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  • Song In Code: Ramones, I wanna be sedated

    August 21st, 2009

    Just the first verse:

    go = Proc.new { sleep 24.hours }
    self.wants :sedatation
    begin ; nil ; end
    case go ; where "no" ; nil ; end
    self.wants :sedatation
    self.get '/airport'
    self.put '/airport/plane'
    before self.insane? do
    3.times { hurry! }
    end
    return if self.can_control? :fingers
    return if self.can_control? :brain
    5.times { "no" }

    I recorded me singing it, which is kinda stupid tbh.

    I used mencoder to convert this to something Youtube found tasty. Like this:

    mencoder -ss 15 -endpos 1:18 -vf pp=al:f,scale=480:360 -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=libx264:mbd=1:vbitrate=2000 MOV01362.MPG -o MOV01362.x264

    Also, pimp for another Geek/Ukelele project: Ukepedia, all 3 million Wikipedia articles one song at a time

    Tags: code, Music, ramones, ruby, sing, song, songsincode, ukelele

    Posted in Music, Tech | 5 Comments »

  • Live this Saturday at the Packhorse in Leeds, The Gillroyd Parade

    May 12th, 2009

    My band, The Gillroyd Parade, are hosting an evening of acoustic music at the Packhorse Pub this Saturday (7pm to 11pm, 16th May). Supported by Ukelele Bitch Slap. Do come along, it’d be just dandy to see you.  Full poster here.

    The Gillroyd Parade

    Tags: folk, gospel, guitar, harmonica, sci-fi, theremin, ukelele

    Posted in Music, Personal | No Comments »

  • Ukepedia: Wikipedia on the Ukelele

    August 16th, 2008

    Ukepedia is a new project by me and Louisa. Long story short: Ukepedia is Wikipedia articles performed on the Ukelele (or Ukulele if you prefer). The long story isn’t actually much longer than that.

    Here is a video of me performing the Wikipedia article “Otitis Media” (which I also performed live at The Chemic Tavern on Thursday and at Bar Camp Leeds just today).

    Record your own, upload them to You Tube and submit them to us!

    Tags: Music, songs, ukelele, ukepedia, ukulele, ukupedia, wikipedia

    Posted in Music, Personal | 1 Comment »

  • Emusic.com sucks

    February 26th, 2007

    I signed up for Emusic.com a few months ago to buy music online, but I’m fed up with them. This is my “why are you leaving?” feedback to them:

    I’d like to get what I pay for. I pay for 65 tracks but if I don’t download them within the month, they disappear. I have trouble understanding how this is a legitimate business practice – where do my tracks go? Are they distributed to the poor?

    Your business model is based on the hope that people won’t use what they pay for.

    Your business model is based on taking advantage of your customers.

    Tags: download, Music

    Posted in Music | 43 Comments »

  • Desmond Dekker Dead

    May 26th, 2006

    Desmond Dekker played at my local university (Leeds) earlier this month. We saw the posters and planned to go but messed up the dates and missed it.

    15 days later the man is DEAD. Last gig he did too.

    Tags: death, desmond dekker, gig, leeds, reggae, ska

    Posted in Music, Personal | 2 Comments »

  • Fat Wreck Chords RIAA member

    November 25th, 2005

    Fat Wreck Chords are listed on the RIAA members list. This is a little confusing, considering they are an independent label who vehemently oppose the practices of the record industry dinosaurs.

    After lots and lots of searching, I finally found what seems to be an excerpt from some newsletter by Fat Mike which denies this insanity. Though it states that they were taken off the list after complaining a lot, they are back on it now.

    I’ve e-mailed them to suggest they put it on their website news section or something. It’s difficult to find the truth otherwise (assuming it is the truth).

    UPDATE: Turns out this is old news, and Fat Wreck Chords deny any involvement with RIAA. I found that a guy e-mailed them about it in 2003 and they responded. Still no answer from them myself though.

    Tags: fatmike, fatwreckchords, NOFX, punk, riaa

    Posted in Music | No Comments »

  • half man half biscuit gig

    July 29th, 2005

    We saw Half Man Half Biscuit last night at the Cockpit in Leeds. Great stuff. It’s wonderful to hear NON-American cultural references that I don’t understand for a change. Incomplete unordered set list follows:

    • Corgi registered friends
    • Vatican broadside
    • Fuckin’ ell it’s Fred Titmus
    • 24 hour garage people
    • The Len Ganley stance
    • Four skinny indie kids
    • 99% of gargoyles look like Bob Todd
    • Bob Wilson, anchor man
    • Cover of Help me Rhonda

    And as Louisa said, I too liked that their stage “costumes” looked like they had all been bought at Matalan.

    Tags: gigs, half man half biscuit, hmhb, leeds

    Posted in Music, Personal | 1 Comment »

  • buying music online

    June 25th, 2005

    I got an illegal copy of some Half Man Half Biscuit from a friend a few months ago. I really enjoyed it so I decided to buy some. I don’t care for inlay sleeves, or for any physical aspect of music other than the actual audio waves so I thought I’d try pay for a legal download. This proved impossible.

    I firstly realised that my own specification on getting this music in either a lossless format, or an open format (such as OGG vorbis) were hilarious in the current online music climate, so settled for, well, basically *any* format. The iTunes download software isn’t supported on my GNU/Linux OS, and Apple are far too big and evil for me to give them any more money anyway. MP3.com looked promising until I realised they seem to just be a front for other online music stores, none of which had any Half Man Half Biscuit available anyway (and were just as big and evil sounding).

    I gave up. I went to bloody HMV and bought an album there. And when I listened to the album when I got home, it I didn’t even like it much.

    I’ve sinced downloaded more Half Man Half Biscuit and really, really enjoyed it. I think I’m just going to send a cheque direct to the band.

    I once met El Hefe from the punk band NOFX. I told him I’d downloaded their latest album for free off the Internet. “Oh, then we don’t get paid” he jokily explained. I offered him a tenner directly as payment, and he turned it down. “So I can listen for free?”. “Sure” he said.

    The music industry needs to change. But we already knew that.

    Tags: half man half biscuit, itunes, mp3, NOFX, ogg

    Posted in Music | 1 Comment »

  • half man half biscuit

    December 31st, 2004

    The singer out of Slip Knot went to Rome to see the Pope, and the Pope said to his aide:
    Who the fucking hell are Slip Knot?
    Who the fucking hell are Slip Knot, in relation to me getting out of bed?

    If you grew up in England, I urge you to buy a half man half biscuit cd today. They are on the independent label Probe Plus so you can do it without selling your soul to the evil music industry.

    Tags: half man half biscuit

    Posted in Music | No Comments »

  • Biohazard workout

    November 4th, 2000

    BIOHAZARD absolutely rock. The BEST gigs I EVER attend. Be sure to see them when they come your way. Violent tho, everyone just kicking the shit out of each other, all in the name of music. I didn’t get hurt tho, Cottie did tho, he stage dived direct to ground and got a red shoulder.

    Lots of cute lil’ girls crowd surfing too, but I hate feeling like a dirty perv by putting my hands all over em to help em stay up, so I kinda just pretend I didn;t see em, and they fall on the ground. Lil’ punk girls seems to bounce ok tho.

    Thats my excersize for the month done, slam dancing at a biohazard gig is like going to the gym, just with more fighting, and less showers.

    Tags:

    Posted in Music, Personal | No Comments »

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