aworks :: "new" american classical music

lala's last 31 days :: day 32 /curation via counterstream radio/

I did stay up last night until 11PM PDT to see the demise of lala. But now that the fun is over, I still need to decide my streaming service of choice. And since I spent the several years carefully choosing my music at lala, I've decided, for today anyway, to let someone else curate my experience. So, it's Counterstream Radio.

And the first track is I Will by Grace Kelly. No, not that Grace Kelly, this one.

lala's last 31 days :: day 31 /la la la la.../

From the early days of CD trading until tonight's presumably last stream, lala was fun:

2006

• Goin' Home (1964). Albert Ayler /seeking out new music/
• Music for 18 Musicians (1974-6). Steve Reich /bbc four tet remix/

2007

• Come Out (1966). Steve Reich /la la la la.../ 
• The Well-Tuned Piano (1964/73/81/present). La Monte Young /into the cloud legally?/

2008

• 600 Lines (for ensemble) (1968). Philip Glass /wait, there's more/
• Summertime (1935). George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward, and Ira Gershwin /surprisingly fine/
• Variations for Vibes, Pianos, and Strings (2005). Steve Reich /next la la/
• links for 2008-05-30
• Change of the Century (1959). Ornette Coleman /or at least for this week/
• aworks project :: lala snooping 

2009

• Appalachian Spring (1944-45). Aaron Copland /via obama and williams/
• aworks ordered cloud :: most played last.fm tags 
• beyond aworks :: "Will Critique for Food" 
• aworks ordered list :: interesting tracks on lala, before it's too late 
• California Dreamin' (1965). John and Michelle Phillips /worth at least 20 cents/ 
• Ask Me Now (1951). Thelonious Monk /this modern world/
• Symphony No. 3 (1958). Ned Rorem /despite no scrobbling.../ 
• Rhythm-a-Ning (1957?). Thelonious Monk /via lala via google via kronos quartet/ 
• Rumple (2003). Cornelius Boots /vibrational fictions of lucid dementia/
• beyond aworks :: pitchfork top 10 albums of the decade /half new, half fossil/
• Men (2005). David Lang /ten cents/
• aworks ordered list :: notable listening #1 /freight train? indiana? microtonal riley? doors do gershwin?/ 
• Digital Loom (2005). Mason Bates /preconceived notions of goodness/

2010

• lala's last 31 days

Related articles by Zemanta

• Lala to be discontinued May 31 (lostremote.com)
• Apple puts a bullet in Lala: zombie Lala to return as iTunes streaming? (downloadsquad.com)

lala's last 31 days :: day 31 /rhapsody in the lead/

Elton John via last.fm

On what is presumably the last day for lala, I'm looking at the streaming alternatives. To compare, I'll do the John Adams test i.e. the number of John Adams albums at various sites:

• 61 Rhapsody 
• 31 lala 
• 28 Napster 
• 17 MOG - Give or take; presumably since I haven't subscribed yet, I can't get a definitive artist listing. And here's what may be my one and only mog from three years ago.
• 10 Grooveshark - Again, give or take. Not all albums are complete and the results are mixed in with the multitude of other John Adams as well as Oleta Adams singing the music of Elton John.
• 4 BlueBeat
• ??? hype machine - The results are jumbled, to say the least. This site is good for finding Radiohead cover versions and remixes, however.
• ??? YouTube - Even more jumbled results.
• 0 iTunes - No streaming, at least so far, by the acquirer of lala. They are graciously granting iTunes credit for all purchased web tracks.

lala's last 31 days :: day 30 /of the metal variety/

Before lala shuts down (tomorrow!), I am madly rushing to listen to 195 more tracks to see which ones I want to repurchase. 

The Metaux movement of Xenakis' Pleiades is so strangely pleasing, given that it is percussion music of the metal variety...

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Yale version of Metaux on YouTube: 

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• "If they [Apple] do provide a streaming service of some kind, it will be another walled garden. You stream on our terms, you stream only the content we allow, on the devices we allow (H.264) and we would very much like to collect some data about you." OSNews
• "IT WAS THE FIRST TRULY SOCIAL MUSIC SERVICE. While Lala took a little while to get its footing, when it finally did, it was nothing short of magical." ShortFormBlog

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Update: The Cardigans covering Black Sabbath's Iron Man is also a treat.

lala's last 31 days :: day 28 /the energy never dies/

Cover of E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)

Here are the web streams I purchased that are good enough that I am repurchasing them from lala in MP3 format before the site goes offline Monday. To Apple's credit, they will be granting credit at the iTunes store for the equivalent of what people spent on streaming lala tracks.

• The Anvil Chorus. David Lang. Joseph Gramley - American Deconstruction. It took a decade but I can now enjoy this percussion work.
• Aaron Copland (From "13 Portraits For Piano"). Virgil Thomson. Leo Smits - A Crazy Quilt Of American Piano Music. Tracks with musician names in the title still interest me. See also John McLaughlin by Miles Davis from Bitches Brew.
• El Salon Mexico. Aaron Copland. Talkin' Verve: Lalo Schifrin. Jazz swing version.
• Ez Street Ext. Moon Duo - Ez Street Ext. Wooden Shjips side project.
• Summertime. The Doors - Live At The Matrix. "When the music's over / Turn out the Lights". Wait, that's a different song.
• The Noise Between Thoughts and Washed by Fire. Keeril Makan. Kronos Quartet - In Sound
• Threads. Paul Dresher Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band - In Sound
• Boom Boom Pow. Black Eyed Peas - THE E.N.D. (THE ENERGY NEVER DIES). Souvenir from the recent 4th grade father/daughter dance.
• Heart Shaped Box (Nirvana). Christopher O'Riley. O'Riley's best rock piano interpretation?
• North By Northwest: “The Wild Ride”. Bernard Herrmann. The 5 Browns In Hollywood. The 5 Brown's best popular classical piano interpretation?
• Lovely. Marghreta Cordero / Melody Sumner Carnahan - The Time Is Now. I found the used CD since I bought this track. Also music by Robert Ashley, Elodie Lauten and others.
• Downtown. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. - Like A Duck To Water. I also heard this last month on Pandora.

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Uh oh, it looks like the Rasputin Music store in Mountain View (i.e. the former Tower Records store) is up for lease again. 

lala's last 31 days :: day 27 /on music choice/

John Fahey via last.fm

We are almost done with lala and for me anyway, it is going away with a whimper. I don't think I'm going to make it through all of the six hundred songs I bought and I haven't made a last dash to listen to all those things I've been meaning to before time is up. 

All in all, the demise of lala has been nowhere near as fun as the progressive sales at the end of Tower Music. Oh well.

Recent listens that still strike my interest:

• Anything by Dr. Lonnie Smith, even the Beck covers.
• Lowell Lieberman piano music.
• Joshua Rifkin does Baroque Beatles.
• John Fahey plays Layla.
• "World" music by Jordi Savall.

Other things I would listen to if I have enough time:

• Via Calimac, an old favorite including Decomposing Composers.
• the "new" Rolling Stones album
• El Nuevo Mundo by Jordi Savall
• music by Timothy Andres

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• In Mobile Age, Sound Quality Steps Back
• On the playlist, or hardly knew you, Lala
• Is Bruce Springsteen Inadvertently Ripping off his Blue Collar Fans?
• Amazon elbows its way back into number two music sales slot
• Reid Benditt on Music Choice
• 10 excuses for disappointing record sales

lala's last 31 days :: day 23 /grooveshark and bluebeat/

I tried a couple of alternatives to lala today. 

Grooveshark is fine for general composer queries e.g. play a bunch of Philip Glass tracks. But I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. 

BlueBeat has an iPhone app that claims to stream at up to 160 kbps and although it had an obscure track from Benjamin Boretz, the library may be weak. 

If I had to make a decision today, I"d probably sign up for a Mog subscription, especially if they come out with an iPhone app. We'll see if I actually do that once lala is gone.

lala's last 31 days :: day 22 /summertime/

Cover of Porgy and Bess

One of my favorite oddities on lala is the Doors playing Gershwin's Summertime. The piano solo, anyway, sounds more Light My Fire than Porgy and Bess.

Wikipedia lists 101 cover versions of Summertime including versions by Eva Cassady, Bing Crosby, Sublime (I own that one), Scarlett Johansson, Paul McCartney, and the Zombies.

lala's last 31 days :: day 21 /no obvious solution on the horizon/

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• mspot ("music that follows you") and the technicalities of copy to cloud. digital music news
• "Music Is Not Our Currency" CreativeDeconstruction
• Apple gains in music sales. AppleInsider
• "TunesRights Opens Song Investment Marketplace". hypebot.com
• "Spotify is offering access to the most well-organized, comprehensive catalog of music ever assembled in history. So why are they being forced to beg?...music downstream must be free" digital music news
• "Labels like Warner Music Group are concerned that on-demand free access will take value out of the market by giving music fans who today are still buying CDs and even digital albums a cheaper alternative that ultimately reduces their bottom line rather than increasing it." billboard 

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I have to say, once Tower Records went down the drain, buying a new, list-price CD has become the exception rather than the norm. And I almost never buy a full digital album. I still frequent Amoeba and Rasputin as often as I can, but the average cost per trip continues to decline. 

Yay, used CDs. Sorry, record labels. Good bye, lala.

lala's last 31 days :: day 18 /not axel willner's only moniker/

I have yet to find an alternative to lala that offers all of uploading, good social features, embeddable playlists, large catalog, cheaper MP3s, and ease of use. I suppose I'll subscribe to Mog or Rhapsody but I'm not thrilled by the idea.

I found The Field via lala. It/he is Axel Willner from Sweden:

"The Field" is not Axel Willner's only moniker. He also writes music under stage names Lars Blek, porte, Cordouan and James Larsson. He was also a member of Speedwax

It's the proper antidote to all that bleak, sparse John Cage piano music I'm listening to lately.

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Another Apple streaming rumor and it's supposed to be competing with Spotify. Me, I'm skeptical there will be anything in the short-term from our Cupertino friends.