Category Archives: Music - Page 3

New web toy

Posted by on October 14, 2006 2 comments

I’m playing with a new music social network web toy right now called Qloud. It’s very similar to Last.fm which I have been playing with for a couple of years now, but in some ways the service might have a better outlook.

So far the service is pretty rough. Searching from the main page can be painful. The interface is… difficult. The iTunes plug-in needs some very serious work (Advice: Whatever you do, try not to accidentally put a ‘\’ in any of your tags. I can’t use the plug-in at work anymore because I’ve got a tag with that in it and it crashes iTunes withing seconds of launching and there does not appear to be any way to remove tags outside the plug-in.). The track information database they have is problematic with some tracks having entirely wrong attributions, many albums not existing at all, no way to input new information, and horrible handling of non-english character sets.

But it’s interesting and different, and has some potential.

If you do decide to take a spin with it, sign up using this link and I get points for the referral.

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Lively recording

Posted by on September 8, 2006 Comments Off

One of my most favorite local artists is Nachito Herrera. His consummate skill and amazing talent just blow me away whenever I get to hear his work.

Case in point: I’m listening to “West Side Latin Jazz” from Live at the Dakota Vol. 2. The level of energy that so fully saturates every single note of the song is striking, but is almost nothing compared to the layers of texture that make this song almost the anti-thesis of saccharine. One of the elements of latin jazz that has always drawn me is the use of multiple percussion instruments. So hearing Shai Hayo on timbales (?) and Gordy Knudtson on the more usual drum set throwing around their increasingly more frenetic variations of the main theme in the alternating percussion solos near the end of the track is just pure heaven.

Besides, how can you not like a form of music that takes the cowbell seriously.

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Is it Mr?

Posted by on August 31, 2006 Comments Off

[Listening to: Magoo by Drums and Tuba from the album Mostly Ape]

I don’t think I’ve posted recently about how much I like the band Drums and Tuba. I’m reminded of it since the track Magoo from the album Mostly Ape came up in my usual shuffle mode listening. Finding myself typing in time to the music while writing some code is kind of an odd experience. It is exactly the sort of song that grabs hold of your lizard brain and begins to reprogram you to move and breathe in it’s own time until the first horn solo comes through and sets you free to figure out what the hell is going on before the capturing riffs come back just like a fairytale piper to lead you back out of your own head.

While quite a bit of D&T’s music can be quite impenetrable to those who don’t like to be challenged in their music listening, this track in particular shows off exactly how well composed, challenging, and yet so incredibly listenable their music can be.

Experimental? Hell yes. But approachable. Appreciable.

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Don’t download this song

Posted by on August 26, 2006 Comments Off

Weird Al gets political.

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Music in my ears

Posted by on June 27, 2006 Comments Off

For some bizarre reason my installed version of WP Audioscrobbler stopped working some time in the last few days and after poking at it for a bit and doing some more looking, I ran across something better: Scrobbler

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A night in the city

Posted by on June 24, 2006 2 comments

I finally got to see some of the Hot Summer Jazz Festival last night. I arrived at Peavey Plaza just after Frank Morgan and David Young took the stage. What a totally excellent start to the evening for me. He and David, along with the rest of the combo played a great set while I wandered around looking for a place to sit. I even finally managed to find one by his second to last number and was able to finish my cheese curds in relative comfort, for sitting on a slab of cement 20 feet away from any smokers. :-)

I did wander down between sets and got a good seat in an actual chair for Barbara Morrison and was totally blown away by her. Jon Weber stayed up from Frank Morgan’s set to play the piano, Gordon Johnson took over the bass and except for the light rain during her encore (“They call me Sundown”) she showed us all why she’s been a respected singer for as long as she has.

I then went over to the Millenium where I caught the last few songs from the Twin Cities Hot Club set, and managed to get their CD after remembering to finally stop for cash on the way over. Then caught the first half of the next set with Dennis Spears and company. At that point I hadn’t been able to find a seat in the Millenium and after a full day of work decided it was best to head for the train and call it a night.

There is still two days left though, and I plan to be there for a good chunk of it. I have some other plans for this evening but this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon have some great acts featured and I can’t wait to hear them. Anyway, off to catch the train and buy an new umbrella at Target.

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Summer groove

Posted by on June 15, 2006 Comments Off

The Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival starts with a bang this weekend in St Paul at Mears Park. I’ll be in the northern woods of Wisconsin, but you can bet that I won’t be missing out on next weekend’s performances in downtown Minneapolis, and possible some of the other events during the week.

This really is the best event for people local to the Twin Cities to get exposed to incredibly good jazz. Jazz, like the modern pop music “Rock” that has replaced it turned into a huge and essentially unwieldly polyglot of different musical styles over the almost century since it first started appearing. I know that some people think of the more esoteric noise experiments and long seemingly unfocused and wandering riffs and are quite turned off by that. While there is certainly that, with both excellent and horrendous, examples I think people will be pleasently surprised to hear lots of music that is melodic and accessible within that huge range of styles over the next week or so.

Give it a try, you’ll be glad you did.

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Thomas Dolby Update!

Posted by on April 28, 2006 Comments Off

He’s coming to the twin cities!

Earlier this week a friend mentioned that he had added a date in St Paul for May 21st. Earlier in the week I still couldn’t buy tickets so I’m hoping I can fix that this weekend.

The show is going to be at Station 4 in lowertown.

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Thomas Dolby back on tour!

Posted by on April 14, 2006 Comments Off

One of my most favorite musical artists, Thomas Dolby, is back on tour for the first time in 15 years, and I think I won’t get to see one of his shows. The closest that he’s getting is Chicago and Milwaukee, but I can’t seem to find tickets for the show on May 19th and I think that might be my only chance!

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Yahoo Music Price Increase?

Posted by on October 23, 2005 Comments Off

Paul Thurrott blogged about a news article that Yahoo is increasing the price of their Music services. I found it really interesting because that was the first I’ve heard of it and I’m a subscriber! I’m looking into it, and I’ll probably post more info as I find it.

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