November 13, 2008
On Covers
Over the past few weeks, the local NPR affiliate (and awesome Jazz station) had their annual membership drive. This makes listening to Morning Edition on the way to work, or All Things Considered on the way home, significantly less pleasant, and had me searching for alternative audio distraction.
Continue reading "On Covers"
Posted by dberger at 9:28 AM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2008
Music for a Monday Morning
The sensual sounds of John Coltrane - along with a good americano - are a nearly perfect way to start a Monday, despite feeling under the weather.
Posted by dberger at 8:40 AM | Comments (0)
September 30, 2008
Time the Conqueror
Jackson Browne played McCaw hall last night, and Dawnise scored us awesome seats - Orchestra section, row "R".
Continue reading "Time the Conqueror"
Posted by dberger at 6:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2008
Solo Acoustic, Volume 2
Dawnise is out with some girlfriends tonight - having dinner and going to see "Sex And The City" - which means I get to turn up the stereo.
I'm a couple tracks into Solo Acoustic, Vol.2. I've mentioned Jackson Browne before, but in case you weren't listening, he's an amazing singer/song-writer - and like a good wine, he gets smoother and more nuanced as he ages.
And in a nod to a guy who never gets enough credit or recognition, I wanna say that the engineering on these albums is excellent. The sound is dead on - if I close my eyes, Jackson is in the front of the room, sitting at the baby grand, with a guitar or two waiting.
I only hope he comes back to Seattle sometime soon. If and when he does, I'm totally there.
Posted by dberger at 9:35 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2008
Courage
I stopped by Best Buy after work to check out their selection of Camera Bags (after Best Buy and the Ritz Camera in the mall, the one at Costco is looking better and better) and discovered that Paula Cole but out an album (Courage) in 2007 that I missed. A quick check of Amazon revealed their price was the same as Best Buy, so I picked up a copy.
It's quite good. Lots of jazz under (and over) tones, and some really solid songwriting and performing.
Posted by dberger at 8:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2008
A Sailor Called to the Rocks
I've been waiting (and trying) to see Tina Dico for years - and I'm happy to say that last night's show at the Nectar lounge was worth the wait.
Continue reading "A Sailor Called to the Rocks"
Posted by dberger at 9:33 AM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2008
A Trinity of Trance
I recently picked up the "latest" releases from Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, and Tiësto; Imagine, In Between, and Elements of Life, respectively.
Some awesome stuff, if they're the sort of stuff that appeals to you. (Hrm, that's a bit circular, isn't it...)
I also learned that Tiësto's making a fairly uncommon appearance in Seattle at the end of May. I had just decided that I'd look into tickets when I realized we're out of town that weekend for my Grandparents 65th anniversary.
Drat.
Can't complain, really - "fairly uncommon" is more common than "exactly once."
Posted by dberger at 9:11 AM | Comments (0)
February 1, 2008
Mastermind
I found a copy of Tina Cousin's second release - Mastermind - on ebay, and despite having it shipped from Australia, it was way lots cheaper than Amazon (by half).
I really like her first album - Killing Time - and had high hopes for the second.
It's not bad, but none of the tracks really got under my skin the way the first album did.
Posted by dberger at 1:13 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2008
World in My Eyes
Two bars of World in My Eyes from Violator, and I'm back in 1990.
Could it really be that long ago?
Update/Edit: It's been a double-Depeche-Mode sort of morning - Albumlist decided that after a bit of Michael Bublé, I needed to hear Music for the Masses.
Posted by dberger at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Out of the Woods
I picked up a copy of Tracey Thorn's second solo release Out of the Woods. After only one listen there are already several tracks that stand out.
A few tracks are strongly reminiscent of Everything but the Girl, while the others push her sound out in other directions.
Check it out.
Posted by dberger at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2007
System
I also picked up a copy of System, Seal's latest. Damn if I haven't been able to stop my feet tapping since the first song.
Ok, maybe the duet with his wife sorta broke the momentum, but the next track picked it right back up.
Stuart Price - the same producer who helped Madonna "get jiggy" on Confessions On a Dance Floor - does some great work, building beats and textures that make Seals incredible vocals shine. It's as if you extracted the best of Crazy and blended it with just the right amount of Human Being.
Posted by dberger at 1:36 PM | Comments (0)
Join The Parade
I'm a big fan of Marc Cohn's work, and so far his latest release: Join the Parade doesn't disappoint.
It's definitely Cohn, without being a retread of his previous material. At first listen nothing has grabbed me by the throat and refused to let go, but I suspect it's one of those albums that will grow with repeated listenings.
UPDATE: I decided to see if and when Cohn would be around Seattle. Turns out he's playing the Moore tonight. I just bought tickets.
Posted by dberger at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2007
Linux+MTP: Missed it By That Much
After all the mucking with tags I've done, I figured it was time to re-sync my jukebox (a 40GB Zen Touch). I read that Amarok had improved MTP support of late, so I gave it a whirl.
Aside from being incredibly slow (part of that problem is that the linux mtp library is slow, and part of the problem is that MTP is just a broken protocol), it fails to sync files with UTF-8 characters in them over MTP. I'm not the first to notice it, but it doesn't seem to have a solution.
So a hundred-odd files (I'm surprised it's that few) from my collection failed to sync - unfortunately that includes entire artists like, say, Tiësto, and albums like Dire Straits - Communiqué. Suckage.
Guess I"ll continue syncing via Winamp on my work machine.
UPDATE: seems the bug has been fixed in the development versions of Amarok. So I pulled down the source RPMs from Fedora, installed the development dependencies (a yum one liner), tweaked the spec to include the patch, and rebuilt with the fix. Open-source is good.
Posted by dberger at 9:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2007
Artist Formerly Known As, The
Well, I decided that I can't really deal with having all the artists that begin with "The" sorted under "T", so a few minutes with find, sed, and metaflac got me this:
$ IFS='
'; for file in `find . -type f -name \*.flac -print`; do
ARTIST=`metaflac --show-tag=ARTIST $file | sed s/ARTIST=//g`;
ARTISTN=`echo $ARTIST | sed '/^The/s/^The \(.*\)/\1, The/'`;
if [ "$ARTIST" \!= "$ARTISTN" ]; then
echo fixing $file \($ARTIST -\> $ARTISTN\) ;
metaflac --remove-tag=ARTIST --set-tag="ARTIST=$ARTISTN" $file;
fi;
done
It's chugging through my flac collection now, which is housed on my spiffy new ReadyNAS (which I'll post about shortly.)
Producing lines like this:
fixing ./00 - holiday/christmas/alarm, the/the big 80s christmas/14 - happy christmas (war is over).flac (The Alarm -> Alarm, The)
fixing ./00 - holiday/christmas/beach boys, the/the ultimate christmas album, volume 4/02 - the man with all the toys.flac (The Beach Boys -> Beach Boys, The)
So far, so good.
Posted by dberger at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 8, 2007
MusicBrainz - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Over the course of the weekend, I debugged the current "stable" release of Picard enough to get it mostly working. It seems to really suck at handling compilation albums, which I have more than a few of.
Out of the 700-ish albums (excluding holiday music, which are all compilations and hence I'm trying to avoid thinking about) I've got all but around 30 tagged.
Continue reading "MusicBrainz - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"
Posted by dberger at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)
October 4, 2007
Experimenting with MusicBrainz
I have a reasonably sized music collection, somewhere in the neighborhood of 650 CDs. I've ripped most of it to FLAC, and I transcode it to MP3 (using flac2mp3) to load onto my portable jukebox and stream it wirelessly through the house to two Rokus.
Continue reading "Experimenting with MusicBrainz"
Posted by dberger at 9:46 PM | Comments (1)
September 19, 2007
Winamp: Album List
One of the features I like about Amarok is it's "random album" shuffle mode, and I kept meaning to find a WinAmp plugin to do something similar at work.
The annoying part is that Winamp knows what albums are in your library - so implementing this should be completely trivial, but it's not a standard feature.
I found Album List, which is close. In fact, if it would just base it's album list on id3 tags rather than directory structure, it'd be exactly what I want.
See, when I get a compilation album, the songs get ripped into track artist/album/## - track. So a soundtrack album like The Whole Nine Yards ends up sprinkling tracks into many artists - but I want to play it back as an album.
Is that too much to ask for?
Posted by dberger at 3:19 PM | Comments (0)
September 5, 2007
Battleship Grey
One of the tracks from Tiesto's In My Memory came up in the shuffle this morning, and it was perfect for the foggy sound crossing.
Have a listen.
Posted by dberger at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2007
Hip-Hop w/ Double Bass and a Midlands Accent
When I was at UCR doing my graduate work Eamonn (easily one of the smartest people I've ever met) turned me on to Nizlopi, and despite myself, I really liked 'em.
I just got their latest release - ExtraOrdinary - and two songs in I'm hooked again.
Try 'em. Damn they're good.
Posted by dberger at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2007
Notable Covers
I admit it, I like the Buffy movie way more than the series.
I know that most (all?) "true" Buffy fans (including Joss, apparently) disagree, but just remember that Spielberg himself thinks that Han shooting first is a good thing - doesn't make it true.
All I can say in my defense is that Kristy Swanson was - and is - infinitely hotter than Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Anyway, I really like the cover of We Close Our Eyes that Susanna Hoffs performs on the movie soundtrack.
Posted by dberger at 3:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2007
Tina In the Morning
This morning it's the musical stylings of Tina Dico (Rhapsody) and Tina Cousins (Rhapsody doesn't have her in their catalog. If you know the secret word, you can find samples in my music collection.).
Posted by dberger at 9:14 AM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2007
Recent (Re)Discoveries
Dawnise found Fountains of Wayne a while back - though I'm not sure where - and recently I've actually listened to some of their stuff. It's light, a little fluffy, but not as much as I first thought.
More recently, she recommended Amos Lee, who I'm really enjoying. Somewhere between folk and soul, with plenty of smooth.
Check 'em out.
Posted by dberger at 1:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2007
Musical Culdesac
I'm on the penultimate track of the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack (on Rhapsody).
I'm not much into punk - and even if I were, more punk isn't what I want to hear - it's more cool renditions of 80's new-wave tunes by punk bands.
I'm at a musical culdesac - nowhere to go but somewhere else...
Update: Or, I could continue on to Punk Goes 80's (on Rhapsody). Nifty.
Oh yea, and Rhapsody rocks.
Posted by dberger at 2:31 PM | Comments (0)
February 8, 2007
Musical Whiplash
We hired a new team member who started a week ago. He's buddied up with me 'till he gets his feet underneath him. The other day, I hit the pause button on the music when he arrived in the morning, as I typically do when I share a space with someone, and he said "leave it on, I don't mind."
He didn't realize how, um, diverse my musical tastes run.
Suddenly, out of the blue, he offers:
Mike: "Did we just go from Stan Getz to Katrina and the Waves?"
Me: "Yup"
Mike: "I think I'm gonna get musical whiplash in here."
I like that image. I think I'll keep it.
Posted by dberger at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2006
Corinne Bailey Rae
Posted by dberger at 4:25 PM | Comments (1)
December 14, 2006
A One-Hit Wonder's Second Hit
If you were alive and listening to FM radio in the late 90's, you couldn't help but hear Natalie Imbruglia's cover of Torn. The rest of the album it was released on - Left of the Middle - wasn't bad, but wasn't remarkable, though it did spawn two more top-20 singles.
I picked up a copy of her sophomore album - White Lillies Island - and it's quite good. Much less pop sounding, more introspective, and a wider range of sounds.
Posted by dberger at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2006
Everybody's Wearing Earphones, But Nobody's Rockin'
I dunno about you - but when I'm listening to good music, you can tell. My head starts bobbing, or my foot starts tapping, I do something.
Every day I'm surrounded by people lost in their ipods, but none of them seem to be listening to anything that moves them.
Are they listening to music, or are the blocking out the world?
Posted by dberger at 8:05 AM | Comments (1)
September 25, 2006
Another Someone You've (Probably) Never Heard Of
A friend of mine turned me on to Kamary Phillip today (thanks, Tony). Good stuff - check out some of the tracks he's got online.
Posted by dberger at 9:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Tears for Fears
Many years ago (probably around it's original '83 release) I owned The Hurting on cassette.
The other day I got a CD copy, and I'm listening to it now.
I'd forgotten about many of the tracks on the album. And let me just say, it has some really good tracks on it, tracks that you'll never hear on any of the Tears for Fears "best of" collections.
Posted by dberger at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2006
The Body Acoustic
Good Stuff. (And even though the ex-ex-pats are back on US soil, here's a local link.)
Posted by dberger at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2006
The Musical Stylings Of...
Whole albums this time.,,
The Sunrise EP by Cause & Effect (My Collection)
Firefly Soundtrack composed by Greg Edmonson (Amazon, My Collection)
Shivers by Armin Van Buuren (My Collection)
Posted by dberger at 9:01 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2006
Recent (Random) Addictions
If It's What You Want by Granian
Oh, and pretty much every track on Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 by Jackson Browne
Posted by dberger at 3:24 PM | Comments (3)
July 13, 2006
80's Cheese
I'm in my office, lost in thought, when I realize my legs are going a mile a minute, and I'm rocking along to Falco's "Vienna Calling."
Damn song's infectious :)
"If early '80s pop smelled of cheese, Falco was Gouda. This guy put the eesy in cheesy. And every couple weeks I have to shave the mold off my Falco 3 album."
- www.80smusiclyrics.com
Later I'll rant about how refreshing it is to be able to get lost in thought again, as opposed to just lost in thrash...
Posted by dberger at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)
July 5, 2006
Imperfect Sound Forever
This article is an interesting, albeit long, read for any lurking audiophiles out there.
Posted by dberger at 10:16 AM | Comments (1)
June 3, 2006
Whadda You Mean, No Downgrade?
My new Creative Zen Touch arrived yesterday, and I've just finally gotten a moment to sit down and play with it a bit. My first thought was to upgrade it to the most recent 2.x firmware, which supports PlaysForSure (i.e. Rhapsody ToGo), but running the installer informed me that there's no way to revert to the 1.x firmware.
WTF?
Continue reading "Whadda You Mean, No Downgrade?"
Posted by dberger at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2006
Holy Crap that Sounds Good
I've been re-ripping my CD collection into Flac, I'm about 60 albums in (under 10%, this may take a while). On average, it's about 350M per CD.
But damn it sounds good. Even through the relatively cheap Yamaha speakers+sub-woofer I have on my computer.
Now all I need is a portable jukebox with 250+G of storage ;)
Posted by dberger at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)
Sometimes, The Music is Perfect
Today was absolutely gorgeous. I was on the 6:20 boat home, and I went up onto the sun deck and enjoyed the weather and scenery.
Just as the boat was making the final turn toward the dock, my jukebox shuffled to Billy Idol's rendition of Don't You (Forget About Me), from his Greatest Hits collection.
Standing on deck, wind in my hair, looking into the sun, I had a total Judd Nelson moment.
Cheezy, eh?
Posted by dberger at 8:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 21, 2006
Lisa Stansfield
Despite a publicity photo that I'd kill my publicist over (the cover picture on her self-titled release is much better than the artist pic), you should check out Lisa Stansfield.
You might have heard the first track off Affection, which got some radio play in the early 90's, but I'm enjoying most of what I've listened to.
Posted by dberger at 2:51 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Random Picks
Caught a couple of Crowded House tracks this morning. They're a generally underappreciated band - most people know their big hits ("Don't Dream it's Over", "Something So Strong") but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
On a completely different note, I've been really enjoying Ian Van Dahl lately. Vocally driven trancy dance tracks.
Check 'em out.
Posted by dberger at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)
April 12, 2006
Voices you probably know, songs you probably don't
Picked up one of Colin Hay's solo releases: Man At Work the other day. You know Colin as the front man for Men At Work. There are a few alternate versions of Men At Work songs on the album (I really like his acoustic style) and several "new" tracks. Worth a listen.
Similarly, you might know Glen Phillips from his days as the front man for Toad The Wet Sprocket, but you may not have heard his subsequent solo work. I enjoyed Abulum, and recently picked up his latest release: Winter Pays for Summer. Listening to it on the ferry now, and so far, so good.
Posted by dberger at 8:10 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Sting-ing lyrics
I had forgotten how much I liked Shape of My Heart. When I saw Granian play in Seattle, he played it near the end of his set (with an impromptu guest appearance by Scott) - and it's even better acoustic.
Posted by dberger at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2006
Hang my head in shame...
It pains me to say this, but my jukebox has popped up a bunch of songs I really like that I probably shouldn't. Some of 'em are so bad, they don't appear on Rhapsody...
That is all.
Posted by dberger at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2006
In The Red
I just finished my first listen-through of Tina Dico's newly released album, In The Red. My initial reaction is mixed, but generally positive. Tina has an amazing voice, and unfortunately the production sometimes undermines that quality with too much texture. The sound overall is more like her work with Zero 7 (rhapsody) than her first solo album, Far (rhapsody).
There are a couple tracks repeated from Far, though the versions are new. A few of the new tracks really grabbed my attention: "The City," "Head Shop," and "My Mirror."
I ordered the disc from Tower.com specifically because they included a promotional CD entitled "Notes" that includes four tracks - three of them versions of songs from Far. They were interesting as alternate renditions, but none of them would have hooked me the way the versions on Far did.
Anyway - if you liked Far, or liked Tina's vocals on Zero 7 songs like "Home" (from When It Falls, [rhapsody]) check out the new album.
Oh, and Tina's coming to Seattle toward the end of March, playing at Chop Suey - I'm planning to be there, barring unforeseen complications and/or inability to secure tickets.
Posted by dberger at 8:45 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2006
If it's too old, you're just... dumb.
One of the first musicians I could recognize by sound, and who's name "meant" anything to me was Jackson Browne. The Pretender and Running on Empty were (and still are) two of my favorite LPs from my dads (sparse) record collection.
My dad had Jackson's self-titled first release (not actually titled Saturate before Using, apparently) on reel-to-reel. I didn't hear it as often, 'cause it was a bit of a production number to set it up. The same held true for stuff like Pete Seger, who has somehow escaped my record collection thus far...
Anyway - wandering through a Borders a month or so back, I discovered that Jackson Browne has a "Solo Acoustic" album out - and I picked it up the other day, along with Tina Dico's new album (but that's another story).
Listening to it in my office, as I type, I'm struck with the grace, power, and depth of Jackson's writing and performing. His songs have an agelessness, a certain sadness, and often biting lyrics. A bunch of his stuff (including the Solo Acoustic Album) is on Rhapsody, give him a listen. First time or repeat, it's worth it.
Continue reading "If it's too old, you're just... dumb."
Posted by dberger at 1:17 PM | Comments (2)
January 10, 2006
If this music doesn't touch you...
...check your pulse.
Before Firefly was even canceled I (and countless other fans) started pestering Fox music to release a soundtrack album. After an initial download-only release a few months ago, they finally did the right thing and released a real CD, with cover art and everything.
Even if you've never watched the show, you should check out the music. And if cue 6 ("The Funeral") doesn't evoke some sort of emotional reaction - you might be comatose...
Posted by dberger at 8:07 AM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2006
Roku Soundbridge: First Impressions
I had been looking for a non-PC device that would let me access my music collection and Rhapsody content from the entertainment room. I had decided on a Roku SoundBridge, and saw one discounted (open package) at the local Best Buy over the weekend.
It works nicely. I'm using SlimServer to stream the Ogg content on my linux box, and my only complaint with it's Rhapsody support is that it can only access content that you've added to your library (hello gargantuan library...)
SlimServer, on the other hand, I've no complaints with yet. It's a solid bit of software that seems to "just work."
Posted by dberger at 2:46 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2005
Just someone who looks like me
Damn this is a good album. And so's this (in a completely different way).
You should check 'em (both) out.
Posted by dberger at 9:43 AM | Comments (3)
July 27, 2005
Who ordered the hot, muggy and disgusting?
I'm in Philadelphia for a meeting tomorrow.
It's near 100 degrees and raining.
You can cut the air with a butter knife, and the city smells of o-zone.
Blech.
Posted by dberger at 6:32 PM | Comments (1)
July 4, 2005
Zero 7
I'm sure I'm the last to know about this talented duo of producers. I found them by way of Tina Dickow (or Dico, as it's spelled in America) - who's definitely worth a listen.
Sometimes you want music, and sometimes you want atmosphere - Zero 7 is one of the few ambient acts that can deliver both - tracks with strong vocals and sing-along quality that can be turned down a bit and fade into, or create, the background for any mood.
I've got both the big studio releases (Simple Things and When it Falls), and I'm keeping my eyes open for copies of EP1 and EP2, they're first two forays into the limelight after working with the likes of The Pet Shop Boys and others.
Give 'em a spin.
Posted by dberger at 9:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2005
Sometimes you should just stick with the singles...
I picked up a copy of Welcome to the Real World by Mr. Mister. Fortunately, I didn't pay much for it.
The well known singles ("Kyrie," "Broken Wings," and "Is It Love") from the 80's are what they are - you either like 'em, or you don't. Aside from that, the only track that really grabbed me on the album was the title track.
It's not that it was bad, just that it was utterly forgettable.
Posted by dberger at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
Guilty Pleasures
Ok, I admit it, I have a soft spot for 80's synth-pop. Bands like Depeche Mode and Soft Cell occupy more than their fare share of shelf space in my CD collection (and disk space in my online archive).
But aside from their two "hits," I'd basically missed Talk Talk. (Those two hits, of course, being their self-titled single, Talk Talk, and It's My Life, recently covered by No Doubt.)
I recently picked up a copy of their greatest hits collection and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and diversity of the tracks I discovered. I would have been satisfied with a bunch of thematic repeats of either of the singles, but what I found was more than that.
A gem that got lost in the 80's.
<shameless-plug-mode>
If you're a Rhapsody subscriber, check them out - a good set of songs are in the catalog. If you're not a Rhapsody subscriber, sign up for a trial. (Yea, I work for them, but it's cool product anyway - though it would be way cooler if it worked on Linux and/or the Mac.)
</shameless-plug-mode>
Posted by dberger at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2005
Now with three times the yummy ogg goodness
I've had a Neuros jukebox since they released firmware with Ogg Vorbis support. It was a 20G model, and lately I've been running out of space. (I've got the vast majority of my cd collection encoded.)
So I bought a 60GB notebook hard drive, popped open the backpack (needed a Torx driver, but no big deal) and upgraded it.
Can your ipod do that?
Now that I had a bit of space, I encoded Tina Dico's album "Far" which I'm really enjoying. She's got samples on her site - check 'em out.
I also got copies of Granian's "other" two albums - Hang Around and Live Sessions. I saw Granian play a live solo acoustic set, and Live Sessions does a great job of capturing that sound and feel. Well worth a listen.
Posted by dberger at 5:05 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Granian's Comin' to Town
I've mentioned Granian before - he's a talented musician and a great performer (two traits that don't necessarily coincide).
Next week, on the 16th of February, he'll be playing (with Scott Andrew) at the Conner Byrn Pub in Ballard.
For those not in the greater Seattle area, he'll be in LA on the 14th, and in SF on the 18th, and in a whole bunch of other places at various times.
He's got a couple freely downloadable tracks available - check 'em out, and if you like 'em, check him out.
Posted by dberger at 6:24 PM | Comments (0)
February 2, 2005
New 'phones
Realizing I'd soon be commuting by Ferry, I decided it might be a good idea to get some headphones for my jukebox. I generally listen to it through speakers - either in the car or in the office. When I do use headphones, I'm generally on a plane, and I have a (rather large) set of noise-canceling 'phones that make the white-noise almost disappear.
I did some shopping around - I wanted something small and discrete, with good sound quality, but I wasn't interested in spending a fortune. I ended up with a pair of Sony MDR-EX51LP's. They're an in-the-ear design, with three sizes of soft baffles. They aren't noise canceling, but after selecting the correct size, they block a good amount of background noise. The sound quality is pretty good, especially the base (typically the hardest thing to get out of ear-buds).
I haven't yet worn them for a long period, so I may change my mind, but at the moment, I'm pretty happy with them.
Posted by dberger at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 31, 2005
"Euro Hip-Hop Fusion"
I dunno what to call 'em - but Nizlopi shuffled to the top of my jukebox play queue this morning. A professor in the cs department turned me on to these guys while I was there doing my MS - and gave me perhaps the strongest recommendation he, as an Irishman, could; "I normally hate the London accent, but these guys are really quite good."
Anyway - they've got demo tracks on their site - check 'em out.
Posted by dberger at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2005
Something Old and Something New
A while back I found a poor quality video capture of the video for "Middle of Nowhere" by Gina Schock's short lived solo project "House of Schock." The album was released on CD, but is long out of print.
I've been keeping my eye out for copies on ebay, and picked one up the other day when I finally found one for something approaching a reasonable price (they've sold for as much as $60 the past few times they've appeared).
Sitting in my office listening to it - it's pretty good. Not earth-shattering, or even ground-breaking - but I'm enjoying it. I'd say you should go pick it up - but that's problematic, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll loan it to you.
On the "something new" front - Scott Andrew is playing a set this Friday (tomorrow, the 21st of January) at El Diablo Coffee on Queen Ann at 8pm. I've mentioned Scott before - he's a good guy, and a talented musician. There's no cover - and ElDiablo makes great Mexican hot chocolate - so if you're in the Seattle area, you've really got nothing to lose. Check him out.
Posted by dberger at 8:46 AM | Comments (0)
January 6, 2005
Give it up for the musical stylings of...
I basically leave my jukebox on random play - it's got most of my CD collection encoded on it (in Ogg Vorbis, of course), and can provide me with weeks of uninterrupted tunes.
Sometimes it picks a song that makes me interrupt it's random walk and play more of the same. It did that twice today.
The first time was when it hit a track by Vertical Horizon off the Go album. I've been a fan of Vertical Horizon since I stumbled across Running on Ice and bought it on impulse. Their first two albums are sorta folk-rock - mostly acoustic, with a couple very catchy songs between them. Then they re-invented themselves, added a few members, and put out Everything You Want. The first single (You're a God) got a bit of radio play in the LA market. Despite myself, I really liked the album (especially the last track, "Shackled") and found most of it's tracks to have that annoying "stuck in your head" quality. When "Go" came out, I was initially dissapointed - none of the songs grabbed me the way their previous stuff had, but over time, it's grown on me. It's a solid album.
The second time was in the middle of the afternoon, when - back on random play - it played a track by Scott Andrew LePera, a local Seattle musician who's way too good to be playing in bars and coffee houses. Scott's another artist I stumbled on by accident (gotta love the web, and his releasing a number of tracks under the Creative Commons License). During the first month I was in Seattle, before Dawnise had come up, I went to see Scott play at a pub in Ballard - opening for Granian (who's also very good, but that's a story for another time). We got to chatting a bit after his set - aside from being a hell of a musician, he's a really nice guy. You should check out a track or two - like Gravel Road Requiem, 2 AM, or Holding Back.
Posted by dberger at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)