Hi, I’m Matthew Lettini. Welcome to my personal online home. This is where I keep my blog, design portfolio, and anything else you’d like to know about me. So read up, check out my work, or follow me on Twitter!
A month or so ago I made a post about Favtape and discussed other music websites, like its ancestor Muxtape. Well I’m pleased to announce my new favorite music site: Grooveshark. Grooveshark is a flash-based web application that works very much like an ipod…someone elses ipod that has 5 million songs uploaded. It has a similar look and feel as an itunes/ipod mashup, with it’s own unique styling. And as an interface designer/developer I have to say I’m in love with the design. Very sleek, smooth, and crisp design that is easy to navigate and use. The best part about it? It’s extremely fast for a Flash site. I’m not sure how they managed that but the animations and everything are very smooth.
Grooveshark also has an Autoplay feature, which makes it basically a new (more stylish) Pandora. And unlike Pandora, Grooveshark allows you to add (via drag&drop no less) songs into the playlist wherever you’d like. You can vote yay or nay on whatever song you want to come out with a good playlist. They also have a social network of sorts where you can favorite tracks and see others playlists and save and share playlists and songs…etc. I’m not sure if I’ll use this feature but I’m sure plenty of others will. Also, the advertising is out of your way and unobtrusive…awesome.
Something I think they need to add is more links for artists. There should be a link to the artist’s homepage, their amazon page (maybe a buy this cd button), maybe a link to their itunes, and also their last.fm page. Also the lyrics of the song would be a fun tool. And speaking of last.fm, it would be great (read: probably won’t happen) if the tracks you listen to could be scrobbled to your last.fm.
Grooveshark is still in ‘beta’ but instead they call themselves Grooveshark ‘lite.’ I like it, I think it works. There is a flood of beta apps around and I think it helps establish them better. But even still, the app works perfectly and I highly recommend it. Maybe autoplay your next party?
I haven’t listened to this song in awhile, but I also never saw his performance on Letterman (way back in February!) I think he and his female counterpart do a terrific job of adapting this song for live play without need of a whole band.
I’m constantly surprised at the number of people who claim to be Pearl Jam fans, but have never heard of this song. Do the Evolution was probably the first song from them I heard. If not, it’s the first song that made me go “holy shit who is this?” And not only have they not heard of the song, but that means they never got to witness the mind-blowing video. This is the only Pearl Jam song I know with this hard rock style, and they do it so well I wish they made more.
Pearl Jam collaborated with Todd McFarlane, the original creator of Spawn, for the video. Quote Vedder:
As artists we are challenged to expand the meaning of our work and by utilizing this visual medium and collaborating with a visionary like Todd, we were able to further explore some of the themes we dipicted in the song “Do the Evolution.” Basically, we’ve tried to make a good stoner video.
I think this song is even more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1998 (on MTV nonetheless, this video wouldn’t fly on there today). It talks about the stock market crashing, has people jumping from buildings, and has the president being manipulated by the devil. I suppose I should put a Warning: some scary imagery. Also Interestingly enough, a line in the song goes “2010…watch it go to fire.” Maybe they’ll be right?
Favtape: my new favfriend. This summer a website named Muxtape emerged onto the scene that let you upload music tracks and create your own “internet mixtape” any user could listen to. It (very) quickly become uber popular. A search function appeared and within a few days you were able to find almost any song you wanted to listen to online quickly and easily. And mind you, you DON’T download the track, and there were options for where to buy the track.
However, recently the music industry caught up to its creator and put a stop to the wonderful free service that so many people used and relied on. People kinda felt lost, not wanting to revert back to their old, harder ways of finding music.
Enter Favtape. Favtape picks up where Muxtape left off. It has pretty much all the functionality and a similar look as Muxtape, but it adds more functionality. Now you can create a favtape from your last.fm or pandora loved tracks. Or create a favtape around a specific artist search. Amazing! There is also links now to lyrics and twittering and adding to your tape and much more.
Favtape still needs a good way to search others favtapes, as a big part of Muxtape was seeing other peoples’ music tastes and learning new music through their muxtapes. But what I really love is seeing other developers stepping in for a fallen ally. I hope this becomes a trend…if favtape falls lets see another, and another. As Justin says in his last Muxtape post:
The industry will catch up some day, it pretty much has to. – Justin
The screenshot you see above is actually a styling I did of Favtape. As awesome as it is, the look of the site was slightly off-the-wall and too much pink, so if you’d like my cleaned up version using Stylish if you have Firefox, load it here.
This is my first mp3 post, but it won’t be my last. As a musician (drummer/guitarist) music is pretty much my life, and learning about new bands is a small hobby of mine. Luckily I have (cute) ties to my local college Radio Station and get plenty of new stuff.
Here’s whats been in my jukebox lately…
Tim Fite - Fair Ain’t Fair
Folk with attitude, this album boils up some funky rhythms, folk, blues and some hiphop, and serves it cold and in your face.
Port O’Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
Now this is the type of music I can get behind. Joyous rock with great riffs, and totally dance-able (even while sober).
The Mae Shi - HillyH
Its a little late to jump on the Mae Shi bandwagon, but this track reminds me of Port O’Brien’s and I wanted to keep a pattern going. More electronic but just as fun.
MP3: The Mae Shi - Run To Your Grave
I just posted an entry on Robert Hodgin’s Magnetosphere, which I’ve known of for I believe over a year now, but I never followed up and checked out his other stuff. But making that post today reminded me to check his blog, and I found this video. It’s his submission for a Radiohead contest making another video in Processing. It’s an energy ball falling to the bottom (like lyrics) of the sea which dynamically reacts to the song. It’s beautiful work; watch the whole thing.
Follow the link to read up on how he did it and what he had to go through, and see more of his mind-exploding work.
This is Magnetosphere, an effect created using Processing. It reacts to sound volume and speed. Trentemoller audio is pretty much the perfect medium to send into this effect, with the slow melody and build up. It’s pretty captivating and I invite all to watch.
Here’s some good news: They created an itunes visualizer out of it! Download it hereEdit: Looks like this is the new visualizer added in iTunes 8. Comes built in. I feel like I was ahead of the curve =P
Pas Encore is a semi-new medium dubbed a “Videosong.” The two rules for a videosong are:
1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).
Pomplamoose is a collaboration between artist Jack Conte and artist/girlfriend Natalie Dawn. It means grapefruit in French. But names and rules aside, they make beautiful music together. The chemistry and musical styles blend smoothly for something that is both unique and satisfying. I hope they find the time to write many new songs, get bigger, and stick with this project for a long time.
New (first?) video for former-Jurassic5’s Cut Chemist. I was playing this track on my radio show about 2 years ago when it first came out. Shot entirely with a 360 camera. Trippy video to go along with some sick beats. Awesome. Check it.
Tim Fite - Fair Ain’t Fair
Port O’Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
The Mae Shi - HillyH
