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Of all of the presentations at the recent DemoFall conference, easily the coolest was for an application from a company that wasn’t a presenter at the conference. When representatives from The Echo Nest presented their Musical Brain developer API for analyzing, mixing and mashing audio, one of the developer apps they used to showcase their technology was easily the hit of the show.
The application they chose is called MoreCowbell.dj. This site is based on the famous “Saturday Night Live” skit that did a take-off on a “Behind the Music” segment on the making of the Blue Oyster Cult hit “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Since the skit aired more than eight years ago, with Will Ferrell as an over-the-top cowbell player and Christopher Walken as a whacked-out music producer who needs more cowbell, the term “more cowbell” has become an Internet meme.
And with the site MoreCowbell.dj, anyone who wants to get more cowbell (and more Walken) into any of their favorite songs can do so.
The site is simple to use. Just upload any song from your computer, and then use the sliders to add more or less cowbell and more or less Walken. The cowbell slider is pretty self-explanatory; add a little to get that classic rock vibe, or add lots and your song starts to sound like Merengue.
With the Walken slider, add lots and your track will be interspersed with comments by Christopher Walken (who puts his pants on one leg at a time but when they’re on he makes gold records) and by the Will Ferrell character in the skit.
Once the song is uploaded you can listen to, share and embed the audio track that has been vastly improved by the addition of more cowbell. It is also possible to view and listen to other tracks that users of MoreCowbell.dj have uploaded and given more cowbell.
So go to www.morecowbell.dj to try it out and add more cowbell and more Walken to your favorite songs. I know I’ll be heading back.
Because I got a fever. And the only prescription is more MoreCowbell.dj.