Get the ’Nac: The Bradcast is in Beta
Posted on May 5, 2005 at 12:34 pm | No Comments
As a small step towards some eventual blogcasting (no, they’re not podcasts, ‘cuz you don’t need an iPod), I just set up my own Shoutcast server for Almanac readers. For now it’s called The Almanac Bradcast, and it streams my entire 22,000 song music collection at 128kbps out over the wire, mostly at random, but sometimes specially programmed by yours truly. I can create playlists on the fly (‘bands coming to town’, ‘new this week’, ‘Boston bands’, or maybe by genre depending on my mood), and I can even take requests and drop songs in on a moment’s notice.
Got a song you want to hear while you’re sitting in your cube? Just send me an instant message at AIM screenname ‘bradcast’.
Right now the stream is limited to 5 users at a time (including me, of course), but depending on how much bandwidth the (admittedly small) home-based connection can handle, I might bump that up (or down?). Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it at 128k, though… we’ll see. 192kpbs resulted in too much buffering, and I’ve only had 4 users max on it so far.
So get listening (open link in your browser, or open it with WinAmp or iTunes), and let me know how it sounds on your end… the more feedback I get, the better it’ll become. Yes, I know the occasional mp3 tag will be messed up, but I’m fixing them little by little… and I make no apologies for some of the random stuff that might appear; the stream might be classified as ‘indie’, but I’d have a hard time arguing that my collection is all that. Mostly, yeah. Labels, schmabels.
A quick copy and paste of the ‘recently played songs’ gives you an idea what you’re in for though…
14:29:48 Slowdive – Silver Screen (demo)
14:26:20 Yo La Tengo – Don’t Say a Word ( Hot Chicken #2)
14:23:11 Sebadoh – Mystery Man
14:20:16 Wedding Present – Blue Eyes (Radio Remix)
14:16:02 Cure – The Funeral Party
14:12:03 Donelly, Tanya – The Night You Saved My Life
14:08:28 Jane’s Addiction – Trip Away
14:04:48 Idaho – On The Shore
13:58:59 Bedhead – The Dark Ages (live)
13:53:48 Catherine Wheel – Ferment
13:50:33 Bonnie Prince Billy – Agnes, Queen of Sorrow
13:47:03 The Decemberists – Oceanside
13:41:36 Nine Inch Nails – Suck (Full Length)
13:35:47 Pinback – Tres
13:31:57 Lucksmiths – Point Being
13:28:13 Curve – Overground
13:22:45 Scrawl – Tell You What
Now that I’ve let this outta the bag, it’ll probably get crushed in about 10 minutes, so beware the buffering, and of it disappearing suddenly. In the end, this thing is mostly for myself, so if you end up getting kicked while I’m testing it out, sorry in advance. Especially if it’s during a song that’s hitting you just right…
Movin’ on then…
Ticket alert: Genius director Hal Hartley is coming to town in a few weeks to personally introduce a screening of his new movie, “The Girl From Monday“. The film is playing at the Brattle on June 3rd through June 5th, and also at the Coolidge until June 9th, but Hartley will only be appearing at the Friday, June 3rd, 7:15 Brattle screening. Tickets are now on sale, and they’ll no doubt disappear quickly, so go ahead and get yours here.
So we saw the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie last weekend, and as a pretty loyal fan of the books… I reeeeally didn’t enjoy it. Well, most of it. And Amie, as someone who’s never read the books… disliked it even more. She actually bailed about halfway through and caught a bunch of Kung Fu Hustle in the theater next door, which she loved, of course. I’ll spare you a bunch of complaining about it, though. The friends I saw it with will be surprised to read this, actually, as I didn’t really voice my opinion afterwards… didn’t want to bring anyone who loved it down. Don’t even think they knew that Amie escaped… but I do know they agree with the all-healing appeal of the Kung-Fu Hustle.
Tonight: We might just try to crash the Serenity screening, hoping that someone, anyone, has extra tickets. Oh please oh please oh please… I cannot hold out until September.
Speaking of Serenity, this is pretty damn cool…
Dark Horse Comics will be putting out a 3-issue Serenity mini-series from creator and super-scribe Joss Whedon that will bridge the gap between the end of the TV series and the movie. Let’s hear it for sweet, sweet synergy.
At long last, a date: Word is that the very-much-awaited Miss Mary record, “Ready 2 Pop”, the sophomore followup to 2000’s “Hey Blue” (and followup to the recent ‘release’ of “Holly”), will be out on May 23rd. Check out her MySpace page for songs, details on (hopefully) future live appearances, and where to buy the thing. Nice to think she’ll be playing out again, baby and bass player in tow.
Also on the subject of talented friends, the one n’ only Colin Clary made a live radio appearance a couple days ago on Providence, RI’s WBRS 88.1 FM, on the ‘Phoning It In‘ program. As the name implies, guests perform live over the phone, and Colin played a whole bunch of random songs. The sound quality varies, but overall it sounds pretty good considering, so give the archived show a listen on your computer right here.
Fans of Ida get some long awaited goodies: Insound now has their hard-to-find (and limited edition) Last Affair Records releases for sale in their Annex. These include the one-time import only Dan Littleton solo record ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine‘ coupled with his other ultra-rare solo disc ‘Down By The Riverside‘, plus a limited double-disc live recording from San Fran’s Bottom of the Hill in April 2000. That live show also apparently includes 3 new recordings. Mine are on the way.
That reminds me… I sent my artwork off awhile ago for Dark Beloved Cloud’s Singles Club so I could get some new Ida songs. Wonder how long that usually takes? Anyone try it?
This is fairly random: Photos I took at Boston’s first flash mob are being used this weekend as part of a symposium called “Sampling the Spectrum: The
Politics, Practices and Poetics of Mobile Technologies” at La Soci�t� des Arts et Technologiques in Montreal. It starts today, and a grad student asked if it was ok to display them during her Saturday discussion on “Flash Mobbing: �Hipster Sheep�, �The Clique Machine� and �A Love Rug�“. In the unlikely event that anyone reading this actually attends, lemme know.
There’s a brand new mp3 blog on the block, and it’s called ‘Last Post on the Bugle‘. I guess Adam’s a regular Almanac reader, so it’s cool to see him joining in.
Most of you know this by now, but just in case: The Daily Show’s Steven Colbert is getting his own show. Great news, and yet, I’ll really miss his obvious (and usually successful) attempts to get Jon Stewart to crack up during his pieces. And what will become of The God Machine?! He’d better bring it with him, because no one else could punch it quite so perfectly.
Bruce Campbell returns to town: Boston is the next to last stop on his book tour for ‘Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way‘. It’s not until September 16th, and yeah, that’s a hell of a long ways away, but early notice is good notice.
The new Tullycraft disc, ‘Disenchanted Hearts Unite‘ got released this week, and you can check out one song from it over at Three Imaginary Girls (just click the banner in the left column there), and another one over at the Magic Marker Records site. In honor of it’s release, I’ll be sharing up a live set on Monday from Crayon, the band that Tullycraft sprung from many years back.
Probably won’t hear from me until Monday (although ya never know), so I hope everyone has a good weekend. Me? I’m so, so psyched for Saturday’s Lucksmiths / Ladybug Transistor / Pipas show at P.A.s Lounge, and the get-together we’re having beforehand. A guaranteed good day, despite the rain.
[Live MP3s] The Wedding Present in Cambridge, MA 2005
Posted on May 2, 2005 at 10:21 pm | No Comments
Pretty hard for any band to live up to the overblown expectations I had for last Thursday’s Wedding Present appearance at the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, MA. The best shows are the ones that surprise you, and there was no way that David Gedge, Simon Cleave, and their recruited rhythm section were gonna do that for me. Still, they didn’t exactly disappoint, and there’s nothing quite so good as a triple-shot of ‘Dalliance’ into ‘Dare’ into ‘What Have I Said Now?’. An amazing end to a 90-minute set that touched on nearly every phase of Gedge’s 20 year songwriting career, including a bunch from his years in Cinerama.
The sound at the MidEast Down can be tricky (I’m being diplomatic), and I think some of the set suffered from a muffly mix and a weak drum sound… but it all depends on where you were standing. I’ll also diplomatically note that their current drummer is just… adequate. Not bad, but certainly not as impressive as others that Gedge & co. have played with, like the fantastic Simon Smith from the Bizarro / Seamonsters days, or Cinerama drummer Kari Paavola. I guess I’m a little picky about the drumming details, being one and all, but there were lots of little fills and accents and hits that were noticably absent, especially on the older stuff. Then again, I’m so familiar with those songs that maybe no new drummer could live up.
Speaking of Cinerama, I think their last Boston appearance is the main reason I wasn’t completely blown away this time… that 2003 TT’s show set the bar very, very high. It was essentially the Wedding Present (Gedge and guitarist Simon Cleave along with Cinerama’s Sally and Kari), and I was just stunned. They brought new energy to the Cinerama songs, and threw in four or five Weddoes ones (including a killer version of Dalliance) that just knocked me out. So even though this tour marks ‘the return of The Wedding Present’, it’s almost in name only… in 2003 they were on stage in front of me. Not only that, but since the current setlist includes Cinerama songs, the difference lies soley in the drums and bass. I kinda wonder where the huge crowd at the Middle East was when Gedge was next door at the much-smaller TT’s… but I guess you can’t beat the lure of nostalgia, and the press that a perceived reformation can garner.
Still, I got to see one of my favorite bands (maybe the favorite), so far be it for me to complain. Everything’s relative, right? Anytime Gedge comes to town is a gift, and I’ll be hoping for another show this year.
I recorded the set, so here’s the 21 songs for ya (oh, and I quite enjoyed openers Crystal Skulls, so I turned on the recorder for the last five songs of their set. I’ll hopefully be sharing those up later on this week)….
live at the Middle East Downstairs
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Thursday, April 28th, 2005
[ download the set in one .zip file ]
01. Interstate 5
02. Crawl
03. Drive
04. Queen Anne
05. Go Go Dancer
06. Starry Eyed
07. Spangle
08. My Favourite Dress
09. Venus
10. Health and Efficiency (spliced)
11. It’s For You
12. The Queen of Outer Space
13. Careless
14. I’m From Further North Than You
15. Kennedy
16. Perfect Blue
17. Once More
18. Ringway to SeaTac
19. Dalliance
20. Dare
21. What Have I Said Now?
I was torn between getting near the stage vs. getting a good recording, so I compromised a bit. Unfortunately I ended up between an overly chatty trio and a guy who was competing for American Idol in his mind. I mean, at least the enthusiastic air-guitar guy in front of me wasn’t louder than the band. Still, the recordings don’t suffer too badly, despite the occasional unrequested vocal stylings.
Oh, and you’ll no doubt notice that the mp3 of ‘Health and Efficiency’ is kinda messed up. Blame my relative inexperience with my new mini-disc recorder… the second half is lost to the digital ether. I ended up grabbing a chunk of mjlauf’s torrented recording of the same show and spliced ’em together. Not ideal, but better than not including it at all, right?
If you’re into the torrent thing, head on over to dime a dozen and grab the entire set as flac files (thanks again, mjlauf).
As long as I’m sharing, here are a couple more mp3s for Wedding Present fans…
I’ve been in a bunch of bands who rarely, if ever, did covers… but happily for me, two of them learned and recorded Weddoes songs.
In 1997, The Four Color Manual (Dan Scinta, Colin Clary, & myself) recorded the song ‘Niagara’ (a b-side of ‘Dalliance’) at a studio in Vermont for a Wedding Present tribute record that never came together. At least I don’t think it did. Anyway, here ’tis…
And in 2002, the Also-Rans (who were this guy, this girl, this guy, this guy, and me) decided to take a stab at ‘Dare’ (off Seamonters), and ended up recording it in the basement for kicks. I think we played it out just once, maybe twice? Anyway, I think it came out pretty good, so here ya go…
Alright, I s’pose I should get some work done. Enjoy the mp3s… and don’t forget, I’ve still got a vintage 1992 Wedding Present set (part 1, part 2) shared for download. It’ll only be up for a little while longer, so grab it while you can.