Well, a little context is in order here. I wonder if Reg even knows where this comes from. There was a very popular movie in Ireland called The Commitments, about a working class Dublin band who play soul music. (Great movie btw, I'd recommend anyone checking it out)

There's a scene where one of the musicians asks if they're not "a bit white" to play soul music. The manager responds that "The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once and say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud."

Everyone in Ireland over 20 will have either seen this movie or heard this quote.

Ireland has a really weird relationship with race. If you grew up in Ireland before the 2000s, you literally never saw anyone who wasn't white. Yes, literally. As such, Irish people will say casually racist things all the time. Sometimes, like anywhere, it's malicious, but most of the time, it's genuinely not meant as offensive.

One of the reasons I sifted this is that I actually went to see Reg this weekend. He was freaking hilarious, and in fact his entire message was explicitly stated to be one of unity.

I'm paraphrasing here, but his closing line was something like
"There is no black pain, or gay pain or female pain. There is only human pain, and when people do bad shit to other people, it hurts us all."

No, it says right on the screen that it is not Weird Al but Weird Al'Attacka'Duwacca! Totally different musician!

The Lawyer isn't the one getting fooled, he be getting paid for doing the stupidest, easiest to lose case ever. He may not be very moral, but he is still sucking money out of the idiots who thought that suing a musician for their music's alleged influence on the behavior of society was a right/good/viable thing to do.

Fun! I really want to add tags like "tits" and "boobies" to this. I somehow think the musicians would approve

This clip is so interesting for audio nerds, musicians and audiophiles that the *quality level of said video needs to be mentioned.

From the article:
For Barnes, the device needed to be able to take cues from the human body. The lab designed a prosthesis that uses a technique called electromyography to pick up on electrical signals in the upper arm muscles. By tensing his biceps, Barnes controls a small motor that changes how tightly the prosthetic arm grips the drumstick and how quickly it moves, vital skills for a drummer.

The researchers then added another layer of complexity: a second, autonomous drumstick on the robot arm (see photo). This second stick, controlled via its own motor, uses a microphone and an accelerometer to sense the rhythm Barnes is playing, as well as music from any nearby musicians. An algorithm then produces a new beat with a complementary rhythm and melody, modelled on the music of jazz greats like John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

With this extra artificial intelligence, human and machine combine to make Barnes a kind of "superhuman drummer", Weinberg says.

Cue all the "real musicians" pooh-poohing it, because, like many innovations before it, it makes music-creation more accessible to everyone. "These newbs don't even tune their instruments! No skills! This is stupid!"

Actually, nevermind, I'm way late to that party. I clicked on the link to the Youtube video and the comments there are already flooded with that sort of nonsense.

...a credit to the talent of Boyce and Hart.

...and don't forget Stepping Stone.

There was one real musician among them,...know whom?

ME and my roommate were discussing the lack of 'soul' in some musicians, and were using examples like Steve Vai vs. Frank Zappa and say, Yngwie Malmsteen vs. Buckethead, etc (for guitarists) and he brought up the whole Japanese fascination with jazz vs. a lot of her practitioner's technical skills relative to their lack of 'soul' and I was trying to think of an example of a Japanese musician WITH some soul, and could not remember this woman's name as I used her as an exception to the 'soulless', technical performer-

Thanks again Kulpims (pretty sure you first turned me on to this artist here), this woman has the whole soul + technical prowess package²

3 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

Sir...lower than low and you can't tell the real from unreal-I am a musician and a friend to humanity and all you want from me is to see me burn-You are sadly mistaken in your assumptions and have dealt me a personal disservice,

I mean you no personal ill-will and have seen this before from other abusers of this site.

Cut and paste and declare the righteous of humanity unworthy based on nothing but your own delusional fantasies of right and wrong.

I have no history here of anything but calling shit when I see it and you sir, are THE epitome of the dregs of the worst of humankind.

You place yourself in a false position of a 'holier than thou' saint and read into my jovial and playful banter nothing but hatred and an unforgiving soul, some vile pervert....I assure you, I am so very far from some pedophile, no user of women, on the contrary-You have no idea the depths to which your own delusion has brought you and the entire site in declaring me in your self-righteousness some petty piece of human garbage as to accuse me of such a thing.

There are more than a few people here who can attest to my kindness and sincerity towards the women of this place, on YT when so many complete douchebags offer-up their vile words to young people trying to interpret music and are derided by those who hate themselves so much that they can only criticize, berate, and belittle the efforts of sincere people trying to share their love for music and humanity with the world only to have idiots and assholes insult their efforts.

My "request" to you was a joke directed at your persona here of enforcer, of resident cop hell-bent on finding any way possible to undermine anyone who comes here as a new user under the guise of following protocol-I have treated you as a friend and equal always and now....with evil intent and a sincere and violent hatred for me as a person you would have me thrown to wolves.

I had absolutely no indication that someone would or could, stoop as low on this site but as it is with people who don't even know who or what they themselves are, I am once again surprised and bewildered at the depths to which humanity can sink, when all is exhausted but ego and self-loathing.

If you would care to post this to the sift-talk arena and have tenured and long-time users here who know me, who trust me to be who and what I say I am I would be honored to show you and the entire site, even if it mean a permanent ban from this site of myself, just how completely wrong you are in your knee-jerk assumptions and delusional accusations.

I can have at least 3 adult, female users of this site who I and the community trust to be straight-up moral and ethical and righteous attest to my honesty and to a friendship that endures on and off this site.

I have no reservations about anything I have said or done here to foster love and community and it is YOUR delusional self-righteous anger and self-hate that has brought you to your retarded and vile accusation and assumption.

I agree with you one one thing, that this particular issue need not be a private matter but one that the entire site's users need see.

SO here we are once again, letting the community of users here let a few delusionals decide the fate of a sincere human being.

SO be it, I should have known better than to walk bearing my heart and soul into a small den of feral creatures and expect them to be able to see beauty and a sincere love for all of humanity.

Your accusations again, are unfounded and completely left of field, and you are dead-wrong in assuming that I am some perverted, hind-brained animal that would take advantage of a complete stranger.

That poor girl who sang that Beatle's tune and was banned had a lovely voice and whoever posted her video here I am sure, had no intention of doing anything but promoting her confidence and and sincere love for the music she was trying to share with the world.


I was going to go to her you tube page and apologize on behalf of myself and the site for her offering having been dashed-to-bits on the rocks of petty rules and a declaration of her unworthiness through some crap system of votes and regulations.

I feel very, very sorry and pity the type of person who can't discern the truth from a lie or see someone for what they are in their essence.

All the power-points I garner from maintaining the site's embeds, have you noticed??
I give them away to the underdogs, to the talented sifters who find beauty and joy in what they offer to the community. My usual criteria is to promote ignored offerings or to promote when I read a description in an embed of how much they personally enjoyed a video or that it touched them in an emotional way lending to joy or happiness. I resurrect dead videos in order to immediately give points and another chance to people with a view to raiding their spirits and status on this site.

I tend to promote music quite a bot and to DOWN-VOTE embeds people place here in order to insult another's ideologies or philosophies OR, when i see an inordinate amount of embed form a user that showcase human-tragedy for the sake of entertainment .

I care about life and truth my friend, not fantasy, death, pain, or lies with a view to self-promotion.

You are dead wrong in your assessment of my character, and I seek to prove you so before this entire community or be run off this site for the very last time.

I am keeping a copy of this response to my joking message directed again, at your joy in watching users get banned of self-linking which I posted to you with a view to pointing-out a character flaw, so that you won't twist my words and use them to satisfy your personal mission to see me gone form here.

Unfortunately, I don't remember the series that well. I missed most of the charm of this -- I'm not a musician, but he could have been helped mightily by some instruments.

I just watched Madonna sing on Macklemore's Same Love grammy performance right before watching this. Maybe that lowered my tolerance for dicey singing.

Although I gotta admire her gutsiness -- singing right after Mary Lambert? And then singing along with her? Gutsy.

http://videosift.com/video/Same-Love-Getting-Married-at-the-Grammys

Bad singing, backatcha.

I love Andrew Bird, he's a very creative and talented musician. I'll play his song "Way Out West" 5 times in a row when the mood strikes me.

The Space Lady (aka Suzy Soundz) is San Francisco’s most enchanting street musician. Whether on keyboard or accordion, her music stops sidewalk traffic even in this multi-task town. She usually performs wearing a whimsical steel helmet with angel wings, which makes her easy to recognize but belies the credibility of her haunting vocal interpretations of well known songs. The Space Lady, whose real name is Susan Dietrich, made only a full length CD of San Francisco sessions for sale. The disc features Susan performing live on Casio with effects.
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Space+Lady

From his facebook:

"This is news to some, but many of you may have heard about the incident today at Warped Tour London. I jumped off an extremely tall lighting tress during my last song, and was taken to the hospital for examination. I was released, and I'm fine, besides some nicks, bruises, and the shame of endangering the crowd. The fall broke a girl's arm and hurt another guy. My tour manager Nils and I stayed at the hospital for 6 hours til the visiting period ended, and all I know about the man's condition at this point is that he has no breaks and the injury seems to be muscular/ bruising. I'll be going back in the morning to try to apologize, but I wouldn't blame the guy if he spits in my face. The jump was not awesome, it was not badass, and it was not ballsy. It turned what should have been a great day for the people who got hurt into a nightmare. It was stupid and wildly irresponsible, plain and simple.

I have no excuse for my actions, and the only way I can explain my mindset is that it was a huge overreach in the heat of the moment. No, I was not drunk or on drugs. I used to be a kid who was afraid to do anything physically dangerous-- I was scared of the ball in little league, didn't want to jump into lakes and would never have had the nerve to crowdsurf. But in the last year of touring, I've done increasingly risky things, maybe pushing myself by some dumb sense I am conquering my early timidity. I pride myself on trying to put on a good show and always giving 100% energy, but jumping off some high shit doesn't make someone a good musician or performer. I feel fucking terrible. I made a boneheaded decision that got people hurt, and it's extremely lucky it wasn't worse. Putting your own body on the line is one thing, but putting other people in harm's way is inexcusable. Today I let down my supporters, I let down the Warped Tour and I let down my band and the people who work their asses off behind the scenes to make these shows happen. My #1 priority right now is to somehow make this right for the folks who were hurt.

I will not be canceling the remaining 6 tour dates. I will do the shows, as usual I will meet everyone afterwards, and I will NOT be jumping off anything. I am deeply sorry and I promise to learn from this mistake."