YouTube Turned 9 Today. Yes, It’s Only Been 9 Years.

Can you remember a world without YouTube?  It wasn’t all that long ago; nine years today to be exact. Today, over a hundred hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. A billion people view YouTube content every month. To put it another way, viewership is equal to every person on Earth watching at [&hellip.. more

Black Metal from Saudi Arabia? Yes, Please

An email from Shahid (شاهد) from Shaytan (شيطان) Productions: I have my main band al-namrood on my label that is from Saudi Arabia who are a black metal outfit I think you should give a listen to. Their latest album is Heen Yadhar Al Ghasq. Sold!.. more

I Guarantee That You’ve Never Heard “Sweet Child O’ Mine” Covered Like This Before

Wes Malik, my South Asian correspondent, points us in the direction of this Qawwali version of the GnR classic.  Fantastic, really. Post by PakiUM dot Com. I’m actually a fan of this sort of singing.  One of the best ever was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.  Check out this amazing track called “Mustt Mustt” recorded for [&hellip.. more

I Like This: The Menzingers

How can you not be curious about a song called “I Don’t Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore?”  Pennsylvania’s The Menzingers (who record for Epitaph) include this song on their new album Rented World, which was released yesterday.  If you’re in the Toronto area, they play the Opera House on June 3.  .. more

Remember “Reading Rainbow?” Time to Re-Do the Theme

And Canada’s Psychostick is just the band to do it.  ”We’re just doing our part to encourage reading to the youth of the nation,” they say. Chances are they’ll be performing this on their upcoming “‘Merica F*ck Yeah Tour.&#.. more

Another Story About How Music is Being Used for Good in the Syrian Civil War

At one time, life in Syria was relatively normal.  The government wasn’t dropping barrels full of petrol and nails on its people and there weren’t al-Qaeda-sponsored insurgents making life miserable for everyone else. This is just the kind of place that Vice would visit. Rabia was the drummer for a Damascene band called Ana, which [&hellip.. more

Scientists Seek to Record One Day of Sound on Earth. You Can Help.

Consider, for a moment, how many sounds you hear in a single day.  Now try to imagine how many sounds are generated on the planet over a 24-hour period.  What would that, er, sound like? This is the Earth Day project of Bryan Pijanowski.  From Wired: On Earth Day, April 22, Pijanowski hopes to enlist [&hellip.. more

A Brief History of Soviet Rock’n'Roll

I love stuff like this.  From Radio Free Europe: A pro-Kremlin lawmaker spawned a tsunami of scorn in Russia this week by alleging that Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi’s Perestroika-era anthems were composed by CIA operatives trying to destabilize the Soviet regime.Friends, acquaintances, and fans of the late frontman of the legendary band, Kino, call [&hellip.. more