Mark Freedman’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Every so often, we all accidentally come across something incredibly inspirational and touching when we least expect it, and it makes us stop and reevaluate things. I was surfing YouTube looking for some new Tori Amos videos, when I came across some videos created by a music teacher named Gregg from P.S. 22 in NYC. He taught his 5th grade students Tori Amos songs, including some of her best from her latest album, and he and his chorus are amazing. But the best part is what happened on May 4th in front of the Sony studio. Tori actually took time off from promoting her album to meet, watch and sing with the chorus. They actually moved her to tears. Watch all of the videos, including, most definitely, the reactions from the students on the bus after the experience. Kids are wonderful. We can learn a lot about life and gratitude from them. Remember being their age and loving life so much?

I wish I had a teacher like Gregg when I was in 5th grade. Damn, I wish I had a teacher like Gregg now.

http://youtube.com/user/agreggofsociety

Those who really know me know that my second favorite band is Tegan & Sara (even people who don’t know me know my favorite band). So one release I’ve been looking forward to this year is their latest — The Con. So Jealous, released in 2004, is one of my all time favorites, and what got me into them. Actually, hearing Where Does The Good Go on Pandora.com is what really got me going. Pandora is awesome, by the way…

But I have to say that my first impression of The Con was not very glowing. From what I read, I expected something a little more raw, which is fine by me, since I love their first two albums, which are also quite raw. So I figured this may take repeated listenings.

I was right.

My wife calls them “Alvin & The Chipmunks”, and I can’t say she’s too far off with the sound The first time I listened to the new album was in her car, which was playing with fire, because I knew I’d have to turn it off quickly and turn XM back on. Nope — she’s not a fan. I guess T & S are an acquired taste. But I had just finished downloading the album (uh — did I mentioned it was leaked a couple of months before the release date? Real fans scour the Web for leaks, and we still buy the CD the day it’s released — please don’t kill me ), and we had to leave the house right away, so I just had to throw it on the iPod…

Back to the album…

It’s definitely a grower. It took about 5 to 10 listens, but it finally took. I’m a bit surprised how many other fans took to it right away, since it is not immediately accessible at all. There are still a few songs that I’m still trying to get, but I don’t feel the urge to skip them. Once these songs become my new best friends (and once the album is officially released), I’ll write a full review on Amazon. For now, just consider this post a recommendation for The Con, and Tegan & Sara, in general. If you get a chance, look them up on YouTube. They are great live, and they are very funny. Their stage banter is worth admission.

There has been a lot of talk about the Vertigo Tour setlists so far, maybe too much talk…

As someone pointed out in this thread, the only people who really care much about the setlist from day to day are the bootleg traders. It’s the experience that counts.

Since more people than ever are now bootleg traders, it’s no wonder there’s been too much talk about this.

*** Edited based on my comment below. ***

I used to have this on my site, so I’m reproducing it here due to all the arguments about naming since recordings began circulating for the tour. Remember one VERY IMPORTANT FACT — if we all start creating our own names for a specific recording, we will lose track of which recording is which, and we will begin downloading recordings we may already have, simply because the name is different.

Important! These naming conventions are for MP3 recordings only!!! The naming convention described at http://www.etree.org/howto2.html#2.5 should be followed for lossless, original sources of these recordings.

Also, MP3s are meant to be played on your PC and on MP3 players. They are NOT meant to be burned to disc! Please use the original lossless source for burning CDs!

These naming conventions also make it easy to label (a future blog entry) and find MP3 files on an MP3 player.

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U2 - CCYY- MM-DD - Recording - NN - Song Title.mp3…where each file begins with U2, and each section is separated by ” - ” (space, dash, space):CC is the two-digit century.

YY is the two-digit year.

MM is the two-digit month.

DD is the two-digit day of the month.

Recording is the name of the recording source. If the taper gives the recording a name at the time it’s shared, that will be the name that is used. If the taper did not give it a name, please see the section, below, since this is still under debate.

NN is the two digit track number, based on the order the song was performed at that show. If the song is just an intro track, the track number will be 00. The first real track of the performance will start at 01.

Song Title is the official song title. No abbreviations are used, and all words use an initial capital letter.
Example: U2 - 1987-12-19 - Christmas In The Desert - 16 - Pride (In The Name Of Love).mp3

If two songs make up a single MP3 file, each song is preceded by a track number in the title:
Example: U2 - 1980-10-15 - Milky Way - 01 - The Ocean, 02 - 11 O’Clock Tick Tock.mp3

Folders containing each recording should be named similarly. In the above example, the folder would be:
U2 - 1980-10-15 - Milky Way

I had left out the “U2 - ” at the start of the folder name in the past, but I will start using it.

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Recordings Without “Official” Names:
I have been using a consistent naming convention for recordings that don’t have an “official” given name.
Example: “Denver 2001 (1A)”, meaning that this is the first recording (the “A” in “1A”) without a given name for the first date (the “1″ in “1A”) in 2001 in Denver.So, if they revisited Denver, and there’s another recording without a given name for that show, I would name it “Denver 2001 (2A)”. If there was then a second, unnamed, separate recording from that same show, I would name it “Denver 2001 (2B)”.It has been suggested that if the taper for an unnamed recording is known, the taper’s name would be used in the generic name:
Example: U2 - 2005-03-28 - San Diego 2005 (1) (Chrisedge) - 01 - City Of Blinding Lights

I like this idea, and propose that we use it.

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Notes:
It is absolutely imperative that the different sections of the names are kept in the same order, and that the separator of ” - ” (space, dash, space) is used. Otherwise, we lose the ability to use software to automate the labeling and organizing of these files. And that’s a very bad thing.It is also very important that the CCYY-MM-DD format is used for the date, regardless of your country’s standard format — this allows the files and folders to be sorted chronologically.

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What does everyone think?

Isn’t technology wonderful? Not 12 hours after the 3/28 show ended that hundreds of fans around the world who weren’t there got to hear a 4.5 star (out of 5) audience recording of it! And last tour I thought that a one week delay was good!

Makes me wonder a bit if U2 fans are getting a bit spoiled. Mass riots if it takes two days for the second show to get out there.

My one line review — best opening show they ever performed, but inconsistent and a bit rusty, as expected.

They played stuff they haven’t played in about 20 years — and it sounded like they never stopped playing it! Electric Co. and An Cat Dubh / Into The Heart? Amazing! And “40″ had the EXACT same feeling as a show closer as it was years ago! Magic.