iTunes, You Sneaky Devil...

So iTunes... For those of you who either know me, or have read a handful of my posts, you know how much I hate music's communist regime, also know as Apple (this includes iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iPods, all of Apple's funky file types, etc.). So the question is, how did I, the anti-Apple, find myself not only at the gates of the iTunes Music Store, but actually downloading AAC files? Well friends, it is a long tail of deception, deceit, and falling from grace... or... I got $25 to the iTunes store for Christmas and decided to find out what it felt like to dip my toe into the forbidden pond of darkness.

So why do I hate the Apple-Machine so much? Well for starters it makes me sick to think that people pay the same amount of money to buy a digital version of an album online as they'd pay in a brick and mortar store. Sure they didn't have to leave their house to get the music, but they don't have a physical copy, and the sound quality is inferior. That being said, I do think it is better you buy inferior music, than steal inferior music.

Anyway, last fall I had a dilemma. As you probably already know, I love Weezer. Not just 90's Weezer, but all Weezer. Yes even Make Believe and Raditude. I am a die-hard Weezerhead. When Weezer came out with Raditude, they launched a special iTunes club that not only included the deluxe version of the album, but also included alternate takes, live tracks, videos, etc. Obviously I wanted all of this material, but I didn't want to have to buy the album twice (because I was already going to buy the physical version) just to get the bonus tracks. So the dilemma came into play, do I A: suck it up and submit to the evil known as iTunes, or do I B: Steal the mp3's? Fortunately there was an intervention, thanks to my mother-in-law and grandma-in-law, I walked away from Christmas with $25 in iTunes credit. Woohoo, Weezer iTunes club here I come.

So last week I finally got around to installing iTunes on to my computer and I set up my iTunes account (I was a little bit irritated that I was forced to give Apple my CC# just to set up an account). Then I was off to downloading my newest Weezer (Rivers, Brian, Pat & Scott, I want you to know that this is your fault, you create your crazy Raditude club pass which includes bonus tracks and videos, thus forcing me to not only buy a physical copy of the said album, but to also buy a communistic digital version).

So what did I think? Well it was super convenient, and the music quality is better than I expected (it should be noted that I've only listened through headphones and my laptop speakers thus far). I was less than impressed with the way Apple organized all of the files. Each week is set up as an individual album, so I have Raditude Club Week #1, Raditude Club Week #2, and so on. Couldn't they have just created a Raditude Club album/folder for all of the tracks? Also, what's up with these crazy AAC files that only play on authorized computers? Thank you for that headache Apple.

In conclusion, I'm not sold yet. I'm not going to give up physical discs for iTunes, although I will gladly accept more iTunes Gift Cards. I do think iTunes makes it very convenient to make those One Hit Wonders of the 90's collections (Just for the record, I have never made it past track 4 on my Deep Blue Something album. Instead of pulling it out of the used bin and paying $2.99 for it, I should have just purchased "Breakfast at Tiffany's" from iTunes... or wait, should I have purchased it from Amazon MP3? That's going to be my next adventure in the digital world. As far as I know Amazon's tracks aren't protected, so you can listen to there anywhere, but I have heard rumors that their sound quality is inferior to iTunes. That alone would be a deal breaker... I'll keep you updated since I know you're dying to hear about my adventures in digital music.

-Tim

P.S. One of these days I'll get around to reviewing all of the bonus Weezer tracks, but for now I think it's sufficient to say that I loved several of the bonus tracks, especially the alternate "rock" version of "Can't Stop Partying (Coconut Teaser Mix)." The bonus tracks definitely made it worth my while to re-purchasing/download all the stuff I already own.

Gotta Keep the Masses Happy

So I've been getting pretty high tech lately when it comes to my blog. I've added some analytic tracking so I can see what keywords are leading people here. One that has driven a decent amount of traffic is, "guitars used on haarp" and/or "guitars used in haarp." Since I'm pretty sure I haven't actually written about Muse's gear, I figured I better write up a quick post for the Google-driven-masses.

So here we go, Matthew Bellamy uses an assortment of custom built guitars by Hugh Manson of Manson Guitars. Since he pretty much changes guitars with every song, I'm not going to go through all the different models, but they are all Manson's. For more details on Matt's guitar specs, check out his guitar page on Manson's site here.

Bassist Chris Wolstenholme has an assortment of basses in his collection including both Fender Jass and Precision basses, custom built Mansons, Rickenbackers, and several others. I popped in the H.A.A.R.P. DVD to see what he's playing in the videos. On Map of the Problamatique and Knights of Cydonia, he is using a Rickenbacker 4003FL. For Time is Running Out, Supermassive Black Hole, Plug in Baby, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Hysteria, Invincible, and possibly others, he is using a red Fender Jazz bass. He also uses two other Jazz basses, a black one on New Born, and a white one on Starlight. Later on for Micro Cuts he uses a blue bass which I'm pretty sure is a custom built Manson (I could be wrong though, I can't get a clear view of it, but I'm pretty sure the headstock in a Manson).

Anyway, there you go as for H.A.A.R.P. guitars. If I have missed any, please let me know and I'll update the list.

-ggt

p.s. Next time we're going to be discussing Rivers Cuomos' gear (Franken-Strats, SG's, Explorers... it's gonna be fun!)

"The Decision" Update

Wednesday - "Hole in My Soul" Aerosmith (I'm not sure why Aerosmith has hit the list twice now, it's not like I'm a huge fan... for a while I even removed them from my Creative Nomad Mp3 Player).

Thursday - "Where is My Mind" The Pixies

Friday (today) - "San Dimas High School Football Rules" The Ataris

The Decision...

Wow, it has been like 3 months since my last post. I sure hope my lack of updates hasn't lost me my two faithful followers...

So today's topic is what I like to call "The Decision." It goes something like this, each morning I go to work and open my iTunes (I know, for how much I bash Apple, I use iTunes at work...) and brows through my list of nearly 9500 songs. I almost always leave my music on random play, so the decision comes in here, what do I start my random play with for the day? Sounds like a simple decisions doesn't it? But it isn't! The pattern of my entire day could be based on this decision. There are days, and I'm not kidding when I say this, where I literally take 30 minutes to make the decision (mind you, I am checking emails while making the decision, I don't just sit there and stare at iTunes for 30 mins with a blank expression on my face).

It was recommended by a friend that I just pick any song, and then hit the skip button and let iTunes randomly pick the song. This does sounds like a good idea, but do I really want to leave my entire day up to chance?

So my question is: Does anyone else deal with "The Decision" every morning, or am i just totally insane?

Here is a list of "The Decision" winners for last week/this week:

Monday 2/1 "Amazing" Aerosmith
Tuesday 2/2 "Rock You Like a Hurrican" Scorpians
Wednesday 2/3 "Put Me Back Together" Weezer
Thursday 2/4 Home Grown When It All Comes Down, the entire EP
Friday 2/5 "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" U2
Monday 2/8 "Good Times, Bad Times" Led Zeppelin
Tuesday 2/9 "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" CAKE

-Tim