07.13.06

Seven Songs Seldom Seen

Posted in music at 9:18 pm by mridley

I was talking to my roomate the other day, and he mentioned Toad the Wet Sprocket was playing a gig in Northern Virginia. This already happened, and alas I missed it. But on a lark I thought I’d check out their web site today to see if they were going to play any more local gigs (nope, sadly not).

I used to be a huge Toad fan - it’s not that I’m not now, but they broke up a long time ago. Apparently they reunited just for the tour, and whether any further studio output is forthcoming remains to be seen.

I was clicking around on their site and saw they have an online store. I used to have a collection of their videos on VHS called Seven Songs Seldom Seen (I told you I was a fan). Alas I have no idea what happened to that video, so I thought I’d see if it were available for purchase.

It’s not.

But they do have the videos (I think they’re the same videos) available for free on their web site. Check ‘em out! Gotta love the Internet.

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06.16.06

Music Choice

Posted in life, music at 7:51 am by mridley

There isn’t much of a purpose to this entry, except to say that I really think the Music Choice selection of digital music channels that come bundled with pretty much any digital cable or satellite television plan are under-appreciated. I know I don’t really tune them in very much, and it’s a shame. Dozens of 24×7 commercial free uncensored uncut music channels is an awesome thing to have. I do wish there were some way to access them independent of my cable box, however.

I suppose I could pay another $9/mo for a dedicated music cable box, but yeah…that’s not gonna happen. Would be nice if I could get like a “music-only” cable box for $1/mo or something. I’ll go ahead and hold my breath on that.

Apparently you can stream Music Choice to a PC if you have Comcast cable Internet service. Alas, I have Speakeasy DSL service so that won’t work for me. Of course I don’t have Comcast cable either, even if I were inclined to change my ISP, which I am not in any event.

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06.13.06

Music Pick: Juliet

Posted in music at 1:07 am by mridley

Normally, music on myspace profiles makes me want to stab myself in the eye. It starts playing, loud and unexpected. Often stomping on what I’m listening to in iTunes. But there are exceptions. My buddy Shannon has the Jacques lu Cont remix of Juliet’s Avalon playing on her myspace page. I like it. Check it. Booyakasha.

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06.12.06

Animated Take on Avenue Q

Posted in amuse, media, music at 2:29 am by mridley

Another fun selection from YouTube. Here’s a machinima music video of the Avenue Q track, The Internet is for Porn. Pretty well done I’d say.

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05.29.06

last.fm

Posted in entertainment, music at 7:33 pm by mridley

I had totally forgotten that I have an account at last.fm. I’m not sure what reminded me that it exists, but I headed over there today and downloaded their plugins to reinstall them on my box. When I first used the last.fm plugin I don’t think last.fm even existed, it was just the AudioScrobbler project. No clue how that turned into last.fm, but the bottom line is that it’s a cool web site where you can be a musical voyeur and see what other people are lisetening to.

I’ve put up a little sidebar javascript thing on here to broadcast my recent plays for all to enjoy and laugh at. Alas the last played chart looks like crap as I haven’t done anything to integrate it well into the CSS layout for this site, in part becuase I think I might hate this layout and want to change it soon. Who knows.

In any case, it’s not pretty but it’s there. Now prepare to be schooled on some music.

EDIT - I’ve moved the recent playlist to its own page as it was way too ugly and busy crammed into the sidebar. Plus it takes a few seconds for the image to be generated and load from last.fm and I’d rather not have every page rendering hang on that. So now you can find the “recent playlist” link under the “static” section of the side navbar. Enjoy.

02.26.06

Unexpected Starbucks Music

Posted in books, life, music at 10:06 pm by mridley

I was sitting at Starbucks yesterday reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. I don’t normally pay attention to the music playing in Starbucks, but I remember thinking to myself, “Hm..this melody sounds so much like a Sisters of Mercy song” but the vocals were a woman and the style not at all the Sisters. I got to a chapter break in the book and set it down to take a sip of my coffee. And not being focused on the book any more, what did I notice? The song was in fact a cover of Marian by Sisters of Mercy.

I can’t be 100% sure since the music was not very loud and there were people talking. But I’m pretty sure there was some Lilith Fair girlie band playing Marian on the Starbucks speakers. How odd. I couldn’t tell if they sang the German verse or not. I’m curious who the band was (or if I’m even right)…so if you know about this cover, let me know who did it!

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01.26.06

Sisters of Mercy at 9:30 Club in DC - March 7

Posted in music at 10:23 am by mridley

This is exciting news.  The Sisters of Mercy are playing at the 9:30 Club in DC on March 7.  I had no idea they were even touring.  I have purchased my tickets, I suggest you all snap them up before they sell out.  I wouldn’t hold my breath that they come around again any time soon - I’ve been waiting to see them since 1992.  As far as I know this is the first time they have played anywhere near me in the past 14 years.

01.22.06

nomeansno

Posted in music at 8:28 am by mridley

his mother was a secretary, I think. her father a rapist.

OK, this might be slightly incriminating, but I downloaded a ton of nomeansno albums the other day. Now, IN MY DEFENSE, I owned every single one of them on CD and they all got stolen out of my storage space in California. And I think ALL of them are out of print. So I do not feel bad at all, considering that over the years I have bought every one of their albums (or at least almost all of them) and t-shirts and I’ve seen them live, etc. So they have made their money off me.

So anyways, I have been listening to a ton of stuff off of 0+2=1 and Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed and Mama that I haven’t heard in YEARS. And it just reminded me again of what an incredibly awesome band they are. If you’re not familiar with nomeansno I highly highly highly suggest you check them out.

And if you think Coheed and Cambria are punk (no seriously, some little emo girl told me that once) then you really need to learn about nomeansno. Now I’m not exactly sure how to tell you to do that since a ton of their stuff is out of print. But if you can find copies of the albums I mentioned above, or Wrong (which I think was reissued somewhat recently) then you should. Go on gemm.com or something. I dunno what to tell you. Just check them out. I don’t know if they tour any more since they’ve been around since like 1979, but if you ever get the chance to see them live you really should. They rock my socks.

12.06.05

The Birthday Massacre @ Alchemy

Posted in entertainment, life, music at 10:19 am by mridley

So I’m not much for goth clubs, in general, but I just happened to go to The Birthday Massacre’s web site today to find their management contact info, and lo and behold apparently they are going to be at Alchemy at Nation in DC on December 29. I may very well have to go to that show. Cuz really who knows when they would be around here again. If you’re in DC and into dark electronic music I’d say check out The Birthday Massacre if you’re not already familiar.

12.04.05

Velocity Girl 2.0

Posted in music at 10:04 am by mridley

I was listening to Metro Connection, the only locally produced show on the DC NPR station that doesn’t suck hard, and they had a music review of the local DC band The Positions. I wasn’t familiar with them prior to hearing the review on Metro Connection. Mark Jenkins, the reviewer, compared them to the UK sound of 20 years ago. And he may be right, as apparently I’m not familiar with the UK sound of 20 years ago (well, I like Sisters of Mercy, but I can tell you they don’t sound like Sisters of Mercy, so I guess Mark was talking about some other sound).

I was listening to the song excerpts they were playing and it had a style, vocally, musically, that reminded me of something. But what? I couldn’t place it. I was thinking maybe Belle and Sebastian since he had made the UK reference. But no, it wasn’t particularly reminsicent of Belle and Sebastian.

And then I realized, the UK reference was a red herring. I should have been thinking more locally. The sound I heard in their music wasn’t a UK band from 20 years ago, it was Velocity Girl! And sure enough, I checked out the Positions web site and Archie Moore, of Velocity Girl, is working with them in a production capacity.

So, if you like Velocity Girl, and you’re sad that they’re broken up and not releasing new music, well check out the Positions as they have a very complimentary sound.

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