Ultranormal

Category: music

  • About The Headphones

    Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on headphones. I realized that since I have a little time before my flight tomorrow morning, and that the west coast has Fry’s Electronics, I’m gonna go see what I can try out there. Why are there no Fry’s on the east coast? We’re stuck with Circuit City or Best Buy, which is why I buy almost everything electronic or computer-related online.\
    Update: I ended up buying a little pair of over-the-ear JVC’s at Fry’s last night (Roger had to catch a plane, so we left a little early and went to Fry’s before dinner – Sylvia’s in Mountain View – awesome Indian food). They were cheap, but they’re not ear buds, and they’re small. I’ll let you know how it goes. I maybe I just need a bigger backpack…

  • In Need Of Headphones That Travel

    I tried earbuds from the iPod. I can’t keep them in my ears unless I’ve jammed them into my ear drums and the covers always come off. I’ve tried my old over the ear cheap-o headphones. Yeah, they’re small and portable, but the sound quality sucks. I have a pair of noise-reducing headphones, but they’re so large that if they’re in my backpack, nothing else is in my backpack (think old-school studio headphones).\
    So, frequent travelers, what do you use? Have you found a good pair of (ideally noise-reducing) small non-earbud headphones that have good sound quality and are small enough to fit in a backpack side pocket with your iPod?\
    Oh, interweb, help me solve my dilemma before I spend 12 hours in a plane!

  • Driving In Foreign Countries

    I’ve never driven in a foreign country. When we drove around Ireland, I made Porter do all the driving. Now, I’m going to France for the Plenary, and I’m renting a car. The only thing that’s making me less jittery about doing so is having a friend who lives there and is feeding me driving tips for driving on the Riviera like:

    • Traffic coming from the right has right-of-way unless they have a solid white line or dashed white line.
    • Always lock your doors while driving
    • No turning on red
    • France now has speed cameras, and they’re not friendly.\
      Oh, and I have Doctor Who on my iPod. MoviesForMyiPod rules.

  • Mikey’s Got A New Album

    I’m a shameful loser for not posting this earlier, but please go check out Mike Golay’s new album. I haven’t heard it yet past some demos during the summer, but if it’s anything like his first album, you won’t be disappointed. If you like acoustic guitar, you’ll love Mike’s stuff.\
    Oh, and you can find his first album in the iTunes Music Store, which was really weird for me. Mike used to be my boss, and finding your boss in iTunes? That’s just weird.

  • iPod Virgin

    I’ve come into some “free money” and I’ve decided to blow it on a sexy black video iPod. Oh, dear internet, what accessories should I get? How should I protect my new toy? What should I definitely NOT get?\
    Thank you and good night.\
    UPDATE: My iPod shipped this morning less than 18 hours after I ordered it! Come on, you sexy beast, come on!!

  • The Music Max

    This started out as a response to Katie’s comment from Kevin’s most recent post, but I decided to make this a post on its own.\
    I have a friend who only listens to kids music in the car, but I refuse to do that. The car is my domain. I listen to what I want and just turn the station if I hear an inappropriate song. When my oldest was 2, I realized he was singing along to “No Sleep Til Brooklyn.” Apparently the radio had played it enough that he knew the words. We sang it together at the top of our lungs. I knew then that I was either a really great mom or a really bad one.\
    A couple of months later we went to visit my parents and I roped them into singing too, cuz how could they say no to their adorable, little, 2 year old grandson? One of the highlights of my life is seeing my 50-ish year old parents singing the Beastie Boys.

  • A Tip For Cheering Up

    Need another pick-me-up? Go listen to some old They Might Be Giants, or watch their documentary: Gigantic (A Tale Of Two Giants). It shows up on IFC every month or so. It’s funny, and will make you smile.\
    You can’t listen to any song on Flood, Don’t Let’s Start or Subliminal and not smile. It’s a physical impossibility.

  • Need A Happy?

    I sure do. If you’re in need of a pick-me-up, go grab the latest episode of Coverville. It’ll cure what ails you. It’s an all a cappella set of covers and is wiping the grimace off my mug.\
    Enjoy.

  • This One’s For Heather: Podcasts and Mashups

    This one’s for Heather. Max and I went to dinner with my mom, brother and sister last night and we ended up talking about mashups and podcasts. Heather wanted me to send her some links, but I’d hate to go through all that effort only to repeat it when someone else asks me. So, this post will get e-mailed around to folks (hi, folks) when they ask me what a mashup or a podcast is or how they can get some.\

    <dl>
    <dt>mashup</dt>
    <dd>Taking any musical work or works and turning them into something else. This isn’t a cover, which is someone performing a song. It’s usually taking the recorded version of the song and combining it with other recorded elements (usually other songs… you know, mashing them up!).</dd>
    <dt>podcast</dt>
    <dd>Recording an audio file and posting it to a website. I know, it’s more than that, but that’s it, really. The real hook to podcasting is syndicating those audio files and producing them on a semi-regular basis so people can use their feed reader of choice to download them automatically to their iPod (hence “pod”casting) or to their music player of choice.</dd>
    </dl>
    \
    I’ve only recently gotten into listening to podcasts, and have just a couple favorites:

    # Radio Clash: This is first for good reason. Tim puts together a fun show, with just the right balance of talk and music. He picks the best mashups out there and throws them together with interesting conversation about what’s going on in his world. Good stuff. Show 38 (the most recent) isn’t a good representation of a “normal” show, so you might want to start with Show 37

    # Coverville: Not mashups, but this guy is funny, and he picks some hilarious covers to play. Covers are another secret passion of mine. It all started in Tucson listening to KXCI (the best radio station ever) and hearing Social Distortion‘s cover of Ring of Fire followed by an accordian-laden cover of the same. I was hooked.

    # Odeo: They don’t make ’em, but they’re the easiest way I’ve found so far to find ’em and download ’em.\
    As for mashups, there are a few folks who produce world-class stuff (at least that I’ve found). Here are my faves:

    • The Kleptones – A Night At The Hip-Hopera is probably my all-time favorite mashup. I can listen to it for hours and hours.
    • Pheugoo: Some really good techno mashups, my favorites being La Naughty Femme, Dip It Joe and Roses for Lindy.
    • DJ BC (link not working at the moment): dj BC and The Beastles is priceless. He mashed Meet The Beatles with The Beastie Boys and it’s magical.
    • Pop Razors: They’ve got some stinkers, but Climbin’ Deeper is unbelievable. You will shake much booty.\
      Of course, the music industry hates mashups and it’s not quite sure what to do with podcasts. But, they hated the CD at first too, and same folks thought that the VCR would kill them. They don’t have a very good track record with being right, do they?\
      Enjoy ’em while you can!

  • First Tracks

    While I’m waiting for someone to get out of the file I need, I’ll just bang this out while I’m thinking about it. Album first songs. I know it’s almost dead now, what with the single-ification of everything. But, there’s something special about the first song on an album. It creates your expectations for the rest of the album, sets the mood, lays out the tablecloth and silverware… you know.\
    I’ve been listening to a lot more rock lately… and there are some really good first songs out there. Like:

    • Untitled off of Turn On The Bright Lights by Interpol – I don’t think I’ve loved the open guitar solo of a song more since The Smiths How Soon Is Now. Listen, you’ll see.
    • E-Pro off of Guero by Beck – Yeah, this one rocks too. It doesn’t fool around with a gentle intro. It jumps right in and rocks on.
    • Fight Test from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot by The Flaming Lips – Concept albums almost feel like cheating, but it works so freakin’ well.
    • I Fought The Angels from Universal Audio by The Delgados – I never get tired of this album, and this song in particular. It’s so good. Simple, elegant and rockin’.
    • Grace Kelly Blues by Eels from Daisies of the Galaxy – You know an album will be fun when it starts with a brass band, and goes into a bouncy little number like this. Perfectly sets up the artful quirk of the rest of the album.\
      Ok, back to work…