Bearing Witness, or Not – Part 3

As many of you may have heard, the trial concluded on Friday with the absurd award of $675k in statutory damages to the RIAA — in other words, Joel Tenenbaum, a 25 year old physics grad student, was found liable, at the whopping cost of $22,500 each, for the willful infringement of the copyrights to […]

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Bearing Witness, or Not

Speaking of family and defending the truth, the Joel Tenenbaum case begins today. And it’s looking like it’s not going to be the trial that Charlie was hoping it would; instead it will be, no surprise, the judge’s trial. Judge Gertner made a series of rulings this weekend, including one at 1:37 this morning — […]

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Folk Carioca

A couple weeks ago, a bunch of Boston’s “baile funk” enthusiasts were assembled by the um-and-only Gregzinho — who, incidentally, is our guest tonight at Beat Research! — to watch a couple DVDs showing different sides of the carioca scene: DJ Cabide’s self-produced “national” and “international” DVDs (which were both great & grainy), and the […]

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Songs as Shared Things

charlie sporting a hat bearing the name of his boat, a name inspired by some songs No doubt most readers of this blog are aware that my father-in-law, Charlie Nesson (aka eon), is also very much IN LAW. And he’s been making the news a lot recently, mainly for defending (pro bono) Joel Tenenbaum against […]

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Now That’s What I Call Music Industry

@noz sez sometimes RT can mean “real talk”; here it’s both re: Lil B (RT @noz): The 19 year old Pack frontman currently maintains 114 myspace pages (not accounting for the “SECRETE” [sp] pages he hints at in blog posts) all launched over roughly the last eight months and each showcasing five or six original […]

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Real Talk, Lads

So, yeah, inundated by mixes, but finally got a chance to check out last month’s Rinse FM set by Butterz (ft. Terror Danjah), which shows grime (& its bastard cousin, dubstep) alive&well & wot-u-call-it as ever. Comfortably contentious even! Esp w/ the notion that grime might be less than alive & well. I love the […]

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But Siriusly, Folks…Back to Work!

You may have heard, somewhere in the background perhaps, that Muzak filed for bankruptcy. Here’s an MOR-perspective podcast about it, bordering on inanity — A better use of your time & in the pdf-blog spirit, here’s a musicological analysis, written 20 yrs ago (!) by me ol’ advisor —      >> Radano, Ronald M. 1989. “Interpreting […]

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Drop (It Like It’s Yours)

Rich Boy’s “Drop” — particularly the instrumental — struck me immediately, for a few reasons, as an obvious but original nod to Bangladesh’s juggernaut beat for “A Milli,” which is, as SFJ memorably describes it — both heavy and barely there, built from a sub-bass kick, a thin snare, and synthetic handclaps, none of which […]

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Immersion Blender

WireTap Magazine – Free Association: Sound of Silence larisa/ripley's article on the recent rash of dubious takedowns in the mp3blogspotosphere :: written for a youth/general readership, so pretty backgroundy, but a good explanation of the current lay of the land :: bye bye blogspots (tags: mp3blog blogging copyright copywrong digital culture p2p) Beat Diaspora: Beats, […]

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Arabic Ebonics

ethnotechno :: the best in left-field asian-tinged electronica an unabashed embrace of the "ethnotechno" tag — sooooo 90s, no? (tags: worldmusic representation ethnicity orientalism electronic fusion) Blackdown: The man who cycles through glass walls interesting post by blackdown about photographing london's "margins" (tags: london photography representation urban architecture space race class blogpost) Scene and heard: […]

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Out of Focus

Saw this in a doctor’s office this week. I think it speaks for itself. In related: the Boston Globe and New York Times both published pieces on Charlie’s lawsuit today.

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Most Deft

Techdirt: Big Guns Come Out In Effort To Show RIAA's Lawsuits Are Unconstitutional my father-in-LAW, charlie nesson, is taking it to the RIAA (finally) with the help of his students at HLS — a nice summary / discussion here :: "In the past, it's been noted that the RIAA has curiously avoided suing any Harvard […]

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Musee de Beau Zack

History of Hip-Hop Radio (NYC 1986-1991) / audio – GRANDGOOD wow — a mixtape combining excerpts from golden age NYC hip-hop radio — nice work! what a window into a wonderful world — (h/t noz) (tags: hip-hop NYC radio mix archive goldenage) CBRAP » A Very Fresh Way To Learn butterfly in the sky, i […]

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Finnish Lines

Byron Garcia: The ‘Thriller’ Maker 'And the genius behind it all is the prison boss, Byron Garcia, the Cebu provincial security consultant who came up with the idea in an attempt to improve and discipline and morale. The son of Congressman Pablo Garcia and sister of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Byron Garcia faced a difficult […]

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Hugs for Tecnobrega

Tecno brega / eletro melody is back on my radar for 2 reasons — 1) Ronaldo Lemos, the Rio-based law prof who’s been hailing the genre’s open business model for years now, has just published a new book about tecno brega and its creative approach to the music biz, Tecnobrega: o Pará Reinventando o Evento […]

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YouTube, America, Distinguished Guests, Crumbs…

Spannered | Bobby Corridor | Hip Hop Megamix | Radio oh my god yes oh my god :: golden age beat madness and beyond! :: 600+ tracks in 90 minutes :: mixxtape of the summerrrrrrrr, for really tho (tags: hip-hop mix instrumentals production mp3) YouTube – Soulja Boy SHOCKING News! OMG WTF LOL! "youtube … […]

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How Fi Rob

Reminiscent of Fiddy’s early breakout track, the mighty Macka Diamond — of you nuh ready fame — shakes down the dancehall pantheon to hilarious effect on her new jam “Robbery” —      >> Macka Diamond, “Robbery” I esp appreciate the Junior Reid and Mavado bits. You may notice that the riddim propelling Macka D’s stealing spree […]

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Linkthink #93877: We Want Easy

Jamaica Land We Lgbt “A tribute to and expression of Jamaica’s sexual minorities in the struggle to overcome prejudice and violence and to assume their rights as citizens, as full human beings” (tags: jamaica sexuality homophobia blog violence nation politics politricks) Jamaica Land We Lgbt: Kenneth Reeves speaks out my former (gay black) mayor is […]

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Where Do I Begin (To Tell the Story)?

As long as we’re on the topic of “Arab Face” I’ve decided to dust off and finish up this post that’s long been sitting in my drafts folder. (It’s post #100, and I’ve recently published #400, if that’s any indication of how long it’s been on a backburner.) There are countless twisty, tangly stories of […]

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linkthink #8233: Time Passes and Things Look Different

Tomgram: Mike Davis, Welcome to the Next Epoch ‘Although the idea of the “Anthropocene” — an Earth epoch defined by the emergence of urban-industrial society as a geological force — has been long debated, stratigraphers have refused to acknowledge compelling evidence for its advent.’ (tags: climate oil energy history essay critique middleeast economics global) Fight […]

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