The Legendary Pink Dots

Formed in London in 1980, Legendary Pink Dots moved to Amsterdam in the middle of the decade. Members throughout the band's career have been Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards) and Phil Knight (keyboards), also known as the Silver Man, with a shifting supporting cast over the years. The Dots' music is by turns melodic pop and exotic psychedelia, with classical influences, sampling, and relentlessly dark, violent, apocalyptic lyrics. After several releases for Mirrodot and Inphaze during the early '80s, the group signed to Play It Again Sam distribution for 1985's The Lovers, and released much of their best material (1990's Crushed Velvet Apocalypse, 1991's The Maria Dimension) on the label. Even as Legendary Pink Dots neared their two-decade anniversary, the group continued to tour Europe and America quite consistently, appreciated by several generations of dark industrial/goth audiences (and documented by the 2000 live album Farewell, Milky Way).

If you want to listen some samples of their songs, here's a good place to do it.

Until then, here's a teaser:

Thanks to Carlos Canau for introducing me to the band :-)

Marilyn Manson - The Covers Man

As many as you know, Marilyn Manson is an artist with a really big number of covers made and well known. As a matter of fact, there are lot's of songs that are now known because they were covered by them. But while everyone knows "Sweet Dreams", "Tainted Love" or "Personal Jesus", there are other covers the band did and are less known. Trying to fix that, I, in colaboration with Undercover songs, decided to do a podcast showing covers made by Marilyn Manson.

Undercover Songs #11, AKA Marado's Marilyn - Episode 1 - The early years is out, and shows some covers made by Marilyn Manson in the early years of the band (as a matter of fact until 1995). The songs presented are:

03:26 - Love & Rockets - Mirror People

10:07 - Gary Numan - Down In The Park

16:13 - Patti Smith - Rock'n'Roll Nigger

21:29 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You

Soon enough Episode 2 will come...

Podcasts

Today I'm going to talk to you about podcasts. If you're a regular room 404 reader, you know that this blog is about art in general, but from the seven forms of art the one we talk more about is music. So, for those time where there's nothing new to read on room 404 and you still want to know more art, what do you do? I bet each of you have their way of fulfilling their art needs, but here is the room 404 recommendation: listen to podcasts.

According to wikipedia,

Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term podcast, like 'radio', can mean both the content and the method of delivery. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. Podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their files; a podcast however is distinguished by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading RSS or Atom feeds.

Usually a podcast features one type of 'show', with new episodes released either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily or weekly. In addition, there are podcast networks that feature multiple shows on the same feed.

So, now that you know what a podcast is, here are the recommendations we do of some awsome podcasts to know more music:

• Contrast Podcast is a podcast made by Tim Young, and the idea behind the contrast podcast is that various MP3 bloggers and podcasters each suggest a track based on the week's theme. Every tuesday a new contrast podcast, and the theme for the next number is said. Everybody is invited to participate, and I did it in serveral numbers, from "When I was 16 I liked..." to "Local".


• Undercover Songs is a podcast made by Nuno and Fred, and their show is only on covers. Each number has covers with something in common, like "disruptive covers" or "Lounge" covers. I also contributed with this podcast in the past with a Marilyn Manson cover, and I'll do it again. A new podcast is out every thursday.

And you, Room 404 readers, which podcast files do you listen to?

Artists and Technologists together for one common goal: art freedom

Being both an artist and a technologist, I'm quite surprised but happy to see so many well-known faces being together fighting to reach a common goal - end with freedom-destroying technologies like DRM, that are turning music from art into products, destroying in it's way the freedom in art. John Perry Barlow, Cory Doctorow, Avril Lavigne, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman, Steven Page (BNL), David Berlind and Sarah McLachlan are some of the names you can see in this fight. If you want to know why, what's the threat and what can you do to help, consider reading this.