Category / Music

by dmacias

Music you should be listening to, but probably aren’t.

Well, it’s been 4 months since I last had any activity and well it’s time to get things kick started again.  For the last few months I’ve let my music library wane, but the last few weeks have seen an up tick of good music which just landed on my lap.  Being the type who likes to share, I bring you stuff which you should be listening to, but probably aren’t and nothing is stopping you.

First, let’s start with Blue October.  I had the absolute pleasure of seeing them for the millionth time a few weeks ago and well, like the nine hundred and ninety ninth time they rocked!  So, please excuse the list if it’s a little B.O. heavy.

1. Blue October – Jump Rope.  How can this song not bring a smile to your face.

2. City and Colour – Body in a Box.  A man’s best party happens when he dies.

3. The Avett Brothers – If It’s the Beaches.  What is it with me and songs with answering machines, see #4.

4. Blue October – Hate Me.  See #3, also see recursive. :)

5. Band of Horses – Islands on the Coast.  They are touring with Pearl Jam, need I say more?

6. We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices.  Hello, it’s jetpacks, The Rocketeer rocked.

7. Two Door Cinema Club – What You Know. Embrace the nerd within.

8. Lighthouse Family – Ain’t no Sunshine.  Yes, a cover.  Yes, it rocks.

9. Mana – Ana.  :(

10. Blue October

by dmacias

Matt & Kim – Daylight

There is just something so happy about this song, can’t get enough of it and I love it when it comes on the iPod while running.  Happy happy happy song!

we cut the legs off of our pants
threw our shoes into the ocean
sit back and wave through the daylight
sit back and wave through the daylight

slip and slide on subway grates
these shoes are poor mans ice skates
fall through like change in the daylight
fall through like change in the daylight

i miss yellow lines in my roads
some color on monochrome
maybe i’ll paint them in myself
maybe i’ll paint them in myself
maybe i’ll paint them in myself
maybe i’ll paint them in myself
maybe i’ll paint them in myself
maybe i’ll paint them in myself

these sidewalks liquid then stone
building walls and an old pay phone
it rings like all through the daylight
it rings like all through the daylight

and in the daylight we can hitchhike to Maine
i hope that someday i’ll see without these frames
and in the daylight i don’t pick up my phone
cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home

I have five clocks in my life
and only one has the time right
i’ll just unplug it for today
ill just unplug it for today

open hydrant rolled down windows
this car might make a good old boat
and float down grand street in daylight
and float down grand street in daylight
and float down grand street in daylight
and float down grand street in daylight
and float down grand street in daylight
and float down grand street in daylight

and with just half of a sunburn
new yellow lines that i earned
step back and here comes the night time
step back and here comes the night time

and in the daylight we can hitchhike to Maine
i hope that someday i’ll see without these frames
and in the daylight i don’t pick up my phone
cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home

by dmacias

What happens when you hit the Pandora 40 hour limit?

You get on of these:

Hey, Tim here –

We’re very sorry about limiting your listening last month – I’m writing to let you know that, starting today you can listen to the free version of Pandora again. We hope you’ll come back!

Sorry if this limit is driving you nuts – it’s the last thing we want to do, but it’s the economic reality of streaming. We pay royalties for every song we play, which we feel good about, but it means that for our most consistent listeners, like you, advertising revenues don’t cover the costs. If you want to listen more than 40 hours a month, we’ve come up with two options:

  • For unlimited, ad-free listening, along with a bunch of other cool features, you can upgrade to Pandora One.

OR…

  • If you run out of hours in any given month, you can pay $.99 to listen for the rest of the month (you’ll still have advertising). This is a one-time fee: we won’t charge your credit card again.

We really hope one of these options works for you. To check on how many hours you have remaining, just click the ‘account’ link above the Pandora tuner. There’s also more information on our blog.

Thanks again for listening and, I hope, welcome back!

Tim Westergren
Founder
Pandora

by dmacias

Pandora sets a 40 hour a month cap.

So, I received this lovely emails this morning.


Hi, it’s Tim -

I hope this email finds you enjoying a great summer Pandora soundtrack.

I’m writing with some important news. Please forgive the lengthy email; it requires some explaining.

First, I want to let you know that we’ve reached a resolution to the calamitous Internet radio royalty ruling of 2007. After more than two precarious years, we are finally on safe ground with a long-term agreement for survivable royalty rates – thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our listeners who voiced an absolute avalanche of support for us on Capitol Hill. We are deeply thankful.

While we did the best we could to lower the rates, we are going to have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the web. Because we have to pay royalty fees per song and per listener, it makes very heavy listeners hard to support on advertising alone. Most listeners will never hit this cap, but it seems that you might.

We hate the idea of capping anyone's usage, so we've been working to devise an alternative for listeners like you. We've come up with two solutions and we hope that one of them will work for you:

* Your first option is to continue listening just as you have been and, if and when you reach the 40 hour limit in a given month, to pay just $0.99 for unlimited listening for the rest of that month. This isn't a subscription. You can pay by credit card and your card will be charged for just that one month. You'll be able to keep listening as much as you'd like for the remainder of the month. We hope this is relatively painless and affordable - the same price as a single song download.

* Your second option is to upgrade to our premium version called Pandora One. Pandora One costs $36 per year. In addition to unlimited monthly listening and no advertising, Pandora One offers very high quality 192 Kbps streams, an elegant desktop application that eliminates the need for a browser, personalized skins for the Pandora player, and a number of other features: http://www.pandora.com/pandora_one.

If neither of these options works for you, I hope you'll keep listening to the free version - 40 hours each month will go a long way, especially if you're really careful about hitting pause when you’re not listening. We’ll be sure to let you know if you start getting close to the limit, and we’ve created a counter you can access to see how many hours you’ve already used each month.

We’ll be implementing this change starting this month (July), I’d welcome your feedback and suggestions. The combination of our usage patterns and the "per song per listener" royalty cost creates a financial reality that we can't ignore...but we very much want you to continue listening for years to come.

Please don't hesitate to email me back with your thoughts.

Sincerely,
tim_signature.jpg

Tim
Founder

This is a one-time account message.

This is a shame, perhaps it’s time to get back to listening to the radio more often.

david

by dmacias

Kings of Leon – Revelry

If you’ve not noticed by now, I’m going through a Kings of Leon phase. After the amazing show they put on a few weeks ago and their great CD “Only By The Night” it’s hard not to love their music. This album has been spinning in my iPod for what seems like months now. Highly recommend it.

Regardless, this song speaks about a guy who met a great girl, but he was not done with his partying ways and through it all he still thinks of her all the time. Good stuff!

What a night for a dance
You know I’m a dancing machine.
With the fire in my bones
And the sweet taste of kerosene.
I get lost in the night
So high I don’t wanna come down.
To face the loss
Of the good thing that I have found.

Woo hoo hoooo
Woo hoo hoooo

In the dark of the night
I can hear you calling my name.
With the hardest of hearts
I still feel full of pain.
So I drink and I smoke
And I ask If you’re ever around.
Even though it was me
Who drove us right in the ground.

See the time we shared
It was precious to me
But all the while
I was dreaming of revelry.

Gonna run baby run
Like a stream down a mountainside.
With the wind in my back
I wont ever even bat an eye.
Just know it was you all along
That had a hold of my heart
But the demon and me
Were the best of friends from the start.

So the time we shared it
Was precious to me
All the while
I was dreaming of revelry.

Dreaming of revelry.

And I told myself,
Oh the way you go.
It rained so hard,
It felt like snow.
Everything came tumbling down on me.
In the back of the woods,
It was dark as night
Palest pale,
Of the old moonlight
Everything just felt so incomplete.

Dreaming of revelry
Dreaming of revelry
Dreaming of revelry
Dreaming of revelry

by dmacias

Kings of Leon – Use Somebody

I’ve been listening to this song a heck of a lot these last few days and I’m total love with it. The beat is great and the lyrics follow accordingly.

Ultimately, I would call it a love song, perhaps from a lonely fellow reaching out to someone who doesn’t see him as a prospect.

~dmacias

I’ve been roaming around
always looking down at all I see
painted faces fill the places I can’t reach.

You know that i could use somebody.
You know that i could use somebody,
someone like you.

And all you know and how you speak,
countless lovers undercover of the street.

You know that I could use somebody.
You know that I could use somebody,
someone like you.

Off in the night,
while you live it up, I’m off to sleep.
Waging war to shake the poet and the beat.

I hope it’s gonna make you notice.
I hope it’s gonna make you notice,
someone like me.
Someone like me.
Someone like me.

Go and let it out.
Someone like you.
Somebody.
Someone like you.
Somebody.
Someone like you.
Somebody.

I’ve been roaming around
always looking down at all I see.

by dmacias

Blue October Dirt Room Video

While I was in Dallas I heard a song I didn’t recognize, but I was sure it was Blue October. After some online searching, it turns out that it’s the first single called Dirt Room from their upcoming album. I highly recommend you check out the video, it’s pretty good and the end is good. You can check out here.

On a side note, I truly hope that Blue October gets the popularity it deserves. They are popular, but not as popular as I think they should be. Outside of Texas you rarely hear their stuff. Perhaps the fact that their lyrics are usually pretty dark is preventing them from turning to mega stars… so if that’s the case then I hope that doesn’t happen.

~david

by dmacias

Kings of Leon Rocking Columbus Oh

Kings of Leon Concert, Columbus OH

Last night KoL put on a great show. I had heard great things about their performance and I was not disappointed. It also didn’t hurt that the venue was within walking distance of home, so that was an added bonus not having to mess around with traffic. If they come to your town, check them out, you will love them!

~david

by dmacias

Snow Patrol – Set The Fire To The Third Bar

This song is amazing. The duet between Martha Wainwright and the lead singer from Snow Patrol is great. My favorite part is the first verse specially if you’ve ever had a long distance relationship and you long for that loved one.

~david

I find the map and draw a straight line
Over rivers, farms, and state lines
The distance from ‘A’ to where you’d be
It’s only finger-lengths that I see
I touch the place where I’d find your face
My finger in creases of distant dark places

I hang my coat up in the first bar
There is no peace that I’ve found so far
The laughter penetrates my silence
As drunken men find flaws in science

Their words mostly noises
Ghosts with just voices
Your words in my memory
Are like music to me

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms

After I have travelled so far
We’d set the fire to the third bar
We’d share each other like an island
Until exhausted, close our eyelids
And dreaming, pick up from
The last place we left off
Your soft skin is weeping
A joy you can’t keep in

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
And I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
and I, I pray that something picks me up
and sets me down in your warm arms

by dmacias

Ben Folds and Faux Songs

So, it seems that when recording his latest albums, Ben Folds, decided to record a second album with the same song titles, but fake songs and leak that on the p2p networks. While this does seem a bit funny, it really doesn’t have much point. Either way, it was interesting to hear some of the fake and real songs played right next to each other. All in all, Ben had a lot of energy and the concert had a pretty good vibe. Missy Higgins opened for him and she had a great voice and some good tunes… reminded me a bit of Fiona Apple.

Some pics from the show.

Ben Folds Rocking the Piano

Ben Folds Rocking the Piano

~dmacias