Category: Music

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Mentallica – The Intrepid Fox

Went with Smith to see Mentallica play last night at The Intrepid Fox [there used to be a link here, but the pub/venue is demolished for railway, it is no more] in London (St Giles High Street).

So, it was a tiny venue and packed with metal fans. Brilliant. The music was loud and heavy. All in all it was an enjoyable evening. I wanted more kick from the bass drum and “Hetfield”‘s guitar was rather quiet. The snare sounded quite “St Anger” and that can’t be good. So, apart from some minor points I rather enjoyed the whole thing.

The big problem is that Metallica or any other band of that type are rather safe nowadays. They used to be rebellious and dangerous but I don’t think they hit the mark any more. Slipknot and Rammstein filled that bill for a little while but now my allegiances have moved towards EBM and Industrial. See a future communication about what I feel about this.

It’s quite weird going from a small quiet leafy village in Kent to the bustling metropolis of London and seeing how busy everything is all around the clock! I used to live there and have forgotten what it’s like.

We had a Chipotle burrito for dinner and I really enjoyed mine. Seemed good value and vaguely healthy. Smith suffered with his! Oh dear.

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CopyTrans Manager

For quite a while I have found iTunes to be thoroughly frustrating. It has issues with my music collection, randomly adds songs I’ve deleted and doesn’t like updating the artwork on my albums. iTunes also takes an age to synchronise my phone and when it does it fails to update artwork, copy playlists or new songs across to my phone. It seems to be a pretty bad and bloated piece of software. I don’t use iTunes to back up my phone and rely on the cloud for that, which I am thankful for as iTunes probably wouldn’t cope very well with it.

I searched the internet thingy and found a free piece of software called CopyTrans which has a suite of iPhone utilities. I was rather hesitant about using it as it could really mess things up. Would it work with iTunes and my phone and help me do the following:

  • Edit my playlists on my phone without me having to add songs one at a time?
  • Update the artwork on my phone without me needing to delete the songs and then load them again?
  • Copy music onto my phone quickly and efficiently?
  • Actually read my phone database and allow me to edit it (kind of)?

I do still need iTunes but only to manage my playlists on the NAS drive as that is where my Sonos system reads the files. I guess I could use a completely different music manager but iTunes works well as long as I don’t connect my phone to the PC (which is kinda the point of the software).

I downloaded CopyTrans and started it up. The Manager part of the suite is free to use. I was quite wary of doing this. I love my music and have spent ages making sure I have the songs I want and the correct artwork. It’s quite a time investment.

“Connect Your Phone”

CopyTrans wanted my phone. I connected it and waited. CopyTrans read my database and a song list appeared on my computer. I tried to copy some new songs across to my phone.

IT WORKED

AND QUICKLY

I tried editing a playlist – easy. I even tried making sure my artwork was up-to-date (I had noticed two albums only had artwork on the first song), this was really easy and IT WORKED.

The online help files are really good. It all seems so easy.

CopyTrans you have made my life a lot easier and I am thankful. I hope millions read this and use your software, but unfortunately this website only gets ~270 hits a month. More people should use CopyTrans.

Confession –  I have absolutely nothing to do with CopyTrans. I just think their software it worth a mention here.

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Memorabilia

When I stayed with my parents recently I was browsing through the cupboard and found this mug. It’s lovely that they have kept some of this stuff from all those years ago.

If you’re not sure to what this refers then please go here.

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Just so you know, this is the 600th communication from this website. I think I’ve probably spent too much time on it!

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Alt-Fest [1]

This is my first communication about a music festival in 2014 that I am going to attend. In 2013 I went to the Download festival at Donington Circuit, see here for more information.

So, the basic story:

There’s a pretty good “gig” app on the iPhone called Songkick. It scanned my music library and then lets me know when bands I like are going to tour the UK (and other places) and generally keeps me informed, avoiding the need for me to regularly scan magazines or the web for information.

The phone beeped one day and Aesthetic Perfection had announced they were playing in February. I immediately got in touch with my gig-buddy and he said that he thought he was busy on the London date. After checking it turns out it is his wedding anniversary and so we agreed to pass that particular concert. I had thought about going by myself, when he asked if AP were playing anywhere else in the year. Looking through the app it turns out that they are playing something called Alt-Fest [this was a web link but the site is dead]..

A bit more digging and the line-up looked very interesting and the tickets were very reasonably priced. Andy said he thought he was in Italy during that time. After checking his diary and plans it turns out that Andy is indeed in Italy. I held off buying tickets for a while, thinking it would be unfair to go without him, and he thought about changing his flights.

One Friday morning I caved in and bought a couple of tickets and booked a hotel in Kettering. I’m not going to camp at a festival however lovely all the people there are. I like the idea of electricity and a warm shower and proper toilet.

So, next year I am going to Alt-Fest, which as far as I can gather is a crowd funded festival, they campaigned on Kickstarter and have gone from there. The only problem with that is it will become mainstream after just one season and will have to cope with all the commercial interests of all festival promoters. I hope they do well. There are going to be 50,000 people there and the acts look awesome.

Bands I’m looking forward to seeing:

  • Killing Joke
  • Senser
  • Aesthetic Perfection
  • Marylin Manson
  • Gary Numan
  • KMFDM
  • Blut Engel
  • Fuckshovel
  • Onslaught
  • Cradle of Filth
  • SAM
  • Suicide Commando
  • Concrete Lung

It is going to be good fun.

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Don’t Look Back – Boston

I bought this on my Boston phase. I bought up all their stuff as I really liked “Foreplay – Long Time” from Rock Band on the Playstation. Any Boston album is very well written and just what you want. I’m pretty sure this is stuff someone not into rock would cope with playing in the background. More driving music. See Boston review.

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Divine Intervention – Slayer

I bought this on the back of Slayer’s earlier music from the 80s and although I play this now and then there isn’t a track on it that I can remember. It all rather mushes into one song by the end. Sorry.

For Slayer brilliance you need to get Decade of Aggression. Simple.

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Discovery – Daft Punk

I think I’ve listened to this a couple of times. I’ve been getting into electronic music since I saw Combichrist with Rammstein a few years ago. I don’t think I could tell you anything about any particular song on this album. However, given it is Daft Punk I assume it to be quite a good album. Not one I regularly play but am happy to have in my collection.

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Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – AC/DC

Firstly let me announce that I think AC/DC are one of the best bands ever [40 million copies of Back In Black sold]. I love the raw rock sound and the cheeky lyrics. I remember being 17 years old and discovering that there were thirteen AC/DC albums and just being excited at the thought of owning them all. I probably had three albums at that time, Blow Up Your Video being my first.

This album, from 1976, has an excellent ensemble of songs by the gritty Aussie [although there is an argument to say they were British] band. Not a single bad song. Some excellent songs.

  • Dirt Deeds
  • Love At First Feel
  • Big Balls
  • Rocker
  • Problem Child
  • There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’
  • Ain’t No Fun
  • Ride On
  • Squealer

Big Balls is hilarious although Wikipedia claims it has controversial lyrics but it depends whether you have a dirty mind or not. I’m pretty sure this song is about a costume party [NOT].

Rocker takes the power riff and makes you bounce.

Squealer has a brilliant bass riff and is an altogether brilliant song, for some reason I love it.

Ride On makes me cry.

10/10 for this one.

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Dirty Cash – Reaper

This isn’t really an album. It’s more an EP. Of the eleven songs on the album, seven are the same song just re-mixed. I really like the other Reaper stuff and this is ok. It’s more commercial and less dark/devil-ish. Not really my kind of electronic music but ok nonetheless.

I hope to see Reaper at some point in the future. His songs really mix the darkness and sex.

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Dirt – Alice In Chains

I loved Alice in Chains when I was younger. I still do, but I do think that they haven’t moved on musically. Their latest albums sound very similar to the early stuff.

I bought this at university after seeing Alice in Chains twice in the early 90s. I saw them support Iron Maiden and also support Megadeth. I’m pretty sure both concerts were at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, a great small venue.

This album is just brilliant from start to finish. It’s haunting and cunning. There is not a bad track on this album. You should buy it, or download it, or whatever you do to get music. Spotify? Is that the new thing? Nothing else to say.

 

 

 

It’s worth 10/10.
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