I figured I'd post a small rant about the state of music today. I want to start by rewinding back to the 80's when we had audio tapes, music request lines and MTV, you know the one that played music on TV. It was a good time, some music was bad, some was great, but there was always a community of sharing. Friends would mix tapes, I'd make my own from the radio. I'd learn about new music from late night MTV shows. Before we had this, we had records. Those big flat pieces of plastic your parents have in the basement. Which contained random simon and garfunkel, but most certainly had one of these artists: Pink Floyd, Santana, Chicago, Boston, Led Zeppelin...yeah it's how it was done back then. Ok Fast forward to the 90's. We stopped making records long ago. Tapes are almost non-existent now. CD's are becoming king. We have music on the same silver disc. Sometimes we get interesting cover art. But for the most part, same plastic case, same silver disc. And we enjoyed it since we had new crazy digital stereos. Some people in the back though weren't very happy with it all. They didn't like what we had done. A couple of labels still thought they had a good thing going with records and kept making them. Once in a while I'd get one. Only because I liked the fact they had large packaging, and colorful medium (colored vinyl exists, they aren't all black). It had been almost 20 years since any of us had put on huge headphones, sat in a bean bag chair, and just rocked out to a record. No one remembered what it was like, what it sounded like, what it felt like. We had become accustomed to wipe ear buds and 256kps bit rates. We're in the 2000's now. That small group if fans in the back has grown. They were angry then, they are outraged now. With the industry dissolution caused by the RIAA lawsuits, record labels went from the place to get great music to the enemy. Indie record labels began to flourish, and you know who worked at these labels? Those people in the back of the room who knew better. Who knew, the true essence of music lied within a piece of pressed vinyl. I have only collected vinyl records for about a decade, But I think it all started when I was younger and my family put headphones on me while i listened to rock records in chicago. I am seeing many new artists releasing on vinyl these days instead of CDs. Sure digital downloads are still available, but the physical media in which people love, is shifting back to the true medium. Vinyl.

So kick back, make some popcorn and put out that 45, put on a record and just close your eyes.

Labels: mp3, music, vinyl

First I'm going to discuss something very near and dear to my heart. It's a fruit that most Americans don't know about. Mainly because it grows on a weed like cactus in Vietnam and it's squishy like a kiwi so transporting it is difficult. For years now, I could not locate a Dragon Fruit to save my life. I saw some random drinks made from it. For a long while I grew it in my window sill, yearning for the year to come when it could bear fruit. Alas, I over watered it or something and it died as many cactus do. So, my dream, after years of botany, were dashed upon the rocks of failure like many an explorer in times past. So, to my amusement, whilst searching for cauliflower in the vegetable isle at Safeway, but what do I see? Why, it is the purple white whale I sought for half a decade! Not a questions was asked, so I bought it, took it home and gazed at the wonder that is the white Dragon fruit. There is a red version, which is pretty much the same, but has a red inner fruit. So I sliced it up and it tasted like crap. Flavorless, strange texture. It is about one of the worst fruits I've ever had. I've had some really bland pears and what not. But this was pretty bad. The seeds were ok, but I don't advise anyone to take up this fruit. I mean it comes from a cactus. There is a reason you don't see prickly pears all over all the fruit aisle, because they are only good as a jelly. So to you Dragon fruit. I say FAIL.




On a lighter note, my new Detektivbyrån CD, Wermland, arrived all goldy goodness with signatures! I will be taking it in this evening to see what the accordion and xylophone wunderkinds have done. This cd is pretty much the most gold I've ever seen in one place. BLORNG BLORNG (That's swedish for BLING). You can get some more information about the band from Last.Fm or from the MySpace page directly. Long story short, they are a post-rock band? nope...not another Sigur Ros I assure you. Basically, it is three guys who know how to play xylophone, accordion and also has some keyboard music in there to. If i were put some META DATA on the music I would use words like, soft, ethereal, fun, uplifting, happy. It's all without vocals so you can really just focus on the talent of these guys. It's really not revolutionary, but it's something that needed to be done. This music will just make you happy. Period. Since I'm a geek, here is the unboxing pictures. YAY LIMITED ADITTIONDASDASD!!!

Labels: Detektivbyrån, music, sweden, Wermland