What a whirlwind the last couple of months has been.
Thanksgiving
Week long trip to the Mayan Riviera
Christmas
New Year’s
Everything that goes with all of that
A few days into 2010, things seem to be somewhat returning to “normal.” I’m actually looking forward to that.
Been listening to a lot of new music lately on lala.com. I have become a huge fan of this site.
One album that I hadn’t really listened to lately that I was really impressed with is Seabird’s Rocks Into Rivers. They have been on tour with David Crowder Band, and we saw them a few months ago. They are actually from Northern Kentucky as well, so that made me even more interested in their music. Even if that hadn’t been the case though, this album would still be pretty great.
Take a listen for yourself. You can go sign up for lala.com if you want and add their album (or anything else) to your playlist. You can read more about lala.com on their website.
I know I haven’t posted in like 2 months, so I’m opening things back up with a revelation.
As of about 5 minutes ago, I’m officially 100% up-to-date with my iTunes library!
5,865 songs at 33.42 GB total.
I have been working on this for about 10 years, and now every mp3 has the proper title, artist, album, track number, disc number, year, and album art – all for their original releases (thanks Wikipedia and Google Music Search).
Also, every CD I own has now been imported into my iTunes library…including recordings I’ve done or been a part of and any local band CDs or demos that I have. Talk about a chore.
Now my OCD has been at least partially satisfied. There’s just something wonderful about the word “completion.”
Now I get to enjoy listening to stuff I forgot I had.
Just reading through one of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker, this morning, and I came across the beautiful gem known as Songerize.
Really want to listen to a song right now? Just go to Songerize, type it in, and it will play. That easy. If it doesn’t find your song, try another (FYI, it’s found every song I’ve tried so far).
This is ridiculously cool, especially if you’re in the mood to listen to a great song but don’t have it handy. Plus, it’s dead simple.
This morning on my way to work, I stopped and picked up a copy of Alter Bridge‘s new release, Blackbird. I’m a huge Alter Bridge fan (although not as hardcore as my friend, Ryan), and this CD definitely does them justice. It’s a little different than their first release, One Day Remains, but definitely different good, not different bad.
I was a little worried after listening to samples online last week – they were all pretty wussy. However, for some reason they picked the worst parts of the CD to put on the samples. The full CD just flat rocks. Definitely worth the $10.
There are several versions of the CD out there. Wal-Mart’s version includes a DVD with the making of the album (which is the version I bought). Best Buy includes two additional songs. A couple of places online include autograph covers (if there’s any left).
Go give it a listen.
Amazon has launched their new MP3 Downloads store where you can download 256 kbps DRM-free MP3′s for as low as $0.89 per song or $7.99 per album.
This is awesome news.
However, the selection is a bit limited (at the moment). For example, I did a search for “Leeland,” and it didn’t produce any results in the MP3 Downloads store. But they do have Crowder, Tomlin, Bethany Dillon, and lots of others.
Looks like iTunes is dropping their DRM-free iTunes Plus music from $1.29 to $0.99 (which is the same price as their regular DRM music).
This morning on my way to work, I stopped and picked up a copy of 
