My Favorite Records: The Coming Grass – The Coming Grass

This is the tenth part in my series of favorite records.

As a confirmed alternative country music fan, I have to look around a bit to find good new music. While I grew up listening to country music, the stuff that passes for mainstream country today does nothing for me. So I read No Depression Magazine, listen to some off the beaten path internet radio stations and XM-12 on XM Radio. It takes work, but it is worth it when I discover a new band. A few years ago I came across a band called The Coming Grass and their self-titled debut record. It remains one of my favorite alternative country records.

cominggrass The Boston Herald has described the band this way: The result is a sound that recalls the Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt axis, the Bay State’s Blood Oranges and alt-country inspirations the Rolling Stones, but that has a grace, unity and intelligence all its own. You heard it here first: The Coming Grass are coming on.

This record begins with the excellent Take Me Over. Every time this song plays Cassidy comments on it. She doesn’t even recognize much of my music, but somehow this song is on her brain. My favorite song on the record is Carry, which has a great guitar intro and a wistful, country sound supported by great backing vocals.

Put Away Your Expectations is a modern Stones-like mid-tempo number. Most of the cuts on the record are wistful, mid-tempo songs with haunting vocals. While the songs are similar in some ways, the forumla works and it sounds really good.

I noticed that they have another CD out- both are available from the band’s web site. I haven’t heard the second one yet, but if their first record is any indication, I expect it is mighty good.

Technorati Tags:
top 50 albums, new music

November in Pictures

The Big Deal About MP3tunes

Everybody’s writing about MP3tunes, the new online storage service started by MP3.Com founder Michael Robertson. I would love a way to backup my music library. Let’s take a look at this service and see if it might be my answer.

They offer a free version, but for a lot of reasons, including the fact that you can’t actually upload any songs with a free account, the free version is definitely useless. So let’s dive into the paid ($39/year) version. Here’s what jumps out at me.

First of all, the FAQ plays the “safely backed up” card. That’s the only reason I would ever sign up for something like this- the ability to back up my music library. My music library consists of around 25,000 MP3s which take up about 144 gigabytes on a dedicated hard drive. The MP3tunes FAQ says that “currently” there is no limit to the number of files you can “synch to [your] locker.” I find it a little interesting that the FAQ talks about number of files and not amount of storage, but let’s assume for a moment that that’s semantical only. I suspect that if I tried to upload 144 gigabytes worth of music to my locker, the number of files I could synch would suddenly become limited. Why do I say this? Because if not, there’s no way they would ever break even, much less make money. You simply cannot sell 144 gigabytes of storage (or anywhere close to it) for $39 a year. Granted I have a large music collection, but so do a lot of other people and if this deal was for truly unlimited storage all of us would sign up. And it doesn’t take 144 gigabytes to break the pro-forma (i.e., the assumptions that result in profitability). I don’t know what the number is, but I would guess less than 20 gigabytes- and a lot of people have that much music.

Even if they let me upload all my files, it would take me 10 and a half days of constant uploading to do it (the FAQ says you can “synch” 100 songs per hour). It doesn’t look like you upload via FTP, so the reliability of the web interface could add even more time to the process. Either way, I am pretty sure that trying to “synch” (assuming that means upload, and the web site is a little hazy about the details) 25,000 files would be pretty difficult to do.

I believe, much like the original MP3.Com, MP3tunes is intended primarily for people who are storing and collecting free (that is legally downloadable) music. That’s why the web site talks a lot about “sideloading,” which is actually a way to import music that you’ve already bought from another site or, perhaps, a way to add a space saving bookmark to music files stored elsewhere (again, the web site is a little hazy about the details).

Back in the day, MP3.Com was a great way to find independent music. I can see how this service arose from the ashes of the prior one. MP3.Com created an incentive for musicians to upload their material as a way to get some exposure (I uploaded original songs to MP3.Com back then, as did most musicians I know). This service relies on the user to find his or her own content and, it seems to me, adds the “online storage” feature as an added benefit. Of course there will also be opportunities to buy music for your locker. I suppose if you buy a song from mP3tunes, that song only has to be stored once (everybody’s locker could link to the same song file). Perhaps that’s the angle they’re counting on.

Conclusion: unless you have a small music library, the online backup aspect is more smoke than fire. If you have a few files that you need access to from the road, why not just use Microsoft’s free FolderShare? There’s not enough good, free music out there to make “sideloading” worthwhile. The online music sales market is pretty mature, so I don’t see a bunch of people leaving Rhapsody or MusicMatch to sign up here. So this looks like a deal for a niche user who has a small music collection or wants to build one by buying songs from MP3tunes. Those of us with big music libraries should look elsewhere for backup solutions.

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mp3tunes

Technorati Blues – Again

Technorati

It took me about forever to get Technorati to index this site. After much angst, a few emails and the inclusion of bookmark links, indexing began and my tags were picked up. That was months ago.

Now, suddenly, for no reason and after no substantive changes to my template, Technorati simply will not index this page. It just doesn’t happen. Based on my prior experience and the recent experience of others, I doubt emailing tech support will work and I’m not going to bother David Sifry.

My individual post pages will get indexed if I ping Technorati from them, but that’s not the preferred way to do it because it creates bunch of messy links back to Newsome.Org and it messes up my link count.

Granted, there are a lot of markup errors in my template, but, but, but:

1) Most of them are in the sidebars, where I have to rely on third party javascript, etc.

2) I have fixed most of the errors in the actual post template.

3) Most importantly (to the exclusion of everything else, at least in my frustrated mind) this page was being indexed for months without a problem.

I am really frustrated by this. I think Technorati is a great site and I use it as a de-facto category system here. But when it won’t index this page, it really screws me up.

Technorati Tags:
technorati, technorati problems

Exactly How to Make a Podcast

Now that I’ve moved from doubter to cautious believer with respect to podcasting, it’s time to pull back the sheets and show non-geeks exactly how to make one. I have tried several ways and this is what I’ve settled on.

Step One: Gather the songs you want to include in your podcast.

Always be aware of the elephant. I tend to pick songs by new bands that, hopefully, will appreciate the exposure or songs by artists that I hope are cool enough not to care if I use one of their songs. I also add links to places listeners can buy the records and encourage them to do so during the podcast.

I pick songs by browsing through my MP3 collection and adding potential choices to a Playlist I cleverly call PC (for podcast, not personal computer or political correctness). I have tried all the major and many minor music players and the one I use for my large music library is Media Center. I’m sure others will work too, but I haven’t used them for this purpose. After I have selected some possible songs, I go back and weed the list down to 6-8 songs, less if I’m going to talk more and more if I’m going to talk less. That way, the podcast will be around a half hour long, which is what I currently shoot for.

Once I get the PC Playlist down to the number of songs I want, I copy those songs to another folder on my computer (I call this folder PC Holder and keep it on my Desktop for easy access). I do this because I don’t want to accidently edit or delete a song from my music collection when I am creating my podcast. Media Center makes this very simple: Open your Playlist, select all the songs with your mouse (press shift and page down from the top song) , right click on the highlighted songs and select Library Tools>Copy Disk Files (not Move Disk Files). In the pop-up box navigate to the target folder (in my case, the PC Holder folder) and click OK.

If you use another music player, you can figure out your own system for selecting and relocating the MP3s you want to include in your podcast. The important thing is that at the end of Step 1 you have selected the MP3s you want to play and copied them into your podcast folder.

Step Two: Import your MP3s into your podcast program.

Once we have the MP3s ready, we have to combine them into a single sound file and add the voice files (announcements, discussion, etc.) that will be part of the podcast. I use and highly recommend Audacity for this purpose. It’s free and relatively easy to use. If you don’t have it, download and install it.

Once you’ve installed Audacity, open it and select File>New (see the menu near the top of the program window) to start a new podcast project. Now let’s import the MP3s from our folder. Select Project>Import Audio, then navigate to the folder where you stored your MP3s, select them with your mouse (again, press shift and page down from the top file to select them all) and click Open. The MP3s will be imported into Audacity and will show up as sound files in the program window. On the left of the Audacity window is a column that shows the name of the MP3 song file and has several buttons, including Mute and Solo. The Solo button allows you to listen to the files one at a time to be sure the file imported correctly and sounds good (Click that button and then the Play button near the top of the program window).

Step Three: Record the voice files

Now it’s time to record the talking part of the podcast. I record a voice file to open the show, a separate voice file discussing and introducing each song (except that the opening voice file doubles as the introduction for the first song) and a voice file to close the show. You have to to separate files so you can move them to the correct place in the sound file (more on that below).

Once you have your microphone connected and turned on (here’s a help page for that), recording the voice files in Audacity is as simple as clicking on the red Record button near the top left of the program window and talking into the microphone (be sure to click the Stop button when your done). The first time, you’ll have to experiment a little by recording test files and then playing them back (click the Solo button to the left of the voice file and then the Play button near the top of the window) to get the right volume on the voice files. Audacity has an amplify feature- select the sound file with your mouse by left clicking at one end of the sound file (the blue wavy lines, 2 per song, in the middle of the window) and moving the mouse to the other side of the sound file, then select Effect>Amplify, choose the desired level of amplification and click OK. This works sometimes, but it’s better to get the microphone levels right from the start.

I record all of the voice files at one time- by clicking the record button, talking and then clicking the stop button. If you mess up (and you will, often) simply delete the voice file (see the little X in the button area to the left of the song file) and start over.

Step Four: Put the songs and voice files in order

Once you have the song and voice files completed, you have to put them in order. This takes a little time (I wish there was a way to do it automatically, but I haven’t found that feature if it exists). To do this, left click and drag the files into the correct order. Think of the files in the Audacity program window as a ladder, with the first file (normally the introduction voice file) at the top and the last file at the bottom. If dragging the files with your mouse it too hard, you can move a file up or down via the little downward pointing arrow in the button area to the left of the sound file.

Once you have dragged the files to their proper spot on the ladder, you have to move all of them after the first one to the right so the files play sequentially and not all at the same time. To do this, click on (to the right side of, if you have to move it a long way) on the sound file you want to move at the location where you want that file to start and select Project>Align Tracks>Align with Cursor. Normally the location you click is even with the end of the sound file immediately above (so this file will play immediately after the one above it ends).

Again, this takes a little time, and it should be automated, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty quick and easy.

Step Five: Test the soundfile

After aligning the files vertically (for which ones play first) and horizontially (so they play in sequence and not at the same time) click at the beginning of the first (i.e., top) sound file and click the Play button near the top of the window. Listen to the music and voice files and make sure everything is in order and sounds good. If not, reorder or rerecord the necessary files.

Step Six: Save the Audacity project file

Save the project file by selecting File>Save As and navigating to the folder where you want to store your podcast project files. I store mine in a folder in My Documents called RanchoCasts.

Step Seven: Export the combined soundfile

Select File>Export as MP3, name the file (I use ranchocastmmddyy) , navigate to the folder you want to use to store the combined sound file (I use the same one I previously moved the MP3s to) and click Save.

Step Eight: Upload the combined sound file to your server

I have a folder on my server called ranchocast where I upload the combined sound file, which will shortly become my podcast. If you don’t have a server, there are some podcast hosting companies, but I haven’t used them so I can’t comment on how well they work. I use CuteFTP to upload my files, but any FTP program will work.

Step Nine: Create your RSS feed

In order to be accessible by the programs that download and manage podcasts (such as Juice, formerly called iPodder), an RSS feed has to be created. This can be the most difficult part of creating a podcast, but thanks to ListGarden it has been made easy.

ListGarden, which is both brilliant and free, takes the location and name of your sound file and creates, saves and uploads the necessary xml file that will support an RSS feed.

Here are step by step instructions on how to set up a podcast using ListGarden and the sound file you just created and uploaded. ListGarden has some advanced features (like the ability to generate a web page about your podcast) which you may or may not use. The process of setting up ListGarden is easy if you follow the step by step instructions closely- the hardest part is knowing the location of your podcast folder on your server and your name and password for server access. If you forgot your password, you can probably get it from your FTP program with Behind Asterisks. I have to do that all the time.

Step Ten: Publish your podcast feed

Once you have uploaded your music file and used ListGarden to create and upload an xml file, all that’s left is to publish your RSS feed so people can find and access your podcast. I use Feedburner for this and it does a great job. Add the URL to the xml file that ListGarden created and uploaded in Step Nine to the blank on the Feedburner page and you’re on your way.

The URL is different from the server location address you used when configuring ListGarden. The URL is the “http” address that a browser would use to locate that file (for example, http://www.newsome.org/ranchocast/ranchocast.xml)

Once you get your Feedburner feed set up, Feedburner gives you a link- and this is the link you use to direct people to your podcast. My Feedburner podcast page is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ranchocast. One of the cool things about using Feedburner to publish your podcast is that your listeners can click the Listen icon on your feedburner page and listen to the podcast right from that page (without having to install Juice or another podcast manager).

That’s it. If you do a podcast, leave me a note in the Comments. I’ll check it out

Technorati Tags:
podcasting

RanchoCast for 12/02/05

I did another podcast last night.

This episode contains a short review of the Rolling Stones concert and songs from my three new discoveries: Bucktown Kickback, Chuckanut Drive and The Cigar Store Indians. It also has a classic number by Jesse Colin Young and one by my friend Baker Maultsby.

A word about the music files: I am a songwriter and musician, and I have no desire to take money out of anyone’s pocket. To the contrary, I am trying to promote some great music that you likely won’t hear on mainstream radio. These are low bitrate MP3s. I am experimenting with podcasting as a way to promote alt. county music. Go buy these records. You’ll be glad you did.

Finding a Small Spot at the Table

kidstable The last couple of days have been watershed days for Newsome.Org. We got a link from Scoble yesterday and then tonight we made our first appearance on Memeorandum. While that may be business as usual for veteran and highly read bloggers, it’s a happy event indeed for a relatively new blog like mine.

More importantly, it demonstrates that in the blogosphere if you keep on doing your thing, you can and will get noticed. You don’t even have to do anything outrageous or stupid. Just have something to say, read and consider some of the blogging suggestions that blog experts write, try to be as interesting and helpful as possible and, most importantly, be patient.

Having made a preliminary pass through Scoble’s feeds as part of my Scoblefeeds A-Z project, one of my initial impressions is that there is still a lot of room at the blogging table- much more room that I thought when I started blogging here. The road is open and traffic is moving. If you like to write, it’s a good time to start a blog.

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blogging

Firefox Development Map

firefox Now that I’ve pretty much switched to Firefox for all of my internet browsing, I was interested to see the development plans and priorities for future versions.

I find Version 1.5 to be stable and, with the addition of extensions and Greasemonkey scripts, very configurable. Integrated RSS functionality is a top priority for Version 2. If implemented well, that will be very useful.

Without some radical move, like going open source, I don’t see how Microsoft can keep up with Firefox in the implemention race. I was originally pulling for Firefox to make a dent in the browser market in order to create competition. Now I’m pulling for Internet Explorer to stay in the game for the same reason.

Interesting times for internet users. As long as both products stay in the game, the users win.

Technorati Tags:
firefox, internet explorer

There's One in Every Wiki

I love Wikipedia, the collaborative web based encyclopedia. Many of my posts link there for discussions and defintions of terms I use.

There are some recent blog posts about Adam Curry, one of the veejays from MTV back when there was actually some M on the TV, and a leading figure in the development of podcasting. Some have alleged that Adam edited the Wikipedia entry on podcasting to remove credit for the development of podcasting from other people and to “inflate” his role in podcast creation.

I don’t know beans about the development of podcasting, but I know that self-policing is a key component of any collective endeavor- message board, wiki, whatever. Once a system of self-policing is in place, the potential for abuse is greatly lessened. Again, I love Wikipedia. I hope the creators and users will leave politics and competition out of this and do whatever’s necessary to respect and protect the accuracy and integrity of Wikipedia.

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wikipedia

Rolling Stones – Houston

Every time I begin to forget what an incredible live band they are, the Stones play in Houston and I am reminded that they are simply the greatest live rock and roll band ever.

Raina and I saw them tonight. It was a great show, perhaps my favorite Stones show ever. Highlights were a magical rendition of Dead Flowers, an amazing cover of Ray Charles’ Night Time Is The Right Time, a very energetic Get Off Of My Cloud and perennial concert favorite Sympathy For The Devil. Seeing the Stones live is still one of those pinch yourself moments for me, and those moments are special indeed.

The Stones simply rock. Not on every song anymore, but when they hit their groove, which can happen at any time, even within a song, nobody does it better.

Here’s the setlist:

Start Me Up
It’s Only Rock’n Roll
She’s So Cold
Tumbling Dice
Oh No Not You Again
Rain Fall Down
Dead Flowers
Bitch
Night Time Is The Right Time
— Introductions
Slipping Away (Keith)
Infamy (Keith)
Miss You (to B-stage)
Rough Justice
Get Off Of My Cloud
Honky Tonk Women (to main stage)
Sympathy For The Devil
Brown Sugar
Satisfaction
You Can’t Always Get What You Want (encore)
Jumping Jack Flash (encore)

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rolling stones