Is Amazon's Cloud Music Play Too Little, Too Late? What will Apple do?

Amazon's announcement of it's Cloud Drive and Player makes it first out of the gate of several "cloud locker" music services from some major players.  Goole and Apple are expected to bring out their own versions soon.  These services allow you to stream music that you already own from the Internet to an array of devices - computers, iPods and portable devices, phones, and other Internet-connected devices.  As pointed out on the highly recommended blog, BootsyBangingThrees.com, applications like Subsonic have allowed you to stream your music over the Internet for years, with a much higher degree of customization and privacy.  The question is - does the average user even want to do this?

Fight For Your Right Revisited - Beastie Boys Short Film

A short film directed by Adam Yauch (MCA) which tells the story of what happened AFTER the end of the party depicted in the Beastie Boy's 1987 video "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" premiered at Sundance and will be featured on their upcoming album, "The Hot Sauce Committee Part 2", dropping on May 3rd. The trailer previews the action and is available now, at the bottom of this post.

The film runs approximately 30 minutes, and includes turns by an impressive cast: Elijah Wood (Ad-Rock), Seth Rogen (Mike D), Danny McBride (MCA), Jack Black (Future MCA), John C. Reilly (Future Mike D) and Will Ferrell (Future Ad-Rock).

Joe Cocker with Captions of What He Was Really Singing - Video of the Day

Visual Captions of Joe Cocker at Woodstock singing "A Little Help From My Friends" - I always knew there was a deeper message there! Make sure to close the ad right away so you don't miss any of the good stuff!

New Order's Love Vigilantes is the New Wave Sixth Sense

I don't think I can overstate how much I love my wife, Liz. We were just listening to New Order's Love Vigilantes and she pointed out that the protagonist soldier returning home is a ghost. I know every word, I love this song, and I never realized this. Am I completely dense?

Horse Outside - Cannot be explained, must be experienced

NSFW: Listen close and stay with it. Evidently everyone in Ireland has been on this for months, but it really has to be recognized stateside for the cultural touchstone it is:

Joy Division's First TV Appearance Recreated with Playmobil Figures

Joy Division playing "Transmission" live on British music show "Something Else" in 1979, recreated in stop-motion using Playmobil figures.  Brilliant! Nuff said.

"The Best Frontman The Roman Catholic Church Ever Had"

About John Paul, Bono noted that "A lot of rock stars have a Pope complex. This Pope had a rock star complex!"

Calling the Catholic Church "the glam rockers of religion," he said that upon meeting the Pope to discuss debt relief for impoverished nations, that he, Quincy Jones and Bob Geldof were nervous and excited.  Bono took off his sunglasses and held them in his hand, but noticed that the Pope kept looking at them.  He said, "Holy Father, would you like some fly shades?"  The Pope put the sunglasses on and then winked and smiled.

I remember Bono telling this story at a concert on the Vertigo tour, shortly after the Pope passed away - great to finally see the picture!

The Art of Empire State of Mind Parodies

Warning - Some content may be NSFW

I have recently become an avid consumer of localized parodies of Jay Z and Alicia Key's "Empire State of Mind" - of course as a New Yorker, I give props to the original:



From what I understand, the first widely-recognized take-off came not from New York, but from the home of my childhood summer camp, New Hampshire - with Granite State of Mind:



Next came the original shout-out from my current home county on Long Island, Suffolk State of Mind:



And then the now-classic representation of the Five Towns area of my native Nassau County which confirms stereotypes I didn't even know existed:



And to top them all off, the reinterpretation of Suffolk's mental situation which corrects the mistakes of the original and answers every claim of Nassau's anthem on its way to being designated as "Official":