Dear anybody who may have told me about Sigur Rós: You did not tell me hard enough.
Category: Music
Brendan’s pet issues: Not just for Usians anymore
“As I’ve said to friends, we can’t expect to tell our fans ‘see you in court’ and then ‘see you at Massey Hall next fall’–we have to choose one, and I choose the latter. This current litigious atmosphere is simply a product of the record business trying to prop up a dying, obsolete business model.”
It’s so great to know that BNL gets it.
Straight out the 402
I was disappointed to notice My Morning Jacket, Louisville band turned critical darling and national success, on the list of Sony CDs carrying MediaMax DRM software, which has recently shown to cause vulnerabilities as badly as the infamous XCP rootkit. I knew the band probably had little input in whether their CD would be DRMed, but it was still bad news. Then the EFF blog brought to my attention that MMJ is offering their own recall–a more ethical, more friendly and more business-sensible path to their audience than the one their own label has taken. I am positively flush with Louisville pride.
Uh, did I promise to buy somebody a copy of the freely-downloadable Harvey Danger album? I think I did and now I can’t remember to whom.
I’m not very good at this fighting the man thing.
Uncle Brendan Reviews Things You Won’t Buy
Two months ago I promised to talk about my Koss pocket equalizer, and I never did.
In short: it’s good! It doesn’t quite provide as much bass as the full bass boost function on my CD player, but then there’s not as much bass in an mp3 as there is on a CD. With the treble and midrange set at like 80% and the bass at 200%, though, I find the audio quality significantly improved. It works fine with rechargeable batteries; since my Shuffle is already rechargeable, that means a significant savings over my CD player (which ate only alkaline). I profess myself satisfied.
The thing is actually bigger than the Shuffle, as expected, but they still fit in my breast pocket together. There’s a little hiss, but it’s only detectable in quiet places. More significant is the fact that unlike my headphones and mp3 player, the equalizer is unshielded, and evidently contains metal elements long enough to pick up some kind of radio. This usually isn’t a problem, except a) near power lines, b) near big flat buildings that bounce lots of radio at you, and c) when my cell phone goes off. It really sucks when my cell phone goes off. It does the DAT-DT-DT-DAT bursts of white noise, like a hideous ringtone just for me! At least I don’t miss calls anymore.
Someday I’ll get a real mp3 player with an integrated equalizer, but until then the Koss equalizer is worth its annoyances. One thumb up.
When I put on Facebook that my music preference was “whatever you liked two years ago,” I wasn’t kidding. I finally bothered to count this morning and noticed that “Hey Ya” is in 22/24 time. And I’m getting really into the original Extraordinary Machine, the unreleased Fiona Apple album that leaked onto the interweb and got everybody all hot and bothered in 2003. Now the album has been retooled and actually released, and I’m just starting to listen to the stuff I ripped off Maria’s pirated CD that she got from Graham.
Expect a lot of stories that sound like Fiona Apple in a week or so, when I cycle through my current buffer. The buffer is why yesterday’s and next Wednesday’s stories are about outer space, because last week I was getting really into Firefly (on which I was a little behind–it came out in 2002).
In other stuff about music, I can’t stand Harvey Danger, so I’m upset that I have to buy their album. Values versus taste! Does anybody want a Harvey Danger album for a Christmas present?
This post is actually about gloating over seeing Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams seemed happily surprised by the enthusiasm of the crowd last night. “Y’all are so great,” she said. “What is this, is… is Louisville just a well-kept secret or something?” (Roars of assent, even though she pronounced it “Looeyville.”) “Y’know, Austin used to be like this… back when I moved there in ’74. Before the Wal-Marts and the Starbucks moved in…”
I wonder if she saw any of the billboards and bumper stickers for Keep Louisville Weird, which is (by their admission) a direct rip of Keep Austin Weird.
The correct pronunciation of “Louisville,” incidentally, has been codified in Elizabethtown, and is audible in the theatrical trailer, I think (can’t check at work, sans sound card). Elizabethtown filmed for a few days and held its premiere afterparty at the Brown Hotel, adjoining the Brown Theatre where we saw Lucinda Williams last night.
Lucinda Williams is a good show! She is also the most awkward-looking human on earth.
I am waiting for familiar resolve
Got the first search referral for “thinspiration” today. That story is currently the #113 Google result for it. Think I’ll get any mail?
I’m not sure whether it counts as irony that I only realized this morning that “Me and Mia,” one of my favorite songs ever, is about, um, ana and mia. Ted Leo should enunciate better, and I should listen harder. It’s a vicious song.
Am I the only one who keeps conflating Killers lyrics with Strong Bad lyrics? Like
Cause heaven ain’t close in a place like this
I said heaven ain’t close in a place like this
Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight
Never thought I’d let a rumour ruin my moonlight
Well somebody told me
That you were so stupid
But I didn’t believe them
But now I believe them
or
Coming out of my cage
And I’m doing just fine
Gotta gotta be down
Because IT’S MID-NITE!
(The answer is: yes, I am definitely the only one.)