26Nov / 2008

The Australian music scene on Twitter: a master list

It’s finally hitting the mainstream in a big way, and you just can’t escape it: Twitter is being talked about everywhere. Regardless of what you think of the technology, it can’t be denied that it’s having some very real and fascinating impact on the way we connect, network and communicate with each other. Politicians, celebrities, bloggers and now everyday people have started to turn to the system as a means to update and communicate their network in greater numbers than ever.

Unsurprisingly, musicians and artists are among these people turning to the system – and it seems to be having a lot of success, especially in ways that musician blogging never seemed to manage.

Part of Twitter’s success may lie in its simplicity, but it’s also emerged to become a surprisingly diverse application. Some bands are using purely to talk with their fans, others are using it simply to offer updates, others offer a snapshot into their personal lives, while others are doing a mix of all of the above.

Want a few examples? Here’s a small sample of overseas bands that are using Twitter: Ryan Adam & The Cardinals, YACHT, Dave Matthews, ?uestlove, Muse, My Brightest Diamond. All somewhat different approaches, all fascinating – and all getting broadcast straight to mobile devices, computers, aggregators, you name it.

A number of Aussie music bloggers have got in on the action. Australian bands are beginning to get it. Record labels are certainly beginning to jump on the train.

So why this post? Basically, I’m hoping to compile a master list that will serve as a starting point for people to get their music sources set up on Twitter. Hopefully you’ll be able to find various people that will provide you with succinct and instantaneous coverage of musical topics of interest.

I’ll eventually move this list to a fixed location, but for now I’m going to update this blog post. Please leave comments with suggestions on Twitter accounts I should include here, and hopefully you’ll find getting started on the Twitter train really straightforward!

New updates appear at the end of each section and are highlighted in red.

Australian Bands / Musicians

The Grates - @thegrates
A highlight. Lots of photos and observations on tour and at home, frequent interaction with the Twitter community. Just like their music would have you believe, these guys are good fun to be around.
The Mint Chicks - @the_mint_chicks (thanks Geoff!)
Occasional updates on band activities, mostly promoting their new album.
Muscles - @musclesmusic
Vewwy vewwy quiet…
Bertie Blackman – @bertieblackman
Sydney artist makes her first foray into Twitter. Early days.
The Devoted Few – @thedevotedfew
Sydney band, frequent updates, good community interaction.
Yves Klein Blue – @yveskeinblue
Brisbane band tweeting mostly about tour announcements.
Red Riders – @redridersmusic
Presently focusing on the band’s return to the studio.
Expatriate – @expatriateband
Sydney band recently relocated to Berlin, infrequently tweeting about recording their next album.
Dappled Cities – @dappledcities
So it really isn’t “Fly” any more? Updates are fairly uninteresting.
Urthboy – @urthboy
Herd band member twitting frequently on life, running a record label and being in the Herd…
Youth Group – @youthgroupmusic
Just getting started…
Sparkadia – @sparkadia
Good, sporadic but interesting updates
The Presets – @talklikethat
Moderately useless…
Bliss & Eso – @blissneso
Sydney hip hop with a good, grass-roots approach to the service.

Got any more? Let me know!

Australian Record Labels

Dew Process - @dewprocess
Rather half-hearted use of the service
Modular Records - @modularpeople
Goofy twitter-based fun and news, frequent updates
Ivy League Records – @ivyleagues (thanks Dan!)
Home to Sparkadia, Josh Pyke, Mess Hall, Cloud Control etc…
Inertia Music – @inertiamusic
One of Australia’s bigger distributors, home to much great music.
Illusive Records – @illusivecrew
Melbourne-based hip-hop label, home to Bliss n Eso, Lowrider, Downsyde etc…

Australian Live Music

V Festival - @v_festival (thanks Geoff!)
Hey by the way V Festival, your line-up totally sucks this year.
Jessie Pink / We Do Stuff – @jessiepink / @wedostuff
An independent promoter giving updates on live gigs around Sydney.
Moshcam – @moshcam
The well-known video footage archive of Sydney gigs is using Twitter to promote their site and post gigs updates.

Australian Radio Stations

Triple J
- Robbie, Marieke and the Doctor (Breakfast) – @triplejbrekkie
- Lindsay McDougal (JTV) – @tripleJTVdoctor
- Scott Dooley (Afternoons) – @triplejdools
- Zan Rowe (Mornings) – @triplejmornings
- Vijay Khurana (Lunch) – @vijaykhurana
- House Party - @jhouseparty
- Richard Kingsmill (music director) – @triplejtheking
- Home and Hosed – @homeandhosed
FBI Radio (Sydney) – @fbiradio

Australian Music Bloggers

@dreadfuldan (from Boudist aka Daniel Boud)
@ford_davis / @ma_shinka / @12majorchords (from TwelveMajorChords.com)
@fortunegrey (from Fortune Grey)
@getbiglittlekid (from Get Big Little Kid)
@jonny_yesyes (from Polaroids of Androids)
@openyoureyes (from Open Your Eyes To Music)
@waycooljnr (from Way Cool Jnr)
@stuartbuchanan (from StuartBuchanan.com)
@tunebinder (from Tunebinder)

What’s next?

Got any Twitterers that I should have listed here but are missing? Please leave a comment and let me know!

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12May / 2008

Logitech SqueezeBox Duet review (+ original SqueezeBox)

The box

It’s here! Logitech’s acquisition of Slim Devices and their SqueezeBox (released around 3 years ago) has finally resulted in their new, revamped SqueezeBox Duet.

This review has been made possible thanks to Hi-Fi Trader in Newtown (I like ‘em a lot, and they didn’t pay me to say that) and my buddy Colin, who works there and needed to get up to speed with the system. He brought it over to my place, we drank beer, and played music.

About the SqueezeBox

The concept of the SqueezeBox is that it’s basically a bridge between your digital music collection and your standard, living room soundsystem. I’m going to cover the old as well as the new, for a few reasons – mainly because the old may well live up to your needs and they’ll now be going pretty cheap on eBay.

Figure: SqueezeCenter in action

The SqueezeBox operates through a wi-fi connection to a server application called SqueezeCenter that gets installed on a PC on your network. The server software is open source and is regularly updated – it has a lot of functionality and a great web-based front-end (you can download it now if you’d like to play with it)

So just to be clear: both of the SqueezeBoxes described below run on the same server software. Really, they’re just different front-ends for the same thing, so this is something to keep in mind if you’re working out which is ideal for you.

Sonically, both SqueezeBox units have high quality DACs – the SqueezeBox Classic boasts a (superior) Burr-Brown 24-bit DAC and the newer Duet with a Wolfson 24-bit DAC. In other words, they sound great and you should expect sound quality on par with a good CD player, providing you encode your music at a high enough bit-rate!

About the test environment

We set this up on my NAD C372 amplifier running into Jamo E875 speakers. The server was running on Windows Vista, and my wireless network is 802.11g. Internet connection is ADSL2+.

Squeezy mk i

Before I jump into talking about the latest unit, here’s the older SqueezeBox Classic:

Figure: SqueezeBox Classic in action

As you can see, SqueezeBox Classic offers a simple single-colour text display which reports the currently playing track being handled by SqueezeCenter. it provides a selection interface via the included IR remote, which is pretty basic – a telephone style digit keypad (for searching and track selection) and start/stop/next/previous buttons.

Setup was painless – we connected it to my wireless network and away we went, playing music within minutes: it does exactly what’s advertised, in a no-frills, bare-bones manner.

I wasn’t so excited about the relatively garish presentation, which is a little stark and stands out when sitting on top of your system – but if you have an alternative means of controlling it (i.e. a wi-fi enabled mobile device/PDA) you can probably even hide this and just use it purely as an audio interface.

Squeezy mk ii

Figure: the SqueezeBox Duet interface, by comparison, is a lot more understated

SqueezeBox Duet is essentially an aesthetic upgrade. The audio interface is tiny – a simple, anonymous black unit that reports on device status through a glowing light on the front panel.

All display functions are instead moved to the handheld remote, which is itself wi-fi enabled – which means you can control music from anywhere in the house.

Basically, you control the Duet with an iPod/remote hybrid:

Figure: look familiar? it’s basically an iPod for your stereo (click to enlarge)

Navigation is handled through a click-wheel clone, which is pretty intuitive. It has an iPod-esque menu system which allows you to get a much better sense of what the system has to offer than the Classic. It has numerous cute perks like web-service enabled plugins – e.g. you can use your Flickr account as your screensaver.

Data entry is slightly more cumbersome than on the Classic – needing to use the clickwheel can be a bit of a chore compared to entering text with a keypad, but I found I got up to speed with it quickly.

What’s cool

Digital music on your lounge room stereo
At the risk of sounding obvious, I’ve found it increasingly clumsy to plug an iPod or a computer in to access music that I only own in digital form. This is a really lounge-room friendly option that looks nice and sounds great.
Last.fm support
It scrobbles!
Plugin architecture
The system is extensible and offers all kinds of potential thanks to a growing library of plugins, and the option to develop your own.
Rhapsody access
Thanks to Colin’s workplace having an account, we were able to test the Rhapsody support on the unit. Rhapsody is a subscription service that offers streaming access to a large catalogue of music for around US$15 per month. My dad asked me if I’d heard any Stephen Stills, to which we fired up Rhapsody and had an album playing within seconds. A great resource for music discovery!
Internet radio
The unit has a large repository of Internet radio streams, which I thought was pretty tidy and functioned nicely.
Full access to eTree
If you haven’t seen this amazing archive of live concert recordings (bootlegs), check it out now. It’s completely accessible from your remote – we were able to play 9 years worth of Elliott Smith concerts from our remote at will.
Use any controller you like
Given the server uses completely standard technologies, you can use anything you want instead of a remote. We had someone with an iPhone who was quickly able to control the system using an interface designed specifically for his device.
It’s really cheap
With an RRP of AU$600 (and an eBay price of around $400), the Duet is a pretty cheap option for a lot of functionality
It’s even cheaper
The SqueezeBox Classic these days can be found for around $250. If you own an iPhone or any other wi-fi enabled device, this might well be a sufficient option for you.

What’s not cool

No support for DRM (or: iTunes Music Store purchases will not work)
But you shouldn’t have been buying DRM encrypted music anyway, so I feel no pity for you if this is a problem
Click wheel is a bit clunky
Compared to the smoothness of the iPod’s click wheel, the Duet remote’s mechanical alternative feels a little on the awkward side. It doesn’t take too long to get used to however.

Really, these are petty gripes in contrast to the amazing functionality you get offered to you out of the box.

In summary

I’m getting one – pure and simple.

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19Nov / 2007

Glitch VST

Sound granulators/rearrangers/stutter algorithms/etc can often be love it or hate it tools for many people. Many people like to chop up and refigure their drum breaks, programs and sounds, but their methods can vary wildly. Some like to do everything manually – buried in mountains of edits and parameters and grids and inserts. Others like to use stuff like ReCycle, BBCut (and its many implementations) and SupaTrigger – to name but a few.

I’m not sure where I sit on the whole thing. Generally I tend to go for the more manual route – I think it’s because I like to have full control over the musical process, I like the musical ideas to be mine and not a variant of some algorithm that someone else created – falling into the trap of thinking like someone else. I don’t have any thought out rationale for it – and I certainly have some of the tools mentioned above installed on my computer (and their siblings) as they’re useful to have around, if only to get inspired when searching for new sounds and ideas. But generally when it comes to the sounds that find their way into my final work, I tend to go a bit manual.

But whatever you think of all that, I’ve been playing around today with a little gizmo called Glitch, which is a freeware VST tool that allows for applying various rhythm-oriented manipulations – stuff like chops, stutters, recuts. It’s pretty funky in that it’s actually quite in-depth: it’s got a lot of functionality and you have a reasonable amount of control over what it’s actually doing, rather than some programs which are almost black boxes that have a few parameters that can be played with.

This has a sequencer for the various types of manipulations, and the parameters on offer for each are pretty detailed. At the very least it’s a fun way to completely mess up sounds and breaks and some of the results are really quite interesting. I think it’s very likely to be the most impressive free package I’ve seen offering this kind of functionality.

Anyway, if you’re into going for some haywire manipulations, have a play with Glitch, it’s an interesting tool. Next time I want to do some really intense edits on a break, I’ll certainly have a good think about whether I want to be sitting in front of a grid or writing out sub-divisions and rhythms on paper. Which option I’ll choose is still unknown, but at the very least it’s the kind of thing that’s worth having there just in case. The flexibility it offers is certainly tempting.

Naturally, of course, this is worlds away from a dude like Burial (who I’ve been listening to a fair bit of the last week and really digging) who does all his beats in SoundForge. No grids or anything. Insane.

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12Jul / 2007

Getting musical devices talking to one another

Just a snapshot of what I’ve been up to all morning.

Basically, I’m running all the music for a conference this weekend, but couldn’t find any other musos. Rather than go the usual one-man-and-a-guitar thing, I’ve opted to add some of the stuff I use for producing electronica to the mix and see if I can do both at once. It’s been sounding OK – pretty bare bones, but it really gives what I’m playing on guitar more depth.

Where it’s really taken on a new life, however, is getting everything talking to each other via MIDI. Sure, you might be thinking that I’m 25 years late in discovering this stuff, but I’d never really ventured beyond the basics of using it before. Here’s what’s in my rather basic setup here:

Boss GT-6. I’m using this for delays and some crunch/gain boost, mostly – but now I can use it to send MIDI messages to my computer too!
Computer running Audiomulch – the system runs as a master MIDI clock. It’s running all my samples and and some of the loops and custom synths that I string together – mostly drones and arpeggios to give me a bit more freedom to move around the fretboard. It’s pretty intuitive once you work it out.
I discovered that the GT-6 pumps out MIDI CC messages by default from the CTL pedal, expression pedal and expression switch. All you need to do is hook MIDI control up to various parameters in Audiomulch and get it to detect the messages you’re sending. No configuration required!
Korg Electribe EMX-1. I’m actually loving this thing more and more as time goes on - it’s really quite a versatile sequencer/drum machine/monosynth once you get beyond the surface. It’s mostly operating as a slave to Audiomulch, but I’m also doing some performance live on it (it’s got a keyboard mode which is great for lead lines). The AUTO setting for the clock control is cool – when Audiomulch is running, it works as a slave, but runs its own clock at other times.

Now that I can play use this stuff without needing a mouse or hands, I’m definitely keen to experiment with a setup like this to try and get a live set together… we’ll see…

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07Jun / 2007

Red Eye Records – OpenSearch

Presenting another item in a growing series of gadgets that may only be useful to me:

I’ve just created an OpenSearch definition for the Red Eye Records website‘s search facility (for those who don’t know it, Red Eye is my favourite CD store in Sydney). I’ve lost track of the countless times I’ve wanted to make a quick search on their site.

Click here to install it (should be instant)

The gadget should work on the following browsers:

Firefox 2.0
Internet Explorer 7

Chances are support for OpenSearch will expand to other browsers soon. Let me know if I’ve missed any.

Hope it’s useful to some people!

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21Nov / 2006

Number 1!

Two days after putting my new blog up, and I’m now…

The number 1 result on Google for Joe Hardy (up from page 1, position 6)
The number 3 result on Google for Joe Blog (up from page 2, position 5)

Talk about overnight improvement! A lot of my approach with the new design had SEO enhancements in mind, but there was no way I was expecting that kind of immediate effect.

Here’s what I made a point of focusing on most:

Making proper use of document structure (ie tags like H1, H2, H3, STRONG etc)
Ensuring that the page hierarchy was as simple as possible (not too many nested DIVs, avoiding tables, etc)
ALT attributes on images, TITLE attributes on links
Using the awesome WordPress URL Rewriting ISAPI Filter for IIS by Dean Lee – great work Dean, thanks!

That’s pretty much it.

Yes, I know that I really have no need to be getting top rankings out of Google. But it’s certainly educational and it’s helped me get a good grip on what search engines look for.