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I recently mentioned on this blog that I was experimenting with a novel method for listening to my iTunes library. Yep, that revelation was that I was gonna listen to every damns album I have, one-by-one, and in alphabetical order. It turns out I missed one in the early days (still on B), that album being Back to Bedlam by James Blunt. It was not one I bought (ooh, naughty), but one that I ‘borrowed’ off my brother as I wasn’t sure whether it was my cup of tea. Turns out it’s not tea at all, but some other insipid kind of concoction. Whatever it is, it’s definitely on the wet side.

Honestly, I cannot see how it is that crap like this manages to break in America - the man has a really weak voice (and to think he was in the army once, something that surprises me no end), whatever way you look at it. But the funniest thing for me was when listening to ‘Beautiful’ on the album I noticed that the version there is the ‘rude’ version. Yep, he swears on it and it sounds so out of place, in fact I almost laughed out loud as I pushed the shopping trolly aroud Asda Walmart, listening to it as I was on the iPod. Luckily I managed to stifle the laughs. Compare and contrast:

Chart version:

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
flying high

Album version:

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was … [pause for effect]
fucking high

Sorry, it just doesn’t work for me. Combined with the dramatic pause it just seemed like an attention-grabbing ploy and made it seem like he was trying too hard. Is this really the best the UK has to offer the US? Or does the US prefer a wet blanket to some proper music?

The way that we use iTunes and iPods (or other MP3 players, as I’m told such things exist) has totally changed the way we listen to music. I would consider myself a ‘power user’ where playlists are concerned and try to rate all my songs and am very careful with genres, groupings etc. I really go the extra mile (like Andy B does), for example:

• A playlist of all unrated songs, so I can find ones that I have still to rate
• All songs - that’s to say everything that is not audio book, iTrip transmission signal, podcast or hour-long mix
• Stuff I should play more regularly - high rated songs that have not been played in last couple of months
• Never played - well, like it says on the tin …

I could go on and on (and sometimes I do). Actually, there is something else I’d like to do: be able to create a playlist that is derived from another playlist (e.g. play all 4* songs that are contained in the ‘live music’ playlist) or, for super-power-user stuff, be able to hand-craft the query, SQL style, rather than rely on the interface provided.

Despite all this, I have a problem - I’m missing music.

In the never-ending urge to cram iTunes (and hence my iPod) full of music I find that I put a few albums on at a time, they don’t get added to a playlist and it takes a while for me to get around to rating them - I never rate on early listens, got to get to know the tracks a bit first. So these tracks don’t end up on the rated playlists and because I shuffle my songs for variety, I end up losing these new albums in a black hole. I’ve tried creating manual playlists for recently added stuff, but I prefer the smart playlists option as it keeps things tidier. Ideally, what I need is an option to select the ‘last 80 songs added’ or something like that, not ’songs added in the last month’ because they’ll soon slip off the radar.

So I’ve come up with a revolutionary new way of using my iPod that I’m going to share with you here. And here’s how it’s done:

1. Select Music
2. Select Albums
3. Select first album on list
4. Listen through in entirety
5. Repeat process, moving on one album at a time

Revolutionary? Well, not at all, but it feels like it. Heck, I still have the songs shuffled, but I’m getting to hear songs and albums that have been hiding in the dark recesses of my iPod for too long. I’m re-familiarising myself with all my music and discovering tracks that I haven’t heard for a long time; I’m also re-evaluating entire albums - do they really need to be on there after all?

What have you done to change the way you listen to your music collection recently?

So there I was having a surf from Malarkey’s site to Brothercake, all techy stuff and what have you when I stumbled upon Brothercake’s (aka James’) secret past - that being that he used to make music. It prompted me to dig out some of my old tracks and having listened to them I felt compelled to put them up here and share them, warts and all. Much the same as James, these are housey/rave tracks that I put together back in the early 1990s, pre-Mac, pre-Garage Band. Basically a few samplers and an Atari ST. So, for any old ravers out there, here’s some good old fashioned ravey shit to take you back to those dancing-in-muddy-fields-till-the-early-hours for you. And yes, it really does sound very 1992 (all happy pianos and stuff!)

Note - they were all recorded back off old C90 master tapes, so it’s not CD quality. Format is AAC (iTunes-friendly) Enjoy!

• Bubbles (4.8mb)
• Feel the Bass (4.6mb)
• Storm (4.9mb)
• I Know I Can Make It (4.4mb)
• Bass on you (5.4mb)
• Spring in my step (5.3mb)
• Itchy & Scratchy (3.6mb) (more like an old Miami Bass/Electro thing)

When I was travelling around Australia , I listened to a lot of my own music that I had brought over with me on the iPod - when you’re away from home for a long time, it’s a Godsend! Thankfully, I was also travelling with a laptop so I was in a position to update the iPod from time-to-time when I picked up a new CD in a shop. While I was out there I discovered that Powderfinger had released a new album - this is an Aussie band that I had got into via my brother who lived there for a few years. I also picked up a few other CDs from Aussie artists who I’d heard along the way, either from listening to Nova 969, TV or over shop PA systems, including Jet, Pete Murray and a band whose song Zebra was being played everywhere. That band is The John Butler Trio (or JBT for the purposes of Brevity).

I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect of JBT’s album "Sunrise Over Sea". I only knew one song, but it was a strong one. I was pretty quickly hooked on the bluesy/rocky/steel grass mixture, with the odd didge sound thrown in there for good Aussie authenticity measures, and it soon became a favourite album (a look at my iTunes play count will quickly confirm this).

I’ve since bought a couple of their albums, and am always asking people if they’ve heard of the band (I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll appear on Later with Jools Holland one day!). They played at Glastonbury , and once again I was asking people if they caught the band. Those that did hadn’t intended to - but all say they were a lucky find, if not the best band there. I have to agree with the latter.

Last night I went to see John Butler Trio play live at the Carling Apollo in Hammersmith, London . It felt like being back in Australia - there we were, two Brits (me and my bruv, who’d previously seen them at a Big Day Out in Sydney) surrounded by a sea of Aussies. I mentioned to the chap next to me that we must be the only Brits here, to which he replied: "Well, I’m from California !" Once the show started, I discovered what I had always expected - that they really are as good live as they are on record/CD. Actually, make that much better. You really can’t beat the atmosphere of a concert venue full of people who are getting caught up in the whole thing, applauding, whistling and singing along to all the big songs. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a group of people sing along with such gusto.

If I were to pick out a few highlights from the show they would have to be:

• John’s rendition of Ocean - a 12-13 minute song that I only heard for the first time last night (although I’d heard of it before). He plays it on a 12-string guitar and I swear I’ve never heard anyone play an instrument like that before - and by that I mean it was like three different guitarists at once. Incredible. Absolutely awesome.
• The solo sections from the bassist and drummer in the breakdown of Betterman. Also, I gotta say respect to the drummer for turning up in just a pair of flimsy shorts, looking like he was just at home heading into the kitchen for a glass of milk in the middle of the night before realising he took a wrong turn and walked on to a live stage, with his middle-aged paunch on show for all to see! Boy could he drum like a mofo …
• The encore renditions of Hello and Zebra. The latter prompted one of the biggest sing-along moments of the evening (well, the lyrics are so simple!)

In summary, I would have to say that this was the best live gig I’ve seen, and it was amazing the sound that these three guys could produce. I am so glad that I finally got to see them live, and seriously thought about driving up from Swindon to Manchester tonight to see than all over again - it might be years until I get my next chance. If you get a chance to see the John Butler Trio live, take it - trust me, you won’t regret it!