Weirdest. Turntable. Ever.

It's called the Dyskograf and it's actually an art installation rather than a piece of home electronics gear. This video shows how you can make beats and msuic with just a felt pen.  (Via Gajitz)

Metallica Doesn't Want Their Music Use for Torture. Christian Metal Band is Okay with It.

Esquire has an interview with the Navy SEAL who shot Osama Bin Laden in which he brings up the issue of interrogation.  I quote:

He also insists that when it came to interrogation, repetitive questioning and leveraging fear was as aggressive as he'd go. "When we first started the war in Iraq, we were using Metallica music to soften people up before we interrogated them," the Shooter says. "Metallica got wind of this and they said, 'Hey, please don't use our music because we don't want to promote violence.' I thought, Dude, you have an album called Kill 'Em All.

"But we stopped using their music, and then a band called Demon Hunter got in touch and said, 'We're all about promoting what you do.' They sent us CDs and patches. I wore my Demon Hunter patch on every mission. I wore it when I blasted bin Laden."

In case you aren't aware, Demon Hunter is a Christian metal band.

(Via Metal Injection)

Spotify Now in 22 Countries. Still Not in Canada.

Spotify, the Swedish streaming music service, launched in Italy, Span and Poland yesterday, bringing the total number of countries it serves to 22.

Still no Canada, though.  

It's not like there haven't been negotiations.  There have been--and they've been going on for months. But for whatever reason, they can't seem to get a deal with the organizations that control the copyrights and streaming rights in this country.

While Rdio, The Vault, Deezer and Slacker have all come to terms, the two highest-profile services (at least as far as the US and Britain are concerned), are still illegal in this country. No Spotify, no Pandora.

This is most annoying for those of us who live online when it comes to music.  I get rather frustrated not being able to easily play Spotify playlists that have been shared through various websites.  

I know, I know: I can spoof IPs, but I wish I didn't have to.  That's just a layer of complexity that we shouldn't have to deal with.

Can we all just get together and get it done?

They Might Be Giants Release Their "Dial-a-Song" App

Years go, the Johns in They Might Be Giants launched their Dial-a-Song service.  If you called their number in Brooklyn anytime btween 1983 and 2006, you'd hear a TMBG song recorded on their answering machine.

There was a migration to the web in 2000 at www.dialsong.com to compensate for the sometimes crappy answering machine, but that didn't last very long.  The site evolved into a home for podcasts.

But now that everyone is going mobile, so is TMBG.  Their free Dial-a-Song app for iOS is much more reliable--and it offers a direct link to iTunes so you can easily make a purchase.  

Although many artists have embraced apps this way, it's kinda cool to see that TMBG have been on this road for 30 years.  Who even "dials" a number anymore?

(Via Hypebot)

Did You Notice the Grammy Stage Crasher?

Me, neither.  But you could see him on the broadcast right when Adele won her award.

For his trouble, Vitalli Sediuk--a TV host and prankster from Ukraine--spent the night in jail. How did he get in? He just acted like he belonged and walked right in.  GIven that the Grammys had extra security onhand because of that rogue fugitive cop, this doesn't look good on anyone.

Full story at The Hollywood Reporter.