Last night, I had the frustrating experience of having a song roll up on the iPod and the title and artist information was all garbled. I still don't know what it is, it was an MP3 a friend sent of a friend's band, nothing pirated or anything, just something beautiful and basement-y and, unfortunately, still anonymous. I tried listening to it three or four times and typing the lyrics into a search engine, but no dice. I guess I can always ask the friend what it is, but at 10:43 at night, you don't really want to be calling someone up, holding the phone to the speaker and shouting "What is this?"
My better half once had the idea to create an audio search engine, where you could sing, whistle or play a bar of music into the computer and the search engine would find the song for you. I think that's a brilliant idea, and will probably have its day (just like RepRap printers that can churn out a new pair of sandals or light-swtch cover at the push of a button) but for now, we just have to content ourselves with the inferior power of our own organic musical recall. Just out of curiousity, though, I did a search for audio search engines, and what I found delighted me with its inegniuty and absurdity. MusicRobot is probably the closest thing to a music search engine -- you can search by guitar tab. Then there's FindSounds, which allows you to look up specific sound effects (zebras whinnying, turbines churning, coffee percolating, people playing bongos). My favorite discovery, though, is Quiet American. It's one man's ongoing field recording project, where he captures sounds like "musicians, trains, moving water, crickets, monks, markets, metalwork, tired animals, and drunken tourists" as he travels the world; he then posts the sounds online so that people can listen and imagine themselves elsewhere, or at least just alter their headspace temporarily. He has one album, and it may have my favorite title of all time: "Plumbing and Irrigation of South Asia." Though that suggests an intensely industrial sound, note that one of the tracks is the sound of "pilgrims at a well outside Muang Sing, Laos, during a full moon celebration."
One more audio note: Checking the Off Broadway calendar, I see that the everwonderful Maggie St. Germain must be in town, because The Good Griefs are playing there tonight! Joining them are Racketbox, and a "surprise guest." The promo flyer also promises lots of "cheap-ass beer." Sounds even better than a WAV file of zebras. --Stefene Russell
