lips

Adding to all the cover versions of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" that are out there--the recent one by the Flaming Lips and guests, the dub version by The Easy Star All-Stars, the brilliant parody by The Squirrels--comes this.

Video game programmer Brad Smith has taken the Pink Floyd classic and reworked it as a bunch of sound files for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo's classic 8-bit video console. And he has posted the whole album as a YouTube playlist. (YouTube seems to be having some technical issues as I write this, … Read more

Justin is sick today, so Demetrius Wren and Christina Ghubril join the show to talk about their new film "Streetball." It's the story of a group of homeless South African kids who try to break out of the cycle of poverty by competing in the Homeless World Cup. After some calls about "1984" and convergence, we talk a bit about some unusual uses of bacon flavor.

The most amazing part of "Streetball" was that it was entirely written, shot, edited, directed, and produced by two people! It's a full-length transcontinental movie made possible with only a couple of laptops and some prosumer cameras that have really leaped toward professional film cameras. Demetrius points out that it would not have been possible to shoot their film with a huge camera crew and big pieces of equipment.

The movie is a really fascinating look at how South Africa has changed and not changed since the end of apartheid. The pair says the film is on track for a June-July 2010 release, so be sure to check it out. (Side note: "Streetball" is sponsored by the From Us with Love charity. Be sure to donate!)

After the break, we get to some voice mails about how George Orwell's dystopian future may already be here. That means it may be a normal thing this time next year for Big Brother to know exactly what you purchased at Wal-Mart and that you spend way too much time at the bar down the street.

Last story of the day is about bacon--oh, that delicious food of the gods! Jeff the Hypochondriac thinks bacon-flavored envelopes just might be enough to get him to lick his envelopes closed again. Meanwhile, an intrepid live listener of the show shows us some bacon-flavored chapstick along with some bacon-flavored...personal...lubricant. Yeah, the show ends on that note today.

Side note: We changed the way we're naming our shows in the blog. This is probably going to result in some confusion and backlash. It was done to please the Internet gods.

For several years now, musical artists have been experimenting with selling flash drives of concert recordings immediately after the show, but the Flaming Lips--whose latest tour starts this Saturday in Del Mar, Calif.--are taking it to the obvious next level.

Buy a ticket, and they'll send you a download code for six songs--three new ones from their upcoming album "Embryonic" (nice album cover!) and three B sides from old singles. After the show, they'll send you another link to download a recording of the show you attended. It's a great way to build on … Read more

Watch what you say. Scientists in England have developed a computer that can not only read lips, but can tell the difference between languages.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia's School of Computing Sciences developed the technology by statistically modeling the lip motions of 23 bilingual and trilingual speakers. The resulting system is able to identify the language spoken by an individual with "very high accuracy," according to the university. Identifiable languages included English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian.

What gives you away? The movement of your articulators--when you wag your tongue, … Read more

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how Seattle company Melodeo had created an iPhone application for the band Presidents of the United States of America, which delivers the band's music in a direct stream, rather than forcing users to download (and pay for) each song individually.

On Thursday at South by Southwest (SXSW), digital-marketing and distribution specialist The Orchard announced that it's adding iPhone applications to its arsenal of tools.

The Orchard handles songs from more than 14,000 acts, focusing on musicians on independent labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Ipecac, and Lookout (just to name three … Read more

In 1997, when the Flaming Lips released Zaireeka, I'd been following the antics of their leader Wayne Coyne pretty closely.

His Boombox Experiment, which involved 40 boomboxes and an equal number of nearly identical cassettes, was a great demonstration of how music is an actual physical presence in a room. As an audience member walked among the boomboxes, the sound changed. That's the power of acoustics, which is often ignored by gear freaks but is absolutely critical in everything from recording to live performance to setting up your home stereo correctly.

Zaireeka--the word is a combination of "… Read more

I've never really gotten into Rock Band or Guitar Hero--I'd much rather play my guitar. But since I can't sing anyway, and karaoke goes great with beer, Lips sounds like a great party game.

Announced yesterday during Microsoft's E3 press conference after a few days of rumors, Lips is a karaoke game with a twist: in addition to the 40 songs that ship with the game, you can connect your MP3 player to the Xbox 360's USB port and Lips will take any (non-DRM-protected) song, strip the vocal tracks out, and let you sing along … Read more

The E3 conference opened Monday in Los Angeles with a press conference from Microsoft. Here are some highlights.

Microsoft showed off first-ever game play footage from the post-apocalyptic title Fallout 3 and announced that there will be downloadable content exclusive to Xbox Live. We saw real-time action from Resident Evil 5, shipping on March 13. We got a peek at the new co-op feature in the game, where players will be able to team up and make their way through together. Developer Square Enix also made announcements that included the release of four titles for Xbox 360 including Final Fantasy XIII.

As for console exclusives, we saw in-game action from Fable 2, shipping in October. Players will be able to seamlessly invite other friends who are also playing the game. Finally, we were blown away by the impressive game demo of Gears of War 2 shipping November 7. The game actually looks better than the original and will feature a five-player online co-op mode.

Microsoft will be releasing a new dashboard interface this fall that incorporates an avatar system--the Xbox answer to Nintendo Mii characters. The new feature allows you to join up with other friends to form a "party," a group of up to eight people where you can share multimedia items or start a game. A new mode called Primetime will actually incorporate real-life TV shows like 1 vs. 100 and allow Xbox Live members to play and watch these game shows and possibly even win real prizes.

Microsoft also announced… Read more

OK, we admit this is really stupid. But we're all about accessorizing here at Crave, and we know that there's no accounting for taste. So for those who are drawn to such items as the "Lips Phone" and the "KissPhone," we feel obligated to pass along this "USB Mini-Lips Speaker" from Hong Kong's Brando (of course) to complement the ensemble. The 2-watt speaker connects to anything with a 3.5-millimeter jack and is small enough to be worn around the neck as an ill-advised fashion statement. An unsolicited word of advice: … Read more