Archive for Music
08.23.05
Posted in Music at 6:24 pm by Nicholas
Several of my favorite musicians have released good albums this year—like Ben Folds, Foo Fighters, Sleater-Kinney, Aimee Mann, and The White Stripes, to name a few—not to mention a shockingly good unofficial online release by Fiona Apple and a compilation of EPs by Belle & Sebastian. But a new (to me) musical discovery may turn out to be my favorite album of the year: Andrew Bird’s majestic and strange The Mysterious Production of Eggs. I’m now happily and confidently recommending this album to every single person I know—it’s that good.
It’s hard to describe Eggs in terms of influences and similar artists, because there just isn’t anyone similar to this. Vocally, Bird comes in somewhere between Rufus Wainwright and Thom Yorke, but with none of the tendency to over-emote (or, on the other end of the spectrum, mumble). Musically, Bird seamlessly mixes the country and swing of his past projects with rock, folk, and classical influences. At times the instrumentation reminds me a bit of late-period Tom Waits (which is good), but mostly he stays a little closer to the pop end of the spectrum while mixing things up enough to keep the listener on his toes.
Bird’s lyrics shine, too—every song could be read as a poem. But along with the music—gorgeous melodies, shimmering harmonies, and Bird’s stellar violin, guitar, and occasional whistling—it’s irresistible. I can’t recommend this album highly enough.
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04.28.05
Posted in Music at 9:10 am by Nicholas
Sacramento music fans: my favorite local band, Nice Monster, will be playing at Luna’s Café, 1414 16th Street, tomorrow at 9PM. Also performing: Mark Herrod of POPGUN, Richard March, and Amee Chapman and the Big Finish. This will also be Josh Schramm’s last performance as bassist for Nice Monster. I will probably be there, unless I don’t get paid tomorrow. You should be there, too.
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03.08.05
Posted in Music at 3:26 pm by Nicholas
The BBC reports that Russian prosecutors have decided not to take action against AllofMP3.com, so if you took my advice and used up your balance a while back, it should be safe to refill now.
Also, the best Metafilter comment in weeks comes from MillMan, who reasons, “Corporations can shop around the world for the lowest labor costs, and now I can shop my dollars around for the most favorable IP laws.”
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02.23.05
Posted in Music at 10:05 am by Nicholas
TiVo has a very cool feature called TiVo Desktop that pulls music from your computer and plays it over whatever stereo you have hooked up for your TV, while displaying the song, artist, and album names on the TV. Unfortunately for iTunes users, the TiVo Desktop download page warns that the feature “does not support AAC audio files (including music purchased at the iTunes Music Store).” As it turns out—for Mac users, at least—half of that statement is a dirty, rotten lie.
As posted on PVRblog this morning, playing AAC files over TiVo Desktop is as simple as installing a command-line MP3 encoder called LAME. You don’t even have to use the command line to make it work—a handy package file on Vas the Man’s Downloads page will install the program for you, and then the feature just works without further ado. I don’t know if there’s a way to make it work for iTunes-using Windows users, and since I’m not a Windows user myself, I have no motivation for finding out.
But the other half of that warning on TiVo’s page remains problematic: TiVo Desktop won’t play DRM-encoded files, like the ones you get from the iTunes Music Store. So you’ll just have to strip the DRM nonsense from your AAC files if you want to play them on your TiVo.
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Posted in Music at 8:54 am by Nicholas
For those who use AllofMP3 for their music downloads, now might be a good time to burn through your download credits. The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office has thirty days to decide whether or not to bring charges against the service for copyright infringement. And I just added $25 to my balance yesterday, damn it. No mention in the article of similar services, like MP3Search.ru.
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