Friday, June 22, 2007

Old school...video games encoded into vinyl!

A cool blog post on old-school video game code recorded as hidden tracks on vinyl records:

http://www.kempa.com/blog/archives/000053.html

Sunday, June 10, 2007

A quick update of tunes this season

Little time to update nowadays, but I've picked up some new tunes and
wanted to touch base on them. Still planning to update on LAST WINTER's
system upgrade. On dialup, so no album cover links:

Wilco, Sky Blue Sky: So the boys have 'settled down', unfortunately
after finally recording with guitar wunderkind Nels Cline. Rather 70's
soft-rockish, with one guitar workout on "Impossible Germany" that I
always look forward to as the album highlight but which still leaves me
underwhelmed. Sorry guys, this one's a 6 at best.

Spoon, Girls can Tell: Picked up at Buch Spieler for five bucks,
probably the best bang for the buck I'll get in 2007. I've known of
them for some time but never sought them out. Killer hooks, excellent
songwriting, easily a 9.5 or better.

Drive by Truckers, Blessing and a Curse: Seven bucks at Buch Spieler.
Another outfit that's been at the corner of my radar screen but always
missed. Solid alt-country in the vein of Bottle Rockets and Marah. Dig
this much.

Stooges, The Weirdness: Detroit Garage Skuzzbags return a lot wealthier
with Mike Watt (or 'shit stain, as my wife calls him, more on that in
another entry) on bass. The playing is pretty standard, but Iggy is a
real let-down on this one. Sorry, a no better than a 6.

Buzzcocks, Singles Going Steady: Got this 4 Men With Beards reissue,
and holy motherfucker do these guys rock! This is often lumped in with
London Calling (agree) and Never Mind the Bollocks (shitbag album IMO)
as the essential first-wave British punk. Helluva album.

Talking Heads, Fear of Music: More Eno-Byrne dancerock. Good stuff.

Mastodon, Whatever their major label record is: I was looking for some
good metal, and instrumentally this is it, very Iron Maiden with maybe
some newer 21st century metal influences. Not crazy about the vocals,
they lean a bit toward the contemporary Dark Metal cookie-cutter crap
that's on Headbanger's Ball.

John Mellencamp, Freedom Is: Bought this one that was supposed to be
his best album in years, if ever. It sucks enough to deserve a full
entry of its own.

Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy and Automatic: Been wanting these on
vinyl but I did my semi-annual Columbia House cycle and picked them
up. Good shit.

Beth Orton, three of hers: Same Columbia House deal, don;t listen to
them enough but not bad for a mellow commute.

Rachael Yamagata, ?: Picked up through CH too for Julie. Okay
singer-songwriter stuff but nothing too special. Same for KT Tunstall,
although she probably has more staying power.

I know there's more, but that's all I can think of.

And no, haven't picked up Corinne Bailey-Raye.

TB