one hundredth monkey

observing the world from afar

Archive for category audio

da vinci

Mar 31

Posted by shawndagan in art/design, audio, music, stuff | No Comments

Much like the world of espresso, the world of audiophiles is thought to be rather niche and arbitrarily expensive. Well I’ll tell you right now that audiophiles blow espresso lovers out of the water when it comes to expense. “You have to pay to be refined!”, should be the motto of Da Vinci, the company behind products such as this turntable. What’s the big deal? Well, in the world of turntables vibration is your enemy and apparently this turntable (the UniSon MK II) has conquered it. What are you expected to pay for this champion of the stable? A cool $27,800 please. Found via Gizmodo.

Tags: ,

plastic beach

Mar 18

Posted by shawndagan in audio, music, video | No Comments

Gorillaz has finally come out with the new album “Plastic Beach” and it seems to be well worth the wait. I’ve always been a fan of the music, but what really sets their music apart from the rest is their inclusion of animated band members. This is especially effective in their new music videos, that are simply amazing. I would be telling you to go ahead and view the movie below at this point, but guess what? The don’t allow you to embed their videos and you have to go here to view them… As my friend Charlie said recently, “I remember a time when the internet was awesome.” Too true, too true. To get a better perspective on the subject of how music labels are getting in their own way, check out my post on OK Go who recently dumped their label EMI. Go here to check out the album.

Tags: , ,

this too shall pass

Mar 4

Posted by shawndagan in Indie, audio, music, video | No Comments

Ok, I know that I’ve already posted a video of OK Go recently, and hell, I’ve even posted a video for this very song… but this was just too good to pass up. I especially dig the marbles on brio, oh the memories.

Tags: ,

broken bells

Feb 25

Posted by shawndagan in audio, music | No Comments

Just wanted to give you guys the heads up on the next big thing… ya, you’ve probably already heard about it. The prolific Danger Mouse is collaborating with the Shin’s James Mercer for a new album. What happens when you combine two artists that you really like? Apparently good things. Go check it out here. The album comes out on March 9th.

Tags:

science… sort of

Feb 8

Posted by shawndagan in audio, earth, mars, physics, planetary science, podcasts, science | No Comments

Here’s another worthwhile podcast to check out on the internets. Each week in Science… Sort of the Paleo Pals get together with their favorite brews and talk about what’s new and worthwhile in the world of science. Everything from the physics of Star Trek’s space battles to how colorful dinosaurs were, with a bit of movie trailer reviews and such thrown in for good measure. If you tune in this week, you’ll get some tips on how to suggest targets for the HiRISE camera on MRO orbiting 300km above the Red Planet. Check out their page here. Speaking of HiRISE, stay tuned because later this week I’ll have a step by step on how you can suggest a target for the HiRISE camera.

Tags: , , , ,

of montreal

Jan 29

Posted by shawndagan in Indie, audio, music, video | No Comments

I’m pretty sure that almost all of you have heard this song by now, as it has definitely made the rounds (even, shudder, on an Outback Steakhouse commercial). But not many of you have probably had the pleasure of experiencing the music video that went along with it. If that’s the case, you should remedy the situation by hitting play on the movie after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ,

vampire weekend

Jan 27

Posted by shawndagan in Indie, audio, music, video | No Comments

Here’s a fun video from the band Vampire Weekend featuring the song Cousins from their newly minted Sophmore album Contra. Great song with lots of energy. As my friend once said “they’re a college band”, and I love ‘em for it.

Tags: ,

radiolab

Jan 22

Posted by shawndagan in audio, podcasts, science | No Comments

I listen to many podcasts (probably too many), and there are only a couple that rise above the noisy, conversational format that predominates the genre. One is A Life Well Wasted which I mentioned earlier. Another is the well produced Radiolab from the radio station WNYC over in New York. Their topics vary across the entire spectrum from parasites to the afterlife and focus on the scientific aspects of our everyday life and the world that surrounds us. Hosted by the duo of Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich (the later of whom, I admit, can get tiresome), the show communicates a huge amount of information that you’ll be trying to regurgitate to friends at your soonest possible opportunity. If you want to give it a try, I recommend their episode on Sleep.

Tags: ,

ok go

Jan 21

Posted by shawndagan in Indie, audio, commentary, music, video | No Comments

To say that the music industry is in a state of flux would be like saying people shouldn’t talk on headsets while in line at the coffee shop, it’s an obvious problem without an obvious solution. Well, the band OK Go aren’t offering any solutions but the frontman Damien has given an open letter to their fans that sheds some light on the problems, outlining why a band that can pin it’s widescale success to a music video that went viral (yep, the one where they’re dancing on treadmills), can’t get their record company to allow websites to embed their new music videos on youtube. It’s a well crafted letter, that plainly outlines the problem while still being entertaining. So go check it out here on Gizmodo. Otherwise, check out one of their other new videos embedded below. It’s pretty rad too.

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Tags: ,

rachel

Jan 10

Posted by shawndagan in art, artists, audio, music, painting | No Comments

Rachel Blumberg has an incredible talent to convey a mood and completely tell a story with a single painting. Though she splits her time between being a drummer for bands like M. Ward and Norfolk and Western, she still somehow has enough time to create these amazing paintings. Go figure.

lonely girl and trumpeter1piano and red bench742man&woman116whitedogandcrow002

Tags: ,