Here is the last set of music links for 2006. If you have any sites you’d like me to highlight, please leave me a post.

Rodrigo & Gabriela : Two Mexicans living in Dublin, Ireland, making metal/Spanish/Flamenco-influenced music. A group getting lots of buzz around the public radio sphere.

www.gigposters.com : Posters from all ages of rock and roll and bands from everywhere, including Louisville.

www.amirght.com : A site that bills itself as ‘making fun of music one song at a time.’

http://www.ubernet.org : Tools and info for making the highest-quality MP3s.

Classic Rock Party SongList : The name says it: the top 100 classic rock party songs.

The unquestionably legendary (thanks, MKZ) James Brown died early Christmas morning in Atlanta of complications from pneumonia at 73. For more information, go to USA Today’s story
here

Rolling down toward Christmas and with a print deadline looming, I nevertheless find time to search the web for interesting sites. Here’s this week’s list:

Radio is Wrecked : An article in the Nation about the problems with commercial radio and what can be done about it.

Big Ears: A cool Java-based application for improving your ability to hear intervals.

Loudness Wars: Why does so much commercial pop sound so crappy? There’s a reason.

How Music Works: A whole bunch of tutorials about music theory for beginners on up. Learn something you didn’t know here.

Don’t Notate that Song!: Music Industry Frets Over Guitar Tab Web Sites: Now the industry is after sites with guitar tabs. An article in the Chicago Tribune.

Do you like tag clouds? Here’s a music tag cloud: http://www.lollyhop.com/?tag=music

Ban that censor! A site all about music censorship, from the silly to the serious: http://ericnuzum.com/banned/index.html

Tired of iPod’s forced-choice menus? Rockbox.org has the open-source firmware replacement for all sorts of mp3 players.

Why is it called an ‘album’? What’s a ’side’? Learn all about the History of Sound Recording Technology at this site.

Do ya like hot guitars? Hot girls? See ‘em both at http://www.hotguitarist.com/

Legendary bluegrass musician and instrument maker Homer Ledford, of Winchester, died yesterday afternoon at age 79. Ledford had been ill for most of the last year. More information is at The Lexington Herald-Leader

http://steampunkworkshop.com/steampunk-strat.shtml - A Stratocaster pick guard etched to look like a clockwork mechanism. Very cool.

http://www.xaphoon.com - A pocket-sized saxophonic-sounding flute.

Master Musicians - An update on the 4,000-year-old Moroccan rock band.

EFF: The Customer Is Always Wrong: A User’s Guide to DRM in Online Music - An article on Digital Rights Management from the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Read it and weep.

how-to-boycott-the-music-industry-and-still-enjoy-music/ - A hacker’s take on the DRM matter.

CBGB’s Last Show - Bye-bye, CBGB

5 Mistakes Band Label Sites Make/ - Band website no-no’s.

www.stolenmixtape.com - Dumb band tricks, posted by a club owner. Read it and weep (or laugh).

We continue along with the production of “The Player’s Spot,” the acoustic singer/songwriter show at Gerstle’s Place on Thursdays. The first program, featuring Brigid Kaelin and Joel Timothy, aired on Tuesday, December 5, on WYCS Channel 24. Other than a couple of audio glitches, it was pretty good for a two-camera shoot.

The next shoot will be on Thursday, December 7, with guests Nate Thumas and Sean Hopkins, who are both songwriters in their own right and band mates in Dallas Alice. If you’re out and about, drop on by and be in the audience.

The cover story for the December issue Louisville Music News features John Timmons, owner of ear X-tacy Records, Louisville’s largest independent record store. Timmons has managed to keep his store afloat while other record stores, both independent and chains, have gone out of business or shrunk dramatically in size and quantity of merchandise. Read more about the man dedicated to “Keeping Louisville Weird” here.