I can’t remember where I first saw these, but I want one, immediately.
It’s a simple idea; wear your music. (Talk about creating a social object).
With play, pause and skip functions, the Playbutton allows artists to dish out promos of your music in an innovative way. You’re protecting it at the same time as content is pre-recorded and can’t be changed or downloaded. That’s both a positive and a negative depending on how you look at it, but I think the idea is so appealling that the good outweighs the bad. Plus, if you’re giving away a couple of tracks, it encourages people to go and download more – and pay for it in the process.
As the website says, Playbutton’s audio output and charger are shared in one jack and the exterior of the ‘button’ can be covered with imagery or album artwork.
The Playbutton is reminiscent of Apple’s iPod shuffle, but without any of the mass-produced undertones and with something far more authentic and a hell of a lot more fashionable.
I’m a fan of discovering interesting people by taking the time to look at the biographies of new followers on Twitter. You never know you might miss if you don’t keep an eye on things.
Kilford the music painter is one such man. As you’d imagine, this guy paints to music. He’s ‘performed’ live with Paul Weller, Deep Purple, Brian Eno and even The Charlatans.
An expressionist to the last, his style is frenetic and packed with energy. The photo above was taken during a Pendulum set at Sonisphere 2010 and he worked with DJ Ras Kwame at the MOBO Awards VIP Reception earlier this week.
He’s realised the power of sharing online too, giving back 15% of sales of his work to those who spread the love via Facebook and Twitter.
He curates a live music painting session at The Social on the third monday of every month if you want to get involved, but if you’d rather admire from afar, check out some of the sketches and prints in The Music Painter store.
I saw a preview of The Social Network on Monday night. I enjoyed it a lot as it was sharp, funny and just a little bit dark. Who cares if the story isn’t entirely accurate, it’s a great film.
It was the scene set in what I’m reliably informed could be the Ruby Sky club in San Francisco that made me sit up though. The track was Sound Of Violence by Dennis De Laat (see below), which, when played on full through decent speakers – I defy anyone not to want to dance to.
Digging deeper, it seems that the man (well, one of them) responsible for the music is none other than Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, which explains a lot.
What’s more, you can hear him talking about the soundtrack – as well download a five track sampler ahead of the album’s launch – by clicking here. Enjoy.
I can’t remember where I first saw these, but I want one, immediately.