Jonathan Coulton

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Jonathan Coulton

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Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name =
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1970|12|1|df=y
Died =
Origin = New York City, United States
Instrument = Guitar, banjo, ukulele, zendrum, tenori-on
Genre = Rock, Geek rock
Occupation = Singer-songwriter
Years_active = 2005 - present
Associated_acts = Paul and Storm
Kristen Shirts
John Hodgman
Ellen McLain
Ze Frank
URL = [http://www.jonathancoulton.com/ www.jonathancoulton.com]

Jonathan Coulton (born December 1, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, famous for his songs containing themes of geek culture as well as his rise to popularity through the use of the Internet.

Career

A former computer programmer and self-described geek, Coulton tends to write quirky, witty, fanciful lyrics about a variety of topics such as science fiction and technology: a man who thinks in simian terms, a mad scientist who falls in love with one of his captives, and the dangers of bacteria. He does not often write topical songs, but he did release a song titled "W's Duty", which sampled President George W. Bush, in 2005 and another called "Tom Cruise Crazy" in 2006. Most of Coulton's songs feature Coulton's vocals accompanied by guitar, bass, and drums, though they often feature the various other instruments Coulton plays, including accordion, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, or glockenspiel.

A graduate of Yale and former member of the Yale Whiffenpoofscite web
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/fashion/23acappella.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=fashion
title = Perfect Tone, in a Minor Key
format = HTML
date = 23 March 2008
publisher = New York Times
accessdate = 2008-03-23] and the Yale Spizzwinks(?), he is now the Contributing Troubadour at "Popular Science" magazine, whose September 2005 issue was accompanied by a five-song set by him called "Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms". [ [http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-08/future-body-soundtrack "The Future of The Body: The Soundtrack"] (accessed on 23rd June 2008), "Popular Science"] He is also the Musical Director for The Little Gray Book Lectures. [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6603466 "Witty Tunes Are Jonathan Coulton's 'Thing'"] (accessed ) on NPR's "All Things Considered"] Coulton's best known works include his light-acoustic cover of the Sir Mix-a-Lot hit song "Baby Got Back" and original pieces such as "Still Alive", the theme song for the video game "Portal", and " [http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/04/14/thing-a-week-29-code-monkey/ Code Monkey] ", which has been featured on Slashdotcite web
url = http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/23/159227
title = Code Monkey Like Fritos
format = HTML
date = 23 April 2006
publisher = slashdot.com
accessdate = 2007-10-22] on April 23, 2006 as well as linked from the multi-million reader webcomic Penny Arcade.cite web
url = http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/09/01
title = Prinny Please
format = HTML
date =
publisher = www.penny-arcade.com
accessdate = ] It is currently the theme song for an animated show on G4 called "Code Monkeys". A video set to his song "Re Your Brains" was a featured link on "Good Morning Silicon Valley". His work has also been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered".

Coulton accompanied John Hodgman on his list of "700 Hobo Names" promotional track for Hodgman's book "The Areas of My Expertise" as the guitarist (he was referenced as "Jonathan William Coulton, the Colchester Kid" in said work). Coulton also can be heard throughout the audiobook version of the same book, playing the theme song to the book, playing incidental music, and at times engaging in witty banter with Hodgman, who reads the audio version of his work. Coulton has also been referenced in Hodgman's work with "The Daily Show"; a Jonathan Coulton of Colchester, Connecticut is Hodgman's pick to win an essay contest on overpowering Iraqi resistance to American invasion.cite web
url = http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=115091&title=essay-contest
title = Daily Show: Hodgman - Essay Contest
format = HTML/Flash Video
date =
publisher = Comedy Central
accessdate = 2008-02-27] The winning entry, as set to music, was then played on the program; this song, about dropping snakes from airplanes, was written and performed by Coulton.

Coulton also has released other songs under "The Little Gray Book Lectures". In 2006, Coulton began touring with and co-wrote a song with comedy-duo Paul and Storm entitled "Your Love Is", which appeared on their album "News to Us". They have since toured together almost exclusively, rarely appearing with any other artists.

Coulton wrote and performed a song titled "Still Alive" for the ending credits of Valve's 2007 video game "Portal", with vocals by Ellen McLain. On April 1st, 2008, Harmonix made this track available as free downloadable content for the game "Rock Band". [ [http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/rock-band-get-1.html Rock Band Gets 'Still Alive' Tomorrow, Free | Game | Life from Wired.com ] ] A version with Coulton's vocals was also included on the "Orange Box Original Soundtrack", [http://store.valvesoftware.com/productshowcase/productshowcase_TOBSoundtrack.html Orange Box Original Soundtrack] ] in addition to the one heard at the end of the game.

He is currently working on a new album, titled "The Aftermath". Thus far, he has uploaded complete videos of the recording process for each of the songs currently written for the album to a live stream on [http://www.Ustream.tv Ustream.tv] (live, and then later archived). [http://ustream.tv/channel/joco-in-a-bubble Jonathan Coulton's Ustream channel] . Accessed November 11, 2007.] Also, a DVD is in the works of a concert performed February 22, 2008 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, tentatively entitled "The JoCo Movie". At the concert, Coulton [http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/24/video-jonathan-coulton-performing-still-alive-rock-band-dlc/ played] the aforementioned song "Still Alive" on its "Rock Band" version, along with guest "musicians" and geek/celebrities Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann and Veronica Belmont.

Licensing

As an Internet-based performing artist, he has attracted a group of fans who promote him. Since Coulton uses the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, others are free to use his songs in their own noncommercial works. As a result, a number of music videos have been created using his songs. Machinima such as the ILL Clan's video for "Code Monkey", [http://www.spiffworld.com/ Mike "Spiff" Booth's] videos for "Re Your Brains", "Code Monkey", and others are created using computer generated graphics from games such as "World of Warcraft". There are also videos in the style of Coulton's " [http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2005/12/22/thing-a-week-14-flickr/ Flickr] " which use Creative Commons licensed photographs from Flickr as a slideshow accompaniment to the song. The " [http://www.jocovideo.com/ Jonathan Coulton Project] " (also known as "JoCoPro") has created a number of these.

In addition to the multiple videos, the Creative Commons license has also allowed illustrations to be done of Coulton's work. Most notable is the work by graphic designer/illustrator Len Peralta, who drew a visual interpretation of each Thing A Week. [ [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawboneradio/sets/72057594103636347/ Jonathan Coulton's Thing A Week : un album photos sur Flickr ] ] These images are available in a book entitled "Visual Thing A Week: Art Inspired By the Music of Jonathan Coulton."

Thing a Week

"Thing a Week" is the name that Coulton gave to a creative experiment which ran from 16 September 2005 to 30 September 2006. In this project, Coulton undertook to record 52 musical pieces in the course of a year, one each week. This target was mostly achieved, missing only a few weeks. The objectives were: (a) to push the artist's creative envelope by adopting what Coulton describes as a "forced-march approach to writing and recording"; (b) to prove to himself that he was capable of producing creative output to a deadline; and (c) to test the viability of the Internet and Creative Commons as a platform capable of supporting a professional artist financially. Early indications are that the experiment succeeded in generating a large number of high quality songs, boosting sales of music downloads, expanding Coulton's public presence and enlarging his fan base. The success of the financial objective is more difficult to judge, but Coulton was quoted in a September 2006 interview as stating that "in some parts of the country, I’d be making a decent living".cite web
url = http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/?p=1757
title = Quick Stop Interview: Jonathan Coulton
format = HTML
date = 2006-09-28
publisher = View Askew Productions
accessdate = 2007-02-19] In a February 25 2008, interview with This Week in Tech, he stated that he made more money in 2007 than he did in his last year of working as a programmer, 40% of it from digital downloads and 40% from merchandise and performances.cite web | url=http://twit.tv/133 | title = TWiT 133: Jonathan Coulton - Functional And Elegant | format = MP3 | date = 2008-02-25 | publisher = TWiT.tv | accessdate = 2008-06-08]

Discography

*"Smoking Monkey" (2003)
*"Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow" (2004)
*"Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms" (2005)
*"Thing a Week One" (2006)
*"Thing a Week Two" (2006)
*"Thing a Week Three" (2006)
*"Thing a Week Four" (2006)
*"The Aftermath", which is still in progress.
*"The Orange Box Original Soundtrack" (contributed "Still Alive")

Most of Coulton's songs are published on his website as MP3 and FLAC downloads. Many of them are free, and none of them are subject to digital rights management. All of his original songs fall under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License.Valve Corporation.]

References

External links

Official Sites

* [http://jonathancoulton.com Jonathan Coulton's website]
*MySpace|jonathancoulton|Jonathan Coulton
*imdb name|1637037
* [http://eventful.com/performers/P0-001-000000067-4/demand Request a Jonathan Coulton concert] at Eventful

Interviews

* [http://www.techtalkforfamilies.com/episode_6_rock_star_dad Audio Interview with Jonathan Coulton on Tech Talk for Families Podcast discussing his career and family]
* [http://cecilvortex.com/swath/2007/04/19/an_interview_with_jonathan_coulton.html Jonathan Coulton on creativity and the creative process, an interview with about-creativity.com April 19, 2007]
* [http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-33899/TS-31852.mp3 Jonathan Coulton was musical guest on 7/22/2007's "Operation BSU," a call-in interactive podcast talk show.] (NSFW.)
* [http://epicfu.com/2008/06/jonathan-coulton-muxtape-vs-mi.html Video interview of Jonathan Coulton by Zadi Diaz of EPIC FU] , weekly web show that covers online pop culture (June 4, 2008)