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What Are You Listening To?


mtutiger

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I get annoyed by some Beach Boys fans because they love to poke their heads in with "what about the Beach Boys" any time the Beatles get discussed but there is no denying the genius and talent. I think that I justify my annoyance because they were pigeonholed as a pop surf band at the beginning and I haven't shifted my thinking to consider them in any other category.

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2 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

It's too bad the Beach Boys want to Make America Great Again too and played at a rally in support of Trump. I guess Brian Wilson and Al Jardine weren't happy about that, so there's that too.

Oh for crying out loud, are you really unable to keep political talk sequestered to the trash heap that is provided for you on this forum?

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23 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I'll leave it be after this comment, but music and political activism have always been tied together, for better or for worse.

Gotta have that last word eh?! You and your ilk are so consumed with spreading the vomit that lives in your brain while political figures live rent free in your head (that goes for the left and right). 
 

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Currently I can't find anything on Youtube, but the Bleachers ended up coming into SNL late due to Covid issues.  Their first song really reminded me of Springsteen with some dualing Sax's at the end.  The second song was similiar to more moden music, let's say the Killers. Overall I was impressed.

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5 hours ago, oblong said:

 

If you compare Live TV audience numbers to anything in the past, it's probably going to drop.   There are just so many more options. 

But here is an issue I have with the Grammys. 

Glass Animals are up for Best New Artist.   This is their third album,   The first two may not have charted in the United States, but that band has been around for a decade and their first album came out 7 years ago.   Zero Credibility.   

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45 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

If you compare Live TV audience numbers to anything in the past, it's probably going to drop.   There are just so many more options. 

But here is an issue I have with the Grammys. 

Glass Animals are up for Best New Artist.   This is their third album,   The first two may not have charted in the United States, but that band has been around for a decade and their first album came out 7 years ago.   Zero Credibility.   

My issue with the Grammys is they always seemed to be a few years behind. Like an Album of the year nominee is something that came out 3 years ago, like you said. 
 

Once I got satellite I quit the radio.  I’ve had my car for a year and the presets are still not set. Music is just too on demand now. You need “experts” with good taste to push that stuff. 

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It saved my friends record store. I remember sitting with him in a bar around 2007 and he wasn’t sure how much longer they could go. Downloads were ruining their sales.  He had to branch into DVD and merchandise.  Now it’s booming. The record store days are game changers for them. 

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9 hours ago, oblong said:

It saved my friends record store. I remember sitting with him in a bar around 2007 and he wasn’t sure how much longer they could go. Downloads were ruining their sales.  He had to branch into DVD and merchandise.  Now it’s booming. The record store days are game changers for them. 

LOL - I guess if people like to hear the sound of a stylus scrapping vinyl as the perfect background to their music because they were conditioned to it for decades, that's their business, but please stop with the silly attempts to justify the sound as a better reproduction. :classic_dry:

OTOH, I will grant that the loss of LP cover art and good liner notes has been tragic.

Edited by gehringer_2
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51 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

LOL - I guess if people like to hear the sound of a stylus scrapping vinyl as the perfect background to their music because they were conditioned to it for decades, that's their business, but please stop with the silly attempts to justify the sound as a better reproduction. :classic_dry:

OTOH, I will grant that the loss of LP cover art and good liner notes has been tragic.

People who are audiophiles say it's better.  The technology that compresses music digitally apparantly does something to it.  I won't claim to be smart enough to know.

But there is a romance to setting up the player, getting the record out, moving the needle... not unlike smoking a pipe instead of a cigar.  Or maybe drip coffee instead of a regular Mr. Coffee machine.  The process is what makes it enjoyable. 

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29 minutes ago, oblong said:

The technology that compresses music digitally apparantly does something to it.  I won't claim to be smart enough to know.

mp3's are compressed, and no question at all quality can suffer greatly there depending on how much compression is requested. The MP3s played by many radio station for instance, are total trash (those on streaming sevices vary). But a CD, which is the correct comparison to an LP,  is not MP3s, it's made of .wav files, which is not a compressed format. In a wav file the input audio stream is digitized 44,100 times per second and 65536 (16 bits) possible volume levels on each channel. There is no loss detectable by human hearing (which tops out at about 15,000 Hz), and just as importantly, no recording device with more than 16 bits of dynamic range for making a recording. There is something missing in digital recordings, it's that little bit of white noise from the master tapes (from old stuff) and the 'grey' noise from the vinyl surface. That can 'soften' the sound of recordings make in too live an environment and make it sound 'better'. But it is not a more 'faithful' reproduction - you're mostly exposing poor production choices. :classic_cool:

It's sort of the same effect as the need to soften the focus on high res cameras when shooting close-ups in film. It can be disconcerting to see a face in that kind of detail across a 30 ft screen. But don't blame the camera. 

Edited by gehringer_2
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Many years ago I ripped all my CD's to mp3's and did 256k variable.  The idea was that some day I could afford the type of equipment to tell the difference between just the default (what was it, 96? 128?).

I finally bought a good set of speakers and a receiver about 5 years ago and moved a year later.  They are still in the closet.  No idea where the old harddrive with those mp3's are.

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2 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

Many years ago I ripped all my CD's to mp3's and did 256k variable.  The idea was that some day I could afford the type of equipment to tell the difference between just the default (what was it, 96? 128?).

I finally bought a good set of speakers and a receiver about 5 years ago and moved a year later.  They are still in the closet.  No idea where the old harddrive with those mp3's are.

When I started ripping vinyl, I figured at the rate of decline for the cost of storage eventually even portable devices would eventually have enough memory for wavs. Not quite there. But 256 variable is really very good, pretty close to lossless. When I rip something I take two copies, a wav and a 192 variable mp3. The wavs go into the library the house sound system plays from, the mp3s to portable devices, but even on my laptop I have a 256 gb SD with most of the library as wav.

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6 hours ago, oblong said:

... But there is a romance to setting up the player, getting the record out, moving the needle... 

My romance is setting up a playlist of ordered MP3's... so whatever choices in music I make for a specific playlist create a sweet ride that hopefully others can appreciate... Like a dinner playlist for example...

Actually, for example: I've been creating an X-Beatles "The Black and Blues Album" playlist. Of all solo efforts after they broke up and within about 2 years or less of the breakup (with only 1 or 2 "cheats"). I wanted something to sound as Beatlesesque as possible but with all of them obviously no longer Beatles. Sadly... Ringo's "hits" are getting pushed off of this "album and onto a "Last Curtain Call" X-Beatles playlist. A couple of decent songs ("Photograph" and "It Don't Come Easy") but they just couldn't break through John, Paul or George's material. Key Point: It's REALLY hard to do this with albums. MP3's...? Perfect!!!

Double album, and it has to have enough eclectic offbeat material, the same as any prior Beatles album, for this to work. I didn't pick only "hits" because that's not how a true Beatles album works. Lots of eclectia in here...

This is my playlist so far, I'm still working on the side 2 of disc 2 (the "Blues" side). Disc 1 is Black on both sides, Disc 2 Side 1 is outtakes, B-Sides, offbeat oddities and any "Live" versions so, there can be some repeats on this side. The Playlist so far (PM = Paul McCartney, JL = John Lennon, GH = George Harrison):

"Disc 1, Side 1"

1. PM - "Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey", 1971 - RAM

2. PM - "Heart of the Country", 1971 - RAM 

3. PM - "Ram On", 1971 - RAM (this is the 2nd, 55 sec. version)

4. GH - "All Things Must Pass", 1970 - All Things Must Pass

5. JL - "Hold On", 1970 - Plastic Ono Band

6. GH - "I'd Have You Anytime", 1970 - All Things Must Pass

7. GH - "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)", 1973 - Living in the Material World

8. JL - "Imagine", 1971 - Imagine

"Disc 1, Side 2"

1. PM - "Another Day", 1971 - (Single released in-between McCartney and RAM)

2. JL - "Instant Karma", 1970 - pre-Imagine single

3. PM - "The Lovely Linda", 1970 - McCartney

4. PM - "Junk", 1970 - McCartney (actually a Beatles song that didn't make it to The White Album... there are earlier Beatles versions as you will see momentarily...)

5. PM - "Momma Miss America", 1970 - McCartney

6. JL - "I Found Out", 1970 - Plastic Ono Band

7. GH - "Plug Me In", 1970 - All Things Must Pass

8. PM - "Maybe I'm Amazed", 1970 - McCartney

"Disc 2, Side 1"

1. Beatles (PM) - "Another Day", 1969 - there's a cut from the "Get Back" sessions of Paul and John fiddling around with the song. Mostly Paul. Cool little outtake.)

2. PM - "That Would Be Something", 1970 - McCartney

3. Beatles (PM) - "Junk", 1968 (I think) - outtake from their "Anthology" release, called Anthology 3 version

4. Beatles (JL) - "Gimme Some Truth", 1969 - there's a cut from the "Get Back" sessions of John fiddling around with his song. Mostly John but Paul adds some comments. Cool little outtake.)

5. JL - "My Mummy's Dead", 1970 - Plastic Ono Band

6. PM - "Oo You", 1970 - McCartney

7. PM - "Teddy Boy", 1970 - McCartney

8. PM - "Mulberry Moon Delight", 1971 - RAM

9. PM & Wings - "Maybe I'm Amazed", 1976 (cheat) - Wings America Tour

 

Last side (2-2) is the Blues side dominated by mostly George Harrison from All Things Must Pass and from John Lennon from Plastic Ono Band (like Working Class Man and Isolation and...). Maybe I'll squeeze Paul's "Back Seat of My Car" in there somewhere but may not be easy to do so... May have to get pushed to a "Grand Finale" playlist... I've got to get Harrison's 11 minute jazz and blues instrumental ("Out of the Blue") onto THIS Album, this side...!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So Neil Young started it and Joni Mitchell followed.   Wanting off Spotify because of the stupidity and dangerous conspiracy theories of Joe Rogan (even his friend Bill Burr called him out on it - on his show).   

Expect the floodgates to open now.  I expect hundreds of artists to get their music pulled from Spotify and they will use Joe Rogan as the excuse, but lets be honest  - artists have been battling Spotify for years because of their ridiculous royalty structure and now they have an excuse to cut ties. 

I use Spotify all the time because I do 2 music-oriented radio shows and it's a great way to find new music, but I know how bad it is for artists. 

The day after the Breaking Bad finale the song "Baby Blue" by Badfinger had something like half a million streams on Spotify.  On the air I joked about how the estate of Pete Ham made $38, but I might not have been very far off.    I didn't know, at the time, that Pete Ham had killed himself over his music being stolen from him (it was a big reason why).  I would not have made that comment if I knew that was the reason.  

Spotify is going to have to make a decision this week, and I am guessing that they have to weigh the traffic from Joe Rogan's podcast against all the music they are about to lose, but it might be too late, the artist have been looking to revolt and as much as I use Spotify, I don't blame them.  

Don't take medical advice from a fucking comedian, who once believed the moon landing was fake, then didn't believe it, but the way he's going these days, he probably believes it again.     And fuck Aaron Rodgers too.  

 

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I'm hoping this doesn't get political.

That said, isn't the listening audience of Young, Mitchell and other dinosaurs basically people eligible for AARP who use FM Radio as their main source of listening to music?

I also saw where Young was complaining about the low audio quality of Spotify so maybe this is valid to him but it sounds like an excuse.

Say what you will about Rogan, if he remains on Spotify he will be the most listened to podcaster on the planet. If he is booted off Spotify, he will be the most listened to podcaster and will probably have a very nice breach of contract lawsuit with Spotify.

I won't be surprised if both parties just ride it out because of the short attention span of the average person.

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