Category Archives: Music

Creating John Mayer’s Album Cover

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This is an incredible behind-the-scenes about the creating the album cover artwork for John Mayer’s latest album Born and Raised. If you haven’t seen the album, it is incredible. It looks like comercial art from the turn-of-the-century. No, not last century. When I look at it, I don’t understand how someone could create it. I am dumbfounded.

In this pessimistic, cynical age, I’m sure there are legion who look at it and say “meh”. Ok. I look at it and marvel. I do creative for a living, and the sad thing is, I know I’ll never do something like that. Instead of getting down, I choose to be in awe.

This video takes us through the creation process and we get to see a bit of the conversation between John Mayer and David A. Smith, a creative from the U.K. as they discussed what the cover could be.

In this day of fast burn, right-this-minute design, it is refreshing to see what is possible when you dream and then take the time to realize.

You may hate this album artwork. You also may be a doofus. It’s hard to tell. Either way, this is a great video.

5 People Playing 1 Guitar

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If you keep up with the internets, then chances are that you have already seen this video. It’s five people from the band, Walk Off the Earth, playing the same guitar and singing the Gotye song Somebody That I Used to Know. Watch closely and decide if they are indeed actually playing the same guitar. I have my theories. Either way, this is a crazy cool video that you need to see if you haven’t already.

The Punch Brothers Cover The Cars… And All Is Good…

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Punch Brothers cover The Cars

If you don’t know who The Punch Brothers are then you need to go to time out.

There, you know that hurts me more than it hurts you, but it is time that you learned the lesson that The Punch Brothers are crazy cool. Now that you know, I expect you to go and spread the word. I’ll be here when you get back.

That is all.

Backstage at the Lady Antebellum Show

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A really good friend of mine, Curtis Jenkins, helps manage the Lady Antebellum tour and today, he is letting me hang out back stage before their Tulsa show. I have been taking pictures of all the cool things I’m seeing and posting them to Twitter.

On the day of the show, especially this one, it is actually pretty low key backstage. The Lady A show has been in the BOK Center here in Tulsa for the entire week. They are kicking off their Spring show which means that they are shaking out all the kinks, integrating the new gear and doing all the other stuff they have to get done before the first show.

I have been on the stage, under the stage, in front of the stage and behind the stage. I have gotten to talk to all sound people, the light people and the video people. Pretty cool. I have to admit, since I am a bit more of a video guy, and I haven’t been around large venue/big show video equipment. I got the full explanation of how all of it works… nerd heaven.

Make sure and follow me at Twitter @MurDog for more photos and fun stuff!

Rediscovered: Violent Femmes

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I loved these guys back when I was in high school. It has been years since I listened to them, and last night, I did some searching on the internets on Grooveshark and found these guys again. I hadn’t forgotten them, but I just hadn’t listened in a while.

I just went to MTVMUSIC.com, another really cool site that allows you to search and FIND videos to almost any song…heaven. I found a video for Blister in the Sun and thought I would share it here. It has some clips from Gross Pointe Blank which is a bonus. It also has the lead singer taking a shot at a presidential cat, that was weird, but I still loves the song, and the Femmes. I am old.

Last.fm…Statistics Up & Running

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Just posted to Last.fm.  I am afraid that I am talking to myself there so I am posting my entry here as well.

Wow, the value of this site is starting to rear its head. It is a lot of fun to look at what I have been listening to since the last time I had to rebuild my iTunes library.

It has been about a year, but a while back, the hard drive that I used to keep my music collection got corrupted and I had to go to backups and rebuild my music collection. Unfortunately, as in many cases, my backup wasn’t complete and I lost a number of files.

That was the point when my music listening statistics began again.

The great thing about this site is how it confirms some beliefs and denies others. For instance, I knew that I liked Coldplay, but according to the stats here, they are my number one band. I would have assumed that John Mayer would have been number one.

All these stats get me thinking. Now, I wonder what the numbers would look like if I combined my wife’s stats with mine. I can assure you that John Mayer would win in a landslide. Even more interesting, if I added my kids, High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, and Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana would show up with alarming frequency

last.fm & My Thoughts on Coldplay’s New Album

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I just started using the social music site last.fm. You can check out my page! They have a journal/blogging system on the site that allows you to post entries about your thoughts on music. I posted something there, and I was afraid that the post would just disappear into the ether so I am going to post it here too!

I have heard about this site for years now and I haven’t felt like jumping in, but now.. it is a Friday, and I just bought Coldplay‘s Viva La Vida, and music is on my mind so now is as good a time as any to jump in and do some social music.

Shuffle on iTunes

I have iTunes set to shuffle on a playlist I call Super Mix. I put all the albums I love in there and turn on shuffle. Sometimes I have this creepy feeling that iTunes shuffle has a personality and makes weird picks. Today, iTunes is in love with Coldplay. It won’t stop playing them. I hit the next track button and then it gets stuck on The Cure. I am trying to get to the magic number of tracks on last.fm so that I can see trends in my listening and all the other fun stuff this site does and I want the trends to be correct. iTunes, quit screwing me.

New Coldplay

The latest Coldplay album is a departure from its first three albums. Where the first ones were sparse and patient in bringing the full band to bear. This album is adventurous and more in your face. It has a definite flavor of 80′s new wave and is deliciously english. I am still in that strange honeymoon phase with this album, and it is a bit of an acquired taste. I am only now starting my third listen and the songs (itunes just played another Coldplay song… what the…) are starting to grow on me.

It seems very evident that Coldplay has a lot more money to throw at an album because every song is crammed with instruments, like I said earlier. A real departure from the sparse patient sound of their earlier albums, Parachutes, A Rush of Blood to the Head, and X&Y.

I am interested to see whether or not this new album will grow on me as their first three have (iTunes just played another The Cure song… this is weird…).