Category Archives: Music

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz – Review

sufjan_stevens_-.Age_of_Adz

If you like music, you will like The Age of Adz.

Review over.

Don’t just sit there and be baffled by my excellent review, go buy it!!!!!!!

Also, I created a YouTube Playlist.

Pitchfork 'Best New Albums' Torrent Search

Pitchfork_Best_new_Music_BTJunkie_Search

Ok so this might be slightly illegal, but I am really just generating some links.

I wrote some code that will take the RSS feed from this page: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/best/albums/ and searches BTJunkie for torrents.

Here it is in action:
http://danfolkes.com/pitchfork_torrent_albums_best/

Here is the source: (also here)

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<?php
  echo "<table border=1>";
  $doc = new DOMDocument();
  $doc->load('http://feeds2.feedburner.com/PitchforkBestNewAlbums');
 
  foreach ($doc->getElementsByTagName('item') as $node) {
	echo "<tr><th colspan='2'>";
	$title = $node->getElementsByTagName('title')->item(0)->nodeValue;
	echo $title;
    $doc2 = new DOMDocument();
 	$doc2->load("http://btjunkie.org/rss.xml?query=".urlencode($title));
	echo "</th></tr>";
	foreach ($doc2->getElementsByTagName('item') as $node2) {
		echo "<tr><td></td><td>";
		$link = "<a href='".$node2->getElementsByTagName('link')->item(0)->nodeValue."' target='_blank'>";
		$link.= $node2->getElementsByTagName('title')->item(0)->nodeValue."</a>";
		echo $link;
		echo "</td></tr>";
	}
 
  }
  //print_r($arrFeeds);
  echo "</table>";
 
?>

How to Find New Music

fillmore-2
Here are my sources: (in order of reliability)

  • Last.FM / Pandora Internet Radio – I suggest using Last.FM because it’s more social. You can see what others listen to. Here is my Last.FM
  • Spinner CD Listening Party or Aol – These are AWESOME. They are a good way to listen to full CD’s before they are released.
    A good way to expand your ears.
  • NPR Music – All Songs Considered – Song of the Day, Concerts, Interviews are an awesome source of new music information. Plus they are really cool and funny.
  • Metacritic – Takes a bit of searching, but a great place to see what is Acclaimed.
  • Best of …. Lists – It’s always good to hear what others liked last year. Chances are, you will like it too!
  • Billboard - I go here when I want to find pop music. It beats listening to top 40 radio.

Then, when you find music. Buy It For Cheap On Amazon (Current Bestsellers)!

Hit up the Comments:
Please let me know of your favorite source. I’ll update the post with recommendations!

MotM – February 2010 – Spoon, Swell Season, Blakroc, Paolo Nutini, Ray LaMontagne

Music of the Month:

(music in order of enjoyability)

Mat Kearney – In the Middle – First Time Ever – Download Bootleg – Lyrics

matkearney

This was recorded by me at a bar behind the Norva in Norfolk, VA around 2006. The recording is a tad crappy because I used my little mp3 player to record it.

But, I captured Mat Kearney playing “In the Middle” for the first time, acoustic, just using his guitar. It was very awesome.

Here is a little bit of the chit-chat that happened before he started playing:

“But, I can’t play it on guitar” – He was a little reluctant to play it at first, but then he proceeded by starting to try….

After he got a little bit into the song he said: “Wow” because he was genuinely surprised when it sounded good.

Then, after he was finished he said:

“I promise you, that has never happened!… That was amazing… ”

“I honestly never played that on a guitar once, ever…. I’m not lying.”

So, I feel pretty good that Mat Kearney is awesome, and so is this song.
Download Bootleg – 06-in-the-middle

Here are the lyrics:
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