Categories
music random thoughts tech

Radiohead – In Rainbows

Just a short note to all you Radiohead fanatics… don’t forget, In Rainbows is released in a few hours.

Forget? Who are we kidding?

I mean… YOU didn’t forget, right?

Categories
music tech

Radiohead and Farryl Purkiss

Unfortunately this will have to be a quickie today (no matter how mature you get, that line always gives a twinge of a chuckle), but time waits for no man!

So, quickly:

The news has spread that Radiohead have placed a price on their new album, “In Rainbows”. The price? Whatever you want to pay for it. That’s right, you choose the price you wish to pay for the album – including free – which will be available for download from the website from the 10th of October.
All we can say is: We hope this won’t be abused. It’s a fantastic step, and one we hope many bands follow.
Also, they’re doing this all without the support of a music label, ala Dispatch.
Crumble stagnant music industry, crumble I say!

Secondly, we recently dug out our copy of Farryl Purkiss’ self-titled CD… we highly suggest you give him a spin on his myspace page. Do it.

Categories
music

Bruce Springsteen – Radio Nowhere

Teaming up with his old posse, the E-Street Band, Bruce Springsteen has released his new single, “Radio Nowhere”, from his latest album, “Magic”.

It’s about bloody time.

Bruce may be on this side of 60 these days, but he’s still standing. And rocking. Emphatically.

The guitar intro and “pounding drums” may sound extremely generic these days and lost in a sea of alt-rock riffs, but as the Boss says… he “Just wants to hear some rhythm”. And it’s great to hear Bruce being pissed off again.

It really, really is.

Anyway, you can check out the new single on his myspace page.

Categories
music tech

Finetune.com – My new Friend

Ok, so this might not be news to some of you, but to others, it certainly will be.

 

Online social music sites have definitely blossomed over the last few years, but I always keep my eye out for another to add to the arsenal. Some of my favourites in the past were Pandora.com (the true OG of 2.0 music sites) and Last.fm.

However, what with Pandora having closed its doors to non-US IP addresses (and it just being too much of a bitch to always listen through a proxy), and Last.fm’s suggestions seeming to deteriorate lately, I’ve now moved on to one of my new best friends online… Finetune.com.

Although Finetune’s been around for a while, it’s only recently that I became aware of its existence; all I can say is that it has seriously impressed me within that short time.

The layout and design is simply stunning, and it not only supports the standard “artist radio” of other social music sites, but also allows the user to create custom playlists of specific songs.

Unfortunately damn WordPress won’t let me embed the player here.

However, I would suggest you take a look at a sample playlist… one of mine is at http://www.finetune.com/playlist/1778859

That’s a snippet of what it looks like. Curse WordPress and its inability to embed this flash player and instead compress the image to make it look crappy!

Sigh…

Anyway, go check it out.

Categories
music

Damien Rice – 9 Crimes

I dare you to find a more raw, honest song that has been released in the last few years.

Although I’ve been listening to the song for a while now, I was only recently exposed to this music video.

Fittingly, considering the song, the video itself leaves me breathless. “That which is lost, that can never be regained”, and all that jazz.
Sigh.
It’s haunting.

Categories
artists to watch for in 2008 music music videos rock gods

The Damnwells – Golden Days

I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a “band documentary” since Last Dispatch, featuring only my favourite band of all time, Dispatch.

This time it’s “Golden Days” that has me in a lather, featuring The Damnwells. And if you haven’t heard their music(there’s some on their myspace), get going man!

Their Golden Days Ep, along with other releases, is available on Amazon.

Categories
random thoughts religion

Just a quick thought on the “RRS vs God Squad” debate


So here’s the thing right… after being directed to the “Way of the Master” website, I was intrigued as to what some other people’s reactions would be. While I’m certainly no great Christian, I can see some of what they are trying to do. But on the other hand, it seems to me that the WOTM people certainly verge into the realm of fear mongering with their loaded questions.

It was while looking around that I came across the “Rational Responders” website, and also onto the youtube videos featuring a debate between the RRS on one side (Brian Sapient and “Kelly”), and the WOTM/”God Squad” on the other side (Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron).

If you’re interested in debates regarding intelligent design, you might want to while away a few minutes on these videos.

Now, while it’s certainly clear that the God Squad failed in the debate – and, please note, I state this solely due to the fact that Ray Comfort alleged he could prove, scientifically and without the use of faith and the bible the existence of God… yet then went on to base his argument upon scripts in the bible – it should also be clear that the RRS could have done a much better job.

Brian, this is my advice to you.

Debate alone.

While I don’t know Kelly, I give you this advice as an impartial viewer; she was unquestionably the weak link in your argument. She allowed herself to become to embroiled in personal barbed statements, and her voice became more and more shrill with her exasperation.

Exasperation is not what is needed here. A level, rational head is.

Debate alone dude.