Duck & Cover :: Indie rock music writing from Arcade Fire to the Zygotic Minci

They're calling it "the Firefox of media players." Which is catchy. A lot catchier than "what iTunes could have been were it not linked to the evil that is the iTunes Music Store." Although both descriptions have their particular charms. But not as charming as the Songbird mascot, which appears to be a flatulent sparrow. If you want a good description of the features (built-in Last.fm scrobbling, custom add-ons, concert ticket link) then I suggest reading the article on Webmonkey . But if you were the kid who played the game before reading the instructions, then here's the link to the download on the Songbird site . You'll notice that the player is still in beta. This is just geek talk for "we're not done yet." Personally, I enjoy the graphic of the Songbird player (on both Webmonkey and the Songbird website). It displays a library filled with the likes of Fugazi, Fruit Bats, and Gary Numan. What does that mean? It means the developers list...

If you haven't seen it yet (and if you haven't, it means you don't read Digg.com), somebody used ModPlug Tracker to create a little tune using only sound files found on Microsoft Windows XP and 98. I've heard others attempt something similar before, but the result was usually the bastard child of Philip Glass's "Glassworks" and anything by Kate Bush. Rather unpleasant, to say the least. But this--this is different. It's catchy. It's melodic. It's even a little bit sad. I caught myself humming the tune while making a cup of Earl Grey later in the morning, which is the same moment I decided I needed to share it with the internet-o-sphere. Enjoy. Oh, and for those who won't go anywhere near anything Windows--even if it's just sound effects--there is a tune made up of Apple Mac sounds put together in Garageband. And while it looks a bit easier than ModPlug, the composition is slightly Nintendo.