Bane Macleod

Music for July/August

[keywords: music thom-yorke ok-go pharrell]

When I was thinking of various things to blog about last night I thought that I really need to share the constants in my life with people... Well, the constants other than work.

Probably the only thing that has been a solid interest throughout my whole life has been music. I work to music, I relax to music, hell, on the off occasion when I make love it's usually accompanied by music. I am possibly the only person to threaten to quit his job if he wasn't allowed to wear his iPod. The interest is there, so why not talk about music?

My tastes, though not complex, are somewhat eclectic. From folk to pop, rap to metal, and everything in between, there is really very little I won't give a listen to. It seems like every few weeks I have a new favorite artist in my ear, so I thought every now and again I would share some music I am paying special attention to at the moment.

A word of caution. Listening to so many genres can have a downside. Sometimes I don't get to music until long after others are done with it. A fine example is me getting into Tool about 100 years after their last album was out (but conveniently a few short months before the release of their newest).

The month of July has found me listening to a few albums that I found quite good.

After being exposed to Ok Go's "Get Over It" on my copy of Madden 2003 they were promptly forgotten about until I was browsing around on YouTube and came across the unbelievably cool Treadmill video for Here It Goes Again and popped them on the iPod. Tracks like "A Million Ways" and "You're So Damn Hot" got lots of plays quickly.

Pharrell is on the other side of the spectrum as far as artists I'm familiar with. His work as a producer, writer, and part of the now defunct N*E*R*D have all made their way into my collection. His latest offering was pretty much going to make its way in regardless. Production on the album is obviously fantastic, and his singing actually is a lot of fun. His rapping is little more than average, but being a Kanye West fan as well, that's sort of par for the course. The Gwen Stefani collaboration "Can I Have It Like That?" is probably my favorite track on the album.

Thom Yorke was another destined for the iPod. Being a big Radiohead fan left me waiting for this album... and I'd have to say I wasn't disappointed at all. It's one of the few albums I've had that doesn't have a disparity in plays between tracks. I'm perfectly content to sit through it. If I absolutely had to pick favorites "Black Swan" and "The Eraser" would be the tracks I'd pick. Though the music on "Harrowdown Hill" is likely to become my ringtone soon.

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Another iPod

[keywords: music ipod purchases]

So I bit the bullet this weekend and picked up another iPod.

My third gen iPod has had issues with battery life since I bought it and I missed the window to repair it for free. I had been using my now ex-roomate's iPod nano at work to listen to music, but when she moved back in with her mom it left me with an empty spot on my utility belt. I knew I wasn't going to last long without it, so I went out to pick up a nano of my own.

All did not go according to plan when I saw the 30Gig iPod fifth gen at Wal-Mart. It has the sexy sexy video option and I got the pimp Wal-Mart discount on it (essentially I didn't pay taxes). I have to say I'm very enthused with the product as a whole, although it does have two small issues.

The first issue is that sometimes when watching video if I allow the video to end naturally (ie just go to the next video) the iPod locks up and has to be reset. This, obviously, sucks and needs to be fixed.

The second is that accessories for the f!%@# thing are expensive. The case I picked up for it at work weighed in at an even $30 by itself. But it's purdy nifty on its own. It flips out from the belt hook so I dont have to pull it off or get all flexible to change playlists.

All in all a good purchase, and one I'm happy I made.

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Miri Ben-Ari

[keywords: music miriben-ari hip-hop violinist]

So I get an email from Amazon today, which is a pretty regular occurance, I mean, I'm loved. The Amazon, it can't keep it's dirty little communications to itself.

Today was special though, before I killed the email without looking at it I noticed the words "The Hip-Hop Violinist" and was all like.. padowski!!

I've been waiting on this a while and have the mixtape preview of it, which is pretty damn decent. I'll put up a review of it once I get my greedy little fingers on it.

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Top 10 Albums of 2005

[keywords: music 2005 top10]

2005 was a pretty good year for music, some great stuff came out, and I spent an ungodly amount of time sorting it all on the hard drive that is about to fail because of the weight of it all.

As I look around the blogs I read frequently at the year end lists I tried to think of anything I cared enough to write about and quite honestly, music was the first thought.

So I present to you *my* top 10 albums of the year. Although some of these you will likely have issue with in some way or another they are albums I enjoyed immensely.

OK, so maybe one of those doesn't belong, and it's never too late to find new music to love, so give me a suggestion to replace that last one. Really.. I need it.

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Halloween Party?

[keywords: music bmh halloween party social]

Though I did make it out to the halloween party/gig at Smuggler's Cove, I'm afraid the promised pictures were not taken due to the fact that I was carting my sister around by the back of her jacket, her being too drunk to actually walk on her own without falling down. Oh teh funs!

There were a couple cool outfits to be seen, one girl dressed in a bad kitty outfit was.. well.. something to look at. ;) Darbie looked quite nifty as well in an outfit that just sort of screamed "slut with wings" not sure what she was going for... naughty fairy? :p Shame about the pics though, I actually ended up leaving early as well. Babysitting drunks just isn't all it's cracked up to be.

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Giant Steps

[keywords: music flash animation]

While reading through Jenny J's blog I came across a post linking to Michal Levy's Giant Steps flash and was blown away by it. Fantastic piece of work really. I've watched it a couple times now. :)

via: DIFL

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Black Market Halos Show

[keywords: personal music]

I went tonight to see Scott's band, Black Market Halos, play at Smuggler's Cove. As usual they were good, even playing without monitors. It's always fun to watch Shannon (lead singer) hype up a crowd after so many bands have been on before them.

I was kind of amazed since there were like 6 bands playing today at how many BMH t-shirts there were. And what a lack of other band shirts were about. I felt almost cool with my BMH pass and stuff. It did remind me I need to work on their site. I really need to get out more it was a lot of fun.

In other news I'm posting this with ecto. We'll see how it works.

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Language. Sex. Violence. Other?

[keywords: music]

:ellie: made me listen to the new Stereophonics album that's coming out.. soonish.. and I have to say it's not too bad. Certainly better than the last one. I don't know that it would land on my top records of all time or anything but it's definately worth a listen... If you don't suck. You can get the new album here.

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I got beef with this...

[keywords: rant music]

Apparently rapper 50 Cent has kicked fellow rapper/hard core gangstah pants The Game out of G-Unit for not backing him up in one of his 8,948,234 beefs currently going on. 50 Cent was on Hot 97 last night bitching up a storm about The Game and apparently immediately after the show hilarity ensued with a shooting just outside the station, and then another 2 hours later with someone firing at the Violator management offices.

In other other related news 50 Cent's latest album 'The Massacre' dropped today and is in stores now. I'm sure that this kind of news can't be good for sales...

The man is a genius.

The music industry, especially when related to Hip-Hop music, is looking more and more like the WWF/WWE/whatever the hell wrastlin is called these days. Everyone has beef with everyone, diss records are the hottest mixtapes on the streets, and the backroom cams get most of the action. Hell there are even flow charts so you have a good idea of who has beef with who. The best part of all this is it sells like a mother... I guarantee that 50's album sells like hotcakes, The Games album gets another surge, and whatever mixtape DJ's get their hands on the tracks these two start shooting off are gonna get bootlegged faster than a Jacky Chan movie.

This may sound like I'm against it, but to be honest I really can't say I am. In fact, I'd like to see it in other genres as well. System of a Down making a diss track making fun of KoRn members leaving the group to go all church. Kenny G. saying in an interview that Tim McGraw likes to fondle little boys... Fionna Apple's posse could be waiting outside Kelly Clarkson's crib to jump her. Hell, if Nina Simone can redo 'Straight outta Compton' I don't why she can't throw up some gang signs and do a drive by... Imagine the sales!

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M.I.A. Album

[keywords: music]

After reports a couple weeks back that M.I.A.'s rawking debut album 'Arular' which was supposed to come out in late February was going to be delayed due to some problems with securing samples (I'm told the one used in URAQT, which is a pretty nice track) on a few tracks, there were some interesting developments yesterday.

Apparently the Sri-Lankan sensation has signed with Interscope Records and her album will be hitting our shores on March 22nd. It will be coming here without URAQT, which will come on the XL label release in the UK some time in late April. Those people not able to wait can pick up the rather fantastic M.I.A./Diplo mixtape 'Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1' which is worth it's weight on it's own.

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