Nuts For Music

I heard this weekend that Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich was quoted in a Rolling Stone article as saying that the band would consider all options for releasing material on the Internet for their next album. Their latest studio album, slated for release sometime this year, is their last which they are under contract for with Warner Bros. music. Apparently after seeing what Radiohead and Trent Reznor have accomplished by releasing their albums online has done, Metallica is intrigued about doing the same sometime down the line. This is rather interesting after their battle with now defunct free music sharing service, Napster back in 2000. What I find interesting here is that really nothing has changed since then other than more people are downloading music online (both legal and illegal) instead of buying CDs in stores. So I wonder what has changed their minds? Maybe the fact that they can’t control their music being downloaded for free so they might as well offer it at a lower price. Like I’ve always said, I find paying $5 for an album fair. $10 and up is a stretch. So, if they do decide to distribute music in this way, I’ll be first in line to pay (though I’d likely buy the CD at the store if they didn’t).

For the longest time I’d spin tunes through Apple’s iTunes by playing entire albums. Over time, the problem I started to encounter was that the music got really stale and I’d burn through music faster than I thought I should. Building playlists has typically been a chore for me, so I never really got into it unless I wanted to create a CD for my car. Using a “Smart Playlist” in iTunes didn’t really work for me either since my most played songs were part of entire albums. So what could I do to to build a playlist, but not make it a chore?

I started off with about 10-15 songs in my playlist. Then, I just started playing random music and when I got to something I deemed cool enough, into my playlist it went. After about half a day of doing this, I had a 3.5 hour long playlist. Not quite long enough, but a good start. At least now I’m on my way to having a playlist I can put on shuffle for an entire work day and keep the toons that are spinning fresh over a long period of time. I’d have to say the hardest part is just starting the playlist. Once you get going it picks up steam and you’re well on your way.

I’d be interested in hearing how other people manage their music with playlists. Share your thoughts!

Friday night I headed out to see Rogue Wave at The Paradise in Boston, MA with my buddy Kyle. We go there just before they went on stage to an already packed house. The show was sold out by the time we got there, which I sort of had expected. Things started off slow and they really didn’t seem to have their act together. Turns out, it was the first show of this tour, so we’ll cut them a little slack there. I’d say the band members themselves weren’t what I expected. Their lead guitarist looked to be on something the entire show, though maybe he’s just really into the tunes. Either way its more an observation than anything else. Whatever works!

I’d have to say the best songs of the night were Phonytown and Harmonium. They totally rocked the house with those two songs and I wish they had done more rocking tunes. For a lot of the show, I could hear way more background noise (people talking mostly) than I could hear the band. They also played Lake Michigan, which most people in the house know probably more from commercials for the Microsoft Zune than anything else. One of my comments to Kyle was, I wonder how many people here know of the band itself or heard it for the first time on T.V. during a commercial and decided to Google the band.

All in all I’d say it was an average show. I’m thinking I might head out to see them again this spring when they come back through town. I’m hoping that they’ll be a little more in the groove after having a bunch of dates under their belts.

Do you ever play music from a band that is no longer together? Maybe The Beatles? Maybe Guns ‘N Roses? Pink Floyd? That last one is a big one for me. A lot of people pay $150 -$200 a seat to see Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. The only band that could probably get that kind of money out of me is Pink Floyd. When I was in high school, I could have seen the at the old Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, MA. But being a young high school kid with no real music identity, I never went. Boy am I sorry. I’ll probably never get the chance to see them. Their music is top notch. Their shows were top notch. Talk about a band that could tie their music into an actual experience in a 50,000 person arena! Nobody is as good as them in my opinion. And I’m only going on what I’ve seen in video.

Alas, they only seem to come together for the occasional charity show and usually its a pain to get them to do that. Note to Pink Floyd. If you guys ever need money, go back out on tour. There are plenty of us that will fork over tons of cash to see you play a quality show live.

I was flipping through my iTunes library yesterday looking for something to listen to that I hadn’t heard in a while and came across The National‘s 2007 release, Boxer. I’m sure I’ve had this for a little while now, but it’s received very little air time. The sound from track to track flows great making it another one of those albums that you can easily listen to from start to finish. I’d have to say my favorite track on the album is Ada. Another favorite is Start A War.

Their Wikipedia page says they’ve been influenced by Bruce Springsteen, which I can definitely hear in lead singer Matt Berninger’s voice. He has a similar sound of The Boss. There are both mellow and upbeat tracks on this album. Overall I’d give this album a B+. It’s good, but not totally great.

They have previous releases that I haven’t listened to; Alligator (2005), Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers (2003), and The National (2001). I’m going to try to get my hands on these and see if they’re as good as Boxer is. Definitely a band I’ll be adding to my daily rotation of played music.

I’ll be heading out to Boston for the second time in less than 2 weeks for another show. This time it’s Rogue Wave at The Paradise. I’ve been looking forward to this show for quite some time now and I hope it lives up to my expectations. Being on a Friday night, I’ll definitely be making a night of it out in the big city for some dinner, drinks, and hopefully, a good show. I really like The Paradise for shows. I saw Living Things there a little over a year ago and the show was excellent. Rogue Wave is touring supporting their latest album Asleep At Heaven’s Gate. This is one of the top albums in my playlist and I’d be perfectly happy if they just played everything off of this album, but I’ll be hoping for some of their older stuff too. Check back later on this weekend for a review of the show!

Interpol is going on tour this summer as part of a slew of European and North American festival dates. These guys are one of my new favorite bands that get some serious play time in my iTunes playlist. I’m hoping that they’ll hit a festival in North America that I’ll have a chance to attend, although I think I’d enjoy them more at a small club venue like The Paradise or Middle East in Boston.

Also, it appears that they’re itching to write up some new material and head back into the studio. Drummer Sam Fogarino was quoted as saying on Billboard.com that they are all getting ready to get back into crafting a new batch of material. This is great since I’m a huge fan all three of their albums; Antics, Our Love To Admire, and Turn On The Bright Lights. Lets hope they can hit another home run with their next effort!

The Stone Temple Pilots today officially announced a summer tour that should take them to about 65 cities. It’ll kick off in Los Angeles May 17th and continue through November of this year. Scott Weiland, fresh off his dismissal from Velvet Revolver will rejoin the band with the DeLeo brothers. What’s more, it appears as though they’ll head back into the studio to record a new album! This is sort of amazing since I really didn’t think that STP would ever get back together. It will remain to be seen if Weiland can keep himself clean and actually finish up this tour. He had trouble with his Velvet Revolver mates, which led to them basically kicking him out of the band because they couldn’t take it any longer. Lets hope for good things from STP this summer. I for one would love a chance to see them live in Massachusetts when they come through.

Just read over at Rolling Stone that MySpace has inked a deal with Warner Brothers, Sony/BMG, and Universal Music to offer music on MySpace called MySpace music. Apparently this is in response to Facebook signing a deal with Apple’s iTunes to offer tracks on Facebook. I missed that one when it happened, must have had my head in the sand. Anyway, I find this interesting. I think it starts to show that selling music online is the future of the music business.

The major labels refusal to embrace that themselves will, in a sense, cost them money because by having dismissed it previously, they have to form partnerships to distribute their music online through already established networks. They could have easily done this themselves with their own applications years ago and people probably would have embraced it. Too bad so sad for them I suppose. I really don’t think that this will compete all that well with iTunes though. As I’ve written before about Amazon’s download service, the integration just comes up short compared to Apple’s iTunes. Regardless though, its a good sign for music and those of us who listen to lots of it!

My next show will be at The Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA to see Rogue Wave. I’ve been looking forward to this show for some time now as I love these guys music. I’m hoping they’ll be just as good live as they are on their studio albums. Its going to be a good few weeks to start the spring having seen Ambulance Ltd the other day and now seeing Rogue Wave on the 11th. Grande Ole Party will be opening up for them. Show starts at 8pm and is 18+. If there are still tickets available, you might want to get some as I’m going to assume this is a show you won’t want to miss!

Of course, as with all shows I go to, I’ll have a review the day after some make sure you come back on the 12th for a write up of the band’s performance.