Pandora

What kind of music geek would I be if I didn't love Pandora? I love that site so effing much and I've been listening to it since my sophomore year of college (not all that long ago, but still). The problem is: I also love scrobbling my music through last.fm so I can show the whole world what I've been listening to. There used to be a Firefox addon that allowed users to scrobble Pandora tunes, but it got increasingly faulty and stopped working altogether in 2007. I've been hoping that a developer would come out with another addon that would replace the old one. And that day is now! The addon is called Harmony. It is still in the experimental phase, but you better believe that I'll be snatching this up once it becomes official.

Depeche Mode tidbits

So, like a million years ago, Depeche Mode revealed the name of their new album - Sounds of the Universe.

They also have started a digital street team, which makes me ask what's the point? They already have tons of fans and they've sold over 100 million records. I thought street teams worked best for small bands where the draw is that you're personally connected to the band and if you work hard enough you might just get to hang out with your musical idols. Not that I'm dissing DM or anything. They can do whatever they want at this point, amirite?

Now I'm just waiting for their first single of the album and for them to announce their North American tour dates.

David Bowie - where to start?

As promised, I am writing a post about David Bowie.
Here is a comment I left to a friend when he mentioned that he wanted to listen to David Bowie

I think my first complete David Bowie album was Aladdin Sane (1973); that's a good place to start. If you don't mind slightly inaccessible albums, I recommend Station to Station (1976) and Diamond Dogs (1974). These are all from the seventies. If you like crazy awesome stuff that's Eno-flavored, then I recommend the Berlin Trilogy - Low (1977), "Heroes" (1977), and Lodger (1979). Some nineties Bo is good. I recommend 1. Outside 1995, also made with Brian Eno. Earthling (1997) is kind of a more dance music album with light flavors of industrial. I don't really pay attention to Buddha of Suburbia (1993) or 'Hours ...' (1999).

There are only two albums post 2000 - Heathen (2002) and Reality (2003). I think Heathen is pretty great. Reality is pretty solid as well.

80s Bo is when he went pop to compete with New Wave artists. It's okay if you like pop. It's better to pick and choose singles from this time period. I like "Blue Jean", "Modern Love", and the Labyrinth soundtrack (1986) is okay.

And that's a bit of an overview of Bowie's musical career.

VotD: "Serious" by Duran Duran

Best things about this video:
- Simon's short hair and not-serious smile, creepy!
- Nick Rhodes laughing at the video girl for no apparent reason
- Stirling Campbell, I think he's hot
- John's earnest lip synching and lip biting
- Simon lip synching in John's face and their engaging in "stage gay"
- CAMEL TOE

Music Maker Relief Foundation

I was linked to this video by my friend Ryan and I quickly link-hopped my way to the Music Maker Relief Foundation website.

I found the story of the foundation quite interesting, hence the posting. The Music Maker Relief Foundation finds Southern blues artists and helps them out financially as well as introduces the artists to a larger audience.

Go here for an impressive collection of recordings by the MMRF artists. And perhaps, if you're feeling flush, you could purchase a membership?

Related: MMRF YouTube Channel

David Bowie!

CCHH sends happy birthday wishes to David Bowie on this, his 62nd birthday. I love this man. I think it's safe to say that watching Labyrinth was a life-changing step in growing up, not just for me but for many others. Nobody can come through a close encounter with the Area clothed in tights unaltered. Perfect: as I typed this, "Underground" came on.

I wonder if David Bowie has ever watched this after he recorded it.

He should watch it TODAY.

Maybe in a future post I will say more about David Bowie.

Lololol

Chris Corner's twitter account is a fake, so who knows when IAMX's third album will come out or what it will be called.

I figured as much, but I wanted to believe!

Bits and Pieces

Chris Corner revealed the name of IAMX's third album via Twitter on Sunday - My Monster. He mentioned that the release time as summer of this year. Whoo! For my own benefit I'll list the albums I'm excited for this year.

February:
10 The Lonely Island's Incredibad
16/17 Morrissey's Years of Refusal
Sometime Chris Dane Owen's Blue Stone

March
23 Pet Shop Boys Yes I didn't even know about this until I googled something unrelated. Laaaame me.

April
20/21 Depeche Mode's next album

Summer
IAMX's My Monster

That's all I can remember for now. Also Glasvegas's self-titled album was released in the US today. From one half-listening go through I give it 2/5. I really expected more after I saw all the good reviews compiled in the info box on Wikipedia. Love the thick accent, though <3.

Sorry to end this on a down note, but Ron Asheton, guitarist and bassist for seminal rock band The Stooges, was found dead in his Ann Arbor home. Early reports suggest death by heart attack but autopsy and toxicology reports will be released in the future. Ron Asheton was 60 years old.

On leaks

So the new Morrissey album Years of Refusal was leaked on Morrissey-solo. More on that album later after I listen to it a few times. But it provides me with the perfect excuse to write about leaks. I've been thinking about leaks for some time. Spin magazine had a great feature in the August 2007 called "Days of the Leak". It pinpointed the various stages at which a musical work could be leaked to the internet, AKA the public. One obvious stage is the journalist. (More about that article here.) (Not yet up on the Digital Spin archives.)

One thing that pisses me off is lack of ethics in journalism. Usually that's not such a huge deal in music journalism EXCEPT when it comes to the leak. There is a major rift between journalists and musicians, lack of trust. Maybe that's a bit hyperbolic. Well, maybe if journalists weren't such assholes and uploaded albums on the internet, things would be a little bit better.

Allow me to publicly state that if I ever receive advance copies of anything for the purpose of reviewing, I will never leak it. Because that's a dick move. And as Wil Wheaton says, "Don't be a dick."

Query: Is it hypocritical to participate in a leak when one pledges to never leak something oneself?

More odds and ends

I don't have much to say because I haven't been working hard this week.

I found this the other week. It's almost an entire issue of Popular Music for free! I live for analysis so this is very exciting to me, but perhaps not to you. And that's cool!

Second thing is a video I found why trying to find any Depeche Mode video I could. I found one that was only released on Strange, which was very lucky because my sister Rachel hadn't seen it yet.

But this is what I'm referring to:
Simon Amstell asking Depeche Mode Big Ones for Popworld when Playing the Angel came out.


Happy New Year, CCHH readers!