Favorite Music

The terrible weather in this part of the world made listening to my XMRadio on the way to work this morning impossible.

So I dug around in my glovebox, found a very old cassette, threw it in and chanced upon on of my all-time favorite songs. It got me thinking about favorite songs and I thought I might jumpstart our poor little blog with a listing of what I believe are my top 5. Feel free to join me. :)

(These are in no order, but I will start with the song I heard this morning)

Washing of the Water - Peter Gabriel
I Burn For You - The Police
Radio Radio - Elvis Costello
Now My Heart is Full - Morrissey
The Obvious Child (or maybe Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, or maybe I Know What I Know) - Paul Simon

Ok, maybe five was too few. I missed Vincent by Don Mclean, Find the River by REM, Satellite by DMB, Too Pieces by Yaz, and many others. Ah well, I tried. :)

Moz article in the Guardian

Although now nearly 3 weeks old (yes, I have been working that much), there's a great interview with Morrissey in The Guardian.

My favorite quotes:

• "I'm not really that hot on the human race to be honest. Very few people have anything to offer."
  
• "Despite massive discouragement, I remain myself."
  

Moz headlining Lollapalooza

Because I'm an idiot and/or working too hard, I somehow missed the 29 March announcement that Morrissey will be headlining Lollapalooza 2004.

Wierd, but oddly cool too.

Woot!

Dan...get those tickets ordered for England...

Moz release date

First he signed to a label, then he named his album. Now we have a definitive release date (not to mention a spiffy Kray-inspired photo) for Morrissey's latest effort, You Are the Quarry - May 18th in the U.S.

I can't wait!

Favorite albums (2003)

About a month into 2003, we made top 12 lists of our favorite things from 2002. We liked the idea so much that we decided to make it an annual habit.

This year's pickings in music were not very good in the extrasonic household... we weren't even able to come up with a full dozen, so making it on to our "favorite albums" list this year wasn't much of an honor. But here's the list, such as it is:

Favorite albums (2003) | Last year's list

7. Sacred Love, Sting
6. Think Tank, Blur
5. Elephant, The White Stripes
4. Hail to the Thief, Radiohead
3. Vulnerable, Tricky
2. 100th Window, Massive Attack
1. Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Belle & Sebastian

Bad omen

Especially when pulled into a work scenario that I can only use the term "goat rodeo" to describe - as has been the case since late last week - my drive in to work each day is the closest thing I get to zen time. This is not because suburban Chicago traffic is so pleasant to navigate, but it is instead because of the 20GB mp3 player installed in the trunk of my car.

Today's theme, though, would strike me as a bad omen (if I was the sort of person that believed that an mp3 player was trying to tell me something):

• Jeane, The Smiths
("I don't know what happiness means/But I look in your eyes and I know/That it isn't there")
• Only Happy When it Rains, Garbage
("You can keep me company as long as you don't care")
• Lose That Girl, St. Etienne
("She said 'cancel everything'/And like a fool/You never know what's happening")
• Here's Where the Story Ends, The Sundays
("And whoever would have thought/That the books that you wrote/Were all I loved you for?")
• Roads, Portishead
("I got nobody on my side/And surely that ain't right")
• I Know It's Over, The Smiths
("I know it's over/And yet it never really began/But in my heart/It was so REAL")

My interpretation of my mp3 player's subliminal message? It's a toss up between the fortune cookie-esque "You are about to be unlucky in love" to the slightly more pragmatic "You were very angst-y in the late '80s and early '90s".

You Are the Quarry

As we mentioned earlier, Morrissey finally got a record deal he was pleased with in June 2003. Now the NME has details about the new album - his first in 7 years - which is reportedly entitled You Are the Quarry.

The release date in the UK is tenatively set for April.

Stuart Murdoch interview

The Onion's AV Club has an interview with Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian.

Rock star stupidity

While it's pretty funny that Alanis Morissette yelled "Thank you Brazil!" at the end of her show in Lima, Peru, it's downright hysterical that David Lee Roth had to get 22 stitches after whacking himself in the head while performing what his spokesman called "a very fast, complicated 15th-century samurai move."

Pixies

Yes, you've probably read about this on every other weblog already - current Blogdex citations (for the MTV link and the Pitchfork link combined) are up to 78. I saw it first at Clader's. The Pixies will reunite and tour in April, with a studio album possible afterwards. That is all. And that is enough.

New Belle & Sebastian

There's a new Belle & Sebastian album due out October 7, entitled Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Also out later this fall from B&S - Fans Only, a DVD of live performances.

Morrissey audio interview

Despite misspelling his name, Fimoculous posted a link to and high praise for a BBC interview with Morrissey (Real Audio format).

Moz. Label. Discuss.

Thank you, Sanctuary.

Now that he has a new record deal, Morrissey will immediately begin to record his first album since 1997.

Uh oh Whitney's joinin' a cult!

I couldn't resist posting this tidbit, but it looks like Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown are on their way towards joining a cult. Boy, they couldn't be more frightening of a couple if they tried.

BTW, what the HELL are they wearing in that photo with Sharon? Whitney, please get that scary thing off of your head!

Convergence

Convergence - which most people think of as the consolidation of home entertainment (tv, movies, music, games, etc.) and information (computing, Internet, etc.) technologies - is becoming more and more of a reality, regardless of whether or not it's a good idea.

Sony is leading the charge - they are building IM capabilities into the Playstation 2, and they're teaming with IBM and Toshiba on the "cell" processor, which may serve as the basis for the PS3 and seems to have the potential to serve as the basis for a wide array of internetworked consumer electronics. Only Sony has the breadth of hardware (computers, game consoles, home theater components, etc.) to really see this convergence thing through. This positions Sony very well not only for making a single device that acts as the "digital hub" for a household (to use a phrase coined by another major convergence player, Apple) but also the "spokes" to be attached to that hub.

And what about Apple? If you believe Steve Jobs, then their iLife strategy has put them "so far ahead of anybody, it's not funny." Clearly, they've done more tactically than Sony has - iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and of course iTunes at the bleeding edge of the portfolio - but Sony has a leg up on Apple in the strategy department. After all, an install base of 50 million PS2s (scroll down to the 15 Jan 03 press release) really sets Sony up for the long haul.

Microsoft won't go out with out a fight, though. Their moves into pervasive computing with WinCE and the palmtop PocketPC are clear (even if the mobile phone portion of the plan is a bit murky), but their acquisition of WebTV, development of the TiVo-esque UltimateTV, and even the Xbox itself shows that Microsoft is definitely interested in having their software appear on consumers' TVs. Adding DVR and other multimedia functionality to the Xbox, as has been widely rumored, is yet another step down this path.

As great as it all sounds, general purpose hardware/OSes/software have historically never fared as well as a system of purpose-built technologies that have a well-understood way to interact with each other. The fact that you're reading this post over the Internet is probably the best example of discrete technologies communicating via standard protocols to achieve the ever-elusive concept of synergy - a whole that's more than the sum of its parts. The true aim of convergence, in my humble opinion, should be to bring open protocols (either new or existing) to consumer electronics - not to try to build a single "set top box" that is all things to all applications.

Smart money is on a redefinition of the home network - TiVo's Home Media Option upgrade has the right idea by adding TCP/IP capabilities to their DVRs via a USB ethernet interface - not the all-in-one approach that has tried and failed so many times. I'll take communication over consolidation any day.

iTunes sales exceed 1 million?

c|net is running a pretty interesting article about iTunes' success and its implications for digital music.

To me, $0.99/song is the right price for purchasing music online. I'm even ok with the digital rights management overhead. My chief complaint is the format - give me MP3 and I'd be all over this.

Alternatively, you can get me to accept a non-MP3 file format only if you can provide platform-independent software and a variety of hardware that can natively understand the new format.

Solving those problems would bring me into the fold for sure - but with all of my digital music in MP3 today, and with a couple of non-computer hardware devices (soon to include my car stereo) reliant on the format, it'd take a lot for me to convert. Some may call it consumer inertia, but I call it protecting the investment of my time and money into collecting and finding uses for the format of my choice.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

As some of you might know, my three favorite bands/musicians are The Police, Elvis Costello (with and without the Attractions) and Peter Gabriel. Last night two of those (Elvis and The Police) were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

*sigh* I'm so proud of my boys (except you Stewart). :)

Favorite albums (2002)

Well, it's the end of January 2003, so it's about time we unveiled our favorite stuff from last year. Here's our 12 favorite albums of 2002:

12. Out of Season, Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man
11. Finisterre, Saint Etienne
10. Daylight, Duncan Sheik
9. White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
8. Release, Pet Shop Boys
7. Up, Peter Gabriel
6. Once More, With Feeling, cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Maladroit, Weezer
4. When I Was Cruel, Elvis Costello
3. A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay
2. Scarlet's Walk, Tori Amos
1. Daybreaker, Beth Orton

Great show at Uncommon Ground

Desiree and I attended a great show last night at Uncommon Ground in the city. We saw our good friend and incredible musician, Jeffrey Altergott, play an amazing set that included some of his previously released material (mostly drawing from the excellent Icarus Grounded) as well as several songs from his upcoming album, tenatively entitled A Simple Kind of Truth.

Also playing were Summer Chance and Yvonne Doll and the Locals, both of whom had highly enjoyable sets. All in all, it was a great excuse to go into the city, see friends, and listen to some really well-crafted music. Be sure to check out the above artists' websites (all of whom have some free samples to download) and give them a listen!

Beth Orton

Here's a little tidbit on one of our favorite singer/musicians, Beth Orton. As you can see, she also works with several other favorites of ours. :)

If you haven't given her a try, check out Daybreaker (her new one) and Central Reservation (my favorite). She's got a great silky voice, definitely worth a listen.

Is p2p the culprit for sagging music revenues?

Microsoft researchers have authored a paper saying that it is "pointless" to fight peer-to-peer networking. They were specifically referring to music swapping, but the key factors in their conclusion - the decentralization of peer-to-peer networks (and subsequent lack of a single entity to pursue through litigation), rising adoption of broadband Internet connectivity at home, the proliferation of CD and DVD burners, and the ubiquity of instant messaging - make this warning almost equally applicable to any form of digital content. Since this would, by definition, include Microsoft's entire portfolio of software, it's probably safe to assume that this isn't the company's official position.

That this technological 'arms race' between copyright holders and copyright violators is unwinnable is not news; still, the long-term implications don't have to be as bleak as long as so-called "old media" solves an old problem - quality content at affordable prices.

Sure, the RIAA says that music revenues are declining, and I believe them. I don't believe that it's piracy that's hurting them, though. In my opinion, there are several social and technological factors at play.

Free music culture. The RIAA has profited for a long time from giving away free samples - first via the radio, then MTV and its ilk. Now that they've given away music for entire generations, is it any wonder than people think that they don't need to pay for songs?

Singles. The aforementioned samples, released as singles for radio airplay or developed as music videos, were often the best (or at least most broadly appealing) songs on their respective albums. Now, many consumers feel that the single(s) are the only good song(s) on an album, and don't want to pay the RIAA's extortionist rates to get an entire CD for only those 1-2 songs.

These are problems with price and quality - two things that p2p file sharing has nothing to do with and the RIAA has every ability to control. Exacerbating this problem are the technological factors:

MP3. The ever-popular file format made near-CD-quality sound small enough to transport over computer networks and to load onto personal music players. It's quick and easy to download an individual song with a broadband connection. The MPAA is also concerned about p2p file sharing, but for the moment they've got a highly effective anti-p2p-piracy mechanism - enormous file sizes.

No differentiation. Serious audiophiles notwithstanding, music for the masses sounds just as good on a decent set of computer speakers as on their home or car stereos. Movies have got a leg up here, too - a THX-certified movie theater offers a different (and arguably more compelling) experience than a DVD on your home television which is in turn a different, more compelling experience than a bootleg MPEG on your computer. The decidedly non-niche home theater market proves that a reasonable number of consumers are willing to pay significantly to enhance their movie-watching experience. Let's also not discount the fact that Chamber of Secrets and The Two Towers are likely to be #5 and #6 in terms of films generating over US$200 million in their American theatrical release this year, which would make 2002 the most profitable year ever (in terms of box office revenues) for the movie industry - they're clearly not hurting.

The movie industry isn't alone in dealing with the digitization of content better than the music industry; television may be outdoing the both of them. Despite the fact that advertisers are losing interest in commercials due to the rise of TiVo and other DVRs, they plan to refocus that money toward product placement considerations and show sponsorships - not much money lost from the networks' point-of-view. And the networks, while annoyed at the drying up of one revenue stream, are most assuredly rubbing their hands with glee at the video-on-demand revenue options that digital content and broadband distribution give them.

The moral of this story? p2p file sharing is out of the RIAA's sphere of control - but better, cheaper content isn't, and cheap goodies beats free crap any day.

Amiartornot?

Even though I was tempted to post this list of Pitchfork's "Top 100 Albums of the 80s" a couple of days ago when I saw it via some random blog surfing and then again when it was posted yesterday by Jen, I initially decided against it. I didn't think that I had much to add in the way of commentary and, besides, Desiree's favorite album of the 80s only rated the #55 spot on their list (mine, at #6, fared better).

Reflecting on some of Pitchfork's choices, though, I realized that there was something comment-worthy here after all - about the culture of art criticism, art vs. entertainment, and preconceptions about form.

I'm not here to critique a critique - people and publications make lists like this to expose their biases (anyone want to bet that the Pixies are in heavy rotation over at Pitchfork?) so that like-minded folks can learn to trust their opinion. Let's not forget, though, it's also a great way to spawn (hopefully intelligent) debate about stuff you love.

What I find interesting about this list is Pitchfork's presumably unintentional adherence to the convention of being unconventional - non-conformity through peer-pressure, if you will. The 80s music scene was filled with these kinds of unspoken rules: you can't be 'punk RAWK' if you listen to something that might get played on (non-college) radio, and you aren't 'alternative' if it takes more than one hand to count the number of people who have heard of any of the bands on your Walkman. If capturing that spirit was part of their objective when compiling their list, then bravo to them - although, since I'm a cynical bastard, I seriously doubt it.

Some useless art critics (you know who you are) go out of their way to justify their existence by "proving" they know more about art and/or are more of a hip scenester than you by lavishing praise on music/films/etc. that their audience are unlikely to have heard of. Good critics want to expose their audience to quality whether it's mainstream or underground; Peter Travers, Rolling Stone's film critic, is the first example of a "good" art critic by this definition that springs to mind. In fact, he's the only thing that keeps Rolling Stone from being a totally vapid neo-Socialist High Times with half-naked celebrities, but my completely justified abhorrance for RS and Jann Werner is a topic for another time.

Despite my earlier protestations, Pitchfork straddled that line pretty well - there's definitely some obscurity for obscurity's sake, but few alternapunk 'zines would be bold enough to list Guns N' Roses in a Top 100 list about anything. Anything positive, anyway.

That leads us to what the definition of "top" is. Not to sound Clintonian, but it honestly does depend. Does "top 100 albums" mean most influential? Most creative? Best production values? Or does it mean (gasp!) most entertaining - i.e. most likely to be on my playlist today?

Look, I can respect the creativity of Sonic Youth (who holds Pitchfork's #1 spot), but that's not the same as enjoying them. I like novels, too, but just because The Tale of Genji was the first one doesn't mean it's my all-time favorite.

Don't I want my art to be challenging? Sure - there's a place for challenging and largely inaccessible art. But art, at least to my way of thinking, should be able to elicit all kinds of responses. Sometimes I want art to challenge me, to frustrate me, or even to disturb me. Then again, sometimes I also want it to enlighten me, uplift me, or excite me. Provoking these kinds of intellectual and emotional responses is (in my opinion) the purpose of making art for other people. If you just want to express your creativity, then fine - no one's stopping you - and while people may appreciate it, they aren't likely to enjoy it.

The art that has a lasting influence on my life can be enjoyed on many levels - including (but not exclusively) the surface. It is a pet peeve of mine that so many critics want to jump right to the the subtext of art without so much as the slightest consideration for the context in which those subtleties are presented. It's the fact that I give the energy and style of the presentation equal weight when compared to the intellectual and emotional areas that a work of art explores that usually causes me to disagree with critics. Well, that and the fact that I'm not snooty enough to automatically rule out fun, whimsy, wonder, and adventure from my list of artistically "valid" responses.

I believe in evaluating art irrespective of its form or popularity, and that's frustrating when many art critics associate art's value directly to the perceived validity of its form and its breadth of popularity (or lack thereof). The case of Pitchfork's list is somewhat better; they seem to like some albums despite their popularity, but that still puts too much emphasis on what other people think for my taste.

Stick it to 'em Trudie!

Even though I hate her beyond imagination, I'm proud of her for this.