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MUSIC!!!
Saturday, October 20, 2007 Tonight I am listening to the new Iron and Wine album, "The Shepard's Dog" for the very first time. Its absolutely incredible (would I be writing about it if it wasn't?). I could go on and on about it, but I'm only four tracks into it. But I do want to talk about something; about a folly of music files, and the possible death of a standard album practice. Track 3 "The Shepard's dog" fades into track 4 - so its impossible to know where track 3 ends and track 4 begins. Nothing new mind you, its been done for decades. In fact, its pretty much a standard on album rock albums that at least once during said album, they're going to do it. So what separates this specific fade? Nothing really, except for the fact that there was a huge gap in between songs breaking the continuity of the album when iTunes changed from track 3 to track 4! Now, I know I can switch the settings to eliminate this gap, and I have already done so to eliminate future instances. But why is this set as the default? Does iTunes and Apple care so little about entire albums, since most people only download a song or two nowadays? Seriously, I know how to change it, and any one with half a brain can find the option to do so, but what about those who are scared of computers? And there are a lot of them out there - many of them happen to be extremely brilliant people in other areas. Ok, so this is turning int a rant session, isn't it? Still, this is one of the follies of albums as a group of files, rather than a greater body of work. Sigh, the album really is dying. May it rest in peace. May it rise again. Sunday, October 14, 2007 There's good news and bad news about the new Radiohead album, "In Rainbows." The bad news is its not as good as "Ok Computer;" The good news is its not as bad as "Hail To the Thief" or Thom's solo album. If it had been as bad as the two latter mentioned albums, I might have to refer to it as "In Rainblows." In all seriousness, I like it -which is saying a lot considering the expectations I put on a band like Radiohead. They seem to be the type of band that is full of potential, but sometimes sinks to the lowest and/or laziest common denominator. So when they put out a new album, I approach with caution. Its nice to know that "In Rainbows," while certainly not their best work, lives up to the bar I've set for them. In other news, I just saw the video for "Challengers" by The New Pornographers. It was kind of creepy at first, but worth watching. The use of color vs black and white alone....while not the most original concept, makes it a worthwhile use of three minutes. Though the scene with Neko, Katherine, and Carl just standing there singing still freaks me out. And it looks like Neko's drinking something radioactive too. Monday, September 17, 2007 Quick note for consistency. As I mentioned on the home page, this page will stay put when I do the site overhaul. Instead of merging it with one big page, I am going to make it one page of many. Ah, sweeeeeeeet music. I saw The New Pornographers last night. For those of you who do not know, they're kind of my favorite band. It was a show too! It was a full band (IE Neko and Dan both decided to tour this time). This is the first time in two years that I've seen all of them together, and the first time in a year and a half that I've seen TNP at all. Last time I saw them they were opening for Belle and Sebastian. But yeah, pretty damn fine show. Dan looked a little out of it for the first few minutes, but he quickly warmed up. Neko (who was wearing a KISS t-shirt with the words "Lick it" over a picture of Gene Simons doing his tongue thing), was more energetic than she usually is. Carl and Neko didn't have as much banter back and forth, which kind of sucked (they have some good banter during shows). The rest of the band seemed about normal (well, they didn't give Kirk a mic this time, so maybe he was low energy). 'Twas a good time. Saturday, September 09, 2007 Hello Again, long time no post. I've been busy with work and the like. Anyways, in a weekend or two, I am going to scrap this specific page, and merge it with an all out media blog. Not only will it include music reviews, rants, and raves, but similar R's in such things as movies, television, graphic novels, Internet life, and literature. Basically, if its considered media, I will write about it. In other news, I have had a fabulous weekend musicly. I've been going to Musicfest NW this week, and wow. Immaculate Machine on Thursday Night, Rilo Kiley last night, and The Thermals tonight! Such an over abundance of wonderful music! And if that were not enough, next weekend I will see my two favorite bands play consecutive nights! Over the Rhine on Saturday, and The New Pornographers (with Fancey opening) on Sunday! Joy, joy, joy! Well, I gotta skiddadle! Toodles! Monday, June 11, 2007 Three new pieces of noteworthy news to put up. The first is my good friend Dave gave me the opportunity to put the music together for his show a few weeks back. He had a kid, and well, yeah, things got a bit busy. Secondly, if you are a New Pornographers fan, you'll be happy to hear that the new album "Challengers" is coming out very soon. In fact, you can pre-order it here. Once you do so, you will be able to stream the album. I am on my third listen of it now. Honestly, its a little bit of a departure from their previous works. Its almost got an album rock type feel to it. But I'll save the spoilers for a later date. Thirdly, I went to one of, if not THE, best show ever a few weeks ago. It was the Arcade Fire at the Schnizter. I am not really an arena and/or concert hall type of guy, but this show was not lacking excitement. The entire evening was, ugg, words fail me right now. I really should have written about it sooner. Well, if you ever get the chance to see them, do. You will not be disappointed. Well, that's all I've got for you as of now. Stay tuned - the summer is producing music like so many wild rabbits. There is quite a bit of good stuff coming out by such bands as Immaculate Machine, The Polyphonic Spree, They Might Be Giants, and Fancey. Several others too, but those are the releases I'm extra stoked about. Keep your ears tuned, and shoot me an email if you find something worthwhile. Monday, April 23, 2007 Vienna Teng I had a wonderful and informative article written about Vienna Teng, but I accidently saved over it!!! OOPS. So, instead of me trying to repeat my rave reviews of her combination of folk and classical music, listen for yourself at her website and/or her myspace page. Monday, April 2, 2007 Portable Music: Quality vs Convenience Its interesting how the trends in music mediums go back and forth between quality and convenience. Vinyl, for instance, was (is) a great format - especially if you have the right equipment (12+ band equalizers, decent speakers, et al). Pretty nice quality, but totally inconvenient, especially if you wanted to take your music with you. After vinyl's hay day, we had 8 tracks, and then cassette tapes. Both formats were convenience, but left much to be desired when it came to sound quality. Then came CDs. CDs were / are wonderful quality, and even a bit convenient, though they do tend to skip and they like to develop nasty scratches. So now we have audio files (mp3, mp4 / AAC, WMP, OGG, et al). So far these are the most convenient format. They don't skip, the players are a lot more durable, one can bring a lot more music with them (in many cases one can carry their entire music collection in one little box). So have we reached the apex of the format wars? No! At this point in time the files are compressed still. While some formats are better than others, none of the file formats can really match the sound quality of a CD or Vinyl. And while the average consumer (pity that most people are consumers of music, and not actual listeners btw!!!) don't really care, audiophiles and serious music fans still crave better quality coupled with the convenience of a portable media file player. So, what is next? My prediction is in the next ten years, a file will be introduced that will have superior quality to anything we've seen (or rather heard) thus far. This format will be coupled with a media player that will probably have around 1 terrabyte of storage (at the very least!), so one can carry as much music as they so desire, especially since the hypothetical file type will be a pretty large. It would be nice if this player played any format by the way, so one with several protected mp3s or mp4s would not have to rip the inferior quality files, but rather leave the be. But the real question, will corporate America allow this? Apple has a pretty big holding in the portable music world, and they don't like to share. They have, at this time, showed no interest in migrating to a better file type. Still, they do keep pushing for bigger and bigger Ipods, and while I would much rather have a flash memory media player than a hard drive memory media player, one can defiantly say that Ipods might be a step in the right direction at least. There's also one other thing to consider: hard drives on computers must be bigger, and faster. Most laptops come standard with a very slow 5400 RPM hard drive. Try to access a folder with hundreds of files on one of those; Its terribly slow! There's also the fact that hard drives are still not that big. How many people have a free terrabyte on their hard drive to dedicate to music? Heck, how many people have a terrabyte on their hard drive to begin with? Well, like I said, it will take ten years, maybe five if we're lucky, but history says we'll get there. And then that format will give way to another format that will most likely be lower quality, but more convenience. And those of us who are audiophiles will write a string of articles like this one once more. Saturday, March 30, 2007 The Knife A quick word about a new favorite band of mine, an amazing brother and sister electronica band from Sweden called The Knife. Granted, The Knife is not a band that everyone will enjoy. They are pretty far on the "weird electronica" spectrum. A good comparison artist is Bjőrk, although the Knife is probably a bit weirder, as well as a bit more electronic - maybe even a touch more experimental. Anyways, every year I pick one album that I missed the year before which would have been in my top ten. This year, The Knife's "Silent Shout" claims the spot for this year. Thursday, March 22, 2007 I decided it would be a good Idea to rebirth this music blog. So yes, as I state above, I have reposted many of the entries in my former music blog. In other noteworthy music news, 2007 is going to be an awesome year as far as music goes. So far I have heard absolutely stellar new releases from the following: Air Menomena The Shins The Apples in Stereo Clap your hands Say yeah Blonde Redhead The Arcade fire Yeah, and its only March! There are several other bands (including several favorite bands) releasing new music this year. Hey, that reminds me! Do you have some new music that you think I might enjoy? Do you know a band that I might like? Feel free to email me. Heck, its a gmail account, so you could even send me an mp3 or two if you like. Or at least direct me to their myspace page. Sunday, January 01, 2006 top ten, err 11 Just a quick little list right now since it's been a while. I'll expand on these thoughts later, but for now, here are my top ten albums of 2005... 10. TIE!!!!! So this is actually a top 11. Oh well, but anyways... Architecture in Helsinki - In case We die Laura Viers - Year of Meteors 9. The Fiery Furnaces - EP 8. Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah! (Self titled) 7. The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir 6. The Immaculate Machine - Ones and Zeros 5. Over the Rhine - Drunkard's Prayer 4. Sigur Ro's - Takk... 3. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema 2. Ladytron - The Witching Hour 1. Sufjan Stevens - Come on, Feel the Illinois! Monday, October 31, 2005 Death cab for cutie... Instead of my normal "I hate this band and they are stupid" style rant, I am going to open this post up to discussion (well, they're all open to discussion I guess). Death Cab for Cutie has hit it big for the last few years. I will admit, I like a lot of their early stuff - but their last couple albums have just not done it for me. I read an article a while back stating their lyrics basically shout "Hi, aren't we clever" and i had to nod in agreement. Their lyrics seem a bit conceited, like they are intentionally trying to show how clever they are in their writing. This is a big pet peeve of mine, and the reason I've turned my back on so many bands who I used to like. Having said that, a lot of people whose musical tastes I respect LOVE Death Cab For Cutie - thus the asking for an open dialog about this band. So, what is your opinion? Do you like Death Cab for Cutie, or do you hate them? Why? Thursday, October 20, 2005 An Open Letter to Bono... Dear Bono, Before I go on with this letter, I want to tell you how much I respect you. You have deep convictions on what you feel is right - and you don't back down from those convictions. Once more, you use your position as someone in the limelight to further your positions on social justice. You don't even take political sides. Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal...it doesn't seem to matter to you. You just want to get things done. Again, I respect you - immensely. Having said all that - I'm a bit frustrated as a fan. I have been listening to U2 for seventeen years now - longer than I've been listening to any other band. I started when I was in the seventh grade with "The Joshua Tree" and have bought everything u2 has released since - as well as many albums before that. I have only seen you perform once - but my 97 dollar ticket was more than I've ever paid to see any other band. I still carry the ticket stub in my wallet - and that was four years ago. So needless to say, I am a fan. This is where it gets a little hairy. As a fan I feel a loyalty to you - to like everything that U2 ever puts out. It's been almost a year since "How to dismantle an atomic bomb" was released. I tried to like it - even convinced myself that I liked it for a while - but the truth is - I believe that it's one of u2's weakest albums. There are a few songs on HTDAAB that I love - a few riffs that are classic u2, but overall, well - let's just say I think you can do a lot better. A band that has been around for as long as U2 is entitled to one or two sub-standard albums, but I fear that this is becoming almost a pattern. Like U2 has lost their musical fire. It all started when Zooropa was released. Honestly, I have listened to that album less than any other U2 albums. It just didn't do it for me. Granted, it followed up arguably the best U2 albums (Achtung Baby), but still...you could have done better. After Zooropa, U2 released Pop. The concepts in that album were great! Using the Playboy mansion as a metaphor for heaven! Pure genius! But the album on a whole was, well, boring. That was two less than average albums in a row! Over the next few years, something wonderful happened. U2 not only released a couple best of / B sides albums, but also one hell of a great album - All that you can't leave behind (I am listening to that album right now). I rejoiced when ATYCLB was released. It showed that U2 had not lost it's fire - that you were just as good as ever! So, when HTDAAB was released, I rushed out to buy it. Seriously, while U2 had one great album in the last ten years, the majority of the albums have been pretty dull. So, I guess this is where I ask you - is it time that U2 retires? You've made a lot of money, so you don't need to make any more albums in a fiscal sense. And if you stop making albums and touring, that will leave more time to your social justice causes. If you do decide to make more albums, I will still buy them. I'm a loyal fan and also an optimist. Maybe this letter (if you actually see this letter) will inspire you to do better on the next album, I don't know. I just know that - as it stands now - I believe you've lost your fire. Sorry. Sunday, September 25, 2005 Berbatti's Pan - then and now My first experience with Berbatti's Pan was maybe five years ago. I won tickets to a show (featuring the now late Eliot Smith), and couldn't find anyone to go with me. It creaped me out that I would have to go by myself - I had never been to a 21 and over venue. I chickened out at the door, and walked away - thus blowing my chance to see probably one great show. A year or two later, my now favorite band, Over the Rhine, was playing at Berbatti's. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and went for it. It was everything I expected it to be, smoky and dirty and full of drunkards. But the music made up for all of that. Over the past four years, I've visited Berbatti's for several different shows. Some of them rocked, some of them did not - but the venue itself has become my favorite in the city. It's not as dirty as it first appeared, and they recently changed to non-smoking. As for the drunkenness, well, I'm less critical about it - and most people are there to hear the music anyways. So, the other night I went to Berbatti's for the first time in over a year. I had heard they remodeled, and I was kind of unsure of what to expect. Rumor was that it went all ages - would I still be able to get a rum and coke? Would they take away the artwork on the walls? And what about that huge and beautiful main bar of theirs? Would they go for something more conventional and modern? Well, Berbatti's has not changed a bit. OK, ok, they have changed a few things. I think they knocked out a wall in back, and moved the sound board back. They replaced all the booths with movie theater style chairs - and they moved the second bar where the bands used to stash their equipment. They changed the schedule - concerts start earlier, and they have a DJ spin afterwards. I don't like this edition - it rushes the musicians off the stage too quickly. All in all, no major changes. In fact, one change they should have made was to redo that floor. It's all ripped up - showing it's age with less than a passing grace. And the men's room is still filthy. But, what can you expect? It's a bar (only some shows are all ages). People go there to listen to music, maybe dance, and maybe have a drink. As long as the music is good, I really don't care. Saturday, September 24, 2005 The return of the big band What's the deal with all these huge bands recently? The Arcade fire, The Polyphonic Spree, Architecture in Helsinki - they're all so huge!!! I saw Architecture in Helsinki last night, and they crammed eight people on stage. I think some of the dancing they were doing was mainly out of necessity so they didn't have a head on collision with other band members! I hear when the Polyphonic Spree plays, they actually have to have some members stand off stage, because they won't all fit! Anyways, nothing wrong with it - I've always been a fan of bands that utilize lots of musicians, but they're just so many of them right now!!! |
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