It’s been 18 years since Rage Against the Machine released “Killing in the name of”. I know it’s all just vitriolic teenage rage but damn its still good sometimes.

I’ve used Internet Radio services for years. Mainly on-again, off-again. The past few months, however, I’ve started really getting into last.fm. If you haven’t tried it out you should. It can be listened to on your computer, on your ipod/iphone (probably other mobile platforms too but I haven’t checked), as well as music streaming services like Squeezebox. It’s broad availability is a strength but without a high quality music stream it wouldn’t have much appeal. Fortunately that is another area where last.fm shines … it does this by monitoring your listening habits and using that behaviour to refine your music likes and dislikes. Beyond just monitoring your listening habits on last.fm it also takes an inventory of your MP3 library and can also monitor your listening on your ipod, itunes, and windows media player. In very little time you’ll find yourself listening to a combination of music you know and love as well as new music that has a reasonably good chance of fitting your musical tastes.

My music ID on last.fm is ksnyder68. Add me as a friend if you end up joining.

Just checked my digital music collection and realised I’m now at 193gb’s of music! Yowza. That’s a lot of music. Not sure what that translates into an actual number of songs but it must be 15,000 or so. My new backup solution better f’ing work. I’ll never be in the mood to redo this monstrosity.

Kinda digging the self-titled Three Days Grace album. It’s harder driving than most of the music I’m listening to these days but good for when you’re having an angry rant.

When you’re not fucking around with your audio listening equipment you have to consider Sennheiser as one of the top brands (admittedly they also play into the more dreary consumer space too). The HD 650 is at the top of the stack for open air dynamic headphones; often referred to as a “Reference Headphone”. Like the sound of that? Well I’m digging the sound quality of the 650’s. Very solid response through the whole audio spectrum especially now that I have my Xonar Essence STX driving the D-to-A conversion and amplification. If you’re going to have something strapped to your head you might as well have it be comfortable and delivery high-quality music to your ears. Right? Right. Get online and buy yourself one if you care for yourself.

While listening to last.fm I came across a indie/pop/punk revival band you might not have heard of but is worth a listen. They are called the Exploding Hearts and tragically, after their first album (pictured above) most of the band members were killed when their van ran off the road.

Have you heard U2’s classic hit “One” redone by Mary J. Blige (with U2 involved too)? Rocking. I like it. Definitely breaths some life back into the song. Interestingly allmusic’s review raves about the album and points to this song as the only exception.

 

I found the Black Keys on the eMusic service and wow! Awesome. Can’t get enough. Their post-punk sounds are strong, edgy, and full of goodness. The two albums I own are thickfreakness and rubber factory which allmusic gives 4.5 stars (out of 5); the other albums are slightly less than but still very highly thought of. If you don’t have eMusic you can also find them on iTunes.