Tuesday Guilty Pleasure: iPod Commercials

Apple iPods have always been the "cool" kids on the block. Hell, Apple itself is the epitome of "hey look, I'm a cool, artsy, creative 20-something on the cutting edge." I don't say that in an insulting way: I'm typing this on a MacBook while my iPod plays Van Morrison through my stereo.

Anyway, to keep with their trendy image, they pick not-quite-mainstream songs for their commercials that always get stuck in my head until I'm finally forced to Google "iPod commercial song" to find out what it is.

Some past examples: The Fratellis "Flathead," Feist "1234," The Ting Tings "Shut Up and Let Me Go," and Caesars "Jerk it Out."

The latest commercial song has gotten lodged in my brain tighter than any other. Maybe because the commercial is just so happy with people dancing around and singing. And maybe because it's just a friggin' catchy song. Either way, I finally broke down and looked it up on my cell phone Saturday while having lunch and found out that it is a song called "Bourgeois Shangri-La" (say that three times fast...) by Miss Li. I also found out that my Blackberry can download music, but that's another matter.

Anyway, here for your listening pleasure is the FULL song. Of course, you can always click here if you want to see the happy people dancing in the video.

Audio Advancements

What's up, folks?

Over Thanksgiving break, I got an unexpected early Christmas present.

Let me explain two of my uncles to you. Terry is a music purist. He has stacks of albums he's collected over the years and a decent CD collection. But he essentially hasn't listened to any new music since 1980.

Jeff, on the other hand, buys more new music than I do. At one point he had a room in his house that had a CD shelf unit installed into the wall. So while we were visiting at Jeff's house, Terry asked Jeff where all his CDs were.

"I sold most of them," said Jeff. He has put almost all of his music on his computer and relies on an iPod to play music on his stereo system.

In fact," he said, "I have a 101-CD player just sitting in there if anyone wants it." I jumped on it. It's now sitting in my living room with my brand-new stereo receiver and turntable that I bought right before I moved in.

But what Jeff said made me think. Even though all my music is also on my computer, I couldn't imagine selling all my CDs. Terry is the same way, which is why both our jaws dropped when Jeff said he sold them.

Earlier this week, I read this article about the slow death of CDs.

Maybe it's just me being "old school," but it's really important for me to get something tangible when I buy music. I like the jewel cases, or the vinyl. I like having a CD rack that showcases my collection. It's just not the same to look at an iTunes library.

I have done my share of downloading, but that was only when I was a broke college student (I'm not much better now...) and literally couldn't afford to buy full CDs that I wanted.

I would never opt to buy an MP3 album (like they sell on Amazon or iTunes) over getting the actual thing. I love buying the CD, unwrapping it in the car and throwing it in the stereo as I drive home.

CDs will eventually be replaced, as the article above said. But I just hope that it's not replaced by something like MP3s or little chips that stream albums.

Don't take away my CDs or my vinyl. If you do, I'll be just like Uncle Terry: refusing to listen to any new music and reminiscing about the days when an album really meant something.

Fighting the Man, Pt. 2.

Now that I'm back home, I had a chance to look back through my e-mail to make sure that I was given permission to use the track that I posted on the blog. Here is an excerpt of the e-mail from Vanguard Records:

"I wanted to make sure you got an mp3- “My Old Man”- from the band’s upcoming record (The Bear, out September 8). Feel free to share with your readers as a free download if you’d like"

Which is exactly what I did. She did not say that I had to take it down by a certain time or anything like that. The link is actually dead now, but I must assume that was done by MediaFire because of this claim.

This is probably going to be a really slow process. I have to mail stuff in and all kinds of crap, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Fighting the Man

So apparently this blog has gotten big enough for me to get cracked down on by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for supposed "copyright infringement for a post I did a couple months ago about Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.

I did a simple album review and used the photo and MP3 that the record company contact sent me in the post. It's one of the few posts that I did completely by the book.

So they took the post down because it violates the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Bull.

I did nothing but sing the band's praises and posted one song so that my readers could sample the music and I encouraged them to go out and buy the album. And let me reiterate: the record company sent me the MP3 file and said "use this."

So I'm going to fight it. I'll go through the bureaucratic crap. YouTube has already pissed me off enough with how many times they've taken my videos down. I'm tired of record companies getting all high and mighty about copyright infringement that is doing nothing but promoting these bands and records.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[Review] Sarah Jarosz -- "Song Up In Her Head."

I've been meaning to talk about this CD for a while, but it got mixed up in the craziness over the last few months.

The same folks that sent me the Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers album a few months ago included this gem of a bluegrass album by Sarah Jarosz.

I've always had a soft spot for female artists with a bit of a twang (see Alison Krauss...the Taylor Swift thing is something else entirely). But Sarah Jarosz puts together some of the most beautiful bluegrass tracks I've heard in a while in her debut album "Song Up In Her Head" (Sugar Hill).

Jarosz is only 18, but she has a powerful voice that is well beyond her years. Even more impressive is that the Austin-born singer is a multi-instrumentalist. She is credited for playing guitar, mandolin, clawhammer banjo and piano.

She is also a masterful songwriter, writing all the songs on the album except for two covers. Jarosz has a lot of potential and I can't see where she goes from here.

The opening title track is a dark, brooding song that begins "The Virgin Mary/All Dressed in blue/ Sings "My First Lover"/ For an audience of two." The second track, "Edge of a Dream," softens things a little, allowing Jarosz to flaunt her vocal ability in this banjo driven ballad.

The highlight by far for me was the haunting -- and I mean haunting -- version of The Decembrists' "Shankill Butchers." I already loved this song, but Jarosz version is shockingly powerful.

I see big things ahead for this young girl.

Download: Sarah Jarosz - "Edge of a Dream."

Why I have no faith in T.J. Yates

This may seem like a strange thing to post after UNC just upset Miami, but stick with me. The Tar Heels have an amazing defense and they are the only reason we win these games. Two of the touchdowns were on interception returns.

The running game is also very impressive: Ryan Houston played great today without Shaun Draughn to help out. Receivers have also gotten involved in the running game, which has been very productive.

But the quarterback, T.J. Yates, is mediocre at best. Yates will never win a game for the Tar Heels, he will only lose them. Best case scenario: he does just enough not to screw it up for Carolina.

I've spent many Saturday afternoons complaining about the awful throws Yates throws, so today I decided to keep track. I kept a list of all the bad throws Yates made today. I wasn't overly critical. If the receiver had a legitimate chance at the ball, I gave Yates the benefit.

Here's what I found. Yates threw 10 awful passes. That doesn't sound like a whole lot, but here is the key: six of those were on third down.

The key to an offense is ball control and how they convert on third downs. With a run-based offense like UNC's, you will get into third-and-mediums or third-and-longs fairly often. Yates showed over and over again that he cannot consistently make the throw to get the first down.

In most of those third downs, the receiver was either past the first down or very close to it. In the first three series, Yates overthrew one receiver, underthrew another and threw one behind a reciever on third down to force punts.

In one series, Yates overthrew his buddy Zack Pianalto twice, on second and third downs inside the 10 yard line.

In the third quarter, Yates underthrew a receiver on second down and overthrew a receiver on third down in the same series.

He did have a pretty good day today. He threw for 213 yards and no interceptions. But he completed just barely over 50 percent of his passes. And when it comes down to it, I don't want the ball in his hands if we have to make a last second drive.

Yates isn't an awful quarterback, but he's not a good quarterback. He's mediocre at best and you need better than that if you want to become a top-notch football program.

Please don't stop the music

I'm really trying to figure out how to get back into finding and writing about new music. It's been way too long since I've felt like I really have my fingers on the pulse of the music world.

I used to spend hours scrolling down local and national music blogs and Web sites, storing away free mp3s like I was going into sonic hibernation.

But lately, with a 40+ hour work week and my mind on sports all the time, I've really fallen off. The most exposure I get to music anymore is the Top 40 station that I switch to whenever sports talk radio goes to commercial in my car.

I set up a rockin' Google Reader with all my sports, music and random blogs with the hopes that it will make me more likely to read through and keep up with them. It's even something I can check when I have some downtime at work (which is very rare).

Anyway, I guess the whole idea of this post was to ask you guys where you get your music knowledge. If you have any good blogs that I should read or artists/bands/records that I need to check out immediately, please let me know. I'm trying to dive back in, but I need someone to show me where the pool is.

I do have one album that I have yet to review because I feel like I haven't given it a good enough listen, but it seems pretty good. I'll give you a little teaser: it's a pop-opera (popera?) about college life. Sound stupid? I thought so, too. I've been pleasantly surprised.

I still care about this blog and I'll keep it rocking, don't you worry. Just trying to figure out how to fit it in to my life right now. I know I keep saying that. You should be concerned when I stop saying that.