“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage……. Cans Of Piss !!! Oh – I mean R.E.M.” Or, “Put your hands together for Van Halen formerly Rat Salad !!! Seriously. I’m not making that up.
Its clear that musicians could be genius at crafting a melody and creating a lasting epic track that stands the test of time yet still really blow at naming their bands. Here’s a few more examples :
Feedback
The Detours
Johnny & the Moondogs
The Rattlesnakes
To see more famous groups and their original names before they snapped out of it and focused to come up with a good name, click here.
In an earlier post I introduced you to Kirby Ferguson, a New York based filmmaker who was working on a four part video series known as the Everything Is A Remix Project. Click here to see the original post. The premise behind the project is that nothing in media is really new but rather a remake or blatant ripoff of existing music or film.
In the first part, Kirby examined the history and art of remixing as it related to music. In the second installment, Kirby turns his attention to movies and shows how many modern blockbusters owe a huge debt to the originators and true innovators of the art. Check it out below.
The Everything Is a Remix Project is working on it’s third installment that should be ready for release sometime in June. Take some time to check out his site by clicking here. If you like what you see, consider dropping him a donation so he can continue his work. Don’t forget to tell him how you found out about him and his amazing work.
If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, lots of today’s music may sound kind of familiar. Big reason for that is the abundant use of samples in contemporary music. Whether it’s lifting a few beats and choice riffs or a complete ripoff of the tune with new lyrics rapped over the music, much of the music you listen to today probably wouldn’t exist or be popular if it wasn’t for the art of the remix.
Remixing is the art of combining or editing existing music to create something new. Not to be confused with the term rip off which requires far less talent and vision. I never really gave much thought about the whole thing other than to wax on about how some of today’s “artists” lack the same kind of talent that earlier artists had and with the use of technology, many people are getting pretty famous that don’t really deserve to be.
What will become of music twenty years from now ? Where will new samples come from if much of today’s music is already sample rich with stuff someone else already did ? What will be the source for new samples?
Kirby Ferguson, a New York based filmmaker has given it much thought and is working on a four part project all about the history and art of the remix. The project is called, Everything is a Remix and you can check out Part 1 in the series on Kirby’s blog by clicking the link above or the picture of the bitchin’ turntable below to go to his blog to view the video. If you like what you see, help the guy out.
It’s a sad day for guitar players and recording artists with the passing of one of the originators of the hard body electric guitar. He was Lester William Polsfuss but musicians around the world knew him as Les Paul. He considered himself an inventor first and a musician second though he was an exceptional guitar player. In fact, he actually taught himself to play the guitar in order to experiment with some of his theories on converting an acoustic guitar into what we now know as the electric guitar. He became one of the most respected and innovative guitar players with many of the greatest guitarists citing him as a major inspiration.
Some other innovations Les Paul gave the world include multi-track recording, overdubbing, delay and phasing effects and also created some original guitar playing techniques used to this very day. He’s inspired generations of musicians and many fine guitars still bear his name to this day while some of the earlier models are in the prized possessions of many famous artists who won’t be parting with them anytime soon. Here’s what a few of them had to say about Les Paul:
“Les Paul was a shining example of how full one’s life can be, he was so vibrant and full of positive energy. I’m honored and humbled to have known and played with him over the years, he was an exceptionally brilliant man.” — Slash
“Les is single handedly responsible for the direction and evolution of the modern rock movement. Period. If you are a fan of modern music, you owe Les Paul an enormous THANK YOU!” – Dave Navarro
“He was a genius inventor, musical innovator, and a wonderful person. Without the advances he pioneered, the recording sciences and the electric guitar would have been left years behind. I will miss him so much.” — Joan Jett
“The music industry has lost a giant! I’m very saddened by the news of Les Paul’s passing. I was lucky enough to have known Les as a friend, and admired him as a musician and innovator. He forever changed the way we listen to music.” — Ace Frehley
Here are a few examples of his work from the man himself and a few of his many admirers:
