shwango! blog » music

Good software gone bad

osterday — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:50:22 +0000

I’m sure the Amarok guys had good intentions with Amarok2, but I just don’t like it. Actually I hate it and think it really sucks. Not intuitive at all – I just want to play my music. The “upgrade” is an unfortunate side effect of upgrading Ubuntu from 8.10 to 9.04. I’m going back to 1.4.

New Depeche Mode single “Precious”

osterday — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:07:11 +0000

I didn’t want to do it…

A “leaked” rough mix version of Depeche Mode’s new single, “Precious”, not set for release until September/October has been circulating around the ‘net for a week or two. I’ve been good resisting the tempation, but my weakness for new dm got the best of me and today I download the rough single version, video and five remixes!

This song is great! Most posts on the dm mailing list were saying that and I totally agree! Now I really liked Ultra and Exciter which many fans didn’t like. Most seem to think Violator was tops – and “Precious” is very “Enjoy the Silence”-ish, but darker. I’m totally psyched for the new album – and tour! And the remixes rock! People that didn’t like some of the remixes over the past few years will like these!

Oh… and I don’t care if it was the record company that leaked it.

Here’s the link if you are so inclined… Precious (if the link is still up!)

The video link is down now, but I found it on a bit torrent site.

Sad things outside my own life

osterday — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 16:56:59 +0000

Sometimes things way outside your direct contact can affect you – or maybe effect, I could never get those straight. A recent boing boing post announced Pam Bricker’s death. I had never heard of her, but I saw that she sang for Thievery Corporation, who I really dig. So it just is one of those things that brings you down – even though I didn’t even know this person, I was touched somehow by her voice. It’s sad and amazing at the same time. I hope I can have that same effect on someone, somehow, someday.

She sang the great “Lebanese Blonde” from The Mirror Conspiracy and “All That We Perceive” from The Richest Man in Babylon. It’s really great stuff. I didn’t know any of her more jazzy stuff, but will check it out.

I highly recommend the Thievery Corporation stuff. Probably my favorite “downtempo” artists – jazzy, worldly, loungey… check it out.

Also, turns out I went to CCM with David Pescovitz, a writer for boing boing. We were both in the Electronic Media program at the same time. Small world, eh? I never finished, but he did.

The Curiosa Festival

osterday — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 17:27:34 +0000

Last night “The Curiosa Festival” made its way through the tri-state to Riverbend. I bet 99% of all of the “festival” goers were there just for the Cure – I admit I was. I had heard of Interpol and I like them a lot, but the Cure was why we were there.

Kevin got sick so our gang was one short, but we still managed to do a fair share of people watching. There weren’t as many “goths” as I would have expected – actually the turnout in general wasn’t like I expected. I figured the Cure would draw a pretty decent crowd, but the lawn had tons of space left. (In contrast, a few months ago we saw James Taylor there and it was blanket to blanket packed!)

I have to say the Cure put on a pretty decent just under two hour set. I’m not one to take notes at a concert so you’ll have to go elsewhere for a full set list.

I have to admit that I don’t have some of the more recent Cure stuff. Before the latest one, the last CD I actually purchased of theirs was “Wish”. The new CD is starting to grow on me though…

They did play quite a bit from “Disintegration” including (off the top of my head) Plainsong, Pictures of You (for some reason I had the urge to buy a HP printer during this one!), Love Song (of course!), Lullaby, Fascination Street and Disintegration.

They played some from the new CD and, of course, some of the classics showed up like Boys Don’t Cry, A Forest, Close To Me, In Between Days and Why Can’t I Be You.

The lighting and screen displays were pretty cool. The playing was great and Robert Smith’s voice is still pretty good after all these years.

97X reborn – woxy.com is streaming again!

osterday — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 16:41:33 +0000

I was out of the loop and missed the first week back, but i’m happy that 97X is back. Go listen now!

97X is coming back!

osterday — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 13:35:07 +0000

Looks like 97X is coming back! From an email I got today and also now posted on woxy.com:

Kind fate has sent us two dedicated listeners with the vision and courage to step up as partners to fund the continued broadcast of 97X The Future of Rock and Roll over the Internet.

These magnanimous folks want to remain anonymous, but they feel passionately about “doing the right thing” and “doing good work,” and we are the lucky recipients of their generous spirit.

Like Phoenix rising from the ashes, 97X – just as we have always loved it – will be returning soon. It will take us a few weeks to get set up for the future, but be assured that Mike and Barb and Shiv and Bryan Jay are already hard at work to bring it all back.

Keep checking woxy.com for updates … we’ll announce an air date just as soon as we know it.

Give a little shout of thanks to our “angels” – and stay tuned!

Also posted on the Enquirer’s site.

So forget about my previous post!

A dark day for radio…

osterday — Fri, 14 May 2004 13:58:02 +0000

97X is gone. I posted that they were moving to an all Internet station, which was cool with me. But I guess they didn’t do their homework or something cuz they didn’t have enough to keep the Internet streams alive. Now all we’ve got it dead air. 97X was the only real radio station left playing the good stuff… it’s a bit sad…

101 on DVD

osterday — Mon, 10 Nov 2003 23:51:29 +0000

Tomorrow Depeche Mode’s 101 comes out on DVD.

emusic since the stupid change in the subscription policy, I have found some great music.

Hefner’s Dead Media is quite a good album.

Check out samples at emusic if you like. Also, you can check out Hefnet, or their new band, The French.

online music done right…

osterday — Tue, 15 Jul 2003 04:50:31 +0000

what would go great with my new toys? well some spanking new music! emusic’s trial is pretty good… 50 mp3s for 14 days – free! then, you sign up for a 3 month ($15) or 12 month ($10) subscription and you get unlimited downloads – yes unlimited. mind you it’s not your main top 40 “music”, but for those of us that are a little more risk taking in our music selections, it’s got a pretty good amount – and growing. most of the 4ad/beggars banquet releases are there – yup, all the pixes, cult, cocteau twins albums are there. for comedy, there’s george carlin. there’s stuff from ella and miles and coltrane. yo la tengo and apples in stereo. and tons more. the downloader app is pretty cool and i’m pleased with the speed. i’ll probably join. oh yeah – most of the stuff is in high quality vbr mp3 now – and the vbr mp3s play fine in the car! sweet!