I love Itunes and so should you. I still maintain that if they dropped the price to .25 or .50 they would get all my money but still its the best content delivery system out there. The hell of it though is the dumb DRM (Digital Rights Management I think) system. You basically can only play the songs you buy on 5 computers, each of which must 'register' for that song.
--> Warning Geeky Aside
The songs move to the Ipod without problem but I am using my hacked XBOX to play music through the TV. In Itunes you can Share your music and Playlists with other Itunes players on your local network. This is fine as long as the 'client' is registered to play that song. In the hacked XBOX using XBOX Media Center application I can connect to the PC that I have all my music on and play the Itunes shared music. The thing that it won't do though is play the digitally protected files (.m4p or .m4a) I have bought from Itunes. Note the wording there, music I BOUGHT. If I paid for it, I want to play it on whatever device I feel like. I am not sharing it with anyone not on my network and have my network locked down to prevent outsiders.
Turns out I am not the only one who is driven insane by this DRM stuff. This guy makes some software that lets you strip out the DRM stuff so you can convert your file to .mp3 and do whatever you want with them. He has to re-code every time the Itunes client gets updated so if you get his thing to work, I highly recommend not updating the Itunes.....ever.
--> End Geeky Aside
I recently downloaded the singles from The White Stripes and Shakira. I got to looking through my Purchased Music section and below are some thoughts. Also note that I would love to get some recommendations.
The Itunes Today's Top Songs list is worth mentioning too:
Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl" I have only seen the video once and got the lyrics just to make sure I was following along properly. That is just ludicrous. Is this big in the US because it has a very random feel to it like a lot of Euro stuff. I almost want to say its some kind of prank. Is it really the soft version of the "
No Doubt wasn't my favorite pop band but then again I don't like pop music so there you go. Anyway, they had a few songs that weren't awful but she has clearly gone insane and now sings about her own poo.
Dave Matthews "American Baby" Pretty standard sounding DMB stuff. Dave has a weird voice that I like esp. on the Under the Table album but he is kinda limping along in this one.
Black Eyed Peas "Don't Phunk with my Heart" This is what I would define as good pop music. It is intentionally not serious, fun, theme music for a cheesy, sunny day in a movie. But it knows what it is and that is important. The other song they have about getting the party started or whatever is the fundamental bar song here right now, its on a 74 minute extended play and I have had rounds and rounds of drinks without hearing any other song.
Coldplay "Speed of Sound" - Yawn. I like Coldplay's sound when its raining (that's the idea right, mood music for people in wool clutching cups of tea) but would give them the Strokes criticism.
Foo Fighters "Best of You" - Seems ok
The Killers "Mr. Brightside" - I beat this to death earlier, I just like it.
Will Smith "Switch" I think Mr. Smith makes nice music for middle aged white people. He seems like a nice guy and I think of him as the black Barry Manilow.
Rob Thomas "Lonely No More" - sounds like something I would expect to hear on American Idol if I had ever seen a single episode.
Green Day "Holiday" - One of the first bands that came along and set me into a category of being too old to appreciate. If they hit you while you were in high school I think they stick with you but just don't resonate with me at all.
Akon "Lonely" - Rap love ballads are some of the most Unintentionally Funny art in the world.
The White Stripes are my favorite post-U2 band. They have those things that mark great bands: unique sound, innovation, creativity and band members or are either scary or insane. Jack White's latest incarnation as a crazed devil-looking hick is perfect. I hope the new album keeps the crazed hick thing going and I like the first single 'Blue Orchid'.
It was going to be Dave Matthews for a while but they haven't really done anything new or interesting since Crash (although I did like some of the songs on his solo album but couldn't tell the difference between him alone and with the band other than no long electric fiddle solos). Does anyone know why they don't sell their music on Itunes until now?
Had a brief fling with The Strokes but they failed even bigger when their first album had 12 songs that sounded the same and then released another album bringing to 24 the number of songs that sound the same. Fortunately I like how that one long song sounds but it disqualifies them from a front-runner spot.
Wilco was in there for a bit but I am either not smart, jaded or cool enough to follow along. I like a lot of it but and you can't by any means say that they are not creative but they pissed me off with the 'Less Than You Think' sound. I can't even figure out what alt-country actually means....incomprehensible imagery, sad songs with a drum machine?
The Killers album is enjoyable, feels a bit too polished/produced though.
Shakira makes good music in Spanish, the English stuff is tough to stomach which is of course no great insight but I liked the La Tortura single much better than most of the Laundry Service album. The video is quite strange, she is half-naked which is obviously good but the weird stomach roll thing throughout is bizarre. Is she hungry? Further, why in the cutaways is she covered in motor oil? This might be a translation thing.
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5 comments:
So much to say, so little time...
First, Gwen Stefani is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. I haven't heard this "song", but if the lyrics are any indication of the quality, I'm sure it sucks.
Second, I know you don't think anyone really reads your blog Chris, but alas, there is this one wayward traveller on the internet who has found your site and chosen to read your memoirs. I do like your occasional liks to people and places, they make your frivolous stories more believeable. You must keep in mind though, the entire world has access to your story, and it's up to you to keep them from being utterly lost. Lucky for you I know about Dave Matthews and his band. Your link takes us readers to the land of Devine Millimet Attorneys at Law... that's far far away from a man with a weird voice and lengthy electric fiddle bits. Now if I happened to be a fan of the popular band Wig Wam (Eurovision's Norweigian contestant), and I found your blog, I would have to draw the conclusion that your taste in music, Dave Matthews, and America's pop music in general is horrible, when in reality, it's my disturbing taste in music that needs realignment. So you see Chris, in order for us to believe what we read on the internet, you have to publish it accurately. Try: www.davematthewsband.com
Thanks for the feedback. I think frivolous is the best description I have seen for these postings and is mood I wanted to set.
I will have to be more careful and check my links before I post them as "making people believe what they read on the internet" is the most important thing any of us ever do. Because the WWW is a great place though, the place I misdirected everyone to happens to be a funny site. The names seem fishy and I wonder if its a real site. Also I wonder what percentage of their traffic is from misinformed DMB searchers?
BTW, you appear to be the first person to wander by who is not a close friend, parent, sibling or co-worker so I am curious to know how you happened to find this place?
And back to the title....what are YOU listening too?
Anyway, agree with you on Green Day. They are my Tom Clancy guilty pleasure. I can't get enough of the new album, I think it really is significantly better than their old albums when they were guys with kids and mortgages complaining about high school. Now they are guys with kids and mortgages complaining about Bush. Hence the Grammy nominations and all that. Anyway, it is awesome, but I understand if people think it sucks. But the anti-Bush thing might resonate with you now that you are a provincial Euro. (Note to all lurkers from Norway: that's a joke)
I Itunes-ed a brand spanking new alt-country album, just today in fact, so that is what I am listening to. It is Robert Earl Keen Jr.'s new effort. (His web site is www.robertearlkeen.com , but if you would rather view a random attorney page, I suggest http://www.twobirds.com )
Anyway .... imagine my horror when one of the tracks vividly describes Hank Williams singing in a Philly club wearing lipstick and drag. No drum machines -not sure there is any place for drum machines in alt.country - but Hank Williams in drag is definitely "alt". (Digression, to answer your question "what is alt.country?", I think it is country music performed by uglier people with bad voices. It is very similar to the niche Jimmy Buffet has carved in alt.calypso)
But only slightly stranger than this Hank Williams episode is is the honest to goodness fact that Old Timer Country Music Legend Loretta Lynn's most recent album was produced by Jack White (Yes, THAT Jack White) and he plays on some tracks. They recorded a video to prove it. I guess he dedicated the white blood cells album to her or something.
Now, I don't know if it was a practical joke gone bad or what, but I just picture Jack White putting the silly dedication in an album never once suspecting he would be forced to carry out the charade by performing a duet about a regretted evening of Sloe Gin Fizzes and the fizzes that follow, with a 70 year old Loretta Lynn in a few years.
I'll leave you with that.
Chris,
You give me hope. I never knew... physically mature people enjoyed pop music. In my radio-isolated state in Japan, I developed a distaste for the "new-age hooie" that America was pumping out. My greatest fear came true, I was becoming a "fogie" and no longer on top of the hip record charts. Thank you for showing me I can return from the dark side and once again find refuge in new bands and new tracks.
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