NeutralAxis

After Christmas, I picked up a Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray player for $129.  In addition to the standard blu-ray and DVD playback are internet services for Blockbuster Video, Netflix, Pandora Internet Radio, and Youtube.  I tried Netflix back in 2000 but quit because the turnaround time to send in a movie and get the next one back was more than week.  I know they’ve fixed that by opening more distribution centers, but nonetheless, I haven’t gone back.  I’m also not into Youtube except for instructional type videos.  It was the Pandora service I was anticipating most. (continue reading…)

I wrote about The Detroit Cobras’ music a few months ago and have been following them on Twitter.  They just put up a gallery of really cool images of their 2009 tour posters on Facebook.  I especially like this one because it reminds me of 60s psychedelic rock art.  Bigger image after the break. (continue reading…)

Go to Blondie.com for a free download of Debbie Harry’s high velocity take on the Christmas classic, We Three Kings.  Sample after the jump. (continue reading…)

Check out the rock band photography by Cybele Malinowski at her blog, Bang Bang Dot Dot.  I’ve been following her RSS feed and keep seeing interesting things show up.

OK.  Here I sit in the US Midwest, minding my own business thinking “am I too old to bother with Twitter?”  But I’m a geek, so I sign up and follow a few bands I like.  Within 24 hrs; actually before I had even made my first tweet, I see that I’m being followed by hayleyjfoster in Australia.  Who?  Why?  I haven’t even tweeted yet.  Clever marketing, that’s why. (continue reading…)

Auto-Tune, that technology that lets the most untalented singers stay in tune, is used in this video to make clips from Carl Sagan’s 1980 miniseries Cosmos into a surprisingly enjoyable music video.  Kudos to whomever the talented person was who put this together.

When I rip music, I do it twice.  Once in mp3 format for playback on an iPod and once in flac for playback on my local network via Roku Soundbridge players and the Firefly media server.  iTunes doesn’t support flac, so I can’t make iTunes playlists for those files.  I can, however, make them for the mp3 files which are named identically.  And with a little Linux program called “sed”, I can edit the iTunes library to make Firefly read it to work with the flac files. (continue reading…)

David Letterman’s booking staff has done it again coming up with a terrific band, Spinnerette.  Fronted by Brody Dalle, formerly of The Distillers whom I also hadn’t heard of previously, the band comes across to me as a cross between Courtney Love and Siouxie and The Banshees, with a dash of Evanescence goth.  Its good hard driving rock with melody and her strong voice. (continue reading…)

Grey Eye Glances is a folk-rock band like you might find some evening playing at your local Borders Book Store.  In fact the band played New Jersey Borders stores before they got their major label debut in 1997.  Their most recent album, A Little Voodoo came out in 2002, but their website says they’re back touring and recording for 2009.  I’ll be watching and waiting. (continue reading…)

I saw The Sounds on Letterman doing a song from their new album Crossing The Rubicon. I have two of their past CDs, and while they were good, they weren’t really favorites.  They’ve stepped up their game with this new song, “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake.” And even though they’re not an American band, the whole album would be good for a Fourth of July picnic today.  Video of the Letterman appearance and a link to streams of the whole album after the jump. (continue reading…)