Category Archives: Music

I recommend: Radio

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Aside from the usual Pandora, Last FM, Pure Volume, Lala and other music aggregators, there are loads of places to get streaming music…Radio Stations!
Real, old fashioned radio with DJs and all! But the only way that RADIO is bearable is for it to be foreign. Overseas radio is even interesting with ads because of accents and languages, and a lot of our socialist neighbors have taxpayer funded stations with NO ads at all! Bonus.
The downsides are the weird time alignments. UK radio starts the night shift as I am driving home from work, and Australia is always a day ahead (hearing “How is your Monday Afternoon” on a Sunday evening is depressing)

But here are the stations I listen in to
Absolute Radio : UK (London)
Great music, funny DJs and news. Lots of ads are balanced out by lots of music. Their website is a great source for band interviews and podcasts.
Triple J : Australia (Sydney)
Public ‘Youth’ radio so completely ad-less! Cutting-edge, indie, and sometimes quite weird, you won’t hear these songs elsewhere. Famed for their early backing of Florence and the Machine, Tegan and Sarah and others, they have heard of all the cool bands before you have.
NRJ France (Paris)
Yah, it’s in French, and they speak 100mph, but they play good solid pop and have great dance hits party songs on the weekend.

Bands I’ve Seen Live

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This is a sad little list. Not because of content, but brevity. I feel like I’ve seen more live shows. It is however, a diverse little list

  • Meatloaf @ The Point Depot, Dublin. My first ever concert. I was about 12, and a big fan because my Dad was.
  • Oasis @ The Point Depot, Dublin in 1997. Their ‘Be Here Now Tour’
  • Boyzone @ The Point Depot, Dublin. A week after seeing Oasis, Ronan Keating gave us tickets to see his show from the third row of The Point
  • 311
  • Sum 41 @Warped Tour 2001
  • Our Lady Peace x2
  • The Living End @ Indie club in Orlando with Chelsea. We were 17 and too young for a Yukon!
  • The Roots @UCF Homecoming
  • The Arctic Monkeys @Hard Rock Orlando
  • Aventura @Hard Rock Sunrise. Hannah’s 22nd Birthday gift
  • Spice Girls @ Prudential Center, Newark NJ. SOO worth it
  • Coldplay @ That Arena in Orlando. While working a hotdog booth
  • Flight of the Conchords @UM
  • Buzz Bake Sale 2009: Skindred, Panic at the Disco
  • Vampire Weekend @ The Fillmore
  • Brad Paisley @Cruzan Amphitheatre. Actually paid $$ for a ticket.
  • Jessica Simpson and Alan Jackson @The Chilli Fest. Ill-fated trousers
  • Lady Sovereign and Gwen Stefani @Cruzan Amphitheater
  • Jordin Sparks and Britney Spears @American Airlines Arena
  • Radiohead @Cruzan Amphitheatre. Eventful night.
  • Ke$ha and Rihanna @American Airlines Arena
  • Everclear @Old School Square, Delray Beach. Free concert at the Garlic festival
  • Electric Picnic 2010: Janelle Monae, LCD Soundsystem, Friendly Fires, Mumford and Son, Japanese Popstars, Leftfield, Robyn
  • MGMT -@ Fillmore Miami Beach
  • Metric  @Art Basel 2010. Free concert on Miami beach. On the beach.


Best Album of the Year

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NME put out their list of the best albums of 2009. As I expected, it’s full of noisy, obscure Indie bands whose hipster factor outweighs their actual musical talent. I hadn’t heard of most of the bands (not surprising. I’m not British and I don’t read the NME) but I had a few of the albums on the list. Here’s my rankings, based on the music and how much I listened to that album:

Artist Album My Rank   
NME Rank
Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand Tonight: 1 43
Lily Allen It’s Not Me, It’s You 2 25
Kasabian West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 3 11
Arctic Monkeys Humbug 4 12
Yeah Yeah Yeahs It’s Blitz! 5 3
Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 6 34
Florence And The Machine Lungs 7 26
Empire Of The Sun Walking On A Dream 8 42
Passion Pit Manners 9 37
Bat For Lashes Two Suns 10 22

So me and the NME don’t agree… At all. I listened to the top 10 and was not impressed. Methinks their writers are just trying to one-up each another in an inter-office indie battle of artfullness, disregarding what the listeners think.