It’s awful when you can’t find your sweater.

…I thought I’d share some geek news that I’m jazzed up about (in bullet form):

• NBC has FINALLY announced a release date for Season 3 of Chuck. EW reports that Secret Agent Bartowski will be back on the small screen on January 10th. If you’ve never checked it out, you should. It’s a great, light-hearted spy drama / love story. I know…it doesn’t sound good, but it is. Trust me.

• It’s almost the end of the year, which means it’s time for my annual year end music list. This year, through the wonders of eMusic, I’ve been exposed to more good music than any year in recent memory. Be on the lookout for my Top 20 Albums of the Year posts in the weeks to come.

• Since we’re also coming up on the end of the decade, I’ll be writing about some of my favorite music of the 00’s in a series of posts. Music fans, I know you’ll be waiting with bated breath. Or baited breath or however you spell it.

• And here’s the best news of all: LOST has a return date of Feb. 2. That’s a Tuesday for those of you keeping score. With American Idol and LOST, Tuesday just became Must-See-TV Night at the Bybee household.
  

  LOST Season 6

  Have you noticed that Locke has his back turned? What is that all about? And how about all the old favorites that are represented? Pretty cool.

So I am releasing my new single, “Rock Your Body” online. I am working on a new full CD, but I wanted to drop some sneek releases, so I am doing an online single with “Rock Your Body.” I decided to use CDbaby.com and do just a digital release. This is a pretty slick setup they have. All you have to do is send them 1 CD and artwork and they will digitize your music and art and make it available to a huge number of online dowload sites…iTunes, Rhapsody, Emusic are just the tip of the iceberg. They also make your songs for sale on their site, which generates quite a bit of traffic. I was able to release the single for a total of $55…. $35 for the sign up fee and $20 for a barcode for the project. I just mailed the CD Monday…so it will be a little bit before the song is up online, but I have always been pleased with CDbaby. They send out royalty checks promptly and they really do get your music out and heard on the net. I spent $55 for 1 song, but that amount could apply to getting your whole CD worldwide digital distribution….gotta love technology. Now go look for “Chad Sharp” online and buy some damn music!

Robert Pollard and GBV is prolific. Some (everyone?) would argue too prolific and of a lot of his output has long been available on emusic. Missing until now was what I would think of as his acme of releases, Do The Collapse and the accomponating ep, Hold On Hope.

One late evening I was looking up liverpool bands (post Mersey beat) and came across a series of unreleased (and under-released) anthologies called Unearthed Liverpool Cult Classics. Only Volume 3 showed up on emusic but I found the other two on iTunes. There are some incredible gems there. “Precious Love” by The Onset is one of them. The Onset was a  short lived band started by Mike Badger after leaving the La’s and before releasing music under his own name.

You can get our bubbling, menacing remix of “Pissing About” by worriedaboutsatan on their Arrivals Remixed album on CD, but only from their gig and only limited copies. Or you can download the record from Emusic (other services coming soon, including Spotify).

In a previous blog I mentioned that Carrie Brownstein was my favourite part of  NPR’s roundtables. On that show she gave props to The Equal’s “Hold Me Closer”, a group that I was familiar with but a song that I wasn’t. I don’t know how I would have missed this, it is the exact sort of song I seeked as a kid.

And since I was there, another song from Eddy Grant’s first group.

… I agree. Still, here’s some of the places where you can get my album ‘The Anger’. (Just a bit of a reservation; I have not compiled this list, just stolen the picture from digital distributor, some of the places below may not have my album… their loss!)

*Sjugge is Jurgen Verhasselt. You can find him here.

Camera Obscura has a new 7″ single due December 7th but the A side, “The Blizzard” has already been released as a download including emusic.

The Blizzard

The new Arctic Monkeys EP is up now on emusic but if you’re in Canada you better grab it fast, Arctic Monkeys downloads disappear fast from the site. This release is worth the download, it’s on the Monkey’s melodic side that I much prefer to the thrash.

The last post brought me here:

This would be the segue:

As is custom mid-month, I get the priviledge to download some new music. This month I downloaded the following:

(click the picture to discover more)

Explosions In The Sky, All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone

Explosions In The Sky, How Strange, Innocence

Explosions In The Sky, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

all downloads provided by

Speaking of Scottish pop and B sides, Camera Obscura has released “Sweetest Thing” coupled with a cover of Bruce Sprinsteen’s “Tougher Than The Rest” (and this one is on emusic).

Today’s pick is from Stuart Murdoch’s side project, God Help The Girl. The album is available on emusic as well as a couple of singles and their B sides. Unfortunately, the single for “Come Monday Night” and my fave B side, the talk song, “Howard Jones Is My Mozart” isn’t available on emusic.

God Help The Girl

The latest All Songs Considered Podcast is another roundtable discussion (The Decade Defined) and my favourite contributer is easily Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater Kinney fame). Hence the Sleater-Kinney video.

And a more vintage piece.

Os Mutantes is one of those bands that I reada bout often over the years but seldom heard. Their best of has been on emusic for a couple years now, but I didn’t get around to downloading it until a couple of months back. I still can’t say I’ve listened to it much, but “Baby” is often spinning in iTunes.

Os Mutantes

I don’t think it’s possible to describe a laser light show to someone who has never seen one, but I’m going to try anyway.

Saturday night was the first time I’d gone to a concert where I had no idea who the headliners were or even really their genre. I didn’t pay for the ticket, which is a plus, but it would have been worth it even if I had. I was a little bored waiting for the show to start, but there was a DJ and it was a woman, which was cool to experience.

For …various reasons, I was pretty apprehensive once the show was about to start. We were right in the middle of the crowd, and I was terrified that the scene was going to turn into a mosh pit and we were going to get trompled and stepped on, and I was going to get sick and hot and miserable. My friends said, “it’s not that kind of show.”

Then the music started, and it became a little more clear that the crowd wasn’t going to be such a problem… but was the music going to be too loud? I was a little afraid that it was going to be a little too intense. My friends didn’t say anything– they were pretty wrapped up in the show, being the ones who actually knew what they were hearing.

Then… the laser light show started. My breath caught momentarily and I got nervous about getting sick again, but then it was too cool to miss by being sick, so I decided not to be sick, and instead to immensely enjoy this new experience.

Ghostland Observatory played for maybe an hour and a half, and it was the fastest hour and a half concert I think I’ve ever been to. I don’t remember being at a concert where I liked the music less, but wanted it to go on more.

It’s not my favorite genre, I must admit. It’s sort of electronica/rock/experimental, which I generally have very little patience with. I’m not sure whether the light show is what made it amazing, or just my state of mind, or what. I got home and tried to listen to the band on eMusic, and I could barely get through one song.

I don’t care. From now on, I have a resolution to broaden my horizons, even if it pegs me as a hipster (which, actually, I take a forbidden pleasure in–and I think that means I don’t really stand a chance of being a hipster anyway).

Sedan ett par år finns ett utmärkt komplement till vinyl och cd – legal nedladdning. Tjänster som eMusic och iTunes har enorma musikbibliotek och handla musik på webben har aldrig varit enklare. Nu finns dessutom en skivbutik där du köpa plattorna i mp3-format innan de officiellt släppts.

Utöver de kända legala nedladdningssajterna har ett antal skivbolag butiker kopplade till sina webbplatser. VP Records är ett sådant skivbolag.

Genom deras Planet Reggae Webstore kan du handla reggae från både Greensleeves och VP och det är lika enkelt som från exempelvis Amazon och eMusic.

Det finns dock några väsentliga skillnader mellan Planet Reggae Webstore och andra legala nedladdningssajter jag testat.

Till det sämre hör nedladdningshastigheten. Sajten är löjligt långsam, och det känns som att sitta uppkopplad med ett gamalt hederligt telefonmodem. Att ladda ner en fullängdare tar omkring 60 minuter. Ja, du läste rätt. En timme för cirka en timmes musik.

Men det positiva överväger det negativa om du inte råkar ha bråttom. För genom Planet Reggae Webstore kan du köpa plattor flera veckor innan de officiellt släppts. Jag köpte exempelvis Jah Shaka Presents the Positive Message, Black Sounds of Freedom Deluxe Edition och Joe Gibbs 12” Reggae Discomix Showcase Vol.1 två veckor innan de släppts på de vanliga sajterna.

En ytterligare fördel med VP Records egen skivbutik är priserna. De är cirka 20 procent lägre jämfört med exempelvis iTunes och Amazon.

Är du som jag för otålig för att vänta på cd-utgåvan, nöjer dig med mp3-versioner och har småländskt påbrå? I så fall är Planet Reggae Webstore något för dig.

Viral video seems to be the best way to promote yourself these days. This one is for Lulu and the Lampshades “You’re gonna Miss Me”. So far there only seems to be one single (available on emusic) released by the band, but that’s no reason the video can’t rack up the hits.

Lulu and the Lampshades

Just posted on emusic is the new King Khan & BBQ Show album, Invisible Girl.

King Khan & BBQ Show

Best Buy on Tuesday is expected to announce its own movie download service for consumer electronics sold in its stores.

Though it doesn’t have a name yet–and probably won’t until next week at the earliest–Best Buy says the service will be up and running sometime in the fourth quarter, which could mean anytime between now and the end of the year. The retailer is licensing the software and infrastructure from Sonic Solutions’ Roxio CinemaNow service, which has more than 20,000 film titles, mostly new releases, available via its on-demand service.

The software will be available on Best Buy’s Insignia brand of TVs and Blu-ray players, but the retailer is talking to other, bigger name consumer electronics makers about also including the service on its devices.

“We want to make sure it’s difficult to walk out of a Best Buy store without a device that has our movie technology embedded on it,” said Ryan Pirozzi, director of digital video for Best Buy.

CinemaNow content is already available on a variety of devices, and is capable of playback on Mac, PC, and Android platforms, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell laptops as well as LG Blu-ray players. But Best Buy wants more so that it can sell the idea that when you rent or buy a movie through this service, you’d be able to transfer the content to any other device you buy in the store.

It’s part of Best Buy’s strategy to not just sell hardware to customers, which have increasingly small profit margins, but services that get them online and connected to a variety of entertainment sources after they’ve taken the device home.

It’s the same strategy that led the retailer to purchase the music service Napster, as well as partner with Blockbuster and Netflix. When asked if the yet-to-be-named movie download service would negatively affect its current tie-ups with Blockbuster or Netflix, Pirozzi said it’s all about giving consumers a choice.

“We own the Napster brand, but we still carry iTunes and eMusic,” he said. “The way we do that for music, we’ll do the same with video.”

There’s also an advantage of having devices with CinemaNow in combination with Blockbuster OnDemand or Netflix Watch Instantly–CinemaNow is almost all new releases, while the other two have some older catalog selections. And they’re different: movies rented with CinemaNow don’t require a subscription; titles can be purchased or rented a la carte.

Best Buy also plans to eventually expand the service to include TV shows.

From CNET.com

Lanciato in UK e denominato Music For Life ha queste caratteristiche:

- più di 6 milioni di brani in catalogo
- DRM free
- 4 abbonamenti mensili disponibili: da 9,99£ (24 download) a 24,99£ (75 download)
- l’iscrizione da diritto a due settimane e 50 download gratuiti

Another of the great unappreciated bands, The Close Lobsters has a new collection that just went up on emusic. Plenty of old songs that are new to me. Please check them out.

I am constantly touting the merits of subscription music site eMusic. Looks like I’m not the only one.

Music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes music store’s cheaper, cooler cousin.– Rolling Stone

Now you can check it out for yourself. Click here and sign up for a free 7 day trial at eMusic. As a result, you’ll get 25 free downloads. If you decide not to subscribe, you still keep the downloads. It’s that simple. If you’re a music fan, there’s no reason not to check out this great deal.

top 10 sites de músicas

Os países desenvolvidos não dão mole para crimes, mesmo sendo relacionado a downloads pela internet. O Kazaa, o Napster, Pirate Day, todos deram a volta por cima e continuam a toda, agora a moda deixou de ser o download ilegal,entrando em seu lugar o streaming online, como o Youtube, onde o usuário pode usar mas não pode baixar, evidentemente, você já deve conhecer os programas conversores do Youtube, no caso dos Streaming, ainda não chegamos a esse ponto, mas não vai demorar muito não.

A seguir os dez sites de música legais, sendo que alguns oferecem a possibilidade de baixar músicas grátis, de forma legal, sem pagar nada.

emusic – Cobra 11.99 dólares, ao mês, permitindo baixar até vinte e quatro músicas durante esse mês. Para quem ainda não é usuário, o site oferece trinta e cinco canções gratuítas, para conhecer o site.

www.emusic.com

KaZaa – Este site cobra 19,98 dólares por mês, não possui limites para downloads. Possui mais de um milhão de músicas para downloads. Para baixar músicas, é necessário baixar um programa parabaixar as músicas em seguida.

www.kazaa.com

Rhapsody – Ao preço de 12,99 dólares, o site possui mais de sei milhões de músicas para downloads.

www.rhapsody.com

Napster – Cobra cinco dólares por mês, para ter acesso a sete milhões de músicas, podendo baixar músicas durante cinco meses.

www.napster.com

Streaming Free – A seguir os sites gratuíto, onde o usuário pode ouvir, transmitir a música, mas não pode baixar, pelo menos até algum hacker descobrir um programa para quebrar a proteção, como foi feito com o Yuutube.

Pandora Permite aos usuários criar páginas com a música ou artista que ele gosta, criando suas rádios particulares.

www.pandora.com

Myspace Music – Apesar de não ser tão popular por aqui, como o Orkut e o Youtube, da Google, continua sendo um site muito popular, usado pelos artistas, principlamente, para divulgar músicas, lançamentos de músicas novas, ou lançamentos dos próprios artistas iniciantes. Alguns preferem o Mysapace às próprias rádios convencionais.

http://br.myspace.com

Social Music – Combina rede social com tendência comercial, como mixtape, DJ.

Blip.fm – Assim como a Twitter, oferece serviço de micro-blogging, com a possibilidade de apresentar músicas, para alegrar seus seguidores.

http://blip.fm

Imeem – Uma rede social onde os usuários criam listas de músicas para seus amigos, através de streaming online.

www.imeem.com

The Hype Machine – Um novo serviço, onde os usuários podem enviar músicas através de feed.

http://hipem.com

The Pirate Bay – Depois de serem condenados pela justiça, os autores voltaram prometendo ontinuar de forma lega, como os outros sites. Sites legais permitem ouvir, transmitir, indicar para os amigos, mas não baixar. Até que algum Hacker prove o contrário.

http://thepiratebay.org

By Jânio.