an earworm of XTC courtesy blip.fm

On my list of sites to set up and explore is blip.fm, but until I can do it myself, I'll just enjoy what phdaisy's already blipping (over and over):

listening over and over

For some reason, I'm really hooked on Death Cab for Cutie's song I Will Possess Your Heart from their latest album Narrow Stairs.

Thanks to last.fm, I've been able to listen to it via video stream all day long. Of the various ones published on the DC4C video tab, I like this one best:



I like the build of the album cut (takes over four and a half minutes to get to the lyrics), but I can also appreciate the radio edit that gets right into it:

How I wish you could see
the potential, the potential,
of you and me.

It's like a book elegantly bound
but in a language that you
can't read, just yet.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spe…nd some time with me,
and I know that you'll find love,
I will possess your heart.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me,
and I know that you'll find love,
I will possess your heart.

There are days when outside
your window, I see my reflection
as I slowly pass.

And I long for this mirrored
perspective when we'll be lovers,
lovers at last.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me,
and I know that you'll find love,
I will possess your heart.

enjoying a new Gnarls Barkley video

I like how GB has chosen to highlight specific words from the lyrics into the video. Even without the visuals, I think this'll make a nice tune to run to when I need to dig deep training for the triathlon.


Give the video a look-see here. It's called "Going On":



Can't see the video in this post? catch it here instead.

Set List: The Swell Season at Paramount Theather

Still basking in the glow of a great performance of The Swell Season, the touring name that Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (from the movie Once) are playing under as they tour. We caught them April 26, 2008, on their Bay Area stop at The Paramount Theater in downtown Oakland, a truly remarkable specimen of Art Deco glory... I'd see another show there in a heartbeat.

I'd surprised LeftCoastMom with tickets to the show a couple months ago, and boy was it worth the wait.

The show opened with some traditional Irish songs performed by guys that Glen used to busk with, Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Liam Ó Maonlaí (thanks, Andy, for catching the last names). I'm still amazed at what two guys with a drum, a piano and their talented voices can do to captivate an auditorium. They did a great job warming up the crowd for what was to come.

When it was time for the main act, Glen strolled on stage alone, unplugged his guitar from the amp and walked to the very front of the stage to play "Say It to Me Now" without any amplification whatsoever. The crowd was silent, the space was filled, and the show had gotten off to a rocking start. You can tell that Glen's spent quite a bit of time busking. His interplay with the audience was fantastic, and I can't remember the last time I laughed so much at the between-the-songs banter.

1. Say It to Me Now (Glen playing unplugged, completely)
2. Your Face (Markéta and Glen)
3. Lies (Frames join M&G on stage)
4. This Low
5. Your Love Makes Me Cheerful (new song by Glen)
6. When Your Mind's Made Up
7. Fancy Man (new song by Markéta)
8. Falling Slowly
*everyone leaves but Glen*
9. Leave
10. What Happens When The Heart Just Stops
11. Lay Me Down
*end solo*
12. Fogtown - Michelle Shocked cover (Glen playing with Markéta and Ronan)
13. Once
*encore*
14. If You Want Me
15. The Blue Shoes violin solo by Colm Mac Con Iomaire
16. True
17. Fitzcarraldo
18. Star Star
19. In to the Mystic - Van Morrison cover (Ronan and Liam joined in for this one, too)

What'll stick with me the longest is Glen's amazement with how long this popularity arc is soaring. His words: "I feel like I just tried to kick the ball across the garden, and it soared past the garden, over the wall, down the street, across the river and it's just kept going. Half of me wants the ball to keep going, and the other half wants my ball back." Heres hoping both halves get what they want.

BONUS: While searching for the name of the Fogtown song, I found this YouTube of a previous performance of Fogtown by G&M from Nov 2007, and it gives a good sense of just how much passion they put into each performance. You can find a whole batch of other related videos by clicking the video below.

Enjoying Portishead's Similar Artists

At long last, Portishead's issuing their third album (not counting the live one), appropriately named Third.

I was more than happy to find a stream of the full album over on last.fm and tweeted my joy:

"R U a Portishead fan like me? Stream their new album (due out 4/29) here: http://snurl.com/25sy8"

Moments later, they yanked the full stream and reduced what's available to just the usual 30 second previews of each track. ::sigh::

However, I've taken solace in listening to Portishead's Similar Artists (per last.fm), and it's really helped provide the fix I need. Enjoy some yourself (Massive Attack, Tricky, Morcheeba, Hooveryphonic, Sneaker Pimps, etc):

geeking out on the run: Nike+ iPod Sport Kit

I can't stress enough just how great I think the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit is in helping me to while away the miles I spend jogging.

Judging by the number of referrals from this blog over to my triathlon training blog, many of you are already following along as I prepare to run my first triathlon in April. So you're no stranger to the praise for this handy little tool that helps motivate you to run farther, faster and having more fun. For those of you who haven't visited the other blog, I think this gadget warrants a write-up here on hvy TK - Tech & Trends.

The Nike+ iPod Sport Kit works like this:

• install the transponder that fits inside your shoe (if you shell out for the special Nike shoes) or attached to your shoe via a pouch on your laces
  
• attach the receiver to your iPod Nano (it only works with the nano)
  
• follow the directions found on the new Nike+iPod menu on your iPod to track your run either by time or distance
  
• after the run, connect your iPod Nano to your iTunes and you'll be invited to automagically submit your stats to the NikePlus web site (say yes!)
  
• the NikePlus site now charts your runs (distance v pace), tracks your mileage and calories and time and pace, and allows you to set goals for yourself or challenge others to a virtual "race" where your stats are compared.
  

I've coupled my iPod Sport kit with the great steady-beat podcast mixes over at DJ Steveboy's Podrunner blog and have seen my running skills improve from barely-run-a-mile to finishing a 7.1 mile run with a smile.

Heck, if I can make this transformation with a little technology assist, anybody can do it. Give it a try!

i heart radiohead all over again - scotch mist video

Thanks to @tempo on the Twitter, I found this YouTube-hosted film of Radiohead shortly after 590,000 folks had viewed it. (I'm always in the second half-million, it seems)

The film was made for New Year's Eve 2007 and features the band in the studio and elsewhere playing every song on the new In Rainbows album with some pretty bizarre interstitials. Par for the course for Radiohead fans, I guess.



If the above embed doesn't work for you, see it on the YouTube - Radiohead - Scotch Mist page.

Oh, and true to my word in my post about downloading In Rainbows for free, I've purchased the physical CD of In Rainbows, and it's on its way from Amazon.

more good music from iceland

Listening to my iPod on shuffle yesterday, I happened to hit on Emiliana Torrini's song "Sunny Road" (from her album, Fisherman's Woman) and was reminded, again, just how much Icelandic music I enjoy.

I've been a longtime fan of the The Sugar Cubes and all-things Bjork. Then I stumbled on the so-eerie-it's-cool sounds of Sigur Ros. And now, a little poppier with Emiliana Torrini's music.

I wonder what it is about that small island nation that cranks out so many good musicians?

Wonder what she sounds like? take a listen to Emiliana via this YouTube video for "Sunny Road":

my new music drought is over

I downloaded my first free album just now, Radiohead's In Rainbows, and I'm listening to it as I type this post.

I've been a Radiohead fan since Pablo Honey dropped in 1993 and I've dutifully purchased every other album since, even defending my purchase of OK Computer to friends who thought the band had gone off the deep end.

So, getting In Rainbows, an entire album from one of my all-time favorite artists, for the price I chose to pay ($0.00) marks a seminal moment in my life. Yes, I could have paid the typical $9.99 for the album, as I've been conditioned to do so by my iTunes (and, now, Amazon) experience. Somehow, I didn't feel compelled to do so, as Radiohead's given me the chance to name my price, and my price at this time, in this format, is "free." When the physical CD is released later this year, I fully intend to purchase it then. But I won't pay for the music twice. Nor will I wait. Maybe I'm just hoping other bands follow suit and give folks a chance to sample the entire album, guilt-free, before spending money to buy the damn thing.

This is a big deal for me, as I've always eschewed the music stealing sites like Napster and Kazaa, and have only ever downloaded music I'd actually paid for or was authorized to download for free by the artist/distributer (at iTunes or direct from an artists' site). I appreciate the 30-second samples available at the music sites, but there's nothing compares to listening to an album straight through to know if you're dealing with a single solid tune, or an album of hidden gems that'll never make it to the charts, but you'll know by heart within the week.

Listening to music has always been a big part of my life, and I think a lot of this comes from having grown up in a small town (Los Alamos, NM. population: 15,000) where listening to the same album over and over and over provided some sense of escape from the day-to-day monotony that is the small-town way.

The radio was a gateway to another world, and I remember my first personal turntable: not the "good stereo" that was in the living room, but a turntable of my own to keep in my room to play whatever I wanted to play on it. I bought my 45s and LPs at the local record shop which meant my collection was limited to whatever was on the charts in the early 1980s.

My tastes, thankfully, swung from Heavy Metal (the official state genre in the 1980s) to New Wave/Punk around ninth grade thanks to a crush I had. When I discovered my crush's taste in music, my collection grew from Pink Floyd and the Scorpions and Def Leppard to include Depeche Mode and The Smiths and Black Flag as I got to know her better.

These were the years of the first Sony Walkman personal cassette players, and I'd go through cases of double-A batteries powering my trips through my own worlds of tones and lyrics and beats and moods created by artists who seemed to somehow know exactly what I was going through as a teen growing up in a small town. I was a member of Columbia House for years, spending my allowance on cassette tapes that each had the tell-tale double-pink stripe on the spine to indicate it was a Columbia House product. I still have most of the cassettes in a box downstairs in the garage, even though I don't even own a cassette player anymore (that's a topic to be explored in a future post, though).

And so I collected cassettes. Lots of them. And I created mix tapes with favorites songs, first by hooking two cassette decks together, then using the same dual-cassette deck once that technology became affordable. Yes, I was that kid in high school who constantly made and distributed mix tapes in quest of the perfect mix.

And when I started driving a car, I think enjoyed the ability to crank the stereo as much as I did to get from point A to point B while listening to the cranked stereo.

Then my parents got me a CD player as a high school graduation gift (my first CD was Suzane Vega's Solitude Standing) and a whole new realm opened up for me. Gone were the days of playing a song then waiting while rewinding to replay the song, always guessing where the beginning of the song actually was, and wearing out the tape in the process. Now, at the click of a button, you could fast forward, start over or shuffle!

And so the next decade of my life was spent acquiring CDs, both through the mail (BMG this time) as well as at the funky record stores around college in San Diego County and then at places like Amoeba Music and Rasputin Records up in the Bay Area.

I had CD players everywhere I could get them (portable CD walkmen, CD/cassette player in the car, CD players around the apartment) and was listening to music just about non-stop. Mix tapes were much easier to make, and the quality of sound was much better. And I could dub multiple copies to give to friends so they'd be inspired to go buy the same CDs I had. I never once thought my mix tapes were taking money away from the artists, because all I ever saw was my friends going out to buy the albums of the artists I'd exposed them to via my mixes.

Then the digital music scene hit, and, while I was an early adopter of computers an online life, I never got into the song-swapping scene. I was too busy ripping my own CDs onto my PC in a format that could be read by my first-generation iPod (remember Rhapsody in those days before Windows-based iTunes?). I'd collected over 800 CDs, so it took a lot of time to rip, and I wasn't about to just give away all this music I'd spent so much time and money accumulating as my own to someone who was just acquiring for the sake of acquiring.

So, I never got caught up in the Napster scene, and after a while, it became a point of pride that I'd never swapped music that way. Sure, I'd still trade (and rip) CDs with friends, but that was on a one-to-one, in-the-flesh basis. But I haven't ever participated in large-scale anonymous music-swapping. Call me old fashioned, by I think this large-scale swapping is theft. And while I think the RIAA is going about the problem (suing folks) the wrong way, I do think these swappers are getting what's due.

So yes, I think the RIAA and the labels have completely blown the opportunity to embrace mass digital distribution as a way to revolutionize the industry and change up their business model. And they'll continue to fail, which will leave room for innovation and experimentation by the artists themselves. Innovations like Radiohead's pay-what-you-like to download the album before the physical CD drops (hell, even before they line up a label to distribute the physical CDs). Wilco and others have shown the free-to-download-digital, pay-for-physical-item model works. Why wouldn't it work this time with extra revenues coming from those who choose to pay twice (for whatever reason motivates them)?

So, legally downloading In Rainbows for free feels good to me. It feels right.

And it's a kickass album to boot. I can't wait to by the CD.

Crowded House concert set list

My longtime favorite band Crowded House is in town on their Time On Earth tour, and I got a chance to catch them in a phenomenal show at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA, last night. The Mountain Winery is a small 2,500 seat venue that's up in the hills above Silicon Valley. Once the sun sets, the lights of San Jose and all the surrounding cities glimmer on the valley floor.

And as a bonus last night, the almost-full moon rose about a third of the way into Crowded House's set and was so impressive that Neil Finn stopped the show, told us to all stand up and turn around to see the moon rise across the valley floor.

You could really tell the band enjoyed playing together, as the banter was going full force, and the show felt more like watching good friends play songs for you in their living room than the larger affair it actually was.

I kept track, and the set list from the 2+ hour show:

• There Goes God
• World Where You Live
• Say That Again
• Don't Stop Now
• Fall At Your Feet
• Distant Sun
• Silent House
• You Are The Only One To Make Me Cry

(moon rises, we all look, and they do a partial cover of Van Morrison's Moondance)

• Nails in My Feet
• Don't Dream It's Over
• Pineapple Head
• People Are Like Suns
• When You Come
• Something So Strong

encore

• Locked Out
• She Called Up
• Weather With You

encore encore

• Fingers of Love
• She Goes On
• Four Seasons in One Day
• Better Be Home Soon sing along (this was an acoustic version, as the venue staff had pulled the plug on the sound due to curfew. Neil led us on an extended version as an "F you" to the man)

There's still quite a few dates left on their tour, so by all means buy a ticket and enjoy the show.

getting music while on my motorcycle

I'm getting ready to go on a six day motorcycle ride through Northern California, Oregon and maybe parts of Washington, to boot.

For my birthday a couple weeks back, Left Coast Mom and the kids gave me a great gift: Iasus Noise Terminator in-helmet speakers for my Shoei RF-1000 helmet. Since I'd chosen not to get the optional radio/CD unit for my BMW R1150RT, my long rides have been rather quiet affairs.

Now, I've been riding motorcycles for 19 years, and one of the things I've always pined for is the ability to take music with me on the road on the bike. No good road trip is complete without a soundtrack, right?

However, I've only ever tried using my daily ear buds inside my helmet(s), and it's quite the painful experiment since the ear buds are so thick and my helmet is so tight. I've even drawn blood from scratching my ears trying to get the frickin' helmet off once I realize there's no way I can stand the pressure of the ear buds pressing against my drums. Now that I'm using Shure e4c ear buds with my iPod, I know there's no way I can get the helmet over those without really tearing my ears up, literally. So I don't try. I ride in silence instead.

Enter: these IASUS 3D Bass Helmet Speakers. They're less than 1/2 inch thick, and they mount directly to the helmet. To boot it's as if they're made specifically for my RF-1000 helmet, as right behind where my ears sit inside the helmet, there's a patch of vinyl that the IASUS speakers fix onto perfectly. They have a ring of velcro that glues into this spot, so I can take the speakers out when I'm doing short (music-free) rides, or don't want to be bothered with the wires hanging out.

The speakers come with a cord extender that has its own volume adjuster, so even with my thick motorcycle gloves on, I can turn the volume up and down while the iPod stays snug inside my jacket's inside pocket, safe from the elements.

Installation took all of 2 minutes to peel off the tape covering the velcro glue backing and press it into the helment. When I test-drove the speakers wearing just the helmet out the back deck, the sound inside the helmet was nice, but I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to hear the music once I got out into traffic. On top of that, I wear foam ear plugs whenever I ride, so wouldn't that block out even more of the sound?

I just had to give it a whirl, so I suited up, put in my ear plugs, donned the helmet, fired up the iPod and took off.

Much to my delight, the IASUS speakers are the perfect pitch for helmeted riding. The foam ear plugs block out enough of the ambient sound that the music comes streaming through clearly at neighborhood speeds (up to 35 mph) even with my helmet visor open.

The real test came when I accelerated to get onto I-280 near our house, and the IASUS speakers passed the freeway riding test with flying colors. Even when I was doing 80 mph (I mean 65 mph!) with a decent cross-wind, I could hear the music clearly over the motor, the street noise and the breeze. Not in a WHAT-I-CAN'T-HEAR-YOU!!?!? way, but in a nice, mellow, this will be entertaining background noise on that first 12-hour day in the saddle kind of way. I've got over 40 Gb of music to run through on the ride to and from Oregon, so I'm not worried about running out of tunes.

The real test for the IASUS will be if I can listen to podcasts in my helmet without missing any content. If I can, then I'll be able to catch up on my outstanding books-on-tape on the way to ride the twisties of the Pacific Northwest.

Next post: my experience installing throttlemeisters on my motorcycle (think: cruise control for motorcycles).

Only 10 days till the road trip!

ok computer is ten years old!?!

Spooky to learn that Radiohead's OK Computer was released ten years ago tomorrow in the UK. (thanks, kottke)

That is, spooky in a "where did the time go?" sense. I still get the shivers when I hear the opening guitar wail on Airbag, as I know I'm in for a solid hour of brilliance courtesy the boys in the band.

It took me quite a few listens to appreciate the artistry of the track "Fitter Happier" but now I find it a welcome reminder of my time using the funky text-to-speech feature on Apple computers that provided hours of entertainment listening to the man-in-the-box read aloud a string of profanities. Ah, good times.

In honor of its release anniversary (and again on July 1 when it was released State-side), I'll be sure to spend some hammock time listening to the whole thing via iPod tomorrow. Won't you join me from the comfy place of your choosing?