It was a true Austin experience: Here we are, walking from the juice bar to our car at Whole Foods HQ at 6^th and Lamar in Austin when we come across a live music session ready to start. The performer is George Ensle, a local singer-songwriter whose melodies and lyrics positively enchant. As his website says, he paints pictures with his words, and the pictures he paints make you smile and cry, sometimes at the same time.

The Austin Symphony's fireworks just ended and crowds fill the downtown area. The Belmont, a great open-air music venue, is showcasing Los Bad Apples, a local Latin hip-hop band that once opened for Ludacris. What a way to end a great day.

What better way to spend the 4th of July than sitting outside under balmy skies at The Belmont and watch a local band, Cienfuegos, perform a few sets as twilight sets. Lone Star Summer is starting to take shape.

Wednesday nights are kinda slow in downtown Austin (relatively speaking) with music really hitting its stride Thursday night through Saturday. Along 6^th (North of Congress), we stopped into a few places and happened upon a band called Wilson playing at the open air venue of The Belmont restaurant. Here’s their rendition of “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

We walked out the front door and headed two blocks down Colorado and there on the right side is Antone’s, the legendary Austin music venue. It was a quiet Monday night and it was Super Soul Monday, featuring Flyjack and Uncle Bruno. These two local bands were just fantastic as they played for close to three hours wit ha few songs in which members of one band jammed with the other. This was truly one of the great reasons we moved to Austin.

Been a while since I have been at the video switch. Our first day in our new second home in Austin included visits to the two Saturday farmers markets, one down the street at 4^th and Guadalupe and the other out in Sunset Valley. And if you are the live music capital of the world, there would have to be music at the markets. At the Downtown Market there’s Brian Byrne and Borrowed Time; out in Sunset Valley, it was a fill in for one of the regulars, so I didn’t catch his name

As we work on getting our land legs back from a week at sea, one of the highlights of our Mexican Riviera Cruise was a serenade by a mariachi group while we ate lunch at The Shrimp Factory in Cabo San Lucas.

Here’s part two of Austin’s Make Faire. Two highlights (among many): one is the Austin band Manager’s Choice. It would have been great to devote an entire clip to them. Second was Purl Drums in which a drummer knit while drumming. Get it? And what video clip would be complete without some juggling

New Belgium Beer asks, “Would you trade your car for a bike?” Well, that’s the underlying theme of the Tour de Fat, a ballyhoo of bikes and beer. Seems from what we can figure out about Austin, it’s the perfect stop on the tour.  Held in Town Lake (which I don’t think is a real lake), the event was a gathering of bike aficionados, folks who like beer and those just interested in a good time on an early Fall Saturday.

There were bikes, plenty of beer and music. This clip features The Reals, from Colorado and The Story Of, a band from Austin.

Here’s a new spot (at least for me) to find great street musicians: The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It’s a Tuesday night; just imagine the weekends.

The Hollywood Farmers Market, held Sunday mornings along Selma & Ivar Sts in Hollywood is an amazing market not only because of its produce wares, but its sights and sounds are a delight. Here's The Rainwater Bluegrass Band performing at last weekend's market.

Here’s a clip from The Police concert at US Airways Arena. With respect to the band, no segment is longer than 30 seconds to give those on the fence about seeing them during the remaining part of their tour a preview of what awaits them. The show was excellent.

By the way, I did not sneak in a video camera. This was shot with my Nokia N93-I mobile phone.

On one of them more interesting travel days we've had in recent memory, we boarded the Backbeat Tours bus (an old bus reconfigured for modern day fun) headed for Graceland. Truly one of the highlights was on onboard entertainment from Memphis Jones. The clip is a bit bumpy reflecting the condition of the road between downtown and Graceland.

You can’t go to Memphis without going to Graceland. Here’s a short clip to whet your appetite and get a feel for this strange and wondrous place.

Music is “It Don’t Rock Like Elvis” from the Nashville Session Players (it’s podsafe)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame never sounded so good…

Memphis has music at every turn. Here's a clip from the park by the Pepsi Pavillion right by a statue honoring Rufus (Funky Chicken) Thomas.

For the second consecutive year, we headed over to Desert Ridge Marketplace for the SRP Battle of the Garage Bands. We heard all three high school bands: Marbury V Madison (perhaps would-be law students); Age of Evil and Green Tea Band. We were partial to Green Tea as the three young men were original and engaging.

We didn't hang out for the college bands, but we did meet the mom of one of the acts, Sister Cities. Here is their Myspace site.

All of this talk about YouTube and its problems with illegal content made me wonder what creative folks could do with content provided legally by networks.

So, this is not exactly artestry, but it is a series of clips (none more than 10 seconds), some Garage Band samples and some special effects. DCMA take down? No way!

En route back to our hotel via the Circle Line, we came across this musician who was playing "The Girl From Ipanema." Rather well, I'd say.

Here's a quick clip of another musician performing in The Tube.

 

The sun, the sea air, the smell of grilled fish in the air… Yes, I have to say, Cannes, in the south of France, is really splendid. There is a promenade along the sea with restaurants, folks out for a stroll, artists and musicians. Here is a quick clip of one such duo.

It was with some sadness and nostalgia that we read that Tower Records (and Video) was finally going out of business. The company, which started as a record department in a Sacramento drugstore, was sold to a liquidator on October 6th. There is no final date announced, but it’s coming...soon.

Alas, Amazon’s low prices for physical CDs and Apple’s iTunes did Tower in. Here’s an example of a bricks and mortar store totally unable to see the digital business coming. Could they have taken advantage of the Tower brand and made headway as an online presence ahead of the more nimble cyber-competition? We’ll never know.
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In my line of work, I get to see (and sometimes trial) quite a few media-related products. I have to say, I am very impressed with the Sonos music system which offers music portability throughout the home. You can set up 32 different music listening posts if money is no object (and you have a home the size of the Grand Canyon). The setup was fairly straightforward (made easy if you have a home WiFi network). Within 30 minutes, I was playing Capital FM, a London-based radio station in my bedroom while playing Steely Dan in my office.

One of the cool things about the Sonos system is how it plays the Rhapsody music service even if your computer is turned off. So, I am waiting to be able to port our XM Radio service throughout the house...I imagine that’s coming soon.

As Siskel & Ebert would have said, two thumbs up!
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After losing 120 videos, some of which were great shots of performers in The Tube, I was able to grab this one of a musician at The Bond Street stop.

In today's installment, Allen and Mike weigh in on Amazon's alleged entry into the online music business. Is it too late? Can the company create a unique and compelling alternative to iTunes and the iPod? In an era where definitive answers to anything are hard to come by, we provide them. Kind of . . .

The most interesting thing about the Starz announcement of its new download service is that it puts Microsoft back in the spotlight. Will 2006 be a battle between Apple and Microsoft focusing on devices and DRM technology? Apple has a large lead (understatement of the New Year) in the world of devices, but the word on the street is that Microsoft has done a lot to enhance its portable media software technology.

 

Stay tuned.

In this edition of the MADCAST, Allen and Mike discuss tagging and consumer-to-consumer taste sharing and their importance to the next stage of growth in media industries.

It's the end of the week and we decided we just had to do another 'cast. Highlights of todays 'cast -- Yahoo's RSS-enabled e-mail and Michael Robertson's latest shot across the music industry's bow.

It's an end-of-the-week grab-bag. (A marketing person would refer to it as a "synopsis of important industry events." Somebody else, like my mother, might label this 'cast nothing but garden variety rumor mongering.)

In any event, Allen and Mike share their recommendations on how Google could spend the $4 billion they just raised in their secondary offering.  Allen muses on the rumors about Microsoft and AOL.  Mike muses more about the Future of Music Summit in D.C.

Live from The Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., Mike provides some insight into what’s on the mind of thought leaders in the area of copyright protection, legal sharing and other related topics. Joining us today is special guest Derek Slater, a student fellow with the Berkman Center, who is on a panel with Mike on Sept. 13.

 

Will UK's digital creators come out of the woodwork for this? It's going to be interesting to watch to see how UK digital media fans flock -- or don't -- to the BBC's Creative Archive license. 

Couldn't think of a better way to kick it off than announcing a contest for the best music video using the archive's video stock.

 

Wherein Allen and Mike chat the Motorola ROKR with iTunes, mobile music and the Nano.