In early 2009, we introduced you to John Wood , who, as Learning Music , had embarked on the audacious project of recording and releasing one album per month, available via Learning Music Monthly on a pay-what-you-can basis. His staggering body of work eventually spanned all genres and included contributions from some 50 musicians. Now, after 36 albums, LMM is over (and about two-thirds of Wood's 500 songs have found their way into the Buzz Bands collection). The songwriter's collaborator in the project, John Gillilan of Vosotros Music , recently wrote a retrospective for the WFMU [...]
It's been almost a year since Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake. Relief and reconstructions efforts still need support, and the L.A. music community is stepping up. A group called Plays Well With Others has curated a sterling 18-track compilation titled "To Haiti With Love," featuring songs by artists such as Gary Jules, Love Like Fire, Samuel Stewart, John Carpenter, His Orchestra and the Parson Redheads. It's well worth the minimum $5 donation. Heck, the Jimmy Tamborello remix of His Orchestra's "Attached" might be worth 5 bucks alone: [...]
Congratulations album art by Jeff Eliassen This morning I woke up with the song "Birthday Sex" by Jeremih looping in my mind. A few hours later, it's still there, and behold, I'm not the only one with birthdays on the brain. My psychic Spidey-sense must have anticipated Learning Music sending over Congratulations today, an album written by John Wood for birthdays of LMM subscribers (which you should be, and if you donate $25 bucks right now they'll send you a limited edition cassette and the remainder of Season 3 on CD, that's [...]
(click the image above to download the album) This album download comes with instructions courtesy of Learning Music . Recommended instructions for listening to LMM 3.7: Find a quiet place where the full spectrum of sounds on this album can be heard unhindered. Noisy places such as a moving vehicle are not ideal. However, some mild extraneous, atmospheric noise is acceptable; if you are indoors, you may choose to open windows to allow some local sounds from outside to blend with those on the record. [...]
John Wood is the frontman behind Learning Music , a series that makes a new album available for free each month, released under a Creative Commons license. The theme behind this month's release is sex. Today's Top Tune is " Ovulation ."
[Catching up on some recent developments ...] File this under interesting twists: the next album by the Bird and the Bee will be "Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates" (March 23 on Blue Note Records). No irony from the mouths of Greg Kurstin and Inara George here, says the press release: "Their love for the music is genuine." Included: eight cover songs, a new original, and a bit of a mystery — if [...]
I made the decision a little more than a year ago to go ahead and share my personal soundtrack with anyone who was interested. In this last year The World In A Paper Cup has really become so much more than blog to me. It has given me license to truly indulge my curiosity and love for all things music. It has brought people and opportunities into my life that I consider myself incredibly lucky have/still experience(d). It has taught me a whole lot about what it means to be "involved" in music - creating, editing, selling, promoting, sharing, etc. [...]
If there is one thing that I don't like about most so-called "supergroups," it's that people focus on how cool it is that so-and-so's from various bands are now all in the same band, and competely ignore that their music is as inane and trite as it ever was. That's one of the reasons why I prefer bands who term themselves a "music collective," because they tend to focus on good music more than their invented popularity. With that, Learning Music is a music collective from Los Angeles that produces an album every month. While such a quantity [...]
New issue! See you at the release party Monday @ The Cha Cha Lounge! Find print issues here, buy back issues here and obtain a print subscription here. Please contact us if you’d like to advertise in the next one! complete contents inside are LUIS AND THE WILDFIRES LEARNING MUSIC YOKO ONO TERRY RILEY GIRLS THE SLITS ROUGH KIDS JOEY ARIAS DINOSAUR JR. by ALLISON [...]
Passing along some fun, free, streaming and fully-downloadable listening from Learning Music Monthly . LMM 2.10 - The Greatest Event In Sports History From the liner notes: On March 16, 2007, a great thing happened in Culver City, California. For the first time ever, all three contestants of the game show Jeopardy, without ending in a score of zero, tied. At the time, at least two incorrect interpretations of this event were made; one being that it was a chance occurrence, the other [...]
Learning Music - Ask Me No Question
New songs from Beach House and Beck? Radiohead and Joy Division covers? A slew of mp3s from some of music's top up-and-comers? It could only be this week's edition of our Friday Mixtape! Yes, we got a particularly epic one for you, and for good reason. This was the week we announced our Top 100 Albums of the Decade after all! And with our Top 50 Songs of the Decade coming next week, there are plenty more reasons to celebrate still to come. NEW Singles: "Norway" by Beach House [...]
We'll be installed in the lobby of the brand-new Bedrock L.A. rehearsal and recording studio—home of the prototype Echoplex, one of John Lee Hooker's guitars, vocal mics used by Bowie and a whole arsenal of insane vintage equipment—this afternoon, so come say hi if you're going and go if you're not already going! Learning Music, [...]
The folks at Bedrock—Echo Park's newest rehearsal and recording studio and soon-to-be newest microbrewery!—have given us a brand new Dixon snare plus four Bedrock t-shirts and four VIP passes to the Bedrock grand opening on Sunday, October 25! A lot of L.A. RECORD friends are helping out with this event, like IS GOOD radio and [...]
[A batch of local stuff you should be paying attention to ...] The latest in the (almost) monthly songwriting series from Hello Dragon might be its best yet. "1073 paints a sad little picture from downtown L.A. that will bring a smile to the face of anybody who's surveyed the scene at Bar 107 on any given night. Principals Julie Chadwick and Chris Zerby got an assist on this song from Jeremy Wilkins (programming) and Mike Eisenstein (mixing). ||| Download: [...]
Sean Tillman's party band persona, Har Mar Superstar , will release "Dark Touches," its first album in five years, on Oct. 13. I'm not big on tongue-in-cheek dance music — in fact, Tillman's pop album as Sean Na Na a couple years back far outstrips his work as Har Mar — but there are very few better showmen in town when it comes to getting clubgoers to check their inhibitions at the door. Guests on Har Mar's new album include Inara George, Boom Bip and P.O.S., and heavyweight producer Greg Kurstin co-wrote this single, originally intended for [...]
[New and notable from the L.A. scene, one in a series ...] I have been remiss in keeping you updated on the exploits of Learning Music , the moniker under which John Wood releases his tunes. Back in February , I wrote about his ambitious subscription series, Learning Music Monthly , through which Wood releases one album per month. (When he actually sleeps in anybody's guess.) The five releases so far have varied wildly stylistically — June's "Geochemistry" is actually a video album, [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Hopewell : "Island" [mp3] from Good Good Desperation other Hopewell posts at Largehearted Boy Julie Doiron : "When Brakes Get Wet" [mp3] from I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day other Julie Doiron posts at Largehearted Boy [...]
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Aeroplane Pageant : "I Remember I Think" [mp3] from Even The Kids Don't Believe Me other Aeroplane Pageant< posts at Largehearted Boy Black Heart Procession : "Rats" [mp3] from Six (out October 6th) other Black Heart Procession posts at Largehearted Boy Bloodkin : 2009-06-27, Athens [...]
Buzz Bands
L.A. RECORD
Today's Top Tune from KCRW
The World In A Paper Cup
either/or
Losanjealous
Head Underwater
Consequence Of Sound
largehearted boy
Green Day all'Ohibò di Milano, secret show a sorpresa
Deerhunter announce first dates of October European tour
J. Cole moves album release date forward to challenge Kanye West
[Audio] Classixx’s ‘Valley Vacation’
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros imploran por días mejores en su nueva canción
