Random tangent (blog)
Ameel Khan's personal blog. This is a blog about life, technology, the internet, science, skepticism, feminism, books, film, music, and whatever other random stuff I come across or happen to be interested in today.
One of my all-time favourite bands, Collective Soul, released a new album a few months ago (called 'Afterwords') and I only just found out.
This is what happens when you are overly absorbed in something (like, say, an MBA) and, when you get some free time, only listen to mainstream music. Terrible, isn't it? I am such a bad fan.
Fortunately, now that I am up to speed, some album buying shall ensue. Meanwhile, there's always Collective Soul's MySpace page to keep me happy.
Ever thought to yourself "You know...I could understand science so much better if it was sung to me in a rap song"?
Me neither. Still, Katherine McAlpine's 'Dropping Mad Science at the Large Hadron Collider' video that was featured on TED yesterday is pretty good :)
ChannelFlip's Justin Gayner made a really fun animated video to be used as a DVD extra in QI's first season DVD that's soon to be released.
It's based, by the way, on this bit from QI:
:)
Zeb and Haniya, the awesome musical duo that I know and have had the pleasure to jam and perform live with, have just released their first album, 'Chup', in Pakistan. If you're in Pakistan, go buy it -- I highly recommend it.
For the rest of us, their first video for the song 'Aitebar' is available online:
Enjoy :)
Good article in IndustryFinest.com on 'The Top 20 Most Influential Rock Producers'. Particularly since I'm a huge fan of Rick Rubin, Brian Eno, Butch Vig and Daniel Lanois.
I wrote about GotRadio.com a few weeks ago: that I was impressed with it and was considering signing up for its paid service. Well, after listening to it regularly for almost two months now I went and signed up with it today and, guess what, I'm even more impressed!
Why? Well:
The best part is that it doesn't cost much: US$4.95 per month or $26.95 per year.
So, if I was highly recommending GotRadio.com earlier, I'm even more highly recommending it now!
Interesting post on MuchMusic.com on the 12 Most Powerful Musicians of Today. The list is cool because it isn't just based on album sales but also on things like merchandising, tours, and charity work. And, in my opinion at least, it's pretty accurate.
That said, if you were to take a few more variables into account -- particularly since the word "powerful" could mean a lot of things -- you might want to add a few more names to that list. For example:
But that's not the point of this post. The point is to get you to read the post on MuchMusic.com, which you should now do.
The 'I Think She Knows Interlude' part (i.e. the second half) of Justin Timberlake's song Lovestoned / I Think She Knows Interlude is really quite awesome.
I've heard the song a few times before, but mostly on the radio. Today, however, I heard it on my earphones (thanks to Got Radio) and I am very impressed. Others think so too. In fact, John Mayer did a really cool electric guitar cover of it:
Cool, no?
[Via All Things Go]
I've been listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel recently so, while surfing through PG-related stuff on the 'net, I came across Brigitte Jellinek's Comments on Peter Gabriel Songs site. The title pretty much sums-up what the site is about and, if you're a big PG fan, it's definitely worth a visit.
I used to be a huge shortwave radio buff in my teens [1] but that was before cable TV and the Internet came to Pakistan and became affordable to the general public. I never really got into Internet radio, though. I was never in a situation where I could. At home cable TV ruled because we got our first satellite dish antenna a good ten years before broadband and at work I never got the time or the bandwidth.
The one time I did get into 'net radio was when I was working for InterActive Communications and I would listen to Radio Free Virgin quite a lot. Even then, I'd only tune in when I was working late because during the day I was office DJ -- playing music from our pooled CD and MP3 collection via large speakers connected to my workstation -- and, besides, there was rarely enough bandwidth to get a good, high quality stream going before 6pm.
So it's only recently -- thanks to having broadband Internet but no cable TV at home and full days on my laptop at work or university -- that I've really started to get into Internet radio...and there's a lot of catching up to do. So far I've used both Windows Media Player and Real Player to explore radio stations and that's been a lot of fun. I've also checked out Australian stations, NPR, VOA, and, of course, the BBC (with its really nifty iPlayer). They've all been good too.
I'm still in 'net radio investigation mode, though, and I'll share my thoughts on it as I learn more. For now let me just recommend to you Got Radio which has a really good selection of music channels, all of which are on-demand (i.e. if you don't like a song you can press next and move on to the next track in the playlist). The quality of the stream isn't all that great for an audiophile like me (though it sounds alright on my Altec Lansing laptop speakers) but the music selection is really good. And if you sign up (US$4.95/month or $26.95/year) you get a high quality, ad-free stream instead. I don't think I'm quite ready to do that yet, but it's something I might consider for the future.
For more on Internet radio in the future, stay tuned to this blog.
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[1] Ooh, now that's an idea for another blog post: my days as a shortwave radio buff. I should write about how I got introduced to the BBC back in the late '80s (my father used to listen to their MW service every morning and evening) soon after which I became a real radio geek, building SW antennas and keeping a logbook and all.
Ah, the good old days...listening to the latest news, talk, and music from the BBC, VOA, Radio Australia, Radio Moscow, and everything in between. Of course I had a lot more free time in those days. Time enough to sit for hours on the balcony listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, live coverage of the '92 Olympics, and music from all over the world.
I recently downloaded Paul Melia's Tennis in the Rain from We7 and I love it! It's a free (but ad-supported) download so make sure you take a listen. That's now another album I'm looking forward to getting.
[FYI: Paul Melia on MySpace]
Peter Gabriel, one of my all-time favourite musicians, continues to be at the forefront of technology usage -- particularly when it comes to technology for music and human rights:
On the human rights side:
So it's no surprise that he is involved in recent areas of music technology as well:
Both sound really interesting and I'll write more about them once I've played around with them a little more.
[More PG: Wikipedia, Last.fm, Real World Records, WOMAD]
We're still nine days away from the release of Moby's latest album, Last Night. Says Moby:
"last night" is basically a love letter to dance music in new york city. what i love about the new york approach to dance music is the eclecticism and the open minded-ness on the part of the musicians, the dj's, and the people in the bars and clubs. in making 'last night' i essentially tried to take a long 8 hour night out in new york city and condense it into a 65 minute long album.
To keep us busy till then, here's some fun Moby related stuff that you can do:
Enjoy :)
One of the best ways I have of remembering my mother is through music. When we were little she used to sing us to sleep and it's mostly thanks to her that we're a very musical family (we start to sing at the drop of a hat, for example). Since it's been three years since she died I thought it would be nice to post a few videos of the songs that she really liked or that we used to sing a lot.
She was a big fan of Edith Piaf, for example, and her favourite Piaf song was 'Non, je ne regrette rien':
Her other favourite songs included Dean Martin's 'Under the Bridges of Paris', Harry Belafonte's 'Jamaica Farewell', and Frank Sinatra's 'Three Coins in a Fountain'. I'm sure there were others she liked, but these are the ones she knew the lyrics of and sang most often.
Here's Harry Belafonte singing 'Jamaica Farewell':
Bed Time Songs
A lot of the songs she sang us to sleep with were folk songs like 'Lavender Blue', 'Red River Valley', 'Danny Boy', and 'Tom Dooley'.
Here's a video of The Kingston Trio singing 'Tom Dooley':
And, since this is too good an opportunity to pass up, here's the Muppets version of 'Danny Boy':
I remember Ami having a good laugh over this when we first saw it :)
I believe she was more familiar with the Elvis version of this song, though, so here's the tribute video made for his 29th death anniversary that features it:
Travelling Songs
There were also a number of songs that we always sang in the car, particularly on long journeys. One of those was The Three Stooges song 'Swinging the Alphabet':
Other songs included 'The Animal Fair', 'Why Shouldn't My Goose', 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat', and 'Ten Green Bottles'. There were, of course, many more.
It's still hard to believe that she's gone...and I'm glad we have all this music to help keep her memory alive.
I'd heard a couple of Jonathan Coulton songs before but, thanks to this episode of TWiT, I went and explored more of his music...and I love it!
If you're a geek and you love good music with fun lyrics, be sure to check him out. I mean, who couldn't love these lyrics:
Heya Tom, it’s Bob from the office down the hall
Good to see you buddy, how’ve you been?
Thing have been OK for me except that I’m a zombie now
I really wish you’d let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand
But here’s an FYI: you’re all gonna die screamingAll we want to do is eat your brains
We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
We’re at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
We’ll all come inside and eat your brains[From Re: Your Brains]
:)
So yesterday (Australia Day 2008), Nadia and I watched The Police live in concert at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG).
Nadia's already written one blog post about it -- and I suspect she's going to write one or two more -- so go there for most of the concert information. I'm just here to upload a few photographs. Oh, and for completeness' sake, to document the complete set list:
Coming back to the photographs, here's a photo of one the opening acts, Fiction Plane, performing (not that you can see the band clearly, but still). This is a couple of hours before The Police started their set, by the way, which is why it's still light out. I took a photo of Fergie's performance as well, but that came out all blurry.
Impressive stage, isn't it? And it's not even lit up yet! Here's what it looked like from the side. Note the threatening rain clouds.
The Met Office had predicted thunderstorms for that evening but fortunately, other than it being a humid night, there wasn't any rain in that part of the city.
Finally, here's a photo taken during the first song (Message in a Bottle).
I didn't take too many photographs after that, and the few that I did take aren't all that good. That's okay, though: I was there to watch and enjoy the show, not document it!
All in all, it was a fabulous concert. And, once it's up, I'll post a link to the concert review that The Age will inevitable publish.
Next Saturday Nadia and I will watch The Police live in concert at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). While looking for news, information, set lists, and videos of the current tour I found two interesting things:
Tracking Tours
First, the place to go to for the low down on The Police's 2007-2008 tour is this blog. It contains set lists, reviews, and videos and is, basically, the perfect way for us to get all psyched-up for the upcoming concert.
While I was there, by the way, I discovered that other bands' tours have been documented in a similar fashion. And after going through those sites, I now really want to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert as well.
Wolfgang's Vault
Second I discovered...well, a gold mine of live music in the form of Wolfgang's Vault, the largest online collection of historical concert recordings (and musician interviews). Ranging from concerts performed between 1960 and the late 1980s (so far), the Vault lets you stream thousands of hours of audio for free over the Internet (though you need to register with the site first) and the number of artists up there is immense. I've just spent the last couple of hours listening to Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Police, Peter Gabriel, and Tracy Chapman to name just a few. This site is awesome! :)
FYI: Bill Graham (originally, Wolfgang Grajonca, hence the nickname which then became the site's name) was a music promoter who virtually invented the modern concert business in the 1960s [1]. Graham died in 1991 and, in 2003, an entrepreneur by the name of Bill Sagan bought Graham's entire archive of music and memorabilia for over $5m. He's since starting putting all of the audio bits online (legally, of course) where anyone can access it. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.
If there's only one website you visit this week -- and assuming you're a big music fan -- make sure it's this one.
There's an article on Zeb and Haniya in this week's Newsweek! And their long-awaited album is out next month :)
From 2003 to 2004 I was in an English rock music band called Corduroy. We were pretty successful -- as successful as an unsigned, underground, English music playing rock band based in Islamabad, Pakistan can be -- and we even released an album, called 'The Morning After'.
For reasons that I've explained on this page, I still maintain the website that I made for the band. Recently, though, I've uploaded our entire album to MediaFire. The production quality isn't the greatest, but the songs are good.
While I'm not a music producer, back in 2004 I helped produce my former band's first full-length album. Since we were doing everything ourselves (recording, producing, mastering, etc.) we basically had to teach ourselves all there was to know about small-scale music production. And, believe me, there's a lot to know.
Two of the issues that came up back then were those of overall song loudness (how loud we wanted to make our music) and of compression (which would make even the soft parts of a song loud but would compromise on musical texture and nuance). This is a big issue in music these days, with Rolling Stone magazine calling it 'The Death of High Fidelity'. I wanted to write about this back in August when Scott Rosenberg wrote his 'The Unbearable Loudness of Recording' blog post but I never got around to it. Now, thanks to the excellent Rolling Stone article, I don't have to write about it at all! So, if you're interested in music and the technical reasons for why modern music sounds so crappy, the article makes a good -- but long -- read.
In recent months I have been particularly disappointed with Bruce Springsteen's 'Radio Nowhere' which is an excellent song that is seriously compromised by it being too loud and too in-your-face. What's worse is that it's too loud and too in-your-face throughout the duration of the song. Compare that to something like Linkin Park's 'What I've Done' which is also loud -- it is, after all, a hard rock record -- but has so much more light and shade (i.e. musical variation) in it.
This is personal website of Nadia Niaz and Ameel Zia Khan. Here we document our lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia