So THAT’S the name of this song! I heard it on a Simpsons episode. I didn’t know the name of the episode, so I had to search for “the Simpsons where they spoof The Perfect Storm”. I found out the name of the episode is The Wife Aquatic. Then I searched Google for “simpsons: the wife aquatic music” and found a blog about the episode. I had to search the comments to find out that the name of the song is Aquarium and it’s from Carnival of the Animals written by French romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens. Finally I went to Last.fm and found the song so I could listen to it. And now I present to you an embedded video of precisely this song. It starts at around :30.

This brings me to a prediction I have about the future of the Internet and search technology. Mark my words: soon every song ever created will be indexed front-to-back, and we will be able to hum a few consecutive notes of either the melody or harmony of any song, and our computer will immediately return every song that contains that sequence. The more you hum, the better your search results will be. It doesn’t matter what key you hum in, whether your pitch is on, or even if you hum the right melody.

And this will happen within the next 10 years.

Oh and also if you are saying to yourself “that’s easy, they can do that in the next 2 years, what’s so hard about that?” then you are technologically ignorant.

*BONUS*

I found out that a song called Danse Macabre also came from Carnival of the Animals, which is another song that I have heard before but could never verify its provenance. Take a gander, I guarantee you’ve heard this at least once before. If you’ve seen Tombstone you have.

Jonathan, please bear with the rest of us non-musical people while we experience things you’ve known since you were 3.

A while back, a good friend introduced me to the web comic called Basic Instructions. As I’m writing this the website is down, and I’m pretty sure it’s because today’s strip is hilarious and everyone’s reading it. It must have gotten submitted to Digg or something. If you don’t read this comic, you should. I’m probably the millionth person to blog about how you should read Basic Instructions if you don’t already, but for whatever it’s worth, I give it my seal of approval. Here is today’s strip:

I think I have a lot in common with the guy who writes this comic strip. Meh, everyone probably thinks they do. Just like everyone thinks their boss is worse than Micheal Scott. If your boss was really worse than Micheal Scott, do you really think he would still be your boss? No, he would be in jail and bankrupt.

Need I say more? Best video evar. You can view it embedded below, but there’s an even better version of it that I highly recommend here: Slo-Mo Face Punching.

You know how the taste of something is like 50% based on smell, and communication is like 90% based on your body language? Well I submit that commercials are 100% based on the background music.

The genius ad agencies are the ones that grab your attention. It’s hard to grab peoples’ attention using visuals since most people look away during the commercials, plus the fact that we’re constantly barraged with visuals as we’re watching TV, so our eyes become used to constant stimulus.

It’s different with sound. Say you’re watching football, a sitcom, or a reality show. All you hear is constant cheering & play calling, laugh tracks & stupid jokes, and bitching and moaning, respectively. Then comes a commercial break. Time to go get another bowl of ice cream. But wait, where’s that strange, pleasing music coming from? It’s different than the mindless yakking about Taco Bell’s new spicy Volcano Taco, the liar shouting about the over-stock of Kia Sorento inventory, and the overly dramatic “preview voice guy” telling you how the next episode of Bones will blow your mind. You peer back at the TV in awe, and realize what’s playing is a commercial, but you’re enjoying it.

Has this ever happened to you? If it has, it was most likely one of the following top 5 best uses of music in a commercial (that I can remember):

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes I called it Deer Creek. And the Colts play in the Hoosier Dome, FYI. Plus I still don’t recognize Mizzoora.

This is the first time I have ever seen Radiohead. We were in the pavilion, but we might as well have been in the lawn because of how far back we were. I have never been too keen on Radiohead’s discography (which is something that is changing starting today), but I believe they played songs from most of their albums. I definitely remember hearing songs from The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, and In Rainbows. Here was their set list:

1. 15 Step
2. Bodysnatchers
3. There There
4. All I Need
5. Pyramid Song
6. Nude
7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
8. The Gloaming
9. Climbing Up The Walls
10. Faust Arp
11. Videotape
12. Morning Bell
13. Idioteque
14. Reckoner
15. Everything in its Right Place
16. Just
17. How To Disappear Completely

Encore 1
18. You and Whose Army?
19. Bangers and Mash
20. Exit Music (For A Film)
21. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
22. Karma Police

Encore 2
23. House of Cards
24. The National Anthem
25. Street Spirit

We left during House of Cards and could hear the last two songs on the way out to the car. It was nice getting out of the venue without having to wait in any traffic.

It was a pretty good set list. If I ruled the world they would have also played Optimistic, Airbag, Paranoid Android, and Lucky. But I’m not complaining.

Let’s go to the footage. Here is some video I took with my tiny, ancient Sony Cybershot digital camera. I was able to squeeze about 10 minutes worth of mpeg video onto my 256mb memory stick. The videos are in chronological order.

Pyramid Song

I love love love this song.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

Climbing Up The Walls

This is better live than on the album BTW.

Reckoner

This is the longest video clip. It’s also one of my favorite Radiohead songs. These were the most beautiful moments of the show.

Everything In It’s Right Place

Awesome lighting effects during this song.

Karma Police

Can’t believe they played this one! I thought this would be as rare as Creep, so I’m either wrong or lucky.

I wish I had footage of Just. It was awesome. I think I had footage but I somehow deleted it when I was scrambling to make room on my memory stick for Karma Police. In retrospect that was a stupid decision. I guess I was caught up in the moment.

The only problem with Radiohead is that they’re too high and mighty and depressed and 1337 or whatever to speak to the crowd. After seeing bands that actually interact with the crowd like Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Ryan Adams (in the last 2 years at least), and Ben Folds, it was weird seeing a band that said nothing to the crowd. They’re assholes I guess. But their music is really really good and I’m buying whatever Radiohead albums I don’t already own ASAP. Except maybe Hail To The Thief.

And on a totally unrelated note, I hit 30k points on TheSixtyOne the same day I hit 30k visitors on The Gimcrack Miscellany. Awesome! How in the heck did that happen? Oh yeah, I posted about Katy Perry & Zooey Deschanel. People probably come here and see my posts and go “WTF?”