There are a lot of MP3 blogs out there. A LOT. I don’t read too many of them on a regular basis. Mostly I just check The Hype Machine every morning to see if there’s anything that seems interesting. (I should totally stop doing that, because I keep finding things that I then have to buy.) Among the select few… Read more →
Category: Music
Some stories just write themselves…
You know, I can’t really add anything to this. I mean, there’s something completely funny in each of the first three paragraphs of this story: Police say the Grateful Dead leader’s commode was stolen recently from a driveway along with three other toilets and a bidet. Garcia’s salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was finally… Read more →
The glorious day has come!
Sometime this weekend a new Kleptones release made it’s way into the Intarweeb. This makes me so happy. And it’s a double album! I’ve had a chance to spin the first half, and it’s pretty awesome. I’m hoping to get a chance to check out the second half tonight. Of course it will be some time before I can determine… Read more →
Monday MP3 Miscellany
So, in lieu of actual content, I bring you a bag of links to audio content, both musical and book-related. This’ll be a long post. Read more →
Music for Black Valentines
UPDATE: MP3 links have expired. There seems to be a lot of ‘unhappy love’ music circulating around the web today for some reason. For instance, you might want to check out the WilL YoU BE MinE? post at the Mashup Of The Week Podcast. Even better is Jamie S. Rich’s post today, which has a brilliant set of lyrics, and… Read more →
People Who Are Awesome: Tom Waits
I’ve mentioned Tom on here before, in praise, in amused wonder, and so on. Tom is top on my list of “people I’d love to just spend a night hanging out with”. Of course the first reason to love Tom is the music. If you know, I don’t need to say more. If you don’t, allow me to point you… Read more →
This month’s All-Story magazine…
The current issue of All Story magazine features a “guest designer”. I picked up the magazine, not one of my normal picks, because that guest designer is one of my favourite characters: Mr. Tom Waits. The world is much more interesting place with him in it than it would be without. There’s actually limited material in the magazine for Tom… Read more →
Top 5: First Blush
So, the question is “Ever get nostalgic for those first few blissful moments of being infatuated with someone? What are your top 5 songs for beginning a relationship, or looking back fondly thereon?” Let’s see… The first thing that pops into my head is the Oysterband tune “The Drunkard’s Waltz“. It’s the wild (and maybe just a little self-destructive) crazy… Read more →
Vaguely musical
OK, go here. How awesome is that? Alan Rickman reading you one of Shakespeare’s more famous sonnets? After seeing this on Cherie Priest’s LJ, I just went out Saturday and bought this CD. (I can do that, because Halifax has shops like The Madrigal). Man, there’s a lot of good stuff on there. Branagh, John Hurt, Joseph Fiennes, Diana Rigg,… Read more →
But I hate filk songs…
I don’t know why this ditty from the Cthulhu Hymnal cheers me up so, but it really does make me smile. (And I really do hate the idea of filk generally.) God Rest Ye Scary Great Old Ones God Rest Ye Scary Great Old Ones, Let everything dismay. Remember Great Cthulhu shall rise up from R’lyeh To kill us all… Read more →
Around the web
Yes, that’s correct, I am still not mentally prepared to take on all the Bush Administration scandals–I’m following all the stories, but it’s already enough to both wear out my anger and make me want a shower, without trying to synthesize it all. Yuck. So, another post of interesting tidbits follows the jump. Read more →
Halloween Content
Last year the folks over at Oddio Overplay put together a two-CD set of Halloween novelty tracks, Ghouls With Attitude. While it’s probably too late to fully enjoy them this year, I recommend pulling them down and burning the discs, so that you have them around for next year. (In particular, I recommend to you track 8 on CD 2,… Read more →
Tom Wilson & Bob Lanois
I’ve been really enjoying Tom Wilson’s latest album, The Shack Recordings, and I’ve been a fan of Tom’s stuff back through all the Blackie and the Rodeo Kings stuff, through a couple of solo albums, and back into the Junkhouse days, so when I heard the tour for the new album was coming to Halifax, I knew I was going to go check it out.
If I were giving out stars just for the performance, this would be a 5 of 5 situation. Tom was great, Bob added some fun, and Russell (from Junkhouse) brought some more to the show. The songs were good, Tom’s stage persona was perfect, the stories were excellent (especially the bit about the guys in Oasis thinking they were better than Dylan).
However, there were two things really working against my ability to enjoy the show.
One was the venue. The Seahorse is actually a decent place to drink and have some basic bar-style fun, but… well, let me put it this way–the sound guy was also tending bar, and he was a better bartender than a sound guy. (And he wasn’t that good of a bartender–his Guinness pour was for shit). I moved around the room and the quality of the sound varied wildly. Ironically it was muddiest and shittiest right near the sound board. Made me think of Rob Szabo‘s old line about keeping the sound guy happy since he had his hand on the SUCK knob. You know things are bad when the band is cracking jokes–from the stage–about the fact that they can’t get the monitor levels changed, but they could probably get a drink.
The other was the audience. This is a standing complaint of mine in Halifax–people just won’t shut the hell up. I don’t think it’s malicious, it’s just that Maritimers are so friendly that they need to talk to their friends and be a part of things, and sometimes that means drinking a lot of beers and yelling over the band at each other. I don’t expect concert hall silence in a bar show, but I also don’t expect the band to have to have the PA cranked up several times so that they can’t hear the audience talking…
So, good album, with a good stage show, but ruined by a poor sound tech and my inability to enjoy shows when the audience is too damn loud.
Car Mix July 2005
The fact that my car is awesomely set up for listening to my (apparently discontinued) portable MP3 player (on which I may post more later) means that 99% of the time when I am driving I am not making use of my car stereo as anything other than a way to route sound to my speakers. Since I mostly drive… Read more →
Too good to be in the miscellany
And one more link-y post, but one that is so awesome that it deserves its own post: Mr. T doesn’t like it when you bring people’s momma’s into the dozens. Because you should Treat Your Mother Right. (You are invited to avoid making any comments about the way I treat my mother. Thank you.) Read more →
