Results tagged “music” from KPAO

If I can't get a 5-star song out of my head, then it's the song of the day.

The back story:

Song Fu Challenge #3 was to do an homage to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” that hit the main plot points and referenced the original song subtly at least once. Yes you’re right, I almost went with the first monkey in space, but I didn’t want to be accused of going overboard with the monkeys. So I went with the first dog in space instead.

I love the Pink Floyd/Comfortably Numb homage in the guitar solo.

Now I’m floating free
And the moon’s with me
And it’s bright enough
To light the dark

And it’s so high up here
And the stars—so clear
Are they close enough?
Will they hear me bark from here?

Buy the song here.

It's not exactly new, but it's a fantastic song. Don't much care for the "repeat and fade" ending, but it's still a 5-star song in my book.

I watched Glee this week. And while their renditions of most songs are a bit too sugar-coated for my taste, I really liked their version of Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. Since I've got some credit left on Lala.com expiring this month, I went there to buy it. It shows in the search results, but there's no way to buy the song, or even to preview it.

Fine, so I head over to Amazon to buy it there. Nope, not available there either. The Original List Date is May 4, 2010, but for reasons beyond me, the song won't be available for purchase until May 11, 2010. Oh, right, that's a Tuesday. i forgot that all new music has to be released on a Tuesday. But wait a minute—May 4 was a Tuesday. Ugh, my brain hurts.

Of course this song is available on various file sharing sites right now, so consumers like me who want to do the right thing and give the music industry money for a song that's actually worth paying for can't do so.

Music industry, the world has changed. You've had a lot of chances to catch up. But if this is how you want to do things, then you deserve what you get.

OK, it's trite and much criticized, but 25 years ago instead of just complaining about how things are, Bob Geldoff (and Midge Ure) got off their asses and actually did something to try to improve the world as they saw it.

Gotta love the 60s slang in the lyrics. Far out, man. But the music is great.

Buying music is so 20th century, right? But hey, I still do it. There's a lot of good yet obscure alt rock and power pop out there, or compilations with the odd song from a favorite artist. And this music simply isn't available for digital distribution.

Amazon is a great place to go to find deals on this sort of music. The used listings can offer some really great deals on these albums. High supply and low demand pushes the price of some of these albums down to 1¢. With shipping, it works out to be $2.99. It's a lot cheaper than a new one, and even cheaper than a digital download (if it's even available). And it's cheap enough to take a bit of a chance on.

I'm also trying to clear out some of my old, unwanted albums. As I was listing them, I noticed something interesting about pricing. For all of the albums I listed, I priced it to be the cheapest one. But then if I checked back an hour later, I'd find someone had lowered their price to a penny below mine. If I lowered mine again, the same thing would happen. Repeat enough times, and it turns into a race to 1¢. Clearly they had an automated system doing the pricing. Even tying them for lowest price wasn't good enough. They wanted to be the cheapest, if only by a penny.

Now that I know the game, let me play it to my advantage. I list my album as in horrible condition: massive scratches that skipped horribly, cracked case, no booklet, etc. Sure you can buy it for 1¢, but do you really want to? Compared to my offering, the other one for 1¢ is clearly the one to buy. So someone buys it. After that copy is gone, the competition for the low price is gone. I can raise my price back up to something reasonable, and yet still be the lowest priced one in the list.

But of course I couldn't just stop there. I then realized that I could be that guy who gets the great deal on a used CD for only $2.99 shipped. All I needed to do was find a CD available by one of these shops that does automated pricing. I list my own copy of that CD for sale for 1¢ with the same unappealing comments, and wait. Sure enough, within half an hour the other seller's listing automatically drops to 1¢. I buy it, then close out my own listing.

A couple of shops that I know do this are Doolicity and  Mister Happy's. I'm sure there are others too. Hope you find some great deals out there on some great music.

Very Jellyfish-influenced power pop. Strong melody in the chorus. The falsetto is a bit forced at the top, but otherwise the song is power pop perfection. I love it.

Flamenco-style guitar, a hushed vocal in the verses, and a subtle driving beat that picks up in the chorus with more intense vocals and the backing string quarter notes. I like.

It's a bit country, but the rhythm and chords of the piano work really well against the counterpoint of the vocals. I also like the contrast of the driving rhythm of the verse versus the more laid-back chorus.

Here's a song I really like that I bet most readers haven't heard before. Nice variation between soft and hard, and a great chord progression in the bridge at 2'59"

Soldier's daughter
Did your daddy,
   did your daddy hurt you?
Did he make you feel bad?
Did he poison your views,
   with the water he was raised on?

This music has really grown on me. It's some of the best synth-pop (well, more like synth-emo) that I've heard in a while. It's a great story too. The guy was living with his parents, had insomnia, and just was doing the music as a way to pass the time. He posted to My Space, it went viral, and now he's got a record contract.

Get Owl City from Amazon Music

Yes I know (I know)
And it’s ruining my day (I know)
Yes I know (I know, you know)
And you know it’s giving me a headache

Get this song from Amazon MP3

I've been listening to the individual songs that Mae has been releasing one-per-month on their website, What is Mae? The resulting album (m)orning is certainly worth a listen, and IMHO well worth the purchase (only $5 on Lala).

Standouts for me are A Melody, the Memory and The Fisherman Song. The first and last songs on the album are throw-away filler, but everything else is solid.

As a side note, it is strange that 2 of the songs on the album are priced at $1.49 on Lala (and a whopping $2 on Amazon!). I've never seen MP3 downloads cost more than $1.30. I wonder what this is all about.

If you're a fan of power pop music like I am, then you'll love the Power Pop Criminals blog. I stumbled upon it while looking for Jason Falkner's rare 2001 Japanese double CD Everyone Says It's On. (I certainly wasn't going to pay the going rate of $300 for it on Amazon Marketplace. Sheesh.) I found it, and more.

Angelo —  the blog's owner —  is both passionate and prolific. He posts MP3s for impossible-to-buy albums from the power pop genre with commentary nearly every day. The archives go back a couple of years; there are over 600 posts I'm going to need to wade through at some point here.

I agree with his philosophy on sharing this music. If he finds out it's available commercially, he will take it down. The goal is simply to share great music that would not otherwise be accessible to fans. I love it. Or maybe I should fear it. I'm afraid it's going to lead me to buy more music from newly-discovered artists.