I had one of the 2nd or 3rd edition ipods which I used for quite a few years, monochrome lcd and about 10gb if i remember right. when I got my first walkman phone I flogged the old ipod on ebay and never looked back. it seemed like having a gb of music in my phone was enough to get by and it meant I didn't have to carry another device around. bonus. last year Em bought me a shuffle which I still use on the rare occasions I do any non water based exercise. the shuffle does my head in though. it's got enough room on it to put 10 albums on it but if I want to listen to album 9 and I'm currently at album 1 I have to click through all the songs. grrrr. that may not be the point of the shuffle but thats how I listen to music - I dont listen to one song, I listen to an album.
anyway, recent experience with my new nokia music phone drove me bonkers (5310, nice phone but reboots randomly when playing mp3 - but it's a music phone?) and I decided it was time to get myself a new fangled mp3 playing portable music device. so I checked out the market and looked for something big enough to get all my music on - shockingly it turns out that there isn't much choice of mp3 player with a big hard disc. you can buy an ipod or .. well nothing really (you could buy an expensive archos media player but who wants one of them?). so I plumped for the whopping 160GB ipod classic. a good choice I think, it rocks. more space than I could ever use, better sound than any music phone or indeed my old ipod. and as for coverflow! as I said before I listen to music an album at a time and being able to flick through and pick an album by cover is reminiscent of flicking through lps - it really is a nice way to interact with your music collection. I've listened to it pretty much everyday since I bought it and this morning I realised how nice it is to have all my music with me everyday again. who knows when I'll feel the urge to listen an early 1970s Genesis gig?
Loving the aliens' astronomy for dogs - very beatlesesque with funky beats and weirdness thrown in. Excellent windsurfing over the bankholiday weekend, got some freestyle in on Sunday in Poole Harbour - f4 out on the 5.9 and 101. Monday we headed down to Portland and blasted up and down the harbour at rediculous speeds 5.3 (overpowered) on the fsw 84. Brilliant to bump into (hms)Geoff who I hadn't seen since about 2003 in Spillanes.
Hibbetts new single/ep/double a side thingy is out and rocking it is too! Worth it for the artwork alone. It has a whole load of goodness on it:
The Lesson Of The Smiths The Gay Train Never Going Back To Aldi's Other Bands' Setlists We Only Ever Meet In Church (acoustic version) Vicar In A Tutu The Lesson Of The Smiths (Radio Edit)
plus a live set and demo and stuff and is available here
Plus! Mark just emailed me and is playing a gig in london, next Tuesday (see details below). So consider yourself told!
from MJ: Afternoon all! This is just a quicky for you London Types to let you know I'm doing a slightly *SPECIAL* gig next Tuesday night, at The Henry Holland pub just off Oxford Street. It's going to be one of these Totally Acoustic gigs, where it's just me singing (NB may include BELLOWING) in the top room of a pub without a PA.
The gig's free, and I'd really appreciate it if a few people could come down, as otherwise the landlord will not look kindly upon me! I'm also semi-hoping to get some PRESS down, tho I somehow doubt that'll actually happen.
Anyway, the important thing to NOTE is that it all starts at 7pm, with me singing from 7.30pm and the whole thing done and dusted by about 8.30pm, which hopefully makes it handy for people who work in town, and also means that there's plenty of time afterwards for a beer and a chat before going home again!
The pub itself is HERE:
http://fancyapint.com/pubs/pub1002.html
... it's just next to Selfridges, if that's any help. I'll be there from 7 o'clock onwards, it's all free, and hopefully see you there!
personally i rip everything as 192kbps mp3s in itunes and let it download me the artwork. although with Vista I've been dead impressed with the latest incarnation of windows remedial player - it does all the same sort of stuff as itunes but actually runs quite snappily. I dont have an ipod but my walkman phone plays my mp3s nicely - I just drag and drop whatever I feel like onto my memory stick.
stuff wot i av been listening to in this futuristic way on my phone is, the new keiser chefs, arcade fire (more of the same but it rocks), the view (not sure about this), klaxons (unsure but i think i really like it, or bits of it anyway).
got my copy of Jack's Pioneer Soundtracks in the post yesterday. nice re-release of the album from spinneyrecords. it includes an extra disc of rare and live tracks and also sports some slightly blurry new artwork. it's going to be released in march but you can buy it now direct from spinney records
a brilliant album, if you dont have it this is an essential purchase!
