If you can say anything about music, any music, it's that it is probably the one thing that defines our lifetime. The music you listen to while growing up will always have a warm place in your heart, while other times in our lives will be filled with music that when listened to when we are old and gray will take us right back.
OK...I'm hooked. I don't know if it's because I can hear some of the genius from my favorites, including the Beatles and the Clash, but Costello Music from The Fratelli's absolutely rocks.
Here's the playlist:
Apple quietly released an update to their innovative clip-on iPod Shuffle this week. The iPod Shuffle is now available in five colors, as shown below (click to be taken to the Apple Store for more info):
I'm always on the hunt for new music. iTunes makes it incredibly easy to manage my music collection, and my 60 GB iPod is usually always with me...even on shopping trips. Whenever I find a used CD store or a sale somewhere like Wal-Mart, I'll pull out my iPod and look for gaps in my collection. Used CD stores are my first choice, since the prices for what I need are usually the best. I used to care about the CD cover (or album cover back in the day), but with the new iTunes "Get Cover Art" option and the cool "Cover Flow" feature, I really don't do anything with the CDs I buy. I simply put the CD in my Mac, let it convert the music to AAC or MP3 files, grab the song title, album info and artwork from online, and then throw the CD in the big box of discs in my closet.
Use Google Maps to search for "Used CD Stores" in your area and remember to take your iPod. And remember to check out the other big distributors like Amazon and Wal-Mart for cheap CDs:
Like an estimated 20 million other folks out there this quarter, a new iPod might be on your list for the holidays. Good luck getting one in the stores. My recent trip to the Apple Store in our mall had them getting picked from the shelves like cards on a Vegas blackjack table. While I was impressed with the efficiency and the methods for getting folks in the store, in line and up to the counter, I couldn't believe how quickly they were going.
My salvation? Mail order! Apple, J & R, and Amazon are shipping them out like election campaign materials:
Always forgetting to download the latest free "Single of the Week" from the iTunes Music Store? This is a free Dashboard Widget to get you to the iTunes Music Store's free weekly song. Just click the image on the widget and download the free song posted on iTunes every week!
I purchased the single "Dani California" from the iTunes Music Store and opted for the album pre-order. This morning at 7am the e-mail notified me that the download was ready and I quickly started the download. 20 minutes later with a loaded iPod I left for work...and I've listened to this album and commentary track non-stop since.
It's hard to ignore the single we hear all over the radio...Bad Day, by Daniel Powter.
In the upcoming release, we've also added another way for you to make money with your blog. Using our unique "Now Playing on iTunes" live update feature, not only can you share what you are listening to with live updates on your blog, but now you can make a little money with it too.
Become a LinkShare iTunes affiliate and enter your LinkShare ID in Blog.Mac preferences. If the song you are listening to is available in the iTunes Music Store, a link to the store for this song is created and formatted with your LinkShare ID. If one of your readers happens to click on and purchase the song, you get a commission for the sale. If the song is not immediately found, a generic search on the iTunes Music Store is performed, but no LinkShare credit can be attributed.
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Largemouth Software
We're testing the new version of Blog.Mac, which I used to create this blog. This new version adds categories and permanent article posts.
The main blog page shows a summary of the recent posts with a user-selectable post length limit (25, 50, 75, 100 words, or the entire post). Each category is also uploaded with each article on the same category shown on the page. Finally, each article is posted on it's own page with a permanent, non-changing URL for future reference or blog comments.
Please check it out and let us know if you have any questions or inputs about the format and functionality. We will gladly accept all the feedback we can get.
Thanks!
Largemouth Software
Like talking to an old friend you haven't spoken to in a while, listening to .38 Special after years of forgetting about their great music took me back to some great memories. I recently purchased the digital album ".38 Special: The Very Best of the A&M Years" from the iTunes Music Store and slipped on the headphones for the proverbial stroll down memory lane.
The first track, Rockin' Into the Night, was a party song favorite. It's racous chorus and steady beat are a sure crowd pleaser. Hold on Loosely added a little romance to the southern fried rock album, and is one of my favorite songs on the album. More great tracks include Fantasy Girl, Caught Up in You, Back Where You Belong and Teacher, Teacher.
A few more solid tracks round out the album, including Like No Other Night, Back to Paradise, and the not-so-wild-but-still-good Second Chance. In all, 18 tracks for only $5.99...a real bargain, even if you only like six of the songs in the lot. If you're like me, most of these will bring back some great memories.
Here's the whole playlist:
Rockin' Into the Night
Hold on Loosely
Wild Eyed Southern Boys
Fantasy Girl
Caught Up in You
Chain Lightnin'
You Keep Runnin' Away
Rough Housin'
Stone Cold Believer
Twentieth Century Fox
If I'd Been the One
Back Where You Belong
Teacher, Teacher
Somebody Like You
Like No Other Night
Back to Paradise
Second Chance
Take Me Back
I couldn't resist the new RHCP track, Dani California. This is one of those rare songs that will fit in just about anything you're doing at the time: driving, mowing the yard, waking up in the morning...OK, so I really like this song and am looking forward to the upcoming Stadium Arcadium album. Instead of just ordering Dani, I opted for the whole album to give me a shot at seeing the Peppers in concert. Not sure that I'd still fit in to the scene any more, but they were always on the CD player while I was in college.
Here's a link to the pre-order info:
In 1997, I found Napster and rediscovered music that I hadn't listened to in years. I admit it was a lot of fun using this new product...and then morality stepped in. Sure I owned some of the CDs and they were stacked up nicely at home in my shelf next to the stereo. But I could put these little files on my computer and listed to just about anything I wanted by clicking the mouse.
A few years later, Apple released the iPod. Sure there were other music players out there, but none had the attention to detail nor the storage space. The real joy of the iPod was the Firewire cable connecting it to the Mac. When you plopped the iPod into the dock, iTunes would open up and start synchronizing all of the music that you loaded into your computer since the last time you docked. The fast firewire uploaded an entire CD's worth of music in minutes and the battery charged from the same cable.
Hours of shuffling my collection of 400 CDs and my entire library slipped into my pocket. Soon I realized it would be easier to get a second iPod dock and plug it in to the stereo and play all my music from the iPod. The only time I touched a CD was when I bought a new one and uploaded it into the computer. In fact, they are all still in the box from the last time I moved.
A few more years and Apple dove completely into the digital music business when it opened the iTunes Music Store. This revolutionary combination of computer, pocket-sized music player and on-line music store allowed everyone to fill their desire to hear that special song in 3 minutes and 99 cents.
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Childhood: Beatles, Beach Boys, Steve Miller Band, James Taylor, The Allman Brothers Band, Carly Simon, Simon and Garfunkel, and a little Grateful Dead
Young Teen: AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones, more Beatles, more James Taylor, more Steve Miller
High School: .38 Special, The Police, The Outfield, Lynyrd Skynrd, J. Geils Band, Survivor, even Michael Jackson (I know...but he was it back then...)
College: U2, R.E.M., Phil Collins, Duran Duran, Foreigner, Bryan Adams, Prince, Van Halen (original), Bon Jovi
