Entries Tagged 'Misc' ↓

Well first thing’s first, I just discovered that Maestro Alex Gregory has a website now.   He also has a new album Bach on Steroids with a great cover though it doesn’t compare with Paganini’s Last Stand.  I also saw that you can purchase MP3s of his four albums on Amazon.  I would love to get all of them but for not I’ll pick up the new one and Paganini’s Last Stand.

I really love this song - it’s one you don’t hear much about any more.  It was such an odd selection as a single and the video’s pretty bizarre, although it has the same vibe as “Undercover of the Night”.  Undercover isn’t one of my favorite Stones albums, but I really like this as a departure from their usual stuff.

I seriously don’t get what the big deal is. Sure it’s nice that you can buy digital copies of the songs but it’s not like you couldn’t buy a physical copy and rip it to your iPod. NPR’s story about this (and really NPR I expect better out of you) said this was more a symbolic victory for Steve Jobs and that’s fine, but why is Apple treating this like some kind of huge event?

The iTunes page for this is big and if you didn’t know better you would think that the Beatles’ songs were completely unavailable up until this point.  I guess Apple feels the need to play this up but it just seems a bit silly.  Buy the physical album or just swipe them online if you just want a single song,

Just like every other year Kansas City has two radio stations playing continuous Christmas music.  Unlike every other year I don’t find myself as irritated with it.    Two possible reasons:

• My oldest is four years old now and really likes Christmas music, specifically the older stuff like “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” and “Here Comes Santa Claus”
• It may be my imagination but the playlists seems to focus less on the usual limp-dick lite rock stuff and more on standards or at least stuff with some energy behind it.  That being said, I’m hearing Neil Diamond’s “Merry Cherry Christmas” (or something like that) a lot and I would probably rather listen to his covers album than hear that song again.

But I got to thinking about this - Christmas is the only time you hear people like Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Gene Autry on terrestrial/commercial radio.  Obviously these aren’t the only good songs that these people have but you never hear them the rest of the year.  I wonder if eventually some artists’ only legacy will be their holiday music (although Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra’s songs will always be around as long as there are Italian restaurants).

One other thing too…this could be my imagination also, but terrestrial radio stations play a shitload of commercials.  I had XM several years back and listen to NPR a lot since I canceled my service so that my impact my view of this.  I just find these stations unlistenable due to the frequency and length of their commercial break.  Kansas city has a great local political talk show but it seems like between the commercials, traffic, news, and weather you only get about 20 minutes of actual show per hour.  Of course I’m too lazy to actually time it so that’s just a baseless guess.

Several interesting releases that appear to be exclusives for indie record stores will be available on Friday.  I have no idea if this happened last year or not, but this is something I’m looking forward to.  The entire list is available on the Record Store Day site, but here’s a few that I’m interested in.

Metallica, Live at Grimey’s

A live album (obviously) of the set they played for 150 people prior to Bonaroo.  I’ve already got a bunch of live Metallica stuff but it still sounds interesting.

Anthrax, Live at the Sonisphere

This one I have to think about.  I’m a big Anthrax fan but I wasn’t impressed with their set on The Big Four and I’m concerned that this might be more of the same.

Frank Sinatra, Jolly Christmas (vinyl reissue)

Jimi Hendrix, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” single

Crap.  If I buy these two that will make three Christmas albums I bought this year when I vowed that I wouldn’t buy any.

The Black Keys, Brothers Double

A 12 inch of the album and a 10 inch of live tracks.  This may be too good to resist.

I’ll be going to the fabulous Love Garden Sounds here in Lawrence to see what they have.  It’s going to be tough making it between Half Price Books’ usual sale and a possible used CD sale as Hastings.