11/9/09

Melissa

Everyone has one (or several) of those artists... Someone who you continue to follow even though you'd never recommend their new album to a friend. But for some reason you still keep tabs on 4cb88b4f-f06d-4f8d-8c9b-3019110f37b9.jpgthem, whether it's be because you were listening to them during a transitional time in your life, or you're just a completionist and try to have everything from a particular artist. Or maybe I'm just telling my own story and you can't relate at all. Whatever. I'm still glad to see that Melissa Etheridge is going to be giving up on writing popular material. She's been such a SNOOZEFEST this past decade. Her early stuff was great, and I think that's what kept me following her all these years (and other reasons stated above). :-)

Melissa Etheridge Returns to “Slamming” Rock on March LP “Fearless Love”

Melissa Etheridge had a simple message when she met with producer John Shanks to discuss her next album. “I told him that I wanted to make a record that’s a hundred miles an hour all the time — unabashedly drawing from my all of my influences,” she says. “What we’ve done rocks harder than I’ve rocked in years. There’s a couple of ballads on it, but the majority of it is just really slamming.” The disc — Fearless Love — is due in March, with the debut single (also called “Fearless Love”) coming out in January.

Shanks, who has worked with everybody from Ashlee Simpson to Bon Jovi, began his career as Etheridge’s guitar player more than 20 years ago. “He likes to say I discovered him at [L.A. punk club] Madam Wong’s,” says Etheridge. “That’s where I first heard him play.” On Fearless Love, Etheridge says she is no longer trying to write pop hits for the radio. “I can’t play that game anymore,” she says. “You can’t win because if you sound like you are trying to write a pop song nobody likes you.”

[From Melissa Etheridge Returns to “Slamming” Rock on March LP “Fearless Love” : Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily]

11/6/09

Lala's Potential

Having a huge iTunes library is great... what's not great is having to select what I take with me on my iPhone. There are definitely ways to stream my iTunes library to my iPhone, but that typically requires that I have my home computer connected to the internet (not always possible when it's a laptop).

I've also had a friend tell me about Lala lately, which sounds decent, but nothing has really sparked interest with me until I read the article below about Lala streaming your library to your iPhone via their new iPhone app. If Lala can pull this off and do it well, this will be a very tempting service. I'm still not a fan of "renting" music, which is essentially what you do when you "buy" a 10¢ web-only track from Lala, but that may change. And of course they're also more appealing (and probably more stable) because of the additional exposure because of Google.

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Streaming From Lala Land

Hey, kids! Wanna stream your iTunes library to your iPhone? Lala’s got your app. Music service Lala showed off its yet-to-be-approved iPhone app, giving users the ability to listen to songs almost instantly and not have to wait for time-consuming downloads.

The idea is simple. Assuming you already own the tracks in your iTunes library, Lala places copies in your digital locker for streaming to your iPhone. Each track you stream comes with a one-time-only charge of 10 cents, after which, you can stream the tunes ‘til the cows come home.

“There’s no downloading, no links to click on, it’s just there,” said Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen, who called the app “the end of the MP3.”

Like Rhapsody’s iPhone app, users are streaming the music from “the clouds.” Unlike Rhapsody, the Lala app identifies the tracks a user listens to most and then stores those songs on the person’s iPhone to allow listening when data connections are weak or nonexistent.

The Associated Press reports it takes about two seconds for songs streaming from Lala to play on iPhones, considerably less time than the two minutes or more it takes for music downloads to land on mobile devices.

There is a catch. Lala is streaming as little as 32 kilobits per second – not quite the same quality as the 256 kbps tunes sold on iTunes and found on most music files already stored on mobile devices. But Nguyen says streaming bitrates will improve as cell phone data networks become stronger.

[From Streaming From Lala Land | Pollstar - The Concert Hotwire ]

...and while writing this article I noticed Lala's embed options, offering to embed the entire track (very important). I went back and re-posted the previous Drummer tracks from this service. I typically use Grooveshark, which has been good to me, but they didn't have Drummer and Lala did. Looks like they get another point.

Drummer (10/24/09)

Drummer has won my heart and ears lately... Sort of a NE Ohio super group, but with a sound and setup all their own.

The Royal Bangs opened the show, which made me really glad I was there early. They were probably the best opening band I've seen in a LONG, LONG time. You should check them out. Then Cleveland's own Other Girls performed next. But as the lead singer from Drummer said earlier to some friends, the Royal Bangs one of *the* hardest bands to follow. Regardless, Other Girls were good.

Drummer took the stage and had an amazing performance... Casual and loose, but friendly and still rockin'. I've really been struggling with how to describe them lately, and that's not really changing here and now. I'm just going to provide some sights and songs for you to experience for yourself. Here are my 3 current favorite tracks.



Drummer (10/24/09)

Drummer (10/24/09)

11/5/09

Kent State Folk Festival Begins Tonight!

I'll be going two nights in a row, and specifically taking a day off to stay in Kent to recuperate and prep for the second night. Aww yeah. Here's what I'm attending.

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11/4/09

Two Weeks

If you haven't seen this fan-made video for Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" you should... If you have, watch it again.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

You can see the original one I posted here

A Graphic Look At The Rise Of Digital Music - hypebot

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[From A Graphic Look At The Rise Of Digital Music - hypebot]


11/1/09

Article: Heavy illegal downloaders buy more music

I would completely agree with this study...

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Heavy illegal downloaders buy more music

A new British independent poll conducted by Ipsos Mori concluded that the people who do the most illegal downloading also buy the most music. This is in line with many other studies elsewhere and is easy to understand: people who are music superfans do more of everything to do with music: they see more live shows, listen to more radio, buy more CDs, buy more botlegs of live shows, buy more t-shirts, talk about music more, do more downloading -- all of it.

And of course, these are the people the music industry's supergeniuses have set their sights upon for bizarre enforcement regimes like the one that British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson has promised: anyone who lives in a house that generates three or more copyright infringement notices will be barred from Internet access.

[From Heavy illegal downloaders buy more music - Boing Boing]

10/31/09

Happy Halloween w/ Seawolf: Wicked Blood


Sea Wolf "Wicked Blood"
by alantanner

Lilith Fair

In case you didn't notice, the new Lilith Fair website is up and the initial cities have been announced (Chicago is the closest). I wish I could be more excited about this, as I was for the first iteration, but it's not looking good. The logo alone is unappealing.

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I hope I'm wrong on this.

10/29/09

Google's New Music Search Feature

Pretty interesting...

Google Supersizes Music Search

Google brings together My Space, lala, imeem, Rhapsody, Gracenote for robust music search. More partners t.b.a.

(NEWS & VIDEO) Last night Google announced partnerships that will simplify and improve how people find music. As only the tech giant could do, MySpace, lala, imeem, Rhapsody, Pandora, Gracenote and all four major label groups have come together to provide Google content for a new music search engine.

Users who type on an artist's name, album title or a snippet of a lyric will see results that include a single song play button from either lala or MySpace's iLike. A buy option and links to more content are also included, as are links to artist content on imeem, Rhapsody and Pandora. Gracenote is powering the lyric search function.

[From Google Supersizes Music Search - hypebot]

10/28/09

Langhorne Slim (10/21/09)

Langhorne Slim had been on my radar for some time, mostly because of my friend Robin's emphatic recommendation of him. I wasn't able to make it last time he was in town, but checked out his music and liked it. Since then he's released his new Be Set Free album, of which there are some gems on it.

Earlier that evening I skipped my Yoga class and met up with some friends for Happy Hour (a good choice sometimes). After some a couple delicious Bourbon Barrel-Aged Blackout Stouts, I headed to the Grog Shop around 9:30, but in true Grog form, the first act hadn't even started yet. Mike St. Jude & the Valentines opened. A local band who really played with some passion. Not bad. Dawes was up next. A band out of California, they were a little more polished. Again, good stuff, but nothing too moving.

Langhorne Slim took the stage around 11:30ish. By this time, the crowd had grown and shrunk a little. (I mean, this *was* a Wednesday night.) But I stuck it out based on my friend's strong recommendation. Langhorne took the stage with his band a mountain of energy. It was needed. The band was great, Langhorne was definitely energetic and I can see why people love him so. I wasn't as familiar with his songs as I would have liked, but from what I heard before, then hearing them at the show and since, Langhorne Slim has definitely settled in as a strong favorite and someone I would definitely see again. Next time on a weekend. ;-)

You may also note that I played his song Land of Dreams on Shindignation! It's worthy of a reappearance:



Langhorne Slim (10/21/09)

Marina & the Diamonds Videos

You may have heard Marina & the Diamonds' "I am not a Robot" on my appearance on Shindignation! (just below)... Well, I got an update on the new video, and then a friend reminded me of how cool the previous video was. Thought I'd share both...

10/26/09

Friday's Shindignation Show!

If you weren't able to check out my guest appearance on Shindignation! this past Friday, you can listen below.

Thanks again to Rebecca for letting me be on her show, and for basically letting me play all the music! What a great time...

Enjoy.


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Brownout (10/19/09)

Since starting this blog, I've started to get a LOT more promotional emails. It's great, getting all kinds of updates that I wouldn't have received otherwise. Some of the more savvy promoters are including download links to the entire album. It's these promotions that stand out and make me take notice. In this case, the band was Brownout - which is a band that's a little outside my typical genre(s), but they sounded great! The other part of the promotion was their upcoming show at Nighttown. I checked about scoring some free tix and they obliged.

First off, I really have to give props to Nighttown. What a COOL place. I've been there before, but kinda forget how swanky that place is... To be able to sit down for a great meal and listen to someone like Brownout is just awesome. Show started at 7:00 and was done by 8:30. Perfect for the responsible, music-loving adult. True, the meal may be a little pricier than you're hoping for, but I was able to score a $5 burger at the bar (which was delicious).

Brownout definitely filled the stage, with drummer, djembe, multiple guitars, bass, and a horn section. They're from Austin, TX and have a Latino flavor to them, but they definitely bring in a larger world music vision into their show. Even cooler than that, is the rock and funk elements thrown it. It basically boils down to one hell of a groove. You really should check these guys out if you get a chance.

Brownout (10/19/09)

Check out their video for Slinky:

10/25/09

Tom Evanchuck Videos / Beachland Tavern

Not sure how I missed seeing Tom Evanchuck at the Tavern, but glad there are some videos...

Two more...