Gotta have Faith

I heard this track on c89.5worldwide the other day [listen], and shit it got me bouncing around the place. Here's how this works incase you forgot.

I heard the track, today I paid for the copy controlled single, copied it, and put it here for you to download before December 4 to taste. Now you can go out and buy it.

Faith Evans can go bling shopping next week knowing that her gold card will have funds. Oh, and I also promoted a college radio station that also plays her music, and a local record store that sells it. ogg blogs are good.

[Faith Evans - Mesmerize (Freemasons Remix) ogg/2.2mb]
The First Lady/2005

Q Unit

What happens when you mix Queen and 50 Cent together? You get Q-Unit.

Oh geez. This is going to rile half of my friends, and make others go off the rail. Go HERE to download the album, and get high quality cover art (of above) also.

Before U Wreck Yo Self

Check yo self.

I use Woosh Wireless for internet access, and today I doubled my download speed for an extra fiver a month. I also took the Colmar Brunton customer survey today and told them how unhapy I was with their support staff but how wonderful the product is. Lets hope for improvements, and soon.

In the meantime, I moved my modem away from my desktop (where I had 74% reception) to the wall mount bracket (with suction cups) and now have 98% reception. Top that with a 256kbps connection, I can now share my rock n roll music with you a little faster. Im a happy man today.

[Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady ogg/1.3Mb]
*get it before Nov 30

Christmas Cheer

I'm on leave this week, so will keep this brief. If purchasing food presents as gifts for others, especially chocolate - check the expiry date!

Today, one of the most covered Christmas songs ever. From memory: Harry Connick Jr, Smokey Robinson, Lonestar, Frank Sinatra, Jackson 5, Mariah Carey, Hilary Duff, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow, Four Seasons, Pointer Sisters, and of course the original by Joe Harris with the legendary Benny Goodman & His Orchestra.

[Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town ogg/1.9Mb]
[Pointer Sisters - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town ogg/1.5Mb]
[Cyndi Lauper & Frank Sinatra - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town ogg/1.2Mb]

Also, I had an email asking for this. Love it or hate it, you gotta have it.
[The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopys Christmas (remastered) ogg/1.2Mb]

*get 'em before 28 Nov

Down Trou

Kiwi obviously sucks. NZ music does not IMO.

Has it anything to do with how CW have branded it, cliches and all. Is L&P better with a new logo that looks old, or the old logo that IS OLD, or are we sick of being force fed NZ music?

Channel Z served a great deal of the 'alternative' we now hear on Kiwi. Even hip hop and drumn n bass/nrg stuff. The Carly Binding track buffer or classic Crowded House song gets airplay on Morepork FM anyway.

It astonishes me that Kiwi is still on air. Impey was passionate about Channel Z, still he cannot escape the bureaucracy surrounding the 93.8 frequency in Auckland. The fact that noone listens should have him drawing new plans there, be it bringing in The Breeze, buying Base FM, resurrecting Channel Z (probably wont happen) or simply simulcasting Pacific on FM?

What a waste. Surely he realises that outside boxed formats, there are nearly 40,000 people listening to Tarana (15k short of Solid Gold, more than twice that of Kiwi, almost equal to George or bFM) and Auckland especially is so demographically fucked, where ethnic and socially active groups are where you actually get the most loyal listeners. Radio as a medium is thinning overall as a part of our media mix these days. How about an award of recognition for trying, but stick to what you know and make it work for as long as it possibly can.

He's put up a scarecrow, and its worked.

yeah. what a waste.

Ogg Help

Okay, heres how the Oggs work on this weblog.

Firstly, before I launch into this, If you are an artist, and would like me to remove the link to your music file, please get in touch and I will delete it.

An Ogg file (.ogg) is like an mp3 file. It is a compressed audio file, which you can download and listen to on your computer. Some portable media players also support the Ogg format.

The difference between mp3 and Ogg, is that Ogg is Open Source (free for anyone to use and make), and has better quality sound at higher compression rates. In english, that means the download size of the audio file is usually half that of an mp3, and takes less time to download.

To listen to an Ogg file, you need to install a media player on your computer that supports this file type. If you use Windows, you may already be able to, with Windows Media Player (you will need version 10). If you dont have it, save yourself the massive download, and use a small media player called Foobar. It can play pretty much any file type, and wont clog up your system, as its also Open Source (free to use, and modify if you know how).

Foobar Lite (plays mp2, mp3, mp4/aac, ogg, wav/aif, au, musepack, voc & snd audio files). This download is the one I have, is less than 1Mb and works perfectly. Or..
Foobar Normal (plays all above, as well as a few more including Monkeys Audio). This one is a waste of time, coz you may as well get..
Foobar Special - the full program, with support for all sorts of bizarre formats, and Windows Media (WMA) too if you like punishment.

I upload the Ogg files to the zShare server, which is a free website which stores any kind of file for 10 days. You will need to note the posted date of the Ogg file and add 10 days. Now, if you download it 3 days after I post the Ogg, the expiry of this file is extended by 10 days (so in theory, as long as people download it at least once a week, the file can exist there forever).

Also, as a courtesy, I will supply the file type (Ogg), as well as the file size of the download in megabytes (eg: 1.6Mb), as well as the year the song came out. If I feel you really should own the album (which the Ogg came from), I will be inclined to provide a link to a NZ retailer like the awesome team at Real Groovy, for you to go ahead and purchase online.

Thats about it. Its all in the name of fun, as well as some free publicity for the artist, thanks to my personal endoresement. I have no idea how that would help them out. Perhaps they have bizarre backstage requests, and on one occasion, that item will be paid for by my suggestion.

Back To The Block II

It's way cool to have a blog that a few people read, then through that, I can share my other activities and experiences with you and your mouse.
But what really made my day today, was having two separate parts of my life find each other without my intervention. I just planted the seeds.


So today, A song for Mel. Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for tuning in. Retro Hit Radio celebrated two years of existence on Monday November 14th. We are working on the new website as I type this... URL posted here in due course.

[Icehouse - Anything Is Possible ogg/1.9Mb] 1991/Code Blue
• get it before Nov 22, 05

Go Foobar!
It plays ogg files (and mp3 etc), and allows me to share these songs;
..at high enough quality yet small file size
..without hurting the artists
..without DRM.

Supermodel On My D

Sound familiar? Should it? Christmas followed by Summer is that funny time of year where most Lemmings succumb to the last minute shopping, and follow madness through christmas, to have a few weeks at the beach, or near a beach, or near a picture of a beach.


My awareness to this fact started last night by passing a womans magazine headlining the 6 week crash diet for your 'summer bikini body'. Yeah, here it comes with a faint scream, getting louder...

It's considerably odd to think that we subject ourselves to a bombardment of pre-summer advertising, we actually respond to it, and live a life of kaos in November and most of December (the 6 weeks New Idea work to), just to have a few weeks at the beach, or be near a beach, or near a picture of a beach, with people you may not necessarily know.

The scales are mal-aligned at this time of year, although for good reason. Two of my close girl friends within a two week period each got engaged to their men. Choiceness, and news like that overpowers the commercialism that surrounds this time of year, instead helping everyone 'ground self' to whats really important - friends and family. The point of christmas.


Buy Nothing Day is coming up too, just to remind us whats going on around us at this time of year. Hi Stuart!

After Christmas, let the lotion flow and sun cook it to the sound of the Fun Lovin Criminals. Yeeeeaaaah Boyyyy!

[Fun Lovin Criminals - Big Night Out ogg/1.7Mb] 1998
[Fun Lovin Criminals - Up On The Hill ogg/1.9Mb] 1999
[Fun Lovin Criminals - Couldn't Get It Right ogg/1.7Mb] 1999
• get em before 21 Nov 05

Writing, Recording & Touring

The cycle of a musician. INXS are itching to get back on the road, watching Irish equals U2 walk those grassways in '05. Fuck yeah, we want that again, right Garry Gary?

I spent 3.5 hours today writing up the year by year scripts for an upcoming programming element today, and learnt the extraordinary story behind U2's 1st EP "Three" and single. "Out Of Control" (image left)

NZ musicians might learn a thing or two from that story. U2 and INXS are two bands that really define my taste in music. They were quite unpolished back when, and that was cool. The lyrics were raw, songwriting style fresh, MTV hadn't swallowed their image yet, and they were 'next door'. FFWD 20 years, and they've both survived the corporate monster, making the monster move around them coz they made the monster.

Their music these days is really good, although polished, still fresh. I await the U2 concert in Auckland on St Patricks Day. The rumours were true, now for INXS to do the same and my life would be complete. The single "Pretty Vegas" goes on sale in Oz tomorrow. Album out at the end of the month.

I was going to place a Muchael Hutchence song from his 1999 solo album (the one that he worked on since 1995, and his friends completed), but Ive misplaced the CD somewhere. Instead, a remix of their fateful last single with Hutchence as lead (from 1997), and an early favourite of mine from 1983.

[INXS - Don't Lose Your Head (Andy Robinson Remix '04) ogg/1.9Mb] 2004/INXS The Remixes
[INXS - To Look At You ogg/1.7Mb] 1983/Shabooh Shoobah

Chrysler 300c

Seen these draping the streets yet?
If I win it big on Wednesday, Im getting one and going to play this track at full tit.

[New Order - Blue Monday (Deleon Remix) ogg/1.9Mb]

iPod alternatives

I was scanning my morning blogs when I read:

Five Reasons why I won't buy an ipod:

1. Three Letters - D.R.M. I want to be able to listen to all my mp3s in all the devices I have. No tricky copy-protection shit.

2. Anti-establishment. Ipod is very establishment.

3. Absence of features. Sure an Ipod video is cool. That is if you like watching videos in such a small screen. No FM radio. No recording whatsoever meaning no bootlegging.

4. Price. For a few less moolah, i can get a players with more features.

5. Drag and drop. I just want to be able to drag and drop files into it. No itunes shit.

Let's take a look at number 4, to show you that yes, iPods are popular, given the amount of advertising given to them. I feel that if you aren't aware of the alternatives, things like DRM will become standard and 'part of the deal'.

Cowon Systems:
Highly Recommended

iAudio X5 (pic on right). I'm gonna go buy one of these puppies! Check the feature list - includes BBE bass, which any studio engineer will know is a delicious addition!

Creative has a tidy little unit too. The muVo (on left) will store 500 Songs, 8 Hours Video, Up to 999 Photos. Not good for voice recording, but has an FM tuner like the iAudio, unlike the iPod.

T2/2005

Congrats to Mai for the comeback (7.5% - up 2.3%), parachutes to Kiwi (0.2% - down 0.4%). A song for each station today.

[Lil Kim - Lighters Up ogg/1.5Mb] for Mai FM
[Elemeno P - Lullaby ogg/1Mb] for Kiwi

Top level survey results at Radios
Get your ogg player here

Recloose

It's Friday! Go make your head go boing boing, Oizo styles.

"Just when you think you’ve heard one too many disco loops, dropped one too many a dud pill, been smacked in the face by on too many handbags and wondered about the death of dance music one too many times, along comes Recloose to restore your faith in the genre." Phil Reed / Real Groove Magazine, NZ

[Recloose - Dust ogg/2Mb] Loop

Back To The Block

Heh - just had a fun night of listening to shocking old pop groups like New Kids On The Block, Milli Vanilli, Icy Blu, Bobby Brown, MC Hammer etc.


It reminds me of when the Olsen Twins were on Full House and 2 years old, and the days of old 91FM. hehehe (what? Kim & Corbett are still doing their breakfast show!?!)

Speaking of radio, if you want further hits in the face from the 80s / early 90s, and you find yourself in Manukau City, check out Retro Hit Radio on 88.1fm. Subtle plug...

Listen to the lyrics of this if you can handle it - a very retrospective song, from a no perspective crazy era! Comments welcome :)

[New Kids On The Block - Tonight ogg/1.6Mb]

Shee yit!

I just checked statcounter results.

A whopping 24% of you'z are using Firefox (mostly the latest version). Not that my site gets the massive hits like the Herald or anything. I'd like to see what result they get.

If that was a percentage of dung on gates' face, you'd certainly notice.

Good Bad Ugly

Two covers and a fantastic original today.

The good.
I caught onto the Transplants with Diamonds And Guns a couple of years back. I ran a new rock station at the time and we played them, aside other great bands like Muse, The Sounds, The Music, almost all the new rock acts heard on the defunct Channel Z or Hamiltons Generator. This single sees them team up with the Booyaa Tribe. Download this and let the funky beat BLAZE, coz summer is coming...
[Transplants feat. Booyaa Tribe - What I Can't Describe ogg/1.9Mb]

Bad:
Frankie J recently covered Extreme's More Than Words. It is a little pacey for me with too many vocal acrobatics, but Frankie J is consistent, and I guess I give hime credit for that.
[Frankie J - More Than Words ogg/1.7Mb]

Ugly:
Why do I even mention this? Coz I love the original so much, and I must warn you not to buy this single. This cover is dire, and depressing, whereas the original is honest and heartfelt. Some songs are just not meant to be covered.
[Aaron Hall - Tears In Heaven ogg/2.2Mb]