Category: Music

Welcome to the Jungle….

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As Axl Rose purportedly makes final preparations to put out Chinese Democracy any minute now (we hope!), Stephen Davis, the rock biographer behind 1985’s classic Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga, is releasing his long-awaited Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses. In it, Davis traces GN’R’s illustrious history all the way back to Rose’s origins as a disaffected Indiana kid named Bill Bailey. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s introduction:

Some think the legend of Guns N’ Roses began in the nighttime Los Angeles of 1985, a distant echo of West Hollywood’s neon-lit Sunset Strip. Others think it should begin ten years earlier, at the confluence of two Indiana rivers, the Wabash and the Tippecanoe, in the 1970s. But in this telling, the GN’R saga begins in gritty New York, in upper Manhattan, on a sweltering, run-down street in the late afternoon of a summer day in 1980

Continue reading “Welcome to the Jungle….” →

Top 20 Albums of All Time

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No, i’m not expressing my opinion but rather i want to post a clever algorithm done by Robert The Radish on Y! blog. Robert comes up with a mathematical way to determine the top albums of all time. The list is based on the American market and “Greatest Hits” albums and live albums were not eligible. Here’s how he did it:

“Album Staying Power Value + Sales Value + Critical Rating Value + Grammy Award Value”

  • Sales Value = Sales Multiplier * Staying Power Value
  • Staying Power Value (SPV) is: used CD sales data: In the secondary market you can expect to pay around $9.50 for a copy of Rumours (19 mm sold) by Fleetwood Mac, but you would only pay $1.38 for a copy of Cracked Rear View by Hootie (16 mm sold)
  • Critical acclaim: multiple reviews for each album from a diverse cross section of music magazines, newspapers and music review websites to come up with the average review number. Ratings Value = Sales Value * Rating Multiplier
  • Grammy Award Value and it simply looks at how many Grammy Awards each album has won. This is the least important of the components in our formula

So here’s the list of top 20 albums:

#20. Faith – George Michael
Year: 1987 Units Sold: 10 Million
SPV: $9.19 Rating (Stars): 4 Grammys Won: 1
Calculated value per unit based on the formula: $9.79

#19. Appetite For Destruction – Guns N’ Roses
Year: 1987 Units Sold: 15 Million
SPV: $8.81 Rating (Stars): 4 Grammys Won: 0
Calculated value per unit based on the formula: $9.81
Continue reading “Top 20 Albums of All Time” →

Heavy Rotation

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I got a new plugin that feeds me an RSS feed of my top plays of the past week into my RSS feeder.  It’s interesting to see what my top artists are each week.  This week i’ve got:

  1. Whitest Boy Alive
  2. Born Ruffians
  3. Guns N’ Roses

The Whitest Boy Alive and Born Ruffians are two of my favorite new artists. WBA are really chill and easy to listen to while Born Ruffians are a better version of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  I recommend you check both out.

What Makes Billy Joel Think

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There was an interesting article in the NYTimes on Sunday about Billy Joel.  When asked which of his songs make him think, he immediately cites two: “Vienna” (1978), a celebration of a life’s worth at every age, and “Summer, Highland Falls” (1976), a meditation on emotional extremes.

It’s a good article of his life and how he’s come to terms with his success. He seems to be much more chill now. Although i wonder what his thoughts are about Christie Brinkley’s latest divorce debacle.

  • MP3 of Summer, Highland Falls is HERE
  • MP3 of Vienna is HERE

Heavy Rotation: Band of Horses, Killers, Bon Iver

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Just to keep y’all updated with what’s in heavy rotation in my iTunes/CD player:

The Band of Horses.  These guys were recommended to me in 2006 and i choose to ignore all talk and hype and discover them on my own 2 years later.  But at least now there are 2 albums for me to enjoy instead of 1.  Most people like their frist more than their latest, but i actually LOVE their new stuff and just really like their old.

  • Ode to LRC (my favorite) Live version MP3
  • Is There a Ghost MP3

The Killers’ second album, Sam’s Town.  This was considered a disappointment because it wasn’t as good as their first Hot Fuss but going back to it a second time, i’m actually really liking it.  It IS very much a modern day Born to Run.

  • The River is Wild MP3

Bon Iver is the rage these days and while i think he’s generally a bit too mellow, he does have some songs that i really like.  You should check it out if you’re looking to fall asleep with a smile on your face and a song stuck in your head.

Raconteurs – the new Led Zepplin?

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I love Jack White. I think he’s the best guitarist of my generation. There is no wonder to me why The Rolling Stones asked him above all others to participate in their recent movie with them. He rocks.  His band, The White Stripes, is really him with his wife who plays drums.  It’s good but it could be so much better.

I think he got tired of playing by himself and he found himself some legit band members and formed a band called The Raconteurs.  Their first album was average but their second and latest is the BOMB.  Seriously, you want to rock out – this is the album for you.   It reminds me of Led Zepplin II which has Whole Lotta Love and Heartbreaker.  Some classic guitar rifs and good tunes.  The songs Consoler Of The Lonely and Salute Your Solution do the same.

I can only hope their third and forth album continue to impress.  We need more talented rock superstars.  Check out the tracks below:

Consoler of the Lonely

Salute Your Solution

The Crue is Smart

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Sure they’ve done some dumb stuff, but check this out – they released the single from their latest album, Saints of Los Angeles, both in the video game Rock Band and as download on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. In the first week it was downloaded 47,000 times on the Xbox alone compared to 10,000 times on iTunes and other digital download stores on the Web.

Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto – that’s where the action is.   Smart

Prince vs. Radiohead

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An interesting post here about Prince’s behavior on YouTube. Many people don’t know this but Prince is a Nazi on YouTube.  Anything about him, any song, any mention and he issues a takedown notice.  None of his songs are on YouTube.  This hurts the Qloud experience, so obviously i know about it.

But things got interesting this week.  At the Coachella music festival a few weeks ago Prince played the Radiohead song Creep.  In the world of YouTube, Radiohead is the complete opposite of Prince.  They put lots of their stuff online for free (including an entire album) and even have their own YouTube channel.  So when Prince tried to take down postings of his performance of Creep YouTube is caught in the middle.  Prince doesn’t own the rights to the song and in fact during a recent interview Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke was quoted as saying, “Well, tell him [Prince] to unblock it. It’s our…song.”

I like the battle.  I can understand Prince’s strategy of trying to create scarcity of his product to it doesn’t get dilluted or played out, but i love Radiohead’s strategy of putting all their stuff out there for the world to hear and play with.   Who’s side are you on?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FutZukovyAQ]

Phoenix is rising

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My favorite band of the past few years, Phoenix, is coming out with a new album and have posted the first track on Facebook of all places.  Go check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Phoenix/19227674432