Check out Brad Barrish’s December 2009 Mix in full-length stream glory. He’s got impeccable music taste and has introduced me to more good music than anyone. That’s quite an accolade considering I’m fortunate enough to swim through great music at Topspin.
I’m a religious subscriber to his monthly mix tape. I highly recommend it. You can give him your email below, and he’ll deliver them to your inbox regularly. You will be pleasantly fulfilled with his dose of good music monthly.
Thank you Brad and mad respect for your consistent gifts of music and vibe.
Sub Swara’s Coup D’Yah is a classic from 2008. David Starfire just remixed Koli Stance available for free. Just enter your email in the widget below and the free track will be mailed to you:
If you want a refresher on Coup D’Yah, one of my favorites of all time, check out the full-length streams here:
When I was in London for Topspin work last month, I had a chance to grab a seat at the sold out Barbican show featuring Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones opening for them. I’ve seen them all before and was excited to have a chance to see them again as I’m a huge fan of Bela Fleck and Victor Wooten especially. Victor is widely regarded as one of the best bass players ever. He’s won Bass Player Magazines’ “Bass Player of the Year” three times in a row and is the first person to win it more than once according to his Wikipedia bio. I queued an hour before the show and was lucky to grab some great seats at face value from a lovely lady who had extras since her kids weren’t able to come. Bela, Victor, and his brother, Mr. Futureman were a real treat. Check out Futureman’s drumitar. The Wooten brothers definitely have the genius gene. It’s amazing to see such virtuosos artfully and skillfully moving us with their music. At the show, I managed to capture Victor Wooten ripping it up on my point and shoot camera. Enjoy.
It’s a massive honor and thrill to be involved in the live release of Paul McCartney’s performance at Citi Field in New York City. Topspin played a role in the online marketing and distribution of his latest project titled Good Evening New York City. With 33 songs spanning over 2 and a half hours of live music, this release is a great collection of Beatles, Wings, and solo classics. There are two premium physical packages in addition to the digital audio and video options: a Standard Edition with a dual CD live album plus DVD of the performance and a Deluxe Edition with an additional Bonus DVD of McCartney’s performance on top of the Ed Sullivan Theater along with the documentary, “Good Evening People.”
Good Evening New York City shows McCartney in action, and it’s a real treat. We get to hear his stories about Hendrix, Lennon, and the making of “Blackbird”, a much revered guitar classic. It’s makes you smile to see Paul have so much fun on stage. It’s a special night as The Beatles played Shea Stadium in 1965 to the biggest rock show ever at the time, and when Citi Field opened up this summer on the site of the old Shea Stadium, they asked Paul to perform the stadium’s first show. The magic is clearly in the air reminiscent of the 1965 performance as the camera beautifully captures the sea of eager fans across the colossal new stadium. Download the free “Highway” video and get an MP3 of “Let Me Roll It” from the show. Just enter your email below, and a link to download the music will arrive in your inbox.
Much has been said of the impact and influence Paul and the Beatles have had on today’s music culture. I have looked up to them as innovators, activists, and songwriters since I was young enough to appreciate music. This release was one of the most exciting and rewarding projects I have had the privilege of working on at Topspin. The best part of the whole project, however, was the way my team rose to the occasion when Scott Rodger, Paul’s manager, asked us if we could configure a Topspin purchase flow that only accepted American Express. Amex approached Scott with a special offer for their card members where they would receive a bonus exclusive track from Paul McCartney if they used their Amex card. It all sounded like a great idea, except Topspin didn’t have an Amex only option in our purchasing system. When I went to the team to ask them if it was possible, I didn’t get an, “are you kidding me?” reaction, but rather an eager, genuine willingness to make it happen. In seven days the Topspin engineering and QA team pulled if off. Check out the Amex only purchase page here. Purchase with your Amex card exclusively and get the bonus track, “(I Want To) Come Home,” from Paul McCartney. Kudos to the Topspin team for over delivering and doing so ahead of time. It’s a true honor to be working with a legend like Paul McCartney and his awesome team (Scott, Lisa, Ruth, Nancy), and also with the team at Topspin who reacted to this Amex challenge with a keen passion to eagerly serve our artists. I feel blessed all around. Thank you.
Great Sexy Time mix on Memekast. Sexy Time comprises Mimosa and Sleepyhead. I’m liking these tunes at Novel Cafe in Santa Monica on a wonderful Sunday evening while putting some hours in on the computer. Dubstep, crunkstep, glitch-hop, hard to classify. Might as well be called Sexytiming.
These are not to be messed with driving beats with fun and fleeting touches of sweet and chunky droppings. Cool soloing amidst tasty remixing adds to the spice. Thanks Ameet Mehta for sharing the tunes. It’s nice when we work 10 feet away from each other. Our Topspin Santa Monica office is blessed for Ameet’s music stylings and recommendations.
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.
Click on the Download Button below to get the tunes.
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?
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.”
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 whatTopspin’smain 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.
