No worries, Bri. Kudos both to you and Derek for the continual updates to the playlist today. I've been in and out of the house throughout the day but I've continued to pick up the list where I've last left off and have enjoyed both of your additions. Hope you're enjoying the holiday!

Hey KP I've added a few. Do enjoy the collaborative aspect of Rdio. Apologies for lack of blogging....starting to find my groove so hopefully more and better to come.

Given how gloriously sunny and beautiful the day is, you likely won't be checking this today. Thought I'd put together a collaborative Canada Day playlist on Rdio in honour of our great country. Please add some Canadian artist gems as you see fit over the course of the weekend.

While in some respects I sympathize, 25+years of musical output is not to be sneered at, the consensus seems to be that the collaboration with Marr et al represents a far more lasting contribution to the world of pop music the solo releases that followed. Something to be celebrated, surely, but perhaps I'd feel differently were I playing show after show year after year and encountering little to no interest in the new and repeated requests for 'This Charming Man'.

I am back from a week in england of which the highlight was a local music festival called Polstice which is short for the town name Polstead combined with solstice, the day it is usually held... A bunch of music nutters (much like us) rule the place and they all pretty much took me in....
Nothing but kegs after keg of local real ale and 8 or 9 hours of great live music in a farmers field followed by djs till dawn...One of the guys - Oli - is a local music scribe amongst other related skills and he has expressed an interest in swapping music tips back and forth across the ocean. His music website link is this

Kyle will he need a password to get onto metabeats?..... I note you commented about trying to expand metabeats a bit and I think this is a good opportunity... I have given him a link to the site but I am not sure if he mneeds more info to get in...
s

Though the twitter scroll to the right suggests a rich banquet of exciting musicians can be seen and heard throughout these fair streets over the next week, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. Surely the Toronto music scene offers more than vibrant young artists approaching or at the peak of their game performing in intimate settings with fantastic acoustics. It would be nice if there were a place, preferably outdoors where the sound bounces off in different directions, where one could pay through the nose to witness musicians well past their prime slog through playlists that would have been dated over a decade ago. What's that, you say? There is such a magical venue? (Raise hands to heavens)

side note: am willing to concede my snarkiness is perhaps overdone with respect to the first name on the list but les autres....non.

UPDATE: also, while i'm not a big bootleg music/video guy [side question: any really great/famous bootlegs that should change this opinion], this type of technology is appalling.

Ha! Love the intro. Find the album is slowly growing on me as well, after being a little underwhelmed on the first few listens. And who doesn't love a dove release?

One of the few bands post-grunge to really matter and one of the definitive voices of the last decade. Nice to see they also have a sense of humor.

Not to mention the extreme melancholy of the video.

Glad you brought up The Rosebuds, Mike. I quite enjoyed, 'Life Like' and had put 'Concordia Military Club' on many a mixed compilation the year of its release but haven't gone back and listened to it much since. A damn shame because their combination of Church-like mood, melody, and just sharp, clever songwriting shouldn't be overlooked. Suggest others revisit or indeed discover, if they haven't done so already. Streaming on Rdio for those on board. Unfortunately, as a Merge artist, they're no longer on emusic.

Also, thoughts/suggestions on the formatting? Background photo? Placement of elements (search, contributors, links) Elements themselves (Email notification, twitter search feed). It's not quite what I want it just yet. There are some readability concerns (text colour on background, most significantly) but heading there I hope. Don't want to go back to an all white background but if you'd prefer something simpler, please chime in. Won't be offended. Really.

One band that's been growing on me over the last couple of years is the Rosebuds. I have a couple of their albums - "Birds Make Good Neighbors" and "Life Like" and I like them a little more with each listen. I just got an email from them (I expect that it was done through Paste Magazine, as I'm still on their mailing list) telling me that they are touring with Bon Iver this summer. Sadly, Ottawa is not on their itinerary, but Toronto is. I might have considered a weekend visit around the show if that were possible, but they're playing on a Monday night. If any of you are wondering what to do on Monday August 8, I would recommend that you check out the show and then blog about it.

While I continue to screw around with this, you can vote on your best of the year thus far at NPR.

Hey Kids. Fear not the ugly colours and weird layout. Am upgrading to a new template and playing around with different formats. Rest assured, I'll soon settle on a style that each of us will hate but for different reasons.

It could very well have been one of their song titles, Marc.

there I am thinking that "died Saturday of a heart attack" was one of Seth's side projects.

I'm fairly certain the only reason this story is appearing on several news sites is so that editors can boldly string these two words together in a bold headline without fear of reprisal ("What? It's the name of the band!")

Also this.

You won't believe the lengths to which I'll go and depths to which I'm willing to plunge in order to generate content for and interest in this here blog. I'm even willing to resort to finding heavy metal themed recipes (warning to those with peanut allergies, ears).

Kyle,

First thought, "wow". The Tramp, yeah baby.

Second thought, also "wow", though, a different kind of wow.

Third thought, do you often surf Steve's Music site looking for in-stores by washed-up seventies "guitar gods"?

Since we talked a little about Supertramp the other night, thought you'd want to be all over this, Bri.

More cloud, touches on items discussed last week, but goes beyond the question of whether owning music will soon be quaint to idea of books as same. While I'm cool with the idea of not actually owning my own music, I find this concept a little appalling when it comes to books. Is it paranoid to think we're on a path to '1984'?

Personally don't care for the band but novel concept. Think it would be worth it for other artists to try this by offering a chance to competing 'best of' type collections, perhaps curated with an eye towards certain moods. like say, 'dylan songs that will make you politically active', or belle and sebastian 4 disc collection, each based on seasons.

And it almost goes without saying but that shiny Apple cloudy thing that everyone is talking about? Yeah, it's not available in Canada. Though the folks at exclaim seem to think it will be imminent, I'm quite skeptical. Can't see the arcane rules around copyright and licensing in this country allowing this to proceed, at least without onerous costs, idiotic restrictions, etc.

Delayed Gratification? Were they a post-punk band out of SoCal, Mike?

Here's another article, this one mostly for the benefit of Stu, but I'm sure others might find it interesting.

The article certainly resonated with me, but less for the tactile nostalgic fondness of vinyl or CDs than for the joys of collecting. It is absolutely true that I defined myself partly by the albums that I chose to collect. I agonized over whether to get a new album by a lesser known but alluring new artist, or to get one step closer to completing the discography of an old favourite. I grew my collection as quickly as I could, but it was a slow, incremental process steeped in anticipation. So I played the music that I had relentlessly, and I knew my first 50 albums intimately. And as the collection grew, I spent countless hours sorting, cataloguing and dreaming about albums still to be added.

Wanting to stretch my music investments as far as I possibly could, I bought a lot of cassette tapes and taped a lot of my friend's vinyl. I used every inch of space on those tapes, packing loose songs in whenever there was room left after side 2. And I became quite expert at tape maintenance - after the number of cassettes in my collection grew to the hundreds, I was constantly having to take them apart to deal with various mechanical failures. I do have to say that despite the fond memories of those early days of music obsession, I don't miss the flakiness of cassettes, the scratching and skipping of vinyl or the hiss of taped music.

These days it is perfectly true that my collection is too large to enjoy in the same way. Unlike my kids, I don't simply download anything and everything that I want (they have never learned about the appeal of delayed gratification, at least where music is concerned), but through emusic, Paste and MetaBeats recommendations, I've added a lot of music that I don't know very well and I probably never will know very well. It takes a lot of effort to manually browse through and build a playlist or load my ipod. And if I just shuffle, I enjoy the surprise of stumbling across old favourites or realizing that I've discovered a new favourite, but I seem to hear some things all too often and other things never make it to the speakers. And the overall mix doesn't really feel like my music anymore - too much of it is unfamiliar. I can see that the rdio service (which I have yet to try) would further dilute the concept of a collection.

As to your questions, I don't buy physical discs anymore. On my wife's last birthday, I gave her a couple of albums, but I downloaded them from iTunes, so I had nothing to wrap. I ended up printing off pictures of the album art and inserting them into some old CD jewel cases so that I had something to wrap. I was never really one to spend a lot of time browsing in record stores, so I don't feel a sense of loss around that aspect of the transition.

You sentimental old bast....

Actually, Stuart, I think you've done a really great job of outlining (did i just type that?) the pros and cons of the rdio offering, at least in its present iteration.

I do think the rdio ipad app is the best way to use the service: lounging in a comfy chair, typing in whatever strikes my fancy, and streaming it to speakers for listening pleasure. Then I can just do a quick google search for more info on the artist or release, which is another step but not too onerous in the whole scheme of things. But the sheer size of my own collection and inability to really organize it into genres, groups, playlists, etc. renders the whole concept of a collection almost meaningless. Is it better to scroll through my own music collection or someone else's?
Seems almost petty to complain about the lack of this or that feature when this type of functionality--scrolling through Stuart's music collection and playing what I want to hear without getting off my ass--is damn impressive.

But as you point out, the inability to group and shuffle through genres or a set number of albums is a big limitation, especially since these can be done in itunes, and creating a playlist ahead of a dinner party, gathering, or just a sunday morning reading can be almost as much fun as listening to the music itself.

re: Apple iCloud...seems a different beast than rdio, in that you have to actually 'own' the music in order to stream it. With rdio, you're simply leasing/renting the music and lose access after you stop subscribing. Not sure why I would need to use the Apple service, given what I can get currently with rdio, but it's probably best not to underestimate that company.

As to your 3 questions:

1) Do you still buy hard copies of music now? 2) If you do then why?

No. All online. Really don't have the space for more 'stuff'. Refer to giveaway of cds from a few months' back. Recognize I'm sacrificing ability to go into soundscapes and pick up some cool stuff that may not be either available or readily apparent in the online world but, for the most part, I don't have tons of time to go into record stores these days anyway.

3) If you do, do you see yourself stopping this practice?

I'm answering this one to because I'm wondering whether it still makes sense to subscribe to emusic, if I can listen to whatever I want with rdio then just buy what I want afterwards. These days, I'm mostly using emusic to sample and buy classical music,which as you noted, isn't all that easy to find and then play in rdio (though Bri seems to be able to navigate those waters fairly competently).

Could go on but gotta get back to it. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

The article re collecting and how this is changing with new media is the precise topic that I have been ruminating over for the last few months since my use of rdio.... I amk very unhappy about some of the issues here and it is a big and complex issue but it is close to my heart...let me see if i can lay it out coherently. Lets use rdio as the code for all this future type of online streaming where you have access to virtually any recording.. Apple is coming out with something smilar and will likely kill rdio , but by whatever name rdio like interfaces seem inevitable so.........

Pros of "rdio" type system

• ability to access any record from office, car, home, cottage etc


• ability to read about a disc and then instantly play the entire disc ellimates the "I thought i would like it but its shit after a few listens I wish i hadent bought it experience"


• ability to share discoveries with friend easily

Current problems with rdio ( but perhaps I am not using it to its full potential yet)

• I cant organise my music into genres making it hard to find stuff on my collection or to shuffle all my jazz records which is something i do all the time


• you cant pick 12 albums from rdio and shuffle just those 12


• too much available material makes controlling the program difficult without committing too much time to making playlists


• In short, the user interface is very weak but maybe can be improved upon and apple will likely have this worked out


• Perhaps an iPAD with an Apple designed rdio system could also enably me to lie on the couch and scroll through the album artwork and information package that you get with buying a hardcopy cd, while I listen ....Kind of crucial for classical and jazz...

AS you can see its the interface which is the problem and I dont agree with the author of the article Kyle posted , that when he happens across a great song by chance that he had lost that this is good and acceptable.... Sometimes i like to do that but I also dont want to forget about great albums, and if your collection is organized well like my mp3s are, then you dont forget them ...because you can find them, something thats mnot possible with rdio systems yet...

I will also dearly dearly miss the day when i cany stumble into a record cd shop after a few too many and browse for an hour or 2.... I agree with the article in how there is something tangible and physical about hard copies of music... moreso vinyl but cds still do it to a degree...

So I end with 3 querstions;

• do you still buy hard copies of music now


• If you do then why?


• If you do, do you see yourself stopping this practice?

Maybe Im just an old sentimental bastard who needs to be brought into the real world...

s

Hadn't made the connection to the Thirteen album song (when was the last I read the names of track listings on an album? when was the last time any of you did so?) so thanks for pointing that out.

Realize I've probably been unduly critical of Coldplay in this space in recent years so I don't want to continue to harsh on them but when you name your new single this , you're pretty much issuing an invitation to wrath. At first listen, it's not a bad song, if a little overproduced, but their constant embrace of mawkish sentimentality continues to irritate.

Indeed Kyle, re the Fannies. As you likely know they have a song in his name on their "Thirteen" record. Very beholden, though with a power pop mix (say, Big Star) that can sometimes obscure the influence. A little close to home (and sonically simpler), I've often thought the Skydiggers had a few GC records in their collection. Just listen to Andy Maize and GC back to back sometime.

Incidentally, Bri, as I listen to Gene Clark, an artist you recently added to your collection, I can't help but notice the resemblance to not only the Byrds but Teenage Fanclub, who must be fans.

Whilst you're feverishly racking your brains for examples, there's this to read. If you've no time for the rest, read the last paragraph, which resonates.

Lot of time in the office these days, mostly focused on writing emails, policies, collaborating online on various projects etc. And I always want to have some music going in the background, which is why rdio seems to work well...at least sometimes. I confess it can be a struggle at times to find something suitable for work, by which I mean, music that isnt going to distract me from the tasks at hand. First instinct was to go with chamber music, which ostensibly offers far less moments of drama than a full orchestral score. But...hasn't always been the case. Came across this post while searching for appropriate work music and thought it germane.

I know what stu and his colleagues listen to during the day, and while I enjoy their tastes and willingness to embrace variety, I confess I'm unable to work on sales strategy while JayZ waxes philosophical in the background. What about the rest of you?

Nice to see him getting his due with critics and the public. As a more fulsome complement to Bobby D's spoken word clip from last week, here's:

Indeed Kyle. I find myself listening to his music a lot more often than I ever expected I would. The man was brilliant ...a visionary.

RIP Gil Scott.

My favourite part of the evening was watching Derek shaking like a heroin addict in withdrawal as he insisted he didn't need a sweater to fend off the evening chill on the rooftop patio.

Although i love the rotating capital label, giving a 15 second snippet of a poem that is 7:03 is a little ironic and a tad sacrosanct, don't you think? ...although it does remind me of a tape that i used to have that had Blood on the Tracks on one side and Slowhand on the other when i was in university and it was not long enough to hold the entire Dylan album so it cut off Shelter from the Storm in mid verse; i seem to remember taking a lot of ribbing for that from Stu whenever it got pulled out of the "sin drawer" in the studio. Good times!

A snippet from Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie.

That was in fact a definite (if non-musical) highlight! I'm sure I've forgotten others.

you could add to the list Seven Days and Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie from the Bootleg Series 1-3, unless the omission was intentional Brian ;0)

With that one execrable exception, nice list. Thanks Kylie -you've got to love the technology options these days.

@m i assume you're referring to the london pops? :)
just finished listening to 'hurricane', which has a list time of 8:32 but i swore went on for over a half hour.

@k; who da funny guy? not exactly the same version!

Thanks Bri. For your listening pleasure, I have recreated this playlist on rdio. Some versions may be different and one is a Byrds cover verhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsion but enjoy.



If you're having trouble with the embed, the link is here.

Ahoy Kylie, here are the songs I jotted down from Bob's Birthday Bash:

All I Really Want to Do
Death of Hattie Carrol
Most of the Time
You Ain't Going Nowhere
Ballad of a Thin Man
Girl from the North Country
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Blind Willie McTell
My Back Pages
Who Killed Davey Moore
Stuck Inside of Mobile
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Hurricane
Tangled Up in Blue
Idiot Wind
Political World
Mississippi
This Wheel's On Fire
One More Cup of Coffee
Man in the Long Black Coat
Visions of Johanna

There were others.

Were any of these featured at last night's soiree?

Cover me, Bobby. Happy 70th.

Finally.

stu, think that was their intention...read review this weekend (the Globe?) that mentioned the intent to channel the spaghetti western atmosphere. i also listened to and quite enjoyed the Arms & Sleepers latest, also out today. wasn't familiar with this band/group before. some good releases this week.

makes me wonder whether i need to continue with emusic or whether i should just devote emusic to jazz and classical recordings, given that i can stream most pop at any time. less a concern about the cost because i still get a lot of music--say around 100 albums--for just under $300 annually. it's more a question of finding the time to listen to it all. or even a fraction of it. still figuring it out.

thanks for the danger mouse tip Kyle... just listening now and its pretty great... very retro, reminds me of the old clint eastwood westerns.....

My bad on the worst songs link. Had posted it while stateside.

Here's a link that does work, but it's about movies and has nothing to do with film. Still, think it's worth reading.

As for music, I have been slowly getting into the latest Panda Bear, which works best at two or three tracks at a time, and with the headphones cranked to moderately loud. There's a soothing quality to the circular, disembodied incantations that comprise the vocal contribution on most of the tracks. But the effect of hearing them one after another is one of diminishing returns: what once sounded special now just sounds like the same snippets of a beach boys album being played backwards in a room down the hall from where i'm listening. Still, it says something (either about the album or about me, not sure which), that I keep going back to it and wanting to understand it.

Haven't been listening to much rdio lately but will try to correct that today. Lots of interesting new releases, including Moby, Danger Mouse, Let's Wrestle, and Wu-Tang. And yes, I'm absolutely certain this is a set of artists that will excite all of you. Enjoy.

Would like to hear the worst songs ever, I think, but apparently my IP address once again wont allow it. Need to get me a proxy.

Yeah, I didn't bother making a list either. Too much thought and also, do you care?

Instead, a link to a playlist of the worst songs ever. Enjoy/Wince in pain.

I have no idea what this sounds like. But I'm likely going to buy it because she's sexy. I'm also fairly certain, if I'm honest, this is why I added this to my rdio collection.

A fun exercise....coming up with songs/albums that made you break up with a band.

Here are the categories:

1. Band You Really Thought You Had Something With — They Said They'd Call But You Never Heard From Them Again

2. Your Best Friend's Girlfriend or Boyfriend You Secretly Want to Hook Up With

3. The Rebound: Bands You Start To Date After Everyone Else Is Through With Them

4. Band You Broke Up With, Then Got Back Together

5. Band That Broke Up With You

Politics, pure and simple, Bri. Election over, so will say no more and move along to other topics.

Anyone interested in checking out Vinyl, a documentary on obsessive music collective out at Hotdocs tomorrow night? $14, starts at 9:30. Heard about it on cbc this morning. Could be interesting. What say you?

K, where are you going with these video clips? Kylie's favourite under-the-radar-80's tracks? Thematic commentary to a weird (I say disturbing) election result?

R.E.M. - Orange Crush
Tags: R.E.M. - Orange Crush

Derek, thanks! Stop showing off!

Nice find Derek! Was also disappointed this wasn't streamable at rdio, but hadn't bothered to look any further. Just downloaded and am enjoying now.

Hey Brian, you're just not trying hard enough.

Hey Stu, incidentally I'm intrigued by the Pete la Roca disk you mention. I know his work - he was the drummer on numerous hallowed early/mid 60's jazz sessions (largely Blue Note) by Rollins, Henderson, Dorham, Hubbard, etc - but didn't know he'd ever recorded as a leader. So, very excited about your purchase, particularly given the rave reviews it gets on allmusic. Now, very frustrated to find that it's basically not available anywhere - not on itunes, not on emusic, not on Rdio (it's there, but you can't listen to it), and nobody has loaded it up on bittorrent. Bah! Love to borrow it once you've had a listen or 12.

I did track down his follow up record from 1967, the very odd-looking, and oddly titled "Turkish Women at the Bath" which is really interesting as well. Has John Gilmore and a very young Chick Corea on it. This was La Roca's final recording before quitting jazz and becoming an attorney (I kid you not), and has an interesting history - though perhaps not as interesting as the album cover would suggest. It's more widely available so would recommend adding it to your collection.

I refer you back to a link Marc (successfully) posted earlier this week.

i just have this to say

Much as I hate this term.....LOL.

I'll simply note the delicious irony of your complaint post about other bloggers' deficient tech savvy containing a dead link (owing, once again, to sloppy copy and pasting on your part) and provide the real link so everyone can access this new site you've discovered.

Dont know if any of you have heard of this music provider (called jango). It works like pandora and it seems to have an intersting range of artists...... And best of all its free ( except for you computer chanllenged types who cant seem to get the free aspects to work...to be said with a certain degree of irony in your best Sean Connery accent)....

I have the 'There Will Be Blood' and find it interesting so will have to check out the 'Norweigan Wood' soundtrack. Believe Brian and possibly Derek both saw this film at TIFF last year....did the music stand out on this one guys? Wondering when they're going to release that film (translation= when will i see it at on the shelf my indep video store, prompting an 'oh yeah').

Agree with you on your Fleet Foxes assessment. Only listened once thus far (Update: Streaming Here) but it has a decidedly CSN feel to it, something I've noted others talking about as well in various online sites. Regardless, or perhaps, therefore, liking it!

Hadn't heard the Glass solo piano until last night and have to concur with Bri...very beautiful, particularly the piece he mentions, 'Mad Rush', something about that style of playing, with the keys cascading on top of another, whether slowly or frantically, that packs quite an emotional wallop.

As for the Itunes shuffle...she gives and she taketh away. Suggest you either shuffle within certain genres or create a playlist of genres you don't mind listening to together (ie. Electronic, Hip/Hop, and Alternative or Jazz/Electronic/Classical) or just using the Genius to get a 'songs like' consistency. When you start surpass 80GBs/several weeks of music, spanning various genres and styles, it can get a little crazy just simply using the 'Shuffle Songs' feature. But hey, you've introduced your son to a cool song from one of Modest Mouse's more interesting albums.

Anyone here a fan of Xray spex? Kind of a combination of before my time and not my style (same way i feel about Patty Smith, btw) but wondering if she was pivotal for others here.

....last but not least... picked up a jazz lp by pete la roca who played (drums) with joe henderson amongst others...this is from 1965ish which for me is the sweet spot....just a stunner compositionally...it really grabbed me with its relentless drive...even the slower tracks have a hypnotic power ...seems to reoinforce my belief that the tunes themselves for me can be the most important eklement of my love for jazz... Brian you likely have the 12 cd set of outtakes from this ... (I assume due to his relation to henderson...)

dont know if any of you have picked up on Jonny greenwoods soundtrack career .....he scored "there will be blood and has now just released Norweigiwn wood, which on first streaming nsounds equally interesting... This is nothing like radiohead and its all over the map... the new one much more so then "there will be blood"... I really dont know how he does this...to my ears it has a foot in challenging modern "classical" music ....(with the new album breaking that down more)...and I wonder if he is collaborating with someone more schooled..... ....usually when a rock dude tries this sort of classical crossover it is shiit, but this bears up to repeated listens....

is it just me or does the new fleet foxes sound like a CSN led bt graham nash.... not bad but crosby or stills would be a better lead point....that first single, (something blues ??) seemed better then this but maybe I have not spun it enough...any of you diggen it like?

I am a fan Brian....Saw him about 10 years back at Roy Thompson, although that particular work never resonated ( cant even recal the piece) others have over the years... I particularly like his disc "solo piano" of which there are variations on metamorphosis...and also his score for the hours ( a movie I only saw for the first time last year and it blew my small mind to pieces... i have heard rumour that the author of the story was inspired by glass ...) I also like his violin concerto and if yopu really dig crazy shit .. whuich you do.... then try 'Hydrogen Jukebox' an opera of sorts libreto by Ginsberg with his voice narrating over some parts, which I only cue up on my cd player when under a few or more glasses of wine.... not to be braved straight buit sublime if the mood catches you.....the only trouble with his music is a certain sameness but the sound is really his alone

Maybe it's just because I've been on my own, working, for four days over a long weekend (take from that what you will re my frame of mind), but in the course of scouring Rdio for some appropriate music, I came across some Philip Glass piano works that I found almost impossibly beautiful. You lads may already know all or some of it. The pieces I'm referring to are "Metamorphosis" which is from 1988 and "Mad Rush" from 1979. They're both great examples of minimalism meets serialism, but so simple, haunting, and gorgeously melodic. Completely distracting when all I wanted was some background music! Ugh. There are a few recordings on Rdio if you're interested, both Glass himself, and Bruce Brubaker, which I'm listening to now. I'd start with "Mad Rush".

Well at least this did not pop up on your shuffle and become Ciaran's favourite track du jour ...piss myself laughing every time i listen to it (listening location advisory attached)

Ah the dangers of the iWorld that we live in. Not only do we have to watch our backs now that iPhones are tracking every move you and I make (well you at least) but beware the dangers of the iPod shuffle play during family dinner.

Earlier this week as we segued from Maurizo Pollini to Joe Henderson we were met by the blast that is Modest Mouse's "Shit Luck" track #11 from their 1997 album "The Lonesome Crowded West". It now appears to be Ciaran's new favourite song as he has asked me to play it each night when I get home from work and it now sits atop my iPod's most played list alongside the National's "Bloodbuzz Ohio" which he doesn't give a fig about.

Scary enough that my 4 year old son digs a song this dark but it pales in comparison to what I had to go through in my house when I was a child.

Yeah, the Yellow Ostrich disk is pretty intriguing. Hard to get a handle on, which I always see as a good thing. Well worth a listen.

Feelies also available on emusic. As is Yellow Ostrich, an album I'm digging these days, which is only available in previews at rdio, unfortunately.

Wow, what an unexpected pleasure....new album from one of my very favourite bands. Twenty years between releases, and sounding, not surprisingly, a little wistful. But I'll take it.

Are you saying, "More Than A Feeling" caused all that damage, Marc? Also, anyone planning on celebrating Record Store Day tomorrow? An interesting letter of support for this um, holiday, from an emusic staffer, along with good suggestions for NYC record store visits.

the gouge factor is riding high on a Friday afternoon ...you know you are playing the tunes a little too loud when everything keeps falling off you desk!

sometimes algorithms can be dead on when it comes to suggesting music based on other music bought/liked/etc. and other times, they can be so off the mark as to prompt little more than gales and gales of laughter. here's an example of the latter, which appeared on my emusic 'new' screen today. haven't listened to any of the samples. but i will be judging that particular book by its cover. and apparently if i like that, i'll also like this. little too surreal for me on a friday morning.

stu, i don't even mind the vocoder, which bon iver has used judiciously and can work, like garlic, in moderation. the first track could be a lost Housemartins track, and is both literate and pretty. the rest of the album too often pairs the falsetto vocals with arrangements that just seem a little too pat and cute at the end of the day. perhaps others disagree.

couple listens into the new 'low' disc (synced to my iphone courtesy rdio), and i'm quite liking it. does the female singer play such a prominent role on previous discs? while i have a few, i haven't listened to them all that extensively. with 'c'mon', she's front and centre, and her expansive style works well with the mood and tone of the album as a whole.

Something funny now to end the day positively.(warning: not suitable for work).

why so quiet, chaps? too busy adding new music to your rdio accounts? or perhaps you're still clearing the vomit from your mouths after reading this?

yeah.....I think iron and wine jumped the shark on this one too.....and thanks to rdio I know not to buy it...I also just pooped j maskis and a few dinasaur jr albums onto my Queue...thanks for the tip.....

have i mentioned how much i'm enjoying the new j. mascis album? the last few dino jr. albums have been decent but have never really seemed to veer much from a sound that made them really interesting in the 80s and early 90s but less so of late. stripped of the distortion and feedback, the new disc pretty much stands on the urgency of his scratchy voice and really lovely guitar work. think this is his 'sea change' or 'mutations'.

also, stu, who gets to pick the music in your office? and what did you think of the new 'iron & wine'. was listening to it on the streetcar last week and on a couple of the tracks, i thought i was listening to george michael. needless to say, not impressed, one listen in.

What can I do? Not my problem if some people just can't handle this.

Also, on the subject of band names, these seem kind of clever:

-Times New Viking
-Ringo Deathstarr
-Unbunny

Good one Kyle!

has anyone else noticed that beach (eg. 1, 2, 3) is the new bear (eg. 1, 2, 3) itself the new wolf (eg. 1, 2, 3)? or is it just me?

having signed up for my own account i did indeed let the metaBeats account slide. I figured it was not going to work out the way i thought it might since only one browser can log on at a time. Still, nice the way we can follow each others latest additions and playlists. I enjoy simply listening to other peoples collections. ...note to self: must not get lazy and neglect to build my own!

After I posted a few hours ago I signed up for my own free trial and added 20 albums to randomly play here in my hotel room. The musical mix of the likes of James Blake, Randy Weston, 1960's Neil Diamond, early Jayhawks, the new Kurt Elling, Elbow, Rival Schools etc... is very hard to beat.

Who needs satellite radio? Hey, who needs the cd club?

Could be Derek. I'm already deep into rdio with my own account and the streaming software. I'm loving it - can't beat it for 5 dinaros a month.

Am I correct in surmising that the Rdio account under metabeats has now expired. Are we going to resuscitate this baby or do I have to open up my own free trial run.

I'm pretty sure that no one is listening as I spin my post-midnight Rdio mix but it's like being privy to the best radio station out there. All but the most obscure bands and albums seem to be available and as much of the music that I love is now confined to vinyl, which I never really have the opportunity to listen to, it lets me dig deep in to all the records I love. All we need now is for metabeats radio to go public. Let the kids know what they've been missing.

What would a Virginia playlist consist of, I wonder? Anyhow, it's fun to see how this Rdio experience plays out. Just got back from the west coast this morning and used the 'Match Collection' feature so you rdio-ers should now be able to see the bulk of my current music collection in all its glory and possible shame. NJoy.

Derek ...Virginia? ...i think that calls for a play list.

Listening to Rdio as I sit in my hotel room in Virginia. Pretty cool stuff. Nice job Kyle and Marc. Now if I can only figure out a way to get this set up when I get back to the office. Off for some wings now and perhaps a few beers.

Stuart, I will pick up the tab for the account. Somehow i don't think the communal metaBeats account is going to be a big hit in the long run although i think it will be an interesting experiment. We will play it by ear.

As everyone knows, i love following rules of play ;} so let me make a suggestion for the metaBeats rdio account. Use the queue feature to see what is about to be played, lay down some tracks in the queue or an album if you wish. You can insert and move items around in the queue if you want. I think using the queue will add to the workability of the site when being used by multiple browsers at once.

To add items to the queue, hover over the + symbol of a track or album and select "add to queue" from the drop down ...for those who have not figured it out yet.

To view the queue, go to the player on the left of the browser and you will find it to the right of the rw, pause/play,ff buttons.