Check out this interesting interview of Mr. Glaser by EnGadget. Not that I'm a big fan of Real (in fact, I think most people became haters of company X whenever they become a customer of X these days. And I'm a subscriber of Real Rhapsody) but I think he made some very good points about the current state of digital music market. His takes on the virtues and shortfalls of Apple's approach (with iPods and iTunes) are fairly accurate and impartial IMHO.
One key point he made is the need to have a "good end to end experience" from the music service provider all the way to the device, which Apple did very well with iPod + iTunes. Judging from all those complaints on their message board regarding the latest version of Rhapsody (3.1) not working properly, I think Real really needs to work hard in this department.
Finally, regarding the web interface (Rhapsody.com) that he plugged during the interview, I'm happy that I could finally listen to Rhapsody on my iBook without using it as a terminal to a PC. Check out a detailed review by the Digital Music Weblog. I came to a similar conclusion: this interface needs lots of improvements (IMHO not a version 1.0 product as Mr. Glaser touted) My particular gripes are:
1) There is no way to reorder tracks in the client's current playlist.
2) I cannot cue songs to the current playlist without the player switching to play the new songs.
3) Dunno if it's just my iBook: sometimes the player window opens but sits idle without playing anything I asked it to play.
In any case, Mr. Glaser is definitely correct that the subscription model is a sound one. Just check out the math: At my peak I used to buy 50 new CDs a year. It has gradually gone down to ~25 CDs. You know how much I buy this year? 0. I don't need new CDs anymore as I got my fix from Rhapsody, which I spend $100 for a year of subscription. For serious music fan like you (if you read this blog then your are) and me, subscription IS a good deal.
On a related note, the latest stat from music industry says sales of CD is down by 8% in the past year. (Well, in my case it is down by 100%) I bet they won't be able to make it up by just sitting there and sending out their army of lawyers. The days of CDs being cash cows are over. Wake up and embrace digital music! These guys could surely use some advices from Mr. Glaser.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Service: Rhapsody
While we're on the topic of RealNetworks, I've got some advices for Mr. Glaser too.
He mentioned the editorial on Rhapsody as a differentiating feature from his competitors in the subscription market. I beg to differ. Artist info (incl. bio/discography/influences/similar artists) is everywhere on the web (Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia) What Rhapsody really need is a better recommendation engine and better personalization. It is sitting on a "gold mine" of user preferences (forget about 1-5 star ratings of songs. If I listen to the same song over and over, 5 stars. If I skip the song 10 seconds into it, 0 star. It should be that simple. Also, asking me to click on other people's playlist is not good enough. Sometimes people prefer auto-pilot) If they use it for social networking/correlation, they'll have one awesome recommendation feature. It might be easier just go out and buy a last.fm/Audioscrobbler.
He mentioned the editorial on Rhapsody as a differentiating feature from his competitors in the subscription market. I beg to differ. Artist info (incl. bio/discography/influences/similar artists) is everywhere on the web (Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia) What Rhapsody really need is a better recommendation engine and better personalization. It is sitting on a "gold mine" of user preferences (forget about 1-5 star ratings of songs. If I listen to the same song over and over, 5 stars. If I skip the song 10 seconds into it, 0 star. It should be that simple. Also, asking me to click on other people's playlist is not good enough. Sometimes people prefer auto-pilot) If they use it for social networking/correlation, they'll have one awesome recommendation feature. It might be easier just go out and buy a last.fm/Audioscrobbler.
Service: last.fm
Speaking of last.fm, it is the only free online music streaming service that I'm satisfied with as far as classical music is concerned. You just need to open an acct (free), download its player, type in a composer's name, say Mahler, and you're going to hear a whole bunch of late 19th century/romantic music, including those from Mahler and similar composers. It figures out what to play using social networking/correlation.
Of course, it works with other music genres too.
Of course, it works with other music genres too.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Artist: Death (Remembering Chuck Schuldiner)
Can't believe it has been 4 years since Chuck passed away!
Norway's Imhotep magazine interviewed a few current metal musicians for their thoughts about Death.
Norway's Imhotep magazine interviewed a few current metal musicians for their thoughts about Death.
Track: RIAA Phone Call
If you're a music fan, you probably know all the bad deeds done by RIAA and I don't need to elaborate. This is a hilarious song (link) Please also check out the prank they pulled on RIAA.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Podcast: more Metal
MSRCast
This is recommended by The Entropy League, which I menitoned last time. The list of bands look impressive, right? Contrary to what the name stands for, Mainstream Resistance, it actually features some mainstream (in the metal circle) bands, i.e., the ones you might hear on metal TV shows like Metal Asylum or Headbanger's Ball, but of course it still beats mainstream radio. (BTW, if you visit www.msrcast.com instead of the above link, it might appear they have 5 episodes and no more new ones but that's not the case. )
Curt Shaw's Metal Show
It features some awesome unsigned local bands that you might have never heard of elsewhere.
The Entropy League
Yes, I have already recommended them before. The above links to their latest episode, which I find extremely interesting, as it played all covers. You'll hear lots of old school metal (or non-metal) being reinterpreted by the new generation.
This is recommended by The Entropy League, which I menitoned last time. The list of bands look impressive, right? Contrary to what the name stands for, Mainstream Resistance, it actually features some mainstream (in the metal circle) bands, i.e., the ones you might hear on metal TV shows like Metal Asylum or Headbanger's Ball, but of course it still beats mainstream radio. (BTW, if you visit www.msrcast.com instead of the above link, it might appear they have 5 episodes and no more new ones but that's not the case. )
Curt Shaw's Metal Show
It features some awesome unsigned local bands that you might have never heard of elsewhere.
The Entropy League
Yes, I have already recommended them before. The above links to their latest episode, which I find extremely interesting, as it played all covers. You'll hear lots of old school metal (or non-metal) being reinterpreted by the new generation.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Podcast: Jazz, classical and more
In my previous post I've recommended a podcast for metal.
For jazz, I enjoyed Red Raspus Radio, mainly about the Seattle jazz scene. It's a pleasant surprise that they've got some really good musicians up there.
For classical, the king of budget recordings, Naxos, has done a great job in promoting classical music once again. Check out Naxos Classical Music Spotlight
You could find both of the above podcasts at Yahoo! Podcast as well as Apple's iTunes Podcast Directory if that's how you subscribe to podcasts.
While I'm on the topic of podcast, I gotta admit I have a tendency to downplay or underestimate the usefulness of new internet paradigm. I've done it to Webmail (when Hotmail first appeared) and I did it to podcast again :P I blame it on the ineffectiveness of Podcast client/directory in sorting out the good stuff from the massive sea of podcasts. A lot of clichés about podcast still applies: like many people are still over-using sound effects (we don't need that much ECHO-ECho-echo or left-to-right panning) and most still sound like the podcaster was rambling on and on to no one but himself (or herself) Anyway, podcasting is ideal for enthusiasts of non-mainstream interests (in the case of music: jazz, metal and classical) to "spread the gospel" since the narrow audience cannot justify the use of more expensive technologies.
That said, we still need better organization/classification of Podcast, i.e., the equivalent of what Yahoo did to the early days of WWW. Podcast Alley and Yahoo! Podcast are in the right direction but still have long ways to go. For example, when I use the keywords "jazz music," I'm still getting a ton of irrelevant links.
Finally, I should probably answer the 1st question newbies would ask: "How do you listen to Podcast?" The minimal requirement is a computer that connects to the internet, preferably with broadband. Most of the Podcasts I recommend links to their website, which further link to mp3 files. You could simply right-click on your browser, download the files and listen in your favourite MP3 player. Or you could "subscribe" to the podcast so that you'll get the latest episode when it is published through podcast client software of your choice. Personally, I've tried the open source Juice Receiver before (formerly known as iPodder. BTW, the name changed because Apple didn't like the iPod part in it. I wonder why Apple has to alienate people who makes their products more popular. Maybe it has to do with the fact that your trademark will be weaken if you don't actively defend it all the time?) and I use iTunes now, just because I have iTunes installed for sync-ing with iPod already. Not that I prefer proprietary software over open source ones. For iTunes, you either find the podcast in their directory and subscribe or open the .pcast file with it. For other clients, you could specify the URL of the RSS feed of the podcast.
Now you should start enjoying the shows I recommended!
For jazz, I enjoyed Red Raspus Radio, mainly about the Seattle jazz scene. It's a pleasant surprise that they've got some really good musicians up there.
For classical, the king of budget recordings, Naxos, has done a great job in promoting classical music once again. Check out Naxos Classical Music Spotlight
You could find both of the above podcasts at Yahoo! Podcast as well as Apple's iTunes Podcast Directory if that's how you subscribe to podcasts.
While I'm on the topic of podcast, I gotta admit I have a tendency to downplay or underestimate the usefulness of new internet paradigm. I've done it to Webmail (when Hotmail first appeared) and I did it to podcast again :P I blame it on the ineffectiveness of Podcast client/directory in sorting out the good stuff from the massive sea of podcasts. A lot of clichés about podcast still applies: like many people are still over-using sound effects (we don't need that much ECHO-ECho-echo or left-to-right panning) and most still sound like the podcaster was rambling on and on to no one but himself (or herself) Anyway, podcasting is ideal for enthusiasts of non-mainstream interests (in the case of music: jazz, metal and classical) to "spread the gospel" since the narrow audience cannot justify the use of more expensive technologies.
That said, we still need better organization/classification of Podcast, i.e., the equivalent of what Yahoo did to the early days of WWW. Podcast Alley and Yahoo! Podcast are in the right direction but still have long ways to go. For example, when I use the keywords "jazz music," I'm still getting a ton of irrelevant links.
Finally, I should probably answer the 1st question newbies would ask: "How do you listen to Podcast?" The minimal requirement is a computer that connects to the internet, preferably with broadband. Most of the Podcasts I recommend links to their website, which further link to mp3 files. You could simply right-click on your browser, download the files and listen in your favourite MP3 player. Or you could "subscribe" to the podcast so that you'll get the latest episode when it is published through podcast client software of your choice. Personally, I've tried the open source Juice Receiver before (formerly known as iPodder. BTW, the name changed because Apple didn't like the iPod part in it. I wonder why Apple has to alienate people who makes their products more popular. Maybe it has to do with the fact that your trademark will be weaken if you don't actively defend it all the time?) and I use iTunes now, just because I have iTunes installed for sync-ing with iPod already. Not that I prefer proprietary software over open source ones. For iTunes, you either find the podcast in their directory and subscribe or open the .pcast file with it. For other clients, you could specify the URL of the RSS feed of the podcast.
Now you should start enjoying the shows I recommended!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Genre: Metal (State of Metal Pt III: MOL)
Talking about Metal On-Line here.
In the old days my preferred way to read about metal was USENET newsgroups. With the ever declining signal-to-noise ratio, it's of course no longer desirable. It's ironic that the fall of metal's popularity coincided with the rise of WWW. That explains why there wasn't many must-visit websites for metal fans in the 90s, at least that's my experience. A lot of metal sites were created by amateurs/fans/students who eventually quit maintaining the sites, with the exception of BNR Metal, which is still going strong and serves as one of my favorite metal encyclopedia (BTW, I know it's kinda surprising but Wikipedia is also a good source of metal band info.)
RSS
With a resurgence in its popularity and the advent of RSS (a mechanism that make updates to websites appear on subscribers' client software automatically,) I've finally got back in touch with the world of metal again. For example, Death Metal News on Topix.net provides RSS feed (if you don't wanna install any RSS client, you could always use my.yahoo.com) Most of their feeds come from Blabbermouth.net, a metal news site provided by one of the most prolific metal label, Roadrunner records. The nice thing about it is that it also covers bands other than their own!
Online radio
You won't hear a lot of 24x7 heavy metal only radio station on the air. There's none, even in a "metal-active" area like the San Francisco bay area. Fortunately, thanks to internet, now metal fans have many choices.
First of all, major internet radio providers like AOL Radio and Yahoo Music all have 1 or more metal channels. While Yahoo Music delivers higher quality sound, AOL provides more channels, each dedicated to a sub-genre like Death Metal, Black Metal, even one for "hair"/glam/pop metal bands of the 80s! You could skip to the next songs if you don't like the current one on Yahoo though. And Yahoo do have 2 sub-genre station: Emo and Metalcore, but they're available to subscriber of Launchcast Plus only (If you use SBC Yahoo DSL, it's free)
If you wanna listen to less mainstream produced metal radio, you could find plenty of them on ShoutCast under the metal genre, for example, ChroniX Aggression, BrainGell, The Edge.
Finally, this is not free, but XM subscribers could listen to XM's Liquid Metal channel online (in fact, it's only available online but not thru satellite anymore.)
Podcast
I consider Shoutcast as the first step in the direction of liberation of radio from corporate conglomerates, giving normal people like you and me power to broadcast. All you need is setting up your PC as a Shoutcast server and play some music (or talk non-stop like a "real DJ".) Of course, you still need a high bandwidth upstream internet connection. With Podcasting, even this requirement is gone. You record your show as MP3, write an RSS XML enclosure for it, then upload to your webhost and you're done! So it's not surprising to see that lots of "niche topics", including heavy metal, get healthy podcast coverage, since it's very low cost.
Unfortunately, the proliferation of podcasts made it difficult to pick out relevant ones, let alone good ones. Podcast directories help to a certain degree but it's still a lot of trial-and-error. Or you could rely on word-of-mouth, like my recommendation of The Entropy League. Also, don't miss the accompanying blog: Be Metal
Hope you enjoy this 3 part series about the current state of Metal!
[Update: I just heard Metallica's "Damage Case" played on Yahoo! LaunchCast Radio and they bleeped out the swearing by Hetfield. Lame Lame Lame. Thumbs down from me.]
In the old days my preferred way to read about metal was USENET newsgroups. With the ever declining signal-to-noise ratio, it's of course no longer desirable. It's ironic that the fall of metal's popularity coincided with the rise of WWW. That explains why there wasn't many must-visit websites for metal fans in the 90s, at least that's my experience. A lot of metal sites were created by amateurs/fans/students who eventually quit maintaining the sites, with the exception of BNR Metal, which is still going strong and serves as one of my favorite metal encyclopedia (BTW, I know it's kinda surprising but Wikipedia is also a good source of metal band info.)
RSS
With a resurgence in its popularity and the advent of RSS (a mechanism that make updates to websites appear on subscribers' client software automatically,) I've finally got back in touch with the world of metal again. For example, Death Metal News on Topix.net provides RSS feed (if you don't wanna install any RSS client, you could always use my.yahoo.com) Most of their feeds come from Blabbermouth.net, a metal news site provided by one of the most prolific metal label, Roadrunner records. The nice thing about it is that it also covers bands other than their own!
Online radio
You won't hear a lot of 24x7 heavy metal only radio station on the air. There's none, even in a "metal-active" area like the San Francisco bay area. Fortunately, thanks to internet, now metal fans have many choices.
First of all, major internet radio providers like AOL Radio and Yahoo Music all have 1 or more metal channels. While Yahoo Music delivers higher quality sound, AOL provides more channels, each dedicated to a sub-genre like Death Metal, Black Metal, even one for "hair"/glam/pop metal bands of the 80s! You could skip to the next songs if you don't like the current one on Yahoo though. And Yahoo do have 2 sub-genre station: Emo and Metalcore, but they're available to subscriber of Launchcast Plus only (If you use SBC Yahoo DSL, it's free)
If you wanna listen to less mainstream produced metal radio, you could find plenty of them on ShoutCast under the metal genre, for example, ChroniX Aggression, BrainGell, The Edge.
Finally, this is not free, but XM subscribers could listen to XM's Liquid Metal channel online (in fact, it's only available online but not thru satellite anymore.)
Podcast
I consider Shoutcast as the first step in the direction of liberation of radio from corporate conglomerates, giving normal people like you and me power to broadcast. All you need is setting up your PC as a Shoutcast server and play some music (or talk non-stop like a "real DJ".) Of course, you still need a high bandwidth upstream internet connection. With Podcasting, even this requirement is gone. You record your show as MP3, write an RSS XML enclosure for it, then upload to your webhost and you're done! So it's not surprising to see that lots of "niche topics", including heavy metal, get healthy podcast coverage, since it's very low cost.
Unfortunately, the proliferation of podcasts made it difficult to pick out relevant ones, let alone good ones. Podcast directories help to a certain degree but it's still a lot of trial-and-error. Or you could rely on word-of-mouth, like my recommendation of The Entropy League. Also, don't miss the accompanying blog: Be Metal
Hope you enjoy this 3 part series about the current state of Metal!
[Update: I just heard Metallica's "Damage Case" played on Yahoo! LaunchCast Radio and they bleeped out the swearing by Hetfield. Lame Lame Lame. Thumbs down from me.]
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Genre: Metal (State of Metal Pt II: MTV)
Well, that's Metal TV I'm talking about.
All metal fans from the 80's in the States should remember "Headbanger's Ball," the all metal video show aired on MTV every Saturday night. And of course they remembered when the show was cancelled: after grunge "took over the world" (Hey, even the VJ Ricki Rachtman played the videos of "Smell Like Teen Spirit" and "Alive" during the dying days of the show!)
For the longest time there were next to zero coverage of metal on TV, let alone shows dedicated to metal. But slowly metal found its way back to the spotlight. First, Uranium, a 30-minute metal show hosted by charismatic VJ Juliya, appeared on MuchMusic (now Fuse TV) channel. Fuse TV also has a daily metal show named "Metal Asylum." If there's anything MTV knows how to do well, it's jumping on bandwagon. They brought back "Headbanger's Ball" on MTV2 at Saturday night, started May 10 2003. Many saw that move symbolized that "metal is back," officially! In addition, MTV's sister channel VH1 Classic has Metal Mania, which focus on mostly 80s and early 90s "old school" stuff.
These shows have become one of my major source of discovering new metal acts. That's how I learned about exciting bands like Arch Enemy and Shadows Fall. What are my other sources? Stay tuned and read the next and final episode of this State of Metal series.
All metal fans from the 80's in the States should remember "Headbanger's Ball," the all metal video show aired on MTV every Saturday night. And of course they remembered when the show was cancelled: after grunge "took over the world" (Hey, even the VJ Ricki Rachtman played the videos of "Smell Like Teen Spirit" and "Alive" during the dying days of the show!)
For the longest time there were next to zero coverage of metal on TV, let alone shows dedicated to metal. But slowly metal found its way back to the spotlight. First, Uranium, a 30-minute metal show hosted by charismatic VJ Juliya, appeared on MuchMusic (now Fuse TV) channel. Fuse TV also has a daily metal show named "Metal Asylum." If there's anything MTV knows how to do well, it's jumping on bandwagon. They brought back "Headbanger's Ball" on MTV2 at Saturday night, started May 10 2003. Many saw that move symbolized that "metal is back," officially! In addition, MTV's sister channel VH1 Classic has Metal Mania, which focus on mostly 80s and early 90s "old school" stuff.
These shows have become one of my major source of discovering new metal acts. That's how I learned about exciting bands like Arch Enemy and Shadows Fall. What are my other sources? Stay tuned and read the next and final episode of this State of Metal series.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Genre: Metal (State of Metal Pt I: Trends and bands)
For those who said metal was dead: you couldn't be more wrong. Not only it's alive and kicking ass, I'd say it's healthier than ever. A lot of fans restarted listening again. That's what my bandmate in HK and I chatted about the other day. The first band I mentioned was of course System of a Down (see my previous post)
Other bands I wanna recommend are:
- Trivium: a promising young band with a sound that reminds me of the great tradition of 90's thrash metal, i.e., Metallica and Testament.
- Children of Bodom: they have been around but unlike most bands started around the same time, their guitarists know how to play the instrument. And their keyboard doesn't sound lame either.
- Lamb of God: arguably the "leader" of the current thrash/death metal generation.
- Arch Enemy: gotta root for a real metal band fronted by a lady (Angela Gossow)
As far as trends are concerned, metal is cyclical just like any other art form. Nu metal doesn't seem as popular lately. Linkin Park hasn't release any new stuff for some time. Even Limp Bizkit doesn't generate lots of headlines anymore. However, Korn
and Slipknot still have a heavy presence in my playlists. The former has released a greatest hits while the latter has a live double album. Both serve as good introductions to their best stuff.
On the other hand, lots of late 80 early 90 thrash/death metal bands are making comeback, like Obituary, Death Angel, Exodus, and Nuclear Assault. All of them haven't release any new stuff in years! Their new stuff may not be as good as their old one but I'd still be glad to listen to them.
Other bands I wanna recommend are:
- Trivium: a promising young band with a sound that reminds me of the great tradition of 90's thrash metal, i.e., Metallica and Testament.
- Children of Bodom: they have been around but unlike most bands started around the same time, their guitarists know how to play the instrument. And their keyboard doesn't sound lame either.
- Lamb of God: arguably the "leader" of the current thrash/death metal generation.
- Arch Enemy: gotta root for a real metal band fronted by a lady (Angela Gossow)
As far as trends are concerned, metal is cyclical just like any other art form. Nu metal doesn't seem as popular lately. Linkin Park hasn't release any new stuff for some time. Even Limp Bizkit doesn't generate lots of headlines anymore. However, Korn
and Slipknot still have a heavy presence in my playlists. The former has released a greatest hits while the latter has a live double album. Both serve as good introductions to their best stuff.
On the other hand, lots of late 80 early 90 thrash/death metal bands are making comeback, like Obituary, Death Angel, Exodus, and Nuclear Assault. All of them haven't release any new stuff in years! Their new stuff may not be as good as their old one but I'd still be glad to listen to them.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Track: Hypnotize
Artist: System Of A Down
System of A Down is the type of band that gives music lovers like me reasons to listen to today's new music. It doesn't even matter if I like all of their music (see my previous post.)
For some reason I keep writing about music with political messages and it's another one of them: (copied from this link )
[Verse 1]
Why don't you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square
Was fashion the reason why they were there?
They disguise it, hypnotize it
Television made you buy it"
[Verse 2]
She's scared that I will take her away from there
Dreams that her country left with no one there
Mesmerize the simple minded
Propaganda leaves us blinded
[Chorus]
I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl
While the verses are self-explanatory, the chorus is not as obvious. I googled a bit and found the band mentioned in an interview that it refers to a "common" person. I guess it means a person could be doing his everyday activities while ugly politics happen elsewhere. Whether one affect the other or not is up to your interpretation.
Talking about their political lyric, I must mentioned this from "B.Y.O.B":
"Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?"
Rhapsody Link
System of A Down is the type of band that gives music lovers like me reasons to listen to today's new music. It doesn't even matter if I like all of their music (see my previous post.)
For some reason I keep writing about music with political messages and it's another one of them: (copied from this link )
[Verse 1]
Why don't you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square
Was fashion the reason why they were there?
They disguise it, hypnotize it
Television made you buy it"
[Verse 2]
She's scared that I will take her away from there
Dreams that her country left with no one there
Mesmerize the simple minded
Propaganda leaves us blinded
[Chorus]
I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl
While the verses are self-explanatory, the chorus is not as obvious. I googled a bit and found the band mentioned in an interview that it refers to a "common" person. I guess it means a person could be doing his everyday activities while ugly politics happen elsewhere. Whether one affect the other or not is up to your interpretation.
Talking about their political lyric, I must mentioned this from "B.Y.O.B":
"Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?"
Rhapsody Link
Monday, October 03, 2005
Album: Not in Our Name
Artist: Charlie Haden and Liberation Music Orchestra
This is the 2nd consecutive post about politics-inspired music. What a coincidence!
I wrote about Charlie Haden and Liberation Music Orchestra before and mentioned this band only releases new music during a Republican administration Well, they did it again. With songs named "This is Not America", "Blue Anthem"... you would easily know how much they approve of what George W. Bush have done (his so-called anti-terrorism policy and the war on Iraq.)
I'll refer you all to this excellent review of the album at AllAboutJazz: "The title 'Not In Our Name' comes from the window posters displayed by householders throughout Europe in protest at the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq—Haden noticed the posters while on tour in '03."
Rhapsody Link
This is the 2nd consecutive post about politics-inspired music. What a coincidence!
I wrote about Charlie Haden and Liberation Music Orchestra before and mentioned this band only releases new music during a Republican administration Well, they did it again. With songs named "This is Not America", "Blue Anthem"... you would easily know how much they approve of what George W. Bush have done (his so-called anti-terrorism policy and the war on Iraq.)
I'll refer you all to this excellent review of the album at AllAboutJazz: "The title 'Not In Our Name' comes from the window posters displayed by householders throughout Europe in protest at the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq—Haden noticed the posters while on tour in '03."
Rhapsody Link
Friday, September 30, 2005
Track: Have a Nice Day
Artist: Bon Jovi
Album: Have a Nice Day
The song opens with "Why, you wanna tell me how to live my life?
Who are you to tell me if it's black or white?"
Who is Jon Bon Jovi so angry at? None other than our prez George W. Bush! It's not surprising that such lyric was inspired by George W.'s re-election last year.
To be honest, music-wise this is no "You Give Love a Bad Name" or "Livin' like a Prayer" but I always give credits to songs with messages. See how the song ends:
"When The world keeps trying, to drag me down,
I've gotta raise my hands, gonna stand my ground.
Well I say, Have A Nice Day."
We could all use more optimism here in the States after the recent disastrous events.
Rhapsody link
Album: Have a Nice Day
The song opens with "Why, you wanna tell me how to live my life?
Who are you to tell me if it's black or white?"
Who is Jon Bon Jovi so angry at? None other than our prez George W. Bush! It's not surprising that such lyric was inspired by George W.'s re-election last year.
To be honest, music-wise this is no "You Give Love a Bad Name" or "Livin' like a Prayer" but I always give credits to songs with messages. See how the song ends:
"When The world keeps trying, to drag me down,
I've gotta raise my hands, gonna stand my ground.
Well I say, Have A Nice Day."
We could all use more optimism here in the States after the recent disastrous events.
Rhapsody link
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Playlist: The Jazz Side of George Benson
This is a playlist created by fellow Rhapsody listener Nick Dedina.
Most jazz fans have heard of jazz guitarist George Benson, who is famous for selling out to the pop crowd. However, I'm not sure most jazz fans have listen to his "pre-sold-out" works. I, for one, haven't. And I have been very curious.
Now mystery solved thanks to Nick. I guess it's not all bad for Benson to sell out. After all, he got compared to Wes Montgomery instead of being known as yet another very good jazz guitarist.
Rhapsody Link
Most jazz fans have heard of jazz guitarist George Benson, who is famous for selling out to the pop crowd. However, I'm not sure most jazz fans have listen to his "pre-sold-out" works. I, for one, haven't. And I have been very curious.
Now mystery solved thanks to Nick. I guess it's not all bad for Benson to sell out. After all, he got compared to Wes Montgomery instead of being known as yet another very good jazz guitarist.
Rhapsody Link
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Track: George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People
Artist: The Legendary K.O.
The title says it all.
This is by now a famous quote from hip-hop artist Kanye West, expressing his view on the president's poor response to the disasters caused by Hurricane Katrina.
You could check out the lyric here
Free download link
The title says it all.
This is by now a famous quote from hip-hop artist Kanye West, expressing his view on the president's poor response to the disasters caused by Hurricane Katrina.
You could check out the lyric here
Free download link
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Track: Condor Man
Artist: Akira Tana
Album: Moon over the world
Label/Catalog#: SONS OF SOUND/70018
This is one of those truly amazing musical moment: I was casually listening to the Jazz channel on Music Choice (the service bundled with Directv) and the familiar melody of a theme song from a Hong Kong kung fu TV series appeared which totally caught me off guard. I immediately paid closer attention and reconfirmed that I haven't mistaken. I was even more surprised when I saw the artist is a Japanese! Googled the name and found out he actually collaborated with Hong Kong jazz pianist Ted Lo so suddenly it all makes sense.
Ted is playing with words here: Condor Man in Chinese sounds the same as hero, which was part of the title of the kung fu series.
BTW, legendary Hong Kong singer/songwriter Sam Hui has made a parody cover version of this song. I'm actually more familiar with his version than the original. He sang about the heroics of winning the game of mahjong!
Album: Moon over the world
Label/Catalog#: SONS OF SOUND/70018
This is one of those truly amazing musical moment: I was casually listening to the Jazz channel on Music Choice (the service bundled with Directv) and the familiar melody of a theme song from a Hong Kong kung fu TV series appeared which totally caught me off guard. I immediately paid closer attention and reconfirmed that I haven't mistaken. I was even more surprised when I saw the artist is a Japanese! Googled the name and found out he actually collaborated with Hong Kong jazz pianist Ted Lo so suddenly it all makes sense.
Ted is playing with words here: Condor Man in Chinese sounds the same as hero, which was part of the title of the kung fu series.
BTW, legendary Hong Kong singer/songwriter Sam Hui has made a parody cover version of this song. I'm actually more familiar with his version than the original. He sang about the heroics of winning the game of mahjong!
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Album: The Gathering
Artist: Geri Allen
Personally I think Geri Allen's work as a leader deserves more praises and attentions than it does now. "The Life Of A Song" released last year was a great example. In fact it was my top jazz CD of 2004.
Her only album on Rhapsody is "The Gathering" from 1998, which was equally interesting. These 2 tracks (Rhapsody Link) are especially recommended as they feature Vernon Reid (ex-guitarist of hard rock band Living Colour)
Personally I think Geri Allen's work as a leader deserves more praises and attentions than it does now. "The Life Of A Song" released last year was a great example. In fact it was my top jazz CD of 2004.
Her only album on Rhapsody is "The Gathering" from 1998, which was equally interesting. These 2 tracks (Rhapsody Link) are especially recommended as they feature Vernon Reid (ex-guitarist of hard rock band Living Colour)
Friday, August 26, 2005
Track: The Crunge
Artist: Joshua Redman Elastic Band
Album: Momentum
You might not find anything special about this track but there are 2 reasons I write about it: 1) it is a Led Zeppelin cover, 2) Flea from Red Hot Chilli Pepper plays bass on it. A lot of bass players, including myself, idolize Flea.
BTW, Joshua Redman's first Elastic band was an organ trio. This one is different: besides the trio, it also features additional musicians like guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, Peter Bernstein, vibist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, appearing on different tracks. (Flea also played on "Blowing Changes" and "Double Jeopardy") I think this all-star lineup is appealing enough to give it a listen!
Rhapsody Link
Album: Momentum
You might not find anything special about this track but there are 2 reasons I write about it: 1) it is a Led Zeppelin cover, 2) Flea from Red Hot Chilli Pepper plays bass on it. A lot of bass players, including myself, idolize Flea.
BTW, Joshua Redman's first Elastic band was an organ trio. This one is different: besides the trio, it also features additional musicians like guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, Peter Bernstein, vibist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, appearing on different tracks. (Flea also played on "Blowing Changes" and "Double Jeopardy") I think this all-star lineup is appealing enough to give it a listen!
Rhapsody Link
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Track: Shoots and Ladders
Artist: Korn
This song's lyric comes from many well-known nursery rhymes, e.g. Mary has a little lamb, London Bridge, Ring around the rosie...
The last one is not well-known to me though 'coz I just learned it from my daughter's swimming class.
You might have read that "Ring around the rosie" is from the Europe Middle Age plague
era, i.e., many died of the "black death disease" transmitted by rats. Scary huh?
"Shoots and Ladders" is about the dark origin of nursery rhymes. I think they want to ridicule that we teach such creepy songs to kids.
However, the Urban Legend page disputed the association of "Ring around the rosy" with the plague though.
Rhapsody Link
This song's lyric comes from many well-known nursery rhymes, e.g. Mary has a little lamb, London Bridge, Ring around the rosie...
The last one is not well-known to me though 'coz I just learned it from my daughter's swimming class.
You might have read that "Ring around the rosie" is from the Europe Middle Age plague
era, i.e., many died of the "black death disease" transmitted by rats. Scary huh?
"Shoots and Ladders" is about the dark origin of nursery rhymes. I think they want to ridicule that we teach such creepy songs to kids.
However, the Urban Legend page disputed the association of "Ring around the rosy" with the plague though.
Rhapsody Link
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Album: Frozen in Time
Track: Stand Alone
Artist: Obituary
"Frozen in Time" is indeed a well-suited title. Listening to this album will certainly reminds you of the glorious day of death metal, which was more than 10 years ago! In fact, this is the 1st studio album by Obituary since their last released 8 years ago. The track "Stand Alone" impressed me the most on this album in terms of guitar work. Of course I still miss the great guitar solo on "Cause of Death," Obituary's 2nd album, featuring James "the god of death metal guitar" Murphy.
Rhapsody Link
Artist: Obituary
"Frozen in Time" is indeed a well-suited title. Listening to this album will certainly reminds you of the glorious day of death metal, which was more than 10 years ago! In fact, this is the 1st studio album by Obituary since their last released 8 years ago. The track "Stand Alone" impressed me the most on this album in terms of guitar work. Of course I still miss the great guitar solo on "Cause of Death," Obituary's 2nd album, featuring James "the god of death metal guitar" Murphy.
Rhapsody Link
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Book: Sonic Boom
Author: John Alderman
I've just finished reading Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3 and the new Pioneers of music It is about the history of digital music from its infancy in the early 90s to the explosion of popularity of MP3 in 2000. This book does a good job covering almost everything in that decade from the most well-known companies like MP3.com, Real Network, and of course Napster, to the lesser-known ones, like Liquid Audio, Listen.com, Internet Underground Music Archive, Riffage.com, Nullsoft (the maker of Winamp, which is certainly more famous than the company itself) It ends with the ruling on the Napster case, which effectively shutdown the 1st generation Peer-to-peer music file sharing service.
I consider myself a close follower of the development of digital music and thus have a pretty good idea about what these major players did. However, this book went into much deeper levels of details about the stories and people behind the companies. A very interesting read I must say.
After reading this book, which was published in 2001 (that's why I picked it up dirt cheap at a discount bookstore,) the first thing came to my mind was that it would have a very interesting sequel, with developments after 2001, covering Apple's iPod and iTunes Music Store, Rhapsody (a music streaming service offered by Listen.com and later sold to Real Networks along with the company), the 2nd incarnation of Napster (the name was bought by Roxio, which sold off its software business, best known for its CD-burning software, and renamed itself to Napster!) and the Grokster ruling (the highest-profile case against P2P company after Napster)
Readers of this book would all agree that there is no way record companies could turn back the clock and go against the digital music revolution. Looks like some record companies are slowly but finally getting it. Here is a sign: Warner Music developing e-label
I've just finished reading Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3 and the new Pioneers of music It is about the history of digital music from its infancy in the early 90s to the explosion of popularity of MP3 in 2000. This book does a good job covering almost everything in that decade from the most well-known companies like MP3.com, Real Network, and of course Napster, to the lesser-known ones, like Liquid Audio, Listen.com, Internet Underground Music Archive, Riffage.com, Nullsoft (the maker of Winamp, which is certainly more famous than the company itself) It ends with the ruling on the Napster case, which effectively shutdown the 1st generation Peer-to-peer music file sharing service.
I consider myself a close follower of the development of digital music and thus have a pretty good idea about what these major players did. However, this book went into much deeper levels of details about the stories and people behind the companies. A very interesting read I must say.
After reading this book, which was published in 2001 (that's why I picked it up dirt cheap at a discount bookstore,) the first thing came to my mind was that it would have a very interesting sequel, with developments after 2001, covering Apple's iPod and iTunes Music Store, Rhapsody (a music streaming service offered by Listen.com and later sold to Real Networks along with the company), the 2nd incarnation of Napster (the name was bought by Roxio, which sold off its software business, best known for its CD-burning software, and renamed itself to Napster!) and the Grokster ruling (the highest-profile case against P2P company after Napster)
Readers of this book would all agree that there is no way record companies could turn back the clock and go against the digital music revolution. Looks like some record companies are slowly but finally getting it. Here is a sign: Warner Music developing e-label
Friday, July 15, 2005
Howto: Listen to Rhapsody offline
The heavily promoted method is: subscribe to Rhapsody-To-Go and buy a Microsoft PlaysForSure compatible portable player (most newer non-iPod are or will be after firmware upgrade)
The (almost) unpromoted method is: subscribe to Rhapsody Unlimited and buy a notebook that runs XP. I dunno how many people went this route but I did. (Hey, that's 50% of the reason I bought a new notebook!)
Here are the steps:
0) (if you haven't done this before) Choose Tools->Authorize Computer from your Rhapsody 3.0 client
1) Add your songs to your library
2) Go to "My Library" and choose songs to be downloaded, right click your mouse and choose "Download track"
3) Now you could listen to these downloaded tracks offline (and even online as you might prefer 160KBps WMA versus streaming compressed at 128KBps)
However, like most Windows/Real software, this process might not be as trouble free as you'd hope. For me my computer tripped at Step 0! Without that step, when I tried to play a downloaded song, it showed a yellow triangle next to it, moused over the yellow triangle it said "Helix error c00d0bbe." And choosing Tools->Authorize Computer simply did nothing and the computer remained unauthorized.
I figure it probably has something to do with Microsoft's DRM (digital right management) so I opened Windows Media Player 10. It's the first time I run it (See! setting up and running Rhapsody are so high priority for me!) so I went thru some setup and it seems to have downloaded some components over the internet. Looks like that's the missing piece that prevented me from authorizing the computer as I was able to complete Step 0 afterwards (The choice became "Deauthorize computer" afterwards)
BTW, I submitted this issue to Rhapsody's support 4 hours ago, before I figured this out myself. No response yet. Well, the Windows/Real combination is certainly not for the computer skill challenge crowd. My money advice to Microsoft and companies: if you want to beat your competition (you know who, the name of that company starts with an "A" >:) you gotta make things that work smoothly, for everyone, not something that requires 2 Computer Science degrees!
The (almost) unpromoted method is: subscribe to Rhapsody Unlimited and buy a notebook that runs XP. I dunno how many people went this route but I did. (Hey, that's 50% of the reason I bought a new notebook!)
Here are the steps:
0) (if you haven't done this before) Choose Tools->Authorize Computer from your Rhapsody 3.0 client
1) Add your songs to your library
2) Go to "My Library" and choose songs to be downloaded, right click your mouse and choose "Download track"
3) Now you could listen to these downloaded tracks offline (and even online as you might prefer 160KBps WMA versus streaming compressed at 128KBps)
However, like most Windows/Real software, this process might not be as trouble free as you'd hope. For me my computer tripped at Step 0! Without that step, when I tried to play a downloaded song, it showed a yellow triangle next to it, moused over the yellow triangle it said "Helix error c00d0bbe." And choosing Tools->Authorize Computer simply did nothing and the computer remained unauthorized.
I figure it probably has something to do with Microsoft's DRM (digital right management) so I opened Windows Media Player 10. It's the first time I run it (See! setting up and running Rhapsody are so high priority for me!) so I went thru some setup and it seems to have downloaded some components over the internet. Looks like that's the missing piece that prevented me from authorizing the computer as I was able to complete Step 0 afterwards (The choice became "Deauthorize computer" afterwards)
BTW, I submitted this issue to Rhapsody's support 4 hours ago, before I figured this out myself. No response yet. Well, the Windows/Real combination is certainly not for the computer skill challenge crowd. My money advice to Microsoft and companies: if you want to beat your competition (you know who, the name of that company starts with an "A" >:) you gotta make things that work smoothly, for everyone, not something that requires 2 Computer Science degrees!
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Service: AOL Radio
AOL has release a beta version of its portal today, which I've been waiting for since it's announcement a couple of months ago.
Urgh...... did I say I was looking forward to something from AOL? I'm not kidding. It's because AOL has partnered with XM to create their radio service and offering a few dozens channels free! Even though I didn't took the plunge to XM after a free trial (read my not-so-positive review here, I won't mind having it as a backup/alternative to Rhapsody (To Real: Rhapsody went down again last night! If it doesn't improve, I'm going to take my money elsewhere. You've got competitions!)
My first impression of AOL Radio is pretty good. All of my favorite genres (metal, jazz, blues, classical) are covered. In fact, AOL Radio has a good variety of channels dedicated to the sub-genres under each main genre. IMO, they are a grade above Yahoo's free LAUNCHCast Radio, which has less variety. (If you want more, you need to pay to listen to LAUNCHCast Plus, which still covers less than AOL's) You can't skip tracks on AOL Radio like you could with Yahoo though.
AOL: even though you're not getting a lot of love from the geek land. You do get some from Bigland. It's free! Enuff said.
Urgh...... did I say I was looking forward to something from AOL? I'm not kidding. It's because AOL has partnered with XM to create their radio service and offering a few dozens channels free! Even though I didn't took the plunge to XM after a free trial (read my not-so-positive review here, I won't mind having it as a backup/alternative to Rhapsody (To Real: Rhapsody went down again last night! If it doesn't improve, I'm going to take my money elsewhere. You've got competitions!)
My first impression of AOL Radio is pretty good. All of my favorite genres (metal, jazz, blues, classical) are covered. In fact, AOL Radio has a good variety of channels dedicated to the sub-genres under each main genre. IMO, they are a grade above Yahoo's free LAUNCHCast Radio, which has less variety. (If you want more, you need to pay to listen to LAUNCHCast Plus, which still covers less than AOL's) You can't skip tracks on AOL Radio like you could with Yahoo though.
AOL: even though you're not getting a lot of love from the geek land. You do get some from Bigland. It's free! Enuff said.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Artist: 6
Album: 6
Track: Angel
Looks like using numbers as names has become a popular practice for metal musicians: the members in Slipknots are named by numbers. And Marilyn Manson's guitarist is John 5. Now we have a band named 6! It probably has something to do with reflecting the going-digital/people-losing-identity/faceless nature of the modern society.
Anyway, 6 is equally interesting music-wise: another good example of blending electronic and rock (think NIN.)
Rhapsody Link
Track: Angel
Looks like using numbers as names has become a popular practice for metal musicians: the members in Slipknots are named by numbers. And Marilyn Manson's guitarist is John 5. Now we have a band named 6! It probably has something to do with reflecting the going-digital/people-losing-identity/faceless nature of the modern society.
Anyway, 6 is equally interesting music-wise: another good example of blending electronic and rock (think NIN.)
Rhapsody Link
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Artist: Ones and Zeros
Rhapsody link: "1. Fascination Street (by the Cure) - Ones And Zeros"
This band got my attention because of this cover of my favourite song by The Cure. Their electronic hard rock rendition of Fascination Street is certainly interesting. I guess this review best describes their sound: it's like Alice in Chains meet Filters. So, you know whether it's your cup of tea, or not...
This band got my attention because of this cover of my favourite song by The Cure. Their electronic hard rock rendition of Fascination Street is certainly interesting. I guess this review best describes their sound: it's like Alice in Chains meet Filters. So, you know whether it's your cup of tea, or not...
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Artist: System of a Down
As my bandmate said, System of a Down is the type of band that you either like it or hate it, a lot!
It's because they have a very unique sound, as evident in their songs like "Chop Suey" and "B.Y.O.B.", which you might have heard on the radio.
If you like alt metal but hate them because of the above songs, you should check out "Suite-Pee" and "P.L.U.C.K" (Rhapsody Link)from their self-titled album. These sound more "conventional" alt metal (is this term an oxymoron?)
It's because they have a very unique sound, as evident in their songs like "Chop Suey" and "B.Y.O.B.", which you might have heard on the radio.
If you like alt metal but hate them because of the above songs, you should check out "Suite-Pee" and "P.L.U.C.K" (Rhapsody Link)from their self-titled album. These sound more "conventional" alt metal (is this term an oxymoron?)
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Track: Aisha
Artist: John Coltrane
Album: Ole Coltrane
Even though I'm a huge Coltrane fan, I gotta admit I still haven't listened to everything from his catalog as he had such a prolific career. That explains why I've not listened to this wonderful ballad before. It is certainly much less well-known than the other ballad named after a lady, Naima. (I was curious about who Aisha is. The only thing I was able to find out is this was a McCoy Tyner composition. If anyone knows more about Aisha, please update this post)
Another reason this album is so overlooked is that it was the last recording Coltrane did for Atlantic records (after Giant Step and My Favourite Thing) as he was moving to Impulse. It actually features an all-star lineup and deserved much better exposures. Here is a detailed review of the album.
Rhapsody Link
Album: Ole Coltrane
Even though I'm a huge Coltrane fan, I gotta admit I still haven't listened to everything from his catalog as he had such a prolific career. That explains why I've not listened to this wonderful ballad before. It is certainly much less well-known than the other ballad named after a lady, Naima. (I was curious about who Aisha is. The only thing I was able to find out is this was a McCoy Tyner composition. If anyone knows more about Aisha, please update this post)
Another reason this album is so overlooked is that it was the last recording Coltrane did for Atlantic records (after Giant Step and My Favourite Thing) as he was moving to Impulse. It actually features an all-star lineup and deserved much better exposures. Here is a detailed review of the album.
Rhapsody Link
Artist: Stereomud
Track: Pain
Album: Perfect Self
I have not heard of this band before but this is one fine Alt Metal band! For some reason they're less well-known than the likes of Mudvayne and Staind. Yet another example to show that you need a lot of luck to succeed in this business.
I think bands like this must have benefited from recommendation engines of online music services like Rhapsody.
Rhapsody Link
Album: Perfect Self
I have not heard of this band before but this is one fine Alt Metal band! For some reason they're less well-known than the likes of Mudvayne and Staind. Yet another example to show that you need a lot of luck to succeed in this business.
I think bands like this must have benefited from recommendation engines of online music services like Rhapsody.
Rhapsody Link
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Store: Yourmusic.com ($5.99 CD!)
Yourmusic.com sells you CD for $5.99 (free shipping too!) That's cheaper than most 2nd-hand CDs! What's the catch? Well, it sorts of work like a music club (e.g. BMG/Columbia House) yet better: You have to buy 1 every month but you get to choose the CD from their catalog for that monthly CD (unlike BMG/CH who choose for you, and charge you expensive shipping) Again, what's the catch? Well, I have to say the "catch" is that the selection is kinda limited. I "tested" it with the CDs I wrote about here and I was only able to find Bill Frissell With Dave Holland And Elvin Jones but no Matthew Shipp, no David S. Ware, no Shadows Fall, no Arch Enemy...... These are kinda not-so-mainstream anyway. I could easily find another dozen of CDs I would like to own.
Sounds tempting? (Hey, if I switch from Rhapsody to Yahoo Music, the extra few bucks I saved could be spent on this......)
Sounds tempting? (Hey, if I switch from Rhapsody to Yahoo Music, the extra few bucks I saved could be spent on this......)
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Track: Part of the Queue
Artist: Oasis
Album: Don't Believe the Truth
Even though Oasis belongs to that group of bands I constantly criticize of ripping off old bands, for some reason I just like them. Their latest album doesn't seem to get as good reviews as they used to, and I tend to agree, but this is one of the better songs on the album. Ironically, I'm working on a queue processor right now! What a coincidence!
Rhapsody Link
Album: Don't Believe the Truth
Even though Oasis belongs to that group of bands I constantly criticize of ripping off old bands, for some reason I just like them. Their latest album doesn't seem to get as good reviews as they used to, and I tend to agree, but this is one of the better songs on the album. Ironically, I'm working on a queue processor right now! What a coincidence!
Rhapsody Link
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Album: Dreamland
Rhapsody Link: "1. Hey Joe - Robert Plant
2. One More Cup Of Coffee - Robert Plant"
I am not sure how many classic rock fan has followed Robert Plant's career from the Led Zeppelin era to his solo days. I'm certainly not one of them. In fact, I just "discovered" this all-cover album after I read a review of his latest one, "Mighty Rearranger."
Although Plant's "One More Cup of Coffee" retained a lot of the arrangement from Bob Dylan's version, it sounded as if it could have been Plant's own song. That's surprising. On the other hand, this version of "Hey Joe" is definitely very different from Hendrix's. What is interesting is that Jimi's most well-known cover is probably Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" These three songs form a full circle, cover-to-covered!
2. One More Cup Of Coffee - Robert Plant"
I am not sure how many classic rock fan has followed Robert Plant's career from the Led Zeppelin era to his solo days. I'm certainly not one of them. In fact, I just "discovered" this all-cover album after I read a review of his latest one, "Mighty Rearranger."
Although Plant's "One More Cup of Coffee" retained a lot of the arrangement from Bob Dylan's version, it sounded as if it could have been Plant's own song. That's surprising. On the other hand, this version of "Hey Joe" is definitely very different from Hendrix's. What is interesting is that Jimi's most well-known cover is probably Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" These three songs form a full circle, cover-to-covered!
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Album: Coverkill
Rhapsody Link: "1. No Feelings - Overkill"
Metal "historian" would tell you thrash metal is heavily influenced by punk. You might not hear it immediately but you could definitely tell when Megadeth and Overkill were covering Sex Pistol's songs.
BTW, clever name of the album!
Metal "historian" would tell you thrash metal is heavily influenced by punk. You might not hear it immediately but you could definitely tell when Megadeth and Overkill were covering Sex Pistol's songs.
BTW, clever name of the album!
Friday, May 06, 2005
Album: Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones
Rhapsody Link: "1. Outlaws - Bill Frisell"
Drummer Elvin Jones is best known for his polyrhythmic drum work as a member of John Coltrane Quartet. Bassist Dave Holland, well, is known for his versatility, well fit in small combo or big band or any setting you could think of. Guitarist Bill Frisell has a unique country/blues rooted sound. The three of them playing together? A lot of interesting chemistry is guaranteed.
Drummer Elvin Jones is best known for his polyrhythmic drum work as a member of John Coltrane Quartet. Bassist Dave Holland, well, is known for his versatility, well fit in small combo or big band or any setting you could think of. Guitarist Bill Frisell has a unique country/blues rooted sound. The three of them playing together? A lot of interesting chemistry is guaranteed.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Album: Quintessence Volume 2
Rhapsody Link: "1. We'll Be Together Again - The Stan Gets Quartet With Chet Baker"
If there is a "sound" that could make people "fall in love too easily" (pun intended,) it gotta be from Stan Getz's saxophone. Ballad like this is his forte.
If there is a "sound" that could make people "fall in love too easily" (pun intended,) it gotta be from Stan Getz's saxophone. Ballad like this is his forte.
Album: Crazy People Music
Rhapsody Link: "1. Spartacus - Branford Marsalis"
Maybe it's just me. I always feel that Branford is a bit undervalued as a Post-bop saxophonist. Probably he got "tainted" by his pop music side projects. :P I first listened to his album "Requiem" from 1999 and was very impressed but he has been playing awesome Post-bop way before that, for example, "Crazy People Music" was from 1990.
Maybe it's just me. I always feel that Branford is a bit undervalued as a Post-bop saxophonist. Probably he got "tainted" by his pop music side projects. :P I first listened to his album "Requiem" from 1999 and was very impressed but he has been playing awesome Post-bop way before that, for example, "Crazy People Music" was from 1990.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Album: Back From The Dead
Rhapsody link: "1. Bullituary - (remix) - Obituary"
Althought they're not the first band that do hip-hop/metal crossover, doing it in 1997 still shows Obituary was a band with vision. That's 7 years before Jay-Z/Linkin Park.
Althought they're not the first band that do hip-hop/metal crossover, doing it in 1997 still shows Obituary was a band with vision. That's 7 years before Jay-Z/Linkin Park.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Artist: Interpol
Rhapsody Link: "1. Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down - Interpol"
I wasn't bothered to pay too much attention to Interpol since it's labelled as post-punk but not from across the Atlantic! Glad to 're-discover' them. Thanks to the Instant Playlist feature of the new Rhapsody.
(BTW, This is the first time I try blogging from the new Rhapsody client! Nice thing is that it automatically include the song title and band name!)
I wasn't bothered to pay too much attention to Interpol since it's labelled as post-punk but not from across the Atlantic! Glad to 're-discover' them. Thanks to the Instant Playlist feature of the new Rhapsody.
(BTW, This is the first time I try blogging from the new Rhapsody client! Nice thing is that it automatically include the song title and band name!)
Service: New Rhapsody
I'm kinda surprised by the lack of coverage of Rhapsody To Go, which was just released today, by major gadget/digital music blogs.
Well, we knew Rhapsody will release a "to-go" (i.e., portable music) product soon, since Napster released Napster-to-go a couple of months ago. I was hoping the lag (behind Napster) has to do with Real working on some much better/advanced features than Napster (maybe compatibility with iPod or Palm?) but I was wrong. Maybe this contributes to the lack of interest. Anyway, the underlying mechanism of both are the same: Microsoft's Janus (aka. PlaysForSure) DRM. So I don't understand why Rhapsody couldn't release it sooner.
For people not planning to replace or get a PlaysForSure compatible digital music player soon (like myself,) there is still something good coming out of this release: the new Rhapsody player. Like the old one, it has all the existing playlist/search feature to access the Rhapsody service. In addition, it incorporated our old friend: the Real Jukebox, which manages an integrated "local" (i.e. your hard drive) and "online" (i.e. Rhapsody) library, and supports burning and ripping CDs (MP3 up to 320Kbps! I still remember the old free version of Real Jukebox only rips MP3 to 96Kbps max) Most importantly, now it provides personalization/recommendation capability, which IMO is way overdue as Yahoo! Launch had it way back. With the knowledge of individual musical taste, Rhapsody should really make good use of it to recommend music.
BTW, AP reports Real "giving away" 25 songs thru its new free tier of Rhapsody service named Rhapsody 25. That seems to be a little bit misleading: if I understand it correctly, Rhapsody 25 users could listen to 25 songs per month (unlike paid users of Rhapsody Unlimited, formerly known as All-Access, who could listen to as much songs as they like) That's very different from giving users 25 DRM free (or even DRM-ed) files of music.
Summary: the player seems to be a good upgrade even if you just want the Rhapsody "Unlimited" service. (It hasn't crashed my PC yet >:)
Well, we knew Rhapsody will release a "to-go" (i.e., portable music) product soon, since Napster released Napster-to-go a couple of months ago. I was hoping the lag (behind Napster) has to do with Real working on some much better/advanced features than Napster (maybe compatibility with iPod or Palm?) but I was wrong. Maybe this contributes to the lack of interest. Anyway, the underlying mechanism of both are the same: Microsoft's Janus (aka. PlaysForSure) DRM. So I don't understand why Rhapsody couldn't release it sooner.
For people not planning to replace or get a PlaysForSure compatible digital music player soon (like myself,) there is still something good coming out of this release: the new Rhapsody player. Like the old one, it has all the existing playlist/search feature to access the Rhapsody service. In addition, it incorporated our old friend: the Real Jukebox, which manages an integrated "local" (i.e. your hard drive) and "online" (i.e. Rhapsody) library, and supports burning and ripping CDs (MP3 up to 320Kbps! I still remember the old free version of Real Jukebox only rips MP3 to 96Kbps max) Most importantly, now it provides personalization/recommendation capability, which IMO is way overdue as Yahoo! Launch had it way back. With the knowledge of individual musical taste, Rhapsody should really make good use of it to recommend music.
BTW, AP reports Real "giving away" 25 songs thru its new free tier of Rhapsody service named Rhapsody 25. That seems to be a little bit misleading: if I understand it correctly, Rhapsody 25 users could listen to 25 songs per month (unlike paid users of Rhapsody Unlimited, formerly known as All-Access, who could listen to as much songs as they like) That's very different from giving users 25 DRM free (or even DRM-ed) files of music.
Summary: the player seems to be a good upgrade even if you just want the Rhapsody "Unlimited" service. (It hasn't crashed my PC yet >:)
Monday, April 25, 2005
Album: Jazz 101: Introduction to Jazz Guitar
Track: Get Out of Town
Artist: Barney Kessel
You would think I've listened to some Barney Kessel's work before as I'm a huge fan of jazz and guitar but I haven't. This is indeed a good introduction to Kessel's jazz guitar works for me.
More interesting is the "roster" on this compilation: Emily Remler, Laurindo Almeida and Frank Vignola are not exactly household names (even Jmmy Bruno, Tal Farlow and George Van Eps are arguably Jazz 201.) For me, the more new names, the happier I am!
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: Barney Kessel
You would think I've listened to some Barney Kessel's work before as I'm a huge fan of jazz and guitar but I haven't. This is indeed a good introduction to Kessel's jazz guitar works for me.
More interesting is the "roster" on this compilation: Emily Remler, Laurindo Almeida and Frank Vignola are not exactly household names (even Jmmy Bruno, Tal Farlow and George Van Eps are arguably Jazz 201.) For me, the more new names, the happier I am!
RHAPSODY Link
Friday, April 22, 2005
Artist: The Strokes
Track: Barely Legal
Rhapsody didn't list "New Order" as their influence. I wonder why.
Are you guys tired of all these bands that sound pretty much like those from years ago?
The Rapture is like the Cure
The Jets is like AC/DC
Oasis is like the Beatles. (I love Oasis though :P)
RHAPSODY Link
Rhapsody didn't list "New Order" as their influence. I wonder why.
Are you guys tired of all these bands that sound pretty much like those from years ago?
The Rapture is like the Cure
The Jets is like AC/DC
Oasis is like the Beatles. (I love Oasis though :P)
RHAPSODY Link
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Track: The Three Marias
Album: This is Jazz #19
Artist: Wayne Shorter
Isn't it ironic that the previous album I blogged about was titled "What is Jazz"?
Anyway, if I don't tell you who played this, you might think it's from yet another smooth jazz guy. I'm truely surprised to hear this consider my idea of Wayne Shorter is his post-bop stuff on "Speak No Evil"
Now I won't be surprised to hear Kenny G playing avant-garde.
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: Wayne Shorter
Isn't it ironic that the previous album I blogged about was titled "What is Jazz"?
Anyway, if I don't tell you who played this, you might think it's from yet another smooth jazz guy. I'm truely surprised to hear this consider my idea of Wayne Shorter is his post-bop stuff on "Speak No Evil"
Now I won't be surprised to hear Kenny G playing avant-garde.
RHAPSODY Link
Monday, April 18, 2005
Artist: Mario Pavone Sextet
Track: Double Diamond
Album: What is Jazz? 1996
What is jazz? I think the more important question is: "What is good jazz?" This track definitely answers it as it sounds adventrous and innovative. Those are qualities of good jazz IMO.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: What is Jazz? 1996
What is jazz? I think the more important question is: "What is good jazz?" This track definitely answers it as it sounds adventrous and innovative. Those are qualities of good jazz IMO.
RHAPSODY Link
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Playlist: Covers of the Most Influential Songs in the History of Rock and Roll
Although I like the originals better, it's still interesting to listen to the covers.
BTW, I got this from the "Rhandom" link/button on Rhapsody Radish
RHAPSODY Link
BTW, I got this from the "Rhandom" link/button on Rhapsody Radish
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Goin' Down South
Artist: R.L. Burnside
Album: A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey
I am not familiar with Delta Blues and Mr. Burnside's work at all. This is such a powerful song that doesn't seem to fit the "mostly acoustic" description. In any case, the more electric the better I like it.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey
I am not familiar with Delta Blues and Mr. Burnside's work at all. This is such a powerful song that doesn't seem to fit the "mostly acoustic" description. In any case, the more electric the better I like it.
RHAPSODY Link
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Artist: Walls of Jericho
If Rhapsody ever reads this blog, please properly reclassify this band from Electronica/Dance to Metalcore.
BTW, I learned this band from the "Chicks of Metal" episode of Uranium (the Fuse channel metal show) The "frontlady", Candace Kucsulain, has a really powerful voice.
RHAPSODY Link
BTW, I learned this band from the "Chicks of Metal" episode of Uranium (the Fuse channel metal show) The "frontlady", Candace Kucsulain, has a really powerful voice.
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Soul In Isolation
Artist: The Chameleons UK
Album: Strange Times
I think Rhapsody is playing this track on my station because I have Joy Division on the list. The Chameleons sounds more like the Mission (UK) to me. In any case, this is great Post-Punk/Goth.
BTW, this UK suffix definitely reflect the US-centric bias of the service. (Well, this service is currently available in US only anyway. Who knows when it'll get really successful and goes global?) The Chameleons (UK) was not only better known but also established earlier than their US namesake. Same for the Mission. IMO Rhapsody should have either suffix the US ones or at least both. The French's fear of Google marginalizing all non-US culture/literature is not totally groundless.
RHAPSODY Link to 'Untitled' instead of the above track since it is not available for on-demand listening. Too bad :(
Album: Strange Times
I think Rhapsody is playing this track on my station because I have Joy Division on the list. The Chameleons sounds more like the Mission (UK) to me. In any case, this is great Post-Punk/Goth.
BTW, this UK suffix definitely reflect the US-centric bias of the service. (Well, this service is currently available in US only anyway. Who knows when it'll get really successful and goes global?) The Chameleons (UK) was not only better known but also established earlier than their US namesake. Same for the Mission. IMO Rhapsody should have either suffix the US ones or at least both. The French's fear of Google marginalizing all non-US culture/literature is not totally groundless.
RHAPSODY Link to 'Untitled' instead of the above track since it is not available for on-demand listening. Too bad :(
Monday, March 28, 2005
Artist: Oscar Lopez
If you like Jesse Cook, Gypsy King, Strunz and Farah, you gotta check out Oscar Lopez's Flamenco guitar works.
RHAPSODY Link
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Joe Henderson in Japan
For some reason the album's title doesn't mention it's live. Joe Henderson was accompanied by top-notch Japanese jazz musicians, whose names I wasn't able to find on the web. Just like these musicians, this album should have been more well-known than it is 'coz the music on it is awesom: simply hard bop at its best.
While I'm at it, I've got an enhancement request for Rhapsody: it's OK not to have all liner notes available for every album but could you please at least list the personnel? That's especially important for jazz and classical.
RHAPSODY Link
While I'm at it, I've got an enhancement request for Rhapsody: it's OK not to have all liner notes available for every album but could you please at least list the personnel? That's especially important for jazz and classical.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: The JazzTimes Superband
Personnel: Bob Berg (tenor saxophone); Randy Brecker (trumpet, flugelhorn); Joey DeFrancesco (Hammond B-3 organ); Paul Bollenback (guitar); Dennis Chambers (drums).
Obviously this is an All-Star lineup. I have no idea why this album flew below my radar screen when it was out in 2000. Fortunately I discovered it through Michael Brecker's similar artist link on Rhapsody.
This is made by Concord Records to celebrate the 30th anniversary of JazzTimes magazine. The magazine gotta feel really honored by such a fantastic album.
RHAPSODY Link
Obviously this is an All-Star lineup. I have no idea why this album flew below my radar screen when it was out in 2000. Fortunately I discovered it through Michael Brecker's similar artist link on Rhapsody.
This is made by Concord Records to celebrate the 30th anniversary of JazzTimes magazine. The magazine gotta feel really honored by such a fantastic album.
RHAPSODY Link
Friday, March 25, 2005
Artist: Life Of Agony
Album: 1989-1999
This band seems to be one of the many decent metal bands that went under the radar 'coz they didn't go the "Grunge" way and made it big in the early 90s. This album is a collection of their work during the 90s. Most are pretty original sounding Thrash/Alt metal.
RHAPSODY Link
This band seems to be one of the many decent metal bands that went under the radar 'coz they didn't go the "Grunge" way and made it big in the early 90s. This album is a collection of their work during the 90s. Most are pretty original sounding Thrash/Alt metal.
RHAPSODY Link
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Track: Volt Heart
Artist: The Iguanas
Album: Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart
Thanks to Mark for recommending this song. It indeed brings back the good ol' memory of listening to late night radio in bed (or by the desk, last minute studying for upcoming exam at 2am)
BTW, blogging really is one of the best feature of Rhapsody, allowing fellow Rhapsodites (sp?) sharing their thoughts.
(Slightly related news: radio giant Clear Channel is going to experiment with new strategy. Would you care?)
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart
Thanks to Mark for recommending this song. It indeed brings back the good ol' memory of listening to late night radio in bed (or by the desk, last minute studying for upcoming exam at 2am)
BTW, blogging really is one of the best feature of Rhapsody, allowing fellow Rhapsodites (sp?) sharing their thoughts.
(Slightly related news: radio giant Clear Channel is going to experiment with new strategy. Would you care?)
RHAPSODY Link
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Album: I Got No Kick Against Modern Jazz
Label: GRP Records
Man, looks like I'm obsessed with jazz covers of Beatles! This one is from GRP so you could imagine it's mostly smooth jazz (but not all.)
RHAPSODY Link
Man, looks like I'm obsessed with jazz covers of Beatles! This one is from GRP so you could imagine it's mostly smooth jazz (but not all.)
RHAPSODY Link
Track: A Chain of Flowers
Artist: The Cure
Album: Join The Dots: B-Sides & Rarities
Found another gem of the Cure on this box set of B-sides. This track sounds like it could have been on the Disintegration album, which is considered their best by some of their fans, including me.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Join The Dots: B-Sides & Rarities
Found another gem of the Cure on this box set of B-sides. This track sounds like it could have been on the Disintegration album, which is considered their best by some of their fans, including me.
RHAPSODY Link
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Track: We All Stand
Album: Power, Corruption & Lies
Artist: New Order
If the only New Order song you've heard is 'Bizarre Love Triangle,' you might have been wondering why they were considered the 2nd coming of Joy Division at one point (besides having all surviving members from J.D. after Ian Curtis' suicide)
I did too, until I heard this song, from their 2nd album, which also contains 'Blue Monday.'
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: New Order
If the only New Order song you've heard is 'Bizarre Love Triangle,' you might have been wondering why they were considered the 2nd coming of Joy Division at one point (besides having all surviving members from J.D. after Ian Curtis' suicide)
I did too, until I heard this song, from their 2nd album, which also contains 'Blue Monday.'
RHAPSODY Link
Friday, March 18, 2005
Track: Night Flower
Artist: Donald Byrd
Album: Free Form
I didn't expect such a beautiful ballad from the trumpeter better known for his funk jazz stuff. Great recommendation by Rhapsody (do they really analyze what I listen to and show this album on the front page for me? That I don't know)
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Free Form
I didn't expect such a beautiful ballad from the trumpeter better known for his funk jazz stuff. Great recommendation by Rhapsody (do they really analyze what I listen to and show this album on the front page for me? That I don't know)
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: Candlebox
Track: You
Album: Candlebox
Do you notice how good grunge (or post-grunge in this case) sound, a decade after its hey-day? (Special thanks to the poster on Engadget who mentioned this being the last CD he bought before he boycotted RIAA)
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Candlebox
Do you notice how good grunge (or post-grunge in this case) sound, a decade after its hey-day? (Special thanks to the poster on Engadget who mentioned this being the last CD he bought before he boycotted RIAA)
RHAPSODY Link
Service: Napster-to-go
Previously I wrote an article about the virtue of a subscription-based music service Note that my excitement about subscription-to-go services is only theoretical as I have subscribed to Rhapsody but not Napster-to-Go for lacking compatible MP3 player. Here is a detailed review of the latter from The New York Times. Both of us brought up the same point/appeal of the low cost of experimenting with new music. It's interesting to see that the reviewer wrote 'I hit Napster thinking that maybe half of the tracks I'd want would be "buy only." To my amazement, it was less than a tenth..... even, yes, Metallica have made their entire catalogs available for subscription download.'
Side note: his comments about ditching his TiVo was equally interesting: 'I recently discovered (with some horror) that I could live without TiVo. Time Warner Cable offered a box with better picture quality at a better price - about $9 a month with nothing up front. Compared with TiVo, the new box's interface is medieval dentist painful to use, but I use it and I don't look back.'
Side note: his comments about ditching his TiVo was equally interesting: 'I recently discovered (with some horror) that I could live without TiVo. Time Warner Cable offered a box with better picture quality at a better price - about $9 a month with nothing up front. Compared with TiVo, the new box's interface is medieval dentist painful to use, but I use it and I don't look back.'
Opinion: PyMusique = your iTunes without DRM
Just when Stevie J happily pointed out a "non-hack" that allows people to record songs from Naspter-to-Go, his very own music store is running into its own problem: meet PyMusique The "hack" that allows users to buy songs from iTunes Music Store without being locked down by DRM (digital right management) It is this very DRM that restrict their songs to play on the users' own computers and iPods only. Note that this hack doesn't advocate piracy: you still need to pay for your own tracks. It's just that you will have more freedom with what you've bought. Hey, doesn't that sound like ... fair use?
Bad Karma, Steve.
Bad Karma, Steve.
Album: Chet Atkins Picks On The Beatles
Track: Yesterday
Artist: Chet Atkins
I'm on my third different cover of Yesterday! Chet Atkins is best known as a country player but he's much more than that as you could witness from this album.
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: Chet Atkins
I'm on my third different cover of Yesterday! Chet Atkins is best known as a country player but he's much more than that as you could witness from this album.
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Eleanor Rigby
Artist: Sugo Music
Album: The Beatles Instrumental Jazz Tribute
How about another jazzy Beatles' cover? This one is very upbeat, perfect for this gloomy weather :D
Don't let their name fool you into thinking they make elevator music!
RHAPSODY Link
Album: The Beatles Instrumental Jazz Tribute
How about another jazzy Beatles' cover? This one is very upbeat, perfect for this gloomy weather :D
Don't let their name fool you into thinking they make elevator music!
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Yesterday
Artist: Joe Pass
Album: Virtuoso #4
This morning I'm definitely in the mood of some jazzy Beatles' cover. What could be better than Joe Pass' version of "Yesterday"? I miss my LPs of Pass' Virtuoso Vol. 1 & 2 that I left in Hong Kong!
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Virtuoso #4
This morning I'm definitely in the mood of some jazzy Beatles' cover. What could be better than Joe Pass' version of "Yesterday"? I miss my LPs of Pass' Virtuoso Vol. 1 & 2 that I left in Hong Kong!
RHAPSODY Link
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Track: Angel
Artist: Simply Red
I've performed a search on tracks named 'Angel' on Rhapsody and there are ~1600 'Angel' available (and ~7000 including the ones not available!)
Simply Red is my favourite white soul band but this one may not be my favourite Angel (of course my favourite gotta be Jimi Hendrix's!) Anyway, it's interesting enough.
RHAPSODY Link
I've performed a search on tracks named 'Angel' on Rhapsody and there are ~1600 'Angel' available (and ~7000 including the ones not available!)
Simply Red is my favourite white soul band but this one may not be my favourite Angel (of course my favourite gotta be Jimi Hendrix's!) Anyway, it's interesting enough.
RHAPSODY Link
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Track: Another Time, Another Place
Artist: David Sanborn
Album: Closer
I'm not going to buy this CD for sure since I don't need another version of "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" but this is a good track that I'll listen again. I do see a market in selling music on a track-by-track basis when physical media is not involved and thus keeping the price of singles reasonable enough. (I did buy the DVD-A version of the Sanborn album before this for testing my new DVD-A/SACD Universal player. While that album, Timeagain, is supposed to be unplayable on some models, the music itself was not bad at all.)
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Closer
I'm not going to buy this CD for sure since I don't need another version of "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" but this is a good track that I'll listen again. I do see a market in selling music on a track-by-track basis when physical media is not involved and thus keeping the price of singles reasonable enough. (I did buy the DVD-A version of the Sanborn album before this for testing my new DVD-A/SACD Universal player. While that album, Timeagain, is supposed to be unplayable on some models, the music itself was not bad at all.)
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Point of Many Returns
Artist: Sam Rivers
Album: Contours
I should listen to more of this now that I'm in the mood of straight-ahead jazz. Of course he's more well-known for his avant-garde works.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Contours
I should listen to more of this now that I'm in the mood of straight-ahead jazz. Of course he's more well-known for his avant-garde works.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Strength
Artist: The Rh Factor
Track: Listen Here
This pretty good groove jazz album fell off my radar screen just because it's from Rh (aka Roy Hargrove) I guess I like his straight-ahead stuff too much.
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Listen Here
This pretty good groove jazz album fell off my radar screen just because it's from Rh (aka Roy Hargrove) I guess I like his straight-ahead stuff too much.
RHAPSODY Link
Track: Compassion (Ballad)
Artist: Chick Corea
Album: Change
Well, you know for sure it's a ballad from its title. And it's a wonderful one.
Another useful thing about Rhapsody: now I could listen to albums I no longer have, like the whole bunch of cassettes that didn't migrate with me to US, or in this case a missing CD. This CD went AWOL with Depeche Mode's 101 and other couples of my favourites while I was living in NYC.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Change
Well, you know for sure it's a ballad from its title. And it's a wonderful one.
Another useful thing about Rhapsody: now I could listen to albums I no longer have, like the whole bunch of cassettes that didn't migrate with me to US, or in this case a missing CD. This CD went AWOL with Depeche Mode's 101 and other couples of my favourites while I was living in NYC.
RHAPSODY Link
Monday, March 07, 2005
Article: What happened to radio?
I bet most music lovers of our generations grew up listening to a lot of radio (and still do if they have long commute) And most of us are sick of the poor current quality of programming. It was summed up the best by this Wired magazine's article: short playlist dictated by computer, blocks of 10-minute screaming ads. This interesting article explained what happened to the radio industry in the recent years in details and what forces it to change.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Opinion: "renting music" = bad idea? A closer look
If you follow the reactions to the new Napster-to-go service, you have probably heard these popular arguments against the idea of "renting music" (actually it should be called music-on-demand):
Argument #1: you lose everything once you no longer pay for subscription so this is no good compared to "buy and own your music"
Argument #2: if you have to pay to listen, why don't you get satellite radio?
Well, don't bash music-on-demand just because it is not as intuitive an idea as CD and radio. IMO this type of service is ideal for people who like to actively search for new music. The keywords are "new" and "active":
[New] I'm the type who get tired of music fairly easily (my typical listening pattern of a new CD is: once for the first week, once for the 2nd, once for another month, 5-10 more times for its "lifetime" unless it becomes an all-time favorite like "Kind of Blue." Even my all-time favorites do not get a lot of playtime for fear of getting bored. This pattern changed somewhat because of my use of shuffle on iPod/iTunes though) So $9.99/month for all-music-I-could-listen is a dream comes true for me. I would never be able to afford buying that many new CDs. And I won't hear that many new music on radio (even satellite radio) either 'coz they usually maintain playlists and are often repetitive (More of my unfavorable review of XM radio here.)
[Active] Radio advocates say radio is superior because (1) zero effort is required to listen to radio (once you've setup your radio and antenna properly) and (2) DJs would expand their horizon by introducing new artists/albums/trends to them while on-demand listeners has to pick music by themselves and keep listening to what they know and have heard before. I'd like to point out this is simply a matter of preference between being active or passive. Listeners who actively search for and listen to music from artists similar to their favorites on demand would probably listen to a higher percentage of music they like than passive radio listeners. On-demand listeners could experiment with music they haven't heard before without risking the cost of full-priced CDs and thus expand their horizon economically.
BTW, although they might not be programmed by "celebrity" DJs, Rhapsody does provide many different "radio" channels for those "passive" listeners.
Argument #1: you lose everything once you no longer pay for subscription so this is no good compared to "buy and own your music"
Argument #2: if you have to pay to listen, why don't you get satellite radio?
Well, don't bash music-on-demand just because it is not as intuitive an idea as CD and radio. IMO this type of service is ideal for people who like to actively search for new music. The keywords are "new" and "active":
[New] I'm the type who get tired of music fairly easily (my typical listening pattern of a new CD is: once for the first week, once for the 2nd, once for another month, 5-10 more times for its "lifetime" unless it becomes an all-time favorite like "Kind of Blue." Even my all-time favorites do not get a lot of playtime for fear of getting bored. This pattern changed somewhat because of my use of shuffle on iPod/iTunes though) So $9.99/month for all-music-I-could-listen is a dream comes true for me. I would never be able to afford buying that many new CDs. And I won't hear that many new music on radio (even satellite radio) either 'coz they usually maintain playlists and are often repetitive (More of my unfavorable review of XM radio here.)
[Active] Radio advocates say radio is superior because (1) zero effort is required to listen to radio (once you've setup your radio and antenna properly) and (2) DJs would expand their horizon by introducing new artists/albums/trends to them while on-demand listeners has to pick music by themselves and keep listening to what they know and have heard before. I'd like to point out this is simply a matter of preference between being active or passive. Listeners who actively search for and listen to music from artists similar to their favorites on demand would probably listen to a higher percentage of music they like than passive radio listeners. On-demand listeners could experiment with music they haven't heard before without risking the cost of full-priced CDs and thus expand their horizon economically.
BTW, although they might not be programmed by "celebrity" DJs, Rhapsody does provide many different "radio" channels for those "passive" listeners.
Artist: Matthew Shipp
Track: Paradox Y
Album: Matthew Shipp's New Orbits
I know about this avant-garde pianist through his work as member of the awesome David S. Ware Quartet. He's equally amazing as leader of his own group.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Matthew Shipp's New Orbits
I know about this avant-garde pianist through his work as member of the awesome David S. Ware Quartet. He's equally amazing as leader of his own group.
RHAPSODY Link
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Artist: The Mission UK
Album: Sum & Substance: Best Of The Mission
I almost forgot I used to like this band very much. I've rediscovered them thanks to Rhapsody! "Butterfly On A Wheel" was a big hit once upon a time. (And they sounded like U2 the most on this track :P ) "Deliverance" is my favourite on this Best-of album.
RHAPSODY Link
I almost forgot I used to like this band very much. I've rediscovered them thanks to Rhapsody! "Butterfly On A Wheel" was a big hit once upon a time. (And they sounded like U2 the most on this track :P ) "Deliverance" is my favourite on this Best-of album.
RHAPSODY Link
Album: Zoon
Track: Shine
Artist: Nefilim
Nefilim is the second incarnation of IMHO one of the best goth band ever: Fields of the Nephilim. This album sounds heavier than anything from FOTN.
Here is an in-depth analysis of the myth behind this album
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: Nefilim
Nefilim is the second incarnation of IMHO one of the best goth band ever: Fields of the Nephilim. This album sounds heavier than anything from FOTN.
Here is an in-depth analysis of the myth behind this album
RHAPSODY Link
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Artist: Annihilator
Album: Carnival Diablos
Annihilator deserves a lot of credit for sticking with the fundamentals of thrash metal in this day of age, instead of selling out like Metallica did.
I salute them!
RHAPSODY Link
Annihilator deserves a lot of credit for sticking with the fundamentals of thrash metal in this day of age, instead of selling out like Metallica did.
I salute them!
RHAPSODY Link
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Album: Jazz Loft Session
Track: Pensive
Artist: Julius Hemphill
This is another track I like from this avant-garde jazz album, from the era when musicians experimented with new stuff in Manhattan lofts.
RHAPSODY Link
Artist: Julius Hemphill
This is another track I like from this avant-garde jazz album, from the era when musicians experimented with new stuff in Manhattan lofts.
RHAPSODY Link
Friday, February 25, 2005
Artist: Wynton Marsalis
Album: Standard Time Vol. 3: The Resolution Of Romance
His ultra-conservative view on jazz certainly deserves a lot of criticism but I gotta admit he didn't do a bad job on interpreting standards.
RHAPSODY Link
His ultra-conservative view on jazz certainly deserves a lot of criticism but I gotta admit he didn't do a bad job on interpreting standards.
RHAPSODY Link
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Service: Rhapsody
Consider this a follow-up to my previous article on online music service I went for Rhapsody's 7-day free trial and they won me over as a subscriber.
Here is a pretty good end-user review of Rhapsody (including a "workaround" for Mac user who has PC) I agree with him a lot and I'm not going to repeat his points here. The bottomline is: there is music I'd love to listen to unavailable on Rhapsody for sure, but there is enough music available to keep me happy. One particularly useful option of its search feature is "View all." Even though an artist is unavailable, you could still check out his/her bio and look for similar artists.
Check out the result of my sampling of what is available on Rhapsody and what is not by using mostly nonmainstream artists/albums:
Tip for those who are sold on Rhapsody: if you subscribe through Listen.com, you will have the option of quarterly billing, which saves ~$1.63 a month.
Here is a pretty good end-user review of Rhapsody (including a "workaround" for Mac user who has PC) I agree with him a lot and I'm not going to repeat his points here. The bottomline is: there is music I'd love to listen to unavailable on Rhapsody for sure, but there is enough music available to keep me happy. One particularly useful option of its search feature is "View all." Even though an artist is unavailable, you could still check out his/her bio and look for similar artists.
Check out the result of my sampling of what is available on Rhapsody and what is not by using mostly nonmainstream artists/albums:
| Punk: Available | Punk: Unavailable |
|---|---|
| TSOL, Rise Above: 24 Black Flag songs | Minor Threat, Punk Goes Metal |
| Jazz: Available | Jazz: Unavailable |
| Alice Coltrane, Jack Wilkins (1 album only) Jazz Loft Session | Maria Schneider, David Murray (none except for compilations) |
| Metal: Available | Metal: Unavailable |
| Death Angel, Annihilator, Sabbath (no pre-Dio except from compilations), Smashing Pumpkins (none except from compilations) | Tool, John 5, Exodus, Impaled, Shadows Fall, Metal Massacre |
| Classic rock: Available | Classic rock: Unavailable |
| Pink Floyd (every album except Division Bell but who cares?) | Led Zeppelin, Beatles |
Tip for those who are sold on Rhapsody: if you subscribe through Listen.com, you will have the option of quarterly billing, which saves ~$1.63 a month.
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