Sat - April 22, 2006
How do you rate your iTunes?
First, a few notes about my use of iTunes:
Version? I'm still on 5.0.1. Why? I consider JHymn to be a worthwhile insurance policy against obsolescence. And, while iTunes 6 gives me access to video, my vintage first generation iPod wouldn't know what to do with the latest episode of "Lost".
Library size? I'm just over 100 days of continuous music, with 32,000+ tracks saved to an external drive.
Of these, fully 99% are unrated, meaning I have not assigned the 1-5 stars that iTunes allows (l understand the latest version even allows half-stars). I've clearly got some work to do.
Why rate your tunes? It's fun. I like the little mental workout I get trying to decide where to place something on a scale of personal taste. It's gratifying. I have the opportunity before me of voicing my opinion 32,000 times. Ego trip anyone? It's useful. You can build cool smart playlists based only on your favorites in given genres. You can use ratings as a marker for what you have heard/rated, and what you haven't. Finally, ratings can help you clear out the junk that clutters your disk space.
So as we begin this task, we must first determine what our standards will be. My proposal:
Five Stars: Desert Island Disc. These tracks bear repeated listening--the songs you'll never get tired of. Use sparingly, because these really are the cream of the crop.
Four Stars: Standout Tracks. Your JAMS. The songs you will gladly listen to anytime.
Three Stars: Not bad. These are the non-offensive "take it or leave it" selections. An okay song on a great album, or sometimes the best song on a mediocre release.
Two Stars: Ummm, "somebody else's JAMS". These tracks are ones you'd rather not have to hear again, but somehow worth keeping, maybe just for the sake of album continuity.
One Star: Unlistenable. Inexcuseable. Marked for deletion, only after playing it "just one more time" to torture family and friends.
So, how do my standards stack up to others and the way they rate tracks? I found a forum here with similar (ahem) "thinking."
How do you rate your iTunes?
Posted at 07:37 PM
Tue - March 28, 2006
Hail to the thieves.
Sorry, this is not a political entry, despite
the title. Finally, FINALLY, The Kleptones have released a new album of
delicious mash-ups. I am drawn to the genre, because it allows no-talent hacks
to expose their failures, and true geniuses to shine. Mash-ups reside in that
glorious and growing grey area between dj-ing and remixing, between messing with
someone else's music because you can, or because it needs to be messed
with.
The hit rate for most mashups is fairly low. But there are some nice moments on the Kleptones' release to be sure.
"24 Hours" chronicles an everyday Londoner's daily journey from wake-up to work, tea, lunch, afternoon, clubbing, etc. with each track title indicating the time of day. 33 tracks in all covering 2 cds. Here we are folks, our first prog "concept" album of mash-ups (If only they could do a live double-disc from Budokan or Bangladesh).
The thing that makes The Kleptones different is the way they add movie and TV dialogue to contextualize the whole affair. They also draw from 60s-90s sources indiscriminately, not wishing to just capitalize on the hot tunes of the day.
A few notes/standouts:
- Disc 1 Track 3 "Down on Bennies" I never listened to Elton's vocal as closely before. He could have been an amazing rocker, you know
- Disc 1 Track 11 "Quicksilver Manuva" I have to admit to knowing almost none of the source material here, but it just works as a mid-afternoon worker's lament.
- Disc 1 Track 16 "Careless or Dead" Funniest thing I've heard in months. Sending up "Top of the Pops", the lads smash Bon Jovi into Wham. This is like making a Pet Shop Boys video out of John Wayne footage. Naturally, it self-destructs halfway through, and gets educational.
- Disc 2 Track 3 Anyone who lays Goldfrapp over Jack Dangers is begging for praise
The rest of the second disc runs from a misguided club night to a soulful late night sesh, with a few more interesting moments, until we all drift off right before the alarm rings again...
Here you go, mash-up kids. Here's your "Sgt. Pepper's". Who's up for a "Pet Sounds"?
The hit rate for most mashups is fairly low. But there are some nice moments on the Kleptones' release to be sure.
"24 Hours" chronicles an everyday Londoner's daily journey from wake-up to work, tea, lunch, afternoon, clubbing, etc. with each track title indicating the time of day. 33 tracks in all covering 2 cds. Here we are folks, our first prog "concept" album of mash-ups (If only they could do a live double-disc from Budokan or Bangladesh).
The thing that makes The Kleptones different is the way they add movie and TV dialogue to contextualize the whole affair. They also draw from 60s-90s sources indiscriminately, not wishing to just capitalize on the hot tunes of the day.
A few notes/standouts:
- Disc 1 Track 3 "Down on Bennies" I never listened to Elton's vocal as closely before. He could have been an amazing rocker, you know
- Disc 1 Track 11 "Quicksilver Manuva" I have to admit to knowing almost none of the source material here, but it just works as a mid-afternoon worker's lament.
- Disc 1 Track 16 "Careless or Dead" Funniest thing I've heard in months. Sending up "Top of the Pops", the lads smash Bon Jovi into Wham. This is like making a Pet Shop Boys video out of John Wayne footage. Naturally, it self-destructs halfway through, and gets educational.
- Disc 2 Track 3 Anyone who lays Goldfrapp over Jack Dangers is begging for praise
The rest of the second disc runs from a misguided club night to a soulful late night sesh, with a few more interesting moments, until we all drift off right before the alarm rings again...
Here you go, mash-up kids. Here's your "Sgt. Pepper's". Who's up for a "Pet Sounds"?
Posted at 01:44 AM
Wed - March 1, 2006
Eighties Nostalgia Lives!
I love finding odd music videos from bands
that seem to be gaining real critical mass. I was recently reminded of "TRS80 ", an
instrumental electronic outfit from Chicago, that have a great quirky style
seeped in 80s retro-futurism, with liberal doses of regional pride and geek
chic. They sound to me like the slightly more chilled funky cousins of Devo or
Man or Astro-man?, with just enough Aphex Twin to make it all
worthwhile.
I had heard about them over a year ago. Interesting, but I wasn't too compelled. But recently I was surfing fenslerfilm.com (the genius responsible for the G.I. Joe animated mashups) and got a surprise. Eric Fensler has produced a couple videos for TRS80. "Don't Mess with Illinois" is built from period industrial films to a subtle threatening effect. But far and away the best work is for TRS80's "Hand Over Fist".
Click the montage to see the video. A curiously vague narrative which seems to imply that the better you pop and lock, the better you may be at evading the law. Awesome. Totally.
TRS80 has several albums for sale, a couple MP3s on their site, and they are on iTunes.
(P.S. I need to amend my earlier comments about the sound and style of TRS80. These guys are pretty serious at times and not just about retro-futurism. There is an edge. And they know how to use it.)
I had heard about them over a year ago. Interesting, but I wasn't too compelled. But recently I was surfing fenslerfilm.com (the genius responsible for the G.I. Joe animated mashups) and got a surprise. Eric Fensler has produced a couple videos for TRS80. "Don't Mess with Illinois" is built from period industrial films to a subtle threatening effect. But far and away the best work is for TRS80's "Hand Over Fist".
Click the montage to see the video. A curiously vague narrative which seems to imply that the better you pop and lock, the better you may be at evading the law. Awesome. Totally.
TRS80 has several albums for sale, a couple MP3s on their site, and they are on iTunes.
(P.S. I need to amend my earlier comments about the sound and style of TRS80. These guys are pretty serious at times and not just about retro-futurism. There is an edge. And they know how to use it.)
Posted at 08:07 PM
Fri - February 24, 2006
Crescent City Classics
So, just in case you are gonna cook up some of the recipes I just posted, you'll need a soundtrack to saute by. Here are five tunes that I consider to be "classic" New Orleans recordings. These hits range from street chant ("Iko Iko" ) to funk (The Meter's classic "Look-ka Py Py") and backwater bayou Zydeco (give it up for Boozoo Chavis !)
Right click the links below to save these little treasures. (Each file is a 128kbps MP3)
Do you have any New Orleans music that you consider "classic"? Let me know!
Posted at 02:40 PM
Tue - February 7, 2006
What IS it with radio these days?
No newsflash: over the past few years, radio
has really changed, for the
worse.
Clear Channel has gobbled up countless stations and trashed any DJ autonomy, and any chance for interesting music or culturally aware programming. You've lost your local voice, and you probably never noticed the change. After all, if they take away something that was free, it's hard to get too upset, right?
Recently, public radio has been under attack by lack of funding, and the same kind of programming "science" that drops music shows in exchange for national talk radio. At least that's the case in Detroit, where listeners have been less than complacent.
So what to listen to instead? I'm tuned into my TV.
Thanks to a great Comcast promo, I've got "Music Choice " digital programming for the first time.
Here's what I hate about it: Genre-based stations get boring after 3 or 4 tunes. I really prefer free-form that criss-crosses back and forth from jazz to punk to techno to classical, etc.
But I did discover a fun station on Music Choice. In between American holidays, the "Sounds of the Season" station switches over to "The Pulse". It's a trip-hop/groove/ambient/acid jazz format. If I had to run a radio show with my own CDs tomorrow, it might be similar to this. The 2006 schedule is here.
I know, I know--this format is easy listening for aging hipsters. Sticks and stones, baby. Sometimes we need background music.
Here's a recent tracklist:
Clear Channel has gobbled up countless stations and trashed any DJ autonomy, and any chance for interesting music or culturally aware programming. You've lost your local voice, and you probably never noticed the change. After all, if they take away something that was free, it's hard to get too upset, right?
Recently, public radio has been under attack by lack of funding, and the same kind of programming "science" that drops music shows in exchange for national talk radio. At least that's the case in Detroit, where listeners have been less than complacent.
So what to listen to instead? I'm tuned into my TV.
Thanks to a great Comcast promo, I've got "Music Choice " digital programming for the first time.
Here's what I hate about it: Genre-based stations get boring after 3 or 4 tunes. I really prefer free-form that criss-crosses back and forth from jazz to punk to techno to classical, etc.
But I did discover a fun station on Music Choice. In between American holidays, the "Sounds of the Season" station switches over to "The Pulse". It's a trip-hop/groove/ambient/acid jazz format. If I had to run a radio show with my own CDs tomorrow, it might be similar to this. The 2006 schedule is here.
I know, I know--this format is easy listening for aging hipsters. Sticks and stones, baby. Sometimes we need background music.
Here's a recent tracklist:
|
1
|
A Positive Life
|
Synaesthetic
|
|
2
|
B-Tribe
|
Sensual Sensual
|
|
3
|
King Kooba
|
Enter The Throne Room
|
|
4
|
Static Revenger
|
Ministry Of Sound: Chillout Session
|
|
5
|
Chris Coco
|
Next Wave
|
|
6
|
Sounds From The Ground
|
Chillout 2003: The Ultimate Chillout
|
|
7
|
Karl Denson
|
Jazz Chillout
|
|
8
|
Nitin Sawhney
|
Prophesy
|
|
9
|
Bugge Wesseltoft
|
Nordic Exposure
|
|
10
|
DJ CAM
|
Soulshine
|
If you have Comcast, check it out. I would not recommend changing cable providers just for this, though.
Posted at 12:08 AM
Thu - February 2, 2006
Great album - The Books "Lost and Safe"
I'm no slouch, but I have to admit that I'm not as tuned into the latest "cutting-edge" music as some of my friends. Shawn is one of them. He turned me onto The Books latest release, "Lost and Safe".
Wow.
What happens when you take caffeinated digital hip-hop production and layer it with acoustic guitar, banjo, strings, and found vocal samples, then layer in sincere, clever folk vocals? This happens.
It's a very clever updated sound, with roots in Steve Reich, John Lennon, Michael Hedges, Eno/Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon among others.
"It Never Changes to Stop" is a requiem for the Ritalin generation.
Phenomenal active headphone listening. I've needed something like this.
Pitchfork Media review here .
Posted at 12:47 AM
Wed - February 1, 2006
What songs are burned into your head?
Here's a fun experiment, if you are a serious
music fan:
Stop listening to music for 1-2 weeks. Seriously, try. No radio, no iPod, little TV. Turn the alarm clock to "BUZZ". Now pay attention. Songs, and snippets of songs, are going to pop into your head. Maybe when you wake up, maybe when you're showering, maybe when you are trying to get work done.
Write those songs down. Log them. They are your "internal soundtrack"--the songs that you carry around in your brain like a permanent playlist.
I found out that there's a nice mix in my head, combining sugary pop with edgy new stuff, and jazz from before i was born.
I made an iMix of it. If you have iTunes, click here.
Use the feedback link to send me your "internal playlist"!
Stop listening to music for 1-2 weeks. Seriously, try. No radio, no iPod, little TV. Turn the alarm clock to "BUZZ". Now pay attention. Songs, and snippets of songs, are going to pop into your head. Maybe when you wake up, maybe when you're showering, maybe when you are trying to get work done.
Write those songs down. Log them. They are your "internal soundtrack"--the songs that you carry around in your brain like a permanent playlist.
I found out that there's a nice mix in my head, combining sugary pop with edgy new stuff, and jazz from before i was born.
I made an iMix of it. If you have iTunes, click here.
Use the feedback link to send me your "internal playlist"!
Posted at 01:59 AM
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Published On: Jul 06, 2006 01:24 AM
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Published On: Jul 06, 2006 01:24 AM