11 posts tagged “itunes”
As you know, Australians have the best taste in music. This weekend Australian radio station, Triple J, is counting down the Hottest 100 of all time. I recall, in the past, I have made a post regarding the annual Hottest 100 that Triple J broadcast every Australia Day (January 26th).
Basically, for this event, the public were invited to vote for up to 10 songs that they regarded as being the best songs of all time. Easy! Voting was not just limited to Australians, so my first statement could potentially be wrong, but an interesting exercise all the same. It is this weekend that they are now counting down the top 100, well worth a listen.
(Although i guarantee my 10 wont be in there.... well not all of them anyway)
I'm posting this because you, right now, can click HERE and listen along. Hurry! They've started!
The last time I used the word "cute" in a review I got a little bit of piss taken out of me, but from what I have in front of me with respect to the London-based outfit, Pocketbooks, "cute" is one of the first words that springs to mind. It's pop, indiepop.... the cutest kind. *covers head ready for arse-kicking*.
Footsteps is the name of the song I'm referring to. It's the pretty harmonies, the simple beat, the uncomplicated lyrics and the catchy catchy tune.
I'd like to hope that the rest of the tracks from the debut album, Flight Paths, are as this lovely, but alas i have not heard it. But you can hear some more of their tunes on their MySpace page.
The song is available on iTunes, and you can also download it free here:
Pocketbooks - Footsteps (MP3)
And you can watch a video for the song here:
Pocketbooks - Footsteps (Video)
Are you in Australia?
Well do I have some thing pleasant for you!
Sydney three-piece Where's Jerome have had their latest tune, Into The Ocean, made single of the week this week on iTunes.... unfortunately it's only available to iTunes users in Australia.
So.... Download it FREE all week from iTunes! Hurry. Click on the link below!
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=322312905&s=143460
For more info (or if you're not lucky enough to be standing on these fair shores) you can look here:
http://www.wheresjerome.com/
http://www.myspace.com/wheresjerome
That's all for today.
Sally
sally@weheartmusic.com
gothkill.com
The latest DVD we received is a horror movie called Gothkill. This is a straight-to-DVD low budgeted movie, starting America's Got Talent's Flambeaux (as Nicholas Dread), musician Eve Blackwater (as Kate) and Mistress Juliya (as Demonatrix, aka the Devil Girl).
Mistress Juliya's name should come as no surprise to fans of heavy metal, she did, after all hosted Much Music USA's Uranium, then onto its spin-off show, Metal Asylum. Her obvious sex appeal solidified her as a fan favorite, she now appears regularly on No. 1 Countdown Rock show on the MMUSA-turned-Fused TV.
Eve Blackwater's other job seems to be as a fire-eating musician. Her myspace hilariously discourages creeps: "STOP TRYING TO GET IN MY PANTS!!! IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!!!! sorry to disappoint you."
The story of Gothkill is quite simple, Nicholas Dread, a Catholic Priest tries and save innocent women from accusations of witchcraft. His efforts lead the church to believe he's in league with the devil and sentenced him to be burn with the women he "confessed". This lead to Dread's disenchantment with his religion and made a pact with Satan.
100 years (?) later, in modern-day New York, Dread comes back to finish his deal with the devil. His revenge is unleashed on a stripper/goth club and basically it ends in fire and hell.
The DVD cover artwork by world-famous death metal artist Mike Hrubovcak promises us: B-Movie (check), T&A (check and check), metal (check), bloody gore (check), hell (check), goths (check), and deaths (check). While I did not enjoy very short movie, I would recommend it if you are looking for a midnight gory b-movie with a heavy goth/metal theme (with all the checks above), this will fulfill what you're looking for.
Also, it's not quite as comedic or as cheesy as some of the reviewers made it out to be, sure there are some unintentional bad acting, but that's to be expected with these type of film. I thought the
Gothkill was released May 12th, you can netflix this (it's available, I just checked). If you insist on buying a copy for your Mistress Juliya collection or for the extras (including audio/video commentary by director JJ Connelly, Flambeaux, and Blackwater), you can head over to Gothkill Store. Watch the trailer at Wild Eye Releasing.
SCION
scion.com
The application is really designed for DJs for determining beats per minute (BPM), for, what I'm assuming so they can match music to that thumping-thumping noise. The application was created and developed by Epic Tilt, who is the company-for-hire when big companies need to cross promote their product (such as that Be Like Lady Gaga application). It's actually a smart way to promote, I'm just wondering why companies don't concentrate their efforts on applications.
I did download and tested out the BPM application and discovered that this application was not meant for me. This is really for DJs, as I have previously mentioned. After testing four songs, the number given back to me ranges from 100-200 BPM and that's pretty much it. You can then save the information on a playlist or assign notes to it or share them with your DJ friends.... but I found that since I did not understand the use of the BPM, it quickly became a useless application for me.
However, if you're a DJ, or interested in DJ work, I think this application is valuable to you. Plus the price is just right: FREE.
twitter.com
It
would seem like most current/modern bands all have Twitter accounts
now. If not setup by the band themselves, it's set up by their record
label. Pretty soon, all musicians will have a Twitter account, like
they do with their Myspace.
W♥M Twitter experienced a huge spike with all the bands migrating to the service - we had +63 adds since last night, mostly by bands. It's not John Mayers numbers, but it's big for us.
And I have said it before: I don't get what all the fuss is about with Twitter. Why is the country in love with it? The limitation of 140 characters kills me.... plus people use it as a popularity contest. Also, once you add more than 50 people to follow, it becomes absolutely useless. I know hardcore Twitter users basically use 3rd party applications to keep them organize (since Twitter doesn't offer such functionality).
The microblogging service hit mainstream media earlier this year with Ashton vs CNN and Oprah endorsing it. Recently, I was at a grocery store when I saw The Times with twitter for their front page story.
If you're new to Twitter, or interested in being more productive on Twitter, here are some services that I use and endorse:
- Tweet Later: Automatically follow people that follows you - and the best part, it also drops people that unfollow you.
- Twitterfeed: Automatically post feeds (RSS).
- We Follow: A directory of twitterers, ranked by popularity.
06/14/2009 20:42:34 ♥ vu (
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♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
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I'll have to admit, I was pretty good back in the days of Street Fighter II as Guile or Ryan/Ken. I saw that the "HD Remix" game finally made its way to downloadable Playstation Store (incidentally, I tested out "Home" and although it looks fantastic - but what exactly is the point?).
The game, as a download, is very expensive at $14.99, more than most PS1 games! Come on, Capcom, there's no cost of manufacturing to order discs, this should be priced at $8, that's reasonable. If you're not going to buy it, like me, you can get the next best thing: a free downloadable soundtrack.
The only downside is that they want you to do the torrent thing, and if you don't have a torrent client, you'll have to download each track individually. It's a painfully slow task (I mean, it's not too much to ask them to zip all 66 files in one big file, you know?)
The soundtrack is more electronized/modernized, but you'll recognize most of these songs - even if you haven't heard these in years.
The next few items are all for tips for your iPod Touch, since I have been spending a lot of time with it.
UPDATE YOUR VOX WITH YOUR IPOD
Although Six Apart did developed a mobile version for their TypePad, there's no Vox support. In fact, if you read the reviews, people are complaining that it's "free, but not free"... since you need a paid typepad version to get some millage out this application.
Well if you're looking for a free iPod version, check out Shozu! I did some tests here and it looks pretty decent for a mobile updater. There's some drawbacks, like the limit of number of words you can write! Weak!
Pownce users should check it out since you guys are into the moblogging thing. It's free, so if you don't like, just throw it out.
TURN YOUR IPOD INTO A PORTABLE VOICE RECORDER
This is quite easy to do, first you'll need an iPod/iPhone-compatible mic (this means the plugin needs to have a mic and stereo headphones in the same jack). Something like the cheap Philips iPhone Microphone Adapter for $10 will work. You'll also need to get the free version of Griffin's iTalk Recorder (don't bother paying for the "professional version", which is the same software but no advertisements).
Audio recording is so-so, but you get what you pay for I reckon. Supposedly you can transfer the audio files to your computer using their syncing wifi software. Unfortunately it does not seem to work for me. I got it to connect to my iPod, but the file I drag-and-drop just turns up as a folder instead of a file. Perhaps it's just my computer's securities?
TURN YOUR IPOD INTO A PHONE
Using the same mic as above, download the free Fring on the iPod. There are several VOIP option on Fring, but the one I'm using and I found best of all, is Skype. If you already pay for Skype out, you can now call regular telephones, if you're using the free Skype version, you are limited to only other Skype users.
I found in my testing that the audio is poor (possibly due to cheap mic), and there is a slight delay - but otherwise usable.
If you don't use Fring for its voice feature, it also doubles as an IM Client - works with Aim, Messenger, Yahoo, etc.
WATCH TV ON YOUR IPOD (WELL SORT OF)
Get Joost on the iPod/iPhone and you'll be watching full episodes of really old televison shows. Don't bother browsing through their menu, the best way to find something is to do a search on the application. As for the shows that I'm interested and have seen on Joost on the iPod is Macgyver (wow these shows aren't very realistic), V, and Jericho.
Unfortunately the software is buggy, and it's not uncommon to have the software crash on you. Very annoying when you're 80% into the show and it crashes. Quality and audio is decent, watchable, but by no means a replacement for the big television or computer monitor. I just hope they improve stability.
I just wish Hulu was on the iPhone! Please make this happen!
GET VIDEOS FOR YOUR IPOD
Using keepvid.com or various ways to download youtube videos, you can them as *.FLV (flash video). If you are super lazy, you can install Real Audio and it will offer "Download This" as an option over any Flash video.
Once you have the videos, you can get the free iPod Video Converter to convert any video file to an iPod compatible format.
So there's this legal question about downloading music videos. To me, these are promotional videos, they are meant to be seen by many people as possible... and why would anyone care how you watch them, as long as you're watching them? And obviously you love it enough to want to permanently add it to your iPod to watch forever and ever.... Besides the videos you download off youtube is often pretty low quality.
Apple sells music videos, which I think is way overpriced at $1.99 per video. I recommend buying a music DVD you love and ripping it yourself, since you'll stil have a higher quality version on DVD as a backup. As an example, here is the video for Kaiser Chiefs (kaiserchiefs.co.uk/myspace.com). The latest video and single is called "Good Days, Bad Days" and features what looks like it's stop-animation. I think it comes off as sort of choppy. If you like all-things-rocknrolly, they are a bit energic live, from what I remembered of them in 2007, so be sure to check them out in 2009:
01/20/09 Tonhalle Munich
01/21/09 Palladium Cologne
01/23/09 Rockhal Luxembourg
01/24/09 AB Brussels
01/25/09 AB Brussels
01/27/09 Zenith Paris
01/28/09 Transbordeur Lyon
01/29/09 Razzamatazz Barcelona
01/31/09 Coliseum Porto
02/01/09 Coliseum Lisbon
02/02/09 La Riviera Madrid
02/05/09 Alkatraz Milan
02/06/09 Volkshaus Zurich
02/07/09 Gasometer Vienna
02/09/09 Alter Schlachthof Dresden
02/10/09 Phonixhalle Mainz
02/12/09 VEGA Copenhagen
02/13/09 Sentrum Oslo
02/15/09 Sportshalle Hamburg
02/16/09 Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam
02/22/09 Trent FM Arena Nottingham
02/23/09 Sheffield Arena Sheffield
02/24/09 NIA Birmingham
02/26/09 Corn Exchange Edinburgh
02/27/09 AECC Aberdeen
02/28/09 Metro Radio Arena Newcastle
03/02/09 MEN Manchester
03/03/09 Echo Arena Liverpool
03/04/09 CIA Cardiff
03/06/09 Wembley Arena London
Finally, as a tip for audio book listeners, you may want to check out MP3 to iPod Audio Book Converter. This wonderful free software converts your audio book MP3 into the correct audio book format, and you can put it in as one big long file. You may ask why you would want to do this, well the answer is simple: since all MP3s are considered as music files, when you put your library to shuffle, occasional an audio book file will pop up! Since audio book files are treated differently, you won't see these in normal music now. Unfortunately, these M4P files aren't universal as MP3s, so you may want to keep your original MP3 files.
That's it for now, if you've got a great iPod tip, please let me know. Software developers, please consider doing more with downloadable maps (that does not require internet access)! I will pay (but not over $10) for a great Minneapolis/Minnesota map with bus or train information. That's not asking too much is it?
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Links:
www.weheartmusic.com
podcast.weheartmusic.com
news.weheartmusic.com
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As much as I hate the DRM on iTunes, this EP is only available through iTunes. If you have an iPod and likes funny Christmas songs this might be worth your while.
Guests includes Toby Keith, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Feist, Willie Nelson, and Jon Stewart. The John Legend song about Nutmegs has very sexual innuendos that's safe for the kids and fun for the adults. I was happy to see that W♥M favorites Elvis Costello made an appearance too!
I haven't seen the DVD, but based on listening to the EP (which was the audio lifted from the DVD) and watching clips via Joost on my iPod, it looks pretty funny. Apparently Colbert is trapped in his cabin and famous musicians visits him to do sing songs and stuff.
Recently, Colbert declared war on Kanye West because his 808s & Heartbreaks is #1 while Colbert is at a respectable #16. So, I guess, "Operation Humble Kanye" will be on next Wednesday, December 5th at 5pm (eastern).
Since I actually block double-click, I couldn't actually view the video on comedycentral.com, so instead here is a clip via hulu.com:
Anyway, I think Colbert is pretty funny. It's cool to see him move from being just some report on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (hey remember how he used to be on MTV?) to having his own show on Comedy Central.... to even writing his own "book": I Am America (And So Can You!). I ended up getting the audio book because it's actually read by Colbert and there are guest appearances as well as sound effects and soundtrack!
* Before you dismiss this Christmas cash-in and Colbert's arrogance, this project is actually for a good cause, for the charity group Feeding America.
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BRANDI CARLILE
brandicarlile.com ♥ brandicarlile.co.uk ♥ myspace.com Speaking of ridiculously hot, the first time I saw a picture of Brandi Carlile, I knew I was in love. She had shorter hair back then and had a boyish charm to her looks, reminiscent of Louise Wener (here's an example). She recently released her iTunes-only EP called Live from Boston, and it was a real pleasure to listen to. Of the four songs, I thought "The Story" was easily, easily the best. Her emotionally charged lyrics is best experienced live. By the way, a close second was her Johnny Cash cover "Folsom Prison Blues". You can purchase the EP via iTunes only, the most popular digital music store, so chances are, you probably already have an account. Incidentally, the reason why the 4-track is listed at $4.99, it is because it comes bundled with a video for "Josephine". As a bonus, enjoy her cover version of Radiohead's "Creep", recorded at The All About The Music Festival 2006. If you like what you heard, you can buy a superior recording from the same Live in Boston set via iTunes. |
THE SAFES
www.thesafes.com ♥ myspace.com Released last week (Sep 23th), the Safes' Sight of All Light EP are a great mix of rock n roller. Rolling Stones calls it "Atomic Pop", while Paste Magazine compares them to The Kinks and The Who... so apparently the popular press loves these guys. The five-track fourth Safes release does start off strong and rocking, especially with the first track, "Sight of All Light". It looks like, starting in October, they are heading out for a national tour, be sure to check them out. Tour Dates
10/09 Champaign, IL @ The Courtyard
10/10 Carbondale, IL @ PKs 10/11 Saint Louis, MO @ Lemmons 10/12 Kansas City, MO @ Fred P. Otts 10/13 Wichita, KS @ The Anchor 10/15 Austin, TX @ Club 1808 10/16 Denton, TX @ J&J's 10/17 Albuquerque, NM @ Atomic Cantina 10/18 Phoenix, AZ @ Rubyroom 10/19 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick 10/20 Los Angeles, CA @ The Cat Club 10/21 Oakland, CA @ The Stork Club 10/22 San Francisco, CA @ The Hemlock Tavern 10/23 Salt Lake City, UT @ Burt's Tiki Lounge 10/24 Denver, CO @ Bender's 10/25 Omaha, NE @ Universe 11/01 Pittsburgh, PA @ Garfield Artworks 11/02 Long Branch, NJ @ The Brighton Bar 11/03 Arlington, VA @ Galaxy Hut 11/04 Richmond, VA @ Rumors Boutique 11/05 Baltimore, MD @ Joe Squared 11/06 New York, NY @ Pianos 11/07 Boston, MA @ O'Briens 11/08 Philadelphia, PA @ Mojo 13 11/09 Danbury, CT @ Larry's 11/10 Sheffield, MA @ Off The Beat N' Track 11/11 New Haven, CT @ Cafe Nine 11/12 State College, PA @ Bar Bleu 11/26 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen |
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MARK WILLIAMS
markwilliamsmusic.com ♥ myspace.com Mark Williams didn't give me much to work with. The EP is a five-track CD-R with no album artwork. No offense to anyone, but I have different priorities when it comes to music reviews and CD-R, demos, & MP3s are at the bottom of my list. I will mention that there was something in the package that did make me take a notice: there was a Lipton Herbal Peach Tea. I'm not saying to bribe me, but it was one of those WTF moment. So, his EP is called Shallow Eyes. I could not find any album artwork online, so I'm using a picture of his band. The whole EP has a Motion City Soundtrack feel to it, but slower. I would even bet Shallow Eyes would sound better live than what's on recording. I see a lot of potential in Williams, he's only 16, right now, it should be interesting to watch him as he grows up, and perhaps take up a different musical direction. The band's already found early success by being included on last Summer's Warped Tour. They are playing an upcoming show in Stroudsburg:
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BRYN CHRISTOPHER
brynchristopher.com ♥ myspace.com People tells me that they discover new music "Grey's Anatomy". I mean, who looks for new music on television shows? Well apparently it does work, and Interscope Records invested in having Bryn Christopher's "The Quest" to appear on an upcoming season of Grey's - so watch for it if you're already a fan of the show. "The Quest" is a lead-in single (released September 16th) to his January 13th, 2009 album called My World, and if the song is any indication I would have to guess that the album is pop/soul. If you like that genre, you definitely need to give "The Quest" a listen. The story I got out of the Quest was that he wrote the song on his mobile phone, and is about his brother's experience as a solider in Basra. He just finished up a few dates in the US, and is now heading through the UK supporting The Script: Tour Dates
22 Nov 2008 Barrowlands - Glasgow
23 Nov 2008 Academy - Leeds 24 Nov 2008 Academy - Newcastle 26 Nov 2008 Academy 1 - Manchester 27 Nov 2008 UEA - Norwich 28 Nov 2008 Academy - Bristol 30 Nov 2008 Academy - Birmingham 1 Dec 2008 Academy - Oxford 2 Dec 2008 Shepherd’s Bush Empire - London 3 Dec 2008 Shepherd’s Bush Empire - London * Supporting The Script |
Links:
weheartmusic.com
news.weheartmusic.com
Just a few things, first of all say hello to Silpa and also add us as a favorite on Technorati. We're about to break 10k (out of 4 million blogs!)
Ryan's W♥M article was recently published on the Indepedent, you can read all about it here.
I have also decide to show you a really quick and painless way of adding album artwork, using iTunes.
1. If you already have an MP3, you can skip this step. On iTunes, right-click and choose "Convert to MP3". Alternatively, you can use other software to convert to MP3. For streaming purposes, change the kilobyte per seconds to 128kbps.
2. You must register with iTunes to use this feature, if you already have an account: choose "Get Album Artwork". Music not available or sold on iTunes will not return an album artwork, in which case, use images.google.com and search for your artwork.
3. For some reason, the artwork you download from iTunes Store is encrypted (?), you must copy the image to your clipboard and add it to your MP3 file using MP3 Tag (other software available, but I found this works pretty well - and it's free).
That's pretty much how I do it these days (I still scan in all my album artwork for myself because I'm like that). Just make sure the band name and album name is spelled correctly (e.g. delete out things like "[Special Edition]" because iTunes doesn't understand extra verbage).
Let me know
if you like these tips, I will write some more about adding external
images and table formats in the next tips post if there's enough people
asking for it.
UPDATE: How-To Without iTunes:
If you don't have access to iTunes (but do have a Windows OS, sorry Linux / Mac fans) then you can use the free Album Cover Art Downloader program written by Sami Kyöstila. It's designed to search Amazon and other music sites for image files and automatically install them all, but I prefer to do it the manual way. Just open the program, use it to open the folder containing your music, then drag and drop the cover art image file (found via Amazon or Google Image Search) from your desktop on to either an individual song file or the album name to do all songs. Voila, cover art. - Christopher.
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10/08/2007 07:28:12
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
countstars.vox.com
What the fuck is folktronica if not a metaphysical concept cooked up by a journalist who thought Nathan Barley was a documentary?
For anybody who hasn't heard of Folktronica, it is best described as "the beautiful bastard child of folk and electronica". And it's practitioners are bloody good!
Tunng are fluffy, cuddly, dark and dangerous.
A band of six members, three guitars, one electronic device, a drummer who plays the shells and a lady who plays the violin, the heart-shaped electric guitar and a series of children's toys. The majority of the band members contribute to the vocals producing a harmonious effect.
It is a well crafted group of friends with a good selection of songs to play.
My personal highlight from their performance at the Sage was a cover version of the theme music to the ever-popular British children's program, Rainbow.
Tunng are currently touring the UK and will be playing at a number of festivals and, at least, one wedding this year. This August will see the release of their latest album, "Good Arrows".
Previous releases include "mother's daughters and other songs" and "Comments on the Inner Chorus".
They have also produced a wonderful cover of Tim Buckley's "No Man Can Find The War" on the tribute album, "The Dream Brothers: The Songs of Tim + Jeff Buckley".
If you like what you hear, there is a selection of free downloadable tracks on their website.
Music can be purchased directly from Full Time Hobby and Static Caravan. You can also purchase their albums at emusic and itunes. - Ryan
Tunng's myspace // Tunng's website
For fans of Swedish sounds, they were supported by Loney, Dear, a group who have been highly praised & received critical acclaim by the British music press.
I was sitting back watching more coverage of Glastonbury when it suddenly occurred to me that I actually have a mental image of the whole layout of Glastonbury superimposed in my mind. I could literally walk you from stage to stage...
I won't...
Day two of the biggest music festival in the UK has seen some of awesome bands on all of the main stages but I'll start by talking about Amy Winehouse (Website, Myspace) who featured on the Jazzworld stage.
Winehouse has been over described by most of the music magazines to the extent that a rather simple down-to-earth pint drinking gal appears to be almost schizophrenic on their pages. She is one of the leading lights of British soul music and has more balls than most of girl power groups. Her set went down a treat with the viewing audience and rightly so!
My favourite moment of the day (I am still pretending I am there) was the sex god of the mods, Paul Weller (Website). His time on stage was made all the better by the presence of Ocean Colour Scene's Damon Minchella (Fired from the group in 2003) and Steve Cradock, two mighty fine guitarists. A Town Called Malice has never sounded sweeter.
The award for best attempt at crowd surfing goes to Lovefoxxx from CSS (Website, Myspace), who successful managed to lose her head band in the process. Like everybody who performs at Glastonbury, the Brazilian group played in awe of the festival itself.
With tickets for Glastonbury costing £145 these days, I almost feel sorry for the hippies who attend for the spiritual side of the festival. But one glance at the faces in the crowd and all criticisms of the growing commercialisation of the festival are thrown to one side. Glastonbury makes people happier. Drunk, drugged up and happier.
Maximo Park (Website, Myspace) impressed me on the Pyramid Stage with a confident performance. Impressed and surprised me. However even more spectacular was the sight of a sea of people singing along to the instrumental stylings of Rodrigo y Gabriela (Website, Myspace).
Bat for Lashes were awesome on the John Peel stage and I am really looking forward to seeing them live now. If you don't own their album, I highly recommend you pop it on your wishlist if nothing else.
All in all, rock was pretty well represented in the lineup this year. One of the advantages of watching from home is the late night special performances in the BBC tent. It was with some delight I witnessed Calvin Harris sing along to an acoustic version of his track, The Girls. Another treat was hearing the Canadian poet and hip hopster K'Naan (Website, Myspace) for the first time. He has secured a place on my wish list.
Back to the big bands, the Kooks (Website, Myspace) were the penultimate act on the Pyramid stage. I've never been caught up in the fuss surrounding the Kooks. In my opinion, there are pretty average but you have to appreciate Jackie's Big Tits. The Killers (Website, Myspace) finished off the night. They were, well, The Killers. You either love them, hate them or stalk them. Interestingly, David Keuning claimed that when recording a song, the band ponders how the track will sound at Glastonbury.
There is no better way to finish my drunken early morning rambling than with the music of the Brummie band, The Twang (Website, Myspace). This group has been nominated by NME as "the Group of 2007". Putting that cursed title to one side, The Twang are pretty damn good. They have an additive from the gutter sound. The Streets gone rock. Poetic and working class. Definitely my one of the highlights of my festival experience. - Ryan.
Amy Winehouse - itunes, Amazon UK, Amazon USA.
CSS - itunes, Amazon UK, Amazon USA.
Maximo Park - itunes, Amazon UK, Amazon USA.
The Kooks - itunes, Amazon UK, Amazon USA.
The Twang - itunes, Amazon UK, Amazon USA.
If you work in a whore house you're gonna get fucked,
If you sleep in a river you're going to get ducked,
If you count all your chickens, you'll die like a dog,
And if you lie to me again I'll take you closer to god.
I wish I could tell you this was another example of crass Americana music but the members of The Broken Family Band all own British passports. Singing songs about booze, women and Jesus, this Cambridge group have brought country music to the British masses at many a festival.
As if seeking forgiveness for the cussing and sinning to be found in most of their albums, the Broken Family Band have released a collection of songs about Jesus. Although, a quick read through the FAQ section on their website suggests their mini-album, Jesus Songs, is more of an in-joke than their personal discovery of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus. H. Christ.
The Broken Family Band consists of Steven, Jay, Mickey, Gavin and, on occasions, Timothy. In total, they have 11 recordings to their name.
I am aware that WHM's resident Mook recently attempted to convert those members who like all types of music except hip-hop and country in his post. I won't be claiming that the Broken Family Band is an antidote to those problems as it is pretty 'much love it or hate it' music.
Personally, I have loved them since 2005 when I caught a glimpse of them at my beloved Green Man Festival and fully intend to love them again at this year's Summer Sundae and Green Man Festival. (I don't care how dodgy that sentence sounds!)
If your taste buds are dampened sufficiently, you'll find more of the good stuff at their website, myspace and last.fm page.
The Broken Family Band records are available via Play.com, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, itunes, emusic...mostly likely not available at Sunday School. - Ryan
There's really no information on this Minneapolis band, the Farewell Circuit. So here's some random information that I've concluded: The Farewell Circuit originally was from Milwaukee, formed in 2003. They played a few gigs and pretty much wasn't committed to the band - that is until last Summer '06, they decided to get really serious about their band.
They've managed to record a self-titled debut EP (UPC 6 16892 88932 8, also available on iTunes). The record was produced by Daniel Holter and Kristian Riley (of Citizen King fame). I also read that Riley produce some other acts, such as The Promise Ring and Maritime.
Anyway, they're getting ready to do a midwest to East (New York) tour. There is a problem, however. Shortly after they've released their EP, they lost their guitarist (and apparently their booking agent and manager) Zachius. They have a new guitarist, he's debuting on this tour.
THE FAREWELL CIRCUIT TOUR DATES
For more tour dates, see www.myspace.com/farewellcircuit |
Looks like there are some open gaps on the tour, so they're hoping someone can help them booked in those areas.
Also, here's some news you should read: Mass deletion sparks LiveJournal revolt (30 May 2007) and Will music industry dance again to Apple's tune? (31 May 2007). Obviously I don't need to stress how important it is to sell DRM-free music and also LiveJournal is own by Six Apart (as well owning Vox and Moveable Type!).
Not that anyone cares, but I have also moved back to Windows XP as my default now. It's funny how much faster XP is compared to Vista. But oh Vista was so pretty. Part of the reason for the move was because my iTunes just stopped working on Vista. I know there were previous problems with iTunes/Quicktime/Vista, but it's finally caught up with me. Sound stuttering, missing Library, itunes movie causes blue-screen-of-death...
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Links: www.thefarewellcircuit.com | www.myspace.com/farewellcircuit