songs

Finally, I can call myself an inventor.

I've been inventing things for almost 20 years now, but Montalvo Systems was the first company I worked for that took intellectual property seriously. (That was no coincidence; it was also the first company I worked for where I helped develop the intellectual-property strategy.)

During my years at Montalvo, I came up with quite a few ideas and participated in brainstorming sessions that yielded more ideas. Most of these sessions were limited to Montalvo's own people, but there was one person I brought in to help us as a consultant--Don Alpert, who was the principal architect of Intel's Pentium processor and, possibly less significantly, a member of the editorial board at Microprocessor Report.

Working with three of us from Montalvo--myself and chief architects Greg Favor and Peter Song--Don took the lead in preparing a set of related patent applications describing a new way to design microprocessors.

The first patent from this set was… Read more

I like long songs, but As Eliot Van Buskirk over on Listening Post reports, at least two separate writers have come to the conclusion that the perfect song is short. Two minutes and 42 seconds, to be exact--the length of "There She Goes" by The La's.

Personally, I think "La La Love You" by the Pixies (2:43) is closer to the ideal song, but my own collection does reveal a remarkable number of good songs at 2:42. Without further ado, my 2:42 Muxtape.

The Beatles--"Back in the U.S.S.… Read more

Although "emo rock" may be more of a '90s term, contemporary bands such as Fall Out Boy, The Maine, and Dashboard Confessional have revitalized the genre. To avoid a style debate, it's safer to call them "punk-pop" or simply a "popular rock band." (Even Paramore's Hayley Williams questions whether they're even an emo band.) Whatever you prefer to call 'em, we can all agree that these talented young acts all share a common emo-tional quality to them. With that in mind, listen to and enjoy our Finding Emo playlist below.

Though she resides in New York, Laura Cantrell has genuine Nashville roots and a classic country heritage, which comes across clearly through her warm, rootsy recordings. On her travel-themed '08 covers collection "Trains and Boats and Planes," she blends her penchant for purebred honky-tonk with new takes on pop, folk, and country forget-me-nots, including New Order's "Love Vigilantes."

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Jello Biafra likes short songs, but there's an undeniable pleasure in long songs. "Hey Jude" (7:11) was groundbreaking at the time, especially for a 45rpm single, but it's really a typical three-minute Beatles song with a four-minute outro. To me, the first true rock epic was Pink Floyd's 1971 opus "Echoes" (23:25). Unlike their 1970 record-breaker, "Atom Heart Mother" (23:44), which was four instrumental sections stitched together into a single track, "Echoes" was a real unified song with a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure--along with a really long … Read more

We just posted the lastest edition of the Indie To Go playlists on Download Music! This iPod-friendly sampler of MP3s features topnotch indie newcomers and chart-toppers such as Tokyo Police Club, Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), The Raveonettes, The Explorers Club and more. Stream now (while you work), then visit the artist pages to download the songs to go. And if you want to hear more playlists like this one, check out Indie To Go Volumes 1 through 10.

It's not exactly Gershwin's "An American in Paris," but there is one thing very significant about an archaic 10-second recording discovered earlier this month in the City of Lights by a group of American audio historians: it is the earliest known sound recording. The phonoautograph of the folk song "Au Clair de la Lune" was made in 1860, some 17 years before the advent of Thomas Edison's phonograph. And get this: it was a visual tool, not an audio one. Still, scientists figured out how to make it play.

Read more at The … Read more

If you live in the bay area (or plan to be here the weekend of August 22nd), get ready for the first annual Outside Lands music festival! The Bonnaroo-size line-up features some of the biggest names around, such as Radiohead, Beck, Tom Petty, Jack Johnson, Wilco, Primus and more (see below). Tickets go on sale this Sunday, March 30th at 10AM on Sfoutsidelands.com

The festivities will take place in Golden Gate Park August 22-24th, and it's being produced by Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Productions, Starr Hill Presents, and the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department. It will be … Read more

In an age of reality television, I mourn the death of the TV theme song. I miss the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s where programs like The Jeffersons, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show gave us catchy tunes that were almost as enjoyable as the shows themselves. Of course, YouTube has become a great way to get your theme song fix, and today I saw something really cool.

Though Hawaii Five-O's theme music never had lyrics, I consider it the best TV theme of all time. The great music by Morton Stevens, combined with … Read more