Madison and Pine

Errol & Astralwerks-passing of an era

There are few people in the music industry that can claim to have had a significant impact on American Culture. My good friend Errol Kolosine is one of them. I just learned today that he's leaving his gig running Astralwerks (yes I know I'm late on this but I don't have time to read the gossip as much nowadays) for opportunities that will allow him to continue to expand on his abundant creativity.. (my words not his, he's way to modest!)

Anyway, him leaving Astralwerks is truly the end of and era. His legacy is amazing, and I know I'll miss half of it, but VHS or Beta, Beta Band, The Chemical Brothers, Air, Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Phoenix, Small Sins, The Little Ones, The Kooks, Hot Chip, Badly Drawn Boy....not bad and there are soooo many more. So while a "passing" always brings with it a little sadness, I'm incredibly excited to see where Errol ends up next. He is after all one of the smarter people on the planet!

pic: Errol - finally after more than a decade he will get a day off!

Because Z-Boyz Rock

I'm knackered.. the whole getting home at 2:30 propped up on a few cans of RedBull then trying to get to sleep so I can get out of bed at 6:30 to do it all again looks way better in Outlook than it feels!

But hell it was worth it last night!.. our lifestyle guys did a "Seattle Takeover" event last night, stuffing the Baltic room (max capacity of 300 tops) with the "whose who of Seattle urban culture" to see a one off from Clipse . The line was round the block when I got there at 10:30 with Markus and the War Room crew.. by 11:30 the line was in the street and thanks to Jamaal I was whisked up into the sanctuary of the VIP area (this is where I got my hands on the free Red Bull... read-caffeine mistake)

pic: Clipse - just add Zune for the real Shizzle

Anyway.. when Clipse eventually went on, the place went nuts.. and courtesy to the really big guy next to me I disappeared in a huge cloud of shall we say "smoke with healing properties".. I guess one mans pleasure is another mans poison!

net net... if you ever get a chance to go to one of our takeover events.. go...

l8t

r

Strummin with the Devil......

I couldn't resist... I think I just found one of the weirdest albums of the year, and all thanks to Peter over here on the Zune team... he casually mentioned "have you ever heard the Blue Grass-Van Halen- tribute album 'Strummin with the Devil' ? " After doing a double take like a boxer getting the first wallop on the chin, he came back at me with a left hook.. "oh yeah David Lee Roth sings on a couple of songs"

pic : Strummin with the Devil - it just ain't right!!

With their kinda reunion tour just announced, I'm looking for a leap in banjo prices...well perhaps not!!

I have nothing more to say on this subject....the devil is all yours should you choose this path!

l8t

r

Stream of concious-music-experience

One of the things I have come to absolutely love about Zune is the subscription service... to be honest I never thought it would be something I'd be into, I mean I have thousands of Lps and CDs and keep buying more.. but the ability to have this massive library of music available to your every whim is awesome, and I love it.. I've just spent the last hour or two running through the Lowlife Catalog after taking a look at a UK HipHop playlist on marketplace, because I like Dynamite MC and minutes later I had 5 great albums to listen two, including one that's a couple of years old now but stands up sooooo well the Skinnyman album - Council Estate of Mind

Pic: Skinnyman- he phat

anyway for no good reason I started thinking about the string arrangement on the Harry Nilsson version of "All I Think About Is You" so I find myself in Nilssons anthology and then I'm listening to "Perfect Day" and thinking to myself "this is awesome and I'm so lucky to be involved in this" and then I thought about someone who was talking about Africa Bambaataa the other day and went and grabbed the second Leftfield Album and noticed that there's a wicked Clash playlist on marketplace right now and then I saw some stuff from The Presets...and this is all for the price of a CD? or a movie ticket or dinner for two at the Golden Arches... I mean really ...this is awesome.. and I think I'd better switch this off or I'll never go to bed!!  g'night

l8t

r

Party like a rat packer

Well for a few minutes at the Zune party at Tao in Vegas I felt like the ass&^* door guy at Studio 54... somehow word spread hugely about the party and we ended up with about 700 people in line for a party that would fit 300, anyway somehow we ended up with most people in and a wicked party

pic: Zune Party-Raymond from Urb

Pic: Zune CES Party-for some people life is good!

Pic: Zune party-yours truly and DJ Mike Traylor

More pics at TheCobraSnake.com  more on our plans for SXSW and various other nonsense coming soon

l8t

r

Vegas smaygus...

How unusual.. I find myself in an airport waiting for a delayed Alaska flight... tell me it is not so, and that this is indeed a dream, after all their reliability and timeliness is legendary.. along with the valiant efforts of the battle hardened Swiss Army and the health benefits of a week in Vegas..

so here I sit.. last night however the Zune crew threw the party of CES at Opium Den at Toa... it was an absolute zoo, and raged to the talents of Questlove & MC until the wee hours even by Vegas standards.. anyway everyone was dancing... and I mean everyone even me! Pictorial evidence should be on TheCobraSnake.Com later today

Anyway, that said if you're in NYC weekend you should go hang out with DB here

pic: get blinded with Science

ok plane is delayed more...wohoo Stabucks time

l8t

r

Rico Sauve... perhaps not!

Ahahaha  so I finally get to see my latest bio picture .. not here of course I think the PR folk have been hiding it from me (bless em) anyway I'm front and center in Digital Media Wire and of course I had to share...The article focuses on "music" which is of course central to everything Zune is about and also make mention of the Artist Development Program tours which ran through the end of last year and will be starting up again shortly with some wicked new artists.

I'm also working hard on our plans for SXSW this year with our lifestyle marketing people I'll reveal as I can, but obviously we'll be doing stuff with our content partners over the course of the year if that good enough indication of direction.

so here's my official ugly mug

BBC top 10 to watch

Thought you'd be interested in this (thanks to my mate Melissa). I'm already all over Klaxons and AirTraffic of course if you had a Zune Pass you could be too!!... yes predicition for 2007 people start "getting" subscription as a great way to enjoy loads o music... anyway.. soapbox away.. and over to the BBC

Sound of 2007 – BBC’s top 10 names to watch

Mika   

The Twang

Klaxons

Sadie Ama

Enter Shikari

Air Traffic

Cold War Kids

Just Jack

Ghosts

The Rumble Strips

Details of each here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6169551.stm#1

Las Vegas or Bust

Ahh yes... just as you're replacing the first set of batteries in your christmas gizmo's the future is about to be revealed in Las Vegas ... oh the joy that abounds in the city of lights for the biggest trade show of the year being CES. I'm popping in for Tuesday to do a couple of meetings, get a look at the fancy new gizmology and to attend what is sure to be one of "the" events of the convention

Zune Afterparty - 1/9/07

Venue The Opium Room at Tao

DJ Questlove spinning Midnight to 3pm

Photographer Mark the Cobrasnake

Attendees: Mix of CES types and local nightlife crowd

Partners: 944 magazine

If you're in town reach out, it would of course be fabulous to se y'all.. I'm hoping to find a camera phone that works....

Happy New Year

Hey there all, just a quickie to say Happy New Year and have a fab 2007 to y'all. It was a wicked 2006 for me and all the Zune folk and be prepared for some awesome stuff this year. It's hard to think that Zune has only been on the market a little more than 6 weeks and however you view the press the impact has been undeniable... so 2007 is looking pretty darn good, lots to do but hey that's what makes it fun!

l8t

r