Another good video from XOXO. John Gruber tells the story of how Daring Fireball became his job.

It's about 45 minutes long. This is the kind of video I add to the watch later list on YouTube and pull it up on my AppleTV to watch.




I'd like to highlight a couple points that I really agree with:

• CPM based advertising is a corrupting agent on the web.
• He shouldn't be the exception with his way of doing business, he should be the rule. 
• We need more singular voices like his. (Personally I wish we had more interesting dialogs/monologues in areas outside of tech.)

Some other thoughts:

• I think his kind of thoughtful writing about a subject he cares about, and is knowledgable in, is a very much a kind of American Revolution idea. Example A, Example B
• Because he answers to no one but his readers, he can have an unpopular opinion or two and doesn't need to bend to fit a majority opinion. He can be spiky when he feels the need to be.
• He controls his own destiny in a way not many other writers can claim to.

Ethan Diamond of (musician friendly) Bandcamp at the XOXO Festival in Portland 2014

Bandcamp is a site I've always liked. It is geared towards the musicians first, audience second and technology third. Many other sites that sell music have put tech first and it shows.

The attached video is one of the Co-Founders telling the story of the site at the XOXO fest 2014.

I found several things to like in this talk:

• The story of how and why they never became a VC heavy company.
• What they did to keep costs under control.
• His outlook on why streaming services might be good for the audience and discovery while still being bad for music longterm and the creation of art. (Which is exactly how I feel.)

Go here to find Marqui Adora's music on Bandcamp.

A new Aphex Twin record!

Yup, he finally released an Aphex Twin, not a side project, record. While I've enjoyed some individual songs from the not Aphex Twin releases, it's nice to have a solid body of work that doesn't make me skip a few tracks.  He's clearly learned in the off time and does explore areas he never has before but in the end he still gives the songs a clear artistic style that makes them his.

Unpredictable, unpleasant at times, interesting and sometimes astoundingly beautiful.  In a world full of music that tries to be everyones non-threatening best friend, it's nice to hear music that says "this may not be for you".

Here's one of the tracks Warp posted to YouTube.

A podcast to checkout if you are a comic book or X-Men fan. Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is a nice way to learn (or in my case be reminded) about what makes the X-Men such a popular multi-format success. While they mostly are talking about the X-Men comics (and many related titles) they do touch on the TV Shows and Movies.

It's one of the podcasts that moves to the front of the queue when a new episode is release.

Get it here on iTunes.

Or here if you use other Pod-catchers

A Q&A with Steve Albini that's worth watching if you're a music nerd or audio engineer.

He's recorded some of my favorite albums:

• Pigface – Gub (1990)
• Murder, Inc. – Murder, Inc. (1992)
• PJ Harvey – Rid of Me (1993)
• Nirvana – In Utero (1993)

Marqui Adora-Well Loved EP

Hello!

So this week we finished mixing six of our songs that we started in "the long long ago. In the before time." We like them and we hope you do as well.  The Well Loved EP should be in all the usual places within the next few days. I'll post more links when they go live.

iTunes (We like money!)
Bandcamp (Pay what you like, including free.)
SoundCloud (Why not?)
Archive.org
YouTube (An easy way to give them a listen.)
BitTorrent Bundle (For those technically adept.)

Here's the YouTube versions for your listening pleasure:





Still flyin'

Final work on those Marqui Adora songs! (From the past few years.)

I'm spending a few days finishing the Marqui Adora songs that I started years ago. It's good to hear them (after a few months break) with fresh ears and be able to tell that they are as close to finished as I had hoped they were. I think the six of them will be up on iTunes and other places well before the end of the month. 

Feels nice!

Mixing An Entire Nation

I spent a few hours today refining a mix for a Marqui Adora song called An Entire Nation. This is one of the songs we played in the 2007 era of the band. It was always a fun song to play but every prior attempt at recording would end up feeling flat. Not sure if it was tempo or the playing but it always left me with less then I'd hoped for in the energy department.

The mix I've been working on does not have any such problem. It feels big and full of life to my ears. After a few more tweaks in the morning (after a while of working on the song sleep is the only way to have fresh ears) I'll send it off to Joe to get his go/no go. What's nice about this is I felt it was ready last week and Joe pointed out a few things he wanted me to try and I think it's better for it. (Either way it is better so I'm happy we waited.)

Simple Lies 2013 Pre-Release

In Motion 2013 Pre-Release

One of my favorites. I'm glad I can finally say this one is done and that it brings some serious energy. It might get tweaked a little more when it's released on iTunes (along with other tunes) so consider this a collectors edition.





In Motion 2013 Pre-Release on YouTube