give em' cash cos all their stocks are soiled...

So pitchfork.tv have this awesome lil' online show called Beardo (geddit Weirdo + Beard = Beardo). It's a comedy starring Tim Harrington the front man of the band Le Savy Fav along with some animation, music and niche guest stars that goes live every Thursday or so. This episode is particularly funny. Know all those bankers and trust fund kids who've been chucked out on their well insulated arses thanks to these harsh economic times? Well, Beardo does what any self-aggrandizing muso would do... he gets a bunch of famous people together to record a benefit album. Behold, USA for Affluence



I've been spending a lot of today looking at online tv, radio and podcasting, trying to determine if there's things we can do better at triple j in terms of pod/vodcasted content. I'm seeing lots of wildly varied content from different organisations. For example, I love the design of everything Revision3 Internet Television do (Diggnation and the brilliant WebDrifter). I hate the cheap sound of everything from Australia's Own The Podcast Network, mind you I did have someone Twitter me in the direction of a few good interviews on TPN Founder Cameron Reilly's podcast G'Day World, and once I got into them they weren't bad content, at all. And Reilly's Single Man's Guide to Cooking Great Shit is actually kinda awesome, if not purely for watching Reilly knock back the vodka's while cooking (I knew I wasn't the only one who did that). However my cosmetic and production comments still stand. And don't even get me stared the appalling cheapness of FreeDigitalContent.com.

As far as large media organisations go, perhaps not surprisingly, the quality improves. The Guardian are still my favourite. They put all other newspaper podcasters to shame, and most radio ones too. The MediaTalk Podcast is required weekly listening. MusicWeekly and TechWeekly are growing on me, though FilmWeekly remains a painful bore. Why in fucks name is it so hard to make a decent, fun, informative, well-produced film show?! (particularly since the UK radio XFM seemed to give up on theirs)

As regulars will know, I love qoob.tv (part of MTV Italy) which has a strong short film and animation component, and a sexy totally-not-web-2.0 interface.

Current TV from the US is also an interesting one. Their Vanguard journalism brand is quite strong, though they take themselves way too seriously and go for about a minute longer than they should. Plus, there really isn't that much by way of downloadable podcast content (except of course for the exquisitely awesome animation SuperNews which you can podcast here in iTunes)

VBS.tv (Vice Magazine's website) got off to a great start. It's a killer design, great brands, but the quality of the content itself varies from the unbelievably fascinating to the shockingly banal. Plus there's that whole too-cool-for-you vibe that serves no purpose other than to make the viewer feel like they must aspire to VBS's wanton swaggering cockery. So all in all, VBS is precisely like the magazine. But when push comes to shove, I love the sheer creativity and energy of VBS. I love that VBS find stories, bands and people that no-one else does. I remember when VBS first started, I spent hours on it just wishing that triple j tv had that same lively, organic, roll-with-it quality you would think embodies a station like triple j.

Like, how good would it be if triple j tv was running short music docs like this throughout ABC2?



And that leaves pitchfork.tv, look I know that they're the biggest music-snob pillocks and all, but I still like em. The branding is stunning, "Don't Look Down" = Live Set on a NY rooftop... its brilliant, its gorgeous and iconic enough that even if it does get ripped and whacked on bitorrent it'll still retain its brand. The whole affair leaves you pondering "Where is the inherent televisual quality to triple j's Like a Version?" Hey don't get me wrong, I love triple j's content, but we won't grow/improve without exploring the full length and breadth of what else is out there, otherwise we just become ignorant.. and by 'ignorant' I mean these guys.

Anways I'd love to know any other great online media sites that you enjoy? Also what would you change about the way triple j pod/vodcasts?