During South By Southwest, it’s hard to decide whether to hoover up all the streamable goodies or, if the whole What I Did On My Summer Vacation vibe bores you to tears, stop reading blogs entirely. Instead of your scrolling through pages of band photos to get to the MP3s, Largehearted Boy’s handy collection of links to streaming and/or downloadable shows is the closest you’ll get to recreating the experience of the fest — provided that as soon as you finish hearing one set, you run into your neighbour’s house and play the next one on his stereo, 12 hours a day for four days. (http://tinyurl.com/2vxgka)
BABY-MAKING MUSIC
Normally Totally Wired avoids covering the kind of ribald tidbits you might get forwarded to you by a retired uncle, but this one is just too good. According to the NME, Irish sperm bank stocks have been dwindling, with demand far outstripping supply. Their solution: a pilot program that would provide free tickets to any music festival in Europe, in return for donors mailing in their samples using special sample packs. Response was apparently overwhelming, and organizers are trying to figure out the logistics. Meanwhile, post office workers in Ireland are trying to figure out how their jobs just got a lot less attractive. (http://tinyurl.com/2ooy22)
MP3 OF THE WEEK
DJ Red Alert, Live on KISS FM, 1989: Toronto record stores, take this as a challenge. First, Brooklyn shop Palms Out Sounds started the indispensable blog that led us to know Daft Punk sample sources (and spawned a fine compilation), and now Good Records, another New York City vinyl emporium, have posted a vintage hip-hop mix by one of the great early DJs — you’d be lucky to buy this kind of boom-bap goodness, never mind download it for free. Is T-dot ready to step up its game? (http://tinyurl.com/3xzp9o)