Living With Perfect Pitch and Synaesthesia

LJ Rich, writing on her blog:

Now, I’d like you to imagine you’re chatting with your conversation partner. But instead of speaking and hearing the words alone, each syllable they utter has a note, sometimes more than one. They speak in tunes and I can sing back their melody. Once I know them a little bit, I can play along to their words as they speak them, accompanying them on the piano as if they’re singing an operatic recitative. They drop a glass on the floor, it plays a particular melody as it hits the tiles. I’ll play that melody back – on a piano, on anything. I can accompany that melody with harmony, chords – or perhaps compose a variation on that melody – develop it into a stupendous symphony filled with strings, or play it back in the style of Chopin, Debussy or Bob Marley. That car horn beeps an F major chord, this kettle’s in A flat, some bedside lights get thrown out because they are out of tune with other appliances. I can play along to every song on the radio whether or not I’ve heard it before, the chord progressions as open to me as if I had the sheet music in front of me. I can play other songs with the same chords and fit them with the song being played. Those bath taps squeak in E, this person sneezes in E flat. That printer’s in D mostly. The microwave is in the same key as the washing machine.

This is from a few years back, but I just came across it and found it fascinating.

Who’s Going to Stop Spotify’s Viral Rap Impersonators?

Pitchfork

Noah Yoo, writing for Pitchfork:

There’s a rapper on Spotify named Lil Kambo who’s racked up 2 million streams and counting on his song “Kid Carti.” This would be a significant feat for any unsigned, self-releasing artist in the modern day. The only problem is that “Lil Kambo” doesn’t exist and “Kid Carti” is a pitch-shifted leak of Playboi Carti’s yet-unreleased track “Kid Cudi” (previously referred to as “Pissy Pamper”), a song the rapper’s been teasing for some time and even playing out live. Lil Kambo isn’t a viral hit—he’s a fraudster.

Playdate: The New Handheld Video Game System

Technology

Panic, a company known for their Mac and iOS software, has announced the Playdate, a new handheld video game system:

Playdate is both very familiar, and totally new. It’s yellow, and fits perfectly in a pocket. It has a black-and-white screen with high reflectivity, a crystal-clear image, and no backlight. And of course, it has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C, and a headphone jack. But it also has a crank. Yes, a crank: a cute, rotating analog controller that flips out from the side.

It also includes a full season of original games, at no extra charge, delivered each week to the system — games in all sorts of genres that are all hopefully surprises.

This looks adorable. Panic is a Portland based company that has their office not that far from where I live; I walk by their customizable sign all the time. The company is also one of the main reasons I started using a Mac after discovering their editor Coda, which was basically revolutionary to me at the time. This little video game system looks like a whole lot of fun and I wish them the best of luck.

Taking Back Sunday Oral History

Taking Back Sunday

Kerrang did an oral history of Taking Back Sunday:

We’d met Dave Stein, who was our lawyer for years, at a show and he gave me his card. He was like, ‘If you ever need a lawyer, let me know.’ He was kind of the New York hardcore lawyer. So once we started talking to Victory I reached out to Dave and asked him to look over the contracts. And he’s like, ‘Do not sign this.’ But at the time we weren’t thinking too far ahead – we just wanted to have a record out, so we did it anyway. And I don’t think we’d be where we are had we not been on Victory. They really gave us a large push and that really helped us.

Casey Liss Launches ‘Vignette’ App to Fix Your Contact Photos

Apps

Casey Liss has released a new iOS app to quickly add photos to your contacts using their social media profiles. MacStories has a good rundown:

Unlike many other apps that aim to streamline the act of adding contact photos, Vignette doesn’t require access to any of your personal social media accounts. Commonly, apps will ask you to log in to Facebook, for example, so they can crawl your friends list to extract profile images and other data for your contacts. While this is an effective method, it also requires giving a third-party app special access to your social media accounts. Vignette takes a different approach.

Eddie Reyes Talks About His New Band

Taking Back Sunday

Eddie Reyes, formerly of Taking Back Sunday, talks with Alternative Press about his new music project:

I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t [know] if those guys [in Taking Back Sunday] will ever turn around to me one day and go, “Hey, bud. We missed you. Come back.” That would be great. But at the same time, I can’t think about that. I’ve got to think about my sobriety, I’ve got to think about my family and I’ve got to concentrate a lot on this new band.

When I went on the first [FGAD] tour, I was like, “I’m going to see what it’s like. If I hate it, I’m done.” But then I realized, “Wow, this is what it used to be like when it was awesome,” you know what I mean? You don’t have to deal with favoritism because that will undermine your confidence and your feelings. You don’t have to worry about sounding perfect

Logic Tops the Charts

Logic has the number one album in the country this week:

Logic notches his third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind debuts atop the tally.

The set starts with 80,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending May 16, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 24,000 were in album sales. Confessions was released on May 10 via Visionary/Def Jam Recordings.

Carly Rae Jepsen Talks With Idolator

Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen talked with Idolator:

It is like picking a favorite child! I definitely had my favorite songs and it felt like betrayal to kill some of my babies and my darlings, but it was necessary. I don’t have a team that is stickler for dates, saying things like, “We need an album this year.” I used to have a few people like that around me, but I’ve learned to build myself a team with creatives that know me. They are business savvy enough to tell me that 200 is enough and we have to start narrowing it down.

Even my A&R came to the house in the narrowing down process and he kind of got to a point where he was like, “All right! I’ve done it, I’ve picked my top 22.” I was like, “That’s still not helpful.” In the end, I realized that this is the beginning of an era and I can store some songs away for projects to come. I’m equally excited for what I hope will be a Side B or Part 2 of the album, because there are songs that were just important as these ones.

Why Hayley Williams Is Starting a “Sanctuary of Self Love” at Bonnaroo

Hayley Williams

Courtney E. Smith, writing at Refinery 29:

Williams says the part of her new plaza she’s most looking forward to are panels she’s arranged, which span from education on CBD to a forum on sexual assault and the weight of that trauma. “The first time we started talking about the panels I was apprehensive because I wondered who would want to come to a festival to sit and listen to people talk?” Williams says. “But when I thought about the nature of community and connection being part of why people come to festivals in the first place — it’s to not only see their favorite artists, but to connect and feel.”