Since I'll probably get things thrown at me if I don't acknowledge today as St. Patrick's Day...Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.
U2 - One [iTunes]
(Yes, I have noticed that everytime I post a U2 song it's "One". That's the only track I have that's not DRMed.)
Meanwhile, I randomly started using last.fm's radio service over the weekend. Either I had forgotten how useful that thing could be, or it got significantly better from the last time I used it. So far the best stations I've pulled have been the similar artist stations for Daughtry and Counting Crows. So, in other words, radio stations of alternative rock from my lifetime. Game on. Still trying to decide how best to mix this with VLM, but it'll come sooner or later.
Speaking of Counting Crows, I found this utterly ridiculous interview with lead singer Adam Duritz yesterday. I kinda got this sense about him just by looking at him and hearing the music, but dude is nuts. Read the interview and learn for yourself (not the most family appropriate article, so be warned). Seriously, this thing is almost Weekend WTF-worthy.
Counting Crows - 1492 [iTunes]
(from the new album, out next Tuesday)
That's it for now. Back tomorrow with who-knows-what.
==TJ==
PS: The answer to the question posed in the title of the entry is "A six-pack and a potato"
Showing posts with label U2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U2. Show all posts
Monday, March 17, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Calling Bullshit On iTunes
My love for iTunes is pretty well documented on this blog, I think. I use it almost exclusively for (legal) music downloading, and only twice in its existence have I noticed a technical glitch that affected my use of the site. But earlier this week I saw a series of events that I've seen a couple times now, and I think it needs to be pointed out.
Earlier this week Apple started running ads for its new ultra-slim MacBook Air and Leopard, its new OS. As is often the case in Apple commercials, there's some mindless poppy song in the background. In this case its "New Soul" by Yael Naim. This week when the iTunes page was updated with the new releases for the week, "New Soul" magically leaped to #1, without any previous appearance in the Top 100. In fact, prior to its appearance in an Apple ad, Yael Naim's catalog was only available in the French iTunes store. And I'm supposed to believe that based on a 30 second clip of a song in an Apple ad, millions of casual music fans leaped out of their seats to download a track by an unknown international artist, enough to propel that song into Billboard's Hot 100? Yeah, right.
I don't call conspiracy lightly. I don't believe the moon landing was faked. I sure as hell don't believe 9/11 was a government plot. The only conspiracy I've ever truly considered viable was the Kennedy Assassination, and that was after weeks of research in my senior year. But I can't help but believe that Apple might be trying to boost publicity for the MacBook Air by padding the download count on "New Soul".
I doubt it would be the first time, too. A similar thing happened to Feist's "1234" shortly after those annoying iPod video nano ads dropped (I don't know if that song went to number 1 though), and contrary to what my roommate wants to think, Feist was not big outside of indie circles prior to "1234". It also happened with U2's "Vertigo", but I'm more likely to believe that's natural based on the fact that U2 is in fact big enough to pull that kind of success that quickly without help from an iTunes ad and shady business from Apple. Then there are other random immediate successes, i.e. "Bubbly" and "Low", which seem pretty inexplicable (neither song was in the Top 100 before its sudden rise to #1), but since they weren't used to sell any Apple product, this could probably be explained away by radio play or other fair practices.
In closing, please don't immediately think this is the whole truth and that the iTunes Top Songs Chart is corrupt. It may be, it may not be...but based on what I've seen this week and in weeks before, I think there's plenty of evidence to call bullshit on some of Apple's practices. Just something to keep an eye on when you buy from iTunes from now on.
U2 - Vertigo [iTunes]
==TJ==
Earlier this week Apple started running ads for its new ultra-slim MacBook Air and Leopard, its new OS. As is often the case in Apple commercials, there's some mindless poppy song in the background. In this case its "New Soul" by Yael Naim. This week when the iTunes page was updated with the new releases for the week, "New Soul" magically leaped to #1, without any previous appearance in the Top 100. In fact, prior to its appearance in an Apple ad, Yael Naim's catalog was only available in the French iTunes store. And I'm supposed to believe that based on a 30 second clip of a song in an Apple ad, millions of casual music fans leaped out of their seats to download a track by an unknown international artist, enough to propel that song into Billboard's Hot 100? Yeah, right.
I don't call conspiracy lightly. I don't believe the moon landing was faked. I sure as hell don't believe 9/11 was a government plot. The only conspiracy I've ever truly considered viable was the Kennedy Assassination, and that was after weeks of research in my senior year. But I can't help but believe that Apple might be trying to boost publicity for the MacBook Air by padding the download count on "New Soul".
I doubt it would be the first time, too. A similar thing happened to Feist's "1234" shortly after those annoying iPod video nano ads dropped (I don't know if that song went to number 1 though), and contrary to what my roommate wants to think, Feist was not big outside of indie circles prior to "1234". It also happened with U2's "Vertigo", but I'm more likely to believe that's natural based on the fact that U2 is in fact big enough to pull that kind of success that quickly without help from an iTunes ad and shady business from Apple. Then there are other random immediate successes, i.e. "Bubbly" and "Low", which seem pretty inexplicable (neither song was in the Top 100 before its sudden rise to #1), but since they weren't used to sell any Apple product, this could probably be explained away by radio play or other fair practices.
In closing, please don't immediately think this is the whole truth and that the iTunes Top Songs Chart is corrupt. It may be, it may not be...but based on what I've seen this week and in weeks before, I think there's plenty of evidence to call bullshit on some of Apple's practices. Just something to keep an eye on when you buy from iTunes from now on.
U2 - Vertigo [iTunes]
==TJ==
Friday, December 28, 2007
Long Live The '90s
I feel as though the last sentence in the last entry needs explaining:
For Christmas I got (among other things) the Pearl Jam Live at the Gorge box set that came out earlier this year. 7 discs, 100 tracks, 69 individual songs. Also picked up with my iTunes gift card the U218 Singles collection, and have been enjoying both, but Pearl Jam far more for some reason.
My taste for Pearl Jam has been a strange one over the last few years. I tend to go long lengths of time without listening to them, and then when I pop a CD back in, it takes maybe 3 tracks for me to fall in love with them again and wonder why I ever stopped listening to them. I think it has something to do with the fact that, at least on their albums, Pearl Jam are never as glitzy or as clean as other bands. They never have been, and probably never will. Very few songs are immediately memorable for a good hook or a chorus that gets jammed in your head. Again, not what they do. What they do do is write a song or album that you can hear a few times and maybe acknowledge, or maybe it turns into background noise, but then when you hear one of those songs out of context, say, either when iTunes is in shuffle mode or on the radio and it's then that you say "Wow, THAT'S Pearl Jam, that's REALLY cool!".
As the Gorge box set proves and as millions of concertgoers would tell you, PJ put on one hell of a live show. I forget who it was that said that Pearl Jam can make a massive arena show seem like a small club, but it's true. I'm not even halfway through listening to all 7 discs and already the softer tracks like " I Am Mine" and "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town" carry the same level of conviction and attention as crowd favorites "Even Flow" and "Given To Fly". One of my favorite moments on the set so far is after a particularly up-tempo performance of "Severed Hand" when Eddie Vedder talks to the crowd and tells them, referring to the heat "Y'all take care of yourselves, each other out there, we'll try to do the same."
Also unique about Pearl Jam's live show are the covers. Not many current rock bands have the balls to play a cover that came out before a fan's lifetime. Covers of classics like The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" are mainstays of a Pearl Jam live set, as commonplace as their own slew of hits. I don't know what halted my last round of Pearl Jam enjoyment, but it's not likely to happen again.
U2 has a slightly different situation. It's a known fact that Bono's constant preaching drives me nuts, and generally tends to turn me off to his music. But what's lost in that is the fact that more often than not the music is good. Not on the same level as Pearl Jam, but there's no denying that U2 is in fact a good band, in spite of its overzealous lead singer. If I have to choose one, then advantage: Pearl Jam, but either way, my love for the 1990s and its music is reborn.
Pearl Jam - Baba O'Riley (Live in Albany 4/29/03) [Who Cover]
U2 - One
==TJ==
For Christmas I got (among other things) the Pearl Jam Live at the Gorge box set that came out earlier this year. 7 discs, 100 tracks, 69 individual songs. Also picked up with my iTunes gift card the U218 Singles collection, and have been enjoying both, but Pearl Jam far more for some reason.
My taste for Pearl Jam has been a strange one over the last few years. I tend to go long lengths of time without listening to them, and then when I pop a CD back in, it takes maybe 3 tracks for me to fall in love with them again and wonder why I ever stopped listening to them. I think it has something to do with the fact that, at least on their albums, Pearl Jam are never as glitzy or as clean as other bands. They never have been, and probably never will. Very few songs are immediately memorable for a good hook or a chorus that gets jammed in your head. Again, not what they do. What they do do is write a song or album that you can hear a few times and maybe acknowledge, or maybe it turns into background noise, but then when you hear one of those songs out of context, say, either when iTunes is in shuffle mode or on the radio and it's then that you say "Wow, THAT'S Pearl Jam, that's REALLY cool!".
As the Gorge box set proves and as millions of concertgoers would tell you, PJ put on one hell of a live show. I forget who it was that said that Pearl Jam can make a massive arena show seem like a small club, but it's true. I'm not even halfway through listening to all 7 discs and already the softer tracks like " I Am Mine" and "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town" carry the same level of conviction and attention as crowd favorites "Even Flow" and "Given To Fly". One of my favorite moments on the set so far is after a particularly up-tempo performance of "Severed Hand" when Eddie Vedder talks to the crowd and tells them, referring to the heat "Y'all take care of yourselves, each other out there, we'll try to do the same."
Also unique about Pearl Jam's live show are the covers. Not many current rock bands have the balls to play a cover that came out before a fan's lifetime. Covers of classics like The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" are mainstays of a Pearl Jam live set, as commonplace as their own slew of hits. I don't know what halted my last round of Pearl Jam enjoyment, but it's not likely to happen again.
U2 has a slightly different situation. It's a known fact that Bono's constant preaching drives me nuts, and generally tends to turn me off to his music. But what's lost in that is the fact that more often than not the music is good. Not on the same level as Pearl Jam, but there's no denying that U2 is in fact a good band, in spite of its overzealous lead singer. If I have to choose one, then advantage: Pearl Jam, but either way, my love for the 1990s and its music is reborn.
Pearl Jam - Baba O'Riley (Live in Albany 4/29/03) [Who Cover]
U2 - One
==TJ==
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