Music of the Hemispheres - New York Times

Very interesting article about how our brains process music. Not as scientific as it may seem offhand.

Ah..... Dopamine.

Music of the Hemispheres - New York Times: "Observing 13 subjects who listened to classical music while in an M.R.I. machine, the scientists found a cascade of brain-chemical activity. First the music triggered the forebrain, as it analyzed the structure and meaning of the tune. Then the nucleus accumbus and ventral tegmental area activated to release dopamine, a chemical that triggers the brain’s sense of reward.

The cerebellum, an area normally associated with physical movement, reacted too, responding to what Dr. Levitin suspected was the brain’s predictions of where the song was going to go. As the brain internalizes the tempo, rhythm and emotional peaks of a song, the cerebellum begins reacting every time the song produces tension (that is, subtle deviations from its normal melody or tempo).

“When we saw all this activity going on precisely in sync, in this order, we knew we had the smoking gun,” he said. “We’ve always known that music is good for improving your mood. But this showed precisely how it happens.”"

Thank you

195 Posts and 175 mp3s into our inaugural year, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and listening.

Sharing great music fills me with joy.

Big, big, big shout out to Sean Keener and Boots'n'all for hosting the files.

We're going to try to be a lil more reg'lar in the 2007.

Have a great and safe New Year's Eve.
m

LBF: How Do You Spell Channukkahh

Here's to the Maccabees and their miracle oils!

The Monkees Riu Chiu

HT: Wendy

The Shins - Phantom Limb

I'm a sucker for swords, school plays and Ken Van Damme's Automotive's most famous clients.

New Arcade Fire

DOWNLOAD: Arcade Fire - Intervention

Rolling Stone : The 100 Best Songs of 2006

Rolling Stone : The 100 Best Songs of 2006: "1 'Crazy' [Listen]
Gnarls Barkley
In a perfect world, Al Green could still sing collard-green soul gems like this one, but Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse stepped up with an instant classic, winning this year's 'Hey Ya!' award for the song nobody even pretended not to like. Everybody tried to cover it (our personal fave: the Raconteurs') -- but nobody can hit the chorus like Cee-Lo, and nobody ever will.

2 'Steady As She Goes' [Listen]
The Raconteurs
The first single from Brendan Benson and Jack White's garage-glam band was a perfect dirty sundae of fuzz-box stutter, metallic zoom and pop-chorale candy. It is also a good reason to hope the Raconteurs are no one-album project.

3 'Ridin'' [Listen]
Chamillionaire
The song least likely to be played in Drivers' Ed.: Chamillionaire dodges the cops, riding dirty with a car full of thugs who don't care where they're rolling or if they get there in one piece.

4 'What You Know' [Listen]
T.I.
T.I. gets majestic with bass and synth strings booming like your car just flipped the corner. What you know about that? T.I. knows all about that.

5 'Vans' [Listen]
The Pack
Bay Area MCs the Pack broke out with this sleek, bare-bones ode to midpriced sneakers. Words of warning: 'Lace 'em past the fourth hole, you some type of sucker.'


6 'Thunder on the Mountain' [Listen]
Bob Dylan
So that's how you bring sexy back! Dylan slaps on a cowboy hat and greases up his favorite Chuck Berry guitar riff, one step ahead of the apocalypse and one step behind Alicia Keys.

7 'Smile' [Listen]
Lily Allen
This deceptively named ditty was '06's most gloriously bitter breakup song: Part Mike Skinner, part Gwen Stefani, part Blondie, the young Allen defined her very own bratty, musically adventurous style on 'smile,' a reggae-lite platter about the joys of an ex's despair.

8 'Wamp Wamp (What It Do)' [Listen]
Clipse with Slim Thug
Best line: 'So proper/Hammertime gun-cocker.' But the lyrics aren't really the point here -- the cuckoo-for-coconuts Neptunes steel-drum beat is.

9 'Dimension' [Listen]
Wolfmother
Aussie guys dig out their big brothers' worn vinyl copy of Master of Reality and let the brain-bludgeon guitars off the chain.

10 'Ooh La La' [Listen]
Goldfrapp
The kind of groovy dance number Kylie used to write, full of steamy, sweaty vocals and a fierce Sixties vamp."

NME.COM - Top 50 tracks

Can't remember if I blogged this or not.

I can tell you that Young Folks and Crazy will definitely be on our end-of-year post.

NME.COM - TNME Tracks Of The Year 2006.

DoCopenhagen: Top 50 Music Videos Of 2006

Whatever will I do today at work? Oh yeah. Goof off.

DoCopenhagen: Top 50 Music Videos Of 2006: "Top 50 Music Videos Of 2006
Here we go again... Our top 50 videos of 2005 was a huge success. This year we decided to do things a little bit differently. All the videos are from You Tube and can therefore be watched in the browser. If you want to download the videos to your computer and watch it on your ipod or TV we recommend that you use this download tool from Lifehacker.com

BTW we have also made our own DoCopenhagen Video Podcast that you might want to check out. You can subscribe to it via iTunes by clicking here.

Enjoy
"

Top 30 from Music for Kids who Can't Read So Good

Interesting that so far, 'Crazy' hasn't been denting anyone's top 5. It's easily The Song of 2006, though, right? Right?

My list to come sometime in the next 3 weeks. Currently a little more distracted and busy than usual.

From Taylor over at Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good � Top 30 Songs of 2006: "This is my first attempt at an end of the year songs list. As a measure I’ve selected songs that I think I’ll still be playing and replaying after the year, but as a rule I didn’t choose more than one song per artist. It’s kindof crazy to try to rank songs at a certain point, but after some toiling I came up with a definitive 30, that I’m happy with. A selection of them are available for download and they are labeled as such. Make sure to click read more… for my top ten. Thanks for visiting!"

NME.COM - Reviews - Oasis: Stop The Clocks

When I was struggling to make it into advertising as a writer, when I was living at home and really missed college, when it seemed like I'd never make it, Oasis was there.

And their raw, full-throated yawp hit me like a ton of bricks. I can remember driving around Orlando, on my way home, and howling along with Liam to Noel's words.

"I think you're the same as me, we see things they'll never see, you and i are going to live forever..."



NME.COM - Reviews - Oasis: Stop The Clocks: "
We'll say it again: you all know what these songs sound like - but stop the clocks, take a look back, rejoice! Celebrate how they made you feel."

Lazy Blogger Friday - Badly Drawn Boy - Silent sigh

This brings me back to Portland 2002. A really good year for music, and a year in which I fell in love with Burning Man and went on a 4 month wonderfully manic kick.

This song was on every 'Thank you for a wonderful 2002' CD that I gave to the crew.

DOWNLOAD: Badly Drawn Boy - Silent Sigh

Index of /

Went and saw Cat Power on Saturday with Christy Van House (my boccé teammate and pal).

At the ornate Orpheum Theater with a full 9 piece backing band, the Memphis Horns, it was an up and down show. She really had trouble with the monitors and her voice levels.

As a result, the songs that she played just by herself, with only piano or guitar stood out the most.

I think my fave was 'Where is my love?'. It really showcases what makes Chan's voice special. Half-lullaby, half-plaintive cry, half-love-soaked-reverie, it's gorgeous.

Excuse the hiss on this live version and soak in some Cat Power.

DOWNLOAD: Cat Power - Where is my love? (live)

swedesplease: Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

Hop over to the always excellent Swedesplease for this Nordtastic cover of 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'.

swedesplease: Boys Just Wanna Have Fun: "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun


Last week Copy, Right? sent a virtual shout-out to Swedesplease. Now I will return the favor. Copy, Right? is a trendsetting blog that's been around since the beginning of time (2004 or so) that only puts up amazing cover songs. This relates to today's post of the Gothenburg band Dreams End cover of Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun'.

Boys Just Wanna Have Fun"