Posts tagged "music" - nolan caudill's internet house

The Milkman of Human Kindness

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

I was listening to Stereogum’s Top 50 Albums of 2011 and started at #1 and started working down. There were probably only 2 in the top 10 that I’d consider okay so I stopped. Just not good at all. This, this though, is good. “For the next 3 minutes, I am the milkman of human kindness.”

When the Guy Does the Gal's Sad Song

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Both of these covers are syrupy sweet, but, man, it works. First, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver covering Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”.

Secondly, James Blake covering Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You”.

Deep City Records: Them Two - "Am I Good Man"

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Really enjoying the whole Deep City catalog.

Keeping the music going

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I love listening to last.fm’s similar artist radio stations. I constantly forget that the music I am listening to is coming from one of my Firefox tabs, and will accidentally close it from time to time, stopping whatever music is playing.

I decided to fix this for myself using a ridiculously short Greasemonkey script, using the window object’s “onbeforeunload” function to make sure I actually meant to close the tab/window.

Here it is for consumption. This is obviously not a work of genius or of any considerable effort, just a fix for my own absentmindedness.

**Updated:**I added a little more functionality to the script. There is now a button that will show up in the top right corner that will let you turn off and on the close prompt so that you can browse the last.fm without getting the ‘Are you sure?’ prompt on every page load.

"To Live Deep"

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

I’m currently reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau, a gift from my wife, who knows me very well. Very few lines I’ve read resonate with me as much as these. Much in the same mood as these lines written over 150 years ago, my favorite album of 2008 and one of the most impactful albums ever for me was Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago,” which was a somber, but uplifting, account of a man alone in the woods, settling with past demons, and eventually coming to terms with himself, emerging from the woods a new creature.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings fully embracing their vibe

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0000

This music video is great. You’d honestly believe you were watching some band perform on some American Bandstand type show in the early 60’s.

Pumped about PBS

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Wilco is going to be on Austin City Limits tomorrow night.

I’m pumped.

Concert and the long trip home...

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +0000

The Ryan Adams & The Cardinals concert last night was great. I’ve heard so many different stories of how Ryan Adams is on stage that I wasn’t sure what to expect. The reports say that he is either bubbly and friendly or aloof and rude. It seemed that we got him on a good night as he was cracking jokes between songs and doing some friendly bantering with some of the more vocal members of the audience.

The setlist was pretty much what I was expected drawing from the albums put out with the Cardinals. He played the singles from the newest album, Easy Tiger, joking with us that this is what we came to hear. He also hit most of the highlights from Cold Roses and Jacksonville City Nights. He played a nice and loud version of “I See Monsters” from Love Is Hell even dipped into some older, solo stuff with “The Rescue Blues” and “Dear Chicago.” Overall, I really enjoyed the song selection and the band is as tight as the live tapes have shown.

His style of playing has definitely evolved over the years introducing more extended jams and noise exploration. Several pieces of his playing in these jams sounded like he was trying to channel early 70’s Jerry Garcia. I’m not quite sure that the extra playing was always necessary and one audience member seemed to agree as he yelled out “Just sing!” after one of these interludes. There was nothing really wrong the jams it just seemed they didn’t seem to “fit” at times. The best jams are the one’s that grow from the original theme of the song, but with some of the songs that these pieces in them, it felt almost forced at times. One notable exception was “What Sin?” in the encore where the band did an awesome job with and the dynamics and everything seemed focused with a goal in mind.

One negative about the experience was the other concert-goers. I’ve never been at a show before where people seemed so unmotivated to get or stay in their seats. The show was officially supposed to start at 8:00 but everyone knew it would be close to 8:30-8:45 as shows almost never start on time. He started playing around 8:45 so everyone should have had plenty of time to get in their seats before it started but not a chance. It was only about half full when the show started and it wasn’t because people were running late, it was because people were pounding $6 Bud Lights in the lobby. There’s nothing wrong with that (besides the fact that people were paying per the bottle what a 6-pack costs of this watery beer) but did these people come to get drunk on cheap-but-expensive beer or watch a show?

During the show, there was constant movement of people going and coming in and out of the auditorium, getting more beer, taking phone calls, or smoking cigarettes. Seriously, just watch the show.

Overall, Meghan and I both really enjoyed the show and it was well worth the trip down. I’m in love with Charleston and both of us had a great weekend. I hope to get some pictures up soon of some of the highlights.

Pictures are up on Meghan’s flickr.

In Rainbows

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Today, I took advantage of Radiohead’s anti-man-in-the-middle distribution model by downloading In Rainbows from the band’s website. To recap the download process, I went to their website, entered how much I desired to give Radiohead, entered in my credit card info, and then I was emailed a link to a ZIP file full of MP3s, and that was it. Within about a minute, I had 10 DRM-free MP3 tracks at a relatively high bitrate with a publisher none-the-richer.

A few things motivated me to get this album in this manner. One reason, the physical copies were too expensive weighing in around $80. I would much rather have physical CDs and paper liner notes but I am not quite ready to shell out $80 for them no matter how “deluxe”, so MP3s it was. Another reason is that it is a rare occasion to dictate what you think something is worth, and then actually pay that amount, so I couldn’t pass that up.

I have a feeling that Radiohead will see significant income from this release, even if only for the novelty of it. People are so used to getting gouged by the recording companies via price or by DRM restrictions, or having to skirt the law by “borrowing” the albums, or completely giving the law the end-around by grabbing it from some P2P network, that this is a model that most people will be able to buy into, literally. I personally paid 4 pounds (I’ve never bought anything in pounds before!) which works out to about $8. This is great. Instead of paying what the recording industry thinks I should pay, I get to pay exactly what I think the artists deserve.

Onto the album itself, I really enjoyed it at first listen. Right now, the song that jumps out at me is “Faust ARP.” It sounds like it could have been right in the middle of The Beatles’ White Album, but definitely still has that Radiohead ambiance.

Now if only the CDs would come down in price…