Wow, I don't deserve the energy/whatever required to keep a blog running

Okay, so I guess I don't really do the whole blogging thing very well, considering my last post was about a year ago.

Anyways, I got a new guitar tuner. It is a Boss TU-2 stomp box style tuner. Pretty badass...

I still like all the same music, I still love my woman, and I still didn't graduate yet. Woo Hoo! Thanks for stickin around woman.

Man the people who write these things for real must be busy ass people to be able to mention pages of garbage about their days. Me, I just wake up, go to school, come home, eat, do a little homework, snuggle my lady, and go to bed. Rinse and repeat. Guess what? I don't fill my life with a bunch of meaningless (and might I add, CHEESY) activities, that people have to force themselves to do anyways. Pointless. I see it like this, you only live once, why not relax and enjoy it.

I guess I am sorta like that guy from Office Space... I really prefer to do nothing!

iTunes 8 Release

I was previously unaware of the fact that a new release of iTunes was being awaited, but when I opened iTunes the other day it began to update. While the update was downloading, I looked online to see what new features I should expect. I wasn't expecting much change in the graphical user interface, but to my surprise they had added a new view; grid view. This view immediately reminded me of the way that Windows organizes music in its Windows Media Player. Trying to make a concious effort to be quick to judge, I noticed another new feature - I must explain something before I continue...

When I listen to music in iTunes, I often find myself clicking the little arrows next to songs that lead you to the iTunes Music Store. I'm sure that I can't be the only person who does this. I always check out what other user have purchased and I sample it, sometimes leading me to remote genres that I can't believe exist. This was a pain in the ass, and has also caused large credit card bills.

Anyways, the new feature is called, Genius. What it does is it gathers up all the information about your library (a rather lenghty process if your library is as large as mine) and it compiles it with information about other iTunes users (anonymously, of course!). Why does it do this? It does this so that it can make automatic playlists based on yours and other users' use of iTunes. Ahh, but don't be fooled. It also used this information to power a new sidebar (that can be turned off) containing suggested songs that aren't already in your library, which can be purchased at the click of a button (cha ching!).

After restarting my computer, I opened the new iTunes 8 to try the new features. The new Grid view was a lot like iPhoto. In artist view, the thumbnail changes for artists with multiple albums when the mouse scrolls over the icon from left to right. Looks nice, but it takes you to the old style and in a view that I never liked (the one with each album next to a list of songs in the album) whenever you double click on an album cover. Here's what I mean...



The picture on the left is what appears when I click on Radiohead. On the right is an example of the Grid view. Click them to enlarge.

The feature that I anticipated the most, for the couple of minutes that I knew about it, turned out to be pretty cool! When I click on a song and then click the genius button, a playlist of songs that I like by a bunch of different bands pops up! I listen to it, not remembering even owning some of this music, and the mix is awesome. Why can't my measly brain figure out how to make a mix this well?!?!

If you have an iPod touch or iPhone, you may want to wait to do this update. I have read rumors about there being update problems for those devices. See here for more details on what I read.

Please post your comments on the release of iTunes 8.0!

"Korn-Syndrome"

I understand that this disease has been suffered by many bands before the days of Korn, but I was around for Korn and not the other bands prior. I also understand that this refers to basically one genre of music (but I like them all so whatever). Other sufferers of this syndrome are bands such as: Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine, Staind, Limp Bizkit, Incubus, Deftones, and - yes, even Tool.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Korn-syndrome, here are a few of the symtpoms.

• Lead singer goes to a different band as a side project and cant seem to shake that new, more commercial, sound when they return to the original band. This symptom always results in the death of the band.
• Another symptom is that the band may release only one good album, perhaps 2... usually the first 2 albums. All other future albums get new producers and become extremely lame.
• A sure sign that a band is suffering from the Korn-syndrome is when the people that still back the band and claim that the band is just evolving their sound, were born in the same year the band came out with their first album.

What changes may be noticed when a band is diagnosed with Korn-syndrome?

• Timing is simplified in the rhythm section of the band
• Guitar sound is smoother, more bland
• The bass player is no longer audible due to the increase in vocal volume
• The singer can no longer scream!!!!!!

All too often when a band has Korn-syndrom their sound on studio albums will become weak. The instruments and singer will sound like they are 20 feet away from the microphone in the studio. A prime example of this is with Slipknot. Their latest releases sound as though Corey Taylor is singing from a great distance away, but in their first album the vocals sounded as though corey had swallowed the mic... the way it should sound. And why is he trying to hit notes?

Anyways, all of the bands mentioned above suffer from this syndrome, along with many others that were not mentioned. It seems as though at a time when music should be going crazy with the given current events, it is doing nothing. The radio sucks, MTV sucks! Where is the music at?

Do whatcha gon do

So I have decided that over the next few blog entries I will review albums that I have already listened to, maybe even a few hundred times.

I got the idea from watching the movie called, The Jane Austin Book Club. In the movie, 5 ladies and 1 dude read 6 of Jane Austin's books to be reviewed once a month (I'll be writing more frequently than that). The point of their club is that they don't have all the time to reread the books but they have already read them so they can still participate in the meetings.

If anyone decides to read my blog, you can post suggestions of albums to review. I am a product of the 1990's... I have listened to everything from Dave Matthews Band to Ace of Base to Rage Against the Machine and beyond. If no one posts a comment I will simply pick from my favorite albums and just give a bunch of kick ass reviews.

I never have had the chance to review an album before, so this shall be interesting!

Peace Out Playas

Shpongle Inspired Blog Beginnings

This is my first blog entry ever, in any blog. I try to type the way that I think in my head... so I apologize in advanced for the lack of proper grammar and spelling you may experience in this and any other future blog entries...

My original reason for posting on a blog was because i stumbled across the blog of another user on this blog page. The post was 3 years old and it was about a music group called shpongle. I emailed the dude that made the original post and asked how to make a blog... but it is apparently really easy to do because i figured it out within about 2 minutes of emailing him. or her, i never thought it may not be a guy.

So how does shpongle inspire me to write a blog? I dont really know, but here i am listening to shpongle and typing in a blog.

My first Shpongle experience was at a friends house. We were chillin out in the usual circle, and before we began my buddy told me i HAD to check out this music from SHPONGLE. The album that was played for me is called Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost. right away I was hooked on the otherworldly sounds and samples. Being sober, this music made me high. No need for the circle.

This music was so good that I went online right away to download all of their albums. Each album is amazing in its own way. I would advise buying them all at once and then just letting the albums wrap around your body over the next few weeks. Shponlge has actually become an addiction for me. While i was downloading the albums, i did some research on who these musical masterminds were. To my surprise I found that Shpongle is just two dudes!!! Only 2 people!! I cant believe all of that music comes from just two minds. The songs sound as though there are a dozen people when they are on stage.

If you do get inspired to listen to shpongle or if you already do and cant find anything else worth listening to because of how amazing shpongle is, then here is a list to get you started.

First off, Simon Posford and Raja Ram are the two dude that make shpongle happen... Posford has many other names in the world of trance music and i love everything he has ever come into helping create. The first few in the list are Posford-related... some of the others arent.

Shpongle
Younger Brother
Hallucinogen
Ott

Infected Mushroom
Astral Projection
Alienated Buddha

Basically anything called PsyTrance will rock your world.

Cheers!