02.15.06

What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me… no more)

Posted in music, introspective, music tuesday, ben folds, Glen Phillips, hangover, iTunes, love, mp3, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Valentine's Day at 4:45 am by admin

It’s Valentine’s Day. Even when I was in a long-term relationship I didn’t really do much to celebrate this day, because my ex and I always felt like it was an overly commercialized holiday. Besides, to me, the elements that really make up abstract concepts like “love” are far more complex and rooted in the things that happen every single day in my life.

To me, love is…

• Spending the entire day cleaning up the vomit that your partner conveniently left in the bathtub while throwing up drunk the night before, all while nursing his hangover between plunging and Drain-O sessions
• Knowing when something isn’t right before he says it and being a source of comfort even when it’s not requested
• Sitting next to him all day as he is pumped full of electrolytes at the hospital to rehydrate him after a bad bout of food poisoning
• Learning to appreciate even his quirkiest, least desirable features, simply because they make up part of a larger whole that wouldn’t be complete without them
• Considering how every decision you make in your life will affect him
• Staying with him the entire day at the airport when he misses his flight, just so that he won’t have to wait for the next flight alone

Candy hearts and flowers are all fine, I suppose. But love isn’t necessarily as easy to define as a Hallmark card. It isn’t always pretty, it’s rarely shiny, and it certainly doesn’t always taste or smell good.

Love is a measure of what level of discomfort you’re willing to put yourself through for the sake of someone whom you care about so much that it hurts.

As my own little tribute to that intensity, my recurring Music Tuesday series features a track by former Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman Glen Phillips. The track is called Easier (mp3), and I think it really conveys the almost physical pain and desperation that love can cause:

And if you said you were going away
I would run on the tarmac and I would lay down in front of the plane just to get you to stay

The track is from Glen’s amazing 2005 album Winter Pays For Summer, available through iTunes (link: ). The album has lots of other really thoughtful and well-written songs, and includes guest backing vocals on Courage from my favorite piano-wielding genius, Ben Folds. Do me a favor — if you like the tracks I feature, please consider buying the album on iTunes (or clicking an AdSense link!). The tiny affiliate checks just might pay for the hosting. And that could be one more definition of love — caring about someone enough to finance his web hosting.

Err… maybe not.

Tags: ben folds, Glen Phillips, hangover, iTunes, love, mp3, music, music tuesday, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Valentine’s Day

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02.07.06

really great retro 80s/90s tunes remixed!

Posted in music, depeche mode, iPod, music tuesday, iTunes, mp3, alphaville, crystal method, devo, download, echo and the bunnymen, erasure, howard jones, INXS, morrissey, new order, new wave, remixes, review, richard x, synthpop, the cure, tiga, yaz at 10:24 pm by admin

Okay, I will admit it. I’m a remix fiend. Some of my favorite versions of songs by the artists that I love are remixed. However, I’m pretty picky about the remixes I like.

For instance, if you’re going to remix Into the Groove, don’t waste my time by just looping Madonna saying “…and you can dance!” over and over again. The measure of a good remix, in my opinion, is whether it maintains enough of the original song to be recognizable, and whether it is musically engaging. Placing a cappella Cher vocals over a tribal beat does not qualify. However, take those same vocals and rework them over some Spanish flamenco guitar, and we might just talk.

Future Retro, a compilation that was released today, is a pure synthpop new wave masterpiece. It is one of the rare discs that follows the magic formula of combining amazing artists (Erasure, New Order, Depeche Mode, Morrissey), songs that were great to begin with (A Little Respect, Bizarre Love Triangle, Suedehead), and retooled versions by remixers who are actually talented (Tiga, Richard X, The Crystal Method).

The best part of this album is that the remixes are very true to the synthesized new wave roots of the songs. Instead of awkwardly forcing these classic gems into awful uptempo Dance Dance Revolution-style Europop mixes performed by boring stock vocalists (case in point: DJ Sammy’s Heaven), these productions, many of which are down-tempo, feel organic and natural. There’s none of that frequent feeling of disappointment I get with remixes: “I really like the song, but it just wasn’t meant to be remixed!”

Standout tracks include the synth-heavy Jaded Aliiance remix of A Little Respect, a totally glam rock remix of Book of Love’s Boy, and a minimalistic (yet still melodic) remix of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle.

For your listening pleasure, here’s a sample track from the album, which can be purchased through iTunes.

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (Crystal Method Extended Mix)

Track List (from Amazon)
1. Walk (Infusion Mix) — The Cure
2. Situation (Richard X Remix) — Yaz
3. Lips Like Sugar (Way Out West Remix Edit) — Echo and the Bunnymen
4. Need You Tonight (Static Revenger Mix Edit) — INXS
5. Shake the Disease (Tiga Remix) — Depeche Mode
6. Little Respect (Jaded Alliance ‘Electrospect’ Remix) — Erasure
7. New Song (Peter Black & Hadrock Striker Mix Edit) — Howard Jones
8. Forever Young (Hamel Album Mix) — Alphaville
9. Bizarre Love Triangle (Crystal Method Extended Mix) — New Order
10. White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It, Elite Force Mix) — Grandmaster & Melle Mel
11. Girl U Want (Black Light Odyssey Mix) — Devo
12. NoWhere Girl (Adam Freeland Mix) — B-Movie
13. Boy (DJ Irene Rockstar Mix) — Book of Love
14. Suedehead (Sparks Remix) — Morrissey

Tags: alphaville, crystal method, depeche mode, devo, download, echo and the bunnymen, erasure, howard jones, INXS, iPod, iTunes, morrissey, mp3, music, new order, new wave, remixes, review, richard x, synthpop, the cure, tiga, yaz

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02.02.06

Air America Radio takes lesson from crack dealers

Posted in iPod, politics, iTunes, around the web, podcasting, air america, air america radio, al franken, broadcast, liberal, podcast, podcasts, rachel maddow, radio, randi rhodes, talk, talk radio at 8:25 pm by admin

What’s the first thing you learn when watching those after-school specials on video in health class in middle school?

The drug dealer always gives you enough free smack to get you hooked. Then, it’s going to cost you.

This is the path that liberal talk radio network Air America Radio appears to be taking with its podcast content. I am shamelessly hooked on listening to the Rachel Maddow Show each morning, and I have been a devoted fan of the show since the beginning of last year. The show’s podcast has taken me from riding the PATH train from New Jersey to New York City early last year, all the way to my commute from San Jose to Sunnyvale on the opposite coast.

I woke up Monday morning and started up my iPod only to hear a scary robotic woman informing me twice that as of February 7, Air America podcasts will no longer be offered for free, and that I would be required to subscribe to the podcast through Air America Radio Premium, the new paid podcast service. After taking a moment to contemplate why Dr. Sbaitso’s wife was chosen to tell me the bad news instead of Air America’s regular voice talent, my heart quickly sunk. I’m so used to enjoying a good thing for free that the thought of having to pay for it is positively irritating. However, I can’t imagine my morning without it, so I’m not really sure what choice I have.

Now that I’ve had a few days of that scary robotic lady in my ear at the beginning of all of my Air America podcasts (I’ve named her Ariana), I’m beginning to realize that charging for these podcasts only makes … *gulp*… sense. In perusing the Wikipedia article about podcasting, I came across an interesting statement that hadn’t crossed my mind previously:

“Some podcasters found that exposure to iTunes’ huge number of downloaders threatened to make great demands on their bandwidth and related expenses.”

It’s really easy to forget that commercial radio is a business - emphasis on the word “commercial”. These podcasts are provided commercial-free at no charge, yet the bandwidth bill is being paid by someone. No advertising money is being made from podcasts, and I would imagine that I’m not the only person who no longer listens over the air now that I can easily bypass an hour of commercials per show, and listen on my own schedule.

So, while it still frustrates me, it makes sense that Air America has chosen to offer its podcasts as a premium service. So, what’s it gonna cost me? This is the pricing structure from the premium website:

Some observations: the “Single Show Membership” is grossly overpriced. If I can have every show for under $6 per month (paid yearly), why would I pay only $1 less per month to have a single-show subscription? I imagine that this is the reason the pricing structure is set up in this way. A little bit more money gets you everything. It’s clearly a better value, which means that most people (including myself) will probably choose this option, but most people may still only download one show. Essentially, that extra dollar pays for the option to download other shows.

The important lesson in all of this is that if something is in high enough demand, people will pay money to access it. Whether it’s being done to make a profit, or just to offset the expense of making the content available, content fees seem to be the only viable way (short of advertising) to capitalize on the popularity of podcasting.

Will there continue to be thousands of free podcasts available for download? Probably. Are we going to have to start paying for the really great ones?

Unfortunately, I think it’s almost certain.

Tags: air america, air america radio, al franken, broadcast, iPod, iTunes, liberal, podcast, podcasting, podcasts, rachel maddow, radio, randi rhodes, talk, talk radio

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