Drug-Induced Self-Portraits

An artist from Washington DC called Bryan Lewis Saunders created this amazing collection of work called DRUGS by taking every drug known to man and drawing a self-portait after each use. The results are a bizarre and beautiful insight into the effects of drugs on perception and the mind. Below are just a few of my favourites, but I thoroughly recommend you check them all out here.

Cocaine

Crystal Meth

Morphine IV

G13 Marijuana

Huffing Gas

Psilocybin Mushrooms

The End of the Internet

bw.org/end/

'No Homo'

Homophobic language is disgustingly widespread. For those of you who use the world 'gay' as a synonym for 'lame', please look at this. It might make you think twice before it falls out of your mouth next time. 'Nough said. Learn more about the #NoHomophobes movement here.

David Foster Wallace - This Is Water

Absolutely mind-blowing lecture from novelist, essayist and postmodern think-tank genius Prof. David Foster Wallace. Here he unveils an enormous amount of truths about life and about education that we're unable to admit or even put into words. Watch it. NOW.

Electric Swing Circus

The Electro Swing Circus are a superb band I saw at WOMAD festival this year. I absolutely swooned when they played their rendition of Everybody Wants to Be a Cat and was beside myself when they followed it with a cover of Minnie the Moocher. They've got a Crowdfunder page to kickstart their debut album, so I recommend y'all check it out and chuck them a couple of quid. These guys are one of the best bands to see live and I'd love to see them touring the country.



Electro-swing is one of my favourite genre combos, and makes for some incredible club nights. Pop it in your Last.fm radio and see where the journey takes you...
Some more electro-swing for you to check out:

Van Gotye

Ways to find new music

I love hunting for new music to put on my iPod, so I thought I'd share with you a few of the best websites for doing so...

YouTube - That's right. Slightly unexpected, as it's not actually a site dedicated to music, but if you know what you're doing you can find some incredible stuff.

A couple of tips and tricks on how to find music on YT:

1. Think of a song that's really unique or that you'd like to hear songs similar to and find a video of it.

2. On the right hand side there'll be 'recommended videos' - click the 'watch later' button on a few of them (sometimes I click on the ones with interesting names or thumbnails).

3. Each video will bring a new selection of recommended videos. See where the journey takes you!

N.B. If you get bored, start again with another song. Usually, the more obscure the music is, the more interesting (and/or alike the first song you typed in) the music you find will be.

BBC Radio 6Music - This UK radio station is the love of my life. Unlike the other BBC stations, 6Music is committed to broadcasting new and different music. I'd thoroughly recommend:
The Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show - Does what it says on the tin.
Don Letts' Culture Clash - A crazy mixture of genres, usually quite roots/underground/revolutionary stuff but can be unpredictable (in a good way!)
BBC Introducting with Tom Robinson - Helps new artists get noticed.
Steve Lamacq - Anything by this guy is usually good (he's got a few different shows). He loves to play a good mixture of classics and obscure/new stuff he's found.
The Huey Show - Huey Morgan from Fun Lovin' Criminals plays you songs from his huge record collection
All the DJs are passionate about music, have extremely eclectic tastes and really know what they're talking about. Don't forget to check out the live studio sessions!

Recommended artists and/or artist radio

An intelligent machine takes your music listening behaviour such as play counts and uses it to recommend new music. Really helpful if you can't be bothered trawling through endless blogs, not knowing whether to trust the recommendations of random internet strangers.

Last.fm - An incredible website I've been using for years which primarily uses a neat little downloadable application to recommend artists, albums, free mp3s and even gigs in your local area.

1. Create an account and download the iTunes Scrobber/Radio app.

2. Scrobble your iTunes playcount history and keep it open whenever you're listening to music.

3. Check out your recommendations via your homepage or the Scrobbler - Last.fm provides a detailed and comprehensive bio, gallery and selection of genre tags and similar artists for every artist.

N.B. Don't forget to use the radio feature via this page. Type in an artist or genre (or multiple artists and genres!), click play, and it'll start playing songs in the Scrobbler. You can also use Last.fm to network with other listeners by seeing how compatible your music tastes are and getting recommendations off them.

Spotify - I'm not sure if this is application is free anymore, but it's another fantastic way to find new music and pretty easy to navigate through. Like Last.fm it has similar artists and radio features, though it's a lot quicker to find things, it's easier to create and share playlists, and you can listen to a lot more full songs on there because it's not so bound up by copyright problems.
However, Last.fm's library tends to be bigger with more information available about the artists. That said, you don't have to choose one or the other - in fact, you can connect your Last.fm and Spotify accounts!

Grooveshark - Like Spotify, but an online Flash website. Because it's run by people uploading the music themselves, the system isn't as accurate as other websites, and the radio function isn't as good. However, there's a lot of stuff you'll find on there that you won't find on Spotify like obscure B-sides and live tracks.

Gnoosic - Type in artists' names and it'll draw a 'map' of similar music, with the artist you searched for in the middle, and other artists circling it, nearer or further away depending on how similar they are. Although you can't actually listen to music on this website and it's not always 100% accurate, it's still a really cool idea. Also works for books and movies.

Homemade playlists

Personal playlists made by real people are often the best way to find new music. The people on these sites really care about the music they're sharing, which is often what's lacking in a faceless machine that collects data telling you what you should listen to like Last.fm.

Stereomood - Brilliant peer-led website that categorizes music by 'mood' playlists (e.g. urban, aggressive, sitting on the toilet, etc). Click a tag you like the sound of on the homepage and it'll lead you to a playlist people having been adding suitable songs to. Click play, sit back and relax.

Everyone's Mixtape - A recent discovery of mine, this website shares mixtape playlists people have made. You can also add your own.

8tracks - Kind of a cross between Stereomood and Everyone's Mixtape. People often get quite creative naming and describing their playlists and how/why they made them, which is interesting to read whilst you're listening.

Mixcloud - A sister site of SoundCloud that hosts DJ mixes. Go onto the homepage, click on a genre tag and get listening!

Live sessions
Browsing websites that host live session videos is another way of finding new music. Read more about that here.

HAPPY HUNTING!

Live music sessions

In a digital age where musicians can no longer solely rely on the sales of their CDs, vinyls and mp3s due to peer-to-peer sharing and piracy, it's easy to sort the weak from the strong by watching how they perform live. Some of the best bands in my opinion are those who make their live performances really special and different to their studio-recorded material.

Therefore, these are some of my favourite websites for finding cool new artists with raw talent, showcasing lots of live videos of bands performing their songs and occasionally some covers. I included are a couple of my findings, though it's difficult to pick the best - there are so many amazing acts captured in such interesting locations. Go find!

La Blogotheque - A a huge catalogue of live sessions with an 'arty' feel; filmed in various interesting locations, usually around France or Continental Europe, but sometimes ventures over to the States and beyond.

Here's one of the best live videos I've ever seen, hands down - a really creative performance by Beirut of their song Nantes:

And here's one of my favourite musicians, The Tallest Man on Earth, playing his song The Gardner in a bizarre and enchanting shop full of musical instruments.

Black Cab Sessions - Bands play rough and raw in the back of black London cabs. Like La Blogotheque, they've got a huge archive of artists for your perusal.

And here's the husky Holly Miranda belting out heartbreaking a cover of Lauryn Hill's Ex Factor:

From the Basement - Live performances from the basement recording studio of the bloke who produced Radiohead. A few more well-known artists here, such as Gnarls Barkley and The White Stripes.

Here's one of my all-time favourite live versions of a song, purely because of how unique, haunting and strangely classical it sounds - Andrew Bird's Plasticities: