CHINESE DEMOCRACY HITS ITUNES!!!

In yet another sign of the apocalypse as caused by one W. Axl Rose, iTunes is now accepting pre-orders for Chinese Democracy, the 14-years in the making record from Guns N Roses (or 'Axl Rose and some guys he picked up off the street', to the naysayers). Pre-ordering the album will get you the title track/first single, and the rest of the record will arrive on hard drives on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008; the same day the album is supposed to arrive in Best Buy stores nationwide.

Yes, I plunked down the first $.99 to pre-order the record and get the first single, and will be paying the remaining 9 bucks to get the full download the day it comes out. That said, I still want a hard copy of this sucker, for no other reason than the historical implications of it. Chinese Democracy has become a joke over the last several years, a metaphor for things out of reach up there with unicorns, the ends of rainbows, and four-leaf clovers. If the world does not explode in the next 13 days, Axl Rose just might get the last laugh. Especially given the fact that "Chinese Democracy" is actually a damn good song. The song has a lot in common with the first Guns N Roses ever heard, "Welcome to the Jungle" both in terms of its mood and the excitement that hearing the track generates. Rose's age shows a bit on the track, and it's definitely moodier than the GNR of old. If you haven't heard it yet on the radio or in its numerous leaked forms, a stream is below (courtesy of imeem; I haven't had time to convert my .m4p file yet). Expect this track to show up on this weeks radio show.




No mp3 of this one, since I don't feel like joining Slash, Buckethead and Kevin Cogill on the list of folks who can't get a free Dr. Pepper.

==TJ==

PS: I promise never to get this excited about a pre-order again...at least until Scream finally sees the light of day.

iTunes 8 looks nice, is a touch shy of brilliant

Yesterday Steve Jobs continued his quest to take over the music world by releasing iTunes 8. The new version is at its core the same, but two new features have me geeking out a bit.

First is the new grid view, where you can look at your music library as a grid with album covers, similar to the CoverFlow that came out in iTunes 7, but on a bit larger scale. There's little real advantage in this, other than the fact that it looks mighty cool and you can scroll through your artists much easier than you could before, and once you've gone past the initial grid view, it breaks down your songs by album. iTunes is nothing if not tidy.

The far more geeky new feature on iTunes 8 is its Genius software. iTunes Genius will take a song in your library and, based on what else is in your library and what other iTunes users (at least those who have also enabled the Genius), will form a playlist centered around that track. It then offers recommendations of songs you could purchase that would fit into this playlist (mostly just popular tracks from the artists already in the playlist). For example, putting "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters into the Genius yields a pretty straightforward playlist of 90s alternative (Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Fuel, etc.). Likewise, using "Poprocks and Coke" by Green Day begats a list of blink-182, Sum 41, The Offspring, and all manner of other punk acts. It's a pretty cool feature and handy for someone with musical ADD like myself, but its not without limitations. It can only use stuff that appears in the iTunes Store (so no Beatles will ever show up in the Genius list), and its a bit predictable in its choices, so playlists can get bland. Obviously this works best when a) you have lots of music in your library, and b) lots of people enable the Genius. Given the amount of restraint I've heard when people talk about this function (apparently people are reluctant to tell Apple what they're listening to), it may not be everything Apple hoped it would be. But if you're too lazy to come up with your own playlists, by all means let Apple try to do it for you.

Foo Fighters - Everlong [iTunes]
Green Day - Poprocks and Coke [iTunes]

==TJ==

Another New Undertaking

I've begun a new project for the summer (in addition to revamping the layout on this very site). After seeing just how much music exists on my computer and amount that I've never actually listened to, I have decided that I am going to listen to my entire music library by August 31st. Just to make things a bit more interesting, rather than try to do some interesting shuffle sequence, I'm just going to go alphabetical by artist. My goal on August 31st is to have every song by every artist from +44 to The Zutons with a play count of at least 1.

The rules:
-At this moment, there are 4,149 songs in my iTunes library.
-Those 4,149 songs, assuming they all played nonstop, would take 11 days, 6 hours, 2 minutes and 14 seconds (approximately; there are some videos and other goofy stuff that doesn't count in there) to play from front to back.
-Since I don't plan on halting my acquisition of music for the summer, any music that I get will get added into the set, unless it would have already played, at which point I'll just wait till it ends. [example; as I type this I'm near the end of 'AC', so if I were to get new music by 3 Doors Down, it wouldn't be added to the list]
-Stuff played on my iPod doesn't count, since its not alphabetical. This means I have to unsync my iPod; not a big deal, just means I have to add music manually for the next few months.
-I have till August 31st to complete this. When using iTunes, I may not use party shuffle or any other playlist. If I have something specific I wanna hear, it needs to go onto the iPod.

And of course I'm going to keep you all posted on how I'm doing. I started June 2nd at 4:40PM (+44 - Lycanthrope). Since then I have finished 126 songs, the last song finished being "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from the Across the Universe Soundtrack (filed under Across).

That's it for now. And yes, there will be MP3s throughout this venture along with the usual blogging about whatever sparks my mind.

Songs completed: 126/4149
Last Song: Across the Universe - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds [iTunes]

Back later.

==TJ==

Troubleshooting and Whatnot

I've been fiddling around with iTunes and last.fm a lot in the last few days, trying to stretch its limits in the name of getting cooler content from it which could in turn give cooler stuff to this very blog. Haven't had too much success, but gonna post it anyway and see if someone has a genius solution.

I've been trying to find a way to make iTunes give me a weekly chart; that is, I want iTunes to tell me what songs I played most frequently in the span of a week or a month. It'll tell me my all time most played and it'll tell me what I played in the last week, but I can't get it to combine the two in the way I want it to. Easiest way to do this would in theory be a smart playlist, but the parameters for that are limited and can't do it. Went searching on various forums and the like to see if anyone's figured it out...no luck. The best anyone suggested was last.fm, but their system is at best flawed; it told me I listened to Paramore's version of "My Hero" 11 times in one week, but it failed to acknowledge that 10 of those 11 times were actually in the same 3 minute period and thus was only 1 listen. All the other patches and such haven't worked either.

Paramore - My Hero [iTunes] (via YouSendit)
[and now SaveFile is on the fritz...why is nothing working?]

(One more thing about last.fm: has anyone else noticed that it's not scrobbling everything that gets played? Last night I played through the entire new 3 Doors Down album, but it only scrobbled 4 of the 12 tracks. Anyone else notice this problem?)

I'm also trying to fill in all the blanks for the info on all my songs, ie year, genre, etc. I've gotten all the years down, save for the weird stuff (TV themes, drumline stuff), but I'm finding genre to be an issue because there are too many options. Wondering if anyone has any way to make that job easier.

And lastly because as I type this my brother is IMing me about it, my bro's computer crashed and he's trying to get iTunes to work again. iTunes still thinks that his computer pre-crash is authorized to play stuff, and when he authorizes it now, its counting it as a second computer (I hope that makes sense to someone besides me). I told him to contact Apple and make them fix it, but if whoever reads this knows something we don't, drop a comment and you'd have both our thanks.

Expect a review of that 3 Doors Down album next week, as well as a follow-up on one of my Under the Radar bands.

==TJ==

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==

How Cool Is THAT?!?!

I know I promised a review of the new Angels & Airwaves album, but this came across my desk just now and it's too cool to pass up. It's always awesome when I get messages from people regarding what I put here, and it's even awesomer (yes, I just made up a word) when those who message me are in the music business. I just got a message on my MySpace from Sarah at Wind-Up Records. She came across this very blog and saw that I had recently purchased Consequence, the debut album from The Crash Motive that I've raved about here and here. She asked if I could put a plug in for something, and being a fan of the music, I jumped at the chance. So here goes.




The image is pretty self-explanatory; make an iMix on iTunes containing at least one Crash Motive song and if the band likes it enough, you can win prizes ranging from signed CDs to an autographed Fender Squier guitar. I posted about this awhile back, but I already submitted an iMix called "GET AMPED" which can be found here.

Now, before I go on with a review of Consequence, I want it noted that neither Wind-Up nor The Crash Motive have promised me any compensation of any kind for what you read in this entry. The words and opinions are purely my own.

I've been waiting for a CD by The Crash Motive since their early days, back when they were known as Omnisoul, and just a bunch of college students fresh out of the University of Delaware. I heard "Waiting (Save Your Life)" on the Fantastic 4 OST, and fell in love with it almost immediately. Since then, I heard the singles they dropped to iTunes, got excited when I heard they got signed, and kept playing the three songs I knew.

Fast forward; it's 2007, and Omnisoul changes their name to The Crash Motive, and out comes Consequence. Without a second thought I get the album (legally, mind you, an increasingly rare event). My biggest fear was that the album would be a typical debut album, with "Not Giving Up" and "Waiting (Save Your Life)" at the front of the album, and weaker, less enjoyable tracks filling up the remaining 10 songs. It's true that nothing on the album matches the one-two-three punch of "Not Giving Up", "No Tomorrow, Just Tonight" and "Waiting", but everything else on this album is quality stuff. These days heavy production and a clean sound is usually used to mask a band's lack of talent, but not so on Consequence. Everything sounds clean and polished, even moreso than some of the most shameless radio rock. But underneath the layer of production, there's still rock going on, as evidenced by "Things That Could Be Said" and the bouncy drum lick behind "Not Giving Up".

If you want to find fault with Consequence, then find it in their occasional lack of originality. Lead singer Derek Fuhrmann is a solid frontman, but there were times on the album that I couldn't be sure if I was just listening to Maroon 5 demos, and after awhile the songs can potentially blend into one mass, with not much variety. But it doesn't take much to snap out of it and realize that The Crash Motive are (or at least should be) legit, and their music a breath of fresh air.

The guys in The Crash Motive are what we all secretly hope for in rock music. Beneath the shiny top layer, there's a rock band under there, the kind of band that I can envision practicing in their parent's basement or in an empty garage. And now they've got a CD out and are on TV, in movies, and on their way to chasing that age-old rockstar dream. Let's hope they don't crash before they get there.

Ruling on the Field: 7.5/10
Highlight Reel: I've posted an mp3 of "Not Giving Up" twice now. If you haven't gotten it yet, you have no excuse, go find it. Note to Wind-Up; if you want said mp3s taken down, let me know and I will oblige.

I'll be back again this weekend, and be sure to check out the iMix contest as well as my submission!

==TJ==

About that Singles post...

...yeah life got in the way, and I'm only getting around to it now. What with the show opening I've been listening to a bunch of different stuff, some of it to get me pumped (or "amped" as Ernie liked to put it), other stuff just because it sounds good. Let's get started.

Kanye West - Stronger
This one is just a given. It played on the radio once in the dressing room, leading me to start rapping along since I knew every word to the track (having heard it a million times by now). After that it just got played every single pre-show after that. My love for this track is well documented on this blog.

Black Sabbath - War Pigs
A favorite of my castmate and friend Ernie. Before "Stronger" rolled around, this song was the song to which we all danced, moshed, and air-guitarred prior to curtain. I'm not a huge fan of Black Sabbath or even metal for that matter, but this song did what it had to do.

Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
Another dance around the dressing room favorite. Very sad to hear this song somehow got snubbed on the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock setlist. Awesome riff, the beat is simple, but unforgettable, and its just a great song by a band that most people wrote off.

Speaking of which, what should a band do when its core fans abandon them for having "sold out" for getting a radio friendly hit? Do what Finger Eleven did and get a new fanbase. I bought Them vs. You vs. Me the other day, and their new brand of bouncy hard rock is positively amazing. It'd be easy to assume "Paralyzer" is just another one-hit wonder track, but in reality its matched by the likes of "Falling On", "Change the World", and "I'll Keep Your Memory Vague". It's not earth-shattering, but dammit if isn't better than the by-the-numbers angst rock we've become so used to. I hope you're taking notes, Seether.
Ruling on the Field: 7.5/10

Rihanna - Umbrella (Cinderella remix feat. Chris Brown)
I know I'm way behind the times on this "Umbrella" remix, but it got played on Alex, Helen, and Amanda's show and I fell in love with it. The more I listen to Top 40 R&B, the less I find myself hating it. I ruckused Good Girl Gone Bad to see what I was missing, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I was thinking it would be (and nowhere near as sickeningly sugarpoppy as the new Backstreet Boys album). While I'm at it, Shut Up and Drive is equally good at getting the adrenaline flowing.

Dropkick Murphys - I'm Shipping Up To Boston
Anyone who saw The Departed will know this song, and it's textbook DKM with it's throat wrenching vocals, pulsing drums and sick guitars. Another fun song to get yourself worked up to.

The Crash Motive - Not Giving Up
Yeah, I know I posted this last time, but it's still just as appropriate. Every time I hear this song, I feel like I need to get up and fight someone. The drums sound like they belong on a rap album, and you can't not bounce along in your chair to the chorus. I'm playing through their debut album, and can't stop raving about these guys. If you don't have this song, you really have no excuse.

All these tracks and others can be found on the iMix I just threw together, aptly titled "GET AMPED". Go check it out on iTunes (I posted it as an entry for a contest The Crash Motive is holding right now). I'll link to the mix tomorrow after the updates I made to it take hold.

Back later with other stuff.

==TJ==

Why iTunes Has Been (And Will Be) So Successful

An article in Rolling Stone#1035 (the one with Kanye and 50 Cent on the cover) talks about the rise of iTunes as one of the largest music-sellers in the country. With over 3 billion songs sold, its the largest digital music outlet, and accounts for 10% of all music sold in America, behind only Best Buy and Wal-Mart. But the story points out that the record labels aren't too fond of some of Apple's habits; for years the major labels have clamored for a change in the pricing models (the labels want $2.50 for recent and popular songs, and less than $.99 for older tracks) and a break from the $.99 per song, $9.99 an album setup that has made iTunes so successful over the last 4 years. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has met the labels' demands with a glorified "Go Fuck Yourself". As a result, NBC-Universal has cut off ties to Apple, with Universal Music holding the right to pull its music at any time, and NBC opting not to renew its contract to have its hit shows available for download. Representatives for the major labels have compared iTunes business habits to those of Wal-Mart.

Here's where I take issue; iTunes is different from Wal-Mart in that iTunes actually gives a crap about the people working for it, and the people buying their products. When I buy music or TV shows from iTunes, I know I'm getting high quality, yet still inexpensive merchandise that I actually want. Yes, iTunes may not be so friendly to the record labels, but take a look around; not many people are friendly toward the major labels these days. It's this fact that helped fuel illegal downloading, and in turn spawned iTunes. The record labels have no one to blame but themselves for this situation.

And a message to Universal Music Group; who the hell are you to try to strongarm iTunes into upping its prices? The reason you had to turn to iTunes is because people stopped buying your CDs. You don't exactly have room to try to force your pricing habits when those habits have proven to fail. You want to try to launch your own downloading service? Go ahead, good luck with that. I'll stick with the people who actually pay attention to what I want.

==TJ==

Some Stuff to Chill Out To...

No, I'm not dead. Just been tied up with work and school and the like.

I've been listening to a lot of really chill, acoustic-y type stuff. And since I'm behind on my reviews I think I'll burn some time talking about what I've been listening to. I don't like doing long reviews unless its something big, so these'll be short.

I think just about everyone has heard Matt Nathanson's version of the early '90s hit "Laid", but for some reason he hasn't had much big-time success elsewhere. A few weeks ago he released Some Mad Hope, his sixth studio release. This album might be his best shot at commercial success, led by tracks like "Come On Get Higher", a track well in the running for makeout song of the year, and the leadoff anthem "Car Crash". But outside of these are smooth, chill pop-rock that his fans have come to love. It's not glitzy and you may not remember every song, but its a great cohesive set of tracks that create a decent album.
Ruling on the Field: 6.5/10
Highlight Reel: Come On Get Higher
Matt Nathanson on iTunes

For the past few months I've had "Life Less Ordinary" and "What About Everything?" by Carbon Leaf on my iPod, and both songs got airplay on the old radio show. I finally got around to hearing the album Indian Summer. It's got a bit more spine to it than Matt Nathanson, and it has the tendency to wreak of Matchbox 20, but no one ever said it was crime to write one hell of a hook. Tracks like "One Prarie Outpost" and the Irish-jig-meets-pop-rock meld of "This is My Song" show far more musicianship and inspiration than most anything Rob Thomas has done recently.
Ruling on the Field: 7/10
Highlight Reel: What About Everything?
Carbon Leaf on iTunes

I've mentioned Secondhand Serenade on this blog in the past, but i never did a real review of them. If Chris Carabba were to overdose on Prozac, it would come out sounding like John Vesely, aka Secondhand Serenade. His debut album Awake is made up entirely of songs he wrote for his wife. He's got all the ingredients of an early Dashboard Confessional, but he's also got an absurd amount of harmony in every song, and has already begun to explore a fuller sound with the bonus track "Stay Close, Don't Go". Secondhand Serenade is for all the people who miss acoustic Dashboard or are tired of hearing about unrequited love.
Ruling on the Field: 9/10
Highlight Reel: Maybe; Stay Close, Don't Go
Secondhand Serenade on iTunes

Dude named Brandon Heath had a concert at Arcadia last year. At the time he was starting to find some radio play in the south, but nothing huge. I wrote him off when he came to campus, but finally snagged a copy of his album last week. It opens with two incredible country-rock songs in "Steady Now" and "Simple Man", and the title track "Don't Get Comfortable" shows what he's capable of, but the rest of the album falls flatter, with fewer memorable songs.
Ruling on the Field: 5/10
Highlight Reel: Steady Now
Brandon Heath on iTunes

Finally, last week Las Vegas singer/songwriter Nick Motil played a set here on campus, and his most recent release One of These Days is another example of what good solo artist albums should sound like; simple, unassuming, and just memorable enough to warrant repeated listens. Nothing pretentious or dull about it (looking at you, Ani Difranco and Jack Johnson).
Ruling on the Field: 7/10
Highlight Reel: One of These Days
Nick Motil on iTunes

That's all for now. More mp3s and info on the pending radio show will come in the next few weeks.

==TJ==

New Singles from Jimmy Eat World, Springsteen, and AvA

OK, lots of cool stuff coming this entry, but first some clarifications;

-If you comment, please be kind enough to sign your post. Gina, I know you reminded me about the Backstreet Boys album dropping in October as well, but please do sign your comments so I can separate the legit from the spam.

-2 entries back I listed James Blunt's All The Lost Souls on the list of albums coming out in October, thus implying you should be excited about the release of said album. Such was a miscommunication; I do not expect you to wait with bated breath for the return of James Blunt, especially if "1973" is any indication.

-If you hadn't noticed, I added my CD Tracker to the list on the left; it keeps a mostly up-to-date list of what CDs I own. Go check it out.

And with that, onto the goods:

-Angels & Airwaves has announced October 23rd as the release date for their sophomore album I-Empire. A clip of the first single "Everything's Magic" is streaming on their MySpace. As of today it had not been released to iTunes.

-However, both Jimmy Eat World and Bruce Springsteen released their first singles "Big Casino" and "Radio Nowhere", respectively, to iTunes today. Springsteen's track is decent, though his voice is starting to show some wear and the message of the song is a bit curmudgeonly, while Jimmy Eat World delivers another great hit. If you hadn't gotten the message, I'm excited for these two albums

Jimmy Eat World - Big Casino
Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere

-More information has come out about Exile on Mainstream, the forthcoming release from Matchbox 20. It will be a 2-disc set, the first disc containing six new tracks including "How Far We've Come", while the second disc is a best-of containing 11 songs even the most casual fans already have. Meanwhile "How Far We've Come" has yet to make it to iTunes. So, in conclusion you will most likely be paying 20 bucks for six songs. Smooth, guys, reeeaaal smooth.

That's all. I'll be back later this week with some more goodies.

Does Jack Bauer care if you buy your music or not? I don't know. But do you REALLY wanna find out if he does?

Jimmy Eat World on iTunes
Bruce Springsteen on iTunes

==TJ==

Success in Store for Zerochance

I meant to post this entry about a week and a half ago, but things kept getting in the way and I'm only getting around to it now.

It's pretty rare that I put much stock in a band that friends me on MySpace. In my view its two easy for any group of people to come together claiming to be a band when all they do is scream three-chord nonsense into a microphone or whatever. However, Zerochance happened to find itself one of the rare exceptions.

Zerochance is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Erick Belitto who basically woke up one morning and decided to chase his dream (with a little help from John Mayer and Guster). Comparing Zerochance's music to that of groups like Train or Dashboard Confessional really doesn't do it justice, because it does have a style all its own, with Erick's southern twinge and heart-on-a-sleeve conviction that would make even Chris Carabba's heartstrings tug. At this point his first album Better Days for Broken Hearts is only available on his website and on iTunes, but believe me when I tell you that this album is truly worth hearing. The songs range from the bouncy "Burn My Radio" to the poignant in "Four Letter Words" and "First Born". If you go to his MySpace page you can hear two tracks from his forthcoming Accessory to Success, due out in June.



I'm going to post an mp3 of "Van Nuys", my favorite song on the album, but PLEASE check out his MySpace page and go check out the rest of the album. Trust me on this one. I can't predict if Zerochance is gonna be huge, but if Nickelback can sell 5 million albums, there's no reason Zerochance doesn't deserve the same shot.

Zerochance [MySpace]
Better Days for Broken Hearts on iTunes
Zerochance - Van Nuys

==TJ==

In Search of Some Rest...

Current Music: Carbon Leaf - What About Everything?

A couple of news stories I saw on Billboard today that made me all kinds of happy:

-Linkin Park is currently wrapping up the mixing process on its new album and is saying that the first single from their fourth album will be released sometime next month. Producer Rick Rubin is excited for the new release, saying this album takes the band places they've never gone before. Citing Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer as influences, the album appears to be a massive departure from the formulaic rap-rock that dominated 2000's Hybrid Theory and 2003's Meteora. The haters can say all they want about LP being washed up; I am 8 different shades of excited for this.

-The Beatles and Apple have apparently struck a deal that will end the ongoing lawsuit tied to Apple's trademark violations. The Apple Music group (owner of the Beatles' music) sued the Apple Computer Corporation (makers of the iPod) for breaching part of a previous settlement that forbade Apple Computers from getting involved in music. The deal allows Apple to continue to operate iTunes and use its logo, and could be the final obstacle in allowing Beatles music to be sold on iTunes. About freakin' time.

And I don't feel like doing a huge thing on it, but the Eagles are eyeing a spring release date for their new album, the first new LP since 1979's The Long Run.

That's all. I've got a rant built up in me, I'll probably post it by the end of the week (and other famous last words...)

==TJ==

Listen to the Sound...

Welcome to my newly made music blog. I figured that most of the readers on my LiveJournal and other various blogs didn't read the music-based entries posted there, and my Last.fm page was a bit too low profile for what I'm trying to do. So I started yet another blog, dedicated entirely to all things music (hence the title). I'm not entirely sure what exactly is going in here, but expect lots of musings on songs, albums, anything that makes me a music geek. If you have something you want me to rant about, let me know, I will consider the topic. Some ground rules about commenting may come in later, depending on what kind of feedback I get.

Most of my readers probably know what kind of music I'm into, but just to get things started off, a quick iTunes survey for the sake of getting a general idea in case i have any new readers:

Number of songs: 1627 (and growing)
Total Time: 4:09:35:00 (days:hours:mins:seconds)

Sort by song title:
-first song: Queen - '39
-Last song: Stone Sour - Zzyzx Rd.

Sort by length:
-Shortest song: Merry Christmas from Mr.T (:14)
-Longest Song: Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (17:29)

Sort by album:
-First Song: Beyonce - Check On It
-Last Song: Collective Soul - How Do You Love? (That's the last listed album; I have several with no album title given)

First five songs that come up on shuffle:
1. Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
2. Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
3. Stone Sour - Sillyworld
4. No Doubt - Don't Speak
5. 30 Seconds to Mars - Attack

Top 10 Most Played Songs:
1. All-American Rejects - Move Along
2. The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car) [Live at the Electric Factory]
3. Omnisoul - Waiting (Save Your Life)
4. AFI - Summer Shudder
5. Lostprophets - Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)
6. Our Lady Peace - Innocent
7. Stone Sour - Through Glass
8. 30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill
9. Breaking Benjamin - The Diary of Jane (Acoustic)
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around the Bend

Search "sex", how many songs come up? 3
Search "love", how many songs come up? 54
Search "death", how many songs come up? 3
Search "hate", how many songs come up? 4
Search "wish", how many songs come up? 4

Yeah that's it for me. I'll be back probably tomorrow. Feedback of any sort is appreciated from here on out.

==TJ==