Theme “Dusk”
Loading up and working fine. It looks terrific! A nice change from the old dreary theme.
Blargh
For some reason updating themes at work never works right, I’m trying to load the “Dusk” theme for something a bit less dark, and a bit softer looking, but it doesn’t seem to want to use the background images and spacing. And since I’m useless when it comes to CSS I guess I’ll have to try it again at home.
Blargh.
Lists Are Good
(Oooo yay updates)
List of bands I need to check out…greatest hits CDs must be purchased.
Bauhaus – Crackle (The Best Of): Not available at best buy 
Joy Division – Substance: Not available at best buy….
Tears For Fears – Tears Roll Down: Not available at best buy
Diabolical Masquerade – Nightwork: Not available at best buy
Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break The Oath [remaster]: Not available at best buy
King Diamond – Abagail [remaster]: Not available at best buy
My local Best Buy sucks! 
Amazon.com will have them I’m sure….
Vader Cabinets
Lots of posts today…but I just have to say that Vader 4×12 speaker cabinets rule in everyway imaginable.They’re built incredibly solid, and sprayed in freakin’ Rhino Liner! For christs sakes lol.
Needless to say they’re tough, and with the metal grille and awesome logo design they just scream “metal”. They look as if they want to hurt you, and will if given reason.
As far as sound wise they have a pretty flat, even EQ range, no annoying midrange hump. You can dial them in any way you like and it’s a terrific match to my Dual Rectifer. The sound is just rediculously clear, tight and heavy.
Surprisingly though, they’re not one trick ponies, they produce great clean tones as well, and lower gain tones. I was able to pull an almost “texas” style breakup out of the speakers.
In conclusion, these cabinets absolutely rule, no complaints what-so-ever.
In addition I also wanna say that the Seymour Duncan Blackout active pickups have blown me away, they have all of the benefits of actives, but also sound lush and full with plenty of output. They’re everything they’re advertised to be.
/whore
Depeche Mode
I’m quite surprised I’ve taken to this group as well as I have. I picked up their greatest hits album a while back because I felt I needed to own at least one disc from this group, because of their status and influence on many musicians. Plus, I always dug the songs “Personal Jesus” and “Dream On”
I’m listening to this CD about as often as I listen to Pretty Hate Machine, yes, I’m digging “pop music” haha. There’s an edge to these guys though, and such great skill in orchestration, writing, and subject matter.
That said, their first two or three albums are laughable compared to what they would come to create. Songs like “It’s No Good”, “Dream On”, “I Feel You”, “Strangelove” amongst others, and you cannot forget “People Are People” and “Master And Servant”. Listening to those songs and then listening to a song like “New Life” is just a drastic difference. Depeche grew in a big way.
Plus, I’ve found that I can mimic Dave Gahans vocals well enough…so, I think a cover version of “It’s No Good” should be my first true studio endeavour, my first little project to wrap my head around Cubase, and all of this VST instrument shit, drum programming and the like. It should be fun.
I love my girlfriend
I just got back from a nice weekend at her dorm. It was absolutely the best =)
Seeing her was great, I won’t be able to see her again until mid February for my birthday. The campus is nice, which a nice mix of Gothic and Baroque architecture as well as some interesting modern art.
The town that it’s in, Farmville, is quite odd. Almost surreal. It’s mostly populated with old people, i mean, the roads should basically be shuffle board games. If the college wasn’t there, there would be no young people there. Like I said…odd.
There are about 15 furniture stores in the tiny town, all with a number plaque on the outside of the building, and the interiors are well decorated and usually very cool looking, and there are some very nice peices of furniture there (I feel old…I’m appreciating furniture) on of the buildings upstairs had this amazing black and white checkerboard floor with a mediteranean motif about the area. It was cool, and like I said before, just as odd and out of place as the rest of the town.
I certainly cannot wait till my next visit, staying with her in her dorm for another weekend or maybe even a week! =)
Interesting Post From Mr. Reznor
This was posted by Trent on NIN.com I found it kind of interesting. Due to the nature of every post on NIN.com disapearing when a new post in made I’ll post it here as well. This is interesting for me because I plan to take the same independant approach that Trent and others have followed. The numbers are rather dissapointing.
Read on:
It’s a strange time to be an artist in the recording business. It’s pretty easy to see what NOT to do these days, but less obvious to know what’s right. As I find myself free from the bloated bureaucracy of major labels, finally able to do whatever I want… well, what is that? What is the “right” way to release records, treat your music and your audience with respect and attempt to make a living as well? I have a number of musician friends who are either in a similar situation or feel they soon will be, and it’s a real source of anxiety and uncertainty.
I’d like to share my experience releasing Saul Williams’ “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust” and what I’ve learned from the process. Perhaps by revealing of all our data – our “dirty laundry” – we can contribute to a better solution.
A quick history: Saul makes a great record that I produce. We can’t find the right home at a major label. We decide to release it ourselves, digitally. Saul does not have limitless financial resources so we shop around for a company that can fulfill our needs. We choose Musicane because they are competent and are willing to adapt to what we want. The results are here: niggytardust.com
We offer the entire record free (as in totally free to the visitor – we pay bandwidth costs) as 192 MP3s, or for $5 you can choose higher fidelity versions and feel good about supporting the artist directly. We offer all major CCs and PayPal as payment options.
Here’s what I was thinking: Fans are interested in music as soon as it’s available (that’s a good thing, remember) and usually that’s a leak from the label’s manufacturing plants. Offering the record digitally as its first appearance in the marketplace eliminates that problem. I thought if you offered the whole record free at reasonable quality – no strings attached – and offered a hassle free way to show support that clearly goes straight to the artists who made it at an unquestionably low price people would “do the right thing”. I know, I know…
Well, now I DO know and you will too.
Saul’s previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies.
As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay.
Of those paying,
3220 chose 192kbps MP3
19,764 chose 320kbps MP3
5338 chose FLAC
Keep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen.
If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul’s last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K – five times as many – sought out this new record, that’s great – right?
I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct – that most of the people that chose to download Saul’s record came from his or my own fan-base – is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I’m not sure what I was expecting but that percentage – primarily from fans – seems disheartening.
Add to that: we spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record utilizing an A-list team and studio, Musicane fees, an old publishing deal, sample clearance fees, paying to give the record away (bandwidth costs), and nobody’s getting rich off this project.
But…
Saul’s music is in more peoples’ iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He’ll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can.
So – if you’re an artist looking to utilize this method of distribution, make of these figures what you will and hopefully this info is enlightening.
Best,
TR
