Tag: spoken/Archives

Palin Piano

This is beautiful: Keyboardist Henry Hey of the band Rudder plays with the rhythm and melody of Sarah Palin speech:

via Glassdog.

National Day of Listening

StoryCorps declares November 28 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening, and offer a Do-It-Yourself Guide to help you:

This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives — it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.

Joe Frank at Largo

Joe Frank‘s stage performance, “Just an Ordinary Man,” returns to Largo at the Coronet December 2nd and 3rd. Largo is taking reservations now. (Call 310-855-0350 and press #0 for ticket sales.)

Synchronized Presidential Debating

From 236.com (Political Comedy – Unfair and Unbalanced):

Did watching the 2nd and 3rd debates give you a feeling of déjà vu? This montage of synced-up footage from all three presidential debates confirms our deep-seated belief that every debate was exactly the same.

“Synchronized Presidential Debating:”

GWB- My Way- rx

rx has a new video, sampling George W Bush doin’ it “My Way:”

Few Honest Words

Another musical Obama-nation, Ben Sollee re-does his tune w/ the Best of Barack mixed in by DJ 2nd Nature:

“A Few Honest Words” (2:18 mp3):

More info and links at Some Velvet Blog.

Little Fluffy Clouds

The Orb often makes ambient-electro music out of spoken-voice snippets using of the rhythm of the speech. Their best-known spoke-sampled-song (details on clips used below) is from 1991, off The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, “Little Fluffy Clouds:”

In 2007 Alan Parker: Urban Warrior (comedian Simon Munnery) parodied the song on BBC Radio 1 announcer Annie Nightingale‘s compilation Y4K— The Orb & Alan Parker, “Grey Clouds” (2:30 mp3):

Embarrassed

From sound designer David Grimes comes this cut-up speech-song, “Embarrassed” (1:36 mp3):

Grimes also did the sound for It’s JerryTime’s video “B Train Blues.”

Doopee Time

Way back in WFMU’s blog is an album that continues to dazzle me, Yann Tomita’s Doopee Time. Sez Station Manager Ken:

Here’s a strange and wonderful record called Doopee Time by the Japanese composer and experimentalist Yann Tomita. Trying to describe this record (or Tomita) is difficult – part muzak, part dada comedy, part I Dream of Jeannie, with a running commentary by The Doopees, two Japanese doll women named Suzie and Caroline.

All the Doopee mp3s are up at WFMU; here’s a few of my faves:

“Air By Bus” (4:15 mp3):

“Caroline Cries to Chopin Opus 28 No 4” (1:57 mp3):

“What’s The Time?” (0:33 mp3):

Audio Kitchen

“The Professor” (formerly of WFMU’s Audio Kitchen) now curates an online museum, The Audio Kitchen blog, where you can listen to “Found Sound, Amateur Recordings and Homestyle Noise,” read about the tapes’ content, where they were discovered or created, and how to submit and discuss similar recordings.

For instance, here’s some found Answering Machine Recordings. These days our missed calls are recorded on digital voice mail, but not long ago we recorded our missed calls on cassettes, The Audio Kitchen dispenses this outdated technology to display many interesting and somewhat amusing glimpses into peoples lives.

Marks Answering Machine (6:25 mp3):

Pussy’s Answering Machine (5:28 mp3):

There are mounds of found sound and recorded messages the Professor has documented and is sharing with everyone that cares to look and listen. He also hosts The Radio Kitchen, Adventures in Amplitude Modulation:

“The Radio Kitchen is a blog about lo-fi old fashioned terrestrial radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (on medium wave and the shortwave bands). You’ll find that most posts actually contain audio files relevant to the subject matter discussed in each entry, while others may concern radio topics: radio reception, audio archiving, and general news related to AM and shortwave radio broadcasting.”

Jason Cady & The Artificials

Jason Cady and the Artificials experiment with opera. The following piece is in five parts, Overture, Recitative, Aria, Recitative II, and Finale. The two Recitatives are priceless: they are operatic renditions of everyday conversations, recorded by the composer. “Recitative” (at 2:10 into piece) is about how folk from Michigan say “m’Bye.” Recitative II (at 6:10) dialogs on the dictionary definition of “resplendent.” Jason Cady and the Artificials, “Post-Madonna Prima Donna” (9:35 mp3):

Jason Cady talks about his compositions on the podcast Sound Speaks for Itself.

Holiday Freakin’ & Freakout

Was listening to Lukas on KGLT this weekend playing all kindsa insane and inane Xmas-isms. Called him up and he pointed me to Otis Fodder’s three free mp3 free collections, Holiday Freak Out & In. I knew the Otis’ name from his 365 Days Project. But didn’t realize, till Lukas, informed, he’s also the music sampling phenom The Bran Flakes.

Holiday Freak In 1 includes one of the best Christmashups ever; it’s Corporal Blossom assembling bits of Satchmo, Elvis, Bing and The Supremes all wishing for a “White Christmas” (3:19 mp3):

The song first appeared on the Illegal Art compilation A MUTATED CHRISTMAS.

HyperAcousia

Sound-artist Joan Schuman offers her audio oeuvre online as HyperAcousia. What’s a sound-artist? Glad you asked… “Radio~Sound~Art” by Joan Schuman (6:07 mp3):

Land of 10,000 Homeless

Voices of the Streets has some “artistic activism” called “Land of 10,000 Homeless,” a music/doc/vid– “Every day, approximately 10,000 people in Minnesota will sleep outside or in temporary shelter. This video allows us a chance to see the world from their eyes:”

Motorcycle Ghost Coma

On Halloween’s NPR-ATC cast, Kevin Kling comes outta a bike crash coma and into the light of life & death– “Ghost Story: Coma Gives Injured Biker New Insight” (5:34):

Drop Dead

Just in time for Dias de los Meurtos, the 365 Days project has posted mp3s of Drop Dead: An Exercise in Horror, an LP by ol’ time radio innovator Arch Oboler (Lights Out). Track 1 is an “Introduction To Horror” (2:34 mp3):

So Strangely- Radio Lab

From last year’s Radio Labs episode Musical Language, check their segment “Behaves So Strangely” (mp3):

It’s an intervu w/ music-psych prof Diana Deutsch about the “series of striking auditory illusions and curiosities of sound perception” found on her CD Phantom Words and Other Curiosities.

Joe Frank @ Largo

Joe Frank performs live at Largo in LA, Wednsesdays in September. Opening night is sold out. For info on the 12th, 19th, and 26th, Largo: 323-852-1073. Performances start at 9pm. Doors Open at 8pm. Largo’s at 432 N Fairfax (South of Melrose, North of Beverly).

Don’t know who the 2 folk are in above poster for Joe’s show; but between that lady’s lips and the guy’s diamond brain embed, well, how can anyone in LA county not attend?

Sharkey Anderson

Laurie Anderson has a new song (“Only an Expert” @ Lincoln Ctr), if indeed something by her can be “new,” cuz it still sounds like Laurie Anderson which ain’t a new sound. But, hey, I’m still a half-a-fan, so I’ll post something old that sounds new and looks great, the “Sharkey’s Day” vid by Laurie Anderson:

inogolo Pronunciation Guide

inogolo: English Pronunciation Guide to the Names of People and Places— “the practical, easy-to-use website devoted to the English pronunciation of the names of people, places, and miscellaneous stuff. The site contains a searchable database of names with both phonetic and audio pronunciations in English.”

E.g., Nietzsche is:
A white wine:
Iran’s prez: