Monthly Archives: August 2006

A Mashup Perfect for an overcast Sunday A.M.

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I’ve been a fan of mashups for a couple of years and have amassed a pretty sizeable collection. This morning I was cruising the blogs I follow closely and I visted Mashuptown and he posted about this incredible mashup of Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult and a New Order track I haven’t identified yet titled “Hurts Like Teen Spirit.” Evidently this is the first mashup from DJ Dangerous Orange. Wow! What a great start!

As stated on Mashuptown, it’s a song that gets stuck in your head. The main hook guitar lines from two of the greatest rock songs ever helps quite a bit. Also, the three main songs sampled are similarly dark– regret, death, disappointment. I recommend downloading this!

Hurts Like Teen Spirit

Black Eyed Peas Cancel Cedar Rapids Show

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The Black Eyed Peas have canceled their Cedar Rapids show originally scheduled for September 26th due to “an unforseen scheduling conflict.” The Rapid City, SD show is impacted by this as well. According to the press release, the ticket sales were strong and it looked like this one might have been a sell-out. There is not a re-schedule for this show, and ticket refunds are available starting tomorrow, Friday, August 18. I guess I know what I’m doing over lunch tomorrow.

Before Rockstar: Supernova, there was Supernova… and Supernova

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I’ll admit that my wife and I have been watching CBS’s “Rockstar: Supernova.” We watched “Rockstar: INXS” last year and like most, we were disappointed in the choice of JD. This year is a much different deal. This conglomeration of sidemen from other bands fronted by an unknown is, in my opinion, less a less cohesive idea than taking an established band missing a lead singer. I thought the rumor that Van Halen was going to be the next bad on “Rockstar” was a good one. Who cares about any of the members of Supernova aside from Tommy Lee? Gilby fricken’ Clarke– wasn’t he fired from GnR before Slash? Jason Newstead who was hired on to replace legendary Metallica bassist Cliff Burton isn’t a first-tier member of that band, either.

To add insult to the injury (from the car accident that this show is), they couldn’t even come up with an original name for the band. “Man, that name “Supernova” sure is cool!” Enough so that two other bands picked it– one of which is still around! The one that is still around is suing the band and the producers of the show. The original Supernova has been recording since 1989. The rules about band names that I remember is that a band has to provide proof that they have been performing under that name. If they have CD’s dating back to ’89 that should be a simple win. Depending on how the ruling turns out the Rockstar folks may need to pick another name!

There is also another band in New Jersey called Supernova who perform Bon Jovi covers. I think that this band might have more claim to the name than Tommy Lee does as well!

Coincidentally, I managed a website for a band out of Portugal for a short period of time called– you guessed it– Supernova in 1999. I met a guy who managed artists for a couple of Portuguese record labels through the In/Flux Mailing list– which was a listserv of DJ Shadow fans talking about music. He sent me some promos and white label stuff which included a couple CD’s from the Portuguese Supernova. At the time, they were being positioned as being Post Rock, which they kind of fit into. Their first album Storafile released in 1996 sounds a lot like the Breeders. Their follow up record called The Atari Series #1 was a deconstruction of some songs they were working on, including remixes. I think this album sounds a lot like Stereolab. I liked them enough to offer to help them get a website up– which they were pretty excited about. There was supposed to be a follow up to the Atari Series, but the band broke up in 2000. All that is left is an obscure reference on the Internet. Here are some tracks for you to listen to:

Body from Storafile

Modem from The Atari Series #1

Bo Ramsey and Stranger Blues and Solo Live Dates

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The much-anticipated (at least as far as I’m concerned) new Bo Ramsey album Stranger Blues has been out since July 18th and I ordered it as soon as the fine folks at CDBaby sent me an e-mail telling me it was available. I’ve been listening to it on and off since I got it. Stranger Blues is the mark of a seasoned performer– a consistent, balanced recording — a calling card showing why so many artists have asked Bo to contribute to their albums.

Bo’s last album In The Weeds was released in 1997, so it’s been nine years since we last heard him solo. It isn’t like Bo has been kickin back with his boots on the porch rail with his signature straw hat pushed down on his nose taking a nap, though. He spent this time in the studio contributing the signature Bo Ramsey sound for what looks like over twenty records for artists like Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams, Joan Baez and the Trailer Records regulars like The Pines, Kevin Gordon and Dave Zollo. He contributed to Pieta Brown’s last records and has spent most of the last two or three years touring with her.

My first live show at a bar was in the mid-Eighties at the bar at the then-newly-renovated Potter’s Mill in Bellevue, Iowa with Bo Ramsey and the Sliders which included Radoslav Lorkovic. I was hooked. Over the years I had seen Bo many times at all kinds of bars in Eastern Iowa– some still around, some not. The Corner Tap in Cascade, The Silver Dollar in Dubuque, Jimmy B’z in Dubuque, Fife’s in Maquoketa, Goose Island Tap, and in Cassville, Wisconsin opening for the remainders of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils (I think only the drummer was an original member).

When I moved back to the Eastern Iowa area in 1997 after over two years in the Twin Cities, one of the things I was looking forward to was seeing Bo play live. I managed to get about six or so shows in before he switched to primarily being a sideman for the Brown Family, including a couple of real barnburners– one of the last ones I saw was billed as “Bo Ramsey and the Body Electric” at the former Green Room (R.I.P.) in Iowa City. This was Bo fronting Dave Zollo’s band. I brought my wife’s aunt and uncle from Minneapolis down for that show and they loved it. Sometimes when the mood is right, Bo moves into this space and plays these blistering guitar solos and that night had couple of those great moments. The last Bo show I got in was at the Mill where he did a largely acoustic set in a three piece band that was completely different than I was used to. In retrospect, this show was the precursor to Stranger Blues as it was largely old blues covers, which is where Bo’s heart is.

Stranger Blues is an album of blues songs interpreted by Bo in his distinctive style. Most of the songs are delivered in a slow deliberate almost smokey way. Bo seems to be mellowing like fine scotch as the years go on. When I compare the songs on Blues with the songs on Bo’s 1988 more-rocking release Either Way you can hear the passing of time between the two releases– maybe wisdom or maybe reflection? This is a record, after all, of his influences that says “this is how I got here.” One of the things I find most interesting about this release is that while these are blues songs originally performed by such greats as Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Willie Dixon and Howling Wolf, he didn’t pick the obvious songs– these are deep catalog choices picked by someone who is well-educated in blues history.

How Bo manages to be so connected and respected by the music community and not become more widely known is beyond me. I know he prefers to stay out of the limelight and it seems his career is exactly how he wants it.

Here are some samples from Stranger Blues thanks to CDBaby (you can listen to more samples here):

Stranger Blues

Little Geneva

Freight Train

My favorite track from In The Weeds is Forget You cowritten by Greg Brown.

In the Weeds from In The Weeds

A great track from his Trailer Records release Live is Sidetrack Lounge

555 x 2 from Down to Bastrop

Bo will be doing some live shows in support of Stranger Blues. The first one will be on 9/22 at River Roots Live. Then, on 10/5 he will be doing a live show at the Reverb in Cedar Falls sponsored by KUNI. I don’t know if they will be broadcasting this– but it is conveniently taking place during the timeslot for “Down on the Corner” which is a show about regional music. This will be followed by a show at the Mill in Iowa City on 10/6. I sincerely hope we will get more solo dates! More news as I get it.

Update: I just heard back from KUNI and they said that they don’t currently have plans to broadcast the 10/5 show at the Reverb. If they do decide to tape it, it will be for later broadcast and not a live broadcast.

iPod In My Car

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The iPod Car adapter mentioned in this article is listed at eBay!

I’ve owned mp3 players since they were introduced back in 1998 or 1999. I was an early adopter and suffered for it– not enough memory, very expensive. The Rio PMP300 was the first with a whopping 32MB of flash memory. I sold that on eBay and bought the Creative Nomad Zen Xtra, which was supported by Linux, which was the appeal for me at the time. I got my wife a Creative Nomad II, and then later got her a white 20GB Clickwheel iPod which she still has. Earlier this year I broke down and bought a 60GB Video iPod and sold the Zen on eBay. The reason I say “broke down” is that my primary workstation at home runs a Linux distro (these days SuSE 10) and the iPod support is nearly non-existent. So, when I load songs and videos on it, it has to be on Windows. However, I have been fairly impressed with the integration of iTunes and the iPod, so I’m happy.The other reason I moved to the iPod is the connector. The iPod is one of very few digital media players that supports a remote control or base and has Line Out audio connectors. This combination gives the iPod the ability to be connected to a lot of devices including alarm clocks and compact stereo bases, as well as acting as a disc changer/jukebox for a car. It is possible to connect other mp3 players into stereos, but they tend to use the headphone jack and usually use devices like FM broadcasters or cassette adapters. I’ve used those solutions over the years and they work pretty well, but I wanted something that used line out and had some integration with the car stereo head. Why is line out important? Line out gives “line level” signal, which is a consistent audio signal between line connected devices, like an amplifier and a CD player in your home stereo. The headphone jack signal level is determined by the volume control on the device, and is therefore not consistent, and also then modified by the internal amplifier that drives the headphone. I guess it’s picky, but was important to me.

My car is a 2003 VW Passat Wagon with the Monsoon stereo. I had seen on the VW Boards that people have been connecting their iPods with a device called a Blitzsafe. Blitzsafe makes many devices, but are mostly known for connecting mp3 players into factory (OEM) stereo heads via an open or available auxiliary port typically used for CD Changers. This connector also has the ability to charge the device and also can pause the player when either the stereo is shut off, selected to something other than CD, or the car is turned off.

There seems to be two approaches when it comes to having the iPod plugged into the stereo head. Both approaches “tricks” the stereo into thinking it has a disc changer connected to it. One approach is to truly treat the iPod like an isolated jukebox similar to a disc changer, or like the Phatbox or Music Keg– meaning you don’t really interact with it directly. The iPod’s ability to have a remote control via the connector allows the ability to control it from the stereo face controls (skip, forward, back, next disc) as well as showing the ID3 song titles on the face in some cases and allowing you to choose your favorite playlist. While that is very cool, it doesn’t allow you to use the clickwheel if you are like me and have a tendency to skip around the contents. These solutions are also typically more expensive.

The other approach is the one that the Blitzsafe Volkswagen/iPod Interface uses, which is to provide the line out, charging and pause. You control volume from the stereo face or, in my case, also the steering wheel volume controls. I called around the day that I wanted to do this, and found that the only place that carried the Blitzsafe line was Best Buy, and the only Best Buy that had the one for the VW was the Cedar Falls Best Buy. So, I called on a Friday afternoon and got them to hold one for me. I drove up on Saturday and purchased it. I had a 12% coupon so that was cool, too.

Note: I think judging by the general unavailability of these right now, that Blitzsafe is changing their product line to have one “Blitzsafe Car” connector and specific connectors for vehicle applications. The Blitzsafe MLINK1 V1 I got was the connector and the converter part all in one piece. Their website is not helpful right now.

Installation was pretty easy. The Passat Monsoon stereo shipped with the disc changer cable already plugged in. Once I pulled the head out, I unplugged the blue disc changer cable, connected the Blitzsafe into it, and had to find a suitable location to connect the ground wire. I unscrewed one of the philips-head screws on the back of the stereo and connected it. It is important to connect the ground wire! The stereo will not detect the Blitzsafe otherwise and will not let you chose aux. I fished the very ample iPod connector cable around the right side and kept the slack behind the stereo head. I tucked the exposed iPod connector cable between the dash and the carpeting along the transmission hump in the passenger footwell. There was enough cable on the Blitzsafe that I had considered running the cable to the center console and storing the iPod in there, but that wouldn’t give me easy access to the clickwheel or display.

To use the iPod with the stereo, I just hit the “CD” selector twice– first one is to chose single CD, the second press is for the disc changer mode. The display shows “Track 99.” and the iPod is available for use.

The next thing I needed was a dock or mount for it. Conveniently, the B5 style Passats had an area on the dash around the stereo that could be filled with buttons for defrost or the seat heater switches. My car had a “blank” in one of the spots that could take a vehicle mount from a company called ProClip. ProClip has a whole bunch of options for mounting gadgets in vehicles. After I picked the special base, I chose a device holder that would allow me to keep my iPod in it’s case by utilizing the belt clip on the back. This particular holder will also let you hook a screwback case, which my wife has on her iPod.

The installation works great. I do the majority of my music listening in my car and having the iPod tied in to the stereo and charging is perfect, in my opinion.

Update (September 2008): The 3G iPhone– unlike the previous generation iPod’s and iPhone’s– does not charge from the firewire pins (and as such, 12v charging) on the ipod cable, so while I can use the MLINK to connect to the car stereo, it does not charge it, so I get messages on the iPhone that say “this device is not supported for charging.” According to this thread on the Blitzsafe boards, they will be making a new cable that will be available that addresses this issue by providing charging on the USB pins.

Black Eyed Peas to play at USCellular Center 9/26/06

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Compass Events and USCellular Center in Cedar Rapids, IA announced on Monday that the Black Eyed Peas will be performing on Tuesday, September 26th with Rihanna opening. BEP is a particular favorite around our house, and we also dig Rihanna’s “S.O.S” with its extensive debt to “Tainted Love” and the funky grime of “Pon de Replay.” Tickets go on sale at 10AM this Friday from ticketmaster or at the USCellular ticket office for $35.50 and are General Admission as most shows are at the USCellular Center.

Update: This show has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. See update post.