Beatles Day

I wonder how it went for 09-09-09 as it related to The Beatles.

It was very uneventful for me, since I bought the sets of CDs on Amazon ... and I have the pleasure of waiting till they get here. Apparently it's supposed to be tomorrow.

But I'm still glad I put my order in early and that they're on the way. Because according to articles I was reading, the supplies were very very limited at stores. Then I'd be sitting here with nothing today ... and tomorrow.

Come on. It's The Beatles. Sitting here with nothing is not an option.

Go, Goo, Go!

Yesterday I got a CD by the Go-Go's and one by the Goo Goo Dolls. So the Gos and the Goos in one day.

I Just Stopped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In

I got two Kenny Rogers CDs at Goodwill today. I don't think I had any Kenny Rogers CDs already, although a few of these songs I have somewhere, vinyl perhaps.

Both are greatest hits packages. One is "The Best of Kenny Rogers," a 10 track Capitol CD. Not much there, 10 tracks! This doesn't include any of his rock tracks. The other has 12 tracks and it's one of the 20th Century Masters series, with the exact same title as the Capitol one. It has some of the same tracks, too, plus the biggies by the First Edition, tracks 8 thru 12, including "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," "Ruben James," and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In)". I like those songs, except when I was a kid we made fun of "Ruby."

So I'll probably listen to those songs a few times and some of the others. Put them on and enjoy!

The other CD I got was by Gin Blossoms, "Congratulations I'm Sorry." I don't think I have this one. I have the other one I know about, the one with "Hey Jealousy."

My Life Would Suck Without You

I love the new single by Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You."

When I first heard of it a few weeks ago, I thought, yuck, what a title. I heard a few seconds at Amazon, but it must have been one of those days. Plus, I wasn't going to buy it, just to turn around and buy the whole album when it came out. So I only heard it those few seconds, then once on the radio. It sounded a little "paint by numbers" as a song, and I suppose it is.

But seeing/hearing it on American Idol, and now with the CD, hearing it over the speakers and especially on the earbuds, it's a beautiful song. I love the sentiment and the fact that it's romantic and also admittedly dysfunctional. It's easy to identify with that in our ordinary relationships, because we know where all the bodies are buried. Nothing's perfect, but still, I can say to her, "My life would suck without without you!" In fact I can say that a lot more honestly than some of the other romantic songs that don't allow for ambiguity.

I'm old enough that I actually remember when people started using the word "suck," and it wasn't a part of normal conversation. You wouldn't say it if a teacher was in the room, let's say. But as time went on (stroking my very long gray beard), Beavis and Butthead, then kids saying it about everything, now it's something you can hear in church, "The offering sucked today." Heh, I don't know about that last one. So when I heard the title, I thought yuck.

But it's a great song. I love it.

By the way, it's a lot better listening to it up close with earbuds than over the speakers. It's a lot more involved sounding with background stuff that you miss over the speakers.

Very Prickly Copy Protection

I got a CD secondhand yesterday, even though it wasn't open, that has very stringent, strict copy protection.

Even though it comes with plenty of warnings that it can't be ripped, I stuck it in the computer to see, and sure enough, it came up with numerous screen notices (Media Monkey did, that is) telling me it couldn't be done.

It's by an Indian guy named Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I never heard of him either, but a perusal of the internet shows he is well known in some circles. It's an album called "Gems From A Genius."

The CD was made in India, and, as I said, it is severely copy protected. It tells you right on the cover by the hinge. Then on the back cover, giving warnings that it might encounter problems playing on your player. And inside is a card that describes all that you can and cannot expect from this precious CD, including:

It can't be burnt onto a CD-R or hard disk. It can't be converted into MP3 files. It might not play in the following players: Some that have the capability of burning into an MP3. Some that posses CD-R/RW functions. Some car stereos with satellite "Guidance" systems. Some players with hard disk recording capability. Some portable players. Some DVD players. Some CD/LD convertible players. Some game players. Maybe not your computer. (For your computer it has some built in player that is meant to autoplay, but there's no guarantee it will work.)

Ha ha, what a ridiculous thing! They sell CDs and they're afraid you might actually want to listen to it!

Minimal Music, Sound

I've gotten a couple of albums in the last day or so, stuff somewhat off the beaten track. Probably the soundtrack from Slumdog Millionaire is on the beaten track, actually, but it's not on the usual beaten track I follow.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but read about it, and it sounds fairly cool. I like things that have to do with India, and checked out the samples before getting it. I have a couple M.I.A. albums already, so to have another copy of "Paper Planes" was not the point. There is an alternate version on there, which sounds good. That makes a second alternate version for me, since when I first bought the song I didn't check it out adequately and ended up with a remix.

I've listened to the soundtrack once so far ... and the tunes have a cool India vibe. More background music for me while doing other things, reading.

The other album, which I just discovered searching for other things, was "Involution" by Aurobindo. This would be classified as ambient, minimal music maybe. It's a lot of sound tones, various modulations that I believe has some sort of human creativity guiding them. They also make for something good for not occupying your mind and yet perhaps provoking some unknown thoughts in there. I'm thinking that I want things that give rise to thoughts or dreams without telling the content of those things.

I got a little bonus in checking this one out. At one of the musician's websites, DeHoen (?), he has a couple extra tracks relating to the "Involution" album. So I got those for free. They're there for free downloading anyway.

The other tracks were downloaded from Amazon. This weekend the Slumdog soundtrack is a $5 download.

Hinder - Extreme Behavior

I got the Hinder CD "Extreme Behavior" at Goodwill yesterday. I like the song "Lips of an Angel," and thought a dollar was a good deal for the whole CD.

I was surprised then to read the bad review of the album at All Music. One and a half stars and taking them to task for whatever, for being guys with hormones I guess.

But I was playing it as background music while doing something else and it sounded pretty good. I wasn't paying close attention though, or filtering it through extraordinary sensibilities.

Great cover! I didn't know the album was so old, 2005. Since I was just hearing "Lips of an Angel" on the radio recently. Shows what I know.

I also heard a country version of "Lips of an Angel" but can't remember who the singer was.

The Polyphonic Spree

Have you ever heard the song, "Section 10 (A Long Day)" by The Polyphonic Spree?

I had never heard it before, and was listening to the album while writing a blog post. Since I'm basically concentrating on writing that -- the article "I'm Withholding Judgment," on John Edwards having or maybe not having a love child -- I'm not paying strict attention to this track playing in my earbuds.

It's fine as background, then I start to notice that it's going on for a while, and that it's a lot of prolonged, mechanical sounding tones played without a lot of variance and melody. So I look at the CD cover and it's timed at 36:30! That's interesting.

There's like 26 or 29 people in this group, but I don't think they all had a part in this track.

It doesn't sound like a track for listening to if you're just listening to songs. But if you're doing something else, it's kind of a nice! I heard the whole thing, which might not happen that often.