Posted on Jan 13, 2009

50 years of damn good music

It’s hard to know where to begin if you’re talking about Motown. Should we talk about the early years, the pioneering by Berry Gordy in 1959 when he founded Tamla Motown?

Or about the important social and historical role it played for generations of Afro-Americans, by integrating the black sound into popular music?

Surely, we could not forget all the legends: The Marvelletes, The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Jackson 5… and these are only the 60′s!

We could talk about a lot of things when it comes to Motown, but maybe we should just listen to the great music that this label brought to the world.

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Posted on Jan 11, 2009

What I am using these days

Since I installed the Windows 7 beta today, I thougt it would be a good idea to make an overview of what software (desktop or web app) I’m using. I always like to read posts like these, so I hope this one will inspire someone too.
This is what I use on my laptop, my desktop doesn’t contain any beta software.

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (beta)
Browser: Firefox 3.1 (beta 2)

Mail: Gmail
IM: Skype 4.0.0.181 (beta)
Twitter: TweetDeck 0.21 (beta)

Blog: WordPress 2.7
Office: OpenOffice 3.0.1 (RC 1)

Music player: Songbird 1.0 + iTunes 8.0.2.20

Web dev: Aptana Studio 1.2.1

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Posted on Jan 8, 2009

The Twelves = 24

the twelves

First time I heard about The Twelves was last year when they remixed ‘Get Lucky’ by New Young Pony Club. And ofcourse I liked it, otherwise I wouldn’t be typing these words right now.

play the twelves . be my crush (the juan-macleans b live rio mix)

Some more info about them from Last.fm:

From Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, “The Twelves” were formed by the duo João Miguel and Luciano Oliveira back in 2005. The name came from the strange coincidence of their birth dates: twelve of july of 1980.

The breakthrough for The Twelves came in July of 2007 when they remixed the track “Boyz” from M.I.A’s sophomore album, Kala. The reworked track with an added club feel resulted in one of the most talked about remixes of 2007. The blog coverage surrounding the remix was extensive and eventually the track started to pop up in sets from high profile djs around the world, including Kissy Sell Out, who played it on BBC’s “In New Djs We Trust” series.

The duo followed “Boyz” with equally well received remixes for Asobi Seksu and Erlend Oye, both of which were featured on a number of blogs and music related sites. This stream of good tracks soon caught the attention of a number of labels, including Modular Records (home of Cut Copy, Klaxons and others) who commissioned a “Twelves Remix” of the song “Get Lucky” by New Young Pony Club. The resulting remix was released alongside reworkings from household names like MSTRKRFT and Who Made Who, and received excellent reviews.

Press coverage in Brazil soon started to pick up, with interviews on Newspapers and magazines. The coverage led to appearances in festivals and concerts alongside names like Diplo, LCD Soundsystem, She Wants Revenge, Van She and Phoenix.

Their live show is a unique blend of live keyboards, drum machines, mash-ups and remixing on the fly. Always trying to improvise as much as possible.

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Posted on Jan 1, 2009

Happy New Year

New Year @ Times Square, New York in 1942

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