sit through Zooropa, and the fact the I enjoy Bright Eyes doesn’t mean I’ll dig just any guy with a shitty voice and guitar. The intangibles in human taste are what make everybody’s different, and are why I can’t believe anyone can write a line of code that accurately deciphers them. The only filter I trust is me, and I just don’t have the mojo to keep up. [ms]

According to Phonopolis:

Stores would stock a larger number of codes than they would CDs (they would of course still stock CDs). They would not immediately pay for these codes, however. The lack of immediate cost, and small amount of space that these codes would take would allow small record stores to carry a wider selection of stock and larger numbers of individual titles. The stores would validate the mp3 codes at the point of sale. During the validation process (which would be on a distributor or label website), the store would pay for the product.

Sure, it sounds all kumbaya and stuff, but it overlooks one very important distinction, in my opinion :

There is a divide in the music marketplace nowadays, and it’s not just between the people who buy music and the people who steal it. It is between the people who will leave their house to get music and the people who won’t.

Phonopolis argues that the allure of a record store lies in “talking with someone who is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about music.” Ostensibly, it is worth my time to get in my car, drive to the record shop, talk to the clerk and see what he’s digging, pay for a code that will allow me to download an album, drive home, get back on my computer, enter the code, and download the album.

I call bullshit.

In a significantly shorter amount of time, I can IM 4 or 5 friends and ask their opinion, read 10 reviews, listen to samples of each song on the album, and buy it.

I also can’t imagine an MP3 download being cheaper at a record store than it is online, as there still needs to be a cut for the physical intermediary (the record store), as there is for the digital intermediary (iTunes, Amazon, etc.).

And, not to be a total stick in the mud, need we really encourage people to drive their gas-guzzlers additional atmosphere-clogging miles just to get something they can get in their living room?

Sorry, Phonopolis, epic FAIL. [ms]

More than likely, you’ve heard of the dubiously legal online mixtape creation tool, Muxtape. If not, well, you need to get out less.

The site, in all of its 2.0-tastic glory, is the perfect vehicle for the budding Lester Bangs of the world to create the blogger-friendliest of blogger-friendly playlists full of songs they have not listened to all the way through, preferring to take Pitchfork’s word for it. Ryan Catbird, of music blog Catbirdseat offers his take on the scene-and-be-scene at his Muxtape.

In the interest of full disclosure, we thought it would be interesting to post our own Muxtapes (isn’t the prevailing attitude toward arbitrarily supplementing the English language amazing these days?). No artifice, embarrassment, or posturing allowed, just the cold, ugly face of our own personal music tastes :

MUXTAPE by Matt

MUXTAPE by Daniel

MUXTAPE by Kyle

Here are some of my current favorites:

She & Him – “Sentimental Heart”

[See post to listen to audio]

Need a cool, indie-credible chanteuse a la Apple? Lo-fi vibe and a classical string section? Actress Zooey Deschanel and indie demi-god M. Ward team up as She & Him.

PNAU – “Baby (Breakbot Remix)”

[See post to listen to audio]

Has all of the elements that made “D.A.N.C.E.” what it was. ‘Nuff said.

Grand Archives – “Miniature Birds”

[See post to listen to audio]

It’s hard to listen to this song and not think of the VW logo. Use their carefully crafted aesthetic against them.

The Most Serene Republic – “Sherry and her Butterfly Net”

[See post to listen to audio]

So your client says to you: “What I want is Death Cab for Cutie, but less expensive.”

Holy F**k – “Lovely Allen”

[See post to listen to audio]

It’s like that scene in Say Anything where John Cusack holds the boombox over his head, only instead of trying to woo Ione Skye, he’s trying to mount Regine Chassagne.

If you end up using any of these tracks in your projects, drop us a line and we’ll post the results here. [ms]

While the mash-up itself is technically impressive, it’s interesting and a little depressing to note how easily many of these songs fit together. Same keys, same progressions (or sympathetic progressions)…

I’m not going to win any awards for lamenting the monotony of modern pop music and it’s propensity toward mediocrity, but I’ve never felt as old and grizzled as I did listening to this mix.

You can listen to the track here :

[See post to listen to audio]

… and get the track at DJ Earworm’s site. [ms]

It is amazing how relatively little effort is needed if you really set out to make it happen. Check this snippet from Godin’s excellent post :

“Many musicians have understood that all they need to make a (very good) living is to have 10,000 fans. 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music.”

This is something I’ve been preaching to the artists I produce and develop (and occasionally sign)… if you get 10,000 fans passionately involved in everything you do – building yourself or your band as a BRAND – you’ll be able to pay your bills and then some. This is, to me, the very definition of success, and at a level which most people with dayjobs playing in weekend cover bands would give a limb for.

My friend and fellow record producer Marshall Altman is quoted in this article on technology’s role in the death of music at Premier Guitar Magazine, and while the whole thing is worthy of framing and hanging in the halls and studios at Burst HQ, here’s a taste :

“[regarding the death of music in general] … I say let it die. Let it die, so it can grow back into something scarred and beautiful, tragic and noisy, brave, bold, stupid, smart, happy, sad, life-changing and everlasting.”

“Let every band with enough money buy the gear they want, make a record with too much compression and not enough heart. Let every singer-songwriter who suffers from having read too much and not having lived enough make a record, too. Let them all come – put them all up on MySpace. The end is near! And I can’t wait for the end, so we can all start listening again.”

“Good is within everyone’s reach, and technology has afforded us the easy opportunity to be good, but good is not great.”

A perfect tie in relating to the beginning of this post and another marketing guru. Jim Collins’ book, Good To Great, had been recommended to me by Marshall a couple of years ago and, along with Godin’s Purple Cow, has brought new life to the vision, new energy to the efforts we make producing music in our little corner of the world of music.

More from Godin :

“The biggest opportunity for the music business is to combine permission with subscription. The possibilities are endless. And I know it’s hard to believe, but the good old days are yet to happen.”

We’re dealing with this at Burst Labs with all of the opportunities in front of us… and it’s a direct result of shooting for a Purple Cow that we waited to launch our catalog and spent the time trying to be something different, something worthy of spreading to friends and peers. The early results look promising, to say the least.

And so, a sincere thanks to all of you for digging our music in 2007… we have big things in store for 2008 and can’t wait to see what surprises the future holds! [dh]

[... and Pitchfork, we kid because we love.]

Hotly Anticipated Album That Turned Out To Be A Waste of Polycarbonate

DJ Shadow : The Outsider
[See post to listen to audio]

You almost can’t blame Josh Davis for laying an egg. I mean, the man probably goes semi-homicidal when someone begs him to make another Endtroducing…. So what does he do? Practically bait the haters by trying to introduce Hyphy to the masses. Problem is, Hyphy blows, and not even Shadow’s formidable production skills can make it interesting. Simplistic beats, subpar MCs, even Shadow seems to get bored with it and peppers the album with electric blues, a Thom Yorke soundalike, some sort of new age madrigal, and a remix by someone else. Q-Tip and Lateef the Truth Speaker do a yeoman’s service on “Enuff” late in the game, but by then you’re just listening out of respect for Shadow’s previous successes. I’m all for artistic evolution, but The Outsider just reeks of standoffishness. Sorry, Josh, better luck next time.

An Artist Effectively Switching Up His Style

Kanye West : Graduation
[See post to listen to audio]

A more aptly named album this year there was not. Like DJ Shadow, Kanye probably recoils when people ask for another College Dropout, but instead of stomping off in anger, he gives you something you didn’t even know you wanted. A superstar hip-hop producer sampling Elton John, Steely Dan, Daft Punk, Mountain, and Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T” sounds like a self-absorbed “Look what I can do!” recipe for disaster. In another man’s hands, perhaps it would have been, but Kanye eats non-believers for breakfast. Trading his Chaka Khan records for a couple of softsynths, West reinvented himself as a futuristic braggart that lives up to his every wild claim. Hell, I didn’t even mind Chris Martin showing up towards the end. If there is a higher piece of praise, I’m not aware of it.

I’m Not Ashamed To Admit I Like

Miranda Lambert : Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
[See post to listen to audio]

I was pleasantly surprised to see this end up on a bunch of hipster year-end lists. Normally, the blogdom cognoscenti don’t listen to country albums unless they’re produced by Jack White, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was hard to deny. Stuffed to the gills with post-Dixies girl power, instantly hummable melodies, non-disposable lyrics, and raw wounds, Lambert manages to be commercially viable and artistically substantial, a daunting task in today’s musical climate. Time and again she manages to be the girl you want to save before she kicks you in the balls. A less gimmicky Gretchen Wilson, she improved on her promising debut Kerosene and nailed it on her sophomore effort. OK, country music, you win… this time.

Makes My Legs Do Funny Things

edIT : Certified Air Raid Material
[See post to listen to audio]

You know that scene in The Jerk where Steve Martin hears Lawrence Welk on the radio and is overtaken by the urge to dance? That’s what happened the first time I heard the track “Battling Go-Go Yubari in Downtown LA”. Honestly, my head almost fell off my neck and I nearly blew my speakers. Seamlessly mixing glitchy electronic and boom-bap hip hop, edIT crafted an album that deserves its own club, complete with smoke machines and a full liquor license. A baby made while listening to this Certified Air Raid Material would be the coolest infant ever.

Lived Up To An Ocean Of Hype

Radiohead : In Rainbows
[See post to listen to audio]

No other album was set up to fail as completely as In Rainbows. You all know the story: Radiohead, unencumbered by major label constraints, makes a record in near-secrecy, then gives it away for donations, thus sparking a debate over the value of music. Others have tried this method, and, frankly, overpriced themselves (see: Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!). As long as In Rainbows hadn’t sucked, it could have been labeled a success. Imagine my surprise, then, when it turned out to be their best album in years! By melding together the fuzzy pop of their adolescence with the experimental tangents of their later years, Radiohead somehow found a way to please everybody. While the album probably won’t convert many new fans, it gave the followers a reason to stick around.

Set The Bar High When The Year Was Young

Mika : Life In Cartoon Motion
[See post to listen to audio]

Ah, thinking back to the first few months of 2007. 2006 had been a strong year for music, and the afterglow carried me well into February. As the taste began to melt from my tongue, Mika’s perfect little pop confection swooped in to remind me that a new year was well under way. Pop music, when done right, is the most perfect musical artform. When done wrong, you get Fergie. Fun, sweet, moving, memorable, inventive, Life In Cartoon Motion embodied that pop spirit by reinterpreting it without reinventing it. “Grace Kelly” is, in my mind, the best first single by a new artist in recent history, and if “Lollipop” doesn’t leave you grinning like a ninny, your insides are a barren, arid wasteland.

Last But Not Least : 6 Favorite Singles of 2007

6. Mike Viola – Girly Worm
5. Kate Nash – Mouthwash
4. Bright Eyes – If The Brakeman Turns My Way
3. Bedroom Eyes – Norwegian Pop
2. Minus Story – Battle For Our Lives
1. Rihanna – Umbrella (Indie cred be damned!)

I’d love someone to tell me what an idiot I am for not mentioning ____________ . Have at it, and have a great new year. [ms]

She’s done it. Julie Moffitt is FameCast’s “Season 3 Singer/Songwriter Fenom,” winning first place after a furious round of voting the past few days.

Julie, in typical fashion, sent text messages tonight announcing “We did it!” sharing the credit with her growing fan base.

As an artist she has steadfastly developed her close relationships with fans, and those connections combined with her tireless work ethic are starting to pay tangible dividends – the prize for the FameCast honor is a cool $10,000.

Of course you can hear Julie’s catalog of music available for licensing right here at Burst Labs, and pick up her debut CD on Burst Records, our indie label (also available @ iTunes).

In fact, if you grab her Stolen EP from our site through the end of this month, we’ll throw in a gift disc filled with holiday songs – one of which features Julie on vocals alongside our very own Matt Smith (Deck The Halls)

Congratulations from all of us at Burst, Julie! Keep up the great work!! [dh]

In response to the news that Iran has made rap illegal, Koch Records founder Michael Koch has announced that a benefit single will be recorded featuring the Koch stable of stars.

The track, entitled “Iran (So Far Away),” will feature a sample of the Flock of Seagulls classic “I Ran (So Far Away),” and was produced by The GZA and Wyclef Jean. Said to be appearing on the single are Wyclef, Sean Kingston, KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Scarface, Slim Thug, Cam’ron, Xzibit, and Jim Jones. The song will also feature a previously unreleased verse by 2Pac.

All proceeds from the sale of the single will go towards releasing and promoting Iranian rap albums stateside, in hopes that the popularity of albums by such acts as Feroo, Deev, and Hich Kas will force Iran to rethink its stance on hip-hop.

Said Koch Records founder Michael Koch :

“Iranian hip-hop artists are creating some of the most forward-thinking and politically charged music in the world right now, and Iran has overstepped its bounds in silencing these voices.”

When reached for comment, Iranian rapper Hich Kas said he was “flattered” and “just wanted to be heard.”

The single will be available at iTunes on December 20th, in concurrence with Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice.

More as this develops… [ms]

New music uploaded to our catalog of production music at Burst Labs over the weekend : a collection of organic chill tracks, The Artifacts Of Hope.

Our library of vibey and inspiring grooves expands by 12 with this diverse and moody grab bag of organic chill… utilizing live drums as well as glitch percussion, acoustic guitar and banjo, human vocals and sampled bits from Matt’s vintage toy collection.

That’s not to say there aren’t electronic elements – there are, of course – but when played by a human being and left to wander and stray from the grid, you get considerably more magic glue, grit and noise, happy accidents. We dig stuff like that.

Some of our favorite moments :

• soundtrack to stories from a circuit-bent childhood : Suite Life
• positively mind-altering and laidback bit of R&B known as Grime Spree
• lighthearted retail therapy in Crass Commercialism
• The Android She Sleeps is sparse and minimal sound design perfect for deep sea footage or planetarium backgrounds

There are some decidedly hi-fi moments in these productions that warrant listening at higher bit-rate than the previews…. so sign in with your client account and enjoy!

What? Don’t have a Burst Labs account yet? Hit us up here and tell us you want one. Tell us you need it. Tell us your life can’t go on without it. Tell us your cousin Timmy’s lone and dying wish for the holidays is more production music from Burst Labs… I’m sure we can whip up something special for the li’l guy. [dh]

]]> http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071120-the-artifacts-of-hope-chill-vol-2-organic/feed/ 0 http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/notcot-holiday-gift-guide-features-burst-labs-music/ http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/notcot-holiday-gift-guide-features-burst-labs-music/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:39:30 +0000 Daniel Holter http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/notcot-holiday-gift-guide-features-burst-labs-music/

The Holiday Gift Guide from NOTCOT features a music player loaded with tracks from our very own catalog of licensed music here at Burst Labs.

8 songs from our holiday collection, Naughty + Nice, are available for shoppers and browsers while perusing the new tastemakers website.

From the NOTCOT post on the new guide :

“Since i’ve never tried doing this before ~ and apparently i got a bit ambitious in my initial mockup… ours are a bunch of collages, with hand written notes, an exclusive playlist from Burst Labs’ “Naughty or Nice”, and you can click on any image to go read more… oh, and did i mention i’m apparently going to try to do one of these every day for 31 one days? Weekends too!”

“… we have a line up of great sponsors (all friends of NOTCOT with products we love)… and mixed in between will be just some random themes of products we think would make fun gifts (or things we want)”

]]> http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/notcot-holiday-gift-guide-features-burst-labs-music/feed/ 1 http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/an-open-letter-to-jermaine-dupri/ http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/an-open-letter-to-jermaine-dupri/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:43:07 +0000 matt @ burst http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/an-open-letter-to-jermaine-dupri/

Dear Mr. Dupri,

I just finished reading your exhausting treatise on The Huffington Post for the third time, trying desperately to glean some sort of insight on how you could be so agonizingly out of touch. If ever someone needed to be told to shut up and make music, it is you. Listed below are some of the most embarrassing passages from your diatribe.

“Jay made everyone realize that iTunes taking what we give them and doing what they want with it isn’t the way it has to be. He put the light on and made other people realize, “Oh these guys are just selling our music, they ain’t making it.” If anything, WE made iTunes.”

Actually, Mr. Dupri, WE – the people and fans who support music – made iTunes a success.

Your music would still be out there festering on CD racks whether or not the iTunes store existed. WE bought your singles, some of US bought and downloaded your albums. It’s poor form to fail to realize that WE buy YOUR music, and WE have decided WE’D rather do it on iTunes than at a record store.

“All it’ll take is for Warner Music to say, “You know what, I’m with you,” for us to shut ‘em down. No more iPods! They won’t have nothin’ to play on their players! We can take back the power if we’re willing to sacrifice some sales to make our point.”

iPods are these little machines that play music, whether you get that music from the iTunes store or rip it from a CD, or hell, download it for free off of a file-sharing site. OK, Warner Music sells 1 out of every 3 records. That leaves me with a paltry 9,423 songs left in my iTunes library to listen to. Plus, just think of the good press a band would get for NOT signing with Warner Brothers because they want their album to be available on iTunes.

“These days people just assume that you need a number one single to have a number one album. But look at what’s really happening. Soulja Boy sold almost 4 million singles and only 300,000 albums! We let the consumer have too much of what they want, too soon, and we hurt ourselves. Back in the day when people were excited about a record coming out we’d put out a single to get the ball going and if we sold a lot of singles that was an indication we’d sell a lot of albums. But we’d cut the single off a few weeks before the album came out to get people to wait and let the excitement build. When I put out Kris Kross we did that. We sold two million singles, then we stopped. Eventually we sold eight million albums!”

Oh my god, where to start? Soulja Boy sold 4 million singles at .99 a pop and 300,000 albums at, oh let’s say $15 a piece. Wait a second… THAT’S 8.5 MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS! If all parties involved can’t find a way to split up $8.5 mil, the problem goes way further than iTunes.

And “back in the day”? In 1992, when Kriss Kross released their first album, nobody had the internet and they were buying their singles on cassette at Sam Goody. How, in any way that is relatively sane, can you compare business models from 2 totally different worlds?

And Kriss Kross? You’re going to hang your hypothesis of Album As Art Form on fucking KRISS KROSS?

“Did consumers complain? Maybe so. But at what point does any business care when a consumer complains about the money? Why do people not care how we – the people who make music – eat? If they just want the single, they gotta get the album. That was how life was.”

I just give up. Are you serious? You have to sell a whole album, or you don’t eat? You’re worth $60 Million. You’re eating fine. Make up your mind whether you’re arguing on behalf of the artist or the label head, because you can’t have it both ways. Yes, I get it, “If they want the single, they gotta buy the album” is how it was, but guess what? Label heads (such as yourself) started realizing that they could sell 2 singles plus some filler for $17. That pissed us off a little bit. And now you’re going to shame us for buying the single, or worse yet, admit you don’t give a shit about us? I’m going to download American Gangster right now, just to spite your ass.†

“Apple, why are you helping the consumer destroy our canvas? We don’t tell you to break up your computers into bits and pieces and sell off each thing. When you go to the Apple store you may only need one thing, but you have to buy all their plug ins and stuff. You have to buy their whole package, even if you don’t necessarily want it, or your equipment won’t work. We’re just saying, if you have the audacity to sell your products like that, don’t treat our products as something less than yours.”

Do you even own a Mac? Seriously, I don’t think Arianna Huffington even read your little misguided manifesto.

In all seriousness, your whole rant just reeks of a millionaire making $5.6 mil this year instead of $5.9, and trying to wrap his greed in the cloak of “the artist’s plight”. Making a living in music is a difficult thing to do, and only a select number of people ever get the opportunity to do it.

Jay-Z has every right to not put his album on iTunes, I still bought it, and it’s a great album. Make good music and people will buy it. But don’t scold the people you rely on to “eat” for not playing by your rules anymore.

You say :

“Respect the craft!”

Respect the people who pay your bills, douche. [ms]

† in the interest of corporate self-preservation, anything Matt Smith may download here at Burst HQ would be done so without the knowledge, consent or approval of his employer The Burst Collective, LLC. Heh. [dh]

]]> http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/an-open-letter-to-jermaine-dupri/feed/ 6 http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/music-for-title-sequences/ http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/music-for-title-sequences/#comments Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:54:10 +0000 Daniel Holter http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/music-for-title-sequences/

We’re just not that worried about showcasing creative work that we had no part in. There are some fantastic artists, composers and companies doing good work way under the radar these days, and we figure what comes around goes around. Well, we hope, anyway. It’s a karmic thing, I guess… like if karma were less religious and more of a secular ethic of reciprocity. But I digress.

Browsing some of my favorite inspirational feeds and blogs last night I happened across this trailer for OFFF 2007 (watch .mov in a new window).

From the OFFF website :

OFFF is a cutting-edge festival exploring the latest in digital aesthetics and software language. OFFF festival brings together the artists that are breaking ground and shaping new standards in media and design, becoming the essential meeting point for the international scene of digital creation. OFFF is the only event of this kind.

The Computerlove™ story raves the design – a moody and vibey collection of visuals blended with jarring edits – but what I was digging even harder was the soundtrack, a crunchy and post-modern montage of edgy sound design held together with an underlying glitchy drum n bass groove. Super effective, tension building, really quite inspirational.

As is often the case, music can make or break a promo, a movie trailer, or a commercial. That’s arguably our favorite thing about music production and music supervision… when you find the right track it just fits.

The only thing we’re left wondering about this fine collaboration between music and video : which came first, the titles or the track? They’re so perfectly integrated, it’s a wonderful bit of cohesive production.

If I ever get a free afternoon around Burst HQ (heh), I’d love to assemble the best bits of music licensed for use with visuals from around the world (and the worst)…. lay them all out here and decipher where each went right (or wrong, as the case may be).

Of course, if any of you are looking to license some tense and dramatic trailer music, we just posted our collection to Burst Labs this week.

At any rate, Ben Lukas Boysen got it right with his score for the OFFF 2007 Trailer. Kickass track, Ben! [dh]



]]> http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/music-for-title-sequences/feed/ 1 http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/free-audio-unit-plug-ins-our-favorite-things/ http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/free-audio-unit-plug-ins-our-favorite-things/#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:01:31 +0000 matt @ burst http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/free-audio-unit-plug-ins-our-favorite-things/ I occasionally get asked about the gear I use for composing. While Burst HQ does have some expensive goodies (of course we spare no expense for YOU, our friends and fans), and I’ve already mentioned my beloved toys, some of my favorite things are free plug-ins. Because I’m a cheap bastard, I love to troll KVR Audio looking for that ever-elusive “free” tag.

I’ve compiled here my 8 favorite free plug-ins.

Note: Being an avowed Logic Pro user, these plug-ins are in Audio Unit format, though some of them do exist as VSTs

LiveCut | Smartelectronix

A one-trick pony that does a REALLY cool f’n trick, LiveCut is a live beat-slicer that can either lightly butter a track with glitch elements, or grind it into little bite-size bits of audio love – like a sonic version of tic tacs or cheese curds.

There are 3 settings, “CutProc1″, which does pretty linear 32nd and 64th note stutters, “WarpCut”, which created some pretty wacked-out Aphex Twin-style burbles and sweeps, and “SQPusher” which, well… makes it sound like Squarepusher.

I don’t have a lot of examples of this plug-in at work, because I usually end up over-using it, and Daniel tells me to stop scaring the natives and confusing the children. There’s a light touch of it on Deck The Halls, but hopefully I can trick Daniel into letting me uploading a track that shows what this baby can really do.

Crystal | Green Oak Software

Crystal is a subtractive and FM synth that allows you to “breed” 2 patches together to form a new patch. It also supports SoundFont files. Additionally, it’s sounds like f’n tits. In particular, the “Vintage” and “Swells” banks are stellar.

There are also auxiliary banks of patches that can be downloaded from Green Oak’s website. I don’t have a track handy that it is used noticeably on, but rest assured, it was used a lot on some upcoming Chill specimens for our production music library.

Automat | Alphakanal

Another subtractive synth, Automat is a different beast entirely. It has 3 oscillators, and every property of each (width, tune, phase, pan, volume) can be modded by drawing in a curve by hand. It also has 2 unique delays and tempo sync, y’know, if you’re the kinda guy that gets turned on by that sort of thing… which I am. A lot of the sounds in 100 Pharmacies and Effin Round including the leads, are done with Automat.

Alphakanal is at work on a follow-up version that includes more features, but as of today, it is still only in beta. A quick aside – the previous incarnation of Automat was the also-excellent Buzzer.

FreeAlpha | LinPlug

I’m still a little green with this one. I downloaded it because it’s a stripped down version of a LinPlug instrument, and LinPlug hasn’t made anything that didn’t at least get me a little randy. It’s got a pretty sexy interface, with all of the usual suspects – 2 oscillators, filter, amplitude envelope, LFO, chorus, and glide, as well as a complicated-looking “matrix” section.

The presets are good enough to get it a lot of use in my room, but I feel like when I actually get around to rolling my sleeves up and getting under the hood, it’s really going to excite me, or make my buy the full version of Alpha3 – which, I guess, is the whole point of giving it away in the first place (sneaky…).

Orca | FXpansion

The stalwart lads at FXpansion found it in their hearts to bestow on us a simple subtractive synth with a pleasingly grotesque UI. I think it’s supposed to be a whale skull or gills or something. I’m not sure, I’m a fresh-water fisherman, and the few times I saw whales in Lake Michigan I was really really drunk – like “Where are my pants” drunk.

Anyway, where this thing really excels is at acid-type bass lines. It has a really cool velocity-sensitive envelope – the harder you play, the longer it takes for the envelope to open. There’s a lot of other technical junk that makes it sound so badass, but I am not the ideal candidate to explain it. Something to do with mismatched diodes and asymmetrical non-linear components or something (click on the pic for a full write-up at their site). Whatever the case, it sounds good, and that’s what counts.

Vinyl | Izotope

Ah, like an old pair of jeans that fit so well, such is my appreciation for Izotope’s Vinyl. Whether I’m using it to added some of that turntable fuzz on the edges of a sound, or trying to make it sound like it’s been stepped on, scratched, and left in a hot car, Vinyl always does the trick. It’s used pretty heavily on Taxi and The Truth, and it just flat-out makes things tasty.

On a technical note, however, if it’s instantiated on any channel in Logic, even if you solo another track, you still hear the Vinyl effect, and to avoid that happening you have to bypass it. Oh well, they don’t call it Version 0.3493b for nothin’.

LMC-1 | SSL

As I have often been known to say, if it’s good enough for Phil Collins, it’s good enough for me. Based on the talkback mic from the legendary SSL “E” series console, this thing can make stuff sound crappy in the best possible way. Phil Collins is way underrated among hipsters because their moms like him. Honestly, take another listen to “Take Me Home” without all of your preconceived Phil Collins notions and tell me that shit doesn’t rock hard in a sensitive way. That’s what the LMC-1 does- it makes you rock as hard as Phil Collins. It’s hard to explain… just listen to the drums on The Truth. See? It’s like if Phil Collins grew up in the Bronx instead of Chiswick (which, ironically, is the birthplace of fey, pale, British hip-hop).

King Dubby Delay | Lowcoders

Ah, dub (dubdubdubdubdubdub). Lowcoders isn’t reinventing the wheel with this tape-delay effect, but they are providing a free, good-looking, and infinitely usable plug-in.

The thing I really dig about it is the “Degrade” function, which controls how much the signal atrophies over its decay. That’s the way I roll.

You can hear it in action on Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. I did that little “dubdubdub” thing because I thought it was funny. Lighten up… Lee Perry would get it.

Chime in below and tell me your favorites, maybe I’ll dedicate my next plug-in laden music track to your mom. [ms]

]]> http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/free-audio-unit-plug-ins-our-favorite-things/feed/ 2 http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071106-trailer-toolkit-v10-movie-trailers/ http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071106-trailer-toolkit-v10-movie-trailers/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:11:14 +0000 Daniel Holter http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071106-trailer-toolkit-v10-movie-trailers/

Everybody loves music for movie trailers, right?! Well we’ve been hiding away in the Lab trying to come up with something a little unique for you, our dear friends, and methinks we’ve succeeded.

Not only are there soundtracks designed to ramp up the suspense and provide dramatic mood shifts throughout, but each track is available in construction kit form… each segment or mood section of a song is provided as an additional version to use separately.

Check it out :

Mix and match, if you like… this edgy percussion build with that ambient choral interlude… cut and paste our movie trailer production music as parts of a construction kit that matches your editing style.

Some favorite moments :

• the swagger and dark heroism of Just Another Epic
• the gothic choral announcement of Midnight Rider, a little horror and a lot of adventure and drama
• Nightwings opens with a nod to the piano motif ER theme, then gives way to a percussive chase sequence complete with disturbing sound design and vocal whispers and wailing
• when twisted and evil is what’s needed, Sliced is made to order for frightening visuals and haunting scenery… think Hitchcock’s Pyscho meets Se7en

You can preview and license our collection of suspenseful movie trailer scores at Burst Labs. [dh]



]]> http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071106-trailer-toolkit-v10-movie-trailers/feed/ 2 http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071004-naughty-nice-holidays/ http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071004-naughty-nice-holidays/#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:36:54 +0000 Daniel Holter http://blog.burstlabs.com/2007/specimen-071004-naughty-nice-holidays/

Naughty + Nice, our collection of irreverent music for the holidays, is ready for downloading and licensing at Burst Labs.

Favorites from the Naughty side :

• a Fela Kuti inspired version of Good King Wenceslas
• Joy To The World at a bar mitzvah?!
• trip hop and dub flavored O Come O Come Emmanuel
• our take on the New Year’s Eve standard Auld Lang Syne is sprinkled with more cabaret fairy dust than Michael Jeter dipped in powdered sugar

The Nice selections of Christmas music include :

• The Brightest Of Stars, a bouquet of warm and gooey spiritual Christmas sauce featuring members of The Farewell Circuit
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen has a gruff male vocal and an acoustic backing band
• It Came Upon A Midnight Clear features a confident but relaxed female singer

We’ve also produced alternate instrumental versions for all of these favorite vocal carols and many more, available as downloads when you’re logged in.

You can sing along with the entire Naughty + Nice collection of holiday music right here.

If you’ve got a favorite Christmas carol or holiday song you’d like us to produce, drop us a request in a comment below and we’ll set about trying to make it happen. FYI, keep it public domain, or your production rates and legal fees will go through the chimney – er, roof. [dh]

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