Rocknerd

Image from Duolingo, showing screen options

Duolingo Music.

12 November, 202412 November, 2024 Musician 0

In October last year, Duolingo announced it was adding a music course to its suite of languages to learn.

Carbon Based Lifeforms: Seeker (2023).

12 November, 202412 November, 2024 Prog, Record 0

For the better part of thirty years, the Swedish duo operating under the name of Carbon Based Lifeforms have produced some of the most rhythmic ambient music of our time.

Stu Spasm documentary: I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago — playing in London on Friday 8 November.

29 October, 202429 October, 2024 Film 0

I Should Have Been Dead Years Ago is screening at the Castle Cinema in London on Friday 8 November 2024 at 9:00pm as part of the Doc’n’Roll Festival.

Kunlun’s Melodio and Mureka AI slop music — with audio samples.

28 October, 202430 October, 2024 mp3 0

Is music doomed? Well, probably not more than it was already.

Sacred Cowboys: Cowboy Logic (2024).

18 August, 202419 August, 2024 Indie, Record, Rock 0

I’m treating this as a good live record with a bonus studio compilation. This selection hangs together.

Placebo, Bristol Amphitheatre, 28th June 2024.

30 June, 202429 October, 2024 Live, Rock 1

The last time I saw Placebo was the Kerrang Big Day Out at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1999, when Metallica headlined. I crewed that one.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasuredome (1984).

10 May, 202411 May, 2024 Dance, Pop, Record 0

It was never going to be easy to live up to that earthshattering series of singles, but I should not be thinking “yes, yes, get on with it.”

That fucking band.

10 February, 202410 February, 2024 Live, Opinion 0

For all the talentless fucks who are absolute in their certainty that the way out is the way through.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: World Record (2022).

6 February, 20247 February, 2024 Record, Rock 0

One for those who understand that Arc is the best Neil Young live album.

Robert Görl and Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft: Nur Noch Einer (2021).

24 December, 202324 December, 2023 Industrial, Post-Punk, Record 0

Görl pulled out a pile of old DAF tapes for inspiration, wrote new words, and released one final DAF album.

House Of All: House Of All (2023).

23 December, 202323 December, 2023 Post-Punk, Record 0

Collecting old ex-members of the Fall into a band sounds like a good idea.

The next frontier in IP parasites: codec royalties on content.

4 November, 20235 November, 2023 Film 0

It is difficult to overstate just how much better everything would be for everyone except the parasites if software patents were abolished.

Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

28 September, 202329 September, 2023 Games, Industry 4

At least Songtradr, unlike Epic, is in the same business.

Snake oil never sleeps: MQA bought out by Lenbrook.

20 September, 202321 September, 2023 Audio 2

Lenbrook does have considerable experience straddling the fine line between “very good sound equipment” and “green marker pen on your speaker wires.”

Sigue Sigue Sputnik: Flaunt It. The most mid album of 1986.

14 September, 20235 November, 2023 Pop, Record 0

These were not very bright guys, and things kept failing to get out of hand.

Battlefield Earth (2000). A saga of the year two thousand.

1 September, 20231 September, 2023 Film 1

It was twenty-three years ago, but the pain remains fresh.

Bedless Bones: Sublime Malaise; After Malaise (2019, 2020, 2023).

4 July, 20234 July, 2023 Industrial, Record 0

The vocals waft, but they waft on top of a beat and you can dance to it.

Notes and Reflections: Lana Del Rey

16 May, 202316 May, 2023 Opinion, Pop, Record 0

There were eight whole records to listen to. Eight!

Spray: The Big Idea will rock and change the world. Ricardo Autobahn interviewed.

11 May, 202314 May, 2023 Interview, Pop, Record 0

“If there’s one thing Spray are excellent at, it’s our drum fills. If there’s one thing we should be remembered for, I’d like it to be the drum fills.”