The Disco Biscuits are droppin this quick daytime slot in the midst of their typically busy holiday touring schedule, which winds up at the Tweeter Center for a long NYE night (all previously discussed here).

This is a great way to blast through the final workday of the week (unless, like so many other folks, you’re off this entire week). I often find the Disco Biscuits music to be a perfect grooving soundtrack to any task of mine that requires sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time. However, my guess is that this set will be short and a bit sanitized as Biscuits’s performances go. Short of seeing an actual concert, to experience the raw, electronic madness that is a Disco Biscuits show, your best bet is to tap into Biscoradio (the band-approved, fan-fueled Internet radio station).

However, if tDB ain’t your thing, keep in mind there are many other ways to stream the day away.

For more Bisco info, check out this recent Jambands.com interview with bassist Marc Brownstein, which includes some pointed questions from fans.

Ouch. More litigation in the music biz: Wolfgang’s Vault is getting sued.

I had planned for Wolfgang’s Concert Vault to be another key part of my “stream the day away series” but this certainly puts a damper (though it appears that the site is continuing to stream its archived concerts).

The Vault was set up after William Sagan bought the assts of legendary rock promoter Bill Graham. It hosts a large archive of vintage concerts mainly from the 60s and 70s, and sells related merchandise (presumably the streaming shows were a way to draw fans onto the site where they could buy merch). But several major rock bands including Carlos Santana, Grateful Dead Productions, and members of the Doors and Led Zeppelin, have filed suit against Sagan over the streaming shows, saying he simply has not legally license the recordings. It seems like the Vault was just starting to pick up steam and get some buzz, but if it is clearly streaming shows that it has not licensed, then that’s a “no no.”

Update: And according to this WaPo story, the lawsuit is not only about the unlicensed concert recordings, but also the merchandise being sold.

Wired also has coverage on the story. I found it interesting that, in its blurb on the story, Wired singled out the Grateful Dead as a surprising addition to the groups that filed suit. A lot of folks assume that, because of the Dead’s historical openness to non-commercial tape-trading, they have a completely open policy towards copyright infringement and the band’s concert recordings. But the band has also been a more litigious group than most folks would ever expect, which at least, goes against the image of their “counter-cultural ethos” carried over from the late 60s and 70s. While the Grateful Dead has been open to its audience recordings being hosted on sites like the Live Music Archive, they have consistently been strict about any sites that host officially released recordings. It appears that the Grateful Dead and other classic rock acts are increasingly seeking to squeeze more income out of their large concert archives (especially the coveted soundboard recordings). So, in that context, this move isn’t entirely surprising.

Hopefully, they’ll find a way to keep the vintage concerts flowin’ but they may have to pull the plug if they can’t settle the dispute over licensing. We’ll keep an eye out.

(sidenote: if any of this is of interest to you folks, it is a topic I have discussed in quite a bit of depth in “My Research”, which is available over there on the right side of this page).

Right as I was pulling together some musings on various places to stream music, I also happened to read about a new killer web app of the “Web 2.0” variety: Streampad.

Streampad does something I mentioned a while back as a possible add-on for Songbird’s music app to the personal homepage “eco-system” of Netvibes: it lets you stream your own music collection through a simple app on a web browser. All you need to do is register and leave your home system on and open for the app to work.

It’s a simple idea, but a really great one, and I think, maybe even a bit revolutionary. It deals with the realities of so many people being away from much larger music collections than they can on an MP3 player. I don’t know about you, but my 20GB iPod hardly even deals with a ¼ of my entire digital music collection…and sometimes, that’s annoying. Also, like many other folks out there, I am almost always on a computer and online while at work…Streampad simply hooks me back up to my system. Also, what sets apart Streampad is that you don’t need to install anything, it’s always updated, and it’s accessible through any computer. It also has some other cool features that tip into other online music repositories and are a bit more “web 2.0” style:

Live Music Archive Concerts
Streampad is also linked to the Internet Archive’s “Live Music Archive,” offering a convenient way to stream live concerts (though it does not appear to link to the entire archive…which is massive; so if your band or concert is not listed, you’ll have to heads over to the LMA directly for downloading or streaming those).

Play the Web
This is reminiscent of Songbird’s browser-based application for playing media files (which I discussed a while back). Basically, it will grab any/all the audio files from a given webpage and stream it to you. But it is an app that is built into the browser (not the actual browser), meaning you can use any web browser once you’ve set it up at your home system. You can listen to tracks off of the Hype Machine or any music blog that hosts a lot of tunes (let me suggest Aquarium Drunkard or the LiveMusicbBlog for great paces to start).

MP3Tunes – Locker access
MP3 Tunes is another “Web 2.0” solution to the online storage of your music. It offers a great “locker” system for storing your media away from your home system. And Streampad has added the ability to stream tunes from your MP3Tunes locker.

Streampad’s interface is simple and easy to navigate. I’m already tapping into some tunes I recently downloaded but have not yet added to my ipod…that was just TOO easy!

Some quick musings:

• Though it doesn’t look like it is yet hooked up to Netvibes, I imagine these types of personal start pages and portals would be a great next step for Streampad. If you’ve got all your news, email, and other feeds coming into one web page, why not also throw in your personal streams?
• Also, I’m thinking that if one were to swap usernames/passwords with trusted friends, this would be a cool way to share music with others (heck, maybe Dan will add another feature so the password swap isn’t even necessary?)

Read more about Streampad and its inventor, Dan Kantor, here:

Dan’s Streampad Blog
Techcrunch
A VC
DigialMusicWeblog

It’s just wierd, fun music, and even more fun in the live setting. LMM hasn’t seen these guys since Lollapalooza, but it looks like they’ve got a hell of a U.S. tour lined up for the winter/spring season in support of the new disc. If this suits your fancy check out the one of the links below or scroll down to the Amazon link for their last album, which is quite good.

Of Montreal ~ Of Monteal on the Hype Machine

NPR’s Live Series continues to offer up live streams of some solid Indie Rock: Next Tuesday, October 10th, is Built to Spill. Good times!

I’m currently curing a bad “case of the Mondays” by streaming Beck‘s new album, the Information, via AOL Music. Also available for full streaming are new releases from the Killers, the Cold War Kids, Pet Shop Boys, Jet, and more.

Man, this album is pretty funky…I might just have to check out that Chicago show on his fall tour.

(photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

The Bays have taken over quite a bit of space on my iPod and have become a constant in my day-to-day listening. They’ve made it onto my “Live electronica” playlists, and continue to help me zone out in front of the computer screen for reading, writing, and other boring activities that need not be mentioned.

While several bands on this side of the Pond have been fusing live, electronic beats and improvisational rock (with the Disco Biscuits, the New Deal, and Sound Tribe Sector Nine leading the way since the late 90s), the Bays not only bring an entirely different feel of live electronica (being that they’re European), they also have decided to remain entirely improvisational, professing to never rehearse before walking on stage. While the New Deal, Canada‘s “live, progressive, breakbeat house” champions probably come closest to this open, improvisational approach, I really dig the Bays’ purely spontaneous take no matter how contrived it might seem when they’re bassist picks up the mic to explain it at seemingly every single show (you’ll see what I mean). They also have a uniquely open approach to releasing their material, professing that they do not sell albums, merchandise, or anything beyond the concert experience for their audiences. Best of all, much of their music is posted online for download, allowing people like me (who do not live in Europe) the chance to check them out…and you can be sure that if they ever tour the U.S., I will definitely not miss the chance to check them out in person.

If you’re a fan of electronic music, but really enjoy the “liveness” of a more traditional rock’n'roll concert, I would certainly point you to any of the aforementioned bands. But, the Bays just seem to come from a purely electronic perspective and it plays out in their performances. I will undoubtedly post about them again (esp. if anything new gets posted on their site), but for now, interested folks can stream their live show from the BBC Peel Sessions, catch an interview about their approach, and download a few shows from their website (note: you need to add your email address, but rest assured, no spam and they rarely ever send out emails).

• AT&T Blueroom is streaming the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Sat. 4/29 – Sun 4/30).

• MSN’s got a stream for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Sun. webcasts on 4/30 and 5/7).

• AOL Music has a stream for Pearl Jam’s latest release that comes out May 2nd.

• Neil Young’s upcoming release “Living With War.”

• NPR’s “Song of the Day” column has a funky and soulful take on Radiohead’s “Morning Bell” (and if that strikes your fancy, you might also check out my post on another funky Radiohead cover and the artsy video that went with it).

Belle and Sebastian, Calexico, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Death Cab for Cutie, Iron and Wine, My Morning Jacket, New Pornographers, Secret Machines, Sigur Ros, Son Volt, and the White Stripes.

Rock your Indie heart out…here’s their main page. My personal recs go to My Morning Jacket, Secret Machines, Arctic Monkeys and the White Stripes (yeah, what can I say, I like my guitars).