PopTech - Jonathan Coulton

I just met Jonathan Coulton in the street during the lunch break. He played guitar and sang at PopTech and was simply outstanding. I asked him for a link to his song Future Now, which is the one that he did for the audience yesterday. He gave me the link to the MP3 version (see above) that he put up on his website. The words to that song are very appropos of a world with increased obsession about technology.

Jonathan is a friendly and engaging fellow; he doesn't play music fulltime (I think he's a software engineer in NYC). Anyway, he said that his dad, who is a lawyer, advised him to be careful about making his music so easily available. Jonathan's theory, however (which is a good one), is that if someone steals his music and profitably uses it in an advertisement or something like that he'll come out ahead (either because they'll pay him, or he'll have a pretty easy lawsuit against them). More importantly, he just wants to make his music available to the widest possible audience. So feel free to go to his website, and check out these songs too. Two other songs that he performed to great applause at PopTech are Gambler's Prayer and Mandlebrot Set.

Like I said, he wants you to download the songs and share them with people so please feel free to pass them on to friends. One thing I should emphasize is that his lyrics are very well thought out, and deserve special attention. So close your eyes and listen closely.