Group-Singing - Pete Seeger - Rise Up Singing. Music Blog Zeitgeist of 2007 / The Hype Machine. David Byrne Journal: 03.28.2008: Dallas. I’m in Dallas — or more accurately, Richardson, a silicon suburb north of the city — to meet with David Hanson, a maker of realistic (i.e. human) looking robots. We’re collaborating on a piece that, if all goes well, will be part of a group show at The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid this summer. Some time ago, the curators invited me to be part of a tech-oriented art show, and I suggested approaching Hanson to make a singing robot for which I would write and record a song.
Hanson’s robots flirt with the uncanny and test our notions of what it means to be human. They have rubbery flesh made of what he calls frubber, with tiny wires on the inside that pull the “skin” to mimic human facial expressions (to an extent). Some of them can also make eye contact and some can carry on a weird dialogue, adding to their profoundly disturbing nature. I was curious whether a singing robot might push these reactions even further. There have been other singing robots. Watch the Parody Videos That Got YouTuber StSanders Banned | The. Earlier this week, YouTube pulled the plug on funnyman and media artist Santeri Ojala, whose hilarious and popular "shredding" videos poke fun at the world’s great guitar players. YouTube said it received three complaints of copyright infringement and automatically suspended Ojala’s account. YouTube has a standing policy to suspend accounts after three complaints from copyright holders, whether the complaints are valid or not.
YouTube declined to say who filed the complaints, but it was likely the guitar gods themselves — or their representatives. Ojala, who overdubs rock concert footage with his own bad guitar playing, says he has no plans to fight YouTube’s decision, which would likely require him to hire a lawyer and file suit against the company. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are the videos YouTube refuses to host. In the clip above, Ojala shreds solo guitarist Steve Vai, one of the musicians Ojala suspects may have filed an infringement claim against his parody videos. See also: David Byrne Journal: 01.09.2007: Correction? Recently, I wrote a piece for Wired magazine about some of the changes in the music business from an artist’s point of view (see article here). Amongst other things, I laid out a variety of possible distribution models, while also claiming that the lower price of recording these days leaves artists less dependent on record labels to bankroll the studio costs than in the past.
I was called on this latter claim by two folks — curiously, they’re both Canadian. Here are some excerpts from the email exchange. From Issa (formerly Jane Siberry, who did a pay what you wish offer for her recording a couple of years ago): “Make records for almost nothing? My reply: "Yeah, you're right. From Howard Bilerman (who played with Arcade Fire and is now an engineer/producer and co-owns the hotel2tango studio in Montreal): “While it's true that the laptop recording setup made self-produced recordings worlds easier than before, the simple truth is that laptops alone don't make records. My reply: Howard: