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Though The Mountains May Fall
So today I took a first listen to Chris Tomlin's Live From Austin Music Hall. And, well, it's a pretty good live disc. The extra touches were, of course, the guest spots. Seth Walker, a Texas blues artist, helps Tomlin out with a more soulful "On Our Side". David Crowder adds his signature voice to "This Is Our God". And, surprisingly, the crowd is miced fairly well for a live disc.
The main gripe about this disc is the running time: 40 minutes with 8 tracks. Is Tomlin still just playing the opening slot at Austin Music Hall? What about the other 40+ minutes he played that night? Either this better be priced at $7.99 or it's gotta be at least 20 minutes longer, imho. And that goes for almost every artist.
Someone Searching For Something
Today I've been researching the world of Search Engines. And it's been interesting. Although I haven't gotten to the real meat of how it all works, I have found some interesting stuff. Most of it was found while searching through technical documents on Google's technology. Here's what I found:
- Directory structure is very important. When Google is looking for related pages, if it doesn't find related pages at
<a href="http://cMusicWeb.com/modernrock/coldplay/x&y.shtml">http://cMusicWeb.com/modernrock/coldplay/x&y.shtml[/geshifilter-code] then it will next look for related pagest to<a href="http://cMusicWeb.com/modernrock/coldplay/">http://cMusicWeb.com/modernrock/coldplay/[/geshifilter-code] and keep going up as necessary. (see Finding Related Pages on the World Wide Web) - Google and other companies have gone to great pains to make sure you're just not copying somebody's content, so it doesn't pay. Of course, they're probably getting even better so that they don't have to index the Gigabytes of copies on the 'net. (see Finding Replicated We Collection)
- If a site is hosted on the same IP address, it is closely related. If it's on the same server, it may be related. That's a good reason to have your own server. (see A Comparison of Techniques to Find Mirrored Hosts on the WWW)
- Oh, and some things are too darn confusing (like this paper on finding good sites)
The interesting part is that all of the material I was reading today was a couple years old, if not downright ancient (as in, 1999 or 2000). But hey, if one understands the very basics of the search engines, they'll more easily get the new technologies that are on top of it, I'd wager. All of the sudden, those SEO books written in 2004 that are on sale at Amazon.com don't look so bad. But still, so much has changed since then.
I should be including a link for a page about the Search Engine Optimization that is built into Drupal, but I can't find one immediately.
Lost In A Sea of Faces
So today's new release that I listened to was Kutless's Hearts of the Innocent. And, well, it's exactly what I expected.
I liked Kutless because it was fairly good rock. Sea of Faces was good too, but a bit softer. Strong Tower was fairly disappointing, although the rock mixes of some worship songs are nice. But this new one is just too much of the same. There's no growth; no progress.
Maybe that's why everybody on the Cmcentral.com forum hates Kutless. Because they're just the typical rock band. And maybe that's all they'll ever be.
Linux and Drupal Time!
So what have I been doing in the past month with computers? Well, of course, at work I've been doing PHP development and other exciting stuff. But that's nothing new.
Mostly, I've been playing around with Linux. Not only did I install and screw it up on an old Pentium MMX machine -- twice -- but I also decided to start renting a dedicated server to play around with. It's great to know that nodody else is running anything on that server, although it can be somewhat disconcerting to know I'm completely in charge of it. But hey, there's no better way to learn how to manage a server besides just doing it. I'll probably move this blog over to there soon.
Despite some dislike from my coworkers, I've been getting more into Drupal on my free time. I think I'm still fairly far away from contributing to Drupal, though, because I have yet to figure out how to use it well. Drupal will, though, power the inReview.net release that will come later this month. Thanks to the help of all the good folks at Lullabot (and espeically their podcast), I have been learning a lot more about it, and this weekend I got to play with some of the new modules like CCK, Views, and Workflow modules. I can't wait for all these to be done, because with a little practice, then I'll be able to throw together a website pretty quick. Plus, I'll be able to make inReview.net very good and tons easier to manage.
Break The Vice of Stereotypes
This week I'm gonna start trying to comment on pre-releases I get in the mail. Well, at least the ones worth commenting on. And since the Cindy Morgan album doesn't fit on the list of ones worth commenting on, I'll give you a little bit on Sanctus Real's The Face of Love.
In some ways, I hate it when people just compare their new CD to their previous album(s). But, with Sanctus Real, I can't help it. If you ask me, Say It Loud is easily their best. I guess it's the rock 'n' roll production by Pete Stewart, which I always dig, but I think it's also the songs too. In my opinion, Fight the Tide and the new The Face of Love just have that subdued, pop feel that just doesn't get me energized. And along with that, I just find the band falling into too many clichés. One of the songs on this album is just a bunch of analogies that kinda work but left me looking for my copy of God so I could listen to "Me Without You".
I'm not knockin' the guys in Sanctus Real: I've met them a couple times and they're cool. And although their CD just seems to be non-stop regurgitating of the theme of love, I guess it just failed to grab me the first couple times through.
We've Got To Come Together
Last night I went out with my parents and saw the Third Day/David Crowder Band concert. It was pretty chill.
Although we didn't really get there until 7:10, if they started right at 7 Crowder's set was just too short. It was great, though. They did a great job with their "rock opera", "You Are My Joy". And, of course, we had fun with "Foreverandever Etc..". They only played 40 minutes or so, though, but oh well. The opening band never gets any respect.
Third Day came out after a half hour. The lights were fairly cool, even though we were up on the second level of the Target Center. Third Day had the guy who has played keyboards on their studio albums on tour, and dang, he was good. At the end they redid "Come Together" with an entirely different melody that sounded more like a Gospel/piano-rock tune. They also did their rockin' cover of Rich Mullins' "Creed", which I always like.
Mac Powell said they were doing some stuff for old-school fans, but of course they were just songs that were re-recorded for Offerings. No songs from one of my favorite albums, Conspiracy No. 5 were played, and only the obvious, slow hits from Time were present. It still rocked when they "took it to 11" for "Rockstar", so much that my mom and dad had to leave the arena for a minute. ;-)
The best moment though was inviting David Crowder and his band back onstage during the set for Crowder's bluegrass Gospel tune, "I Saw The Light", where Mac sang the second verse. It was awesome. After that, Mac said, "If you buy one album this year, buy the new Third Day album. If you buy two albums this year, buy the latest from David Crowder Band." In my opinion, he shoud have said, "If you buy one album this year, buy David Crowder's. If you buy two, get our old album, Time." But that would be too gutsy.
All in all, though, it was a great evening with my family and that's what is important. That is, even if the service at Old Chicago was less than stellar.
I Was Thinking / Over Thinking
Where have I been? Well, that will probably be the discussion of the next couple blog posts. But first, where have I been in music?
Well, the last three days or so I've spend lots of music listening to my Paste Magazine samplers. I've got the entire collection, and it's not easy to randomly go through some 400 songs. But it's an eclectic ride, to be sure. I've definitely been listening to more country and classic music than in a long time. And it's pretty darn fun.
Unfortunately, it makes me want to take advantages of sales at PasteStore.com. Darn it.
Who Put Rock 'n' Roll In Your Blood?
Speaking of rock 'n' roll, just a side note that May 2nd is going to be a great day. Not only do we get the long-overdue rock 'n' roll release from The Elms (I mean, who wouldn't want a rock album called The Chess Hotel?), but I just noticed that the album a year and a half in the waiting, mars ILL's Pro*Pain is finally gonna be released. That is, unless the EMI good music Nazis have their way....
It's not exactly The Elms-style, but tonight I witnessed the tour de force that is Mute Math. Not only did they play almost every song from their EP and most of their new album, but there was tons of impromptu instrumentals, great crowd interaction, and non-stop intensity. By the time they left the stage, we were all clamoring for everybody's favorite track, "Reset". It was a non-stop amazing show, and I got a T-shirt and their new album. Maybe I'll give more thoughts on the new album later.
The opening band, Vedera, was pretty good. Lead singer Kristen May was very captivating and had easily the best female voice I've ever heard in a rock group. Let's hope the rock 'n' roll machine doesn't chew her up and spit her out like they did wiith Amy Lee of Evanescence.
On the more personal side, it was great to go to the concert with a couple friends from my house. None of them were Mute Math fans, but they enjoyed it nonetheless and made it fun by giving me the oppertunity to share one of my favorite new bands.
Now, if The Elms would just abnounce their album release club tour already, then we could schedule an awesome show!
Take Control of the Atmosphere
Interesting. According to an article republished on Mute Math's MySpace Blog, Mute Math is no longer on Warner Bros., and that's why they can distribute the record at the show if they want. The show mentions their Teleprompt label as still being theirs, but they didn't like the "Christian band" status that Warner was giving them, so they dropped the label.
Good for them. With the huge media attention (like being on Late Late Show tonight and a tour de force at MySpace) that they are getting, they'll have a label begging to sell the album in no time, if they want. At least, from everything I can tell, they are going to make it big.
After watching their performance on the Late Late Show, I figured out why they're doing so well without the help of a major label. It seems their publicity company has worked with a lot of big names in independent music, including The Decemberists as well as lots of other bands I've started hearing more and more about. Now it's starting to make more sense.
I'll see for myself next weekend, though. A week from tonight I'll see their live show. And you'll get a full report here.
People Talkin' Like It's The End of Time
Here I am with three signs the world is coming to an end:
- The Krispy Kreme store at the Mall of America has closed its doors.
- My favorite studio, Pixar, has been bought by Disney.
- Kanye West poses for the cover of Rolling Stone as Jesus.
It's a crazy world.