Music and Technology etc.

First - in case I don't get around to a more substantial movie post, announcements: a new round of blogathons is upon us: this weekend, GoatDog is hosting a William Wyler blogathon, even as we speak. Starting tomorrow, a week-long Bunuel extravaganza at Flickhead. And coming up, November 7-9, RC at Strange Culture is hosting a Film & Faith blogathon. Head on over!

Now then - I'm sure you've all been waiting breathlessly for news on my iPod woes: it's good news! I still blame microsoft (or apple or someone) for abandoning firewire for USB 2, but that's a secondary complaint. The real problem turns out to have been a defective iPod. I took it to the store they gave me a different one to try - and 16-18 hours later, whatever it was, I'm in business again! and since the old one has been working, more or less, we have a Friday random ten to post, only 2 days later!

Though I have to find a better way to write about music. That's the point of this - that and forcing myself to make at least one post a week... But it's a way to write about music. Not always the best, though - I feel as if it were growing stale. But one of the reasons I write about movies is that I go to the movies - 2 new films a week, and whatever other screenings look good, and a stream of DVDs, which sometimes flows like a torrential river (it's easy to watch 4-5 WC Fields films a week), sometimes not. But music - I tend not to listen to CDs whole: I listen to the iPod. And so - the easiest way to write about music is to write about the way I listen to music:iPod shuffle. And - there is this. One of the reasons not having a high capacity iPod handy is so hard to take is that I have all those CDs in there: and this is the way to hear them once i a while. One of the things the iPod does is remind me of what I have. Left to my own devices, I listen to whatever half dozen records I'm currently into - and sometimes go back to the old standards. Right now that means listening to Boris with Kurihara more or less constantly [with this tour - Boris and Damon & Naomi, both with Kurihara, like heave itself...], with MIA and the Liars mixed in for variety.... But the iPod, when it can draw from everything I've put in there - keeps me listening to a much greater variety of music. For demonstration thereof -

1. Pere Ubu - Voice of the Sand
2. Sugar Minott - Hang On Natty
3. Burnt Sugar - No direction Home part VI) - this is what I mean. I like this music - Greg Tate's jazz/rock/improv project - but how often do I put the CD in? and if I did put in a CD would I put this in ahead of Sun Ra or Miles Davis or Sonny Sharrock? not likely. But the iPod, sooner or later, offers it up.... granted - in chunks, which is probably not the best way to listen to it, but a good reminder.
4. Chicago - Introduction (live - from a crappy import of some sort) - hey... they're kind of cheesy, even early in the game, but they were not bad in those days. Had some punch.
5. Elvis Costello - Little Triggers
6. Public Enemy - Hard Truth Soldiers - this new record of theirs doesn't quite do it - there's still some talent here - but it's awful dry stuff. This song is 4:19! I could have sworn, listening to it, it was like 12 minutes... this isn't as depressing a "comeback" as the Who's misbegotten effort, but it's pretty bad. Though I'm happy to have put a few cents in Chuck D's bank account...
7. The Killers - Change Your Mind - play "guess the Strokes knockoff!" - I'd have lost; I'd have guessed the strokes themselves...
8. Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up (live) *** - rated! but I'm not complaining about the rest. Anyway, Bob Marley is usually a nice lift...
9. Flaming Lips - Waiting for Superman
10. Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running - I haven't gotten around to rating the songs on this record; this one deserves *** I think. I tend to be somewhat less impressed by them than some of the other - whatever this is called - new folk, whatever it is. Waterboys tribute bands, I call em! If I have to choose, I'll take the Decembrists; or go back to Neutral Milk Hotel, something like that. (Which is another way of saying, they're on the emergency playlists I burn to CD...) But thanks to the iPod, I don't have to choose! hooray!

Video? Let's go with Chicago, live in Japan 1972, per YouTube, trying desperately to rock out and almost managing it...