Music
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World Boogie is Coming by the North Mississippi Allstars has vaulted to my favorite of 2013. It's a respectful, loving tribute to, and continuation of, North Mississippi musical traditions such as Hill Country and Fife and Drum Blues. The latter is possibly the oldest blues tradition, and one that's almost dead, since Otha Turner passed. His granddaughter (Sharde Thomas) carries the tradition on, I think she may be the last fife player left in the tradition, and she's on a cover of one of his tunes. What a fucking brilliant album. A must for blues fans, but accessible enough that anyone who like blues-derived music of any kind (e.g., rock) will probably fall in love.
Seeing these boys play tonight. It's been a few years. It used to be such a routine to see them, I will never appreciate a NMAS show like the one tonight. Go see them if you can.
Here's an example of what they do:
I'll definitely check this one out
I just bought Memphis by Boz Scaggs, lovely
Also, this morning, I bought a used pair of JBL 80t speakers to go with the McIntosh 250 power amp I got a couple of weeks ago. This set is nice, and will be even nicer when I get a preamp so I can hook up all my music players.
I blasted the set with Dub Experience by Sly & Robbie at maximum level and it was wicked to have some organic sounds again as I've been listening to music using ipods and computers and wireless speakers with distorted eq's for a few years now….
I'm playing Lee Perry's Super Ape at the moment and it is pure joy.
I'm happy that I found out about qobuz.com which sells lossless audio files rather than 256kps files on Amazon and iTunes. They also sell studio master quality stuff in 196/24bits quality for some albums like Thriller or the new Daft Punk. Very nice change from iTunes (what the fuck are they waiting for to sell AIFF files, for Christ sake???) even though they dont have everything (they now have my catalog, though!).
There is another site in the US called HDtracks.com with a bigger selection, but you cant buy from them when located in EU (that sucks).
So I've embarked on a re-ripping mission for my 5,000 CD's in aiff or flac and it sounds a bit better. But what a bitch having to re-rip cd's... I need an assistant or a slave because my 13 year old daughter does not want to do it for her dad... Ungrateful kids...
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What are you using to rip?
I try to keep everything as flac unless I'm ripping a CD. My workflow is to use iTunes set to rip anything put into an optical drive to wav and my NAS hosts my iTunes directory. So if the cd is on gracenote, it's as simple as putting a disc in. Still a pain, but not bad. Traders would frown upon this because it's not using EAC but fuck it I don't trade anymore.
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What are you using to rip?
iTunes, but I should investigate more hifi applications. Those are a bitch because they cost mucho dollares, though…
I try to keep everything as flac unless I'm ripping a CD. My workflow is to use iTunes set to rip anything put into an optical drive to wav and my NAS hosts my iTunes directory. So if the cd is on gracenote, it's as simple as putting a disc in. Still a pain, but not bad. Traders would frown upon this because it's not using EAC but fuck it I don't trade anymore.
This file ripping community is yet another bunch of anal retentive males living alone or with cats everywhere in their apartments… I was a bit like this with my record collection way back when, and the guys I bought the amp or the speakers are like this too... Harmless but a bit boring to spend an evening with these types...
As for format, I use either wav, AIFF (I like it better than Wav for some reason) or Flac / Alac (I use a mac and itunes doesnt rip into Flac)
I have a brand new Askell & Kern audio player that is slowly growing on me and is elbowing our my 6 or 7 ipods (classic, touch, nano, I have had them all) because:1. it plays all formats including audiophile formats,
2. you load it with files like a hard drive and dont need itunes or similar applications
3. it has 2 micro sd card slots, thereby expanding its own 64gb capacity to 3 times that (and soon there will be 128gb micro sd cards!!!)
4. it is not an idevice which is nice for a change (I still use an ipod touch at the gym, the A&K costs too much to risk dropping or sweating on)
5. sounds betterThe cons of the A&K are:
1. price
2. takes forever to boot and shut down (it's the Windows thing)
3. for some reason I dont get all the artwork transferred from the computer (I dont really care although it is prettier with covers)
4. OS is not as user friendly and intuitive as a ipod touch
5. touch screen is way smaller, but more than sufficient for playing music
6. doesnt do computer, email, zillions of apps, only music... to me it's almost a plus -
Yeah, they're anal but if you're a part of a trading community you should be anal. Introducing degraded copies when pristine ones are available needlessly introduces entropy into the community archives within a few decades this could destroy recordings. If I were still being anal I'd use EAC in situations where I had to rip non-copyrighted material I intended to trade, then flac up the extracted wavs. AIFF and wav are just containers, they are sonically identical because they are both encapsulated PCM streams. Wav is a better option if you care about cross platform portability, aiff is more of a Mac thing. I don't think apple lossless is truly lossless, and if it is it is still a proprietary standard. So that's why I prefer flac/wav. YMMV
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Here's what went down last night. Spoilers follow, if you're catching the tour you likely will get a similar set. I have the recording, PM me for the Dropbox of wavs.
Xcel Energy Center, St Paul, Minnesota
September 28, 2013Set - 1:59:10
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01. Copy of A
02. 1,000,000
03. Terrible Lie
04. March of the Pigs
05. Piggy
06. All Time Low
07. Disappointed
08. Come Back Haunted
09. Find My Way
10. Satellite
11. I Would For You
12. Survivalism
13. Running
14. A Warm Place
15. Somewhat Damaged
16. Wish
17. Only
18. The Hand That Feeds
19. Head Like A Hole20. Encore Break
21. Even Deeper
22. Trent Band Into
23. In This Twilight
24. While I'm Still Here \ Black Noise
25. HurtSAMPLE TYPE
16 bit 44.1 kHz (Downsampled from 24 bit 96 kHz)
SOURCE
Core Sound HEB 4060 (Base Rolloff On) > Sony PCM-M10 (Mic In)
LOCATION
Rail - Right Side
NOTES
Taper: JB
e-mail: radioheadusa@comcast.net
Web: http://home.comcast.net/~radioheadusa/
date of seeding: September 29, 2013
Other Version: 24 bit 96 kHZ is available on DimeadozenInfo file
View Info file (0.97 KB) -
Yeah, they're anal but if you're a part of a trading community you should be anal. Introducing degraded copies when pristine ones are available needlessly introduces entropy into the community archives within a few decades this could destroy recordings. If I were still being anal I'd use EAC in situations where I had to rip non-copyrighted material I intended to trade, then flac up the extracted wavs. AIFF and wav are just containers, they are sonically identical because they are both encapsulated PCM streams. Wav is a better option if you care about cross platform portability, aiff is more of a Mac thing. I don't think apple lossless is truly lossless, and if it is it is still a proprietary standard. So that's why I prefer flac/wav. YMMV
Nothing against anal stuff! What is the Mac equivalent for EAC you would recommend?
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I don't know. I never extract for trading. iTunes has an error correction mode though! I'll look into it and post back.
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I think it's possible that Snowy and I are the only Drum & Bass fans here but i'm gonna post this anyway. Doc Scott relaunches his excellent 31 Records label with three super tracks from Overlook…
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Purely for Geo,,
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Here's what went down last night. Spoilers follow, if you're catching the tour you likely will get a similar set. I have the recording, PM me for the Dropbox of wavs.
Xcel Energy Center, St Paul, Minnesota
September 28, 2013Set - 1:59:10
–---------------------
01. Copy of A
02. 1,000,000
03. Terrible Lie
04. March of the Pigs
05. Piggy
06. All Time Low
07. Disappointed
08. Come Back Haunted
09. Find My Way
10. Satellite
11. I Would For You
12. Survivalism
13. Running
14. A Warm Place
15. Somewhat Damaged
16. Wish
17. Only
18. The Hand That Feeds
19. Head Like A Hole20. Encore Break
21. Even Deeper
22. Trent Band Into
23. In This Twilight
24. While I'm Still Here \ Black Noise
25. HurtSAMPLE TYPE
16 bit 44.1 kHz (Downsampled from 24 bit 96 kHz)
SOURCE
Core Sound HEB 4060 (Base Rolloff On) > Sony PCM-M10 (Mic In)
LOCATION
Rail - Right Side
NOTES
Taper: JB
e-mail: radioheadusa@comcast.net
Web: http://home.comcast.net/~radioheadusa/
date of seeding: September 29, 2013
Other Version: 24 bit 96 kHZ is available on DimeadozenInfo file
View Info file (0.97 KB)Pretty much what I just saw in St. Louis tonight. Wow, what a show…
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Glad you enjoyed!
Yeah I don't expect much variation, they're not that kind of band. This was a top shelf show. Even with a couple of "first night of a new tour" hiccups.
I can't stress enough, even if you're not a big fan of this band: go see this tour.
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Forgetters LP is excellent if you are a fan of Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, The Thorns of Life) you will love this.
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Glad you enjoyed!
Yeah I don't expect much variation, they're not that kind of band. This was a top shelf show. Even with a couple of "first night of a new tour" hiccups.
I can't stress enough, even if you're not a big fan of this band: go see this tour.
The light show alone is worth the ticket price. It's nothing less than stupefying.
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Amen brotha. So glad I got floor those lights melted my brain. They showed a lot of restraint in how they progressively introduced different elements.
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its boogie time
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I don't know what you Aussie tossers and Kiwi crackers did to deserve this…
http://frontiertouring.com/ninqotsa
Lucky bastards!
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^What?!!!! Totally unfair.
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Today's playlist MELVINS!!!!!
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^^I need to get on that soundtrack to my life thread, but this was a formative band for me, love those maniacs….
