Flash programmer Shane Brouwer made a game that pits the original French house robots vs the recent French cross-wielding mega producers on the idea that the latter stole the robots' samples. Of course, it's all fun and games.
Simple concept, simple controls, all 8-bit baby!
Controls: Arrows Keys to move, Spacebar to jump
Instructions:
1. Find the Samples
2. Jump on the bad guys, string together combos for big multipliers.
Somehow, this TV show for kids on Nick Jr passed under my radar. Why would I even know about a kid's show you ask? Well some of them are pretty brilliant, but you know, this one is just downright interesting.
First off, the show is called Yo Gabba Gabba and the theme music sounds like, guess what, slowed down Gabber music. It's that crazy happy hardcore sounding dance music. If you've seen the open for the show, you'll get what I'm talking about. Here's a blurb about the show:
Yo Gabba Gabba! is a fun live-action program for young children ages 1 and up. Join our host DJ Lance Rock as he introduces us to friendly toy monsters in a magical land full of music, dance, colorful cartoons and simple life lessons that will get you and your children up off the floor to learn and dance along. Muno, the red cyclops, Foofa the pink flower bubble, Brobee the green little one, Toodee the blue cat-dragon, and Plex the robot are ready to sing, play and teach whenever you're ready. Just say the magic words! YO GABBA GABBA!!
DJ Lance Rock is probably the funniest character I've ever heard of for a kids show. These toy monsters are actually vinyl toys, nod to that subculture, and he brings them in his multi-colored ghetto-blaster.
Oh and to make shit even crazier, Biz Markie is in the show. He has a 'Beat of the Day' segment. Celebrities make appearances and dance to music with the monsters and kids go crazy, just like on other shows. It's just a cooler, I guess "hipper" concept and look.
Did I mention this show has been airing since 2006? Below is a hilarious clip featuring Elijah Wood dancing to Numa Numa. Really weird, but funny.
So MTV had a bright idea, instead of launching another network to cater to only music videos (which the original MTV was supposed to be doing from the beginning), MTV Networks has launched a YouTube like site full of their music videos. Of course, the site is simply called MTV Music.
I think it's a bit of a gimmick to get more ad-sales and traffic, but, it's actually well-designed and looks legit. The site lets you search by director (such as Spike Jonze), arist, and song. It's also got a pretty good catalog of classic videos, niche-genre stuff; so it's not just today's top 40 hits. You can also embed those videos on other sites as well without having the labels taking the links down. Geekiest of all, there's an actual API.
Bye-Bye Muxtape - RIAA Confirms It's the reason Muxtape shut down
You may remember we posted about the digital mixtape website, Muxtape, a few months ago here on the site. Even then Muxtape had become an internet hit and until recently was extremely popular. I say recently because Muxtape is gone, beaten down dead by the behemoth that is the RIAA. Like OiNK last year, the use of Muxtape was in a legal gray area. Muxtape users could upload songs to the Muxtape server and then build a twelve song playlist to share with friends. Obviously, the songs were only available for streaming, but Muxtape was allegedly not paying licensing fees to the appropriate parties and thus with legal rights, the RIAA went ahead and attempted to have them comply by paying the fees. After several months of not removing the alleged illegal materials, Muxtape has been shut down.
Muxtape's situation isn't unique or remotely new. It's just a part of a string of sites being shut down or threatened by licensing fees which are supposed to help the industry pay its artists in the digital age, not hurt them. Artists want to be paid, but many don't want to join the larger labels who have and continue to alienate customers by extinguishing access to new avenues of accessing music that does not include payola tracks or music people don't want to hear.
In that sense, there's some fear online that Pandora may be the next to go down. Not because it's doing anything illegal, but because Pandora simply can't afford to pay copyright-holders royalties. It's estimated that 70% of their $25 million revenue is going straight towards paying licensing fees. And as the site gets more popular, especially as what has been seen with the new iPhone app, there will be more licenses to pay.
It really is a rough path right now with the future of innovative online radio and music in danger. In 2002, royalty charges were threatening companies like Live365; this is the second-wave and something has to be done before the big 5come after the blogs they already have. Kidz By Collete has apparently been shut down due to copyright infringement.
All in all, this is the reality: music is not a hobby. People that make music professionally should be paid for their art; the labels need to work together with the media to find a balance so new blood can come in and help the industry without being charged/sued to hell. Otherwise, we will be left with an even more stagnant, corrupt, and uncreative shell of something formerly known as the music industry.
What do you all think about the situation with online music? Are the labels right to charge such high fees or should each fee be up to the artist?
Started in 2005, Subdrive is one of the longest running podcasts and blogs about the best in underground electronic music and culture, showcasing new artists via DJ mixes and singles that are updated regularly as well as events, articles, music videos, and more.
All tracks and mixes are posted for promotional use only. If you want your track or mix removed, let us know.
