Results tagged “music”

Today John Gruber wrote a small piece about Apple retiring the classic iPod next week.

Dan Frommer wonders whether Apple is set to eliminate the hard-drive based iPod Classic next week. I wouldn't be shocked if they did, but I bet they won't. The iPod Classic is like the Mac Pro -- not something that sells in huge numbers compared to Apple's mass market products, but it fills a lucrative and important niche. Some people really do want 160 GB of music in their pocket.

I count myself among those "some people" and I really hope they don't get rid of it. I love having my entire music collection with me at all times. I never know what I'll be in the mood for on any given day and being able to scroll through everything is so handy.

Now that I think about it, I probably couldn't go back to anything less. Well, I wouldn't want to go back to anything less anyway. Sure I hate having to carry around two gadgets but until Apple make a 160GB iPhone, that's what I'll do.

When I was a DM wearing teenager* I read NME religiously. It was the absolute best way of finding out who was touring, reading album reviews, and getting caught up on the "alternative music scene" in England. Since then I've promptly forgotten all about it. In fact, until today I didn't even realize NME was still around.

But around it is and they've put together what they think are the best 50 new bands of 2010. They've even created a soundcloud playlist of the artists. I was listening to some of it this morning getting ready for work and to be honest, I bailed after 5 tracks as I hadn't heard anything decent.

But I'm going to go back to it tomorrow morning. In fact I think as part of my morning ritual this week I'll probably listen to five songs every day. Just to give it a fair shot. There has to be something in there worthy of my time. Right? I'm so so out of the British music scene these days it's not even funny.

* I still wear DMs every single day by the way.

Yesterday I was listening to my less than ten playlist on my iPod. It's my way of getting caught up on songs that I haven't really listened to all that much. It's fun especially when songs by artists you didn't even remember you had soak your eardrums. If they're tracks from your childhood, the memories come flooding back and you can't help but soak up the nostalgia.

As I listened I started wondering whatever happened to some of these artists. Not in the sense of "where are they now?" because some still make music today. No. More in the sense of "whatever happened to them being good?" kind of thing. They had their golden era and their new material ranges from meh to just a little bit crap.

Prince

Remember when Prince used to be good? No? Never a Prince fan in your youth? Well I was when I was a teenager and saw him twice in concert. Now whenever songs like Raspberry Beret or Little Red Corvette come on the radio I grin and have a bit of a sing along. As you do. My iPod dutifully presented Purple Rain and Sign O' The Times yesterday. Both excellent songs. Classics that I hadn't listened to in years. A stark contrast to his latest song that I had the misfortune to catch on the radio the other day. I think I said "oh dear" out loud and changed to station about half way through.

Erasure

I used to love Erasure. Anything Vince Clarke touched in the 80s (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure) was something special. At one point they were my favorite group. I had all the abums, singles, and posters on my wall. They were actually the first proper band I saw live when they toured The Innocents album in 1988. As I listened to Leave Me To Bleed yesterday I was like "hello, old friend" as I was instantly transported back to being a kid listening to that album in my bedroom. While they still make albums (twelve studio albums to date), nothing can compare to the first three. I've given their newer albums a try but I don't like them at all.

U2

U2 are an odd beast aren't they? They're still cranking out the albums, playing to record audiences around the world, and are arguably as popular today as they ever were. But I have such a hard time getting into their newer stuff. I've tried. But in all honesty I haven't really been all that into anything they've done since Achtung Baby. In my opinion, their last truly good album. Yesterday A Sort Of Homecoming came on which prompted me to listen to The Unforgettable Fire in it's entirety. Both that album and their followup, The Joshua Tree, are their masterpieces. Truly their golden era.

So, to conclude then.

I dunno, maybe those artists still are good. Maybe it's just that my taste in music has evolved over the years. Sure I still like the older songs but maybe that's because of the nostalgia factor. Because they represent the soundtrack to my childhood. Would I still like those classic songs if I'd never heard of the band before and they released them today? Impossible to say. Would make for an interesting test though.

Now, if you'll excuse me I've got to get back to listening to Iron Maiden's new album.

Movie Of The Year

We went to see Inception at the weekend. So very very good. I don't remember the last time I had that sitting on the edge of my seat feeling when watching a movie. As it finished everyone around us let out a little sigh, and there was clapping. Been a while since I've been in a cinema when people clapped at the end. I know some people say it wasn't that good. But what do they know? Go watch it forthwith. 10/10

Living In A Flyover State

As tour schedules for bands come out I often get excited especially if it's a band I haven't seen before. Unfortunately because of where I live, just because a band is on tour, doesn't mean I'll get to see them. For Arizona is one of those pesky flyover states that bands like to avoid. If you live in LA or New York you're golden. Arizona is all a bit hit & miss. Take Interpol for example. Their tour schedule came out today. Notice anything missing? Phoenix maybe? Grrr.

Being Brown

Unless otherwise shutdown by federal judge, SB1070 goes into effect at midnight tonight. If it does, it will be a very very sad day for Arizona indeed. Not our finest hour.

Update: parts of SB1070 have indeed been blocked.

My iPod goes with me everywhere and I listen to it constantly. Whether it's in the car for the daily commute or at my desk while I'm coding, the vast majority of my music is delivered that way. Those days that I accidentally leave it at home are the bad days, the bleak days of despair, the days that I have to (shudder), listen to the radio.

I'm also a bit partial to statistics about my music listening habits and one of the reasons I love last.fm. Ever since I joined back in 2006 I've scrobbled just about everything I've listened to from both the home "stereo" (these days a MacBook Pro, Bose speakers) and my iPod. But by far, the iPod accounts for the majority.

Last week, like an idiot a true early adopter, I upgraded iTunes to 9.2.1. And that promptly broke the ability to scrobble iPod plays. Bollocks. But, credit where credit is due, last.fm released an update to the client app which fixed the issue nicely. Which is really rather impressive response time.

So now I'm all happy and can breathe again because as any last.fm addict will tell you...

Last year I flirted with the idea of running a half marathon at the beginning of 2010. Unfortunately I got about as far as buying a rather excellent pair of running shoes and that was about it. I'm good like that. So back in February I finally decided to get off my bum and actually start getting up early and running before work. And you know what, to my amazement, I've stuck with it.

Now, I'm not a morning person. At all. So getting up ridiculously early was, well, ridiculous. But I persevered and eventually got used to it. For one thing, If you plan on running outside in Phoenix during the summer, your only option is to be outside before the sun comes up. And even then, at 5:00am it can be still in the 90s.

One thing that I've found helpful is the Nike+ iPhone sensor thingy. You need a Nike+ compatible pair of shoes.

And then you buy this little sensor thingymabob.

And you put it in the sole of your shoe.

When you fire up the Nike+ iPhone app it automagically senses the sensor in your shoe. While you're running it can give you all kinds of feedback on how far you've ran, your pace, your goal. It even talks to you in your headphones to give you some encouragement. The music volume lowers and a lady says "you're at the halfway point". Kinda cool.

When you're done killing yourself running, the same lady tells you how you did. If you've done a particularly good job, fastest mile or farthest run, a famous person (Lance Armstrong or Paula Radcliffe) will tell you how much you rock.

Then when you sync your phone with iTunes it sends the data to the Nike mothership and you can view your account to see all sorts of pretty graphs & schedules & goals & stuff. And I like that.

The overall goal here is to get in good enough shape for the beginning of next year and those half marathons. Could happen.

Say what you will about Michael Jackson's antics, and let's be honest there's plenty to say, any child of the 80s will tell you that his music forms part of the soundtrack to their childhood.

His music certainly registers in the soundtrack to my childhood. I have early memories of hearing Billie Jean and Beat It on the radio as I got ready for school as a nine year old. I remember the first time I saw the Thriller video and thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen in my whole life.

Since then, like most everyone, I hadn't really given him another thought until he passed away last year. The other night we happened to notice This Is It on Netflix and because we're the only two people on the planet who hadn't watched it yet, decided to give it a whirl. You know, a bit of nostalgic curiosity.

And you know what? It was really really good. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and as music documentaries go, this was one of the best one's I've seen. I love rehearsal and behind the scenes footage. I always have. But this stands out as something more than that because the cameras really capture what the final concert would have looked like.

When it began I had a bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach as he wasn't quite pulling it off. He didn't sing all the words to the songs and some of the moves were a little, well, off. But I realized that we were watching rehearsal footage that was never meant to be seen by the public. Sure if I were rehearsing a song and we had to do many takes to get it right, I don't think I'd want to belt it out 20 times in a row either. For six hours. For two months.

As the film progresses we see that he was certainly able to put it all together, to hit the notes, to really pull it off. He's the ultimate showman, songwriter, and perfectionist. He wanted to put on one hell of a show for his fans. He would have succeeded. What we see pieces of here would have been something special to see in person. I really think we all missed out on a great concert.

And no one was more surprised at my reaction to this film than me ;-)

Well, sometimes all you need is one word.

• One word movie review - Shrek Forever After: good.

• One word weather forecast: hot. (110° yo)

• One word concert announcement: Pixies. (hell yeah I said Pixies - woohoo)

• One word iPhone 4 reaction: drool.

• One word music review - How To Destroy Angels EP: amazing.

• One word describing 12 year old staying with us for the weekend: tiring.

• One word reaction to oil covered wildlife: anger.

When you look back at the career of any band, you typically find one album you can point to that defines them. One album that stands out amongst all their others. Their masterpiece. Depeche Mode did it with Violator, U2 did it with The Joshua Tree. The Cure did it with Disintegration.

As it turns out, choosing one album by The Cure as their defining moment is no easy task. Some could make a good argument that they'd already made their defining album before Disintegration was even a twinkle in Robert Smith's eye. Pornography was a classic. So too The Head On The Door. And for my money, the album that almost defined their career was 1987's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

But it's Disintegration with its dark moody lyrics, atmospheric synths, pulsing bass, and amazing guitar work that leaves you with little doubt you're listening to something special. From the lush, almost orchestral start of Plainsong through to the last organ on Untitled there isn't a single bad moment.

With an album of this quality it's hard to pick out personal favorites. Prayers For Rain and the album title track are instant classics but if forced to on pain of death, I'd have to say all 9 minutes of Same Deep Water As You is nothing short of epic.

Being whisked away into Robert Smith's head for 70 minutes when he's in this mood can be daunting. It's depressing, sometimes overpowering, and in some respects you have to be in the mood for it. But if you are, I can think of no better album.

Quite simply, their masterpiece. If you don't own it, you must get it. Today. 10/10

Track Listing:

Plainsong
Pictures Of You
Closedown
Lovesong
Last Dance
Lullaby
Fascination Street
Prayers For Rain
The Same Deep Water As You
Disintegration
Homesick
Untitled

Ooops, slightly late with this week's scavenger hunt post. Technically the challenge ended yesterday and I concede that I totally blew it for this week.

But not to worry because I'm going to pretend I'm on time and post these anyway.

So here we are on the third week of kapgar's photo scavenger hunt. This week's challenge has lyrics from Pearl Jam, The Beatles, and Stevie Wonder.

"I'm spinning, oh, I'm spinning. How quick the sun can drop away." - Pearl Jam, Black.

How Quick The Sun Can Drop

"Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me?" The Beatles - Help!

Get Her Feet Back On The Ground

"You are the apple of my eye. Forever you'll stay in my heart." Stevie Wonder - You Are the Sunshine of My Life

My Apple

Ok that last one was stretching it a bit.

Because it's important to keep you informed. Hey, I do what I can.

Blimey, another week down already. So here we are on the second week of kapgar's photo scavenger hunt. Last week's challenge was all kinds of fun and this week proved to be no different.

This week we have three new song lyrics from Mötley Crüe, Bad Company, and Pearl Jam.

So, here are my interpretations of each.

"I'm the one they call Dr. Feelgood, I'm the one that makes you feel alright." - Mötley Crüe, Dr Feelgood

Dr Feelgood

"Bad company, and I can't deny. Bad company, 'til the day I die." - Bad Company, Bad Company.

'til The Day I Die

"When something's old, I wanna put a bit of shine on it." - Pearl Jam, The Fixer.

Something Old

As always, I'm looking forward to seeing what other people come up with. Until next week then...

• Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. Or as @kapgar retweeted earlier...

...which made me giggle. So, as you do, I'll be having a beer for you all tonight to celebrate. You're welcome.

• Trent Reznor's new project, How To Destroy Angels posted their first track online yesterday: A Drowning. I love it, and I think you will to. Either that or you won't but that's what you get for listening to me ;-)

• Date Night one word movie review: disappointing.

• Cinema we watched movie in one word popcorn review: AWESOME.

• Our local NBA Basketball team, Phoenix Suns, are going to wear their 'Los Suns' jerseys tonight to protest Arizona's immigration law. Which is cool.

• The user interface for dropbox is really really nice. If you need to share files with anyone, I heartily recommend it. Free accounts max out at 2GB but it's perfect for sharing photos with family.

A while ago I wrote count-by-artist to go through my iTunes Library XML file and count up all the tracks by artist. I hadn't ran it for about 18 months so this morning while sipping my coffee I decided to fire it up to see if anything had changed.

Aha, and while Depeche Mode, The Cure, and Skinny Puppy have the most songs in my music collection, they're also who I've listened to most over the past four years. Coincidence?

Who do you find you end up listening to most?

I must admit, sunlight sparkling aside, I've quite liked the two Twilight movies so far. Haven't read the books mind you so I've no idea how they hold up. But as far as teenage angst vampire movies go, I was quite entertained thank you, and I guess that's all you can really ask for in a film right?

As we watched New Moon over the weekend I was really surprised at how much I was digging the music throughout. I can't remember the last time I've been tempted by a movie soundtrack. In fact, good lord, the last one I bought was probably The Lost Boys soundtrack and that seems like a whole lifetime ago now. But tempted I was, and it's now firmly in my iTunes library.

The whole album just works really well but to be honest, the Editors and Thom Yorke tracks are worth the price of the album alone. Hearing Damage by Thom Yorke is the stand out track on the album and has quickly become my fave song of the week. Thoroughly recommended. 8/10

Track listing:

Meet Me On The Equinox - Death Cab For Cutie
Friends - Band Of Skulls
Hearing Damage - Thom Yorke
Possibility - Lykke Li
A White Demon Love Song - The Killers
Satellite Heart - Anya Marina
I Belong To You - Muse
Roslyn - Bon Iver & St. Vincent
Done All Wrong - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Monsters - Hurricane Shells
The Violet Hour - Sea Wolf
Shooting The Moon - OK Go
Slow Life - Grizzly Bear
No Sound But The Wind - Editors
New Moon (The Meadow) - Alexandre Desplat

You remember Vince Clarke right? Of course you do. Founding member of Depeche Mode, went on to form Yazoo and then Erasure? Yeah, that bloke. He's selling his house.

And those dome like structures over to the left? His studio.

Which for a music geek like me would be absolutely amazing. I mean, not that I know what any of these bells, whistles, sliders, and turny-things actually do. But how much fun would it be to play in here for a few days?

Now, if only I had a spare 1,995,000 GBP.

via wiretotheear.

I won't say it's necessarily the most effective means of promoting a gig, but it sure is the best one I've ever seen. I can't imagine the amount of time and effort involved. A true fan that's for sure.

Stumbled upon completely by accident when taking a wrong turn in downtown Phoenix earlier today.

And because I suck, I completely forgot Sonic Youth were even playing at the Marquee.

If you're anything like me, you love visiting good record shops to browse through their selection of music. Over the years I've spent countless hours and countless sums of money doing just that.

For close to four decades, Phoenix has had a rather excellent independent music shop called circles: discs & tapes. Lovely place it is with amazing friendly staff.

Alas, as is the case with independent music shops nowadays, it will soon be no more.

This saddens me as places like this have a special place in my heart. I don't want to browse through new releases at a Best Buy or Target with teenage staff who couldn't care less. I love being able to browse through old albums and chat with actual knowledgeable staff who love music just as much as I do.

I know it can only be a matter of time before all shops like this are but a faint memory. I wonder how odd it will seem to future generations that we actually had physical buildings we walked into and left with an actual physical product before we could listen to music.

Wow, that made me sound really old. So I guess you young kids should get off my lawn now.

I'm a self confessed music addict. I have been for as long as I can remember. I listen to music all the time: getting ready for work, in the car, writing code at work, in the car again. Well, you get the idea. Today it seems, I scrobbled my 150,000th play to last.fm.

I became aware of last.fm back in 2006 and since then have found it to be one of the best places to find out about new music. If you're into music and you've never tried last.fm I thoroughly recommend it.

How does it work?

After creating a last.fm account, you install software on your computer that submits every track you listen to back to the last.fm servers. They call that scrobbling. After you've been scrobbling for a while last.fm will learn what you like and offer recommendations of new artists. Which is all rather handy.

What's more, over time, other like minded last.fm users will come along, say hello, and leave their two-penneth on what they think you'd like to listen to. Plus you can always go looking at other user's charts to see what they've been playing recently. To be honest I love that the most as I've always been one for rummaging through other people's album collections when I'm at their house.

If manually poking through user's charts is not your thing, you can have last.fm stream their tracks to you. Streamable tracks and the ability to create playlists makes last.fm an invaluable service to me. I've been a subscriber for years because of this.

So, go give it a try if you're into this kind of thing. And if you do, stop by my profile and say hello. At the very least, you'll get to see the shitty drivel wonderful taste in music I have.

Watch

I think I was one of the few people left on the plant who hadn't seen District 9 yet. And if you're also one of those few, I heartily recommend that you watch it forthwith. One of the best films I've seen in a long time and so well done. Innovative and gripping. One thing is for sure, I'll be on the lookout for anything with Neil Bloomkamp's name on it after this impressive debut.

Listen

You remember the death of my favorite gadget back in September. Since then I've tried to live an iPod-less existence. Which actually meant lugging my laptop around just so I could listen to music. Including some rather dodgy set the laptop on the front seat of the car and connect it to the car stereo shenanigans. (shudder).

Rejoice, for the circle of gadgets is now complete. I have a new trusty iPod. And it goes with me everywhere.

Read

I'm currently juggling two books. You know, as you do.

First up, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Some people love to lambaste Brown's writing style. And sure, he's not going to win any awards, but his books keep me entertained. And that's why I read books in the first place.

I'm also laughing and edumacating myself on the finer points of beer by reading The Naked Pint. A thoroughly entertaining read.

Smile

I love getting blast from the past photos. This one is a rather younger me posing (top row, third from the left) for the Cambridgeshire county Rubgy team many many moons ago. Nice facial expression Spencer.