Music

Music is a big part of me: Over the years, I’ve sung in choirs, played the violin (never terribly well) and can plunk tunes out on most other instruments, DJ’d alternative/goth/industrial/ebm/electronica clubs, and collected a whole lot of music.

Queen! (But who’s Paul Rodgers?)

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Queen (plus Paul Rodgers) is going to be performing in Seattle!

Who’s Paul Rodgers? Aside from the obvious answer of “the guy singing because Freddy‘s not around anymore,” that is. Apparently, he’s had a solo career along with being the vocalist for three bands — Free, Bad Company, and The Firm. Bad Company is the only one of those three that I’ve ever heard of.

Hrm.

It’s a dilemma. On the one hand, I’m a long time Queen fan, and they have been one of the groups I’ve always wished I’d had a chance to see live — something I’d given up on when Freddy died. So the chance to see even 3/4 of Queen with someone else standing in is very enticing.

On the other hand…it’s not Freddy. Will the show still sound right? Does Paul have the stage presence that Freddy did (while I never saw them, I love listening to the live album ‘Live Killers‘ in large part because of the incredible rapport Freddy had with his audience)? There are sample downloads on the Queen + Paul Rodgers website, but they’re in a Windows Media format that doesn’t seem to play nice with OS X, so I can’t listen to any of them.

Ooh, wait…in the ‘Media‘ section, there are some clips in a .wmv format that does play nice in OS X. I’m…not sold. The music is right, but the vocals…I’m not sure. While I wouldn’t expect it to sound exactly like Freddy (and I really do like the job George Michael did with them a few years back…I thought he made a very impressive pseudo-Freddy), Paul’s got enough of a different timbre that it makes it a little jarring to my ears.

No matter what, I should decide soon: the show’s on April 10th (a Monday night), and tickets are a little painful (ranging from $50 to $200.00!). Decisions, decisions, decisions…

iTunes “Dreamer’s Ball (Live)” by Queen from the album Live Killers (1979, 3:42).

iTunes Essentials: Goth

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The iTunes Music Store‘s Essentials series has weighed in on the ‘essentials’ of goth.

It’s an interesting collection of tracks. Not a bad selection, either — I’m mostly just impressed that they have this many non-pop artists available now.

(If the above link to the Goth Essentials doesn’t work, try this one. Pity that while I can come up with iTMS Affiliate links for the iTMS and the Essentials program as a whole, I’m finding out if there is a way for me to link to the Goth Essentials set through the iTMS Affiliate program. Meh. Not that complaining about their affiliate program is a new thing for me.)

Frequently Secretly

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Willie Nelson has a new song out. Normally, this wouldn’t be something that I’d take much notice of — while I don’t have anything against country music (and even have a little in my collection), it’s not my main forte.

This one, however…isn’t your typical country song.

Willie Nelson’s crooned cowboy songs before, from the signature “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” to “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys.”

But never like this: On “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other,” the Texas country icon sings about love among men on the range. Available exclusively at iTunes today, the song aims to show Mr. Nelson’s support for gays, particularly to conservative country-music fans.

“The song’s been in the closet for 20 years,” Mr. Nelson said in a prepared statement. It was written in 1981 by Lubbock-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette.

…[Brokeback Mountain] may have provided the perfect opportunity to release this new song. But Mr. Nelson also has a personal connection to the tune.

Two years ago, David Anderson, Mr. Nelson’s friend and tour manager of three decades, told his boss he’s gay. Last March, while Mr. Nelson recorded a batch of previously unreleased songs for iTunes, he discovered the song in a stack of demos he had tossed into a drawer.

Singing “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” was Mr. Nelson’s way of telling a longtime pal everything was OK, says Mr. Anderson.

The song’s currently only available through the iTunes Music Store. Lyrics are after the cut.

(via Boing Boing)

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The Ciccones: Lies

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Here’s a mashup worth listening to: The Ciccones‘ “Lies” (6.5Mb .mp3). While most of the all-Madonna mashup album is fairly hit-and-miss, this is by far the standout track. Over the music for “Live to Tell“, audio quotes from the justifications for the Iraq war are juxtaposed with the song’s original chorus:

A man can tell a thousand lies,
I’ve learned my lesson well,
Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned,
’till then, it will burn inside of me.

Cute and clever.

iTunes “Lies” by Ciccones, The from the album Immaculate Concoction, The (2005, 5:45).

iTunes Ratings

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Following in the footsteps of jwz, Tim Bray, AKMA, and Paul, here’s the rating system I use in iTunes:

  • All songs start at ✭✭✭ when I import them.
  • As I listen, they’re adjusted up and down according to the following:
    • ✭ — Bad import (dirty/scratched CD or other issue), needs to be re-imported or otherwise replaced.
    • ✭✭ — I don’t like it, and don’t particularly want to listen to it.
    • ✭✭✭ — Good general listening. Won’t complain if/when it comes up in random rotation.
    • ✭✭✭✭ — A favorite. Better than most. Don’t mind hearing it more often.
    • ✭✭✭✭✭ — Almost impossible to get tired of. Also almost impossible to resist singing along to or dancing to when it pops up.

From there, the custom playlists I use (which have been updated and tweaked a bit since that post, but the basics are still good) work for daily listening.

iTunes “Work It! Dance = Life (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Work It! Dance = Life (full mix) (1996, 1:09:44).

(Another) iTunes Meme

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Ganked from spikesandstuds:

  • How many total songs?

    15,906 (72.3 GB; 86 days, 12 hours, one minute and nine seconds if played beginning-to-end with no breaks).

  • Sort by song title — first and last?

  • Sort by time — shortest and longest?
    • Shortest: 0:04 — An untitled ‘hidden track’ that consists of a girl yelling “Let’s hear it for Nine Inch Nails! Woo! They’re good!” off of NIN‘s Head Like A Hole single.
    • Longest: 1:18:18 — The full mix version of The Kleptones’ A Night at the Hip-Hopera.
  • Sort by Album — first and last?

    (This doesn’t include all the downloaded tracks that don’t have album names assigned.)

  • Sort by Artist — first and last?

  • Top five played songs?

    1. Break by The Kleptones, off of A Night at the Hip-Hopera
    2. Going, Going, Gone (Razed in Black mix) by Information Society, off of InSoc Recombinant
    3. Da Da Da by Out of the Ordinary, off of Welcome to the Future
    4. Take California and Party by the Propellerheads (featuring the Jungle Brothers), off of Take California
    5. Pleasant Smell (Rethought by Clint Mansell and Keith Hillebrandt for the Nothing Collective) by 12 Rounds, off of Pleasant Smell
  • Find the following words. How many songs show up?
    • Sex: 189
    • Death: 155
    • Love: 859
    • You: 1302
    • Home: 107
    • Boy: 533
    • Girl: 339

iTunes “2525” by Laibach from the album N.A.T.O. (1994, 3:48).