On August 19, the Recording Industry Association of America shut down Muxtape, a popular Web site where users shared web-based mix tapes with their friends. In less than a week, Opentape arrived as the new software that allows people to, once again, share mix tapes online with their friends.

Although Opentape clearly marks itself as independent from Muxtape, the site credits Muxtape as an inspiration to its launch. Opentape’s site says, “We were disappointed with [Muxtape’s] untimely shutdown and wanted the web mixtape movement to continue.”

Other than borrowing Muxtape code for the song rearranging tool, Opentape’s creators built the open-source site from scratch with CSS and backend PHP code. Users need only the web software Apache and PHP 5 to upload the software and begin making mix tapes, although Opentape reports that other webservers will work equally well.

Opentape has several mix tapes linked on its site, including a sample of Subpop recordings. In addition to mix tapes intended for friends, Opentape is inviting independent musicians and labels to use the software to host their own music. Once hosted, Opentape is currently linking to these musicians and labels on its news section.

Unfortunately, the technology barrier to use Opentape is greater than the one for Muxtape, for users need server access to run the software. However, from a liability standpoint, a perk of Opentape is that it runs from each user’s server, whereas beforehand Muxtape hosted every song. Consequently, Opentape’s dispersion with copyright violations makes the RIAA’s job to shut down every illegal server much more difficult.

It is anyone’s best guess as to whether the RIAA will pursue lawsuits against Opentape. However, as the programmers and people behind sites like Opentape keep bravely testing the limits of copyright infringement, the RIAA’s efforts to hinder the Web 2.0 revolution seem like a moot point.

by Ben Benson

The 24th Annual New York Summer Antifolk Festival is at Sidewalk Café from August 8-17. The Sidewalk Café, Antifolk’s home for over 15 years, describes the event as “a showcase for a diverse cast of talented musicians and spoken-word performers, newcomers and veterans alike. New York City’s Antifolk community has been a welcoming early home for well-known artists such as Beck, The Moldy Peaches, Regina Spektor, Jaymay, and Nellie McKay.”

What exactly is “Antifolk”? According to Sidewalk Café booking director, Ben Kriger, “Antifolk began as an East Village movement in 1983 when Lach was rejected by the Greenwich Village folk scene for being ‘too punk’. His punk/folk approach attracted other local musicians to his illegal after-hours club, The Fort. The cops forced The Fort to go legit, and as a result it became a traveling club with Lach as its roving impresario. For the last 15 years the heart of the Antifolk scene has been beating in the back room at Sidewalk Café.”

Sponsored by Fortified Entertainment, the festival will showcase performances from over 70 diverse artists; among them are Jason Trachtenburg, Ching Chong Song, The Wowz, Toby Goodshank, Roger Manning, and Lach. The full lineup can be seen at http://www.sidewalkmusic.net.

The Sidewalk Café is located at 94 Avenue A, at Sixth Street. Admission to the venue is free; two drink minimum.

Legendary soul singer, songwriter, and producer Isaac Hayes passed away Sunday afternoon, August 10, 2008. As both a driving force behind southern soul label Stax Records, and as a recording and performing artist, Hayes was instrumental in the development of soul and funk music.

Two of his records, Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971), were commercial successes and gained the artist substantial recognition. Hayes also composed the soundtrack for the 1971 film Shaft, for which he received two Grammys and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Hayes was awarded a third Grammy for Black Moses.

Aside from his career in music, Hayes has appeared in more than 60 movies and television shows, perhaps most notably as the voice of Chef on South Park. Lady-killing Chef often broke out into song, the most popular of which, “Chocoalte Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You),” was an international hit.

Hayes was found by his wife lying unconscious on the floor in his Memphis, Tennessee home. He was pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital. The cause of death is believed to be linked to a stroke he endured in 2006.

Apparently, America wasn’t cool for awhile. I’m not sure when it started, what happened during this time, or when it will end. I do know, however, who is making us cool again: the United Kingdom publication, NME. The recently released list (8/2) has some obvious choices (Vampire Weekend, Lil Wayne are the top-two cool-makers) and leave out some I thought would creep in (Raconteurs, Cat Power to name a couple). But of course, you can mull over this list yourself and decide if you are willing to let them lead you into this new cool America. (Read more to view the list.)
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Drummers: if you’re planning on participating in this year’s 88BoaDrum, it’s too late. The names of the 176 percussionists performing in the Boredoms’ second annual drummer fest have been announced. BoaDrum is a bi-coastal event, this year taking place on August 8 for 88 minutes with 88 drummers in both Los Angeles and Brooklyn. Last year on July 7, 2007, 77 drummers participated. Mark your calendars for September 9, 2009.

Brooklyn’s BoaDrum happens at the Williamsburg Waterfront and is coordinated by Gang Gang Dance. Among the multitude of performers are drummers for Animal Collective, Modest Mouse, TV on the Radio, Superwolf, Parts and Labor, Phosphorescent, A.R.E. Weapons, Japanther, Rings, and Timothy Monaghan of J.A.C.K., Jezebel Music NYC’s March Feature Artist. Read more to view the complete lists.
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Yeasayer (pictured), Tokyo Police Club, and The Secret Machines will play free shows at Urban Outfitters stores in support of Free Yr Radio campaign. Dan Deacon will also play a Free Yr Radio benefit show at the Slowdown in Omaha, NE. The campaign was created to support and publicize the importance of independent radio. Each show is to benefit a local independent radio station. The shows are free, but admission will only be permitted with an e-ticket that can be printed out from FreeYrRadio.com. Dates are after the jump.

More on Treats for the Tragically Hip: Yeasayer & More to Play at Urban Outfitters

Yeasayer (pictured), Tokyo Police Club, and The Secret Machines will play free shows at Urban Outfitters stores in support of Free Yr Radio campaign. Dan Deacon will also play a Free Yr Radio benefit show at the Slowdown in Omaha, NE. The campaign was created to support and publicize the importance of independent radio. Each show is to benefit a local independent radio station. The shows are free, but admission will only be permitted with an e-ticket that can be printed out from FreeYrRadio.com. Dates are after the jump.

More on Treats for the Tragically Hip: Yeasayer & More to Play at Urban Outfitters

Paleo (aka David Strackany), a local songwriter originating from Elgin, Illinois, has earned national acclaim for his Song Diary project, which consisted of writing, recording, and uploading a new song to his website every day for an entire year. He made up the rules as he went along: if ever he skipped a day, the Song Diary would automatically end; every song had to be recorded before sunrise; nothing could be re-recorded (I witnessed this when he recorded “Twenty Lanes of Traffic” in my office – it was recorded and uploaded to his website in 15 minutes). Paleo completed his song marathon on Tax Day, April 2007. The entire 365-song collection is available to download on his website free of charge. Paleo has played well over 200 shows in the past year from coast to coast, and he’s not stopping any time soon.

Melissa Stanley: What would the past year have been like for you if you hadn’t done the song diary?

Photo by Melissa Stanley

Paleo: Good question Melissa, for which there’s probably two right answers. On the one hand, in some ways, it probably wouldn’t have been much different. Even before I came up with the Song Diary idea, I had already planned to really start touring in earnest. I would have still done quite a bit of touring and traveling, meeting a lot of people, reading a lot of poetry, writing a lot of music. And while the free time would have allowed me to work more on or even finish Ped Xing (the album I abandoned to tackle the Diary), from a bird’s eye, I would have done a lot of the same things. On the other hand, on a personal level, the year would have been starkly different. I feel like a completely different person than when I started out. It was grace. Like I died and came back. My perspective on my relationship to love and to art and to my family has completely changed. You have to consider that I spent every second of every day of a whole year in a sort of constant state of catharsis, what seemed like neverending autopsychoanalysis. I walked into the Diary maybe a little desperate, certainly insecure, and I walked out on a cloud. Amazing, amazing grace. Without that year, truth told, I think I’d still be a little lost.
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