Beatlanta blogs

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

adam keen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:19:09 +0000

I thought this was funny...

BONNAROO 2010 LINEUP NEXT WEEK

adam keen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:26:14 +0000

The Flaming Lips have already confirmed 2 sets, one of which will be their full Dark Side of the Moon set. Paul Simon has been confirmed as well.

Ipad - this shit is pretty cool

adam keen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:54:55 +0000

Check out this demo video of Apple's new touch screen computer tablet.

Owner of file sharing site "Oink" found 'Not Guilty' of Fraud

adam keen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:44:54 +0000

This is a huge win in the fight against excessive penalties for file sharers. For those of you following or interested in news on file sharing the article is definitely worth reading. Its from BBC news and you can find it here. If you've been following my blogs for a while you have read a lot about file sharing news and know that I am on the side of the sharers. Just scroll down and to the next blog pages and you'll see more stories. I'll continue to post about big news and cases that may wind up setting precedence for future cases.

I think its worth following as it will directly effect you in the future if you're a career musician and for the fans, it will directly effect the way you buy, obtain and listen to music. I'm all for file sharing and I ask the majority of bands I interview what they think and so far 95% of them say share away. I just don't believe that it is stealing; and either way it should be up to the artists and not the 'major' record labels. its just a mass form of giving your friend a copy of a cd, and they're not a friend, and there's no cd...ha. True music lovers will support their favorite bands...and now adays bands have more room to be creative and put out creative products and ideas fore selling their music and live shows. It takes more than playing some shows and standing around on stage...and the days of the "superstar-rockstar" are all but at an end. The 'major' labels should keep up with technology and find a way to use it for their interests; not just sue tech geeks and/or music lovers for taking advantage of the internet, in all its greatness. Anyway, read our earlier blogs on the subject if you find some time.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

adam keen — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:13:30 +0000

I just thought I'd post this for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's sure to be some trippy shit...and who doesn't like Johnny Depp? It comes out this March. Can't wait - IMAX 3D.

Jay Reatard 1980-2010....RIP

adam keen — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:30:41 +0000

from his music blog Super Indie Musician Jay Reatard died today. You can "download" (they actually just let you stream it, but hey) an unreleased cover of Nirvana's "Frances Farmer will have her Revenge on Seattle" at his blog; whoever runs the blog graciously decided to release it today. He has toured with and is friends with the likes of The Pixies and Beck. Beck posted a cover that Jay Reatard did of one of his songs on his own website, so check that out (you have to scroll down a bit) He was from nearby Memphin, TN and I know he's played in Atlanta a lot; I never got to see him live but I remember checking into his stuff when I saw that he was playing with, I think, some local Atl bands a while back, I don't recall which ones. He's been a part of 22 albums and over 100 singles since he was 15 and released his first solo album in 2006. Sucks to be dead. They haven't released the cause of his death yet.

3D TV Channels on the way...

adam keen — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:17:01 +0000

...and you know what that means...3D Concerts will soon be a regular occurrence. Read this article from the NY Times about the TV channels being launched. I know that ESPN recently announced a 3D channel as well. It doesn't specifically talk about 3D concerts but I'm making a prediction of sorts. As you may or may not be aware, artists such as The Jonas Brothers (I neither support or advocate), U2 and The Dave Matthews Band have already had 3D concert "movies" premier nationwide in theaters. I'm not even saying it will be cool but it definitely makes me curious (I haven't seen one). It could be only a matter of years before the technology to record or transfer recordings to 3D format could be available to the public...meaning you could be making your own 3D footage within years. Something to think about.

STREAM THE NEW VAMPIRE WEEKEND ALBUM FREE...

adam keen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:57:35 +0000

You can stream their new album right here on beatlanta.com...

Click here to read an article and see Vampire Weekend talk about their new album on video at Rolling Stone.com

SCIENCE PONDERS 'ZOMBIE ATTACK'

adam keen — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:32:45 +0000

This story is a few months old (I've been meaning to post for a while) but I thought it was pretty funny (someone had to fund this exercise)...or serious...depending on your view of zombies I guess...will you survive the Zombie Apocalypse? Better get your zombie survival kits ready now...check out the story from BBC news.

UNDER THE RADAR BEST OF...

adam keen — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:17:24 +0000

From Under the Radar

The Final Cover is Revealed, As is the Rest of the Issue's Content

Under the Radar's Best of the Decade Issue will be hitting stores on December 18th. The cover features five notable indie musicians from different bands all photographed together. Every day this week we have been revealing a different cover artist building up to today's reveal of the final cover.

The Best of the Decade Issue features Under the Radar's Top 200 Albums of the Decade and all five of the cover artists have at least one album somewhere on the list.

We've already revealed that the first four cover artists are of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, Devendra Banhart, Bradford Cox (of both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound), and Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley, and also an accomplished solo artist). Today we reveal that the fifth and final cover artist is Ben Gibbard (of both Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service).

The Best of the Decade Issue also includes interviews with other great artists on our Top 200 Albums of the Decade list, including Animal Collective's Avey Tare, The Dears' Murray Lightburn, The Decemberists' Colin Meloy, Elbow's Guy Garvey, Feist, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, Spiritualized's Jason Pierce, Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys, and Tegan & Sara.

As well as the Top 200 of the decade, the issue also includes Under the Radar's Top 50 Albums of 2009 list.

A lot of great music this past decade has been forged in Brooklyn, and has been imported from Sweden, Canada, and Scotland, and so we have articles on each of those scenes that incorporates interviews with many of the artists involved in the scenes. We conducted group photo-shoots in Scotland and Sweden with some of the leading indie musicians of those two countries, and did a series of new photos of Brooklyn-based musicians. For the Sweden article we spoke to such artists as The Cardigans, Love Is All, Peter Bjorn and John, Dungen, and Taken By Trees. For the Scotland article we interviewed members of Camera Obscura, The Delgados, Franz Ferdinand, and Frightened Rabbit. And for the Brooklyn article we talked to such artists as Grizzly Bear, Liars, Yeasayer, The Drums, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Devendra Banhart, The Antlers, and The National.

The issue also includes the article "A Decade of Indie: The Rise of the Outsiders." What does the term "indie rock" even mean anymore? That question and others are examined in the article, with input from the likes of The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Pixies' Black Francis, Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla, Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, The Decemberists' Colin Meloy, Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, Superchunk's Mac McCaughan, Portishead's Geoff Barrow, and Pavement's Scott Kannberg.

Finally, the issue features Under the Radar's 7th annual Artist Survey, in which we emailed some of our favorite artists a few questions relating to the last decade and asked them for a list of their best albums of the decade. The Best of the Decade Artist Survey section includes interviews with Camera Obscura, The Dodos, El Perro Del Mar, Final Fantasy, The Hidden Cameras, The Horrors, The Invisible, Ladytron, Sondre Lerche, Jamie Lidell, Loney Dear, Los Campesinos!, Mew, Midlake, Okkervil River, Stars, Telekinesis, The Twilight Sad, and Vivian Girls.

Pick up an issue starting December 18th.

www.deathcabforcutie.com
www.jennylewis.com
www.deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/devendrabanhart
www.ofmontreal.net
www.undertheradarmag.com

ROLLING STONE'S TOP LISTS FOR 2009...AND THE DECADE...

adam keen — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:44:59 +0000

Top 25 albums of 2009, according to Rolling Stone Magazine.

Ex-nihilists follow up American Idiot with a rock opera about two punk lovers — and revitalize the idea of big-deal rockers actually saying something about the world.

Hip-hop almost took 2009 off, so it was great to hear some of Hova's cleverest braggadocio ever, over stunningly good beats from rich friends like Kanye West.

The wholesome French version of the Strokes hit on an exuberant mix of guitar rock and electronics, killing it on the unstoppable "1901" and "Lisztomania," the catchiest song ever about Franz Liszt.

A wildly baroque set as musically far-reaching as The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle: decked-out folk and rock struggling with the big stuff — hard work, love and death — and having a great time along the way.

#1 U2

Aiming for rock glory, Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. explore dark places ("Moment of Surrender"), find modern twists on their classic anthems ("Magnificent") and uncover blindinglight soul ("Breathe"). The result was an album with a sense of drama that no one could match all year — more proof that a band that isn't busy being born is busy dying.

Click here to see the rest of the list starting with #25. I agree with maybe Jay-Z and Phoenix but the rest of the list, eh. The top 25 has some much better music in it, including Monsters of Folk, Bat for Lashes, Mos Def, Grizzly Bear and Franz Ferdinand, so check it.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ROLLING STONE'S TOP 100 ALBUMS OF THE ENTIRE DECADE.

FUNNY SHIT...

adam keen — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:45:18 +0000

FluffeeTalks - click to subscribe on youtube.

Music, Social Media and the future...

adam keen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:36:22 +0000

I thought I'd share this video with everyone talking about the statistics of internet users and social media and how it has and continues to change the way the world acts, reacts and works; the way business is done. I thought this directly relates to what is happening in music and for young bands and the localization of music in the future. If you read some of my blogs below you'll see my thoughts about where music is headed and how the internet and social media will shape the future of the music industry and take popular music back to the 'local arena.' Take a look at the video, its quite interesting...

A little about beatlanta....

adam keen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:00:50 +0000

I just wanted to remind everyone of what we're doing here at beatlanta.com.

We are working hard to help bring good bands some exposure. Up until this month, it has been mostly just two guys doing everything you see. Adam Keen and Chris Fuller. We do not get paid and we do everything for free right now. In the past month we have received some serious inquiries in getting some good folks added to our team and so far it is looking promising. We have Amy Garret helping out...who is a professional photographer. She is awesome and she does band promo shoots as well. So hit her up at....

We also have a music lawyer named Ashley that is going to be added to the team very soon and she will be helping out with writing and promoting the site. Also, if you know anyone who has a passion for music and wants to get into shows for free and writes, shoots vidz or takes pics or anything of the sort, then please send them our way and we would love to have them on the team. 1 hour or 40 hours a week, we'll take whatever help folks are willing to offer.

Also, I wanted to remind everyone about our bands section. Our goal there is to have the largest accurate list of ACTIVE Atlanta area bands. By active we mean practicing to play shows and/or currently booking shows or making albums. We do believe it is one of the largest and most accurate kind of these lists out there today. Other sites have them, but they are NOT accurate, you'll find many bands that don't exist anymore. We want bands and fans to be able to come to the site to browse and learn about new Atlanta bands. We know not all of them have content but you'll always find at least a link to where you can find more about the band; we are working hard on getting content to all of the pages. We currently have on the site over 400 bands and we have about 600 more to add to the site - its a fucking daunting task...but we think its worth it. We add anywhere from 3-15 bands a week so check back often for new bands. Also, don't forget about our pics section where we post galleries for almost every band we catch live. We add more every week so check that as well. BANDS: At anytime, you can send us material for your picture gallery or your band page and we will post it.

So we invite you to check back often to not only read our features but to utilize our calendar and to browse and learn about more Atlanta bands. Please use our "posts" section for whatever you see fit as well. Soon, we'll have a "meet the staff" section, a resources section for bands to use, a venues section with info and booking info on over 100 regional venues.

We are also working on getting the site professionally designed. We are not web dudes so everything you see is kind of a learning experience for us and we are constantly working on the layout and functionality of the site.

WITH THAT SAID, IF YOU CAN, PLEASE DONATE JUST $1 BY CLICKING THE DONATE BUTTON AT THE TOP OF OUR MAIN PAGE. WE WILL USE ALL OF THE MONEY TO GET THE SITE DESIGNED SO ITS BETTER FOR ALL OF US. AFTER THAT, WE'LL JUST BE THROWING TONS OF SHOWS AND PARTIES AND PUTTING THE MONEY IN THE HANDS OF BANDS.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND THANKS FOR READING THIS.

SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC AND LOCAL INDEPENDENT MUSIC MEDIA

RIP Jerry Fuchs...

adam keen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:26:32 +0000

courtesy of http://www.nme.com/news/!!!/48304Many of you have probably heard of the tragic death of indie drummer Jerry Fuchs. Beatlanta just wanted to pay respect to the amazing drummer and the horrible accident that ended his life. RIP dude. You'll be missed.

Here is an article about the death and some friends and bands paying tribute...