DJ Premier releases mix tribute to Malcolm McLaren
Brought to my attention by now defunct Music Thing blogger & Assistant Editor of The Times, Tom Whitwell, here is an excellent tribute by DJ Premier to the life and influence of Malcolm McLaren.
Available as a stream and download via the unofficial DJ Premier Blog site HERE, this mix features Malcolm, The Sex Pistols, Bow Wow Wow, Art Of Noise, Yes & The World Famous Supreme Team.
Bizarrely, I created a Spotify playlist that also used the interview segments that DJ Premier uses to segue his mix. Grab the playlist HERE.
Lap this up, homies! 
All this talk of Fairlights….
…. has reminded me of my Fairlight themed Spotify playlist.
Check it out for plenty of CMI goodness.
Failed Muso’s All The Fun Of The Fairlight
Depeche Mode – O2 Arena – February 20th 2010
A month late, but hey.
Four weeks ago, I went to see the mighty Depeche Mode at the impressive O2 Arena in London, a good 9 months after the gig should have originally taken place and almost 18 months after parting with my hard earned for the privilege.
For someone who loves music, I kind of hate gigs. A bit stupid, you might think. And yes, I’d have to agree. To a point. What is to enjoy about standing for 3 hours or so, behind some arm flailing, drunken twat who loves to “conduct” the band with both hands, whether it’s holding a pint of rip off beer or not.
In my desperate excitement to order the best possible tickets for the show, I had plumped for standing as opposed to seated, under the now blindingly obvious misconception that I might get a good view of the stage and have a cracking time.
As DM themselves would say, WRONG.
Depeche Mode fans are a strange and bizarre bunch. Just read through the DM forum at the official DM site to see exactly what I mean. Obsessive, over zealous, crazed, maniacal, fanatical and vicious, these people can often argue a point over 160 pages of one thread, and often do. So it was with little surprise, I guess, that upon reaching the O2, I discovered that to get the best standing places, I should’ve arrived at 6am to queue. I’m sorry, but at aged almost 40 and with a family to sort out, that was NEVER going to happen. So I was left with the final third of floor space and decided to park myself right by the sound desk. This is not bad for two simple reasons. One, you are guaranteed the best sound, and two, you have something to lean on, and for someone with a back that is as fucked up as mine, is a good thing. Sadly, only standing 5’6″ in my stockinged feet, the aforementioned fuckwit waving his arms around pretty much spoiled the evening.
As for the band, they were superb. The stage show was typically simple yet incredibly powerful. The massive rear projection screen and projection globe providing stunning, Anton Corbjin created, backdrops to each song. DM are by far and away one of the best live acts ever. Dave Gahan, by far and away the best front man too. A good combination of new and old material got the crowd rocking and to be part of the Never Let Me Down Again “wheatwave” was pretty cool.
So, apart from TfL doing their utmost to prevent us from getting there (and failing) and despite the crapness of my position and the inherent fuckwits that surrounded me in that position, it was a fine concert by a fine band and at least that’s another one off the list.
I playlisted the the set list on Spotify and here are some pics and video for your delectation….
Please vote for me!!
In shameless X-Factor style, I am here to beg for your votes!!
If you’re not already aware, I’m a big fan of Spotify, the music streaming service that is taking the world by storm. Since it’s popularity began to rise, 3rd party sites have sprung up offering Spotify users many ways of sharing the playlists that are so easy to create within the application.
By far and away the best of these is ShareMyPlaylists.com, and at the end of 2009 they launched a competition for users to compile the very best songs from 2009 into one playlist and submit it for the chance to win a years Spotify subscription for free.
I have been very lucky to have been shortlisted from nearly 100 playlists and am now in a final battle with 5 other lists which will all be voted on by the general public.
So my plea to you all is to pop along to ShareMyPlaylists and vote for “Failed Muso’s Sound of 2009″.
To vote, you do have to be a signed up member, but it’s quick and easy, spam free and best of all free of charge. The benefit being that you have access to over 12,000 submitted playlists, categorized by genre, as well as access to your own little page where you can chat with other users, blog or just hang out and enjoy other peoples choice in music.
So, please vote for my list!! I came 3rd in their last competition, narrowly missing out on winning a PS3 console 
Thank you very much! 
My latest Spotify playlist – Totally Trevor Horn
Trevor Horn
I’ve blogged about the wonders of Spotify and how it’s the greatest thing to come out of Sweden since…., well, Abba I guess (seeing as I hate Ikea!)
I’ve also blogged about the fantastic 3rd party playlist gathering site called ShareMyPlaylists.com.
Well, after a long absence of putting playlists together, I was inspired to compile a new one. And here it is…
Failed Muso’s Totally Trevor Horn
As you can tell, it’s all about Alan Parsons…. oh, ok, it’s all about my favourite producer ever, Trevor Horn, featuring songs that he has either produced, composed, arranged, mixed or performed on or a combination of the aforementioned.
You probably won’t find a collection of better produced music, spanning a glut of genres and styles. The man’s a freakin’ genius and I salute him.
I do still toy with the idea of trying to arrange an interview with him for this blog, but I worry that I’d end up being such a sycophant, the whole thing would be crass and subjective. We’ll see.
In the meantime, enjoy the playlist and do please rate it over at ShareMyPlaylists.com. If you haven’t got Spotify already, (and FFS, why not???), leave me a comment and I may be able to put you in touch with some people who have a pile of invites! Do remember that it’s only available in the UK, Sweden and other slected European countries at the moment.The USA is coming soon Check Spotify for more details.
The Art Of The Playlist
The advent of Spotify and the joyous way it enables you to listen to music online has been nothing short of revolutionary. Sure, there have been numerous ways of streaming music legitimately for some while, but not as easy and as satisfying as Spotify. And because it is so easy, the concept of playlists has taken on new life. With a Spotify playlist, music can be shared quickly and, best of all, collaboratively. And because of the surge in popularity, websites like ShareMyPlaylists.com have sprung up all over the place. I could mention the others, but a simple Google search will unearth them all for you. ShareMyPlaylists does appear to be one of the better ones with a simple user interface and ratings system, and great communications with it’s users too.
Now, I have created a small number of playlists which are hosted there and I am very pleased with the responses I have got on them. But having trawled through many lists on there and other playlist sites, it became quite clear that many of them were a major letdown or just totally ill conceived from the get go. With all due respect to those that created them (and I won’t be naming & shaming), a little more thought and care could have turned them into excellent and viable lists. So I got to thinking about what constitutes a great playlist.
The first major sin committed by a dodgy playlist creator is to chuck in entire albums of their favourite bands. If I wanted the whole of Blur, I’d just search Blur directly in Spotify and away I go. Worse still are playlists that contain just one album. Bizarre!
Secondly, a list that claims to contain the “best of” a particular artist or genre should be approached with caution. I did one called the Best Of The 80′s and knew that I couldn’t possibly get everything, but I made sure that I covered as many bases as possible.
Next on the list is the length of the playlist. Make the list worthwhile. Don’t make it too short and don’t be afraid to make it too long. But always keep it relevant. Know when to stop.
Artwork for your playlist is a must, just like an album sleeve is. Make it relevant and make it punchy. The image must also convey the sentiment of the playlist.
Song placement within the list is a matter of taste really. You could organise it track by track, but bear in mind that Spotify has a shuffle feature so your careful planning might be undone in an instant. When compiling your list, you can sometimes be hit by a wave of inspiration and add in large swathes of tracks, only to find that you want them all in a different order. This can prove to be a bit of an effort, so I often suggest that listeners use shuffle.
And that brings me on to descriptions. Name your list appropriately and give some thought to a short description about it. What inspired you to make the list? Why choose the songs you chose? Who are the songs about? Is there a particular relevance or theme and what is it? Sell your playlist to the listener.
But above all, remember that music is entirely and totally subjective. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. I’ve had some comments on mine about the inclusion of certain artists with others, but in the context of the theme, I was happy with my choice. For a brief period I was a bit angry at someone criticising the list, but soon realised that everyone has unique tastes and that was just the way he felt about my list. They can always make a list of their own ;o)
If you really like your playlist and want to share it, make sure you do via place like ShareMyPlaylists.com and see what people think. It can be quite a gratifying experience 
)
Four Years Old Today!
Yep, on this day in 2005, I started the Failed Muso blog.
I had confused intentions back then. I wasn’t sure if this was to be anything specific or just a place to collate my ramblings. It soon took a turn towards my passion for music and music technology, with a soupçon of random shit thrown in!
MUCH has changed since then, mostly for the better )
Anyway, Happy Birthday Failed Muso! You have served me well and here’s to many more!
By way of a celebration, I created a rather large and eclectic new Spotify playlist today, entitled, “Failed Muso’s History Of New York” which attemps (successfully, I hope) to bring together almost a century of music from that fine city. So expect to hear pieces by Al Jolson, George Gershwin, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, French Horn Rebellion, Suicide, Television, Velvet Underground, Blondie, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Wu-Tan Clan, Jay-Z, Grandmaster Flash and many more.
It can be found on the most excellent ShareMyPlaylists.com site, along with all my others….
Failed Muso’s History Of New York
Failed Muso’s Spotify Playlists
Spotify
When it comes to listening to music online for free, we’ve seen fads come and go, various sites do their best at blending music listening with social networking, online radio stations and various other projects. My first proper experience with online streaming of music for free was with Pandora. Now, if you live outside the US, that link will get you a big apology page as sadly the service is no longer available outside the US. The theory behind Pandora was to analyse listeners tastes and then provide a selection of music based on those tastes. It would study all users trends and this all contributed to what they called The Music Genome Project. All sounds hip and trendy, but it wasn’t that great because you had to listen to what they suggested.
Since then, sites like Last.fm and Blip.fm have provided us with free access to music on demand but their web front end’s are a bit slow IMHO, the track quality is questionable and their list of available tracks can be a bit limited. Don’t get me wrong, I like what they do, but I never got into them because it just seemed a bit too much like hard work.
Recently however, there’s a new kid on the block. Spotify. Strange name, but this could just be the future. It’s a small downloadable application that uses the concept of peer to peer file sharing to ensure rapid delivery of the tunes, all of which are delivered in what many believe is a superior format to MP3, .OGG Vorbis q5. This streams at around 160kbps and does indeed sound VERY good.
It’s fair to say that Spotify looks and behaves in a slightly similar way to iTunes, or should I say, it behaves like other iTunes-esque applications. However, it is extremely simple to use.
The most impressive thing about Spotify is the rapid delivery of the tunes. It’s almost instantaneous. The quality is very noticable too. It does sound very good. Other very nice touches are the artist biographies, dynamic album reviews with cross linking and the flexible search feature. Album art is always there too, along with the ability to construct and share playlists. You can even collaborate on playlists with other Spotify users. Built in volume & transport controls include a handy Shuffle feature too. Tracks are also rated by popularity. Recent searches are also saved. And just like online radio, you can get Spotify to select music for you based on taste, style and era. You can queue tracks up or just flit around the library, looking for your own choices or following Spotify’s suggestions.
You can even right click on tracks and select to buy them!
The speed and quality of Spotify is down to the way it delivers it’s content. It uses a cache on your hard drive to improve bandwidth usage, resulting in that super quick start up time. How much of your HD is used is user configurable too. Spotify can also scrobble your tracks to your Last.fm account if you wish.
All in all, this is a remarkable application, even more so as it is FREE!! )
What’s the catch, I hear you ask. Well, of course there’s a catch, but it’s so simple and unobtrusive. Adverts. Yup, the Spotify people have to make money, as do the artists whose songs you are playing. So, the free version of Spotify will feature adverts in the form of Flash banners in the application itself and also in audio form. Both appear infrequently and are totally sublime and inoffensive. The audio adverts are much like the 30 second affairs you hear on commercial radio and only play one at a time. Spotify say that as the service grows, the frequency of adverts may increase slightly, but not in a ridiculous fashion. You can of course buy a 24 hour ticket to get ad free service, or £9.99 per month for Spotify Premium, that gets you ad free and also exclusive access to various content, like forthcoming releases and suchlike.
Spotify, even though being around for 3 years, is still starting up, but it’s making a big noise (forgive the pun) and is spreading rapidly. Currently, Spotify Free is only available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain. It’s only available in some contries by invite only as well. Spotify Premium is available in most countries now.
What I like about Spotify is that it removes the need for people to download stuff illegally, simply to try it out. Sure, it’s not going to stamp out piracy single handedly, but it sure makes it more convenient to listen to music wherever and whenever, legally and free.
Sites are springing up all over the place, allowing Spotify users to share playlists with each other. One of my personal favourites (in fact, it’s the only one I currently use) is ShareMyPlaylists.com which is a free and very convenient way of getting your lists out there. Users can rate them and leave comments too.
As you can probably tell, I’m a massive fan of Spotify. As soon as it gets bigger, I can see it making a massive impact on how we listen to music online on a global scale. I’d like to see little additions like it being able to feed to things like Twitter what you are currently listening to with a link to the track too, a bit like Blip.fm does. Or even a Facebook app to show your playlists and currently listened to tracks. There’s plenty of scope for Spotify and I can see it happening very soon.
Check it out for yourself. There’s nothing to lose!
Oh, and here’s a few of my playlists that I have shared on ShareMyPlaylists.com
Failed Muso’s Best of The 80′s
Failed Muso’s Musical Homage to Ashes to Ashes Season 2
Failed Muso’s All The Fun Of The Fairlight
Failed Muso’s Electronic Influences
Failed Muso’s Queens of British Pop
Failed Muso’s Later…with Jools Holland Collection (10/04/09)
