The Italian art website ARTSPACE has posted the 1989 Brian Eno documentary Imaginary Landscapes. For you trivia buffs, yes there is a John Cage song by roughly the same name in 1939, 50 years prior. Coincidence?

Anyway, the doc is a peek into one of the most brilliant music and artist minds who blurred the lines between aural compositional art and music. Footage is him in his home studio being interviewed as he creates sounds and describing his creative process. Just awesome.

PS - if you haven't got the new David Byrne and Brian Eno album, you're really missing out on some truly creative production and music.

Before you start talking trash about B-Stock, Woodwind & Brasswind offers a 45 return guarantee and has free shipping on the highly reviewed portable recorder from Sony. It normally goes for ~$500 and includes free shipping. Buy @ Woodwind & Brasswind

Quickie Specs:

Amazon has really stepped up their selections of Friday 5 for $5 Mp3 albums in recent weeks and this week is no exception. Check out these great deals for $5 each plus the bonus daily album for $1.99:

• U2's Boy - Can't verify, but this sounds like a remaster of the album. "I will Follow" and "Electric Company" are classics.
• Miles Davis' Birth of Cool - Not familiar with Jazz? This is a great introduction to some of the trumpet master's remastered Bop recordings.
• The Velvet Underground and Nico's The Velvet Underground - Punk, avante guarde, and pop are all present on this album. Some songs are more accessible than others, but "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Heroine" are rock classics.
• Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin - First album of the rock gods with blazing songs like "Dazed and Confused", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "How Many More Times" and other great songs they stole from other artists.
• Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures - Want to hear where New Order and what inspired boys to put on black nail polish? Find out for $5 for this album of studio and live cuts from this classic album. No, it doesn't have "Love Will tear Us Apart Again". Let's move on people.

This is a scene from Albert Brooks' Modern Romance which a pal turned me on to. The sound guys running the show are perfectly played in their sarcasm and apathy for a bad film - especially where the director is making suggestions for things they aren't aware of the work going into small changes. The "space floor?" comment and their questions sum up the film sound experience perfectly in this context. While it's our job to be perfectionists, there's also merit to leaving well enough alone for certain sounds. These guys have reached that point...man you can almost smell the console and carpet in that studio...

Epiphone is giving away a Wilshire guitar. This is a bad ass $6,000 guitar. The entry deadline is until Feb 28th, 2009. Enter here

While I think these contests are awesome, it'd be great if they included some free lessons for guitarists. I've seen self-taught pelvic thrusting and tongue wagging during guitar solos and it ain't pretty. It's a safety issue too. Imagine the bodily harm performing a pelvic thrust extension without the proper safety circumference and jabbing the rhythm guitarist in the kidneys; or how about the proper way to stick the upper half of your body underneath the lead singers legs without the tuning pegs grazing his twig and berries; OR the proper way to lick a guitar neck without cutting the tongue? See, I knew you'd think it's important, too.

So you think you can play tambourine better than Jack Ashford? Probably not. (The Wiki article leaves out his mind blowing performance on the Temptations "Friendship Train") But you can start learning on this decent deal on Latin Percussion's best selling tambourine as sold by Going Today. Price includes the $5 shipping. Buy @ Going Today

Without searching, guess how old this amazing Punk album by MC5 is? Let's just say it predates the Stooges and the Summer of Love. While people in California were slapping flowers in their hair and painting their JC Superstar buses for a trip to Woodstock, NY, therse kids from Detriot were Kicking Out the Jams. Light years ahead of their time. Buy @ Amazon

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Word Up: Today is going to be a busy day away from the computer, so we'll do our best to get some deals in in the afternoon or this evening.

-AGD
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I'll be honest: I'm not the biggest Dead fan. Growing up in the SF Bay Area, you go one of two ways: totally Hippiac (thanks, Pete, for the lexicon on that one) or Anti-Hippie. I wouldn't call myself Anti-Hippie 100%, but you can only take getting stuck behind a VW microbus on the way to a baseball game so often as a kid.

This doesn't mean though that the Dead by any means are a crappy band. All members are amazing musicians and deserve a following with or without patchouli, nitrous balloons, and people trying to sell you woven bracelets, bead jewelery, or glass pipes.

Still on the fence? Willing to confront your internal angry conservative? Judge for yourself for $1.99. Buy @ Amazon

Matteo at Unidentified Sound Object has an awesome three part interview with engineer, inventor, and Bay Area genius James A. Moorer. If you know who Mr. Moorer is, then you are either a) a sound person older than 50 years old b) a true sound pro c) a sound superfan d) all of the above.

If you don't know who he is, no biggie: AGD doesn't believe in the esoteric/credits pecking order. The interview is well done with excellent pointed questions about Mr. Moorer's contributions to digital sound, creating some of the first audio work stations, and his work with Lucas Film and Sonic Solutions.

James Moorer's Website

Bulk up on some single layer bulk DVD media on the cheap. It's always good to have an extra stack around the studio for testing and regular burning where you don't want to sacrifice an audio CD or Dual-layer discs for files. Rebate here. Buy @ Newegg

Pick up this 8ft light-pipe cable for only $5 at Amazon. If course, if you buy $20 more worth of gear it's free shipping, unless you're an Amazon Prime member where it would be free 2 day shipping. Buy @ Amazon

Quickie specs:

• Immune to all forms of EMI/RFI
• Low-Loss MPPA core ensures low distortion
• Superior-grade optical fiber and precision polished optical terminations
• Ultra-flexible PVC jacket makes installation easy, Non-slip rubber grip connector provides for easy installation
• Protective plastic cover protects lens from dust, dirt, and other material

Sweetwater has the Moogerfooger MF-101 for only $249.97 after you apply the $30 mail in rebate. So why would you want one of these? To funk up your music of course! The low pass filter allows you to add some good dirty effects through Moog's sweet, sweet analog sound. I've used the plug-in version of this on spoken vocals with good effects as well. Buy @ Sweetwater

Here's a good description of how it workks from Moog's product page:

"A lowpass filter removes high frequencies from a tone. It makes the tone sound more mellow or muted. The lower the Cutoff, the more muted the tone sounds. Imagine a window shade. As it is pulled down, it cuts out the higher light, then the light from the middle of the window, then finally all the light. The MF-101 Lowpass Filter does the same sort of thing to the sound spectrum with it's Cutoff Control. As you turn up the Resonance control, the overtones near the cutoff frequency are boosted. Resonance gives the moogerfooger filter the same classic Moog filter sound as the Minimoog; and Moog modular synthesizers."

American Musical Supply has the 100 watt Ampeg BA115 Bass Guitar Combo Amp for only $299.98 after the $80 Mail In Rebate plus free shipping! Buy @ American Musical Supply

Quickie specs:

• Balanced Line Out
• Mid Tone Control: Style
• Preamp Out/Power Amp In
• RMS Power Output: 100W
• Speakers: 15 inches
• Tone Controls: 3 band
• Dimensions: 21 x 21 x 16
• Weight: 62 Pounds
• GAIN: 39dB

The new album from Morrissey is released today and Amazon is celebrating by offering it for only $3.99. Pitchfork gave this album an 8.1 stars in their review. Buy @ Amazon

Interview with Russel Brand and song clips: