Interesting article Derek ...who could ever dream of trying to pull a stunt like that! I see a screenplay in the works!

Sorry Derek, no archives on the Crypt ...in a way that's the beauty of radio though! you put something out there on the airwaves and then it vanishes into the ether. If i miss it, i miss it. If i manage to tune in for the occasional good show, i have had the privilege of catching a moment in time that can't be repeated, in a way. It's like catching a good concert at a club.

Now i know what your thinking, ...what's the difference if it happens to be a podcast ...not everyone has the ability to listen when at work, etc. etc. Somehow listening to good radio in real time, for me, is cool because you can't fast forward through the crap ...you have to endure the odd psa and adds for used computer resellers and health food stores or change the channel. You can't rewind to catch a track again and so it forces you to listen. Admittedly i'm not very good at that though! (listening that is) The other cool thing about community radio? If you ever want to know what a track is all you have to do is pick up the phone and call the dj. They love to know that someone is actually out there and digging the music.

Brian, actually beat me to the punch when it comes to my total lack of interest in the discussion of file formats etc but unlike him I couldn't even be bothered to post my disinterest. As for the CIUT deal that sounds like it would be a blast. The link you've posted Marc doesn't seem to take you anywhere. Do they have a site where you can listen to the past weeks show?

A much more interesting discussion than that of digital bits and bytes but in a somewhat technological vein is one that's been taking place in the UK re recently deceased classical pianist Joyce Hatto and whether or not her body of work might be entirely fraudulent. I'll post some links here and let you read in the International Herald Tribune and listen at the BBC for yourselves. When listening to the BBC program from last Saturday you can skip the first 10 minutes to get to the Joyce Hatto story.

...for example, Brian, the other night at the cd club, i believe you said that you never sit down in your living room and listen to your ipod hooked up to your audio system. hmmm!

I find that i have been listening to streamed podcasts and frequency modulation radio recently since i have been spending a lot of time all on my own (sob, sob!) in my office and i feel as if someone is trying to say something to me by selecting cuts and linking them together in a meaningful way ...i think that there is something to be said for that, as much as i do enjoy the occasionally randomness of a shuffle. I think it must have something to do with my fondness for the concept of the album, as apposed to the single.

Speaking of which, i must recommend "Hurray for Tuesdays" on ckln ...one of my favourite shows, Tuesday at 2:30 for anyone who has access to a radio or Rogers digital at that time. It is a little bit old fashioned, but there is something very comforting for me to tune in once a week to a favourite broadcast. It's live, spontaneous and since it is community radio, anything can happen.

I was mentioning to Stuart the other day a program on CIUT that is called "Vinyl from the CIUT Crypt" in which members of the listening audience are invited to come in as guest dj's and venture down to the u of t vinyl vault (and i hear it is a formidable collection) and select the music for the program and talk a little bit about their picks ...who's up for the challenge gentlemen?

Good point Marc, and nice job of moving me away from a one-dimensional invective.

It might be interesting to survey each of us to see how and when we listen to music, in which setting, using which technology, and what music aligns to each of these combos?

(I said might be....)

what i do find interesting about it though, is that our attitudes and preferences towards one format and media or another, reflects our personalities, lifestyles and listening habits.

yeah, they're almost as dull as one sentence posts. :)

I find discussions about file types excruciatingly dull.

it's okay, stuart, i won't give you any fl...

i guess it depends if there is a demand for that type of quality in a downloadable format. i suspect there will be, at some point, not because audiophiles will necessarily demand it but because i think cds will become ever more scarce in years to come. while i'll miss the packaging--the artwork and liner notes, that is, not those annoying brittle plastic cases that easily break--i certainly won't miss paying $15-$25 for a hard-to-find album. it would be interesting at a future cd/music club meeting to play an mp3 and flac files for the same song for comparison. i may be one of those people who may not be able to detect a difference but i suspect for some, the difference will be great enough to seek out the higher quality files, and go with a 'quality over quantity' approach when it comes to storing music on ipods.

it's understandable that, as the memory size of the newer ipods increases, the justification to shell out cash for a new one comes down to whether you can reasonably hope to ever fill the damn thing with music (or videos); why buy a 100-GB ipod if you only have 15MB full of music with which to fill it? however, if you increase the quality of the files and increase the file sizes, then you have a rationale for upgrading. think this bodes well for a company like zunior in the long-term.

gotta say as well, i like the fact that they're selling complete albums instead singles. i've read countless articles in the last year about the ascendacy of the single and the death of the album so it's nice to see a company stake it's revenue model on the idea that people still have the attention span/interest in 60+ minutes of music by one artist. i prefer to buy/download complete albums myself, and usually only buy a single if it's something catchy that i'm planning on mostly listening to at the gym or using to fill out a compilation cd. plus, they offer the artwork with each download, so if you wish to burn a copy and print it out, you can do so.

also gotta restate my support for any online music store which doesn't use drm-encoded files. for those with the time and or inclination, there is an interesting article in salon today about steve jobs' recent chastising of the music industry, which appears to be self-important rhetoric.

I guess I need a kick in the side of the head....I missed that you said Zunior was providing the FLAC online.. I guess that answers the question of if retailers will provide lossless product online....I wonder if Itunes will follow.....

The problem with FLAC is that it takes 7 times as much space as AAC or mp3.....Audiofile types seem to be having their cds transferred to FLAC or the like and then downgrading to the mp3s for your ipods...This 2 step process allows no loss for the home sterio and minimal loss with mp3s for your ipod.... I suspect new home audio receivers will interface this process much better then currently and also that ipod storage will become limitless in a few generations, the only problem will be (as Marc pointed out) that itunes and the like may not be interested in providing on line sales of cds in the higher lossless format like FLAC for audiofiles....
VE shall see
s

after some discussion last month about downloads and the quality of mp3s versus other encoding rates, it was interesting to find out about zunior.com, a Canadian online music retailer which offers high quality mp3 as well as encoding in FLAC format.

i haven't bought any albums (some are available on emusic, which is cheaper) but i did create an account so i could download the free sampler/mixed disc on offer.

the site looks interesting in that 1) it's canadian, and the only other canadian site that offers music downloads, puretracks, has arcane drm/usage rules 2) it (purportedly) offers higher quality sound files 3) they also sell some guy maddin films for download, at about the cost of an album which is interesting (to me at least). worth a look, imo.

hey Kyle, after several hundred links on my website that's one thing i can do; if not, my site would be looking rather sketchy at the moment. ...shameless self promotion; next thing you know i'm going to try to sell a used car on the blog!

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sorry couldn't resist

hey, at least you got the hyperlink thing down, marc, and that's half the battle. just try not to be so triggy happy on that 'publish' button.

really like what i'm hearing from pawa up first, and the fact that you can listen to snippets of the music on their website. in retrospect, you should have led with that one. is the dolphin-music disc really entitled, 'fukyo'? fantastic! for emusic-ers, pawa up first have two recent albums available for download.

somebody should REALLY strip me of my blogging rights! Kyle, perhaps if i posted more than quarterly i would get the hang of it!

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so like i was saying, sullied by the vocals of Sidsel Endresen who i also have on a Buggee Wessteltoft recording that i would avoid like the plague if give the chance. I'm looking forward to giving the 2006 release, American Compilation, a listen.

Still getting into Nels Cline Singers, The Giant Pin

...and Exploding Star Orchestra, We Are All From Somewhere Else, which i slapped on at the very end of the session as we were leaving.

I did not get to Pawa Up First out of Montreal ...very eclectic and well worth a listen in my opinion. The album is a mix of dreamy electronic Explosions in the Skyesque grooves with bits of MIA, BV3, Concious Hiphop and Reggea thrown into the mix . Pawa Up First are playing at Lee's on March 10th but i don't think i am going to be allowed to go to the show unfortunately.

Thanks for hosting Derek. Fine cheese, beer, music and company.

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so like i was saying, sullied by the vocals of Sidsel Endresen who i also have on a Buggee Wessteltoft recording that i would avoid like the plague if give the chance.

All due appologies for the fornicating dolphins ...i think that will teach me to not play something straight out of the wrapper!

The fornicating Dolphins were courtesy of Toshinori Kondo in an aptly named album, Fukyo
i have not actually given the album a full listen since i managed to have left it a Derek's ...an inadvertant but perhaps subconcious attempt to distance myself from the disapointment. Brian, i would love to give your TK disk a spin before i slap down a wad of cash on another clunker. His DJ krush colaboration remains one of my favs.

I don't remember what order i played things in but i think next was Nils Pettre Molvear's first album Khmer, which i am still loving after having given a full listen ...all the way through! I think it is a far superior album to ER that is sullied by the vocals

Good fun the other night indeed...and yes, great to hear music in a room at good volume. Not something that happens Chez Doyle very often. Nice to see Rob out as well - the man knows his music.

My selections were:

Midlake - The Trails of Van Occupanther - America meets Seals And Crofts meets Alan Parsons meets almost any other mid-seventies atmospheric folk rock band. In fact an outstanding record and my current favourite.

Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On - great upbeat SoCal pop, also very retro (so many things are these days), but not as self consciously so in my view, and channelling more of a LA-sixties simple pop structure. Very well done I think.

The Earlies - The Enemy Chorus - interesting eclectic blend of pop stylings, sort of psych pop meets singer songrwiter meets large (somewhat goofy) synth.

Thanks for hosting Derek, and hope you maxed out on sleep.

much love to deeman for the hosting duties on friday, which included tasty scotch, cheese, and beer, as well as much played at a good volume, which i realized afterwards that i seldom get a chance to experience (headphones + loudness = bad news).

i don't recall any of us taking notes but perhaps rob was doing so while he pretended to sleep. with the exception of the disc of japanese dolphin flatulence, i enjoyed pretty much every album and artist played and i'd like to hear more. derek graciously lent me the best of 'pretty things' but i'd like to investigate some of the other music played.

for the record (pun would be great if we actually played vinyl anymore), i brought:

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer? - best album title of discs brought, in my humble op
Mahogany - Connectivity! - highly derivative but at least diversely so and enjoyable
Brightback Morning Light - Brightback Morning Light - spiritualized meets zero 7

i also was going to play the new 'Apostle of Hustle' but didn't get around to it.

looking forward to your list.