Legendary rock band Journey released a new 3-disc album this week aptly titled Revelation that contains a CD of 11 new songs, a CD with 11 re-recorded classics, and a DVD of Journey’s Las Vegas concert in March ’08.

The surprising revelation is that this release features the band’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, formerly of the band "The Zoo" from Manila, Philippines.   And amazingly, the talented singer was discovered by Journey’s lead guitarist Neal Schon via a YouTube video!   CBS aired the amazing story of the Arnel Pineda’s unconventional discovery on their Sunday Morning show last weekend.

What may be most amazing is just how much Pineda’s soaring tenor captures not only the sound of Journey’s most well-known frontman, Steve Perry, but also much of the same texture & character.   Some say that Pineda lacks Perry’s fire on some of the re-recorded classics but they sound great to me and his vocals definitely shine on most of the 11 new tracks.   Regardless, the similarity of the two singers is uncanny.   I’d wager that most people won’t catch that the new songs are not sung by Steve Perry on the first few listens.   What, not convinced?   Compare the following classic hits as performed then vs. now:

  Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - 1982

  Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - 2008

  Faithfully - 1983

  Faithfully - 2008

After hearing those songs, what do ya think?

By the way, I was a huge fan throughout the ’80s and was well-versed on all things Journey, but there’s at least one lingering trivia question I can’t answer:

Their iconic logo first appeared on the Infinity album cover and has carried forward on every album in the 30 years since, but I’ve never heard whose idea it originally was.   Anybody know where or who the scarab-like futuristic insect with bird-like wings logo came from?
 

Labels: music

Y’know how quite often you begin reading about one specific thing on the Internet and you end up meandering all over the place?   Next thing you know, you’ve hyperlinked & explored across the Web — reading blogs, watching videos, & listening to streaming audio stuff — and couple of hours have suddenly vanished?   Well, that’s exactly where this post originated...

A relatively new site called Jamendo that offers more than 5000 free music albums in high-quality DRM-free MP3 format.   You can save individual tracks or use your BitTorrent client to download entire albums in a jiff.   This is an excellent way to discover emerging new artists & music!   All music on Jamendo is licensed through Creative Commons, making it legal to copy & share, and even modify.   Some of the musicians even allow for the use of their music in commercial products or to be redistibuted as part of other projects.

And that’s how I came across Deus and try^d.   French electonica musician Deus’ captivating track called "Nothing Is Impossible" had been used in The Machine is Us/ing Us, an excellent video by Michael Wesch & the Digital Ethnography students at Kansas State University.

Internet-based electronica group try^d’s "Waltz Into the Moonlight" is featured as the soundtrack to a cool new video that I discovered last weekend, thanks to Michele Martin’s The Bamboo Project Blog.   Prof. Wesch has produced another thought-inspiring video, "A Vision of Students," that summarizes some of the most important characteristics of students today — how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they’ll experience in their lifetime.

Labels: music, technology

Recently, I predicted that Cover Flow is poised to revitalize cover art design in the music industry.   While I suspect that digital music has lessened the visual aspect of music and only a few really memorable album covers have come along in recent years but I believe that Apple’s Cover Flow UI is going to cause far-reaching ripples that will, amoung other things, revitalize the importance of graphic design in music.

Concidentally, a couple of days later, I ran across Chris Smith’s cool article 23 Album Covers that Changed Everything! on Mental Floss.   I don’t necessarily agree with all of Chris’ choices but there are certainly a bunch of excellent, unforgettable records mentioned that helped shape a whole generation’ tastes in music and popular art!

That article made me think back about some of the first records I owned.   Music was a tactile thing back then — you held the LP in your hands, placed the record player needle ever-so-carefully on the outer ring of that big ol’ slab of vinyl, and marvelled at the creativity of the album cover & liner notes design while the music seeped into your soul.   Okay, okay, maybe that seems a little deep but music was a truly special thing back in my formative teens.   I still love music now, but it just seemed more substantial & eventful back in the analog days of vinyl.   Records weren’t just something you listened to — they were something you escaped into.

Here are just a few of the memorable LPs that Dede & I listened to that changed our worlds:



What’re some of the LPs that left an indelible mark on you, both for their memorable artwork and music?   Or do you recall what your first record album was?   Post a comment & share your story!
 

Labels: music

Recently, I’ve been thinking...   The widespread acceptance of digital music has probably caused album artwork to become much less important since so much music is being bought electronically now.   And even of the CDs you might’ve physically purchased in the past few months, what was the last one you bought that featured a truly memorable cover design?   Can you even recall the what the album covers from the last 4 or 5 CDs you purchased looked like?

I believe that’s all about to change...



Cover Flow, the 3-D interface that iTunes & the new iPod lineup features for visually browsing through your digital music libraries via album covers, was created by independent Mac developer Jonathan del Strother and purchased by Apple back in ’04.   It’s a gorgeous, intuitive, & fun way to peruse your music collection — almost exactly like flipping through stacks of vinyl LP record albums back in the old analog music days.

The more I see of the visually-stunning Cover Flow interface, I’m convinced that its popularity — thanks in no small part to Steve Jobs’ miraculous iPhone — will spark a revitalization of the previously-withering art of album cover design.   Since thumbing through your music collection’s cover art is the coolest way to find stuff on all of the new iPods (except the display-less iPod Shuffle), I think we’re about to see the visual aspect of music get a serious kick in the pants!

And I don’t think the impact of Cover Flow ends there.   No sir, not by a long shot!   Similarly-styled GUIs are going to spring up left & right — not the least of which is Leopard, or Mac OS X v10.5, the sixth major release of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system due out in October ’07.   It’s a safe bet that we’re seeing the next paradigm shift in user interfaces.

What do you think?   Will Cover Flow revitalize album cover design within the music industry?   And will it become as imitated as the iPod’s venerable click wheel?
 

Labels: iPod, music, technology

Last month I was fired up about Collective Soul’s forthcoming Afterwords CD.   Well, the album released yesterday and sure enough, it’s great stuff!

I quickly got the feeling that they’ve worked hard to pay homage to some of their own favorite musicians.   On "Bearing Witness," you’d almost swear they had George Harrison on guitar.   There’s the distictive chimey guitar reminiscent of U2’s Edge in "Good Morning After All."   You can easily hear The Cars influence on the CD’s bouncy, fun, first single "Hollywood."   Dede & I both picked up on some Cheap Trick and on "What I Can Give You," there’s even a nod to The Killers.

Even atop all of that, the album still has the signature Collective Soul sound.   If you liked their previous albums, you’re sure to enjoy this one, too!   Grab the CD for $10 this week at Target and let us know how you like it!
 

Labels: music

Man, I am so stoked!

I just found out that one of my most favoritest bands, Collective Soul, is gearing up to release their seventh studio album in August.   I’ve long since been hooked on their sometimes-orchestral, post-grunge, layered music so I’m definitely psyched for this new disc!

The interesting twist that accompanies the release of their "Afterwords" album on August 28th?   The band has struck a deal with Target as the exclusive retailer for the (physical) CD & iTunes for the (digital) downloadable files.

You can give a listen to the Georgia quintet’s awesome, bouncy new single, "Hollywood" at Collective Soul's MySpace page.   At first I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the style of this new song really reminded me of another band.   Then it finally hit me... (with a gentle nudge from Dede)   The Cars, back in the ’80s..   Anyone else catch that vibe?
 

Labels: music

I love music and have a fairly broad range of musical tastes, although I guess most of this is fairly mainstream. I can't quite cozy up to some of the stuff out at the extremes like bubblegum pop junk, really twangy old country, or Trey & Linda's fierce "growl rock" death metal.

But one main musical genre that I mostly ignore is Hip-Hop. I've often ranted on (just ask Clems & April) most urban music (Rap, Hip-Hop, or the new generation of "R&B") for being morally bankrupt and drowning actual talent with just so much "gangsta" ghetto attitude. Jamie Foxx's "Unpredictable," for example, could've been great, but he trashed his credible & real vocal abilities with fistfulls of guest street thugs, er... rappers & MCs spouting pointless rhymes and injecting loads of needless profanity. It's telling that the best parts of Kanye West or Snoop Dogg songs are the guest artists — like Jamie Foxx, Usher, or Justin Timberlake — guys who have soulful singing skills, but junk up most of their own songs with distracting, meaningless, and often tasteless (c)rap.

But where most Hip-Hop or Rap artists may fail to impress me much for their own musical talent, it seems that their real skill is in finding fresh new sounds to accompany them. Kanye West's violinist (introduced by Jay-Z), Miri Ben-Ari, for example, is at the forefront of an emerging variant of Hip-Hop that's really got me excited. Miri brings highbrow classical musicianship to the street. Her sound & style doesn't sacrifice smarts just to be hip. And she's kinda hot too!

Likewise, with Nuttin' But Stringz, brothers Damien & Tourie Escobar infuse Classical, Jazz, & R&B styles into Hip-Hop music that's fresh & fun.

And dreadlocked Daniel Bernard Roumain throws down a hybrid of styles that veers more towards orchestral, but features turntable scratch riffs, thumping bass lines, & some very funky violin string plucking.

And then just the other day I discovered this video from Korean group Last4One that remixes Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major" with zithers & breakdancing.



Maybe there's hope for Hip-Hop after all...
 

Labels: music, opinion

Linda & Kayla have joined the ranks of the iPod people. They both received a 30GB iPod Video for Christmas. In Linda’s case, Santa must’ve forgotten to check that "Naughty" list twice this year!

We were initially skeptical about the video quality since the screen seems so small. But after watching a few minutes of Desperate Housewives, well, that Steve Jobs is a genius!! I could definitely stand to watch a movie on this screen without my eyes becoming bleary. Linda says if you plug it into your TV, the image is just as clear at that size as it is on the small screen. 2Dolphins gives 2 thumbs up!

Labels: iPod, mp3, music

Many of you have heard (or read) my previous rants about the ills of Digital Rights Management, but this bears repeating...



Imagine buying a music CD, only to find that you can play it at home but not in your car or at work.   Or what if the CD did play in your car, but only for a limited time?   Well this is nearly exactly the sort of limitations placed on DRM-enabled (or as some say, "DRM-infected") music that you "purchase" from online music services.   These services place tight limits on how you can backup or make copies of music you've paid for.   Perhaps worse, they also reserve the right to change what you can do with the music you've purchased — at any time.   Some music sites offer the tempting option of unlimited downloads for a monthly subscription fee but are a bit coy about mentioning that if you miss a monthly payment, the DRM renders the downloaded music unplayable.   So, what have you bought?   Well, nothing.

Defeating DRM is all about awareness and DefectiveByDesign.org has declared October 3rd as a "Day Against DRM" as part of an international movement to protect consumer rights.



And remember that DRM doesn't only affect you if you pay to download music. Last year, Sony's Rootkit Debacle caused quite a stir when Sony BMG music CDs were sneaking spyware onto unsuspecting users’ PCs.   Sadly, uninstalling the spyware opened up gaping security holes and caused serious stability issue with some PCs.

Quick tip:
Windows users can avoid getting nailed by this sort of malicious copy-protection software by simply holding down on the left shift key when you insert a CD into your PC, thereby preventing it from autolaunching.
 

Labels: music

We just got back from a great outdoor concert at Dos Amigos. Dos has been bringing lots of rock to town this Summer, so we're all for supporting them whenever possible. (And they've got Candlebox coming next month!)

Tonight's concert featured Bowling for Soup on their "Get Happy" tour. BFS is from Wichita Falls, Texas and they put on a good show. They're very cool about autographs — Dede got Jaret Reddick (the lead singer) to sign her ticket stub.

We also enjoyed the first warm-up band, Army of Freshmen, a punk-pop group from Ventura, California.

Labels: music

Trey & I recently pondered why it is that the vast majority of the hip-hop "musicians" like 50 Cent, P. Diddy, et al. seem so pissed off, miserable, or just plain constipated?   I mean, c’mon, how unhappy can you justify being if the most challenging part of your day is hauling around $2mil of platinum & diamond jewelry while "bustin’ a rhyme?"   Not sure what I mean?   Click here, here, here, or here, for a few perfect examples of this.   I’m thinking maybe if they pawn off some "bling" and snag a Happy Meal, some of these thugs might just be able to crack a smile...

After all, if we’ve gotta tolerate these jokers bilking most of the Gen Y population out of every last dime on degrading stuff that’s (generally) about as sophisticated as Mother Goose nursery rhymes, can’t we at least demand that they smile big all the way to the bank?

At any rate, it seemed only fitting (fo’ shizzle!) to show Trey proudly assuming the "gangsta" pose that works so well ($$) for the rappers.
 

Labels: music, opinion

Here's a QuickTime video of an awesome version of George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps performed on ukulele by Jake Shimabukuro performed, fittingly, in Central Park’s Strawberry Fields.

No really. It's that good.

(Warning: Could be a humbling experience for those of you who play guitar.

Labels: music

Y’know, I’m all about spreading the good word about businesses and companies who treat their customers right.   For example, is there anyone who hasn’t heard me sing praises of Best Cleaners?   If you’re local (you know who you are) and have clothes that need to be "dry cleaned," these folks truly do live up to their name.

Likewise, companies who don’t treat their customers right should get their just desserts too.   There’s been a tremendous buzz lately over Sony and their malicious "rootkit" DRM scheme.   Watchdog advocates are calling for consumers to speak their minds during this holiday season — in the language of currency!
 

Labels: music, opinion

According to The Record, Angus Young, the Scottish lead guitarist of AC/DC is only 5 feet 2 inches tall. In the December '05 issue, Angus tops Maxim's list of the 25 greatest short dudes of all time.

Labels: music

Dunno how I managed to be so unaware of Bill Amend’s Foxtrot syndicated comic strip.   I’ve glanced at it in the Sunday paper a few times but never really paid much attention, but this one caught my eye:



Bill, it turns out, is a techie geek at heart and really hit the nail on the head with this jab at the whole Sony DRM scandal.   I lifted this right off of Jody Cairns' blog site Steel White Table, so it seemed only right to at least give him credit for the find.

If you’ve followed along you know how much I love music, but am fiercely opposed to the whole DRM thing.   I know lots of people will be getting MP3 players for Christmas this year (Hint: Go iPod!), so take a little time to educate yourself on the digital music scene and, in particular, this DRM stuff before it has a chance to cause you a bunch of grief.

Quick Tip:
You can avoid getting nailed by the sort of malicious copy-protection software that’s giving Sony such a black eye by simply holding down on the left Shift key when you insert a CD into your PC, thereby preventing it from autolaunching.   Dede found out the hard way about rootkits with a Dido CD recently.
 

Labels: music

We just got back from San Angelo where Amberly performed in her first rock concert at the Oasis Lounge. Her band Acid Ego, was made up of 3 girls and 2 guys all from her Rock 101 music class. They did a AWESOME job and the set list included: I Love Rock 'n Roll, Wild Thing, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Warning and an original song by Amberly. I'm sure this is the first of many more concerts to come for Amberly. Rock on "A"... your fans love ya!!!!

Labels: music

On July 14th, the name "MP3" celebrates its tenth anniversary!!   On this day back in 1995, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany decided upon the filename extension ".MP3" for their new audio coding technology.   Soon MP3 became the generally accepted acronym for the ISO standard IS 11172-3 "MPEG Audio Layer 3" designed to greatly reduce the amount of data (10:1 compression is common) required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners.

As mentioned in my Digital Music Project blog post back in February, we’re big fans of digital music, so happy birthday, MP3.   Rock on!
 

Labels: mp3, music, technology

Okay, I admit it...   I’m on the leading edge of "Gen-X" generation and thus, I cut my teeth on late ’70s & ’80s rock.   Among others, I really loved the old ’80s Canadian rock band Loverboy.

So I was totally blown away by Shawn Barrett’s video of Loverboy’s "Working for the Weekend."   This homemade video is better than half of the videos I ever saw on MTV during the ’80s.   You’ll be rockin’ & rollin’ out of your chair laughing!

Update:   Click Shawn’s web host must be suffering from some bandwidth problems with the increased traffic, so I placed a copy of his awesome video right here on 2Dolphins in the meantime.   Enjoy!!
 

Labels: music

I embarked upon a fairly ambitious project about three weeks ago and have just completed. I've ripped - or encoded - all of our audio CDs to MP3 format files. In all, our music collection of around 350 CDs ended up being about 7200 files using about 26GB of hard drive space. And I've still got a few hundred loose MP3 files scattered across a dozen or so backup disks that have yet to be imported.

Having all of our music available in MP3 format offers several advantages but primarily this was to make use of our TiVo's ability to pull MP3 music from my PC thru our wireless network to the nice surround sound system in the living room. And this also makes it easy to scoop up fresh tunes for my old reliable NexII MP3 player that I take on walks or onto Dede's Dell Axim PocketPC that's always with her.

So, why MP3 format? There are other formats, like Windows Media Player's WMA or the iPod's AAC, that feature better compression (resulting in slightly smaller files with no decrease in audio quality) but they suffer from compatability issues. MP3 files can be played on nearly any kind of PC or handheld device (and even some cell phones!) whereas these other formats are far more limiting and selective. Those are the formats, by the way, that you'll get if you join one of the digital music services that allow you to purchase music downloads, like Napster, MSN Music, Wal-Mart, or iTunes. I urge you to avoid those services due to one major drawback: DRM.

DRM, or "Digital Rights Management," is a form of copy protection from the record labels. DRM-enabled music files feature restrictions that allow record companies to securely and legally sell you music without having to worry that you might freely share that music with others. DRM is designed to assure compensation for the copyright holders (writers, musicians, record labels, etc.) but really only straightjackets you, a well-meaning, law-abiding music fan by placing tight limits on how many times you can make a copy of a song (between different computers, mobile devices, or MP3 players) or burn music you've purchased to CD. This is important so let me state that again...

     You don't buy music with those services - you rent it.

Given that, it starts to make sense why lots of people use illegal file sharing programs like KaZaa or LimeWire for downloading music files because these programs provide music in the convenient and ever-compatible MP3 format that contain none of the tight restrictions of purchased music downloads. So, why not just turn to file sharing sites to get all of your music? The biggest reason not to do so is the tremendous security risks - crippling spyware and malicious virus attacks - that are all too common side-effects of using these services on your PC. These security nightmares can grind your PC to a halt in a matter of minutes, causing problems typically only fully remedied by scrubbing and rebuilding the entire thing. Ugh!

Also, with these illegal music downloads, you have no assurances of the quality of the music or that the file even contains the song that the filename suggests. Often, downloading from file sharing sites is like Forrest Gump's box of choc'lates - "You never know what you're gonna get."

Lastly, downloading from these sites is essentially stealing music. Though it may be unlikely, there's a certainly very real potential for legal fallout when engaging in this sort of shady stuff. Legally purchasing music avoids potential legal pitfalls and, perhaps most importantly, it helps to support your favorite musicians so they can keep making tunes that you enjoy.

With that in mind, I urge you to continue buying your music on traditional CDs. Then you can make backup copies of those CDs for the car or rip 'em to MP3 format to use on your PC and mobile gadgets. This way, you're protecting your music investment while "doing the right thing."

By the way, you can head over to CNet's Music Center Glossary to learn more. Relax, the confusing tangle of digital music terminology can confound even the best of us.

So what are your thoughts on the whole digital music thing? Leave us a comment!

Labels: mp3, music

Temps have hit 70-80° everyday for the last couple of weeks so we've been leaving most of our windows open night & day. Then a coupla days ago, Dede said aloud exactly what I had been thinking - this feels very SoCal. Nice.

So yesterday found me jonesin' for some appropriate tunes and my home-brewed Sugar Ray mix disc fit the mood perfectly. Dede can't get past Mark McGrath's off-stage personality, so she pans the band entirely. But to me, their sound is almost as much SoCal now as Beach Boys were. Yeah, yeah, their last CD sorta tanked, but listen to some of their slightly older stuff like "Someday," "Every Morning," "When It's Over," and "Under The Sun" and tell me you can't picture surfer dudes, beach babes, Ray Bans, & flip-flops.

I think I just caught a whiff of Coppertone...

Labels: music

CBC News posted an article that's an interesting read with some thought-provoking questions about what the music of the future will sound like. Dan Brown ponders, "Will the way that people access music have an effect on the content of that music?"

I forsee the Internet bringing an ever-increasingly diverse sound into the mainstream because it makes available artists, styles, and even means of making music from a global palette to even the most remote corners of countries where musical experimentation breeds. Whereas an aspiring kid growing up in the rural South might have been predestined to a blues or country-oriented style before, now there's a potential for his style to be more heavily influenced by the sounds from a New Zealand Maori tribe. Consider how Middle Eastern musical influences have worked their way into mainstream pop in the past 2-3 years...

Labels: music, opinion