Like Jen, my 2007 wasn’t entirely fraught with new music. There’s too much that’s already happened that I need to catch up on, so my list has a lot of stuff that has already happened, but it’s what I did in 2007. Let’s look closer:

The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips

• 2007 will be remember as the year that I finally ‘got’ the Flaming Lips. While I didn’t really dislike the Lips, before this year I just couldn’t understand why everyone was always wetting themselves over Wayne Coyne & Co. Exposure Box listeners will remember me trying to do this towards the end of the show’s term.

Stunts - Rademacher

• I know I’ve mentioned them before this year, but I love and will continue to love these guys. Their album’s out now! Dig it for real, but also remember that they are supremely choice in a live setting. Maybe you can get pizza with them, too!

Secrets From the Future - MC Frontalot

• 2007 was likely teh n3rd13st y34r EVAR!1!!1 For me, at least. I’m convinced,however, that, with advancements in technology and the increasing acceptance of online networking, all of Western Society is nerdening up. There’s never been a riper market for MC Frontalot than right now (though some say he should have waited until after the revolution of 2012, but if you’ve got rhymes, bust ‘em).

A Grand Don’t Come for Free - The Streets

• Thinking about it now, I really can’t tell you exactly why I love this album so much, but I do. I was able to get pretty caught up in the story, and though I normally pull for a less-than-perfect ending to stories where that type of ending presents itself, I’m really glad “Empty Cans” does what it do.

Disintegration - The Cure

• Even though I already owned Three Imaginary Boys, Paris, and Wild Mood Swings, along with both singles collections and the Greatest Hits, I considered this my first real Cure album, and in many ways it is. Of course I just got Wish this week and feel pretty much the same about that one.

Carnavas - Silversun Pickups

• I’ve already apologized for underestimating this one the first time around, but I don’t think I really mentioned how it’s become one of my most listened-to albums of ‘07. I take back all the nasty things I said.

In Rainbows - Radiohead

• Though not in the way that most people did In Rainbows, I ended up listening to the bootlegs of live versions of songs that were leaked last summer. Seriously, In Rainbows was a little disappointing, but I just had to mention that I’m better than you because I’d known these songs for a year before the album was released. Good gravy I’m lame. Sorry.

Batman - Prince

• Seeing Prince perform at half-time of Super Bowl XLI may have gotten me a little obsessed. I may have ordered the Batman soundtrack that very day, and while I continue to catch flak for it (the Girl bought me the new album, Planet Earth, just to spite me) I won’t stop liking Prince.

Razorblade Suitcase - Bush

• My first Bush album, The Science of Things, has long been my favourite simply because it’s the one I got to know best. This year, however, I realized that Suitcase is much more textured without resorting to some of the electronic elements of Science. Also, the songs are better. I actually went as far as to finally complete my Bush collection with the (I’ll admit) sub-par remix album Deconstructed. May have listened to a lot of Bush this year. Nineties Rock Mondays sure helped with that.

Neon Bible - The Arcade Fire and Wincing the Night Away - The Shins

• I know these two are going to be on so many year in review lists, but they’ve earned it. Also, I’ve seen both of these bands live this year, that’s pretty kickin’, no doubt. They’re both amazing, by the way, and you have no excuse not to see them. Especially the Arcade Fire. You owe it to yourself, and your posterity. Regarding Neon Bible, “Intervention” is the reason you got those really nice headphones, or your buddy hooked up that home theater, or else it’s a complete waste of pipe organ.

So that’s pretty much my 2007. I honestly didn’t mean for this to be a list of ten. Because that cliche is much much worse than the year in review cliche. Sorry folks, I may just be lame, but maybe I’ll work on that for 2008. In the mean time I’m looking forward to new stuff from Saves the Day and Weezer, and I’ll probably get really into Dinosaur Jr. or Sonic Youth or Starland Vocal Band (not for “Afternoon Delight, and not ironically) or Pavement or something. New beginnings!!

MP3S COMING LATER….NEW YEARS PARTYING KEEPING US BUSY

MP3S ARE UP!

 The Streets - Blinded by the Light [4:43m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Prince - Partyman [3:12m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Bush - Greedy Fly [4:30m]: Play in Popup | Download

After I watched the movie Ocean’s Eleven back in the day when it came out, I really enjoyed the end scene by the fountains in which Clair De Lune by Debussy was playing. I liked that particular version of it, so I went searching for it.

In my searches, I came across a song called Clair de Lune by TOD. As still is my habit, I check out random music on accident, because, hey, you never know. Fell in love with the song and became a TOD fan.

Some of their music is so-so, some of it rocks my socks off. Its kind of a trashy art rock. Not typically what I dig, but always loved these guys.

They’ve done several albums, and this track is from one of their first, called Madonna.

 Clair de Lune - And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: Play in Popup | Download

Its trackadelic.

Buy In Rainbows

 Radiohead - Reckoner [4:50m]: Play in Popup | Download

Final Verdict: Winamp sucks. Or, it did for me.

Not only could I not burn CDs with it for some reason (it would freeze and close upon that request), it made the rest of my computer bog down and chug slowly. Which didn’t make much sense for me, because apparently Winamp is known for being ‘Lite’ and sweet. I did like the interface, and the many options it had. It just didn’t work out. And since I had to burn some CDs today and yesterday, I returned to the somewhat reliable iTunes for now, until I can find something else. I may end up trying Foobar. Dunno.

Besides that, Happy Boxing Day, hope everyone had a cool Christmas Day. And for the record, Damon got a digi camera for Xmas, so we’ll be getting digital concert shots up alot quicker, and probably some hammy self portraits, too.

I grew up in England, being as I’m British and all, and only am in America because we had to move here. At Christmas time, we had our many rituals and traditions, some of which we’ve lost by coming over here. Among them were Christmas pudding, Christmas crackers (with hats and toys inside, at dinner time), and watching ‘The Snowman’.

Based on a book by Raymond Briggs written in 1978, the film was released in 1982 on the U.K.’s Channel 4. It was an instant hit, and ever since has been shown every Christmas. It has become an important part of British and International Christmas culture.

Blah blah. I effing love this movie, I remember begging my mum to watch it all throughout the year. Its a silent film, scored by Howard Blake and features the song he also wrote called ‘Walking In the Air’, sung by Aled Jones for the film. Recently, ‘Walking In the Air’ was performed by Chloe Agnew, one of the singers of Celtic Woman.

This post has the mp3 of the song, and the youtube full version of the film.

The Snowman Website

For anyone who wants to buy this as a gift, or just enjoy it on Christmas, its available on DVD on Amazon for only $8.99. Can’t beat that. And Two-Day Shipping is  7 bucks. Totally worth it.

[youtube ponB8Hd_lG4]

 Walking In the Air - Aled Jones [3:25m]: Play in Popup | Download

I am bloody sick and tired of iTunes. iTunes has its features, yes, but it also has its serious downsides, too. Constant, persistent, annoying downsides. Duplicates, freezing, even when it tries to update itself, it screws up. Its flippin’ HUGE, a memory hog, etc. Doesn’t even have skins. Which to be fair, I didn’t care about because it wasn’t hard to look at to begin with.

So I went browsing on Lifehacker, for reviews on media players, side-by-side comparisions, etc. Found an article that showed off Foobar2000, Amarok, iTunes, Media Monkey, and Winamp.

While it overall looks like Foobar is the most customizable, I don’t want to spend that much time installing plugins and crap. I do that for LovetheMusic. When I play with other stuff on the computer, it needs to be vacation-like, ie, I don’t have to fix anything.

So after some poking around, I decided on Winamp. Probably the runner-up popularity-wise compared to iTunes, it has to have something that makes it better or just as good as iTunes, right?

Well, let’s see why I like iTunes:

• By default, because Windows Media hurts my eyes.

• Because I can look at my LovetheMusic podcast set-up like a proud mama, quite easily from iTunes.

• I like the playlists, and burning of them.

• Wow, this is pathetic. I really can’t think of why I like it. Really, I don’t like it, I just don’t like it less than WMP.

• I’ll ask Damon.

me: why do we like itunes

 damon: I like being able to edit the start and stop times of tracks

 me: thats because you’re a nerd

i have never used that feature

 damon: This is how I get my mix tapes so succulent.

•  It has pretty good search…I guess.

See, this is what happened to me last night when I was trying to figure out what media player to try out and use. I don’t even like iTunes. I suspect I’d appreciate it more if I had an iPod, which I don’t. But according to Brooklyn Vegan, theres a plugin for Winamp that simulates what iTunes does for mp3 players. Sweet, right?

Onward Winamp. (Click on images for larger view.)

I went Winamp because there’s a community of people who use this player and love it, I figure for good reason, and its very customizable. The customizable bit actually put me off at first, because I was sick of messing around with stuff to make it better. That was why I was sick of iTunes.

So far, I really like it. I like how theres a box that pops up in the bottom right corner when the song changes, so I know whats going on and whats playing, so I don’t have to maximize iTunes to see whats coming up next. The look and feel of it is sleek, and thats partially due to the kickass skin I’m rocking, called clearONE. It’s highly customizable, you change all the colors and fonts, and the possible animations of Winamp (fade, scroll, opacity, etc).

Check it out with 90 percent opacity:

Cool, eh?

I’m going to spin this for a while, and see how it goes. The only thing I don’t like about Winamp so far is the Menu in the Media Library. If you look to the left, you have a folder that says Local Media, then Audio, Video, etc. Since I don’t watch Youtube Vids or anything like that, I only use the Audio Folder. But it seems when you have that open, you have the artists in a scrollable window at the top, with a window next to it for Albums, then the tracklisting below it. I’d never use the list of Albums or Artists, since I listen to music track-by-track, as I am in the mood. I can’t get rid of it, either, or I haven’t figured out how to yet. But, thats not a good enough reason to throw the towel on Winamps face, so I’m sticking with it for a while.

P.S. I’m a Scrobbler, and there’s a plugin available for Winamp to scrobble your stuff.

 White Kids Aren't Hyphy - MC Lars: Play in Popup | Download