3/31/08

Radiohead Tour Update [3/31]

I'll probably be at 2 of those SoCal dates :)

Submitted the news tip to Pitchfork so, we'll see if they post it too.

Updated North American locations-

AUGUST 08
NORTH AMERICA


Fri 8
All Points West Festival
New York, NY

Sat 9
All Points West Festival
New York, NY

Fri 22
Outside Lands Festival
San Francisco, CA


Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Indianapolis, IN
Los Angeles, CA
Montreal, Canada
Philadelphia, PA
San Diego, CA
Santa Barbara, CA

Seattle, WA


- Source: Radiohead.com


"High and Dry" from The Bends-

3/25/08

"Right Hand on My Heart" by The Whigs

The video debuted on MTV2's Subterranean this week:

Portishead - Machine Gun (vid)

That "drum sample" is live my babies...

3/14/08

Make mix tapes, not war.

Here's your hypothesis English buffs:

Human survival depends on the continued evolution, existence and perpetuation of the homemade mix tape.

Well, that's probably a bit extreme however, it's quite a useful social tool. I'd say that often, my mix tapes are compilations of bands/songs most of my friends haven't heard but, isn't the true iteration a mix of old and new? Pink Floyd and At the Drive-In, Deerhunter and Hazel...

I love nothing more than at the very least, giving someone a soundtrack for their day.

But, it's a constant evolution.

My generation has really gone through 3 adaptations-

1. Cassette/radio

- Like the Konami Code of the same generation, the play+record button combo. really had few contenders.



It was about the timing (or maybe it wasn't, creating the same type of analog-vinyl vibe?). Some songs were missing the first ten seconds or the DJ was talking over it because you couldn't run to your radio fast enough to hit play+record.

2. Napster CD's.

- It was like the bank vault was left wide open and everyone had really fast shoes...or Doc Martens (56k) and was running out with as much as they could carry.

That was just me?

Come on, everyone had at least 25 of their own "mixes" they'd made.



Judases.

3. iTunes/pirated music.

- I see this as the last evolution in shared music for a very long time. A smaller and more condensed version just doesn't seem possible right now without the time vested in a new, technological infrastructure (which IS possible but so intensive) or doing it without a significant loss in sound quality (even more so).

But, that's okay. I'm cool with the way things are :)


Lemonheads live @ Malmö Festival '07

"My Drug Buddy"

3/10/08

Review: Black Keys – Attack and Release


Street date release: 4/1/08

On the Danger Mouse produced follow-up to 2006's “Magic Potion” (also stellar), the “Attack and Release” title is extremely evident with tracks that grab you with their teeth and throw you away. The mood of the album is immediately set by the ghostly, half-groove opener “All You Ever Wanted”. Danger Mouse's production is immediately heard and the union is analog, sampled, “synthy” and rich.

“I Got Mine” immediately takes you to a garage somewhere in Akron for a jam straight from a Keys practice session, or so it sounds. Raw and crash symbol infused, Auerbach sings, “I was a movin' man, in my younger days” over a fuzzed and notey lick. At about 2:00, Danger Mouse drops in some haunting samples mixed with what sound like 8-bit raindrops.

Immediately into the first single and prog. rocking “Strange Times”; as in the previous track, Danger Mouse and the Keys meet perfectly in the middle.

The layered “Psychotic Girl” (one of my favs) brings back the banjo and drum-machine sound (they're live though) to meet with a DM section that I can only describe as “the soundtrack to a mystery while riding “Pirates of the Carribean” on acid."

What would it sound like if the Black Keys were abducted by aliens while rehearsing in a 747 test hangar? Answer: “Lies”.

The two-part track that follows- “Remember Me”, sides A and B, begins with the mellow and lazy-snared “Side A”. In my head, the track immediately produces imagery of Chief from “...Cuckoo's Nest”, under-water...

The “motor running-down” (me and Danger Mouse love the DL-4) and ending synth-dots are amazing (sounds like a sampled backwards guitar).

Don't let that scare you.

It's an amazing precursor to “Side B”, a kick-down the door jam with a heavy, surf-rock solo that seals it.

“Same Old Thing” - After a 70's, detective intro., the reverb-heavy lick starts to bring the album to the start of it's “come down”.

A sustained fuzz-attack slowly gains strength to battle the explosions coming off of Carney's drum heads.

Over the track of what sounds like a computer scrambling numbers, a post-hook strum completes a 60's, pop-psyche riff in "So He Won't Break". It concludes with the guitar sounding like it's being played through a 10w amp turned to 11.

“Oceans and Streams” brings you back to the party for one last drink. Organ-flares introduce a double-time symbol pattern by Patrick Carney. An “Akron special” solo is thrown-in, quickly back into the riff and then a last stand by the slide-steel.

The Dan Auerbach and Jessica Lea Mayfield duet “Thing Ain't Like They Used to Be” closes the album like a cigarette burning-out on the ground.

Rating: 4.8/5

Rogue Tech. Tip #2 - Partition is there, just not recognized.

Windows XP: After system change, your partition is no longer displayed or detected in your boot list.

Perhaps this has happened to you-

After a major system change whether it be a service pack install or BIOS flash, you reboot and oh shizz, your main partition (usually C:) is booting automatically with no option to select your other partition.

The following will help you as long as you don't have a super-complicated drive set-up.

Basically, all you're doing is altering the BOOT.ini file which lists your currently installed operating systems for a multi-boot system.

1. Right click on My Computer from your start menu and select properties. This should bring up your system properties screen.

2. Click on the advanced tab at the top and then on settings, right under startup and recovery.

3. At the new window, click on edit.

You should now see your BOOT.ini file displayed in notepad. This is where we can edit.

This is probably what you see (what I saw too)-

[boot loader]
timeout=60
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


The last part of the script is really the part we need to focus on. When you have created a secondary partition correctly and properly installed the OS, you should see an additional line with the secondary partition info. Since this is not the case here, we need to add it in.

*Again, this isn't for a super-complex set-up.*

The partition you added is most likely named D: or E:, maybe F: but, it doesn't matter.

The line for our main operating system reads as-

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


Notice the partition (1) part...

To get it to recognize our lost partition, simply add to the bottom:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Alt. Boot" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

And where it says "Alt. Boot", you can rename to anything you want - this is what you will see when you have your boot options back. Close the window, save the changes.

Your BOOT.ini should now look like-

[boot loader]
timeout=60
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Alt. Boot" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


When you reboot your system, before you get to the welcome screen, you should see something like the screen below with your main operating system listed and whatever you named the reinstated one:

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3/7/08

Black Keys. new track. live from Akron.

This (live) song (...which I found on YouTube) is the second half of a two-part track called 'Remember Me'. This is 'Side B', a 2:00 jam after the more mellow, lazy-snared, 'Side A'.

3/5/08

Rogue Tech. Tip #1 - Firefox Tab History

Firefox: Changing number of recently closed tabs

Couldn't find anything on this so I gave it a shot myself.

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.12

1. Type about:config into the address window.
2. Scroll down to browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo.
3. Double click and change the number to the amount of tabs you'd like to recall.

Click 'OK' and you're done. You may want to bookmark this because you can customize a lot of other things from this page too.

I don't know what the max. number is but, I just keep it at 20-30 which is plenty.

Balanced Attack (and Release)




It was a good late-night to morning transition with the leak of the Black Keys' new album 'Attack and Release'. Thus far, it's been an exceptional voyage and I expect more of the same (being only 6 tracks in).

Early review: The best way to describe it this early on would be a ghostly, folk-supernova with excellent lo-fi vs. hi-fi balance. Progressive at points and classic Keys at others.

The production by Dangermouse is impressive. Hints of 50's pop and Beatle-esque chord pops lend themselves to a Grey Album vibe but, this album is all Dangermouse x Black Keys.