Free Digital Sheet Music - music

Awesome 78 record collection digitized for download

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:28:21 +0000

This is way cool. Cliff Bolling is going through his entire collection of rare 78 records and putting them online. The recordings are done with no enhancement. But what a treasure trove of sounds. I’ve started trawling through it and found some great Hawaiian stuff. I see some country and blues artists there as well. [...]

Tune Buster

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:15:01 +0000

Tune Buster is a free keyboard synthesizer for OS X, and can turn your musical USB keyboard into a complete instrument. Tune Buster is easy to use and no configuration is needed, just start the program, plug in a keyboard and play.

Different sounds can be selected by clicking the desired instrument in the popup menu. Use the arrow keys or the mouse scroll button if you have one to speed up the selection process.

Tune Buster can be made invisible by closing the main window, and the keyboard will still play.

The forgotten member of Led Zep

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:14:32 +0000

I came across an article in The New Republic that attempts to assess the legacy of Led Zeppelin. There are some intriguing points but David Browne fails miserably in that he all but excludes John Paul Jones as being part of the group. It seems that Zep’s musical muscle was built entirely by Plant, Page and [...]

Weekend Discoveries

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:36:45 +0000

Over the weekend I came across two interesting acts. The first is Mikelango and The Black Sea Gentlemen. I kept hearing their song A Formidable Marinade on ABC radio over the weekend. Catchy, humourously macabre Eastern European folky stuff. Check out the tunes on their myspace page. The other artist is Australian guitarist Penny Ikinger. She [...]

American Primitive

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:59:27 +0000

My obsession with Hawaiian sounds still smoulders but I’ve veered off (or got back on track) to John Fahey for a while. The main reason I’ve been learning Leo Kottke’s arrangement of Jesu and mucking about, started exploring the middle section with a little chromaticism. So I decided to listen to Fahey for some ideas [...]

Why the music you are listening to probably sucks

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:30:53 +0000

HELLO. YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY I’M WRITING IN ALL CAPS. BLOODY ANNOYING ISN’T IT? READING THE TEXT IS TIRING AND BY NOW YOU ARE THINKING I’M GOING TO ANOTHER BLOG. BUT HANG ABOUT AS THERE IS A POINT. IMAGINE IF LISTENING TO MUSIC WAS LIKE HAVING TO READ EVERYTHING IN CAPS?

Vale the cassette tape

Wed, 09 May 2007 12:17:25 +0000

Sadly an era is about to end as it seems that the humble cassette tape is headed the way of the dodo. Today’s iPodded whippersnappers may not realize but for those of a certain age, we did not have the internet or mp3 players to share music. It was via cassette tapes. There were tapes [...]

Vale Thorpie

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:56:50 +0000

Billy Thorpe has died of a heart attack at the age of 60. Thorpie was the one that paved the way through the beer barns that allowed AC/DC, The Angels, Midnight Oil and others to thrive in the 70s and 80s. While the early 70s saw Thorpie develop a harder sound, his 60s output was [...]

Does Rap Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:08:28 +0000

That is the question after Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five were named in the next group of inductees into the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame. And the answer is why not? As rock’n'roll formed from a melange of styles, rap has been an influence on rock. The Chilli Peppers, Faith No More and Rage Against [...]

Farewell James Brown

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 02:48:38 +0000

As an unreconstructed antediluvian rock’n'rolla who revels in the disgusting stink of an electric guitar, the music of the late James Brown was always utterly captivating and exciting. I may not be able to bust any type of move on a dance floor but the funky rhythms always found a way to my toes if [...]

Vale Ian Rilen

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:44:03 +0000

Via The Ultimate AC/DC Blog I discover that Ian Rilen, of the Tatts and X, has died of bladder cancer. What a fuckin’ shame. A sad loss of Oz rock’n'roll. If you follow to link to his website you can hear a great, minimalistic interpretation the song he wrote with the late Pete Wells, Bad Boy For [...]

The Latest Top Guitar Solo Poll

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:30:14 +0000

The Guardian has results from a poll that chose Dave Gilmour’s solo on Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb as the best guitar solo of all time. In a move to enrage pedants everywhere, the intro to Guns N’ Roses Sweet Child of Mine was in 2nd place. The edumacated listener (and RnR D reader) knows the [...]

Amtipodean Underground

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:05:58 +0000

What a great blog I’ve discovered. Aintipodean Underground is about “preserving Australian & New Zealand Underground Music from the 70’s to 90’s.” Some great near-forgotten bands and even better is an mp3 sample is included.

Am I Listening to The Same Album? A Slight Rant.

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 12:01:27 +0000

I’ve really been giving Dave Alvin’s 2004 release Ashgrove a work out (and from there will move onto West of The West). A great album in my not so humble estimation but then Dave Alvin is routinely brilliant so not a surprise. So tonight I was googling some reviews of the album and came across [...]

The Hound

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:01:53 +0000

I was going to do a longer post on the late rockabilly legend Ronnie Dawson. However I stumbled onto The Hound doing research (others may know about it but first I have come across it). A veritable treasure trove of blues, R&B (when the term had some meaning), country, rockabilly and early rock'n'roll (with a [...]