*impulse

Milton Pressed It Early And Brilliantly, But Rad Are The Stones Still

Way cool remix of a classic of classics.

Digital Relaxation

I like em mac, pc, digg, or visual basic
name is Rob Scoble from the blogging nation
plug in the cam so we can youtube
now let's google sex on the cathode ray tube

you got indie rock all on your ipod lists
but im a techno geek this is how I mix
a nerdy little something on a gadget site
fruity loops lovin, cubasin all night

Techin it old school.

The Google Paradox Continues

The Google Secretary-Artist Post received an unexpectedly powerful reaction via email and thread commentary, so we were kinda compelled to do a simple study to see if this is a trend or a flash in the pan style rarity.

Check out the results of our little survey: Download Google_creativity_profile_1

Otherwise, enjoy the first day of the new year!

Are You A Mod Or A Rocker?

I'm a Mocker.

Sissy? Girly? I Don't Think So

The WWE and Metallica suggest aggression, not courage.

Just project yourself through space and time to soar over the trenches of The Great War and catch the melancholy doughboy shedding a tear over 'If You Were The Only Girl (In The World)' and a cigarette, and tell me he is anything less than a courageous warrior and I will be left with no choice but to assume that you also believe that the mean, nasty looking serpent can slay the graceful, delicate archangel Michael.

This song is adored by most of the medal-adorned veterans I am blessed with counting among my family and friends.
This song is a testament to courage and could inspire a nation.
Let's see Enter Sandman or Blizzard of Oz do that.

By the way, we love Ozzy and Metallica.
Didn't mean to use them as foils. It just sorta happened.
We also love Zeppelin and Rush for that matter.

Again, snarls do not equal courage.

Song: My Heart Will Go On

Osmotic Pressure Perturbs The Lipo-Psychic Membrane

The weather world swirls as the nether world turns.
And, amid the fearsome maelstrom and mammoth thunder, the howling ghost shimmies.

Song: A Ghost Strikes

Raison d'Etre: Halloween, horror, eerie atmosphere, endless chill, dreary caverns, mazy mansions, psychic volleys, awful dreadfuls.

Hopefully: thrills, chills, dance, song, sing, reflect, haunt, dream, fantasize, swirlarize, happy-tize, ever ever ever awesomely daunt the machines the murky merls.

More And More Music For That Eeriest Of Occasions

Give this spookified niche site a try on October 31st.

Halloween 2008 Soundtrack II

This eerie jingle is certain to add a teaspoon of horror to your morning Count Chocula.

Title: Sea Serpent

Aint Nuthin' But A g-Thang Baby

Ferocious sudoku-crossword-Flash-tutorial wending wotes a wave of warping g.

Such practices lift the spidery intellects like a large, saggy shag hoisted by spindly legs and limbs up to the vault. Tendrils. Creepers. Weaving wovens. Happy covens. Drifters. Drawlers.

This is from where i view the obfuscated universe. This is from where i howl.

Summary: if I wanna rack it up against the sudoku masters and design spangly websites, I need merely solve 15 medium-difficult crosswords to amp up to the necessary mental state. It is kind of linear- kind of like one can prepare for life by just doing singular solutions secreted away in an alchemist's lab in the high hilltops and low valleys of the heaths and vales.

Super summary: singular hard puzzle solving lifts general g for all tasks thereafter. The effect lasts for several days. It is like the post-finals buzz that allows us to accomplish so much.

Song: mad classic Nuthin' But A G Thang by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Haunting Before Led Zeppelin For Halloween Novelty Creepout

This song haunts in its quaintness and eerie squeal to a series of magnitudes not unlike The Battle Of Evermore or Ten Years Gone by Led Zeppelin.

Song: Second Hand Rose by Fanny Brice

Syncopational Blogarational Hepness

Artist: Jim Hession
Tune: Aint No Sweet Man Worth The Salt Of My Tears
Composer: Fred Fisher

Impulses Of Pure Expression

Ray Price, Radiohead, Edith Piaf, Linda Rondstadt, Del Shannon, Jerry Vale, The Smashing Pumpkins, Anne Murray, Bob Dylan, Dottie West, Jet, Marty Robbins, The Cranberries, Burl Ives, The Decemberists, The Carpenters, Built To Spill, Sparta, and more.

Cool Club Instructional Videos: Disco Dance Tutorial

Feel it.

All Their Kids Were Hippie Chicks And Hypocrites

A classic from Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster: "Save The Earth"

Halloween 2008 Soundtrack

Subscribe Free for future posts  Add this player to my Page

5 eerie dance numbers sure to liven up your Halloween bash.

Music And Fashion: Friends Forever

Fashion: urbanoutfitters
Music: Japanese Motors
Song: Single Fins & Safety Pins

Lights, Geometric Informatics, Action!

Camera-free, trippy, and wow!

3D Capturing: Geometric Informatics, Velodyne LIDAR
Artist: Radiohead
Song: House of Cards

The making of House of Cards:

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!

Jaw crashing, face-pounding, thrashy post-grunge alt-rock mastersmasher masterpiece, that may, if you're not careful, inspire you to hit the scene and brawl with the first bully who looks at you the wrong way.

Artist: Local H
Song: High Fiving MF

Rhode Island's Finest Cutting A Rug

A great example of a law enforcement officer performing his duty while performing for an audience, and thus showing that he truly is Providence's finest.

If he was not already retired when this video was made, as some conflicting sites suggest, then he should be recognized, not disciplined: maybe given his own reality show! He keeps such a straight face through all the antics.

The only problem here is one of liability: if any mishap occurs at the intersection, his antics will be blamed by the accident and personal injury attorneys involved, and, if it is later discovered that the government of Providence was aware of the situation but did nothing, then the whole city becomes party to the defendant.

It kinda sucks, but I guess if someone tries to be silly while on the job, and that job involves public safety, then it probably has to be restrained, even if said silliness actually causes no increase in danger.

Regardless: you go guy!

At The Brink Of Oblivion

Great modern power rock.

Artist: Creed
Title: One Last Breath

Pro Vegan?

Purposefully nonsensical with an inherent, if unintended, pro-vegetarian sentiment that lasts until the end of the first verse. It never becomes anti-vegetarian thereafter, but rather makes some finer distinctions between various vegetables and fruit, and the occasional dairy product, and then goes off onto other meandering zaniness.

Song: I Like Bananas
Artist: The Hoosier Hot Shots

Tropical Iceland

Zany, catchy, and perfect for late summer.

Artist: The Fiery Furnaces
Song: Tropical Iceland

In My Big Invisible Balloon

This song is bound for greatness in the stars eternal, though the fates have decided that it will first wallow in obscurity for many years.

Did not know there was a video until today.

Artist: Midget
Song Title: Invisible Balloon

Record Labels Can't Remove Songs From YouTube

It is quite the negative feedback dilemma. If a smash video has been posted on YouTube  for some time in violation of copyright laws, then what is Columbia Records to do? Remove it and start anew, losing the stats showing millions of plays and huge popularity in the process? Or leave it and thus passively endorse copyright violation by inaction?

While some favor the seeming lack of popularity, as if it imparts a kind of underground or indie cred, most unconsciously think less of bands that are less popular, that is, at least until they learn enough about a particular band to form their own opinion.

I am a huge indie music lover and wholeheartedly admit to being greatly influenced by band popularity.

In fact, it disturbs me that the most popular Smashing Pumpkins video on YouTube (Tonight, Tonight) only has 3.5 million plays. I try to convince myself that it was previously removed several times due to copyright violation, and that it was recently re-posted by a persistent fan, but I sort of know better: Though still relevant alt-rock legends, they do not inspire the kind of fan frenzy that results in 54 million plays.

If YouTube could track the total number of plays of a particular song's video, independent of who posts it, possibly even including covers and Rock Band versions, I am sure that fans, bands, and record labels would be greatly appreciative.

Artist: Coheed & Cambria
Song: Devil In Jersey City

Led Zeppelin Borrows But Still Rocks

The likenesses revealed here are undeniable, but so be it. I was aware of most of them except the Taurus-Stairway likeness. I learned of that one via this video, today. Wow. And, I have been a Zeppelin fanatic since 1986!

And, there are still so many unbelievably awesome Zeppelin songs that are wholly original that these influenced numbers should be seen more as tribute to the blues and folk artists they admired, for once Page and Plant found their convolved voice, it was nothing but pure novelty. The fact that they took credit for songs they did not write is pretty shameful, but does not diminish their greatness by one scintilla in my eyes.

In The Light, Ten Years Gone, Kashmir, The Rain Song, The Rover, The Song Remains The Same, Down By The Seaside, Dancing Days, The Immigrant Song: completely original and enough to send them to metal gods Valhalla ten times over.

Raucous Vines Minimasterpiece

This band has lost so much momentum and credibility lately, which is good, because their sound will go into psychic-archetypal incubation and re-emerge as masterful legendary classic alt rock in 10 years.

Artist: The Vines
Song: Outtathaway

What Do Wagner, Ravel, and Stravinsky Have In Common?

None of them had perfect pitch, that coveted, abstruse, and rare ability many musicians both secretly and openly desire. So, if you are an aspiring songwriter, musician, or composer, these three names might be enough to convince you to forget about absolute pitch. Some of the greatest composers in history changed the world without it. It is far more important to develop your talent and optimize that much more crucial, powerful and world shattering attribute: imagination.

Wagner did pretty well with it.

For put perfect pitch and imagination side by side and one the other will contain.
Same goes for perfect pitch's wicked stepsister, synesthesia.

Good luck to all aspiring composers and performers.

Kickin' Summer Screamo

Artist: Thursday
Song: Cross Out The Eyes

Song And Flash Merged By Skillful Alchemy

'Gothic' and 'web noire' are probably not tags or keywords used by the developers of this creepy-cool, interactive music video site, but, in its subtle artistry, it is more gothic and noire than any more overt example.

Anyway, I have a new respect for The Arcade Fire now.

Artist: The Arcade Fire
Site: The Arcade Fire presents though I guess you could call it by its anagrammed URL, beonlineb, as well.
Song: Neon Bible
Director and ActionScript Developer: Vincent Morisset

Remember 'Love Fool' by The Cardigans?

Well, this song is cooler. You can tell it's the same band, but it is as if they passed through a time machine to the freshness of the 21st century when they conjured this ditty.

Not particularly summery, but not particularly not either.

Artist: The Cardigans
Song: For What It's Worth

J.G. Wentworth Ad Looks Like Wagner, Sounds Like Handel

'Messiah' meets 'Gotterdammerung', and, I believe, George Lucas claims influence from both.

Amusing ad, but the original CASH-NOW ads were better when J.G. Wentworth himself asked: "Do you need caaash now?"

Modern Rock and The Beatles Meet Yet Again

This song is unbelievably beautiful! Craig Nicholls is an underappreciated musical genius who will take his rank among the stars when his face is cut out and pasted on the night's dewy face, when the moon is clustered around by her starry fays.

We do not say this lightly- we at *impulse are smitten with beautiful harmonies and soft modern rock (not a huge fan of Ride or Get Free, though Outtathaway is awesome).

Guess we sound like hyperbolic British press, but so be it! It is deserved.

Artist: The Vines
Song: Winning Days

Slip Into The Autumn Shade

Being a huge Vines fan who also has a special admiration for tormented geniuses, when the two came together in Craig Nicholls and a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, it was as if a world without objects became a senseless emptiness, perturbed by fluctuations in the substrate.

In fact, I have been told on numerous occasions that I may also have a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome, but, before I get taken in by this quasi-diagnosis, I do realize that such mental imbalance speculations are pretty rampant these days: ADD, ADHD, TS, Asperger's, autism, bi-polar, obsessive-compulsive, etc.

Dare I say it, but, especially in artistic and techie circles, it almost seems en vogue to have a mild, non-serial-killer mental illness these days, as if it indicates creative genius or savant-like intellectual powers.

Read about it here.

If You're Going To San Francisco

Be sure to visit Los Angeles!
A totally different type of splendid summer tune.

Artist: The Decemberists
Song: Los Angeles, I'm Yours

Monosynth Curlicues And Easy Summer Groovin'

Another song with a slideshow in lieu of a video. But, 'tis worth the sacrifice for sure. Enjoy.

Artist: Grandaddy
Song: A.M. 180

Instantly Likeable Cake Groove

Press play and enjoy you will. The video is a harmless slideshow accompaniment.

Artist: Cake
Song: Commissioning A Symphony In C

Wild And Transcendent Summer Music

This song has great vertical development: like a cumulonimbus cloud of spacey, airy modern rock.

Artist: Sparta
Song: Breaking The Broken

More Modern Folk Easy Summer Listening

Artist: Originally from Texas, currently grooving in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Ben Kweller.
Song: 'My Apartment' set to someone's home video, according to the closing credits, Matt Pollocks'.

Perhaps listen while browsing the many job listings I have found and will be posting.

Perfect Mid-Summer Listening: Try It!

Another North Jersey local band. This time, it's Fountains of Wayne singing Hackensack, set to a homemade stick figure slideshow.

One of those rare tuneful tunes that are not only great on the first listen, but also never grow tiresome. Others in this category: Beatles songs, Mozart themes, and songs by the greatest composer in history, Anonymous.

Stuff like that.

Take A Half Day, Valleywaggers, Share A Hug

This is a gift for Silicon Valley:

Head over to Berkeley and skip and dance until you collapse in the grass. Next, recline in the flower gardens and listen to some hippie-flavored modern rock. Then, and only then, head back into those cubicles and change the world one cyber-block at a time!

This touched me for some reason. I detect resonations from the organizers of Free Hugs that go beyond  an attention-grabbing stunt.

The 60s, Channeled Through Britney Spears, Are Not Dead

Bumpus Crumpus and I wrote this song a while ago, but here is a recent rendition. It used to be more Beck meets The Beatles, but here it is like some sort of dawning of the Age of Aquarius in a guitar rock, world pop, danceable, matrix.

Asynchronous compositions lap with low sounds by the cyber shore, but this is carefree, zany fare.

And, by the way, the singer is not my beloved Geekbabe, though she will soon be performing the lead vocals when we re-record it.

Teaneck Emoheads

These uber-hip emo misfits live two towns away from me and this one song is particularly awesome.

First heard it on an Equal Vision Summer Sampler from 2004 and never forgot it. It entered the microcosm that is my happy Friday Night Modern Rock playlist.

Band: Armor For Sleep
Song: My Town

Antiaging Wunderkind Paul Displays Energy and Vitality in a Dance

A little moving, a little grooving, the hermit's sneering and Geekbabe's cringing.

Dylan, Tambourine Man, The 60s, Dreamy

Dylan sings Mr.Tambourine Man on YouTube

In the jingle jangle morning, I'll come following you.

Sometimes, we sit on the grass with flowers in our hair and say: "Hey Boy, do ya wanna score?"
Sometimes, we look at clouds from both sides now.
Sometimes, we can't find a thing to chew.

Oh, how the 1960s hippie culture inspires one to dance in circles, sing in circles, and embrace the loving resonation. Sometimes, nothing makes me want to sit in a garden and watch the clouds like Led Zeppelin's hippie-flavored folk songs like Misty Mountain Hop and Dancing Days. Then there are times when Daydream and Eight Miles High really bring on the good vibration.

But, when the starshine gets greeted in the morning, I soar on cosmic gales.

In a most shamelessly optimistic and flower power way, I love the 1960s.

The Contrapuntal Idiom

What technological terror is as noble or proud as the mathematical harmonies and counterpoints that flowed through Bach's veins?

One day, I listened to a Bach fugue and the world shook.

I proceeded to go on a year long listening tear. I haven't deliberately sought out Bach music much lately, but the effects of the pursuit and resultant exposure are permanent. I have more of a mathematical soul now.

Bach will change your life more than The Shins ever will, and I am a pretty big Shins fan, so I do not say this lightly, nor do I automatically suppose classics are superior or more serious than contemporary works. Whether concerto, etude, quartet, simple pop tune or even simpler folk tune, they are all a part of the great anthology.

Bach on Wikipedia

Still a Classic

The Sword of Shannara, and, later, The Elfstones of Shannara, and the Wishsong of Shannara were my favorite fantasy works as a teenage Rush/D&D/LedZeppelin/Fantasy-lover.

For some reason, this illustration by The Brothers Hildebrandt (Grimm?) from the original release of The Sword of Shannara, is the most memorable. Only years later, did I realize that subtlety, chiaroscuro, and expressionistic force likely gave this its impact.

I want to believe that the dragon dagger attack motion in Runescape was inspired by this work. Runescape, btw, somehow bridged the gap between Euro-gaming-techno-culture and American-swords-and-sorcery-geekdom like no other MMORPG has been able to do (or wanted to do) thus far.

Link: Shannara.

Death Cab For Cutie and Boing Boing

Alike or what?

I knew that Boing Boing reminded me of a band, but just realized which one: Death Cab For Cutie! And, the likeness is not purely visual. It is tonal as well.

Well, not the lady. She is cool and all but, if anything, suggests a reunited punk band from 1975.

Microtonalism, Jungian Psychology, Transcendence, and Much More: meet Matt Searles

Stumbled upon this and liked the blogger's aspirations, accomplishments, aesthetics, philosophy, visions and renaissance person range of interests. The only thing I differ with is some of the influences and shout outs. I wonder if someone so vibrant and ready to build 'the culture of tomorrow', with such abstruse musical conceptualizations can really like Stanley Kubrick...2001 A Space Odyssey, excepted, of course, because it is awesome. But, the balance of Kubrick is, imho, overrated and stagnant.

The spelling is another highlight: either purposefully or via stream of conscious phonetics, is visually pleasing.

Link: Matt Searles.com Home.