Category: Music
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Best?…Bye!
There’s been a lot of press recently regarding the ‘death of the CD’. (Actually, it started a couple of years ago, but seems to have gained momentum in the past month or so.) CD sales are in a continued state of decline, and everyone seems to be blaming downloads (which are at least on the rise). I’m not so sure that downloading is the culprit. I blame the major record stores – which out where I live here is (the self-proclaimed) Best Buy. Maybe my tastes are getting ‘more selective’, but I find that I’m increasingly unable to find the… Read more
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Underkill
Back in the day (like 30 years ago!) I was a big Heavy Metal fan. This was during “the golden age”, around the time that the NWOBHM was starting to garner some attention. Iron Maiden were riding high, and we also had Saxon, Judas Priest, UFO, and the first Def Leppard album. But the band that really captured my obsession were Motorhead. They had it all – they were the loudest, the fastest, the ugliest… Although I never had the chance to see them live, I had every album, and spent many an hour listening to Overkill and No Sleep… Read more
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iTunes: What a crappy bit of software II – The SQL
After three or four years of pretty much daily usage, I finally ran out of space on my first iPod. This was one of the old (but not oldest) 60gb models, and I’d already taken the precaution of not ripping all of my CDs to it – leaving off dozens of Zappa bootlegs, but recently I’d run out off space and had to start removing stuff I just don’t listen to that often, such as all of my Orb CDs, and my early Stone Roses B-sides. But then of course I’d get a real hankering to listen to something that… Read more
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Muse & Silversun Pickups, Toyota Arena, Houston
I’m not the biggest Muse fan (only owning Absolution), but I’ve heard they do a good live show, so when they came through Houston last summer I was going to go and give them the benefit. However, I then found out that they were supporting U2 and I’d rather have my ears piped with fresh dogturd than sit through a U2 gig, so I didn’t go. I guess I could have just left after Muse, but TicketMaster wouldn’t agree to my stipulation that none of my ticket price would go to U2 if I didn’t stay for their set, so… Read more
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The Decemberists, Riviera Theater, Chicago
Given that I had to back out of the last two gigs in Houston that I had tickets for (Gomez, and Green Day) because I was sent to Chicago on gig-day, I was super-bummed to learn that my current loves, The Decemberists, were playing Houston when I was, yet again, in Chicago. But as I was scheduled to be up here for five weeks, I decided I may as well see if there was anyone interesting playing in Chi-Town (correctly pronounced shit-town, Colin Meloy was pleased to inform us) whilst I was here. And joy of joys, I discovered that The Decemberists’ tour… Read more