Tapulous will be releasing a Nine Inch Nails licensed version of Tap Tap Revenge, one of the most popular iPhone games. It will consist of a NIN theme and over dozen songs from the past two albums. If anything can break me away from MotionX Poker, this would be it.
Cool behind the scenes video of the latest NIN stage show from MomentFactory, the company behind the interact elements of the show.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the Nine Inch Nails - Lights in the Sky tour is the best show I’ve ever seen. Walking out the show, the most common question was “How did they do that?”. Wired is now running a great article all about the technology used to create the show.
A strong line of thunderstorms moved through the area today which consisted of some impressive cloud formations. What really struck me was the rate at which the clouds were traveling. So a whipped out my point and shoot and captured some footage.
With the release of the Ghosts I-IV album a few months ago, Nine Inch Nails has been holding a film festival on YouTube. The idea being to take the tracks from Ghosts and apply imagery you feel fits the tracks best. And since the album was released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license, this is a legit use of the music.
I thought my cloud footage fit nicely with one of the Ghosts tracks, so this is my submission.
Last night I experienced my first Nine Inch Nails concert and what an experience it was. This is a band I’ve wanted to see perform live since high school, but just never did. Well last night more than made up for lost time.
Mr. Sykes and I traveled up to the IZOD Center (or the Brendan Byrne Arena as we old school Jersey folk remember it) in East Rutherford, NJ for the show. But to call it a “show” would be an understatement. It was more of an audio/visual juggernaut sending your auditory and visual senses into overload. There were signs posted around the arena warning that “Strobe lights are in use” when they should have said “your mind may explode”.
Being a long-time fan and this being my first time seeing NIN live, I was extremely happy with the setlist. Sure, they played the big standards “Closer”, “Head Like a Hole” and “Hurt” which are to be expected (and rocked). But they also played some great non-standard tracks off past albums. “The Big Comedown” off The Fragile was one of the best performances of the night. But the best? “Reptile”. Fucking Reptile. I can’t tell you how excited I was to see them perform this, and we were only 8 songs into the performance.
The first third of the show consisted mostly of a wall of synchronized lights and strobe lights for the visual effects, which in itself was amazing. Then three screens were lowered to stage level and basically encased the band. The front two being essentially a mesh LCD screen (not sure of the exact technology) allowing you to see the band behind them. These screens created the illusion of the band playing in the desert, a swamp, the rain and even a wall of static that gave the appearance of being controlled by Trent. Amazing stuff.
The musical performance was top notch. The band really seemed energized and hammered through each song flawlessly. Midway through the show they performed three tracks off the recently released instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV” with an electronic/acoustic twist involving an upright bass and Trent playing a xylophone. The songs were more down tempo then the rest of the set which provided a nice change of pace. But were back to rocking in overdrive with “Wish” in no time.
Overall I would have to say this is one of, if not the best show I have ever seen. It’s possible they’ll be playing in a city near you. So if you have the opportunity, go check them out. Even if your not a fan, it could turn you into one.
Unfortunately my little point and shoot was having a hard time capturing any of it so I didn’t really get any quality photos or videos. But I’m finding plenty of other people did, so I’ve included flickr slideshow below of shots others have gotten. You can also find plenty video goodness from the show on YouTube
I took the wife to see John Mayer at the Borgata in Atlantic City last night. While I did go into it hesitantly, I will admit it was a great show (Our great position in front of the stage didn’t hurt either). He’s a tremendous guitar player and when you take his studio albums combined with his live performances he reminds you very much of a modern day Clapton.
This past Friday (August 8th) I had the pleasure of attending the first day of the All Points Festival at Liberty State Park, NJ with the wife and Mr. Jon Sykes. I haven’t been to a festival (much less a concert for adults) in quite some time, so I was pretty excited to go. Of course that excitement level was cranked up a few notches since both Underworld and Radiohead were playing, back to back no less.
APW was being promoted as a sort of “green” festival. Attendees were encouraged to use mass transit and if you wanted to drive you had to obtain a special carpool permit. We had opted for the ferry route. But since we were coming for southern Jersey, our trip consisted of 1 hour car ride, 40 minute ferry ride and yet another 15 minute ferry ride. From what I’ve read by other attendees, the ferry was the way to go.
Aside from a couple 5 - 10 minute rain showers, the weather was perfect. The view great as well with both the Manhattan skyline and Lady Liberty in the background. Since it was a “Music and Arts” festival, there were various art installations and performances scattered around the grounds.
The festival itself was well organized, but there was one aspect that felt a bit too restrictive. In order to purchase alcohol you needed to get your special “over the age of 21” wristband. Your wristband had 5 tabs on it and that was your drink limit. Each time you purchased a drink a tab was removed. I actually thought that was a good idea and it seemed to work because I didn’t see anyone acting out of line all day. The downside was you weren’t allowed out of the designated drinking areas. Which I can sort of understand since they were probably trying to prevent you from passing out drinks to your underage friends. But the issue was the drinking areas were fenced in and the view of the view of the entire festival and performances were blocked by the fences. You started feeling like a second class citizen for drinking a beer.
We had opted for the more expensive VIP tickets which included access to air conditioned lounge, more beverage choices and special VIP viewing platform in front of the main stage. But apparently the VIP viewing platform access didn’t include Radiohead since everyone with the special VIP bracelets got kicked off after Underworld for the “real” VIPs with orange bracelets. While the walled off beer area irritated me, this angered me. What’s the point of buying “VIP” tickets if you get access to the VIP area for only select times?
Because of our (early) access to the VIP viewing platform, we stuck mostly to the main stage performances. The Go Team!, who I’ve never head of, were pretty awful. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by Michael Franti and Spearhead. They had a great sound and energy. Next was the New Pornographers. I had just gotten acquainted with their music before the festival, but their live performance blew away anything I had listened to previously.
I’ve never seen Underworld live but I’ve been a fan for quite some time. While I was super excited to see them, I was a little disappointed to find out their set would be during the daylight because of everything I’ve heard and seen about their light show. But guess what, it didn’t matter. Their sound was tremendous live and their visuals carried through despite the daylight.
Then there was Radiohead. As great as all the other performances were throughout the day, they all seemed like opening acts compared to Radiohead. Both their visuals and musical performance were spectacular. The setlist was comprised mostly of their In Rainbows material with interjections from their back catalog, which was perfect. The only downside was that I had to leave before the encore in order to make my second ferry home.
Overall I felt the festival was great (even if I only went the first day). It was well planned, not over crowded and the bands had decent set lengths. I’m hoping it does really become an annual event and based on the other reviews I’ve read, they should have no problem making that happen.
I’ve put together a flickr set of the photos and videos I took throughout the day. I didn’t get any of the Radiohead set because I was too enthralled with the performance to take out my camera. But my cohort Mr. Sykes got some great photos and videos of the performance.
Playing the Building is a fascinating project by David Byrne where he hooks up an old pump organ to the The Battery Maritime Building in New York. Various motors are attached to the different pipes, radiators and other metal structural elements of the building, each giving off a unique sound when the corresponding key on the organ is played. (via Greg O’Keeffe)
Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo
Now this is pretty awesome. It’s a remix of the song “Nude” by Radiohead using old malfunctioning electronic equipment.
I missed the live radiohead webcast that took place a couple days ago, but I’ve been able to catch up on some highlights via YouTube. The above clip is my favorite.
View more clips, including the entire webcast, here
One of my main sources of sanity when dealing with the daily grind is music. Music at home, in the car, and at work. Music listening at work (or while working at home) is usually performed through headphones. My headphones for the past couple years have been a moderate sounding pair of Sony earbuds. While sufficient, they always seemed rather lacking in terms of musical quality. And in a desire to regain some of my audiophile hay-day (pre bills & children), the search was on for a decent pair of headphones.
My search came down to two contenders. The Sennheiser HD280 Pro and the Sony MDR-V6. After reading endless online reviews of both headphones, I was able to aggregate the following Pros and Cons of each.
The Sennheiser HD280 Pros are said to have excellent and accurate sound quality. They excel at blocking outside sound without using noise canceling technology. I found three common complaints about the HD280 Pros. The first was that to achieve the excellent outside sound reduction, the headphones tend to press against your head tightly. Because of this, some people would report getting a headache after wearing them for an extended period of time. The second complaint was that they’re rather large. While this to completely subjective (some people love big bulky headphones) it was mostly expressed as a negative. The third was that the headphones need adequate power to perform properly. Portable devices such as mini-disc players (they still make these?) and iPods tend to be a bit underpowered for these headphones.
The Sony MDR-V6 benefits from being a tried and true studio headphone for the past 15 years or so. They have excellent sound reproduction and people say they tend to be a bit more bass heavy then the Sennheiser HD280 Pros. Which I prefer. They also have lower power requirements and work great with iPods. They’re also smaller and more portable. The only complaints I was able to find was that some people report of their ears getting too warm due to the ear pads. And that the ear pads seem to start falling apart after 7 or 8 years. Both complaints seem to be easily resolvable with these Beyerdynamic velour replacements.
It should be noted that while both had their common complaints, the amount of complaints of both of these were minimal. And the vast majority of reviewers praised their choice headphones. Although the Sony MDR-V6 seemed to get a bit more in the way of praise.
So I went with the Sony MDR-V6. For the added bass response people noted and the smaller form factor since I’ll be toting these to and from work. The main factor that turned me away from the HD280 Pros was the perception that they were a tight fit and the complaints of headaches from several reviewers. Being someone who is prone to headaches, this was something I wanted to avoid.
So far I’ve been extremely pleased with my purchase. The headphones sound crisp and clear and bring out a level of detail I haven’t heard in my music in quite some time. I find them very comfortable and haven’t experienced the “hot ears” that some people complain about. I’ve also read reports that they sound even better once they “burn in”, but I’m not sure if I buy into the whole “burn in” theory. Time will tell on that front.
Yup. Everyone on the internet is listening to Radiohead this week (at least according to last.fm). As well they should.
I turned the ripe old age of 31 last week, and in a moment a reflection I thought it would be fun to create a playlist. A playlist of songs and artists that have made me who I am over these past 31 years. I applied a couple rules when creating this list.
The songs are listed in rough chronological order. The order being the time in my life that either the song or artist played a significant role. Song placement in the list does not correspond to the year of my life. I couldn’t tell you what I was rocking out to at the age of two (Although I do recall rocking out to Disney’s “Mousercise” on my little Fisher-Price turntable around the age of 5 or 6. That and countless kids audiobook-type 45’s). It wasn’t easy narrowing down the plethora of song options down to 31, so song choice came down to three basic criteria, in the following order:
As to which songs fit which criteria, we’ll leave that part a mystery.
My original intention was to create an iTunes iMix out of this playlist, but it turns out the whole iMix feature kinda sucks. I can understand a song not being included if it’s not available for sale in the iTunes store, but songs I actually purchased on the iTunes store weren’t being included either. So I linked up whatever songs I could to Amazon’s rocking new MP3 downloads store.
If you’re interested in what I’m listening to nowadays, I suggest you check out my Last.fm profile. So without further ado…
In my previous post about the new Nine Inch Nails album I mentioned it was purchased using iTunes “craptastic pre-order mechanism”. Let me explain.
This was my first pre-order through the iTunes store. I did so since I was going to purchase the album anyway, and if you pre-ordered it you would receive a bonus track. Another advantage of pre-ordering was when you placed your order, the current single would automatically be downloaded. You would be charged 99 cents for the single, then charged the remainder when the album was available. So I figured why not.
I was notified via email when the album was available for download. Upon downloading the album I noticed something strange. Then entire album was being downloaded except for track 3. Which was the previously downloaded single. Not a huge deal, I could just update the ID3 tags of the file so it had the correct album name and more importantly, the correct track number. It’s current track number was 1 since it was the single that was previously downloaded. Updating the album name and track number would put it in the correct track listing order, or so you would think. No matter what I updated on the file, what should be track number 3 would always be listed last. And after searching Apple’s support forums, it turns out I wasn’t the only one.
But there was something else strange. iTunes has a feature where it places an arrow next the selected track, artist and album. Clicking this arrow takes you to that particular track on the iTunes store. At least it should. Clicking the arrow on these tracks produced the error “Year Zero will be available in the store on April, 16 2038”. So obviously something was wrong.
I sent an email to Apple support explaining the track listing issue. Which essentially boiled down to the following. You can sort by Track Number and everything is peachy. But if you sort by album, the previously downloaded track is placed at the bottom of the track listing. The iPod sorts only by album, so it would never be listed in the correct order on my iPod. Apple support promptly responded with a suggestion of creating a custom playlist to sort the tracks correctly. To which I responded that this was not an acceptable solution. That something was obviously wrong with the file and explained the date issue upon clicking the track arrow. Apple support then responded that something was indeed wrong with the files and apologized for the fact. I had expected them to just give me the ability to re-download the album, but they actually provided me with a refund for the album. I have to give them credit that they exceeded my expectations in resolving my issue. Will I pre-order an album again? No. First impressions are the most important. And while the support response was great, I still wouldn’t risk having the issue happen again. But I would by more tracks from the store, I’ve purchased plenty already. They just won’t be pre-ordered.
You’d think I would have just turned around and repurchased the album on iTunes. But no, I didn’t. With all the cool things I’ve heard about the packaging and the heat sensitive label, I went out to my local Target and purchased the CD. I then ripped it at a higher bit rate then what’s currently available on the iTunes store. And I have the freedom to put those tracks on any device I choose. I also have the ability to share this great album with friends who may not have discovered it on their own, <cya>not that I would do that of course</cya>. Maybe that EMI company is on to something.
I’ve been listening to this incessantly since it was first available as a full album stream on yearzero.nin.com. Quiet simply, awesome. It harkens back to earlier Nine Inch Nails albums with a return to a more industrial sound. It’s also refreshing change in that it’s not another “woe is me” melodrama. But a concept album about an apocalyptic future as a result of an oppressive government. And now that I’ve purchased it through iTunes’ craptastic pre-order mechanism (I’ll cover that later), my morning commutes are full of Year Zero goodness.