Serious Business
Had some people (well, maybe just one guy a few times) request this so here it is. This is Tera Melos’ set when they opened for The Fall of Troy at the Manipulator CD release show. Same angle as the TFOT set I filmed.
Torrent Download: tm2007-05-01.hv20.akgc1000s.dvdf.torrent
Last night I parked my kiester. Yes, I parked my kiester, meester. Then I got that kiester in gear and stopped being lame. First step to achieving that? I captured and edited the footage from my friend’s wedding that I shot. Put that thang on a DVD. Next thing? I captured and edited this 65daysofstatic show I filmed last August. And now that thang is on DVD.
65daysofstatic – El Corazon – Seattle, WA
SD FLV (373 MB): 65dos2007-08-06.flv
HD MP4 (1.8 GB): 65dos2007-08-06.mp4
Torrent Download: 65daysofstatic2007-08-06.hv20.akgc1000s.dvdf
I kinda took a hiatus from taping. It wasn’t because of a lack of concerts to go to but that I started concentrating on having a better diet and reading more. Somehow taping got the axe in that shift. I also applied to go to grad school at the University of Washington which required essays and letters of recommendation and GRE scores and blah blah fart. Still waiting to hear back from them.
But all of that’s done now and I’m back to being normal Brian for the most part. And now I’m taping more shows.
I picked a good night to go taping, though. It was a good time with friends who were all going to the show, the venue didn’t hassle me at all, the music was goddamn amazing, and my recording actually came out really nice considering I was running my mics at head height in the mezzanine.
So here you can enjoy this Ryan Adams recording. Setlist includes some older songs he hasn’t played in years such as “Come Pick Me Up” and and then let your body melt away to the soothing sounds of the piano as it lilts “Halloweenhead” to your dome.
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – 2008-01-28 Paramount Theater – Seattle, WA
Download: radams2008-01-26.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: radams2008-01-26sample.mp3
Let’s get nerdy for a second.
The one piece of software I need on my computer is Launchy. When I hit alt+space it brings up a little window from which I can launch any program in my start menu, any bookmark from my favorites (including custom search bookmarks), and even do inline numerical calculations.
Turns out, you can do even more with the clever use of batch files. I found a post on LifeHacker about using Launchy to do more. I started using the custom batch files written in this post but became annoyed with the fact that every time I launched a batch file via Launchy, I’d see a black cmd window pop up to execute the command.
So let’s do it my way.
First, install the following executables to the path C:\WINDOWS:
1) nircmd (this is for commands)
2) curl (this is for http commands)
My buddy pointed out nircmd to me and I realized that with this tool I can do virtually anything through Launchy. Not only did it allow me to successfully launch the batch files silently, but it also gave me a quicker way to shut down and log off of my computer and an easy way to manage window arrangements (minimized, cascaded, etc.). Let me show you an example of how to make nircmd, curl and Launchy work together:
1) Make a shortcut to nircmd:
2) Put that shortcut in C:\Program Files\Launchy\Utilities. This will be your template shortcut that you’ll copy and paste as you make new nircmd commands.
3) Make a copy of the shortcut and name it “Play.lnk”
4) Make a new batch file in Launchy’s Utilities directory called “Play.bat”. The file should contain this text (Where “ip#” is the ip number of your Xbox running XBMC with the web server turned on):
@echo off
cd c:\
cmd /c curl --basic http://ip#/xbmcCmds/xbmcForm?command=play
Echo Exiting...
5) Right click Play.lnk and go to “Properties”:
The text box for “Target” should read:
C:\WINDOWS\nircmd.exe execmd "C:\Program Files\Launchy\Utilities\play.bat"
6) No repeat steps 3-5 and replace the active function for “Pause” “Previous” “Next” and “Stop” commands as necessary. Rebuild your Launchy index and you’re good to go. Now you can control your Xbox with launchy.
I also incorporated Launchy into my music listening habits by forcing it to index playlist files on my Music drive. At the time I had no playlist files for any of my albums so I had my friend write a script in lua that will build them automatically (based on my file structure, of course): cobble.zip
To automatically create m3u playlists using this script:
1) Unzip all of the files to the root directory of your music directory
2) Run cobble.bat
Note:
This script will work with a directory structure that looks like: artist\[year] album\files but I’m sure you can figure out how to suit it for your needs. It automatically corrects for conventions such as “Beatles, The” in your folder names and it also makes sure to ignore any files but audio files. At the end you should have an *.m3u file that is formatted as such: The Beatles – Abbey Road.m3u.
3) Bring up Launchy and go to the “Directories” window. Add your music directory and set Launchy to only index m3u files for that directory.
4) Rebuild Launchy’s index.
I’m lazy. I’m a lazy, lazy bum. This is fact.
Every so often, other tapers ask me to help them track out sets or figure out song titles or whatever. So I say “Sure, upload it to my ftp and I’ll take a look at it tonight.” Sure enough, “tonight” turns into “October of later that year.” and here we are.
First of all we have a tape by EmptyZero (I don’t think I know his actual name, actually). It’s a Jesu recording that he asked me to figure out song titles for the set. I ended up doing it but it took me a while. Read the first line again to remind yourself of why.
Jesu – 2007-03-25 Triple Rock Social Club – Minneapolis, MN
Download: jesu2007-03-25sample.mp3
MP3 Sample: jesu2007-03-25.sp-c4.flac16.zip
Next I have a tape from Jackson Barnes. Jackson asked me to track out his Minus The Bear recording from The Vera Project earlier this year and here it is:
Minus The Bear – 2007-04-26 The Vera Project – Seattle, WA
Download: mtb2007-04-26.at943.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mtb2007 -04-26sample.mp3
Next we have two alternate sources for the 2007-05-07 Explosions In The Sky show at Neumo’s taped by OasisDouglas. He asked me to track out the set for him because he didn’t know the song transitions or titles. Choice is always good:
Explosions In The Sky – 2007-05-07 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: eits2007-05-07.okmIIr.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: eits2007-05-07.okmIIr.flac16.zip
Explosions In The Sky – 2007-05-07 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
Download: eits2007-05-07.sonics.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: eits2007-05-07.sonics.flac16.zip
Next we have something that a few people have emailed me about since I posted about it…. well, last year. Here I have the Murder City Devils set from last year’s Capitol Hill Block Party as recorded by Jarod Watson. I tracked this one out because Jarod isn’t at all familiar with their music. It just took me a little while to get to doing it.
The Murder City Devils – 2006-07-29 Capitol Hill Block Party – Seattle, WA
Download: mcd2006-07-29.mbho603.ka200n.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mcd2006-07-29sample.mp3
And finally, here are a few recordings from me.
The first is a concert I recorded for Live Eye TV in July at the Comet Tavern. It was right after the Block Party wrapped up for the night and involved local act Das Llamas and Brooklyn troupe Aa (pronounced “Big A, little a”). The Pleasureboaters also played but I didn’t tape them (regretfully).
Das Llamas – 2007-07-28 The Comet Tavern – Seattle, WA
Download: dl2007-07-28.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: dl2007-07-28sample.mp3
Aa – 2007-07-28 The Comet Tavern – Seattle, WA
Download: aa2007-07-28.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: aa2007-07-28sample.mp3
Next is a Marnie Stern concert I recorded in June. Not much to say other than she is cute as a button and Zach Hill is a monster on the drums. I recorded video of this show and I have it all captured on my hard drive… I just have to get it all authored into a DVD… which takes, you know, effort.
Marnie Stern – 2007-06-24 Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
Download: mstern2007-06-24.akgc1000s.sbd.matrix.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: mstern2007-06-24sample.mp3
Next we have the opening sets from the Girl Talk show at the Block Party. I’ve had a few people ask me for The Trucks’ set and I want to put the Cancer Rising set out there so that more people can hear these guys.
Cancer Rising – 2007-07-27 Capitol Hill Block Party – Seattle, WA
Download: cr2007-07-27.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: cr2007-07-27sample.mp3
The Trucks – 2007-07-27 Capitol Hill Block Party – Seattle, WA
Download: trucks2007-07-27.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: trucks2007-07-27sample.mp3
Finally we have a show from June that a taper asked me to help him with. About halfway through filming the opener (Electric Soft Parade) I started to feel sick but I finished filming. At the end of their set I had to bail and go home because I felt really sick so I missed the headliners (can’t even remember who it was). Anyway, here is ESP’s set:
Electric Soft Parade – 2007-06-04 Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
Download: esp2007-06-04.akgc1000s.flac16.zip
MP3 Sample: esp2007-06-04sample.mp3
That does it for the wrap-up, kids. Stay tuned to find out if I can actually get off of my ass and torrent the half-dozen DVDs I have yet to author.
SeriousFM
Radio and Live Music
