Hijinks Inc.

Category: Music

  • Quick Tip: Get That Song Out Of Your Head

    I ran across this the other day, and just had to share it. We’ve all had that song stuck in our head… happened to hear one of those terrible pop songs on the radio, perhaps in a store or a movie. Once you hear it, you can never unhear it, right? WRONG!

    I present to you, Unhearit.com. Here’s their quick blurb:

    We created this site for those of you that have a song stuck in your head and you can’t get it out no matter what you do. Using the latest techniques in reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification technology, we’ve been able to allow our users to “unhear” songs by hearing equally catchy songs. So all we’re doing is making you forget your old song by replacing it with another one… sorry.

    I gave it a whirl and the first 5 songs I got were:

    1. Barbie Girl
    2. Macarena
    3. some sort of strange Single Ladies/Andy Griffith Mix
    4. Never Gonna Give You Up (I got Rick-Rolled!)
    5. I’m Just A Girl

    It worth a play or two, just to laugh at the songs it conjures up if nothing else.

  • I know a guy who knows a guy…

    When you know somebody trying to gain exposure, you try to help them out whenever you can. Fred brought you the last video, and now Mike Tompkins has released another solid entry to his library of covers. In case you missed the last one, he only uses his mouth and voice (and usually 1 other item, just not this time) to create his music.

    Even though the songs he usually picks I don’t care for, his versions are catchy,  the videos are fun, and this one is no exception. Be sure to check out his facebook and twitter pages for more info about him.

    Check out his YouTube channel if you like it and want to see some of his other work.

  • Hijinks Reviews: Listal.com

    Do you have a large collection of DVDs, video games, books, or music and you wish there was a an easy way to track it all, preferably online so you can access it anywhere? Well, you could take the boring route and use a google spreadsheet, but what’s the fun in that? What if you could manage your collections, have all the information that IMDB offers, have user feedback and reviews similar to Rotten Tomatoes, have an enormous collection of images to sort through, and have Facebook integration to boot? Welcome to Listal!

    I’ve tried many of the collection tracking websites to catalog my substantial DVD collection, and I found something I really didn’t like with every website. Listal will track your collections, and complement it with a nice layout, both visually and for ease of use. It also incorporates a social network aspect, which excites some people, whereas it can be a total buzzkill for others. There’s pros and cons to this website and guess what, we’ll cover those after the jump! (more…)

  • Hijinks Reviews: TuneUp

    Are you one of those people who rip CDs without taking the time to name each track? Or maybe you are one of those individuals who doesn’t exactly buy most of your CDs, you simply acquire them from various locations online, which can lead to a very jumbled messed up music library. Perhaps you have a friend who gave you a large collection of music, but he labels it all differently than you do.

    Whatever the case, there’s a number of ways your digital music library can get screwed up beyond all recognition. I know mine is, and it’s due to all of the reasons I listed above. Enter TuneUp.

    I don’t remember how I stumbled across this iTunes plug-in (now also for WMP), but it’s freakin’ awesome. I threw everything I had at this thing and it probably fixed over 90% of it with ease, some of the albums were ‘Unknown Artist – Track 01’ and it still found the right CD, correctly updated the metadata, added the cover, and even gave me a few YouTube links about the artist. I emphasize the word correctly because I tried other programs and ended up having a number of my CDs mislabeled, which only complicated matters. The few times TuneUp missed on it’s first try, it gave me a few options of possible matches, and I was able to get it set straight right away.  You can even customize the program to fit your desired naming system. I haven’t gotten through my entire collection yet, but it was almost unmanageable before, and this makes pretty quick work of it, all with drag and drop ease.

    You can try out the demo, it will help you through 100 song clean-ups and up to 50 cover art saves. I can safely tell you though, if you have a library that needs some work, you will fall in love with this plug-in before the demo runs out. I don’t like paying for computer programs, but this is definitely worth the price. They’ve even provide quick and timely customer service.

    I can’t imagine how long it would have taken me to get through my entire music collection, if you want to whip your music collection into shape in a hurry without the headache, don’t bother with anything else, go get TuneUp for PC or Mac.

    TuneUp Media

  • History in the making

    Alright, if you haven’t heard of them yet, you will… soon. The band is Mute Math. They have a video of their first released single called “Typical”. In said music video, the band plays in reverse. Lots of videos have been done in reverse, but few, if any, have been an actual performance backwards. The bandmates learned to play, and lip-synch, all of their parts from end to beginning, that way when the recording was played in reverse it actually looked like they were singing and playing regularly, but all of their movements were backwards. Follow me?

    Well, last night Mute Math made history by being the first band to every play the song backwards on live TV. They recreated their music video in front of a live audience, and they did it all in one take. They didn’t stop the cameras and redo a part they screwed up, they did the whole song in reverse. It was actually pretty cool.

    Check out the craziness

    By the way, if you have a chance to see Mute Math in your local area, I definitely suggest it. They put on a very original, high energy show, which was probably the best I’ve ever seen. Share your thoughs in the comments.