Mad Respect

Topspin’s latest release is from Eminem. His new album Relapse is available on his site. We’re honored to be working with him and his team, and this project has been on of our biggest ones to date. You can check out a video and thirty second clips from the album at the widget in the bottom of the page. Normally, we encourage our artists to stream full-length tracks in their promotional widgets as it encourages sharing and sampling of the music to prime the purchase of a download, but Eminem belongs to a major label which thinks differently on this specific topic. Regardless, we’re excited to be powering his direct-to-fan release for his new album.

Although I’ve always respected Eminem for his MCing and for what he’s accomplished, I’ve never been a mega-fan. I became a believer, however, with his Mosh video below, a protest song against George W. Bush before the 2004 election. It was an inspiring call to arms or rather a call to get out and vote. It gave me chills the first time I saw it and still does today. Check out the video below.

I love it when artists explicitly weave social messages into their music.  Eminem released Mosh early before his album Encore in late 2004 to influence the youth to vote against Bush and the war. This one is definitely a favorite of mine. It shows that Eminem is not content to sit still and watch the world go to hell. He rose to the occasion to motivate others to make the right change.

Check out more of Eminem’s latest album below and click through to the offer page where you can get the downloads, deluxe packages, vinyl, t-shirts, hoodies, autographed prints, and high-quality audio-file formats.

The beautiful tunes of Sub Swara: Click play and listen to four of my favorite tracks. See below for more info on the tunes, how to get them, and what you can do to share the music.

Get a Membership for $30 and download all you want in their Store. Click on the button below to become a member. Your support of Sub Swara will get you access to all their music, a t-shirt, VIP action to some shows, and lots of other goodies.

Get Membership

Take the embed code from the above player and share it on your site. I’ll be enhancing the player and will put more tracks and artwork in shortly. I can see where the traffic comes from and will reach out and reward the folks who drive not only views, listens, and clicks, but total revenue too. This recent idea is still baking so I haven’t figured out what the rewards will be. Stay tuned for more reward specifics.

Sub Swara’s Dhruva is coming to LA Wednesday and crashing with me in Venice. If you’d like to swing by and say hi, send me a note. What are your favorite Sub Swara tracks?

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but I have a burning desire to share a rather interesting experience that’s too long to twitter about. Last night, I arrived in Austin for the the SXSW festival a day ahead of my Topspin homies. I landed, checked in, and went out to my only event of the night, the Facebook party at Pangea. My good friend, Grant Davis aka VJ Culture, was hired to do the video art, and he invited me to join him as his guest.

After catching up with Grant, I used the night to network with fellow SXSW Interactive festival goers and get some scoop of what Facebook is up to with music. I was satisfied with the evening and ready to leave around half past midnight. I went to the men’s room for one last pit stop, and since all the heads were taken, I went to the handicapped stall. It was the only one available, and I was feeling safe so I didn’t bother to lock the door. I’m minding and doing my own business when I feel someone pinch my ass. I turned around and was like, wtf, ready to unleash the fury on my molester. My rage immediately dissipated to shame as I looked back and then down to my perpetrator in his wheel chair. Since I’m a person who gets extremely angry when non-handicapped people park in handicapped spaces, I immediately got his point or rather his pinch to be more precise, and I felt awful. Prepared to receive a verbal spanking on handicapped bathroom protocol, I noticed he was smiling mischievously and clearly having some fun with me. In a similar flash of changing emotions, I began to recognize my stall mate. It was Mark Zupan from Murderball. The intense awkwardness of the moment was diffused, and I began to vociferously profess my admiration of Murderball and especially Mark’s role in it. This is Mark in the movie poster.

If you haven’t seen it, please Netflix or seek it out NOW. It’s one of the most inspiring documentaries I’ve ever seen. It’s about the story of quadriplegic men who have found a renewed sense of purpose and life by playing wheel chair rugby. The story of Mark Zupan is particularly inspiring given the grace and tenacity in which he deals with his challenges, and the content of his character shines brightly in the movie. He’s a natural leader, mentor to new quadripiligecs, and one of the fiercest competitors to ever play organized sports. His story along with those of the other players will leave you with a renewed sense of hope and determination. It’s a wonderful tale of the human condition as the players and coach seek victory as a team and in their own unique, individual ways.

Check out the trailer to this amazing documentary:

Thanks Mark for the letting me be the butt of your joke last night. I’m just glad I got a chance to express my appreciation for you sharing your story and being such a wonderful inspiration to us all.

I shared this with my friends, and it brought many to tears. It will leave you feeling very good, especially at the end.

Change has come to America…

No more alienation.

No more apathy.

No more helplessness.

No more shame.

No more fear.

No more frustration.

No more anger.

No more sadness at what could have been…

Catharsis, healing, empowerment, and progress is what I have to look forward to. It’s a good time to be alive.

“Sound Wave” by Jean Shin at the Second Lives exhibit Musuem of Art and Design in NYC. Courtesy of NY Times.

Sound Wave

Giveback’s latest effort involves a project to raise $6,145 for a recording studio at a Hunter’s Point kids club in the Bay Area. This community center deserves recognition for their noble mission of keeping high-risk kids off the streets. You can read more about the Hunter’s Point Family on their profile page. For a list of the audio gear and a breakdown of how the money will be used, you can go to the campaign’s action page, here.

Michael Franti and FreQ Nasty donated music to help with fund-raising and to raise awareness for the campaign. The tracks are sweet with some nice future sounds and palpitations in their remix collaboration. Music touches everyone regardless of geography, background, or socio-economics, and teaching children to play and record music could provide a better alternative to the harsh realities of their neighborhood. The campaign is called Beats for a Better Future and more info directly from the artists is on the campaign page, here.

The organization’s focus on mentorship motivates a more sustained, longer-term positive impact on the community. Check out more photos and videos to get a sense of the the center. This project was inspired in memory of Otto Schutt, a close friend of the artists involved. Otto worked with the kids at Hunter’s Point Family for 10 years before passing away recently of cancer.  He was an inspiration to us all;  especially all the kids and members of Hunter’s Point Family.

You can listen to tracks in the widget below and click-through to donate via Paypal or you can click-through from the campaign page.

Check out the new album from David Byrne and Brian Eno. One of my favorite albums of the year. Legendary artists collaborating again in their new work,”Everything that Happens, Will Happen Today.”

I would have blogged about this two weeks ago when it came out, but I had to migrate my blog to a Wordpress server install with Media Temple and only found time to do so this labor day weekend.

Topspin had the honor of digitally shepherding this wonderful album out to the world. Listen to the full album for free in the player above and click-through to purchase. More offers include physical CDs, videos, films, digital art, lyrics, bonus songs, screensavers, and hard bound books. Go straight to the order page. The album feels like a tapestry of funky, soulful, gospel, rock grooves with a nice variety of tempo and melodies. It’s a classic. I’ve been listening to it over and over again, and it just keeps getting better. Wise men say talking about music is like dancing to architecture. Clearly I’m not doing it justice in words so click Play above and listen to your hearts content.

As the purpose of this blog is to give major props, I have to give a massive shout out to my Topspin team. Unfortunately, only one person reads this blog, so it’s a shame I couldn’t give the team a louder shout. We started working on David and Brian’s release less than two months before it went live. The team built significant, new systems and rose to the challenge to deliver a quality product and user experience. I’m blessed to have the pleasure and privilege of working with such an amazing team of music technology professionals. The bonus is that we’re having sweet fun in the process. We’re bringing our domain experience, sweat, passion, and love to what Topspin’s main man, Ian Rogers, call’s “God’s work.” Ian does a better job describing the story of the Byrne Eno release here. There’s so much more to do and improve on our end, and I’m super psyched to be working with this team for the long haul, the best I’ve ever worked with. I better stop gushing before someone hates on me for bragging about my peeps. But this blog is about Mad Respect. If you came here for excessive veneration, idolization, and mounting people on pedestals then you’re in the right place. If you came here to be snarky, I can’t help you.

Click play and enjoy the tunes!

What a pic…lightning captured in a thunderstorm in the midst of a massive eruption of the Chaiten Volcano in Southern Chile.  Thanks to Xarene for forwarding.  Hope the locals are out of harms way.

The article with more amazing pics is here. Would have loved to have had a safe ringside seat for this one.