Music Music Nerds

[Cerebellion]

I agree with the something getting lost. Warren Haynes is a magical guitarist live and to hear Gov't Mule's studio takes away from the nuances somehow. It makes sense to me, anyway.

 

[PTree15]

I agree with the something getting lost. Warren Haynes is a magical guitarist live and to hear Gov't Mule's studio takes away from the nuances somehow. It makes sense to me, anyway.

Agreed. I have seen Gov't Mule only once, at Bonnaroo, and they were great. I have a couple of CDs, but I haven't played them in quite a while.

 

[Cerebellion]

This is my favorite song by them ever. It doesn't sound right on the cd, though. Live, it is amazing.

 

[PTree15]

Awesome song. Warren has a fun "solo face."

 

[Cerebellion]

I noticed it, too. He's really into it, though. I thought I was the only one that could look that dumb while being awesome. Warren makes me feel less alone in the world

 

[AeryFairy]

And then there are the bands that just shouldn't do live stuff Doesn't happen often, but sometimes seeing a band live will kind of ruin them for me.

 

[Cerebellion]

Agreed. I've seen more than one punk band that I wish I hadn't seen. I understand the Fugazi DIY of punk, but Fugazi brought actual talent with them and the ones I saw seem to have left it at home somewhere.

 

[PTree15]

And then there are the bands that just shouldn't do live stuff Doesn't happen often, but sometimes seeing a band live will kind of ruin them for me.

Indeed, and it's so disappointing.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I really love musicians who do something different live than they do on the album. I don't go to a live show to hear a song sound exactly the same as I could hear at home on the album.

I adore Neko Case, but I listened to her live album and didn't think it sound very different than the regular album version. So as much as I like her, I probably wouldn't go see her live.

I also like to see the musician(s) interacting with the audience and/or seem into the music. Fiona Apple barely acknowledged the audience at the show I saw, but she seemed so into it, and delivered such an intensely emotional performance, it really worked.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I was considering seeing Chris Isaak when he's in town in a couple weeks, but I'm having trouble getting excited about it.

I've seen him three times, and the first two times were really, really good. Then the third show I saw was lower energy, and other than a very slightly different set list, nearly identical to the second show - two years previously. Some of the between-song banter was even the same!

I skipped seeing him last year because of that, and I think I'm going to skip this time, as well.

 

[Mr Crunchy]

Live is almost always better, but not necessarily. Studio recordings tend to sound constrained and over-rehearsed to me. A good example is seeing Elvis Costello live a number of years ago. I've always appreciated his recorded music, especially the stuff he did with Geoff Emerick, but he really blew me away live, really rocked the house.

On the other hand, I've seen a few bands live that sadly didn't measure up to their recorded music. I take this to mean the recordings are heavily produce and/or they used a lot of session/studio musicians when recording.

I also prefer smaller, intimate venues to huge stadiums or arenas.

 

[Cerebellion]

Porcupine Tree has become my favorite work music. I think I've worn a rut into my ipod with 'The Incident' and 'In Absentia'. It's hard for me to stay ticked off with Steven Wilson's vocals whizzing between my ears.

 

[PTree15]

I like working out to some PT/SW tunes, like Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, Halo, Fear of a Blank Planet, Deadwing, Wedding Nails, Four Chords that Made a Million (the lyrics in this song always crack me up), Only Child ... I could go on and on.

 

[Cerebellion]

I need to purge my music folder again. I need some new criteria for what to keep and what to purge. Any suggestions?

 

[Moll Flanders]

I left before Rob Zombie started last night, I was so tired I just wanted to go home to sleep. Marilyn Manson were great, much better than when I saw them at Brixton.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Ahhhhh Manson...

 

[Dedalus]

And then there are the bands that just shouldn't do live stuff Doesn't happen often, but sometimes seeing a band live will kind of ruin them for me.

I saw The Replacements back in - eh...'86 - 87 - and as good as they are on record - they absolutely SUCKED live. Of course - they were all visibly fucked up - so that didn't help. But yeah, I was totally not happy with their lack of concern to put on any kind of quality live performance aside from them drunkenly sloshing around onstage in their underwear.

 

[Dedalus]

...and on the flip side I saw Big Country in '93 - at what was once called 'The Cat Club' in NYC, a relatively small venue. Those cats absolutely torched the place. I got the feeling that they would have put on the same show had they been playing in someone's living room, they were so into it.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I need to purge my music folder again. I need some new criteria for what to keep and what to purge. Any suggestions?

I micromanage my music files. Everything gets rated and tagged, and these determine sync behaviour, and whether I keep or delete specific files.

*Unrated songs, excluding some specific genres, go on a playlist called Unrated. Once I give them a rating, they automatically move either to another playlist, or off all playlists. This playlist syncs to my phone.
*Songs with three stars or higher, again excluding some specific genres, stay on a playlist called Favorites. This playlist also updates automatically, and syncs to my phone.
*Songs that receive a two- or one-star ratings are automatically removed from my phone.
*One-star songs are deleted from my iTunes library, my iCloud account, and my computer.
*Two-star songs are ones I don't care to listen to frequently, but I don't want to delete.
*Live and Holiday genres have their own playlists with specific behaviours, but I sync/remove those manually.
*Some genres exist in my library but are excluded from all playlists/syncing, unless manually moved.

Most of my music is 256 AAC or 320 MP3, but is set to automatically down convert to 128 when it syncs to my phone, to save space. (Even still, I'm usually short on disk space on my phone.)

This probably doesn't help you...

 

[Cerebellion]

I got it down to 159 GB, which is a damn sight smaller than what it was. I guess it'll have to do for now.