Jay-Z's New Album for only $3.99!!

It's Absolutely Epic

Clarkson makes some sweet music (and someone has too much time on their hands to put this together, but thank you anwyay).

Wedding Entrance

And I thought we were cool when Heidi walked down the aisle to Badly Drawn Boy. This one's on a different level (and once again my wife finds all the cool stuff on YouTube)

Roller Babies

Somehow my wife always finds the cool stuff on the web - this definitely gave me a big Friday grin...

Just thinkin......

Music Company's Suck

So I have an amazing wife who got me Sirius a few years ago as a birthday present, so I get to listen to Radio 1(BBC) on the way into work every morning. It makes me smile (lots). It also highlights (at least for me) how stupid music companies are these days, and how far they've fallen behind the rest of the world in globalization and customer service.

So, for the last two weeks, I've had Calvin Harris's "I'm not alone" song going around in my head. I love it, think it's perfect for the start of the summer, and lets me pretend for a brief minute that I'm in Ibiza, rather than Denver. I obviously wanted to buy it - searched Amazon (US), not there, not on iTunes either, or any of the other places I normally buy music. It's on the UK versions of these sites, but because I didn't log in from the right country, they won't take my money......

Now, I can listen to it 24/7 if I'm at my computer - Hype Machine has 50 million different remixes, and I can even post the official video on this site. But that doesn't help me when I need that extra bit of boost at the gym - I'm not taking a laptop and aircard with me everywhere I go just to hear music - that's overkill even for me.



So what did I end up doing? I called in a favor from my brother, got him to loan me the 79 pence until I can pay him back, he bought it in the UK, and then emailed it to me. How convoluted is that? I'm sure there's some random law that I've broken along the line as well, but I tried to do the right thing. Wouldn't it be easier if you could just buy records you like when you like them?

Speaking of Fave Sites

MTV just released every single music video online (and embeddable) in the whole world. Well, not really, but there looks to be loads and loads and loads. And it's not just the officially released stuff - there's live, and MTV Unplugged and everything. The only slightly disconcerting thing is Rich Astley appearing (currently anyway) in the most highly rated section. Guess it makes up for never actually playing music on the TV anymore (and making Spencer famous - that really was unforgivable).

To celebrate, watch/listen to one of the best live bands in the worldStereophonics, playing 'Dakota'. I knew this web thing would be useful and fun one day. It looks like that day has arrived. Today.

Stereophonics |MTV Music

Gangsta Rap - Geordie Stylie

Not really safe for work so you've been warned, unless you're wearing headphones. Thanks to (big) Neil for the link (ages and ages ago, but just getting to it now - I know I owe you an email or 6...)

Mix Tape Test

Mix Tapes are cool, and now you can build them on the web. I love this web thing - I think it's going to take off.... (and thanks to Fred's Blog I found this)

Merry Christmas Everyone

No promises this is my last post before the big day, but it just might be, so here's the best ever Christmas song to keep you going. Hope it's a great one for you all!

Ike Turner Dead

I think Perez summed it up best...

Spice Girls and Victorias Secret

Could this be a match made in heaven? Well, maybe for our household I guess. I confess I did actually go to the Spice Girls concert at Fiddlers Green all those years ago, and my wife has a bit of a thing for purchasing all of her clothes and shoes from VS catalogs, so maybe.

The Spice Girls announced that their new CD is going to be available only from VS shops and their site online for a couple of months before a more widespread release. Date is November 13th if you're counting down.

Britney Was Awful

I was really hoping she would be good, but she wasn't. At all.

Looked like she was spending all of her time remembering her dance steps (which she didn't quite manage despite all the concentrations), she lip synched (badly), and she looked like she ran off at the end. She did smile once, but that was it.

Sorry Britney, but you need to take some time off or something, and get yourself sorted out. It wasn't good.

And did I miss the actual fight between Tommy Lee and Kid Rock over Pamela Anderson, or was it cut out? I didn't see any of it, but I wasn't paying attention the whole time.

Top performers - Alicia Keys as always, and Justin and Timbaland - they just looked like they were having too much fun. Oh yeah, and Chris Brown with the 2 little kids - I'm going upstairs to practice my dancing now.

Pavarotti Dies

I guess the most famous of all opera singers (at least from where I'm sitting anyway) passed away last night after a battle with cancer.

I think he shot into the public eye in the UK when the BBC chose Nessen Dorma (sp?) for the World Cup theme tune one year (maybe 90 with Gazza etc?). Before that happened, I think you can count on one hand the number of Opera songs I had ever listened to, and there wasn't a single singer I could name.

This was followed up with various appearances with a number of different pop stars, and a bit of an upswelling in opera listening amongst the common man back home - The Three Tenors CD ended up in our house, along with a number of TV specials and the like.

Anyway, he's going to be missed - the BBC have a decent report up here.

Time Travel

If you're stuck in the 80's still, this might be the perfect dock for your iPod.....

Tony Wilson Dies

Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records and The Hacienda, and manager of New Order, Joy Division and The Happy Mondays died in hospital today after a long battle with cancer.

His obituary is here and of course, there's always 24 Hour Party People to watch.

Most Expensive Computer Speakers?

Despite the fact that these speakers from Bang and Olufsen are pretty damn gorgeous, and handle up to 250 watts of power, the price tag of $3200 is just ridiculous. Does anyone ever pay this sort of money for computer speakers? The fact that you could get yourself a very (very) well specc'd Mac or PC for the same amount of money must at least deter everyone except the stupidly rich.

Not saying I don't want a set if someone's going to buy them for me of course...

More details here if you're still interested.

This is just wrong

On so many different levels. I just don't want to talk about it. At least there's no visible tails.

Neil's Concert Photos - Keane

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Originally uploaded by Neil Stone.

Once again, Mr Stone comes up trumps with the latest in his concert series - this time Keane playing the Ogden (one of the cool smaller concert venues here in Denver).

I'm still recovering from The Fratellis being cancelled (and my usual default of "I'll probably be out of town so no point in getting tickets), but that's all going to change in a few weeks, with both Joss Stone and The Police within a couple of weeks of each other (both incidently in venues I hate for concerts - The Fillmore and Pepsi Center). However, it looks like we're also going to be hitting Red Rocks later in the summer for an Oakenfold and Underworld double header (Mr Kirkwood, you should pop over for a night or two...). Should be great.

Wedding Season is Almost Upon Us

This summer is going to be a bit of an epic, now that last years engagements are coming to their natural fruition. Not only are the weddings going to make for some great weekends, there's always the trips to Vegas, or Pub Crawls (I'm sure literally) along Colfax to test the liver performance (not to mention the influx of friends from various continents to join in the celebrations).

So first up is Neil and Lauren (June though, so still a bit of time to try and get the belly small enough to fit into the suit), so in honor of their unusual obsession with music (and because I know they're the other readers apart from my immediate family), I've dedicated the following to them.

Music Stuff

So I just wrote a huge post, and managed to lose it coz I'm a bit of an arse sometimes, and I was trying to get this out in the middle of doing 300 other things. So, this is going to be a lot quicker, less blabbering, and direct to the point.

If you like music, check out The Hype Machine and Last.fm. There, that was easy, and saves you listening to my bollox.

Baby Scary Spice Born

Scary Spice had her baby earlier this morning over in Santa Monica - to be honest, I didn't even know she lived over here - I presumed after her split with the equally scary Eddie Murphy, she slinked off back to London or something. Anyway, in the wake of no new news about who's the father of Anna Nicole's baby, this one may take the place - Scary (or Melanie to her mother) claims it's definitely Eddie's, but Eddie isn't quite so sure. I thought he was gay anyway - wasn't that the rumour that went around a year or two ago?

'Scary' Spice has baby; has said it's Murphy's - CNN.com

Music, Music, Music

So somehow I got the new music bug at some point after playing Coldplay so much it turned into my "guaranteed to fall asleep within 5 minutes on the plane" playlist. I think it's probably got a bit to do with the Arctic Monkeys, coz it seemed like I had gone a while without hearing anything really good from a new band in years (I just put it down to old age at the time).

Anyway, I've probably been hitting iTunes pretty hard in the months since Christmas, and (one of) last weeks purchases was Amy Winehouse. I can't even remember where I heard her first, but she's got a pretty distinctive voice. Anyway, Fred seems to like her too, and kindly posted a link to her hitting Jools Holland's program with none other than Mr Paul Weller (who I just happened to have been playing all afternoon). Thought I may as well pass on the pleasure, so here you go.

The Brits Winners

The Brit's is sort of the UK equivalent of the Grammies I guess, without so many crap categories, and a bit more voting from the public to decide who actually wins. I'm not sure exactly why they would want to hold it on Valentines Day, but there you go. Now I just need to work out who Amy Winehouse and Orson are, and whether they're actually any good - where's Neil when you need him...

(And in case you haven't heard, The Fratellis are bloody great)

Anyway, the list of winners are....

* British Male Solo Artist James Morrison
* British Female Solo Artist Amy Winehouse
* British Group Arctic Monkeys
* MasterCard British Album Arctic Monkeys
"Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not"
* British Single Take That "Patience"
* British Breakthrough Act Fratellis
* British Live Act Muse
* International Male Solo Artist Justin Timberlake
* International Female Solo Artist Nelly Furtado
* International Group The Killers
* International Album Killers "Sam's Town"
* International Breakthrough Act Orson
* Outstanding Contribution to Music Oasis

Police Reunite!

News here - if the reunion concert tour is true, and they can be arsed to play Denver, (wouldn't Red Rocks be cool) I'm breaking my self imposed concert ban