PopTech Mixtape Vol. 1 by PopTech
Back in 2006, I had the privilege to go to a conference called PopTech in Camden, Maine. It’s like the TED Conference except without the former presidents and $30,000 price tag. It was hands down the best conference I’ve ever attended. One of the cool aspects of it was that they had some amazing musicians perform in addition to great speakers (Chris Anderson, Craig Venter, Richard Dawkins, Thomas Friedman, just to name a few). Well, I just got word that PopTech released this “mixtape” of 10 performances from several of their conferences. I personally had seen and met both Reggie Watts and Rodrigo Y Gabriela there. (This is also where I met Jonathan Coulton, though he’s not on this mixtape.) Reggie Watts is an amazing improviser, using a looping pedal and interesting effects to create his art. Rodrigo Y Gabriela are two guitarists who are half percussionists with an incredible style of performing. You’ll probably recognize some others in this mix. These are all live, and all wonderful. They are all in my iPod now, and my latest music (re)discovery! Enjoy.