Le blog du Baron

MASH IT UP, MASH IT UP: EMI ENDORSES 2 MAJOR PROJECTS

Mashup has recenly become the buzz word on the blogosphere with 2 high profile, EMI-endorsed projects.  First one is "Love", a Beatles mashup album by legendary producer George Martin and his son: no need to say more, chance is most of you already had the opportunity to listen to some tracks and make your own opinion. Second is "Mashed" a compilation of mashups produced by Mark Vidler's "Go Home Production" (aka GHP, which I featured on Zerocast in the past) - some tracks can be found on Coolfer here.

For those who are interested, its definitely worth checking the Conference, the weekly talk just launched by Mashuptown and featuring mashup legens such as GHP, Loo & Placido, Party Ben or DJ Zebra.

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NOT EVERYBODY LAUGHS AT BORAT: STAR US LAWYER SUES SACHA COHEN FOR 30m $

Love it or hate it (and considering the success, I guess most people would rank in the first categorie), Borat is creating quite a stir. I have picked this one a few days ago in the Austrian news here (obviously in German):

US lawyer Ed Fagan is mounting a court case against Sacha Baron Cohen. He is representing the little Romanian village of Glod, which in the movie is the name of wanna-be journalist Borat's birth place. Sounds like a silly joke ? Well Ed Fagan, who rose to fame 10 years ago after winning billions against Swiss banks on behalf of Holocaust survivors, is serious enough to ask for 30 m$ in damages !!!

And to show that he obviously does not like him a bit, Ed Fagan is also trying to raise Austrian crowds against Sacha Cohen's next project, the adventures of Austrian gay-fashion reporter Bruno, and prevent him from even shooting the film.

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I WANT YOUR COVER #3: NEW CONTEST ON ECEU BLOG

Music blog "Everybody cares, everybody understands" has launched the 3rd edition of its 'I want your  cover' contest. The 10 winners will be featured on the ECEU blog as well as podcast. Entries are open till 29.11 - all the details here.

Seemed like the perfect opportunity to enter Baron Zero's cover version of Creep - which you can download here if you haven't already. Keep your fingers crossed.

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GET YOURSELF HEARD: COCA-COLA, AOL & SANTACRUZ MUSIC CONTESTS

Here are a few music contests currently open, for all my fellow musicians:

• Coke and iTunes have teamed up for "Talent brut" (raw talent): an internet site where artists can get their songs reviewed by a jury of professionals; the best 6 each month will be featured on an iTunes podcast. You can access the French site here but the activity also includes the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
• next one is for French speakers: AOL Musique has launched 'Les imprevus'; the contest is open to every band with an original song and video. The 2 winners (one picked by the jury, one through internet votes) get 7,500 € and the right to perform during the closing party. Unfortunately not an option for your favourite Baron since I do not have a video (bummer), but if you are interested inscriptions are open till 11/12/2006 here.
• the Santa Cruz Battle of the Band III is set for beginning of next year. The 10 finalists get a spot on the compilation CD (which was the case for 'No easy way' in the previous contest !) and the winners a free printing run for their own CD. Registration is open untill 02/01/2007 here.

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MEET THE MAN BEHIND BORAT: HILARIOUS VIDEO OF SACHA BARON COHEN

Borat is turning out to be a massive hit everywhere, including in France where it finished its first week as No.1 ... and by quite a margin ! So here is a video of Sacha Baron Cohen, the brain behind Ali G and Borat, being interviewed by John Stewart. Shows how hilarious and clever the man really is ...

[spotted on my friend Ouriel's blog]

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AIR GUITAR LIKE NEVER BEFORE: AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTS BRING YOU THE WEARABLE INSTRUMENT SHIRT

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national  science agency) have just unveiled the WIS (Wearable Instrument Shirt, we like our acronyms today) which has to be a dream come true for legions of air guitar addicts.

All you have to do after putting it on is strike hard these invisible chords. The sensors built in the fabric pick up the wearer's movements, one arm interpreting them as picking and the other one as frets chords. The information is sent to a computer (via wireless technology) and the signal is played through an amplifier in the form of guitar chords.

An interview of chief -engineer Richard Helmer as well as more details are available on CSIRO website here.

Blimey, I have to get myself one of those for Xmas !

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REANIMATE THE DECEMBERISTS: FANS TO FINISH OFF NEW VIDEO

Another excellent idea from the Decemberists (who are not short of them). Following the recent release of an exclusive digital album with Sony Connect, the band has teamed up with mtvU to put together a video contest: all you need to do is download the video of "O Valencia" as it stands now (basically just the band performing the song in front of a green screen) and add in your own special effects. 

The contest is open till 15.12.2006 and you can win some cool prizes including a brand new iMac - check out the details here.

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OPEN YOUR EYES: "THIS GUITAR HAS SECONDS TO LIVE"

A great photo of Pete Townshend taken from an advert for the Who's album "The kids are allright" ...

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HOW TO BOOTLEG YOURSELF: THE RACONTEURS SELL UK TOUR SHOWS

The Raconteurs (whose album 'Broken boy soldier' is a definite must-hear) are now recording  every single concert of their UK tour and selling them online as limited edition CDs. But only 1,000 copies of each show will be available. In addition, fans will also have the possibility to buy an exclusive double-live CD with artworks specific to each venue as they leave after the concert. Details here.

This is what I call brilliant ! Who would not want to keep a memory of the specific concert they attended ? Other bands like for instance the Pixies have done similar things in the past but the Raconteurs are adding a few nice twists.

I had a similar idea some time ago with an extra hook: a photographer (or members of the band if they are too bored) take pictures of people in the first raws during the gig, pictures which are then available online (I guess there might be some issues with rights since you have to ask for permissions first, mmmm, I'll get back to you on this one ...).

[spotted on lesinrocks.com]

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GREAT MUSIC MARKETING: BRILLIANT HITS GOLD WITH MOZART & BACH COMPLETE SETS

We have an expression in French: "faire du neuf avec du vieux" (which roughly translated stands  for "making something new out of old stuff").

This is exactly what the label Brilliant Classics did last year when they launched a 170 CD-boxset with the complete work of Mozart: helped by the media buzz around the 250th anniversary of his birth, they sold untill now more than 200,000 sets ! And the complete Bach boxset (155 CDs) that they have introduced in September has already reached 50,000.

Who said that marketing did not sell ?

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