News from the Music Industry

Urge’s main selling point is its integration with Windows Media Player 11, which also launches into public beta on Wednesday. It uses WMP 11’s navigation, cribs some UI cues, and lets WMP 11 users purchase and download music without even opening a new window. The relationship very much resembles iTunes Music Store’s integration with iTunes 6, minus the large collection of video downloads and podcasts that iTunes offers.

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Urge’s price is comparable to the other subscription services. $9.95 a month will get you unlimited downloading privileges, while $14.95 a month gets you a To Go subscription for loading music onto your portable device. Urge is also offering a two-week trial without requiring any commitment or credit card number.

Judging strictly by the feature set, Urge isn’t much different than Napster, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music Unlimited or any of the other subscription services. It has celebrity playlists, a bunch of streaming radio stations, artist profiles, and a growing number of blogs. You can download Billboard charts by genre and year, watch select music videos, and explore music by genre. But Urge has some cool tricks up its sleeve, too.

Near-seamless integration with Windows Media Player 11 (also in beta) means you can use WMP 11’s snazzy search function with Urge, too. Type an artist, track, or name into the search field, and you’ll get results back from both the Urge catalog and from your own library. And when you queue up songs to listen to or download, Urge lets you know if you already have the track in your collection—whether you ripped it, downloaded it legally, or scored it off a P2P network.

The 6 Most Over-Hyped Threats to America (And What Should Scare You Instead)
Written by Clive Bannister Some say that the government and the media are partners in a vast conspiracy, with a goal of making you so afraid that you?ll submit to their every desire. And, well?that sounds about right. Whether it?s the threat of…

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:46:40 GMT

10.) Yankee Doodle Boy – George M. Cohen

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Perhaps fittingly, we start off with a show tune, one which combines several historic American folk songs into one brassy Broadway musical. Little Johnny Jones was first staged in 1904. The most popular lyric goes, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy/A Yankee Doodle, do or die/A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam’s/Born on the Fourth of July”. Clearly, this falls into the “traditional medley” section, as not many of today’s MTV generation can hum the words.

9.) Living in America – James Brown

Funk, American style. Not only did this appear on the soundtrack of one of the great American movies, Rocky IV , but it’s also a great tune to boogie down to, especially after you’ve had a few drinks on the lawn, and it’s dark enough that no one can see you dance. Not one that necessarily lends itself to fireworks, per se, but one of our favorites.

8.) Neil Diamond – America

“They’re comin’ to America. TODAY!” Cheesy or not, it’s a staple. You can tell the true fans by which ones know the verses, rather than just the chorus. At this point, middle-aged couples will usually indulge in either a few enthusiastic swing moves or simply cuddle while singing together. The kids will pretend not to notice.

Pencil This In
MUSIC: Scottish indie sensations Camera Obscura bring their pop and their rock to the Seaport tonight. They’re joined by The Last Town Chorus. After that, there’s only one more show down there this season! Friday // 7pm // South Street Seaport, Pier 17 // Free MOVIE:Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is playing tonight, and you’ve got a golden ticket! Stock up on sweets and enjoy the 1971 classic down by the river. Friday // Dusk // Hudson River Park, Pier 46 // Free Dirty Dancing is still celebrating 20 years with another screening of the 1987 classic at Ziegfield. After the 7:30 show Kelly Bishop (aka Marjorie Houseman, aka Emily Gilmore) will be on hand for a Q&A. Various Times // // Buy Tickets HereTHEATER: It?s Friday night! Who?s up for ?a hallucinatory journey through the last remnant memories of the world as we know it?? The Ontological-Hysteric Incubator Series cracks open another good egg this weekend with Building a House Out of Feathers, during which a ?revelatory visceral experience? is promised. Accompanied by live music from an original score, audiences will watch in wonder ?as the universe pulls itself apart piece by piece, discovering that as it turns out, the end of the world is a-ok.? We really have no idea what to expect from this, but when it comes to ?hallucinatory journeys? that?s a good thing, right? ? John Del Signore Friday // 8pm // Ontological Theater [St. Mark’s Church, 131 E 10th St] // Tickets cost $17, show ends Saturday FESTIVAL: The 14th Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is in town this weekend, taking over parks in Harlem and the East Village. The NY Times takes a look at Parker’s life and his relevance both up and downtown. Saturday and Sunday // 3 to 6pm // Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park // Free THEATER: Okay, so we slept through this summer?s Midtown International Theater Festival. But thankfully one of the most buzzed-about shows, The Broken Jump, has leapt to a longer run. Which ends Sunday. Oh well, it?s not too late to catch this zany tale of a burnt-out vaudeville comic who loses his headlining slot to a child star during a Spanish influenza outbreak in Grand Rapids. Will the comic?s spirit be saved by a lost love rekindled? Will a sleazy Michigan politician bring all to ruin? Is The Looking Glass Theater as exotic as it sounds? Do go and report back for those of us daunted by that distant land above 50th Street. ? John Del Signore Saturday // 7:30pm // The Looking Glass Theater [422 W 57th St] // Tickets cost $18. MUSIC:The Mugs are celebrating the release of their cd this weekend. Come help them welcome the record in to the world, and listen to the tracks live while you’re at it. They play Union Hall Saturday with Condo and The Diggs. Get a sneak peak at the album here. And here’s an oldie: Daisy Cutter.mp3 Saturday // 8pm // Union Hall [702 Union St, Park Slope] COMEDY: A signature show at UCB, come see what happens when this troupe uses your cds and iPods as inspiration for their act. They are called Mother, so we suggest bringing some Danzig or Pink Floyd. Saturday // 9pm // UCB Theater [307 W 26th St] // $8 EVENT: The Summergarden series at MoMA takes place every Sunday of the season, and is a great way to relax before the work week starts all over again. This weekend come enjoy the garden and a live performance by Cyro Baptista’s Anthropo-Fagia. Sunday // 8pm // MoMA Garden [54th St between 5th and 6th] // Free Earlier this week we interviewed Sarah Vowell, the President of the Board at 826NYC (amongst other things). This Sunday she joins the rest of the Bookeaters at Beacon, where you’ll see A.C. Newman sing, Grizzly Bear play, Britt Daniel rock out, Feist read a book, Jim James croon, Demetri Martin host and the aforementioned Vowell have a little talk with Eugene Mirman and Leo Allen. We hear some Broken Social Sceners have also joined the bill. Sunday // 7pm // Beacon Theater [2124 Broadway] // Buy Tickets Here

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:57:31 EDT

“Fifty percent of our product line is now available with Intel processors in less than 60 days,” Jobs said. He announced two new Mac mini systems based on Intel chips. The first is based on a 1.5-GHz Intel Core Solo chip, and Jobs claimed it was two times faster than G4-based Mac mini systems in integer benchmarks. The second is based on a 1.67-GHz Intel Core Duo processor, which Jobs claimed is six times faster than G4-based Mac mini systems at integer benchmarks.

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The Mac mini systems come with iLife ‘07 lifestyle software applications and Front Row media software for playing music, DVDs, storing photos and more. There is also a built-in infrared sensor on the front of both new systems for use with the Apple Remote Control. The systems come loaded with Mac OS X Tiger, Airport Extreme and Bluetooth, and DV Video Out. They also have four USB ports, following user complaints about there being only two on the previous generation Mac mini machines.

The pre-orders are coming!
The pre-orders are coming! posted by bryan | 24 Aug 07 @ 7:54 pm | filed under: CD Release [ mcfeely]In fact, many people are already reporting that their copy (or copies) of Overdressed has/have arrived safely in their mailboxes courtesy of Mr McFeely. (Mr. Rogers? reference anyone?) The CD will be in stores a mere 4 days from now,

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:52:39 -0700

1 Get loud First replace the stock front speakers in your car. This requires removing the door panels and running speaker wire. The rear speakers are next and harder to replace; remove the luggage shelf to gain access to the mounting holes. We hid the amplifier below the front seat, next to the laptop, to reduce the length of the audio cables—and the complexity of routing them.
2 TV and radio A Hauppauge WinTV USB tuner feeds our senses. This provides both UHF/VHF and FM reception—for rest-stop enjoyment only, of course. We reused the car’s FM antenna to receive broadcast stations using a splitter, a few coaxial cables, and a splice kit to fuse the two.
Step 3 & 4 >

3 Hide the tuner The device itself is tucked away inside the dashboard. You’ll probably make it messy, as we clearly have, but there’s plenty of space back there. We’ve also hidden a USB hub in this space, to aid connecting the other components in our car.
4 Live TV…finally! Using the software Hauppauge includes with the WinTV tuner, you can time-shift shows while you’re driving or play back videos that you recorded earlier.

CD releases
MUSICALLY incapable of anything less than wonderfulness, Super Furry Animals are in danger of becoming victims of their own consistency as they release yet another album of imaginative pop diversity…

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:23:56 GMT

Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars * (CD) 2007 MINT
US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Saturday Aug-25-2007 9:02:49 PDTBid now | Add to watch list

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:02:49 PDT

MusicGiants launched in 2005 as the first online music service to offer downloadable audio tracks in a lossless compression format; at that time users were required to download the service’s proprietary client to play DRM-protected tracks. On April 18, 2006, MusicGiants adopted Windows Media Player 10 for playback.

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Users of WMP 10 can access the MusicGiants HD Music Store by clicking the down arrow in the upper right hand corner of Windows Media Player 10 and selecting the MusicGiants HD Music Store option.