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The Iranian indie band talk about life as outlaws in their homeland, as documented in their new
film No One Knows About Persian Cats
At first glance, Take It Easy Hospital look like any other aspiring indie duo. Dressed
in impeccable Shoreditch chic – plaid shirt and skinny jeans for him, cute
vintage dress, black tights and brogues for her – their teenage epiphanies
came on copied cassettes of Nirvana and Pink Floyd, while these days they're more into Sigur
Rós and Foals.
Their ambition for next year, once they find a drummer, is to get on to the bill at Glastonbury
or Reading. The difference is that Take It Easy Hospital originally formed in Iran, where rock
music is banned. When the local music industry is non-existent, gigs and recording studios are
regularly raided by police and even MySpace is monitored, simply finding someone who shares your
love of guitars and plaintive vocals is fraught with difficulties.
Ash Koshanejad and Negar Shaghaghi, the twin songwriters of Take It Easy Hospital, are the stars
of a new Iranian film by garlanded Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi, called No One Knows About Persian Cats (so named because pet cats,
like rock musicians, are outlawed in Iran). The film is a fictionalised account of the duo's
attempts to recruit a rhythm section in order to play a local underground gig and ultimately
escape to the rock-friendly west. As the two indie innocents are taken under the wing of
music-loving wide-boy Nader (Hamed Behdad), the film becomes a Linklater-esque romp through
Tehran's clandestine rock underground. All the bands and musicians featured are real, but whether
hairy blues rockers, jazz singers, class-war rappers or indie kids, they exhibit a love for
making music that overrides the fear of being arrested the moment they switch on their amps. "If
you were discovered playing rock music, you'd get arrested, you'd have to pay a fine," reveals
Ash, matter-of-factly. "Sometimes you'd go to prison."
The film gleans affectionate humour from the various bands' ingenuity when it comes to hiding
their rehearsal spaces from the authorities in diligently-soundproofed underground caverns,
shacks constructed on the roofs of tower blocks or, in one case, in a working cattle barn (much
to the cows' displeasure).
By coincidence, there is a British film out this month which also documents the struggle of a
couple of indie dreamers to form a band – except 1234 is based in London, so the
only obstacles are their own musical inadequacy and weedy sexual tension between bandmates.
Persian Cats makes 1234 look rather pathetic.
In Iran musicians are forced to behave like fugitives, even though the charges invoked against
them are vague (Ahmadinejad imposed a ban on "western and decadent music" soon after becoming
president in 2005). "It's a not a written law," complains Negar. "There isn't this red line. You
never know when you're crossing it. [The authorities] don't even really know what they're
opposing. They don't see that music brings energy and good nature to society."
In 2007, Ash's former band Font staged an open-air gig in a private garden in a suburb of Tehran.
Armed police arrived en masse to shut it down, arresting everyone in the audience, and slinging
the band in prison for 21 days. "They didn't have any law that said what they should do with us,
so they called us satanists. They said we were against the moral law and disgracing the face of
society." Ash chuckles wryly at the memory. "It was an odd experience, sleeping next to a serial
killer for three weeks. But it made me believe even more in what I was doing."
Font and Take It Easy Hospital are rarities: most Iranian wannabe rockers never even get further
then their bedrooms, due to the subtle pressure exerted within families. "Under this regime, you
don't have any opportunity to make a living from being a musician, so families prevent their
children from learning music in the first place," Ash explains. "Families are a small example of
big government. They don't trust the young generation."
When Ash and Negar were kids, the only opportunity they had to hear western rock music was when
somebody from their community travelled abroad and brought back CDs. "They'd be copied on to a
tape over and over again," says Negar. "We used to write the track names in class when the
teacher wasn't looking and take it home with such excitement to listen to it." Even so, whatever
they got depended on the tastes of the traveller; often hoping for something similar to Nirvana,
they'd end up having to make do with ABBA.
The advent of the internet changed everything for Iranian teenagers, who were suddenly able to
participate in global youth culture, employing their technological nous to stay one step ahead of
government censors. The fact that the bands in No One Knows About Persian Cats wear Strokes
T-shirts and pass around copies of the NME shouldn't seem that strange. But what is the
attraction to Ash and Negar of the kind of fey indie music that even within its countries of
origin is often considered a bit insular?
"Well, we are indie!" declares Ash. "We had to do it ourselves in bedrooms because if
you step out into the streets, you cannot even tell anyone you've just written a song. We would
make our own imaginariums in our rooms."
If they'd grown up in England, Take It Easy Hospital's wan, organ-driven indie-pop, topped with
earnest observations about the "human jungle", might stand accused of being a little bit twee.
But once you learn how hard Ash and Negar have had to fight just to get their songs heard, they
take on a whole new complexion. And despite their ugly experiences in Iran, they are determined
not to make rebel rock. "Me, I don't care about politics," says Negar. "The value of art is a lot
more than politics. Politics is something that passes, but art stays for years."
Ash picks up the thread: "Politics is a tool to solve a situation at one moment. We believe that
art is pure and always depending on human nature, so we've always kept ourselves far from
politics. Our music is not dangerous, but the current regime in Iran feels that it has to keep
people away from honest expression because if they face up to the reality they will soon find out
what they are missing."
Ash and Negar agreed to star in Persian Cats not to make a political point, but to try to show
the older generation, including their parents, that music is a force for good. But while Ash has
received some positive feedback from older Iranians – "I've heard that they
walk away after seeing this film to remember what they had before the revolution"
– Negar is despondent that most of them haven't been able to overcome their
prejudices. "I guess that when people decide to close their eyes to something, you can't force
them to see the truth."
In the light of last year's post-election protests, the police crackdown on young people involved
in music and the arts has intensified. When Take It Easy Hospital's old drummer went back to Iran
several weeks after the election, he was arrested and beaten. Last January, the film's co-writer,
Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, was arrested in Tehran and handed an eight-year jail
sentence on trumped up charges of being a US spy (she was eventually freed following a global
outcry).
Reluctantly, Ash and Negar decided it was unsafe to return to Iran and have successfully applied
for asylum in the UK, where they've been living since coming over to play at Manchester's In The
City festival in 2008. In the film, the duo never make it to London, so in this case, truth is
happier than fiction. However, Negar is at pains to point out that they never viewed England as
the promised land, despite our rather more relaxed laws regarding the public airing of
Farfisa-driven jangle pop.
"Some people say we've run away," says Negar. "But there is no running away. Moving from one
country to another doesn't necessarily solve all the problems that are on your mind." Proof that
indie introspection truly is an international language.
No One Knows About Persian Cats is out Fri; it previews atBrixton
Ritzy, SW2, Tue
HiFi is the best rock'n'roll bar in NYC.The room
is covered with empty album sleeves and the juke box is hands-down the best in the city
– I believe there are about 3,000 albums on it, so you can't complain about
them not having your song. There is a fantastically affordable happy hour and a great local
crowd. Like the rest of the East Village, it can get a bit much on weekend nights, but most of
the time it's my favourite bar in town. · 169 Avenue A, +1 212 420 8392. Craig Finn, lead singer of the Hold Steady
Pegu Club, New York
The entrance to the Pegu is an unassuming
doorway on the south side of West Houston Street. It's only when you are up the stairs that the
glory of this place hits you. It is like going back to the great clubs of the 20s, when the staff
were pretty and jazz and cocktails ruled. On a recent visit, two amazing Django Reinhardt-style
guitarists were swinging through 30s classics. Cocktails are taken seriously here
– the art of proper, classy drinking is almost a motto. At the weekend it can
get pretty busy as it is becoming the "in" place. · 77 West Houston Street, +1 212 473 7348. James Pearson, artistic director,Ronnie Scott's, London
Po' Monkey's, Mississippi
It was a balmy night in September when I visited Po' Monkey's juke joint. It's a ramshackle hut
powered by a single cable in the tiny town of Merigold, deep in the Mississippi delta. A poster
on the door warned: "Bring your liquor inside but not your beer." The walls were cluttered with
posters and age-old postcards, while toy monkeys swung from the rafters. It was low lit
– smoky but inviting, with beer and whiskey flowing freely. Terry "Harmonica" Bean took to the tiny
stage, elbow to elbow with the crowd, and delivered a mind-blowing, foot-stamping performance
that will stay with me forever. Delicately soulful cries came from his ageing gruff voice, while
stupendous bluegrass melodies oozed effortlessly from his antique steel guitar. This was raw
blues at its authentic and spine-shivering best. · +1 662 514 7488, 15km from Cleveland. Dan Hipgrave, co-founder ofOriginal Music
Company(originalmusictravel.com), which launched this month and specialises
in music-themed holidays
The Spirit Store, Ireland
The Spirit Store in Dundalk, County Louth, is
on the edge of town beside a small harbour. There's a small, friendly bar downstairs which opens
around 4pm, but it is the live music upstairs that is the main draw. You would be hard-pressed to
find anywhere as welcoming to an artist and more genuinely music-driven in its programming of
events. That's why I keep going back there to play, and why many other artists who have outgrown
the 120- or so capacity venue keep returning. So many venues and promoters are about the money
but Derek Turner, who books the music, is driven by something much more. · +353 42 9352697. Duke Special,
musician. His DVD box set, The Stage, A Book & the Silver Screen is out now
The Hideout, London
Not exactly a venue, not exactly a bar, entrance to Trishas/The Hideout/that door on
Greek St (as it is variously known), is obtained by boldly knocking on what appears to be the
entrance to a flat above a shop, striding through a starkly lit corridor and down a flight of
stairs, before mumbling an explanation to the owner as to why you don't appear to be in
possession of a membership card – having accidentally put it through the
washing machine normally does the trick. Inside, you'll find a cupboard-sized, candle-lit cavern
which can be hired out for private music showcases. But stumble in unannounced after hours on a
weekend and you might also find a doo wop or jazz band sandwiched into the corner between the
usual crowd of transvestites, metropolitan hipsters and veteran Italian locals. 57 Greek Street, Soho, London. Krissi Murison, editor,NME
The Shed North Yorkshire
I first played at this blink-and-you'll-miss-it shed in the tiny village of Brawby back in 1998.
It only held 64 people and we scraped our legs on the front row's knees. It has since moved to
Hovingham village hall, though it retains its name. The man behind The Shed, Simon Thackray, has
presented events from the Fish and Chip Van Tour with a trombonist, to mixed media knitting
installations – saxophonist Lol Coxhill playing free jazz in a skip to coach
trips for folks in knitted Elvis wigs touring sites of Elvisian interest in Ryedale. My own band,
Hank Wangford and the Lost Cowboys, started a tradition of Christmas gigs at The Shed, where we
play morose songs and have a riotously miserable time. The Shed was the inspiration for my
village hall tour around Britain, which I am currently writing up as a book. And, after 235
villages, The Shed is still the loony best. · 01653 668494. Hank Wangford, writer and musician. His CD,Whistling in the Dark, is out now
A38, Budapest
For me, the greatest gig of 2009 was at A38, a
huge old ship that used to lug coal up and down the Danube. The lower deck is now a
state-of-the-art live music venue, but bits of engine room equipment are still there. Even though
the boat is held down in dry dock by 100 tonnes of concrete, the bottles still jingle on the
shelves of the bar when the parties get wild. The booking policy is great –
they've had cutting-edge electronic artists such as Ikonika, Dorian Concept and Foreign Beggars
play recently. And nothing compares with the signature dish of the restaurant on the upper deck:
rooster stew, complete with the crest and testicles of the bird. · +36 1 464 39 40. Mary Anne
Hobbs, Radio 1 DJ. Her show is broadcast on Thursdays 2-4am
Wild At Heart, Berlin
Wild At Heart is a
whisky-soaked, no-nonsense rock'n'roll joint in Berlin's old anarchist district, Kreuzberg: a
seven-nights-a-week venue painted blood red, crammed with Elvis memorabilia, Hawaiian gods and a
lifetime's supply of hard liquor. For 15 years it has presented bands from all over the world
– mostly punk, rockabilly, psychobilly, 60s garage and surf. I spent a
memorable evening there talking to TV Smith from the Adverts and another with Wreckless Eric,
both of whom started out with punk label Stiff Records in 1977, and I've played there with my
band, the Flaming Stars. The music's loud, but the welcome is friendly, and the club also runs
the Tiki Heart cafe and clothes shop next door,
where you can eat, drink and kit yourself out in a spectacular variety of rock'n'roll
clobber. · Wienerstrasse 20, +49 30 610 747 01. Max Décharné, singer in the Flaming Stars and author of A Rocket in My
Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly, to be published by Serpent's Tail in June
Mesa de Frades, Lisbon
Mesa de Frades in Alfama, the oldest district of Lisbon, is the sort of place you dream of
hearing fado, the traditional soulful Portuguese music. A tiny converted chapel with
tiled walls, it is full of locals and quality performers booked by owner Pedro Castro, a great
guitar player. You can come for the music, which starts late – around 11pm
– or book a table and come for an excellent dinner beforehand. A couple of
years ago I sat here watching Carminho, the amazing young fado singer who is now the talk of
Lisbon. When the music starts, the doors are shut to enclose the tiny performing space. It's what
fado in Lisbon should be, but so rarely is. · Rua dos Remedios 139A, +351 91 702 9436, mesadefrades.com. Booking is
essential. Simon Broughton, editor of Songlines magazine (songlines.co.uk/musictravel)
Il Folk Club, Turin
In the heart of Turin, off Piazza Statuto, you'll find the best of all worlds: from Wednesday to
Saturday Il Folk Club plays host to Italian and
international jazz, folk and world musicians. How this Italian institution –
legendary in Turin for over 20 years – has remained generally unknown to
travellers and music junkies outside Italy is a mystery. Alongside its regular programme, Il Folk
Club is also the launching point for Radio Londra, a monthly mini-festival which fuses British
musicians such as Jim Mullen, Kit Downes, Brandon Allen and Quentin Collins Quartet, with local
stars such as Mario Pozza, Enzo Zirilli and Dado Moroni. The bar is simple –
one central room with space for about 150 people, exposed brick walls, and a stage
– so the focus is always on the incredible music. Via Ettore Perrone 3, Turin. Sam Sollai, buyer and events coordinator, Ray's Jazz at Foyles
Gerbard, Barcelona
This little neighbourhood bar used to have a green door with panes that rattled when you opened
it, but it has now been replaced with something more solid, partly to keep the sound in. It's run
by Mar and Nacho, both dyed-in-the-wool culés (Barcelona supporters), and nights
there are long and loud. You can hear Sam Lardner, an American resident who plays his own fusion
of flamenco and bossa nova, or wonderful classical and flamenco guitarists like Daniel Figueras
and Pedro Javier Hermosilla, or the Covers Project, with frontman Philip Stanton. The eating and
drinking are delicious too – Galician-style octopus, traditional meatballs,
pimientos de padron (small green peppers), and wine for not much more than a euro a
glass. A great night out in the Alta Zona. · C/ Ivorra 24, Sarria, Barcelona, +93 203 4988. Rupert Thomson, author living in Barcelona. His latest book, This Party's Got to Stop,
will be published on 8 April
La Casona del Molino, Salta, Argentina
Salta, in north-west Argentina, is well-known for its folk music heritage. This has given rise to
the creation of pena, which roughly translates as a place where musicians and music
lovers come together. Seven nights a week you can experience this at La Casona. The venue's five
colonial rooms are filled to the brim with musicians, professional and amateur, folk, jazz and
others, locals who come down from the Andes bearing pan pipes and drums, and some foreign
visitors, all coming together to jam the local tunes. As a musician, I found great comfort in the
fact that this kind of place exists in the world. And of course, many people come simply for the
music. · La Casona del Molino, Caseros. Lizzie Ball, violinist
and singer. She will be performing – and launching her album
– with Machaca at La Linea Festival in thePurcell Roomon London's South Bank on 27 April
Salón Rosado de la Tropical, Havana
The first time I asked a taxi driver to take me to Havana's Salón Rosado de la Tropical
back in 1989 he said it was a place for Cubans, not foreign tourists – and
certainly not lone women – and I'd better watch out as it could be rough. He'd
obviously never been inside this mecca of Cuban dance music, where all the top bands play
regularly, testing their latest material in front of the sexiest dancers on the island. In Cuba,
most music venues are geared to tourists and too expensive for ordinary Cubans, who are often not
allowed in anyway. Not so the Salón Rosado. This is the closest you can get to hanging out
with a Cuban clientele. Dedicated to the memory of Beny Moré, Cuba's touchstone band
leader of the 1950s, it started out life a Spanish cultural centre at the beginning of the 20th
century. These days there's a balcony reserved for tourists overlooking the dance floor where, if
you're lucky, you may rub shoulders with the musicians as they gather for the gig. Although today
reggaeton and hip-hop dominate street tastes, Salon Rosado continues to offer a window on to the
latest music scene and is a dancer's dream. · Avenida 41 esq. 46, Nicanor del Campo, Marianao, +53 7 203 5322. Jan Fairley has been travelling to Cuba since 1978 and is writing a book on women and
music in Cuba
Liquid Room, Tokyo
Leading Japanese venue Liquid Room has been going for about 15 years and hosts weekly bands and
DJs from Japan and around the world. The website may say it closes at 12, but the last time I
played there, as The Orb, they didn't let us out till 6am. There's a beautiful cafe upstairs and
the friendly enthusiasm of Tokyo clubbers has to be experienced to be believed. The last time I
played there I took a bag of Space Dust (the sweet!) which made me very popular.
· Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, +81 3 5464 0800, liquidroom.net. Alex Paterson, co-founder of The Orb and HFB, his new project. HFB's first three EPs are
available from 12 April on Malicious Damage Records
New Africa Shrine, Lagos, Nigeria
Lagos is not your classic tourist destination; it's a prohibitively expensive city of 14 million
people and a crime record to frighten even the toughest traveller. But Nigeria's notorious
capital does have one musical landmark worth going the extra mile for: the New Africa Shrine. It's named after the
legendary club run by the late musical activist Fela Kuti, which was razed
by soldiers. Fela's daughter Yeni and her musician brother Femi have built up a nightclub that
can hold thousands and has live music throughout the week. It's not for the faint-hearted, but
the Shrine is probably the safest place in Lagos: it has its own police force. You'll get a warm
welcome, and hear some of the best live music in the region. · Pepple Street, Ikeja. Rose Skelton, music and travel journalist specialising in West Africa
Musician, artist, engineer and programmer Eric Singer is
starting an interesting project, called the hacker helpline. For a few hours a week, he'll be
taking calls on Skype to help answer your questions about building physical things:
Hacker Helpline is a new service from Eric Singer of the League
of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. For a few hours a week, Eric will be on Skype, ready to
answer your questions about projects, electronics, software, robotics, physical computing, etc.
To contact the Hacker Helpline, open Skype and add contact "hackerhelpline". Then look in the
Mood section to see dates and hours. During those times, you can chat in and get help (or get
queued up for help if a previous chat is active). A/V chats are supported (even preferred...it's
nice to see who you're talking to).
Hacker Helpline launches on March 23rd at 10 am EST.
Every time I have put this on at least three new conversions occur, where the listeners go on to
permanently install this woman's music on their stereo. My neighbor even stalked me once just so
she could listen to it more, until I just gave her my extra copy. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam
Guèbrou is a nun currently living in Jerusalem. She grew up as the daughter of a prominent
Ethiopian intellectual, but spent much of her young life in exile, first for schooling, and then
again during Mussolini's occupation of Ethiopia's capitol city, Addis Ababa, in 1936. Her musical
career was often tragically thwarted by class and gender politics, and when the Emperor himself
actually went so far as to personally veto an opportunity for Guèbrou to study abroad in
England, she sank into a deep depression before fleeing to a monastery in 1948. Today, she spends
up to seven hours a day playing the piano in seclusion and even gave a concert to some lucky ducks
in Washington D.C. a few years ago. A compilation of her compositions was re-issued on the
consistently great Ethiopiques label. You can read more about her life at the Emahoy Music
Foundation....
Thousands of shows turn Austin into a giant musical maelstrom each year during the South by
Southwest festival. See photos of bands that performed Thursday, including Ringo Deathstarr,
Weekend and The Happy Hollows.
Red, yellow, pink, black with a hint of blue. Red, yellow, pink. Black with a hint of blue. It
was a dress, slightly shimmery. The girl wearing it talked to me about a magic guitar.
Montreal, October 2008. The POP
Montréal festival throughout the city and its venues. Every night packed with
concerts, drinking, and running from venue to venue, city map in hand. On the marquee tonight:
The Persuasions, a mythical American acapella group from the 60s. The Ukrainian Federation
packed, Richie du Fire losing control in the middle of the crowd, the group who got off the stage
and passed around the mics, low rhythmic voices and high melodic voices, the concert which
finished with an amazing song by one of the organisers of the festival. One of the most amazing
concerts of our lives and the apotheosis of POP Montreal that year.
But. Victor had insisted that we not miss the concert at 11:30 at Casa Del Popolo. It was the
Luyas, his favourite new band, a
band buzzed about by most of the people I met. Casa was only a few blocks away, but it was
already too late. From the middle of the crowd, Victor signalled ‘It's
Jessie!'. The girl had a red, yellow, and pink dress on. And she talked to me about a magic
guitar. And she talked tirelessly.
Reykjavik, November 2008. Jessie had told me she'd be in town for the Airwaves festival. Not with
the Luyas, but with Miracle
Fortress, her buddy Graham's band. I found myself in Iceland on the trail of a docu-fiction
project, Sun (Set & Rise) which, bit by bit, was breaking us down with each subsequent day.
We spent a lot of our time drinking, catching shows, drinking even more, making the most of our
nights to forget the drudgery of our days. At a Yelle concert on our last night, during a stage
diving session, in a room packed with young Icelanders shouting the lyrics at the top of their
voices, a surreal moment: I broke my back, lost all my stuff, thanks to Jessie, who crushed me
into the ground before disappearing into the cold without even singing me a single note.
Perpignan, August 2009. The magic guitar Jessie had talked about was in fact the work of Yuri
Landmann, guitar-maker extraordinaire, the only person that my friend Gaspar and I had decided to
invite to Pedro
Soler's festival Guitares au Palais. Through his instruments, we'd encountered the Malian Sidi
Touré, the Dutch group The Moi Non Plus, who are the force behind Subbacultcha in
Amsterdam, the vagabond Noel Akchoté, who improvises with astonishing ease. And Jessie
Stein, who – discreetly this time – brought the sensation
of a faraway night through her accent and her soft voice. I only saw her briefly; my head, too,
was somewhere far away.
Montreal, October 2009. It had been one year since I'd discovered the Luyas and Jessie Stein. One
year of replaying the melodies in my head, dreaming about this girl and her distinctive voice.
One night, as we biked together, I told her, “Every time I hear you sing I get the
impression that I am across the ocean, even if I am close to you.” It is this sense of
nostalgia for an unknown country evoked through her music which makes me crazy for her.
POP Montreal invited me to organise another screening, but this year I was also invited to film
a series of selected
local acts for Arte Live Web. This
series was to include the Luyas, of course, whom I had long wanted to film. We had hoped that I
would be able to join them in the previous winter's snow, but fall proved to be more welcoming.
Réal : Vincent Moon
Tourné à Montreal
Réal : Vincent Moon
Tourné à Montreal
The Luyas is Jessie, Stefan (the
percussionist/drummer from Bell
Orchestre), Pietro (formerly of Arcade Fire, as well as Bell Orchestre and Torngat), and Mathieu, the group's newest
member. Jessie proposed that we film on the sidewalks of the Jacques-Cartier bridge and on the
island in the middle of the St. Lawrence. Crossing Montreal by bike felt easy, light and airy. I
had thought that Jessie would be more stressed for this little film, considering how many times
it had been delayed, but to the contrary she brought a constant humour and a capacity for
off-the-cuff improvisation. A joy to follow from in front of and behind a camera.
Réal : Vincent Moon
Tourné à Montreal
Réal : Vincent Moon
Tourné à Montreal
Film to meet, record to remember. That afternoon remains the apotheosis of numerous voyages, the
perpetual quest for sound, of many different experiences. To see these images again brings back
an entire week of musical encounters, like the confluence of emotions in a single final
explosion.
Réal : Vincent Moon
Tourné à Montreal
Réal : Vincent Moon
Tourné à Montreal
The last song of this film, shot in and around a playground, is probably the sequence which most
represents these final months of my travels – entirely improvised, from the
beginning to the end, a moment of pure musical magic the likes of which I had never filmed
before. And the last phrase, hilarious and which will stick with me for a while: "It looks like
dirt, but it's death."
New York, February 2010. The night deepens, Jessie has had too much to drink and she talks
nonstop. Under the table, she takes my hand and I remember when I fell in love with a girl who
talked about a magic guitar, who played music while looking straight into your eyes, and who sang
like a child far across the sea. Sometimes simple encounters change lives.
Dan Kantor
knows the web, and he knows music. Better still, he knows how to make the two play nicely together.
If you're not familiar with his work, Dan built Spinner --
AOL's popular music site -- when he was part of our family.
Now he's on his own, and he's got a new musical marvel to share: ExtensionFM. While using the extension inside Google Chrome is fun
enough, it's easy to see just how cool it's going to be on the Google Chrome OS smartbooks and
tablets that are due out later this year.
The concept behind ExntensionFM is a simple one: scan the webpages you browse for embedded MP3s and
build a library of tunes inside your browser. You can also put together playlists, and the music
will keep streaming in the background as you happily (or unhappily, depending on your modus
operandi) surf the web.
ExtensionFM also provides listings of artists and albums in your library, and a list of the sites
you've listened to -- which adds a whole 'nother layer of cool. Once you've grabbed a track from a
particular site, ExtensionFM keeps tabs on it for you. We'll have more on this after the break,
along with more screenshots and Dan's screencast! Right now, I've got
some 2 Skinnee Js queued up from Archive.org, with some SXSM tracks from Sam Roberts on deck. Play
controls are always within reach -- just click the ExtensionFM button in your browser actions area.
Now, back to
that 'subscription' thing...Sites in your library are set to auto-update by default -- which you
can disable on a per-site basis if you prefer to update things manually. Right click and hit
refresh to do a quick check for new tunes. You can also play or queue entire sites, or delete them
if your tastes have changed. I've played with
ExtensionFM in Hexxeh's builds of Chromium
OS -- the source of Google's upcoming Chrome
OS. To me, there's no question that this will be an absolutely killer extension for your
Chromebook (or tablet). It's an awesome, easy-to-use bridge between all the great, free music in
the cloud and your lightweight browser OS.
So what's next for ExtensionFM? I mentioned to Dan the possibility of using Chrome's bsync
abilities to store your library in the cloud, and he said they've been pondering that already.
Doing so would give you log-in-anywhere access to your music...Anywhere including, say, an Android
handset -- where it wouldn't be a big stretch to tap into Google's APIs to give you
music-on-the-go.
"We want exfm to be the only player you need," Dan told me. They're well on the way to achieving
that goal: ExtensionFM is pure awesome.
Right now, ExtensionFM is in closed beta. If you want in on
the action, head over to our
Facebook page -- or share this post on Twitter and make sure you @downloadsquad!
Vous en avez marre de voir la terre vue du ciel lorsque vous écoutez votre musique depuis
votre console Dans ce cas, vous serez sans doute content d'apprendre que Q-Games s'est
associé avec l'artis...
LaDiDa takes even the worst vocal performance and sweetens it, then instantly creates full-band
backing tracks in a variety of musical styles. The end result is a batch of DIY songs that sound
pretty amazing.
Os dejamos con una nueva entrega del irreverente Lo Peor de Todo, la que hace la número 13.
Programa que unos desvergonzados Babas y Turrón presentaron y dirigieron hace doce
años en lo que hoy es Canal Plus. En esta ocasión se puede ver, entre otros
contenidos, en la sección internacional videos de James Brwon y P.J. Harvey y un reportaje
sobre Marilym Manson y en la sección nacional vídeos de Platero y tú y
Amparanoia.
La dernière fois nous vous avions parlé de Power Gig : Rise of the SixString , un
nouveau jeu musical de fou furieux utilisant une guitare avec de véritables cordes pouvant
aussi bien être branchée sur un ampli que sur le jeu développé par
Seven45 Studios. Histoire de nous donner un petit aperçu d...
Mouse Computer poursuit sa collaboration avec le sud-coréen iRiver, obligé de
réduire sa présence au Japon, écrasé par le succès de l'iPod.
Après le PMP P7, Mouse Computer a annoncé qu'il di...
Autre Le prochain concert illustré organisé par WYSIWYM, sera Jazz ce mois ci. En
effet le Centre Barbara qui reçoit une nouvelle édition des fameux concerts
illustrés, accueillera sur la scène de son grand hall, le groupe de hard bop "l'ombre
de ton chien" illustré par "Léely". Une session jazz en musique et en images, aux
couleures brutes de la musique noire américaine. Centre Musical fleury Goutte d'Or 1, rue de
Fleury M° Barbès 19h Entrée libre. Par : (...) - Agenda
A website that sorts everyday the most relevant information to you.
Vote for the news and Matoumba will learn your tastes and the information that you like the most.
It is all FREE!
Find here the history of the stories you found interesting.
Show this to people who share the same interests as you,
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Burp Xylophone 1.0
Description:
Right now, I've got
some 2 Skinnee Js queued up from Archive.org, with some SXSM tracks from Sam Roberts on deck. Play
controls are always within reach -- just click the ExtensionFM button in your browser actions area.
Now, back to
that 'subscription' thing...Sites in your library are set to auto-update by default -- which you
can disable on a per-site basis if you prefer to update things manually. Right click and hit
refresh to do a quick check for new tunes. You can also play or queue entire sites, or delete them
if your tastes have changed. 
I've played with
ExtensionFM in 
Recommandations
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
