Saturday, April 18, 2009

Genius is Genius.

I haven't blogged in a while, much to the disgust of Gab (whom hasn't blogged either) so here is my "make-up" blog.

Little - to nothing - interesting has really happened this week, or last week infact except for me discovering iTunes Genius.
Do you know what that is? For those who don't, it is an application on your iTunes.
Here is a step by step play on how to use Genius.

1. Select a song, for example, Brianstorm - The Arctic Monkeys.
2. Click the tiny star at the bottom of the iTunes screen which, when the mouse is dragged over the logo, says GENIUS.
3. iTunes scans the internet at lightning speeds to find songs that sound similar or are by similar artists to the song/artist you have selected.
4. iTunes finds these songs on your iTunes and makes a playlist of 25 songs it has found which you may find simlar to the song you originally selected.

Personally, I think its pretty amazing.
Its crazy accurate too. For arguments sake, I am actually going to Genuis "Brianstorm"... here is the playlist I got.

  1. Brianstorm - Artctic Monkeys
  2. Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis
  3. Golden Skans - Klaxons
  4. The Age of the Understatement - Last Shadow Puppets
  5. Standing in the Way of Control - The Gossip
  6. In the Morning - Razorlight
  7. Same Jeans - The View
  8. The Prayer - Bloc Party
  9. Great DJ - The Ting Tings
  10. Monster - The Automatic
  11. Fans - Kings of Leon
  12. Never Miss a Beat - Kaiser Chiefs
  13. Juicebox - The Strokes
  14. Whistle for the Choir - The Fratellis
  15. It's Not Over Yet - Klaxons
  16. Blue Orchid - White Stripes
  17. Banquet - Bloc Party
  18. Wide Awake - The Twang
  19. Before I Fall to Pieces - Razorlight
  20. Old Yellow Bricks - Arctic Monkeys
  21. Last Night - The Strokes
  22. On Call - Kings of Leon
  23. Do You Want To? - Franz Ferdinand
  24. Hate to Say I Told You So - The Hives
  25. Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above - CSS

If you haven't heard of any of those bands, don't be shocked. They are mostly obscure English shoegazers. Just trust me when I say, all these songs and artists are in some way similar or complimenting to the Arctic Monkeys. Its actually an amazing playlist and again, I am very impressed by the power of technology.
Also, considering I have 3 Arctic Monkey's albums on my iTunes, only 1 other song by them is chosen, so it is not a cop out at all.
Songs I haven't heard in ages, or even, ever, pop up every now and then too which is a nice surprise because most of them are quite good and I discover a new song which I have owned for however long.
iTunes also has a bar on the far right of other songs/artists who would fit into this playlist which you do not own. It allows you to sample the songs and then purchase if you please. Amazing.

The only complaint I have is when I selected An Horse, (indie Australian two piece), I was given the ultimate lezzy jam. Tegan and Sara, The Gossip, Kaki King, Bikini Kill and The Sounds.
As much as I like all these bands, its a bit of a typecast isn't it?
Just because one band has a lesbian member, they must sound like other lesbian member bands.
I had to go and listen to KISS and Guns 'n Roses afterwards to even it out.

All in all, iTunes has finally done something right. Loves it.

On another note, my band, The Quarters, has a blog.
www.thequartersband.blogspot.com follow that too.

Friday, April 3, 2009

I could be a more interesting Hannah Montana.

So I am reading two books right now.

1. Kurt Cobains Journals
and
2. Miles to Go - Miley Cyrus.

Yeah, a bit of a contrast. 
Safe to say I don't get confused about which I am reading and which information I have obtained from which book. 
It got me thinking though, If you can write such a lengthy biography at 15/16 imagine what Kurt Cobain's would have been like now?

This year marks 15 years since Kurt Cobain's death.
This year marks 16 years since Miley Cyrus' birth. 

Given his would be like, triple the size of Cyrus', I wonder if it would contain a radically different story line.
Sure, as much as I wish to believe, Miley is not a herion addict (well I'm not at the end of the book yet so this statement could still be retracted). 
But Kurt Cobain was a voice of a generation. He was a megastar, a pioneer, similar in the way Miley/Hannah Montana is?
Ok, I use the word similar loosely.

Its just totally weird to think, 15 years ago, teenagers were all about their angst and rebellion, trying to develop some form of revolution led by music and inspired by Kurt Cobain and the grunge era which changed the industry.
Now? We're reading biographies and going stalker crazy for 16 year old sugar coated popstars whos greatest obstacle is finding time between multi-billion dollar sell out tours to film an a spin off to her award winning television program.
Thats pretty fucked. 

I think if Kurt Cobain was alive, he'd be pretty pissed.

On another note, I went to V FESTIVAL yesterday.

Yeah, thats the Kills (www.myspace.com/thekills). Front row.
Probably the best of the whole day but I am bias because they were my favourites on the whole line up.

Also on the bill was Duffy, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, Jenny Lewis, Vanilla Ice, The Human League, Madness, The Do and a bunch of other bands who I didn't watch.

We arrived just in time to catch the end of Duffy's set which was amazing. She was wearing short shorts and a tank top. We were wearing jeans and sweaters. Its bizarre to think that what we in Australia consider cold, a lot of other countries consider warm. It was close to rain and she was dressed for the beach. None the less, she was amazing.

We accidently walked in on The Do while we were searching for toilets and beer. I'm glad we did because they were amazing, I can't turn them off now.

Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley) played a great set too. We were too energetic to sit and watch the whole thing, especially since Shaun Sha Bang found Twister at the Coke Zero tent but we could hear her behind us and she was great. 

I got to hear Razorlight do "In the Morning" which was cool. Other then that I didn't stay for the set. I did hear that Johnny Borrell ran out into the crowd though.

I rocked up early for the Kills set, equip with my new Kills t-shirt which I will probably not take off all week. Allison was smoking up a storm, I think in total she lit up about 4 times. She seemed pretty spaced too. She still put on a great show and inspired me to get some gold boots and grow my bangs all the way to my nose. No Kate Moss in sight although many people told me she was in the vicinity. 

Kaiser Chiefs were sick. They only played a few songs I didn't know which is interesting considering I own none of their albums. I guess everyone just likes to cover their songs (Lily Allen, Paramore, Cut Copy). 

I saw, maybe 4 seconds of Snow Patrol and even that bored me. The crowd was massive for them though. There was apparently 20,000 punters on the day. That was obvious during the Killers set because they were all there. Surprisingly, I actually didn't hate the Killers. They played all the songs I knew which was nice and I spent all of "Human" dancing with strangers instead of making my way to the toilet.

All in all, I'd go back next year with the promise of an equally diverse lineup and more toilet facilities. 
Seriously, it was gross. We were sitting against a wall behind all the food stands and there was boys coming up all night peeing around our sitting circle and the gates surrounding. We had to move everything so it wouldn't get drenched in urine. 

Needless to say, I showered extra long, just in case, when I got home.