blog.cleverswine.net » Music http://blog.cleverswine.net Kevin Noone Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:13:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 My Favorite Albums (Right Now) http://blog.cleverswine.net/2011/04/19/my-favorite-albums-right-now-3/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2011/04/19/my-favorite-albums-right-now-3/#comments Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:53:08 +0000 Kevin http://blog.cleverswine.net/?p=685 This is what I'm listening to...

The Record by FEAR

This is old school punk from the early 80s, when punk rock was a means of expression and rebellion.  This particular album is humorous and offensive, as punk should be.

Gothic Kabbalah by Therion

This isn't my favorite Therion album, but I've been listening to it a lot lately because of some catchy songs.  I find it good to write code to because it takes you to another world.

Soviet Kitsch by Regina Spektor

This is something that's generally outside of my musical tastes, but I like her quirky voice and odd lyrics.  She reminds me of a disturbed version of Tori Amos.

The Other Side of Time by Mary Fahl

I once claimed that Tarja has the greatest female voice, but I actually meant Mary Fahl.  This album is completely not my style of music (folk/new age/soft rock), but her voice is irresistible and addictive.

Mary Fahl

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2011/04/19/my-favorite-albums-right-now-3/feed/ 0 My Favorite Albums (Right Now) http://blog.cleverswine.net/2010/12/10/my-favorite-albums-right-now-2/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2010/12/10/my-favorite-albums-right-now-2/#comments Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:00:13 +0000 Kevin http://blog.cleverswine.net/?p=635 These are my favorite albums, in no particular order...

My Winter Storm by Tarja

Tarja used to sing with Nightwish, but has recently gone solo.  She has one of the greatest female voices that I've ever heard.

Beautiful Death by Bella Morte

This is still one of the best albums I've heard in the past 10 years or so.

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romace

I was pleasantly surprised by this new album from MCR.  I didn't think it would be possible to live up to The Black Parade, but they did.

Kein Schwein Ruft Mich An by Palast Orchester mit Max Raabe

This is some great 20s/30s era German music.  It's very upbeat and probably humorous (I don't understand German).

King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime by Faith No More

This is one of the most underrated, overlooked albums of the 90s.  This is Faith No More at their best, in my opinion.

The Order of the Reptile by Ego Likeness

I saw Ego Likeness when they opened up for The Cruxshadows.  It's some good, hard-hitting electronic/industrial/dance music.

Ego Likeness

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2010/12/10/my-favorite-albums-right-now-2/feed/ 0 My Favorite Albums (Right Now) http://blog.cleverswine.net/2010/03/17/my-favorite-albums-right-now/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2010/03/17/my-favorite-albums-right-now/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:09:56 +0000 Kevin http://blog.cleverswine.net/?p=621 These are the albums that I've been enjoying the most lately.

  1. Beautiful Death by Bella Morte
  2. Years of Refusal by Morrissey
  3. Walking with Strangers by The Birthday Massacre
  4. My Winter Storm by Tarja
  5. Oceanborn by Nightwish
  6. Banned in D.C. by Bad Brains

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2010/03/17/my-favorite-albums-right-now/feed/ 0 ID3 Tag Parsing http://blog.cleverswine.net/2009/03/25/id3-tag-parsing/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2009/03/25/id3-tag-parsing/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:29:26 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=544 I've been working on a project to read and update ID3 tags on my music collection. An ID3 tag is the meta data embedded in mp3 files that contains artist and other information. My initial goal is to batch update the "genre" field in my mp3 files. I've written a simple .Net forms application to do this. I found a really good library created by Novell called TagLib Sharp. The library makes it super easy to read and write ID3 tags.

TagLib.File tagFile = TagLib.File.Create(filePath);
Tag tagId3v2 = tagFile.GetTag(TagTypes.Id3v2);
if (tagId3v2 != null) tagId3v2.Genres = genreArray;
Tag tagId3v1 = tagFile.GetTag(TagTypes.Id3v1);
if (tagId3v1 != null) tagId3v1.Genres = genreArray;
tagFile.Save();

The UI is pretty lame, but it works...
tagger

tagger

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2009/03/25/id3-tag-parsing/feed/ 0 More Love for Last.fm http://blog.cleverswine.net/2009/02/25/more-love-for-lastfm/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2009/02/25/more-love-for-lastfm/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:07:12 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=529 It's been a while since I've written about music, so here I go. My latest purchase is the new Morrissey album, Years of Refusal. I really like it. I would even say it's one of his best solo albums to date. Sure, his voice has flattened out with age, but he makes up for it with his usual clever lyrics and well composed music from his band. This album is very rock n' roll and has some catchy tunes. On a related note, I was browsing through a Portland Monthly magazine yesterday and they had a column with local alternatives to national bands. Their suggestion for Morrissey fans was M. Ward. I'm familiar with the name, but I've never given him a listen. I think I will.

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2009/02/25/more-love-for-lastfm/feed/ 0 Multitasking Television http://blog.cleverswine.net/2008/04/12/multitasking-television/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2008/04/12/multitasking-television/#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:59:25 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=373 Now that I've had enough of the Perfect Day (sun is bad), I've migrated to the great indoors. There are at least 4 things I'd like to be doing while indoors: listening to music, looking at photos, browsing the web, and watching baseball. As it turns out, I'm doing all 4 at once! Check it out.

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2008/04/12/multitasking-television/feed/ 0 More Praise for Last.fm http://blog.cleverswine.net/2008/04/01/more-praise-for-lastfm/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2008/04/01/more-praise-for-lastfm/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:03:27 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=362 I'm generally disappointed with the state of the World Wide Web these days. The WWW used to be a simple communications tool to share information on a globally connected network. I'm not saying that it should have stayed that way, but I wish we had taken a more structured approach to innovation. I've written about this before, so I won't go into it again. My point for today is that Last.fm has done things right. It's the only modern web service that I use regularly, and it does exactly what it needs to do - nothing more and nothing less. I am sitting at work right now listening to "recommended" music, a lot of which I've never heard before. I have to say, there is a lot of good music out there, from the 50s to modern day. I have been "bookmarking" things that I like so I can look into purchasing them after a little more listening (Last.fm is not a free music download service).

So, if you're interested in music and have the time to listen to it, I'd suggest looking into Last.fm. It's free. I'm listening to the Dixie Chicks right now. I never even thought to give them the time of day, but I like what I hear.

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smiths

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moz

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2008/01/30/morrissey-for-obama/feed/ 0 Minor Threat Sauce http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/12/23/minor-threat-sauce/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/12/23/minor-threat-sauce/#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:33:27 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=282 I've just discovered a hot sauce named after one of my favorite 80s straight edge punk bands, Minor Threat. Pitchfork says it's so. It sounds delicious!

Made from a rare, mild breed of habaneros grown specifically for us, Minor Threat draws its inspiration from the legendary West Indies' mustard- and mango-based habanero sauces, only it mysteriously priviledges the pepper's fruitiness over its notoriously overwhelming heat.

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/12/23/minor-threat-sauce/feed/ 0 Morrissey – Irish Blood, English Heart http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/12/11/morrissey-irish-blood-english-heart/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/12/11/morrissey-irish-blood-english-heart/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:20:12 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=274 This is one of my favorite new Morrissey songs. It is fitting that part of my dad's family are Irish immigrants living in England.

Morrissey - Irish Blood, English Heart

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/12/11/morrissey-irish-blood-english-heart/feed/ 0 Morrissey vs. NME http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/11/28/morrissey-vs-nme/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/11/28/morrissey-vs-nme/#comments Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:13:46 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=258 In the newest issue of NME (a British magazine about new music), there is a cover story on Morrissey. Morrissey and NME have always been at odds, but it has generally been tame. This time, however, rather than just publishing the Morrissey interview as it was done, NME decided to add commentary that totally trashes the man. I've not read the article, titled "Has the World Changed, or Has He Changed?", as it's not readily available to me.

Here is the response from Morrissey's manager.
Here is the NME web site.

Moz NME

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Therion - Cult of the Shadow

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/09/22/therion-cult-of-the-shadow/feed/ 0 Album Quilt http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/09/19/album-quilt/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/09/19/album-quilt/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:58:18 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=240 If you look at my Music page, you'll see that I've added an "album quilt" from my last.fm account. It shows a collage of all the albums that I listen to most frequently. I think this is way cool, but you may not. If you're not familiar with last.fm, here's how it works: any time I listen to music, the song information is transmitted to my last.fm account. This way, I can get music recommendations based on what I listen to, I can have my own web radio station, I can show people what I listen to, etc. That's where the album listing on the right side of the page comes from.

Also, I enhanced my Morrissey page with an album quilt and public photos from Flickr tagged with Morrissey.

]]> http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/09/19/album-quilt/feed/ 0 Storm Photos and Video http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/08/19/storm-photos/ http://blog.cleverswine.net/2007/08/19/storm-photos/#comments Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:12:19 +0000 Kevin http://cleverswine.net/?p=227 The Storm and the Balls concert was good last night. We really like the opening band, Kleveland. Check out the photos here.

For those of you who have never seen Storm and the Balls perform, here is a video clip:
storm

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