I was kind of excited to see Yann Tiersen. Obviously his soundtrack work for Amelie and Goodbye Lennin was good.
His Dust Lane concert I would have to say is a big disappointment to me. It is not really about the music played is quite different from his soundtrack work. The real issue is that his music there was not inspiring, almost not at all. Often times the music was loud and a chaos. The vocal was extremely weak. Many times The music was okay until the band members all started singing; I wanted to shut them up!
His hair was also dreadful.
I think I was not the only one who was underwhelmed by this concert. Many people walked out after they said bye, of course they will return but people left. And people chanting for one more song was really not that loud. I can see many people are not even chanting. Although the number of people who came out is more than Little Dragon concert, people did not show nearly as much energy.
I was wondering around on last.fm. Checked out an old “friend”‘s page there and clicked through a link, which inspired me to look up some groups. Then almost immediately I saw some picture familiar, which turned out to be someone from Blacksburg. Then I sent this person a message on both Facebook and last.fm.
Then I went to an old group I joined on last.fm, and noticed that the person who wrote Audioscrobber.app is the person behind Homebrew which I have been trying to use to replace Macports.
And this person recommended Braid, which intrigued me for a while. And then I noticed that the character in Braid is redhead. I don’t really care about blonds, but I have been intrigued by redheads recently. Anyways, I missed the humble bundle 2, but I bought Braid for $5 just to check it out from Steam. I am not a huge game fan, but I probably get bored some time and will play it.
1. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House – Neo-Folk/Alternative – May 2009
美国Gay四人乐队，Grizzly Bear，新民谣。这张评价很不错。进入很多排行榜前列。
Pick: Two Weeks，Southern Point，I Live With You.
Two Weeks的MV很不错。
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2. IAMX – Kingdom of Welcome Addiction – Alternative – May 2009
英国前Sneaker Pimps主唱单飞后project的第三张专辑。这张更带劲，更电子舞曲，更硬。
Pick: Kingdom Of Welcome Addiction，Tear Garden，Think of England。
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3. Beirut – March of the Zapotec & Realpeople – Alternative – 2009
美国才华型Zach到墨西哥拆封，用丧葬乐队搞出来的好东西，外接一些garage electronics。爱死The Shrew这首歌了。我要卡拉OK!!
Pick: The Shrew, The Concubine.
amazing video above.
Debut The Concubine LIVE
看了很想很想看他的Live.
也算是新民谣吧？
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4. Zero 7 – Yeah Ghost – Pop/Rock/Electronic – Sept. 2009
英国电子trip hop后续二人组。时常配有很不错的女声。例如来自澳大利亚的Sia。这张新专辑，和之前三张有很大的区别，以致很多前歌迷表示不喜欢。加入了一个新女声，颇有趣。
Pick: Swing (Sia), Mr McGee, Pop Art Blue, Medicine Man, Sleeper
Pop Art Blue LIVE:
5. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Instrumental – 2009
美国songwriter Sufjan Stevens时隔多年再发专辑。不过居然是全instrumental的soundtrack。而且movie也是他拍的。还没有看movie究竟怎么样。不过搞得很艺术。他还是很擅长编很复杂的东西，很喜欢里面的brass之类的吹奏乐器。
Pick: Movement II: Sleeping Invader, Movement III: Linear Tableau With Intersecting Surprise, Movement VII (Finale): The Emperor Of Centrifuge.
The BQE trailer:
Movement II …Surprise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4frEjVqYBo
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6. 朱哲琴 – 七日谈 – New Age – Jan. 2008
中国最高质量音乐代表，朱哲琴+何训田，不用多说，多年之后朱哲琴复出的作品。据说之前何训田还担心她不愿意出来唱。朱哲琴已经移民加拿大了，不知道还能不能算中国？依旧是七首歌。七日谈。
Pick: 不翼而飛，夕陽西下， 路過地球
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7. SimCity 4 Rush Hour Soundtrack – Soundtrack
EA游戏，貌似很多soundtrack做得很好。这个就是典范。这张是Rush Hour Expansion Pack里添加的音乐。个人认为比原来的SimCity 4里面的稍好。里面的Jerry Martin, The HUmble Brothers, Andy Brick等人专门做soundtrack，很有点才华，能够给这个游戏配怎么符合题材，质量又高的音乐，我很佩服。这张里面不少算是现代交响乐＋电子杂交。
Pick: Bumper to Bumper, Wheels of Progress, Metropolis.
Bumper to Bumper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9nO69AeBBw
Wheels of Progress:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah9uxDDSVkE
Metropolis:
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8. Tegan and Sara – Sainthood – Alternative/Rock － Oct. 2009
加拿大lesbian姐妹摇滚乐队第二张专辑。强大之处是常给人out of box的新鲜感，有些东西颇有试验感，而且比较悦耳。弱点是编曲时常老套，一首歌可能开始很好之后似乎感觉她们才华难以支撑？或者需要更好的制作人。这张也是进入若干排行榜。
Pick: Arrow, On Directing, Night Watch, Paperback Head.
On Directing在YouTube上好多Cover。
Arrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsmrlJX2gIA
亚裔mm cover Paperback Head drum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JImb674MXH4
推荐上面这个！
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9. Little Dragon – Little Dragon – Rock/R&B – Sept. 2007
瑞典籍日美混血主唱。另类R&B杂种音乐，常给人耳目一新的感觉。
Pick: Twice. Constant Surprises, The Last.
Twice:
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10. Junior Boys – Begone Dull Care – Electronic – April 2009
加拿大电子二人组。最近美国巡演也要结束了吧？其实也没跑几个地方。最新特别爱好这种合成电子，而且很fresh的感觉很好。Honorable mention里面的Grand National也有点这种类似的电子感。最近比较流行有些古老电子游戏的感觉。但是绝对不是那样粗糙的，而是很精致的。
Pick: Dull To Pause, Hazel, The Animator,
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Honorable Mention:
Tori Amos – Abnormally Attracted to Sins – Alternative
Clint Mansell – Moon (soundtrack from the Motion Picture) – Soundtrack
没看过这个电影，应该去看看。是David Bowie的儿子拍的。
Juana Molina – Some of her music…
阿根廷的音乐。节奏很有趣，其他地方很少听到。音乐不错，不好搞到，我也不全。2003年的Segundo，iTunes上都没有。但是第一首Martin Fierro很不错。
Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
说实话这是我第一张NIN的专辑。。。
Santogold – Santogold – Alternative
很少有黑人MM唱这种风格的音乐啊。水平还可以。Indie。
Grand National – Kicking The National Habit – Alternative
单曲 Honorable Mention
Bjork – Wanderlust (Ratatat Remix)
Ratatat很有趣。。
Peace Orchestra – Who am I? (Animatrix mix)
这个很老了。但是这个别人做到的video很不错
Just started to listen to this album recently. And today there is this report from NPR.
Sufjan Stevens personally shot the movie too, as far as I understand. I haven’t seen the movie, just the trailer. It is definitely a very contemporary piece. This is kind of a work that comes out of such normal life: the traffic on a very old expressway. He is definitely very talented music writer. His work is becoming more and more “classical” and also, Osso redid his Enjoy your Rabbit album, which has 12 songs based on the Chinese zodiac. Osso is a quartet and the album Run Rabbit Run, is very interestingly classical style as well.
I used to give ratings of albums on my blog. But I guess at least this time I am not ready to rate this album.
XLD is app on Mac OS X that uses CoreAudio to encode AAC. Basically that’s what iTunes was using.
My parameter for XLD was:
True VBR
Encoder quality: Max
Target quality: ~111
Resulted bitrate is around 256kbps, sometimes over 300kbps
Nero 1.3.3.0 was used for my older encodings
And I used Foobar2000 to encode and choose the best settings I could. And resulted in ~200kbps file.
What does this mean?
I know eventually for SQ we need listen test. But these graph suggest dramatic improvement of compression? Or not.
If it is indeed improvement, I probably have to ditch all my nero encoded files…And redo all the rip and such. Painful!
Now I am listening to it on the new Napster service.
Napster’s new service is $5/month, unlimited online streaming of their entire library in web browser (unfortunately not in iPhone or iPod touch). And also gives you 5 MP3 songs download credit.
接下来换了一首alternative rock + electronic的歌。Wired All Wrong的Elevatin。男声在Sony里面有和王菲一样的感觉。定位不准，虚空，偏高，高音过亮。全面看来，iPod classic背景音乐色彩不如Sony鲜艳，但是也并不能叫差，因为我怀疑Sony的鲜艳色彩是高音带来的。iPod classic的全音域都定位准确，也没有觉得中音被过多的高音
掩盖掉。低音仍然更加有力一点。但是音乐画面的跳跃感确实不如Sony。不过人声真的是稳定多了，男声没有闪烁的高音在窜。
I believe your company knows about what Bjork did in Shanghai. What she did has consequences. Being an enemy of all the Chinese people is not a smart move. I have been customer of your record company for a long time. I am deeply upset and hurt by her sneaky act.
When she wish good luck for individual or nations in the battle for independence, she should care more about those who will die in those wars. It does not cost anything for her to say those words. But good luck will not save those innocent people dying in those wars. Good luck will not remove the resentment and hate in those people’s heart. I am deeply disappointed at what she has done. I urge your company to give her pressure to apologize. Until then, I will boycott anything from your company and Bjork Overseas Ltd. I will urge all my friends to do the same.
Right Here, Right Now is one of the classic in music evolution as well.
It is SO old, but it is worth seeing if you haven’t. I just saw it today, so no need to be ashamed.
Radiohead的新专辑In Rainbows即将在10月10号发布。由于Radiohead之前一张专辑(第六张Hail To The Thief)完成了她们和EMI的合约，他们现在属于“自由”艺人。基于这种状态，Radiohead决定基本上靠自己来发行这张新专辑。虽然有小唱片公司合作，但是这张专辑却是不会走大label的路线的。
I saw this ad on adsoftheworld.com and I am posting the youtube version of the video here. First of all, it basically copies everything from Bjork. Evidence follows.
So basically people who did not know about Bjork were saying how awsome this video is, how the author is genius. Well, the author is not. He/she simply steals, well, at least copies other people’s ideas. The worst is, copied from basically one, single, creative, artist, Bjork. I feel so sorry.
Since the announcement of iTunes PLUS, I have decided not to buy any music from iTunes which are protected by DRM. And I did have bought some iTunes PLUS music. Anyway, I had over $50 store credit I have to use, or it is nothing because I cannot get refund from iTunes for store credit.
However, sometimes it is much cheaper to buy used CD. Some used CDs can be as low as $0.99 + $2.99 shipping. And you get the physical CD and, most of the time, CD book/artwork. And you can put these as decoration at home, as well as showcase for your music taste. So, why not? It is definitely good.
However, compared used CD to eMusic, I would still download from eMusic because it is even cheaper. Faster.
Still, I have some collection of CDs that I am proud of. What I need now is a CD shelf, artistic one.
Have I ever talked about Sufjan Stevens here before? I don’t remember but he is truly amazing. If you have not heard his music, try now, you may like it. Check this out. This is going to be a song in his next album. Name of this song, Majesty Snowbird.
Or these two, different Live versions, but basically sound the same.
He seem always wear that shirt and that wings.
Sounds very good. Looking forward to his next album. Maybe I should write something about his older music too. But I just got to know him, need some time.
