The Hits Just Keep On Coming

It's been about two weeks since Half-Cocked wrote an excellent short history of Nebraska indie rock, specifically the Omaha and Lincoln scenes, since those seem to have been hotbeds of great sound in recent years. Check out his post for some great inside perspective on how little bands get big and what's cool and new and coming to a heavy rotation playlist near you. To his post I would also add a mention of Elevator Ride, a friend of mine who was also part of the Omaha/Council Bluffs music scene in years past. Excellent stuff. And speaking of little bands that become big, I recently acquired “Give Up” by Postal Service as a wonderful gift from my bestest of friends. (She makes beautiful books—yes, every one unique and crafted lovingly by hand—that would make wonderful gifts for those smart and discerning peeps in your life.) I've been listening to it nonstop for the last couple of days and am enthralled. If you want to listen, too, get yourself an Audioscrobbler account, then login and visit my user page. Once you've added me as a friend (b/c you love me, I know you do), you can click on the “Personal” radio link on the top right of my user page and you'll start hearing streamed versions of songs in my recently-played list. I tried this at work the other day and it was awesome—like having my cd/mp3 collection w/me wherever there's a networked computer w/a web browser. I have no idea how they do this (the songs clearly don't stream from my own machine, so I don't know where they're coming from), but it's so cool I don't want to ask many questions for fear of messing it up. (Note: You do not have to add me as a friend to do this; you just have to get a free account, login, then visit my page. But now that you can hear everything I hear, don't you want to share with me what you hear? Yes? I thought so. Thank you!)

Posted 12:25 PM | Comments (2) | ai music

Birthday Podcast With Denise

The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices is a conversation about birthdays with Denise of Life, Law, Gender on her 50th birthday. As part of her celebration of this milestone, Denise talks about what birthdays mean to her, great gifts, favorite and not so favorite birthdays past, her favorite birthday drink (you'll love this one!), and a bit of advice from the perspective of a woman who has lived a very full life already. Happy birthday, Denise, and may you have many more great birthdays to come! Technotes: This podcast was recorded by phone via Slapcast.com—just call an 800-number, record a message, and publish the mp3 to the web! I added bumpers via Garageband and compressed the mp3 in iTunes. Special thanks to Luciano's Piano Bar for the MIDI piano version of “Happy Birthday” playing in the background. To subscribe to Ambivalent Voices in a podcast aggregator, add this link to your aggregator's subscription list. Or you can simply right-click here to download the file directly. (Clicking that link should open the mp3 in your browser, too.) As always, if you would like to join me for an edition of Ambivalent Voices, please drop me an email (via the “contact ai” link above right) and we'll set it up.

Posted 12:07 AM | Comments (3) | voices