At the 2009 International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP) in Taiwan, UC San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Luke Barrington presented a new model for music analysis (pdf) that can capture both the sound of a song and how it changes over time. The system is being used for a new search engine, dubbed Google for Music, and users would search for descriptive words, like “mellow jazz”, instead of song titles, album names or artist names.

The algorithm labels tracks differently; it cuts them into segments such as verse, chorus and bridge. It’s more accurate because it gives labels to smaller sections of a song, rather than attempting to broadly label the entire thing. But the computer must be taught, so Barrington’s team has made a game for Facebook, called Herd It, which asks you to identify instruments, genres, artist names and emotions triggered by a song.

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Former Guns N’ Roses axeman Slash is going to record a cover of Led Zeppelin’s song Kashmir with electronic string quartet Escala. The artists are set to record in Los Angeles later this week, after being brought together by Escala’s manager Simon Cowell.

Escala rose to fame when they reached the final of the second series of the show “Britain’s Got Talent” in 2008. The Sun reports that:

“He was looking for someone unexpected to work with the girls and asked if he’d be interested. [Slash] really liked the idea and jumped at the chance.”

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With less than a month before the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival reveals its 2009 lineup, to take place June 11-14 in Manchester, TN, music fans are getting antsy. And we all know what happens when music get antsy about lineups: they start rumors. Here’s are some band names floating around so far:

Led Zeppelin: I’ve got four words for everyone: Here we go again. Yes, John Paul Jones played Zeppelin classics with Ben Harper in two separate performances in 2007, and yes, Robert Plant jammed on some of the band’s tunes with Alison Krauss at last year’s festival. But let’s face it, there are Zeppelin-at-Bonnaroo rumors every year. Sadly, the dream of seeing Zeppelin headline Bonnaroo may be nothing more than a fantasy, especially considering Robert Plant’s informal announcement that he will be focusing on other performances for the next two years and recent comments from Jimmy Page’s manager, Peter Mensch:

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Jimmy Page’s manager Peter Mensch told Musicradar that the band is over and will not tour any more, despite many indications to the contrary. After Robert Plant received a CBE from the Queen of England, and said he would not be doing a reunion tour with the band, it looks like the 2007 concert at the London O2 Arena was Zeppelin’s last.

“Led Zeppelin are over,” Mensch said, “If you didn’t see them in 2007, you missed them. It’s done. I can’t be any clearer than that.”

He added: “They tried out a few singers, but no one worked out. That was it. The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it.”

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Music fans have given NME their votes for the greatest voice in rock. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant came out on top with Freddie Mercury of Queen and Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company following closely behind. It’s a pretty big honor and a very broad one at that.

Do you agree with this outcome? Let us know what you think!

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Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant has received a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the UK’s 2009 New Year’s Honors List, for his services to music.

Also honored this year are Scottish singer-songwriter and maverick guitarist John Martyn (awarded an OBE) and jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine (CBE).

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Looks like Robert Plant has no intentions of doing a reunion concert no matter what the rest of the band decides to do. Last October, bassist John Paul Jones, confirmed that Zeppelin would be touring again with a replacement vocalist. Since then people have been hoping that Plant would reconsider and join the tour, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to be happening.

Plant recently said in am interview that:

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To celebrate the 90th birthday of choreographer Merce Cunningham, Sonic Youth and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin will be performing together live for a multimedia composition from director Takehisa Kosugi, which will be taken on stage in April, by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

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In a rather odd rant while talking to Classic Rock magazine, Jack Bruce of Cream went batty talking about Led Zeppelin. He attacks the band as a whole, the reunion gig in London last year and Jimmy Page as a guitarist.

Read the rant after jump.

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