David Byrne's latest art project turns an entire building into a instrument:

"I'd like to say that in a small way it turns consumers into creative producers," Byrne explains on his official site, "but that might be a bit too much to claim. However, even if one doesn't play the thing, it points toward a less mediated kind of cultural experience. It might be an experience in which one begins to reexamine one's surroundings and to realize that culture -- of which sound and music are parts -- doesn't always have to be produced by professionals and packaged in a consumable form.

"I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments," he adds, "but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down. The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world's popular music is a good thing, for the most part."

Link to official Playing the Building site, Link to Wired News story

Graham sez, "tpimovies.com user Serpento has created this catchy little ditty out of nothing more than samples of firearms discharging in Call Of Duty 4. Personally, my favorite part is when the 'Empty Clip' sound is used as the bridge in the middle." And, naturally, the video is all machinima. Link (Thanks, Graham!)

Mashup artist Rench has released a free album of "gangstagrass" music -- hiphop mashed with bluegrass. The mixes are really good, in that, "Hey, who knew those two really different flavors worked so well together?" way that makes mashups so much fun to listen to.

Introducing block rockin' honky-tonk, New American music for the 21st century, built with love in a little studio, hand crafted, running on inspiration and imagination and duct tape, calling on the spirit of Gram Parsons and Otis Redding and KRS-ONE and Dolly Parton and Nina Simone and Willie Nelson and Missy Elliott and Johnny Cash, to write about what we feel and play what our hearts tell us, because to make it happen is reason enough, and to share it with the world is all the reason you need, because we tell the truth with music and the truth is beautiful.

Link to Gangstagrass album download, Link to information about Rench (Thanks, Brooklyn Twang!)

As part of Manchester's Futuresonic 2008 conference, you can have your old CDs and DVDs "overwritten" with a vintage record cutter and converted to a 45RPM record:

Take part in a social music sharing event with a difference - in CD-Recycled 45rpm Aleks Kolkowski uses his vintage record cutter to 'overwrite' existing data and cut grooves on CDs/DVDs so they can be played on a turntable. Bring unwanted CDs/DVDs and a sound file and receive a recycled disc in return.

Link (via Gizmodo)

WillS sez, "The Get Out Clause, an unsigned Manchester band who could not afford a camera crew for their video, 'performed' in front of a load of CCTV cameras, requested the footage from the camera operators under the Freedom of Information Act Data Protection Act and then stitched the results together for their music video." Link (Thanks, WillS!)

The StarShipSofa podcast is metamorphosing into the StarShipSofa - The Audio Science Fiction Magazine, following in the great tradition of magazines like Analog, Asimov and Fantasy and Science Fiction. Tony sez,

Each week the StarShipSofa will deliver a full package of SF related audio material all free including audio fiction, fact audio essays, flash fiction and poetry, all by leading names in the SF field. Many many writers have agreed to let StarShipSofa narrate their works including Ben Bova, Joe Haldeman, Alistair Reynolds and M John Harrison to name a few.

There will be two shows per week, the Wednesday show, also know as Aural Delights will contain narrated audio fiction, fact and poetry and the weekend show will be an in depth look into an author's life and work.

This week saw the first of the metamorphosing with the StarShipSofa's Aural Delights show. Fiction was provided by Kage Baker's fantastic story The Likely Lad, there were two poems by Bruce Boston and Laurel Winter, both winners of the Rhysling Award for SF Poetry. Flash fiction came from a very short but very powerful story called Repeating The Past by Peter Watts, author of the SF novel Blindsight.

In the weeks to come Peter Watts will also be delivering a monthly narrated fact article; this part of the show will be called Reality, Remastered. As for the weekend shows, StarShipSofa has her sights upon writers such as John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson and Ken Macleod.

Link (Thanks, Tony!)

My next novel, Little Brother, officially goes on sale today! In addition to the US print edition, there's a DRM-free audio edition (there're also forthcoming editions in the UK, Greece, Russia, France and Norway, with others pending) from Random House Audio. My deal with Random House is that they're absolutely not allowed to sell the book with DRM on it, which, sadly, means that Audible (the largest audiobook store in the world) won't carry it -- they insist on selling books with DRM, even when authors and publishers don't want it.

Instead, you can buy the audiobook from Zipidee, a retailer that Random House uses -- they have the spiffy embeddable Flash sales-object you see above (feel free to paste it into your own blog or whatnot), and there's also this static URL for those of you who can't use Flash.

The audiobook comes with my own sampling license: once you own it, you're free to take up to 30 minutes' worth of material from it and remix and then redistribute it as much as you like, provided that you do so on a noncommercial basis, make sure that it's clear that this is a remix and not the original, and make sure that you tell people where to find the original. This is in addition to all the fair use remixing that you're allowed to do without my permission (of course!).

I'll also be releasing (as always!) a free, Creative Commons-licensed version of the text of Little Brother, just as soon as I get back to London (I'm presently in Toronto, visiting my family with my newborn daughter). It'll likely be Monday or so -- there's a bunch of little clean-uppy things I need to do with the Little Brother distribution site that I need to be in my office with uninterrupted time to accomplish. Link to audiobook, Link to buy Little Brother

The Canadian indy band The Western Investor (formerly Feisty) have released their rare, out of print first EP as a remixable Creative Commons download (it's the band's tenth anniversary and they're celebrating). I've been listening to it for the past 20 minutes and there's plenty there to like -- some of these tracks appeared in the movie "Better Than Chocolate." Link (Thanks, Chris!)

This week's installment of The Command Line podcast is a recording from a panel on Secure Computing Environments with Vernor Vinge, held last weekend at Penguicon, the free software/science fiction convention in Novi Troy, MI. The panel's really fascinating and far-ranging, covering the nitty-gritty of how trusted computing is -- and might be -- implemented, to the policy, surveillance, and activist possibilities opened up by a universally available secure computing platform. Link

Ape Lad sez, "Every time I see this it makes me smile: ballet dancers performing to the Pixies' 'Where is my mind.'" Link (Thanks, Ape Lad!)

David Byrne and Brian Eno have completed a new album (of "electric gospel") for released before 2009 and have booked a North American tour on which they're planning to play at least 40 percent old Talking Heads material. Holy moly, this is as good as life gets! Update: Turns out the tour's just Byrne, not Byrne and Eno!

Byrne told us he’s collaborating with their mutual friend Brian Eno “for the first time in 20 years. Brian had written a lot of music, but needed some words, which I know how to do. What’s it sound like? Electronic gospel. That’s all I’m saying.”

Link, Link to NY Daily News piece

See also:
Byrne/Eno "Bush of Ghosts" tracks re-released under CC
Missing Byrne/Eno track "Qu'ran" appears on blogs
Byrne/Eno's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" -- remix it yourself!
David Byrne's guide to being a musician in the 21st century

Mur sez, "JC Hutchins brought us the killer podcast trilogy 7th Son, but after the novels were done, he invited eight authors from podcasting to write in his world. The audio anthology, called 7th Son, OBSIDIAN, comes out in May and features stories that follow random Americans through the nationwide 2 week blackout that happens in the trilogy. Authors contributing to the Obsidian audio project include Michael A. Stackpole, Scott Sigler, and Mur Lafferty. Right now he's started a video project, showing content submitted by fans and allowing viewers to call in and submit their own 'stories from the blackout' - inviting a new kind of video and audio fanfic in his world. "

THE NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT IS NOW … the violence and chaos are HERE … and YOU are a victim. Call the number in the video below and submit your story of horror and survival! Email your friends this blog post link, encourage them to call and share their “blackout experience!” 7th Son: OBSIDAN is coming….

(Recordings will be played in May, in the OBSIDIAN audio anthology, which chronicles the blackout.)

Link (Thanks, Mur!)

Finnish new wavers The Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Chorus teamed up to perform this rousing rendition of Sweet Home Alabama, all booming, brassy and high-hair. Musical highlight of the week, for sure. Link (Thanks, Jinny!)

In this week's CBC Search Engine podcast, there's a hilarious interview with "Joey Chaos," a teenaged new-wave goth rocker who's upset that some roboticists in Texas "stole" his name and look for their robot. The Search Engine folks point out that there are plenty of other Joey Chaoses, even bringing one on the line. Link, MP3 Link

(Disclosure: I am a paid columnist for Search Engine)

Avi sez, "Starship Sofa has made Ted Chiang's marvelous arabesque time travel story 'The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate' available as a podcast."

Oh yes, thank you very much. I brake for Ted Chiang stories -- hell, I'd stop, drop and roll for a chance to read one.

MP3 Link, Text of the story (Thanks, Avi!)

See also: Short-story collection of the decade if not the century

Peter sez, "The One Laptop Per Child project's sonic contributors have been hard at work. They've collected 8.5 GB of Creative Commons-licensed sounds from the likes of the Berklee College of Music and electronic superstar BT. These are free for use whether or not you've got an OLPC. They've also been working on musical applications for children using the machines, building on Csound, an open-source synthesis and effects tool. The upshot: open music development on the OLPC will benefit the whole music community, not just XO laptop owners." Link (Thanks, Peter!)

(Image: OLPC Funny Talk Activity, a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike NonCommercial photo from Thumbuki's Flickr stream)

Two iphone snapshots from a recent Boing Boing tv shoot at a club called the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco, which led to this BBtv episode about the bedazzling internet personality Leslie "Shazam! You're Glamorous!" Hall.

Here's Leslie Hall's online store (Hefty Hideaway), where you can buy CDs and t-shirts and stuff.

Below: click the little audio-looking widget and listen to a Leslie and the LYs song that appeared in that BBtv ep -- "BLAME THE BOOTY," remixed by Ninja Science Laboratories. How fierce is that shit, seriously?

Previously on Boing Boing: BBtv: Leslie Hall - ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.

PG sez, "Mur Lafferty has just released Wasteland, Book Four of her Heaven podcast novel series. As always, Mur is doing something special with her podcast novel (Mur's last, Playing for Keeps, was a multimedia event which included audio chapters, the text of each chapter released in .pdf format, comic book style covers for each chapter, hidden audio easter eggs, and a fan-created audio podcast): Mur is releasing episodes daily on murverse.com, and the entire podcast can be downloaded immediately from Podiobooks.com."

I really liked this one -- I've been following the series since she started. Lafferty is a one-woman podcasting machine, singlehandedly blowing the doors off of what's possible in alternative publishing. Link (Thanks, PG!)

See also:
Mur Lafferty's Heaven: free audiobook of existential comedy
Lafferty's new podiobook: Earth (Heaven, part 3) Playing for Keeps: Mur Lafferty's science fiction superhero podcast

I caught the haunting, beautiful song "East" by Toronto band The Weather Station on a podcast today and was transported. The lead singer's tentative, lilting vocals are just heart-breaking. The band's got the track up as a stream on its MySpace page -- I ripped it and it's gone straight into my playlist. Link

I've just posted the first installment of a podcast reading of a new novella that I co-wrote with Hugo- and Nebula-nominee Benjamin Rosenbaum. The story's a big, 32,000-word piece called "True Names" (in homage to Vernor Vinge's famous story of the same name), and it involves the galactic wars between vast, post-Singularity intelligences that are competing to corner the universe's supply of computation before the heat-death of the universe.

Ben and I will be reading the story in weekly installments, taking turns as our schedules allow. The reading is Creative Commons licensed -- Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial -- and the story itself will be published this fall in Fast Forward 2, Lou Anders' followup to his knockout 2007 anthology, Fast Forward (regular Boing Boing readers will remember Paul Di Filippo's Wikiworld story from that volume). Lou's given us permission to post the story's text simultaneous with the book's publication, under the same Creative Commons license.

I had a nearly illegal amount of fun working on this story with Ben, who is a gonzo comp-sci geek with a real flair for phrasing, and I hope you'll enjoy hearing it as much as we enjoyed writing it! Link, Podcast feed

Subterranean Press has produced a free MP3 audiobook of Charlie Stross's comic science fiction novella "Trunk and Disorderly."

Charles Stross is damned funny, both in person and on the page. You’ll have to take my word on the first count. As to the second, here’s a P. G. Wodehouse meets Robert A. Heinlein as filtered through Mr. Stross’s sensibilities. In other words, it’s funny and indescribable as hell, and probably my favorite story this year.

Link (via Charlie Stross)

Frank151 points to a Hanson Records podcast featuring "William Burroughs explaining how audio tape cut-ups can tell the future and Mick Jagger wilding on Moog synthesizer for Kenneth Anger’s 1969 film, 'Invocation of My Demon Brother.'"
Link (Thanks, Sebastian Demian!)

Tony sez, "StarShipSofa will bring you, in conjunction with the British Science Fiction Association all five of the short stories that have been shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Short Story 2007 in audio narrated format for FREE. Starting Monday 10th March (tomorrow) StarShipSofa will upload one of the narrated stories each day. First off, to give you a heads up will be Chaz Brenchley narrating his own story Terminal. Now this means they will all be up online for free for you to listen to, well in advance of voting time at Eastercon." Link

Jeff Healey, the Toronto blues guitarist, broadcaster, and music historian, died yesterday of cancer. Healey was most widely known for his appearance as the blind guitar player in Roadhouse, and for his distinctive way of playing his guitar laid flat across his lap. I met Jeff many times at the Crow's Nest Bar over Chicago's on Queen Street, and at the open-mic days at Grossman's Tavern, and he was always a mensch, not to mention funny and blisteringly talented.

Acclaimed jazz and rock guitarist Jeff Healey was remembered Sunday as a musician of rare ability who had a wicked sense of humour and a generous nature as fans and bandmates mourned his death at age 41, following a battle with cancer.

Bandmates of Canadian rock and jazz legend Jeff Healey were among those shocked by the news of his death Sunday.

Healey died Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital surrounded by family and a bandmate, Colin Bray.

Link (Image: Jeff Healey in 2007.jpg, by Cmccarten at Wikimedia Commons)

Amazon's launched a Linux-based downloader for its DRM-free MP3 music store -- fantastic news! Now if they'd only change the terms-of-service for the store to something sensible like "Don't do anything illegal with this music." Link (Thanks, Pete!)

Seth Godin has posted a transcript of a fantastic talk he gave to some music execs about the future of the music industry and the Internet. This is some good straight-shooting insight about what the music industry will never succeed at (suing fans) and what they could do instead (courting fans):

So if I put all this together I’m going to come up with what I call the Merchant Solution. It has nothing to do with stores, it has to do with Natalie Merchant. (laughter) So, Natalie Merchant shows up in the New York Times last week saying not only do I not have a record label, I’m not going to make records anymore because I just figure out how to do it. And that is the biggest opportunity times 10,000 because Natalie doesn’t want to be in business, Natalie wants to make records. Thirty years ago Natalie couldn’t put together the scratch to record an album because she couldn’t afford a recording studio. Thats what you guys did for her. She couldn’t come up with the time and energy to go out to California to sell and pay for shelf space at Tower, thats what you guys did for her. The point is, now she needs somebody to say “let us take care of your tribe”. Let us figure out the business model that says you get to do what you’re great at, write songs, perform them, find people who love you, not like you, and they are A LOT in the case of Natalie Merchant, and we will figure out not how to exploit that, not how to write a contract that you’re going to regret for the rest of your life, but to sit next to you and say guess what, there are all these people in the tribe [and] we need to figure out how to make stuff for them. And, because we have three other artists that are just like you, Cowboy Junkies, we can start mixing tribes together in appropriate ways that makes everybody happy. Because you [record label] could go to the Cowboy Junkies tribe and say Natalie Merchant is coming to town and they’ll all go. Because they love her and they love each other and they want to see each other again because they can’t wait a whole year till the [Cowboy] Junkies come back.

So if the model that we loved about the record business in 1968 was A&R, taking care of artists, finding artists who people will love, and the model that we hated was brand management, I want to argue that the next model is tribal management. That the next model is to say, what you do for a living is manage a tribe...many tribes...silos of tribes. That your job is to make the people in that tribe delighted to know each other and trust you to go find music for them. And, in exchange, it could be way out on the long tail, no one wants to be on the long tail by themselves, the polka lovers like the polka lovers, they want to be together. But that you, maybe it is only one person, technology makes this really easy, your job is to curate for that tribe, like the curators upstairs [at the museum]. There is a museum of modern art tribe, you can see them here every Thursday. And if you can curate for them guess what the [musical] artists need...you! Guess what the tribe needs...you! You add an enormous amount of value by becoming a new kind of middleman.

Link (Thanks, Jason!)

Following on the news that Random House Audio is dropping DRM on its audiobooks, both Penguin and Simon & Schuster Audio have announced DRM-free trials for their products. I really hope this means that Audible/Amazon will drop the DRM on its audiobooks now. I used to spend a fortune on Audible books until I realized that the DRM had locked me into iTunes (and had to spend a solid month unlocking my giant, paid-for audio collection when I switched to Linux).

As I've mentioned here, Audible's policy is that they'll only sell DRMed audiobooks, even if the publisher and author want to go DRM-free. That's not because Audible can't handle DRM-free files (they do some free/promotional stuff without DRM), but rather out of some ideological commitment to DRM. And since they're the exclusive supplier of audiobooks to iTunes, that means that you can only buy DRMed audiobooks through the iTunes store, despite Steve Jobs' claim that he wants to make the store DRM-free (he renewed Audible's exclusivity deal after making that announcement, though).

When Amazon bought Audible, they said they'd kill the DRM if they got enough public outcry against it.

Well, here's my promise: if Amazon drops Audible DRM and institutes sensible terms of service (something along the lines of "Don't break copyright law"), I will buy and blog an Audible audiobook here on Boing Boing once a week for six months. Link

See also:
Random House Audio abandons audiobook DRM
Amazon buys Audible, promises to kill DRM if we complain