iamserio.us

Quite a night of family duos. Openers Smoosh (who are sisters) and Viva Voce (who are married) set the stage last night for Mates Of State who remain the most adorable rock band in the history of whatever.

Their label, Barsuk, had a whole film crew at the show so you can imagine my surprise when venue security told me that audio recording was fine. Not only that, but a rep from the label approached me and got my contact information so that he could get a copy of my recording. I’m on my way to big things, folks. You heard it here first.

Anyway, here is Mates Of State’s set.

Mates Of State – 2006-04-20 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: mos2006-04-20.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mos2006-04-20sample.mp3

Well this was a first. Last night, for the first time ever, I ran into another taper at a show. Unfortunately for him, though, his JB3 batteries weren’t charged enough to be able to tape the set so he tore down once this was evident. It’s probably for the best since he showed up to the show pretty drunk and was having a fair amount of difficulty setting up his mics. He was a nice guy and I helped him out as best I could, though there were a few times I feared that he was going to drop his mics to the floor and ruin his gear… he was pretty drunk.

As far as the Quasi show, there isn’t much to say that hasn’t been said about those two. They’re such an amazing band. Sam Coomes has developed a great sense of the stage and Janet Weiss’ drumming is some of the best you’ll hear regardless of gender. Openers were The Can’t See and Ex-Girl. I recorded both sets and if there is any sort of demand, I can post those as well.

For the time being, here is Quasi’s set.

Quasi 2006-04-15 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: quasi2006 -04-15.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: quasi2006-04-15sample.mp3

Last night was the second of two nights Band Of Horses played at Neumo’s. They played pretty much the same setlist (sans “St. Augstine”) and it was just as good as it was on Thursday. The venue was less talkative and since I recorded from the venue floor, the recording came out a little fuller sounding I think.

Unfortunately, this recording has diginoise on a few tracks where I bumped or moved the recorder. This is testament to the fact that when I’m stealth recording, I need to just leave the recorder alone and not check the levels. I just get worried that, somehow, the Microtrack has stopped recording or I’m clipping or whatever. I need to cut that out.

Band Of Horses – 2006-04-14 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: boh2006-04-14.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: boh2006-04-14sample.mp3

Dear People Standing Behind Me At The Concert Last Night,

I know you want everyone to think that you’re cool, interesting people that have important things to say but, really, no one cares about what TV shows you watch or what seasons you liked best or anything of that nature. Bearing that in mind, please don’t shout your conversations at such a level that the people around you can’t hear the opening band’s set. Also, please take note of the irony you create when you berate people who talk during a band’s set then continue to do so yourselves for the entire set.

Fuck You Very Much,

Brian Connolly

So the show last night was a good one. It’s the first of two nights that Band Of Horses is playing at Neumo’s this week, the first one being an all-ages affair and the second a 21+ shindig. Barring the assholes standing behind me who wouldn’t stop talking the entire night, it was an all around pleasing experience as far as concerts go.

In regards to the taping experience, though… not so much. I had permission to tape from Ben Bridwell himself and I even had the email stored on my phone so I could show security that everything was cool. They didn’t jive so well with me on that front. I was told that without a press pass I was not allowed to tape and since Ben wasn’t even at the venue yet, I couldn’t talk to him and straighten anything out.

Rather than cause a fuss, I resorted to Plan B and took my gear back to the car. I rigged up the stealth equipment and I was all set to go, but realized that my Microtrack wasn’t charged at all since I hadn’t actually planned on stealthing. I knew what I had to do. I shoved a 9v Li-Ion battery in the front of my pants and the voltage regulator in my back pocket. I wasn’t going to let some venue’s lame security get between me and this recording.

This is the second time I’ve stealthed at this venue. Since it was an all ages show and it was still early in the night, the 21+ balcony was pretty much deserted. I set up at the balcony’s outcropping that is about twelve feet away from (and directly in front of) the left stack. The results of taping in this location are very nice. I used the balcony railing to stabilize myself the entire night which cut down on phasing in the recording.

The opener was Sera Cahoone who, I believe, used to drum for Band Of Horses before they got a full band together. Her voice is very much in the style of Aimee Mann but the overall sound is very country/folk sounding. I really liked it.

Sera Cahoone – 2006-04-13 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: scahoone2006-04-13.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: scahoone2006-04-13sample.mp3

Band Of Horses fucking killed, of course. I love a band that can not only perform their songs well, but be entertaining the entire time they do it. Ben Bridwell is the goofiest guy on stage and I love him for it. After every song, he cheers himself along with the audience with raised fists and a big grin on his face. I honestly don’t think he can play a show without smiling the entire time, he’s just not capable of it. They played a set similar to the last time I saw them, but this time they threw in “I Go To The Barn Because I Like The” and “Weed Party” which were both welcome additions to the setlist. They also busted out a Gram Parsons cover and closed the show with a blazing performance of “The Funeral”.

Suffice to say, I’m pretty stoked to see the second show tonight. Here’s hoping I don’t have to stealth again.

Band Of Horses – 2006-04-13 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: boh2006-04-13.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: boh2006-04-13sample.mp3

Previously, I wrote a two-part entry where I documented the hardware and software that I used to make a home theatre PC capable of playing audio through my stereo system. The system worked well enough but it only lasted for about a month before I got tired of it.

It was too cumbersome.  Running a VGA cable under the rug looked stupid as did having an LCD monitor next to the couch.  The whole thing was annoying to use as the computer was loud, the bluetooth mouse was finnicky, the monitor was crappy, and the interface was clunky.

I am no stranger to defeat in the realm of technology.  When I realized my homebrew HTPC was a dud, I took it apart and tried to think of another solution.  Pretty much all of the ideas I came up with required me to build a full computer that would cost me at least $1,000.  I didn’t want to spend $1,000.

I then decided to take a look at pre-made solutions that were more tailored to my needs.  At this point I was still mainly interested in audio players which is why the Squeezebox from Slimdevices caught my eye.  It plays most of the formats I use, has a snazzy web interface, can access a music share wirelessly and is certainly less expensive than building an entire computer just to play audio in my living room.

I’d been using the Squeezebox for the last two months or so and loving it.  Then I began jonesing for a way to play my computer-specific video files in the living room.  You know, XViD and DiVX, that sort of thing.  I started looking for a pre-made solution for video but all of the reviews I found for these types of devices were less than stellar.  They choked on codecs or were a hassle to set up or they cost too much or the remote control sucked or they didn’t do wireless or any number of things.

I couldn’t see dropping a few hundred bucks on a device that was just going to frustrate me.  With my conundrum in hand, I turned to the goons of Something Awful for advice.  A few people recommended some devices I hadn’t heard about, but then a small army of posters came to tout the wonders of a soft-modded Xbox running Xbox Media Center (XBMC).  They didn’t give reasons or pros and cons.  They just said “Get an Xbox and soft-mod it. Install XBMC. You will be pleased.”

Usually I poo-poo this sort of advice, but I decided to investigate further and I found this thread which details how to soft-mod the Xbox and I decided “Why the hell not? If nothing else, I’ll have an Xbox.”  I went to Fred Meyer and picked up an Xbox with Forza Motorsport and an Action Replay.  I went to Blockbuster and rented Mech Assault (one of three games that allows for the exploit to work).  I was on my way.

I modified the Xbox in about 15 minutes.  Most of that time was spent installing Datel’s Action Replay software (which is ugly and not very intuitive by the by).  After that it pretty much went like this:

1. Transfer Mech Assault gamesave to the memory card.
2. Transfer Mech Assault gamesave from the memory card to the Xbox hard drive.
3. Load Mech Assault gamesave called “Run Linux”.
4. Bloop Bleep Boop Beep Linux Installed have fun.

After that it was a breeze to do anything else.  I installed XBMC and set it as the default dashboard. I cloned the contents of the tiny 8GB hard drive to a spare 160GB hard drive I had lying around and installed it in the Xbox.  I set up SMB shares for XBMC to stream media over the network.  I installed emulators for NES, SNES, MAME, Genesis, and N64.  Everything “just worked”.  It was like using a Mac without paying out the ass for it.  Once I had it all set up, I began to use it.

Oh god they were right.

It plays everything.  It plays every XViD file I have, it plays every audio file I have, the emulators work perfectly, the interface is beautifully intuitive and polished… it’s everything I’ve always wanted in a home theatre computer and it only cost me 200 dollars.

Oh yeah, and it plays Xbox games.