From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V3 #167 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Thursday, June 12 2003 Volume 03 : Number 167 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] jewel?? (ns) [JRT456@aol.com] [loud-fans] my calendar says... [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] [loud-fans] 2003 so far [dmw ] Re: [loud-fans] Re:Seven Up ["Joseph M. Mallon" ] Re: [loud-fans] T&S (ns, but some New Pornographers content) [Aaron Mande] [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years ["Aaron Milenski" ] Re: [loud-fans] Voiceprint on Emusic (ns) [Michael Mitton ] Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffre] Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years [Steve Holtebeck ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [Aaron Mandel ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [AWeiss4338@aol.com] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [Stewart Mason ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions [Stewart Mason ] Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions ["Chris Murtland" ] Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years [Tim Walters > Her Christmas album was also a complete personality transplant, as a young singer/songwriter who was being considered as a serious artist suddenly turned out traditional holiday schlock on the level of Kathie Lee Gifford. Jewel's uniquely soulless. Sadly, the same can be said for how the Atlantic label handled her career. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 08:02:43 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: [loud-fans] my calendar says... ..that today is long-time (and currently lurking in parental mode) list member Janet Ingraham Dwyer's birthday. Okay, on 3 sing the birthday song - key of...oh, we'll figure it out once everyone starts singing...1...2...3! ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: As long as I don't sleep, he decided, I won't shave. :: That must mean...as soon as I fall asleep, I'll start shaving! :: --Thomas Pynchon, _Vineland_ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 09:08:02 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my calendar says... On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: > ..that today is long-time (and currently lurking in parental mode) list > member Janet Ingraham Dwyer's birthday. > > Okay, on 3 sing the birthday song - key of...oh, we'll figure it out once > everyone starts singing...1...2...3! Bb! Bb! Bb! happy b-b-b-irthday Janet!! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 09:27:46 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: [loud-fans] 2003 so far two i haven't seen mentioned yet: helicopter helicopter: mad dogs with x-ray eyes. in the same vein as _by starlight_; very strong overall with a couple of mis-steps. songwriting seems to get more acute w/ each record. i think the new black lipstick (ex the kiss offs) is peachy keen. i haven't actually heard the new beauty pill ep (ex smart went crazy) yet, but based on the show i caught last month, it shot to my #1 most anticipated release of june (not counting anything i might be personally involved with). oh, and did anyone say the new calla? was tobin sprout this year or late last? - ------------------------------------------------- Mayo-Wells Media Workshop dmw@ http://www.mwmw.com mwmw.com Web Development * Multimedia Consulting * Hosting ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 10:17:08 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Re:Seven Up On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, BretJudges wrote: > I'm not fussy on the surround sound option on new sterios, this is a perfect > embellishment to an album that already has a quadro effect. Forget the private > tapes unless you become fanatical or are in nervous wreck mode and need to > chill out. I assume whoever wrote in mentioning Seven up & the private tapes > is refering to "The Best of the Private Tapes 2disc set" not the long out of > print 7 disc set (or was it ten). If it was the latter, I can't comment. A couple of issues ago, MOJO had an atricle about the making of 7-Up, incl. many photos of the band w/Timothy Leary, the inspiration for the album. Very strange set of circumstances. Joe Mallon jmmallon@joescafe.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 14:57:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] T&S (ns, but some New Pornographers content) On Mon, 9 Jun 2003, glenn mcdonald wrote: > I haven't been inspired by much in the last few weeks. So anybody else > with recommendations on recent releases, let's hear 'em! The release schedule's been *really* thin. I wonder what happened. Was it just about one production cycle ago that the industry started seriously worrying it was hosed? At first listen I don't like the release version of Hail To The Thief as much as the unfinished mix that got posted on the internet a few months ago. Nice packaging, though. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:51:37 -0400 From: "Aaron Milenski" Subject: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years Has anybody seen this list yet? I shouldn't be so surpised by how lame it is, even though VH1 isn't too bad, usually, but what really does bother me is how lyrically poor the top choices are. Is this just something that has no importance to people anymore? _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 13:07:23 -0700 (PDT) From: "Pete O." Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years - --- Aaron Milenski wrote: > Has anybody seen this list yet? > > I shouldn't be so surpised by how lame it is, even though VH1 > isn't too bad, usually, but what really does bother me is how > lyrically poor the top choices are. Is this just something that > has no importance to people anymore? > "Here we are now Entertain us A mulatto An albino A mosquito My Libido Yeah" Shakespeare would be envious. ===== ====== This space intentionally non-blank. ====== ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:34:08 -0400 From: "Larry Tucker" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] the first 6 1/4 months... |-----Original Message----- |From: Gil Ray [mailto:ggilray@yahoo.com] |Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 1:23 AM |To: loud-fans@smoe.org |Subject: [loud-fans] the first 6 1/4 months... | | |As usual, I go re-issue crazy which may be cheating, |but I don't care.... |1. Every Word-tribute to Lets Active. Pretty darn |awesome. It really drove home to me Mitch's greatness |as a songwriter. We got ex-Happy Egg'ers, Listers, MIA |Listers,ex-Loud Family sound man,Tim Lee, Don Dixon... |.......My favorite is Doug Powell's version of Waters Part. |Mind blowing.If anyone deserves a tribute, Mitch does. 2. Gil, I had lunch this afternoon with producer Michael Slawter and had my copy of the Let's Active trib hand delivered. What service eh? This is really a damn fine trib as tribs go. Very nice 24 page booklet with words and quotes from various people. Dear Gil gets a whole page! The ever esoteric Scott is included literally as well. Favorite tracks so far are Paul Chastain's spare and moody take on "Flags for Everything" and the Crowd Scene's "Writing the Book of Last Pages". I put it right up there with one of my favorite tribs SING HOLLIES IN REVERSE. Larry ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:45:36 -0400 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Voiceprint on Emusic (ns) At 05:25 PM 6/10/2003 -0400, dana-boy@juno.com wrote: >So, I'm at a point now where it's all I can do to keep up with the new >eMusic stuff. My CD purchasing has gone way the hell down, to the point >where I'm only buying 5-6 new CDs/records a month. It occurs to me, >though, that this situation can't possibly last. Clearly eMusic is going >to either have to raise its prices or cease to exist. Does everyone >remember the early days of CDNOW, when they were passing out coupons left >and right? I wonder how much longer the eMusic bonanza will last. If >they were charging .99 a song, like iTunes, I'd probably be spending >close to $600 a month (2 albums a day x 30 days x 10 songs per album) so >at $9.99 it's kind of ridiculous. True, but once they take out operating costs, licensing fees and royalties - -- and if they're paying at the same royalty rate as everyone else, that's not much -- that's still not a bad chunk of cash. According to the press releases in the PR department, eMusic is operating in the black, so I don't think it's inevitable that they're going to boost their prices. I've been hearing some backlash against iTunes in the last couple of weeks. I think some folks have gotten their first month's credit card bill. > >I've also noticed that some titles that I've downloaded in the past have >disappeared from their catalog. Off the top of my head, Kramer's "The >Secret of Comedy" and the whole Alice Coltrane section are MIA. The AC stuff was on Impulse!, which disappeared with the rest of the Universal Music Group titles a few months ago. So is anyone else having trouble downloading longer songs with this new eMusic download manager? Anything over 5 minutes cuts off before the end, which is really annoying considering how much jazz and drone stuff I download. S ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:49:28 -0400 From: Dan Sallitt Subject: Re: [loud-fans] T&S (ns, but some New Pornographers content) >>I haven't been inspired by much in the last few weeks. So anybody else >>with recommendations on recent releases, let's hear 'em! I've already pushed the new Philip Price CD HONEY IN THE CHEMICALS here, but I think I should push it more, because people around me are actually reacting to it. My girlfriend liked the last Price record well enough, but she heard this one once and went berserk over it, playing it continually for a month and trying to turn her friends on to it. One of her friends has a small record label, and upon hearing the CD wrote Price and tried to sign him. Definitely my favorite of the year. You can hear some of it at www.philipprice.com. After that, the Richard Thompson album. And then PAST & GONE, the retrospective album of the Wirebirds, a NYC group that broke up years ago and just got around to putting out a CD of their unreleased recordings. You can hear some of it at http://cdbaby.com/cd/wirebirds - the Will Dial-penned songs, "This Green Hell" and "Fade From View," are especially good. The Lucinda Williams records is pretty formidable - I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned more on these mid-year roundups. The new Amy Allison, NO FRILLS FRIEND, has a lot of nice songs. I like the new White Stripes record, but I'm still a little disappointed in it. - - Dan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 16:08:43 -0500 From: cj Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Voiceprint on Emusic (ns) Damn all of you for talking up Emusic! I ended up purchasing a 17" iMac recently (couldn't wait for the newer, better one in a few months as my old Gateway is dying fast). I downloaded fourteen albums plus assorted other tracks last night when I was supposed to be getting some sleep. The 80GB hard drive coupled with a cable modem is sure to equal more sleep-deprivation, at least for a while. But Stewart, I have a bunch of songs over 5 minutes, no problems. CJ 1. I admit that I am powerless over my music addiction and my life has become unmanageable... On Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at 03:45 PM, Stewart Mason wrote > So is anyone else having trouble downloading longer songs with this new > eMusic download manager? Anything over 5 minutes cuts off before the > end, > which is really annoying considering how much jazz and drone stuff I > download. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 17:09:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Michael Mitton Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Voiceprint on Emusic (ns) > So is anyone else having trouble downloading longer songs with this new > eMusic download manager? Anything over 5 minutes cuts off before the end, > which is really annoying considering how much jazz and drone stuff I download. I've only been an emusic member for a bit over a week now, and I've been downloading overnight on my dial-up. Or, trying to download overnight--I haven't been successful yet. At some point, the connection to emusic fails and the download manager doesn't seem to automatically try to reestablish the connection. (Yes, I have checked, and it's not my ISP that's dumping the connection.) Sometime next week, I'm hoping I will have finished downloading Post Minstrel Syndrome. Does this happen to you, Dana? - --Michael NP: Hail to the Thief. So far, so good. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 17:39:10 -0400 From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Voiceprint on Emusic (ns) I've only been an emusic member for a bit over a week now, and I've been downloading overnight on my dial-up. Or, trying to download overnight--I haven't been successful yet. At some point, the connection to emusic fails and the download manager doesn't seem to automatically try to reestablish the connection. (Yes, I have checked, and it's not my ISP that's dumping the connection.) Sometime next week, I'm hoping I will have finished downloading Post Minstrel Syndrome. Does this happen to you, Dana? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It does happen occasionally, but usually not. I've noticed that if I futz around with the downloads (like pausing, then resuming) it tends to cause problems. But when I set it up and leave it alone, it usually works ok. - --dana ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 18:24:21 -0400 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] 2003 so far Oh, yes, I like the new Helicoper Helicopter, too, I'd forgotten that that was recent. If the members claimed to also be in obscure micro-glitch bands I bet they'd be getting a lot of buzz. Another thing I'm really into at the moment, from a little while ago, is Haley Bonar's _The Size of Planets_. Imagine a Kathleen Edwards who takes after Low instead of Lucinda Williams. Oh, and the new Helloween is way better than it has any right to be. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 19:03:05 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years Quoting "Pete O." : > --- Aaron Milenski wrote: > > Has anybody seen this list yet? > > > > I shouldn't be so surpised by how lame it is, even though VH1 > > isn't too bad, usually, but what really does bother me is how > > lyrically poor the top choices are. Is this just something that > > has no importance to people anymore? > > > > "Here we are now > Entertain us > A mulatto > An albino > A mosquito > My Libido > Yeah" > > Shakespeare would be envious. You mean the guy who wrote those "hey nonny nonny" bits and the "double, double, toil and trouble" ditties? What, you're Steve Allen now? Of course taking song lyrics out of context and putting them in print can make them look ridiculous...I think that the lyric of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is clear w/o being over-obvious and expressive in its obliqueness. I think I've Donald X'd those very lines on the list before - check the archives. But to Aaron's question: I could be provocative and say that lyrics have *never* been that important in popular music - even those regarded as best seldom rise above validating a pre-existing feeling in a selected audience - but I don't completely believe that, and as a lyrics-ignorer myself (mostly), I'm probably the wrong person to answer the question. Never stopped me before though, so anyway... I think the oft-lame quality of the list explain the oft-lame quality of its songs' lyrics. I mean, I'm sure I'm some fuddy-dud old fart, but I've never knowingly *heard* the Eminem track that's in the top 5 (I haven't found an online list - but the top 5 was on the TV when I was at the gym an hour ago). "Billie Jean"'s a fine song (I wouldn't have said so in the eighties), and its lyrics are utterly typical of popular song lyrics, aren't they? What else was in there..."One" by U2? I'm surprised that one placed so high - I would have expected, oh I dunno, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" or something else from _Joshua Tree_ - but what I can recall of its lyrics are the usual Bono Big Cliche - another common lyrical trope (right...) in popular songs. And if I recall, "Walk This Way" was in there: you gotta give Tyler some credit there, for nearly inventing rap, and for a few clever turns of phrase, but of course the "I'm a rock star so I can behave in ways that, if I were an accountant, would get me locked up" lyric is another perennial. I'd be curious if VH1 did a list of the hundred best songs from the previous 25 years (1953-1978) - and if the lyrics there would be any better, generally. Before you start Dylaning and Lennoning and Daviesing, remember that "Louie Louie" and "Woolly Bully" should be on that list. ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html :: "In two thousand years, they'll still be looking for Elvis - :: this is nothing new," said the priest. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 18:07:33 -0700 From: Steve Holtebeck Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years Jeff: > I'd be curious if VH1 did a list of the hundred best songs from the > previous 25 years (1953-1978) - and if the lyrics there would be any > better, generally. Before you start Dylaning and Lennoning and > Daviesing, remember that "Louie Louie" and "Woolly Bully" should be > on that list. They did a "100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll", and this was the top ten. 10 Imagine John Lennon 9 Hey Jude The Beatles 8 Good Vibrations The Beach Boys 7 Light My Fire The Doors 6 Hotel California The Eagles 5 Born To Run Bruce Springsteen 4 Like A Rolling Stone Bob Dylan 3 Stairway To Heaven Led Zeppelin 2 Respect Aretha Franklin 1 Satisfaction The Rolling Stones Subjectively counting to myself, I'd say half of these songs have better lyrics than "Teen Spirit" and half don't, but they're rock songs, not poems! But why is "Walk This Way" on a list of the top songs of the last 25 years? That song has to be more than 25 years old.. it was a hit when I was in 5th or 6th grade! - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 22:06:28 -0400 From: "Aaron Milenski" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years >They did a "100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll", and this was the top >ten. > >10 Imagine John Lennon >9 Hey Jude The Beatles >8 Good Vibrations The Beach Boys >7 Light My Fire The Doors >6 Hotel California The Eagles >5 Born To Run Bruce Springsteen >4 Like A Rolling Stone Bob Dylan >3 Stairway To Heaven Led Zeppelin >2 Respect Aretha Franklin >1 Satisfaction The Rolling Stones > >Subjectively counting to myself, I'd say half of these songs have better >lyrics than "Teen Spirit" and half don't, I don't know...I think they ALL have better lyrics. Maybe some of them ("Satisfaction") don't say anything profound, but at least they say what they say well. >but they're rock songs, not poems! All I am saying is that for something to be THE BEST, it needs to work on all levels. Maybe the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" work for some people, but I think they're not particularly well conceived. >But why is "Walk This Way" on a list of the top songs of the last >25 years? That song has to be more than 25 years old.. it was a hit >when I was in 5th or 6th grade! They picked the Run DMC/Aerosmith remake, for some reason. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 22:33:40 -0400 From: Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my calendar says... Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: >..that today is long-time (and currently lurking in parental mode) list >member Janet Ingraham Dwyer's birthday. > >Okay, on 3 sing the birthday song - key of...oh, we'll figure it out once >everyone starts singing...1...2...3! > > Alright! A fellow June babe! (Okay, so Janet's probably more of a babe than I am). Happy birthday, Janet! Jen ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 23:23:22 -0400 From: Dave Walker Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years On Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at 10:06 PM, Aaron Milenski wrote: > All I am saying is that for something to be THE BEST, it needs to work > on all levels. Maybe the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" work for > some people, but I think they're not particularly well conceived. I always thought "here we are now, entertain us" was a pretty dead-on summation of teen, myself, but tomayto, tomahto, but then I always liked "On A Plain" and "In Bloom" better. >> But why is "Walk This Way" on a list of the top songs of the last >> 25 years? That song has to be more than 25 years old.. it was a hit >> when I was in 5th or 6th grade! > > They picked the Run DMC/Aerosmith remake, for some reason. Well, I wasn't privy to VH1's criteria, but, that _is_ the more influential version (ducking) -- rarely has there been a clearly delinieated moment when a subculture officially went mainstream. Jeffrey said: > "Walk This Way" was in there: you gotta give Tyler some credit > there, for nearly inventing rap, and for a few clever turns of phrase They've said that used to spin this track back in Hollis not because of the "rap", but because JMJ loved the intro, and would cue it up on two decks so he could bounce it back and forth for Run and DMC to freestyle over. -d.w. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 22:47:48 -0600 From: Roger Winston Subject: [loud-fans] iPod questions I've been giving a lot of thought to my CD collection lately, and wondering if I need to change my lifestyle in regards to such. I've always been against MP3s - partly because of the sound quality, partly because of the downloading and/or ripping inconvenience. However, comments made here recently have made me feel better about the sound quality, especially since most of my listening these days is done with headphones or in the car. I'm an album-listener kind of guy - I like hearing individual songs in the context of an album, and I feel the whole digital music scene gets away from that. But I may be willing to adapt or change. I also like the physical-ness of a CD and the cover/art/packaging, although since I replaced all my jewel boxes with plastic sleeves, obviously I'm willing to bend on that one. The main problem is that I somehow feel that if I give in, then it makes my massive CD collection obsolete in principal (though I'm sure I'll be mining it for a long time for tunes to dump into the iPod). After everything I've invested in it, that wouldn't be a good feeling. But that's just a psychological problem rather than a material one. And maybe that feeling is offset by the need to always have the latest toys and gadgets. So anyway, all that is preambling towards some questions about the iPoddy world: 1) Has anyone else gone through a similar soul-searching process like the one I outlined above and decided to go ahead and join the iPod world? If so, how did you reconcile the decision and what do you like better (or worse) about using an iPod? 2) I've got a 2-year old PC (Windows XP Pro) with a 40GB drive (23GB of which is currently free). It has no firewire ports, but does have 2 USB connections (version 1.2). Would this be a big hindrance to using an iPod? How easy/fast would be it transfer songs from my PC to the iPod? I'm not going to join the Mac world, as I need to be on the same platform for my home PC as I am for my work PC. And I just don't like Macs. 3) What's the deal with iTunes not working in Windows yet? 4) I do a lot of my music listening on the car stereo. Has anyone tried the FM transmitter dealie that you can get for the iPod? If so, how well does it work and what is the sound quality like? I'm betting it's not very good. 5) Are there any other options for listening through a car stereo? My current system is a factory-installed radio/CD player (single slot), and it doesn't have any auxiliary external connections that I can find. If I were to get this stereo replaced with an after-market one, what would go good with the iPod? I'd still want to be able to listen to the radio and to CDs. And that XM satellite radio stuff holds some appeal also. 6) Can you setup the iPod to play an album straight through, rather than individual songs? I've never actually played with an iPod in real life, but from what I've seen about it on the web and all, I'm guessing that's fairly easy to do using playlists or whatever. 7) Earbud-type headphones just do not stay in my ears for more than 10 seconds. Yet I can't wear regular headphones (even really lightweight ones) for too long at a time (one or two albums max) because they get uncomfortable and fatiguing. I vaguely remember someone mentioning a solution when I brought this up before - earbud headphones that fit anyone? 8) This isn't directly related to the above, but I was just wondering how come eMusic is NEVER mentioned in the media articles extolling the success of iTunes? Other alternatives to iTunes are usually mentioned, but never eMusic. Is it because eMusic caters more to the eclectic than to the mainstream? I just don't understand why anyone would want to pay 99 cents per song when you can pay $9.99 per month and get unlimited songs. (Keep in mind I'm not an eMusic subscriber yet.) As has come up recently, I do wonder how they stay profitable. Well, that's about it. Any answers/opinions at all would be appreciated. I know this is the place to go to for opinions... Thanks! Latre. --Rog ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 01:14:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Roger Winston wrote: > 1) Has anyone else gone through a similar soul-searching process like > the one I outlined above and decided to go ahead and join the iPod > world? If so, how did you reconcile the decision and what do you like > better (or worse) about using an iPod? I did, and there's been no contradiction at all -- I still buy plenty of CDs. I basically use the iPod as a Walkman with a 100-disc wallet attached (and the ability to shuffle-play between discs), only much more portable. If I'm going to want to listen a disc much, I pop it in the drive, rip it to mp3, and put the files on iPod. Oddly, despite having had a lot of mp3s already when I got the iPod (from Napster and various fan sites), I don't really listen to those with it. I have never purchased anything from the Apple Music Store and am not sure why, at $10/album for compressed files with no packaging or permanence, I would. The ability to be walking down the street, realize that my mood has changed, and switch to an album I never would have thought to bring with me when I left the house that day is remarkably freeing. And that's with a tiny 5G iPod, which I don't think they even sell anymore. At 30G, Rog, you could put your 300 favorite albums on the thing permanently and rotate your most recent 300 other purchases through it. That's huge. Plus, now when I'm talking to someone about music, sometimes I can just say, "Wanna hear it?" > 6) Can you setup the iPod to play an album straight through, rather than > individual songs? Absolutely. You can browse by performer and then hit 'play' on a name to hear everything by that person in order, or go one level down to hear all of an album (or all the songs you have from an album, if you've deleted some) in order, etc. > 7) Earbud-type headphones just do not stay in my ears for more than 10 > seconds. Yet I can't wear regular headphones (even really lightweight > ones) for too long at a time (one or two albums max) because they get > uncomfortable and fatiguing. I vaguely remember someone mentioning a > solution when I brought this up before - earbud headphones that fit > anyone? Though I think I'm unusual in this, I had the above problems before but totally love the cheap earbud headphones that come with the iPod. Your mileage will probably vary, but I can at least say that Apple's headphones are apparently *different* from other earbud phones somehow. Or my ears changed shape during the years when I didn't have a portable music gadget at all. a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 01:19:36 EDT From: AWeiss4338@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions In a message dated 6/12/03 1:15:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time, aaron@eecs.harvard.edu writes: > Earbud-type headphones just do not stay in my ears for more than 10 > > seconds. Yet I can't wear regular headphones (even really lightweight > > ones) for too long at a time (one or two albums max) because they get > > uncomfortable and fatiguing. I vaguely remember someone mentioning a > > solution when I brought this up before - earbud headphones that fit > > anyone? > > Though I think I'm unusual in this, I had the above problems before but > totally love the cheap earbud headphones that come with the iPod. Your > mileage will probably vary, but I can at least say that Apple's headphones > are apparently *different* from other earbud phones somehow. Or my ears > changed shape during the years when I didn't have a portable music gadget > at all. > There are clip on earbuds you can buy too, for a resonable price. The clip fits over the back of your ear. You could probably pad them if it irritates your skin. Andrea ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 01:21:51 -0400 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions At 10:47 PM 6/11/2003 -0600, Roger Winston wrote: >8) This isn't directly related to the above, but I was just wondering how >come eMusic is NEVER mentioned in the media articles extolling the success >of iTunes? Other alternatives to iTunes are usually mentioned, but never >eMusic. Is it because eMusic caters more to the eclectic than to the >mainstream? I just don't understand why anyone would want to pay 99 cents >per song when you can pay $9.99 per month and get unlimited songs. When two different writers at the Boston Globe wrote basically the same story pimping iTunes the week of their launch, I emailed them both. One had never heard of eMusic and I got the feeling he'd simply cut and pasted Apple's press release -- and given that eMusic has about 250,000 songs available as opposed to iTunes' 200,000, it seems unlikely that the press release will mention them -- but the other one said (paraphrased) that he actually prefers eMusic himself because of its depth in jazz and other non-rock music and because they don't use a dumb proprietary format, but that iTunes seems like a bigger deal to the general public because of the major label content. S ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 01:29:20 -0400 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions At 01:14 AM 6/12/2003 -0400, Aaron Mandel wrote: >> 6) Can you setup the iPod to play an album straight through, rather than >> individual songs? > >Absolutely. You can browse by performer and then hit 'play' on a name to >hear everything by that person in order, or go one level down to hear all >of an album (or all the songs you have from an album, if you've deleted >some) in order, etc. What about just a straight shuffle-play function, or the ability to, say, listen to all the songs on the iPod sorted from the shortest little three-second blip to the 80-minute one-chord drone? I'm quite big on the randomness factor, you know. S ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 01:43:46 -0400 From: "Chris Murtland" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions I also like randomness, and prefer to shuffle through a huge collection. My gal has a 20GB Archos, and the only annoying thing is that it is kind of slow when you are skipping to the next song when playing from about 15GB worth of stuff (the delay is bad only when you are on shuffle). What's the iPod like in this regard? She also has a generic radio frequency doodad, but the sound quality does suffer a bit. The cool thing about this is that if I tailgate her dangerously close, I can tune to her station. murt Stewart wrote: > What about just a straight shuffle-play function, or the ability to, say, > listen to all the songs on the iPod sorted from the shortest little > three-second blip to the 80-minute one-chord drone? I'm quite big on the > randomness factor, you know. > > S ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 22:50:42 -0700 From: Tim Walters Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years On Wednesday, June 11, 2003, at 07:06 PM, Aaron Milenski wrote: > I don't know...I think they ALL have better lyrics. Maybe some of them > ("Satisfaction") don't say anything profound, but at least they say > what > they say well. I think "I feel stupid and contagious" is a brilliant line--what oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed, etc. Tastes vary, of course, but making "Smells" the poster child for bad rock lyrics seems really odd to me. I'd probably pick "U Got The Look," but I'm sure someone will jump to its defense! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 23:27:32 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] iPod questions On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Roger Winston wrote: > 1) Has anyone else gone through a similar soul-searching process like the > one I outlined above and decided to go ahead and join the iPod world? If > so, how did you reconcile the decision and what do you like better (or > worse) about using an iPod? As I wrote to someone earlier today, having an iPod changed the way I listen to music, not always for the better. I listen much more frequently when I'm at work, since I've got so much music at my disposal, but since my attention is easily distracted by that work thing, I'm much more likely to listen to shuffle play across all 5000 tracks, thus making it less likely that I'll listen to a CD all the way through at any time. It's fed into my instant-gratification desire - if I don't like a song on an album, I'll just shift to one of the other 4999 songs I've got. As a result of having all that music instantly available, I'm much less patient with new music. Not really healthy as far as enjoying new music, I know. Maybe I've just hit the ossifying point, and will only like music from the past now. Still, I love the iPod - much less bulky than a CD player. As Aaron said, it's a CD player with a 3-400 CD magazine. As for sound quality, you can encode your MP3s up to 320 kbps, which should satisfy almost any audiophile. > 2) I've got a 2-year old PC (Windows XP Pro) with a 40GB drive (23GB of > which is currently free). It has no firewire ports, but does have 2 USB > connections (version 1.2). Would this be a big hindrance to using an > iPod? How easy/fast would be it transfer songs from my PC to the > iPod? I'm not going to join the Mac world, as I need to be on the same > platform for my home PC as I am for my work PC. And I just don't like Macs. You can get a FireWire card for under $35, and it fits right into your PC. The iPod cable goes into a FireWire port and into the iPod. As for disk space, you'll need a bit for the MusicMatch software that seems to be the de facto standard for Windows, but not much for MP3s, as those'll be on your iPod, and can be removed from yoru hard drive once they've been transferred. > 6) Can you setup the iPod to play an album straight through, rather than > individual songs? I've never actually played with an iPod in real life, > but from what I've seen about it on the web and all, I'm guessing that's > fairly easy to do using playlists or whatever. You can play by Artist/Album, Album Name, or Song. On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, Stewart Mason wrote: > What about just a straight shuffle-play function, or the ability to, say, > listen to all the songs on the iPod sorted from the shortest little > three-second blip to the 80-minute one-chord drone? I'm quite big on the > randomness factor, you know. There is a shuffle option, both for songs (shuffle through the entire list of songs) and Albums (plays albums in random order, but retains the order of the songs on the albums - haven't tried that one yet). As for your list of songs from blip to drone, you can make playlists, creating "mix tapes" on your iPod. On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, Chris Murtland wrote: > I also like randomness, and prefer to shuffle through a huge > collection. My gal has a 20GB Archos, and the only annoying thing is > that it is kind of slow when you are skipping to the next song when > playing from about 15GB worth of stuff (the delay is bad only when you > are on shuffle). What's the iPod like in this regard? Negligible - almost non-existent. The iPod has a 32MB cache, so it can do hard drive access while the memory is "playing the song", I guess. Joe Mallon jmmallon@joescafe.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 23:48:35 -0700 From: *THAT* Matt Weber Subject: Re: [loud-fans] VH1 best songs of past 25 years At 6:07 PM -0700 6/11/03, Steve Holtebeck wrote: >But why is "Walk This Way" on a list of the top songs of the last >25 years? That song has to be more than 25 years old.. it was a hit >when I was in 5th or 6th grade! I'd guess because of the cover version done by Run DMC with Aerosmith. Matt Be neither saint nor sophist-led, but be a man. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Empedocles on Etna (1852) ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V3 #167 *******************************