DRM

I do apologize for the lack of posts, it isn't that I don't have music I'd like to review and share, it's that I'm so horribly busy that I can't take the time to listen to a few tracks like I could a few weeks ago. Rather than skip an entry today, I thought I would provide my insights on a musical issue that's so close to my heart, I can feel it stabbing me.

DRM or "Digital Rights Management" is really ruining my days, as you may or may not know I run a Linux laptop now, because I like Linux, but alot of the music I buy from online stores will not play on my computer, why? DRM. My computer is unable to acquire the license to play music I have purchased legally, thus rendering me incapable of enjoying music that I own, is that right? No. Needless to say, I know how to get around DRM so that I can enjoy my music, but after jumping through all of the hoops to remove this protection, I've spent just as much as the music cost me in the first place, meaning I just paid double for my CD.

I understand the mindset behind DRM, it makes perfect sense that an artist doesn't want his music shared illegally and I'm totally behind that, but there has to be a better way, I understand that I made the choice to go opensource, you know, running headlong into an operating environment where not every little thing is supported, but that doesn't mean that I should play extra to use something my computer can handle (mp3s) because of a little thing called DRM, if you get me.

Until the time that some better system comes out, I think I'll stick with Lala, I like CDs better anyway.

Just Some News...

Sorry for the recent lack of entries, I've been quite busy...

Just one quick thing, ever since posting my Myspace address, I've noticed an influx of porn-bots, or at least users that act a hell of a lot like porn-bots. If you want to be my friend, that's absolutely cool, but I do ask that you drop me a quick line so that I know you're a human, then post a quick comment on my profile to ease my mind. Lots of work, and I apologize, but I'd like to have a clean friends list, thank you very much.

I promise there will be a review tomorrow, who it will be, on the other hand, I'm not sure...

One Hand Loves the Other

A little band out of Georgia emailed me the other day, a band by the name of One Hand Loves the Other, the brought me a track, Burden of Barnacles, which is just a wonderful blend of electronic work with their singers almost operatic voice, and man can this man hit those higher reaches of the scale. I must say that I prefer some of the other tracks on their Myspace a bit more, but Burden of Barnacles is well...beautiful in a way, with it's melodies and wonderful vocal work, the kind of music sort of anti to what I normally review, it's a great change of pace and I can't wait to hear more! Definitely check out their Myspace and listen to all the tracks listed, why are you still here? GO NOW!

OHLtO is heading out on a tour of the East Coast, and I'm saddened that they won't be touching Kentucky at all, I'd love to meet this band! Support their wonderful work by buying stuff from them, and going to their show if they hit up your town!

Dufus

I've always been uncomfortable talking to people from other countries, I always feel like I'm butchering their language at every pronunciation (“Cooon baaaan waaah?!”) and especially the English, it's like I've been speaking THEIR language all my life, and I'm still doing it wrong...

Anyway, that entire paragraph exists only because I was asked by a English label Iron Man Records to review a couple of tracks by one of their artists, Dufus. Gloriously upbeat, with an infectious rhythm, I can't help but move around a bit when I listen to the songs provided. I've been granted permission to offer you some tracks, so I'm serving up two:

A Having Party - A nice, catchy, upbeat tune, great to sing along with for sure. I first noticed that the lead's voice was a bit unconventional, though it quickly grew on me, it's quirky tone lending itself very well to Dufus's style.

Babylon Com - To tell the truth, I did a double...listen? A totally different sound from Dufus for this track, though you have to take into account that the previous track was from back in 2001, and this one is from their new album that hit back in October of '06. Overall, the track was very mellow and nice to kick back and vibe to, it's a bit long so you really get a chance to sink into the sound and appreciate how complex it really is, though it could just be that I'm too shallow to see how deep some tracks really are...

Stay tuned! More great artists coming down the pipes! And as always, buy CDs because I'll love you if you do!

Counter Installed

People are asking me to review their CDs, and I've gotten a comment! I just wanna know how much traffic I'm gettin, if it bothers you email me and I'll take it down.

Artless Fiction

Sorry for the lack of an entry yesterday, but I have an excuse! I switched over to Linux (mainly Ubuntu) as my main OS and was having difficulties with it and my hardware, namely Ubuntu and my wireless card don't get along (and still don't, I'll have to sort that out later though).

Anyway, I recently received an email from a member of a band called Artless Fiction, asking me to give their album, "An Uncommon Way to Wealth" a listen and post up my thoughts, or in other words "review" it. After some difficulties with their streaming media player, and amazing cooperation on the band's part, I managed to listen to this album, and let me tell you: I liked it, so much so in fact that I happened to take some notes on each song, though it would help if you stream the songs along with my notes, so that you can actually understand what I'm saying for each song, I didn't write much, but I thought that perhaps noting what I liked and disliked about each song would help me form a more complete "review" as a whole, as you can see, I want to do my first request right!

First off, Artless Fiction isn't the type of music I normally like, lots of electronic work, in fact a majority of the songs have little to no guitar, and even fewer have vocals provided by a singer within the band (there's a lot of recorded audio however). Now these aren't necessarily bad things, in fact these things make "An Uncommon Way to Wealth" a very nice "chill" album, the kind of music that won't get in the way of work if placed in the background; but I don't want to underwrite it either, it's magnificent music, with artful blending of quite a few different genres, namely rock/metal with electronica, though there's more in there, I'm sure of it. Artless fiction does well to cut the throat of each song and just let it bleed out into the next track, a very nice way to keep the listener immersed in the music, though not very good for a sometimes inattentive reviewer that's trying to take notes on a CD and switch out a harddrive on an old computer all at the same time.

I neglected to ask if I could provide you, my reader, with some sample tracks, I meant to but in the end I suppose it doesn't matter, just head on over to Artless Fiction's website and stream the album, if you have any troubles email me and if I get enough complaints I'll talk to the artist and hopefully pin up a couple of tracks for you guys (and girls?).

Against Me!

"If I told you you had a great body, would you hold it..." ...ah well you know.

Today's track is by an amazing band known as Against Me! Also featured on the YoYo Viking tour, it's a great little catchy song with an infectious tune Pints of Guinness Make You Strong, and indeed they do. The track, and indeed the entire CD ("Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose") has a distinct Irish-folk undertone, sometimes in the lyrics, and others in simply the timbre of the singer's voice.

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In other news, I shipped out my first CDs for lala.com today, and my dream of a Linux box is quickly becoming reality!