songs in B Flat major

screenshot of the In B Flat website

My accomplice recently brought BlipFM to my attention, which basically allows a user to construct their own radio station by creating playlists from songs hosted on YouTube. This same seamless use of YouTube files was also found in the original iteration of the much-loved, much-missed Muxtape site, which ended up changing its focus (to strictly band-submitted files) to avoid being scuttled upon the rocks of copyright infringement.

This creative use of YouTube is now being pushed a little further by musicians creating collage pieces (witness the very cool content created by Kutiman, whose "Mother of All Funk Chords" went viral this year), or those musicians who are putting the songwriting largely in the hands of the user.

On that front, I recently stumbled upon a project by Darren Solomon, called In B Flat, which allows users to create their own collage-based musical piece from a set of 20 videos hosted on YouTube. The project reminds me a little of the Buddha Machine, which also allows users to create a seemingly endless variety of pieces from a simple subset of loops, however, In B Flat offers far more textural variety for the user simply because there are more options to choose from.

These recent, user-and-accident-generated projects touch on the same ideas that Brian Eno put forward in his Generative Music discussions, where simple musical motifs are developed over time to create multi-layered, endlessly shifting tonal landscapes.

However, beyond such smarty-pants hoo-haw, In B Flat offers something interesting, fun and genuinely moving for a layman with one functioning finger. I recommend you check it out and play with the start / stop times of each video. Also, I find that if you trigger enough pieces to cause cut-outs in your internet connection, you can create another unique layer to your pieces.

Good fun!

what do geniuses talk about? well, let's just see...

Beck Hansen, otherwise known as "Beck", or, "that guy we're going to beat up after football practice," has added a new feature to his website. Called Irrelevant Topics, it features Beck interviewing writers, musicians and other artisteratti, about whatever pops into his tiny, scruffy head.

The first in this series is a fittingly rambling interview with Tom Waits. Topics discussed include: Los Angeles, wieners, spontaneous lightning strikes, awkwardness, best-of lists, Van Gogh, gold panning, Sinatra, and modesty.

If you've ever seen any other interviews with Tom Waits, you'll know that he's notorious for not answering questions and for fabricating information for the fun of it. This interview with Beck, then, as unlikely as it may seem, is probably the most sincere interview Waits has ever done.

Check it out, and see if you can spot the differences between musical geniuses and (the likes of) you and I.

HINT: Geniuses have the personal phone numbers of guys like Beck and Tom Waits.

buy elliott smith's car, drive very, very sadly

According to a notably sarcastically-ironic / ironically sarcastic source, Elliott Smith's car is on sale via Craigslist in Austin, Texas.

The influential singer-songwriter, who committed suicide in 2003, had a troubled career full of depression, chemical imbalance and drug dependency. However, his stellar work cut across the musical landscape, bringing accolades from fans and critics and allowing him to maintain some level of indie-cred (which I strongly doubt he cared about) while also recording soundtracks and scores for feature films - most notably Good Will Hunting.

The car, a 1999 VW Passat, is being put up for sale by Smith's sister, with all proceeds going to the SIMS foundation.

If you have a spare $4000 and an interest in musical history, you can contact the seller here.

Of Note: I saw Smith play a couple of times, and am an enormous fan of his work. If I had the extra money - or ANY desire to own a car again - I think it would be worth the roadtrip to buy this Passat. Having said that, if any reader is considering going down to Austin ... get in touch. I could be up for some journalism from the field.