Ever since playing Guitar Hero, I have been judging songs according to Rockability.
This morning on the radio, I heard the B-52′s “Rock Lobster,” which would make an excellent Hero song. Eh, Harmonix?
Rock Out Lobster
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Tag Archives: Music
Music Lessons
I’ve been using Rhythmbox for a while — in particular, I’ve been using its auto-rating feature that sharp readers will remember I wrote. My rated playlist doesn’t harbor many surprises. I’ve never been able to properly answer the question, “What music do you like?” beyond the knee-jerk reaction of “Why, MC Copulation‘s sex rap, of course!” So, I’ve got stuff of all genres floating around. Some would call it a lack of taste; I prefer the term eclectic. I’d had hoped that auto-rating would be a bit more informative, but I guess getting what I expected means that it’s working. 
However, I have noticed one band’s meteoric rise through the ranks. It seems I like Modest Mouse a lot. I never seem compelled to skip one of their songs. Wikipedia labels them an indie rock band, of the Neo-Wave variety. Even after reading their Neo-Wave (also hilariously called Newer Wave) page, I’m still not sure what it’s all about, but I do like the other bands listed. So I guess when I’m asked now, I can mysteriously say, “Neo-Wave.”
Curiously, the one song of Modest Mouse’s that is rated poorly on my Rhythmbox is “Teeth Like God’s Sunshine.” So, yeah. Take that for what it’s worth.
CD Metadata
OK, so I haven’t looked into this very much, but it seems to me that the CD format is terrible. The civilized world has gone to great extents in order to provide systems to query large user-maintained databases scattered across the Internet. These databases then tell your computer what the artist and title of the song are. This information is not five feet across the room on the back of the CD case.
It seems to me like the manufacturers of the CDs could put a little something-something in the CD to cue players to what’s up. I assume that putting some junk data inbetween tracks wouldn’t work very well, as old players would try to play them.
However, what about putting all the metadata for the CD in a data track after the end of the CD audio stuff? That way, old players would just see the end of audio, but new players could scan for it and load it up front. Everyone wins, and I am a genius.
Dirty Hands
At Cybercamps, we sometimes have a group of younger kids called Cyber Explorers for the week. They range from 6 to 9 years-old and generally learn the basics of how to cut and paste, draw pictures, etc. Interestingly, the female/male ratio is much higher with this group. Girls! Computers are cool even when you have breasts! I assume…
Anyway, one of the girls made an interesting comment today. Several of the girls seems to be into Hillary Duff and were listening to some of her music and looking at her website. This one girl made a picture of Hillary Duff’s name written in an interesting font and started adding some sort of stamp all over the picture.
I looked closer and saw that she was stamping lots of little purple handprints. I asked why, and she said, This is how famous she is. ‘Cause they all want to touch her with their dirty hands. So many people in the world.
Bonus
- Bonus
- n. Searching my library’s online database for the soundtrack to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (done by Ennio Morricone) and finding it, only to then also discover a CD of his music performed by Yo-Yo Ma, including the main theme for the film.
Emmet Brown, Do You Still Got That Timetrain?
I just came back from a show featuring my good friend Swifty as MC Copulation. He was great — good stage presence — and so was the next act, the Mathematicians.
I particularly liked the Mathematicians because they gave me an excuse to jump up and down a lot. I always keep an eye out for those.
La Mi Vida Violenta were OK, but I wanted to jump around more, and their music was too complex for that. They should have been first, before I got all pumped.
Jedi Mind Block
Whenever I have a song stuck in my head, the magical power of humming the Gremlins theme song saves me. It’s the weirdest thing. The theme song doesn’t ever get stuck in my head past a couple minutes and when it goes, it takes the other song with it.
This trick doesn’t work for my flatmate Dave, so mileage may vary. Does anyone else have a similar strategy? Apparently chewing on cinnamon sticks is a folk remedy.
Rhymes with Vagina
As of yesterday, I am now certified in CPR/AED.
During the course, I learned something that may be helpful to struggling songwriters everywhere: angina, or heart burn, rhymes with vagina. The lyrics practically write themselves. Now You Know®.
Quotes of the Day
Around ’ere we say birds, not bitches.
– The Streets, “Let’s Push Things Forward”
And in a similar vein:
My dad, for example, he’s not as cosmopolitan or as educated as me and it can be embarrasing you know. He doesn’t understand all the new trendy words – like he’ll say ‘poofs’ instead of ‘gays,’ ‘birds’ instead of ‘women,’ ‘darkies’ instead of ‘coloureds.’
– Gareth, The Office
Internet Radio And Me
Ordering music discs from libraries is great and all, but only if you know exactly what you want. It is not easy to browse or preview items. This is where Internet radio has some good synergy. I feel it is wise to listen to something other than my personal music collection from time to time; wise in the same way that inbreeding is not. I note the songs I like and see if any libraries have them.
I’ve found that Radio Paradise is a great resource for discovering songs or bands I like.