last.fm stats 2009
A new year means we all look back at everything we did last year, so here (for my own personal reasons) are my most listened to 20 songs and artists for 2009.
Clearly the Smashing Pumpkins (yet again) take out the number one spot and this is for a number of reasons. Obviously my work for them involves listening to multiple interviews, live recording, plus that I enjoy listening to their music and I own a considerably large collection of studio and live material. It will be interesting to see if they take out the number one spot in 2010.
My favourite Canadian boys, Wolf Parade, were easily my most loved track from 2009. Even though I discovered them a few years earlier, it was during the last 12 months that their music started to really become something more to me. Apologies to the Queen Mary was on high rotation for the entire 12 months of ‘09, so no surprises that the opening track ‘You Are A Runner and I am my Fathers Son’ took out the number one played track. Was honestly surprised with The Smiths coming in at number two, although there was a few months where that song did get played a lot.
So there you have it, but I’m not not done yet. As for most listened to albums of the year, according to my last.fm stats here is what it ended up being:
- Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
- The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
- The Smiths – The Best Of The Smiths
- Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
- TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
- Handsome Furs – Face Control
- The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
- My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
- Smashing Pumpkins – Adore
- Franz Ferdinand – Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
Pretty staple albums for my listening diet I guess and it did include two of my favourite releases from 2009. Franz Ferdinand’s – Tonight came out at the start of the year and I honestly beleived that nothing to top this album, even though I new that I was expecting new music from the Flaming Lips, Manic Street Preachers, Them Crooked Vultures – bands I knew that would produce music I would love.
Well Franz held the title for quite a while, until I heard ‘Face Control‘ by Handsome Furs. This album was just the constant ‘go-to’ album for me. When I was confused, when I was happy, when I was down, when I just wanted to dance, when I was walking and wanting to switch off from the world around me … this was my soundtrack. Seeing Handsome Furs in 2009 also cemented this record as my album of the year too … so, to use that old Molly Meldrum cliché “Do yourself a favour and go check it out”
(Did I just link to a MySpace page? – wow!)
Tribute to Rowland S. Howard
Rowland S. Howard, the Australian guitarist who played with Nick Cave in both the Boys Next Door and the influential post-punk outfit the Birthday Party, died from liver cancer this morning, December 30. He was 50.
To pay tribute to this legend of Australian music history, I wanted to dig into my music vaults again and share a rare live recording of The Boys Next Door. The recording is from the 19th of July in 1977 recorded at the Swinburne College in Melbourne, Victoria.
The show is a short setlist that features mainly cover songs and is definately one for the Nick Cave, Birthday Party & Boys Next Door fans out there, play it loud and say farewell to Rowland S. Howard.
Setlist:
Boys Next Door – 19.07.77 – Swinburne College
1. Blitzkrieg Bop
2. Ain’t it funny
3. I’m Eighteen
4. Gloria
5. Masturbation Generation
6. Who needs you? (That Means You)
7. I Put A Spell On You
8. My Generation
9. Big Future
10. These Boots are Made For Walkin’
11. World Panic
12. Louie, Louie
The crowd gasps at Cockers masterful control of the microphone
It finally happened, I was able to witness the black magic of Jarvis Cocker live in person … and it was everything I wanted it to be.
( Yep, that is me looking right up at Jarvis – photo by @antzpantz )
As soon as he walked out onto the stage and started handing out chocolates to the crowd to ‘keep their energy levels up’ you knew you were in for a special performance that could only be delivered by Cocker. The show began with trio energetic of songs from his latest release, the tracks of Angela, Further Complications and Fuckingsong really got the crowd into the show and all the feet in the audience were dancing as one.
However no matter how good the crowd dance, nothing could beat the stage moves from Jarvis himself. The dramatic poses, the furious hand gestures and microphone acrobatics all mesmerised the crowd. The night itself was split evenly between his first and second album released, and for those interested there were no Pulp songs played live. This was a Jarvis show, not a Pulp show.
Between songs Jarvis would entertain the crowd with random facts about historical event from that day in history. Informing the crowd it was the birthday of Kim Basinger and also the birthday of the late Jim Morrison. This final fact would actually be a bit more important than the others as it would lead into Jarvis and the band performing The Doors song, The Crystal Ship.
Jarvis Cocker introducing – The Crystal Ship.
All in all, this show was simply enjoyable. I’d personally like to thank Jarvis for the simple hand shake at the start of the show to welcome me to the gig … I can’t wait till we meet again.
Setlist: Angela / Further Complications / Fuckingsong / Leftovers / Slush / Big Julie / I Never Said I Was Deep / From Auschwitz to Ipswich / Homewrecker! / Fat Children / Black Magic
Encore: Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time / The Crystal Ship (The Doors cover) / You’re In My Eyes (Discosong) / Running the World
Dead Set
Dear Internet,
I need your help finding a music documentary about the rise from ‘garage to glory’ of young bands from Australia called ‘Dead Set‘. It contains informal interviews and live footage from pubs / festivals from bands such as You Am I, Spiderbait, Custard, Regurgitator, Grinspoon and many more.
Why do I need you help?
My copy is dead … really, dead set. Ha!
Being a VHS it was destroyed by a hungry video player one day and I’ve never been able to find another copy … if you ever see a copy, please let me know. If you’re able to create a digital version, then please let me know.
After searching the internet, this is all I have been able to find … a clip of mainly Tim Rogers (You Am I) talking about the band, the Australian scene and blowing money on crack and hookers, along with small clips of Spiderbait (talking about ‘making it’ when they got a gig in Sydney), Custard (calling Tim a tall poppy) and Grinspoon still when Phil wore make up.
- Sunky
Kelloggs Cornflakes are fighting piracy with lasers
Breakfast is serious business, so serious lasers are now involved in making cornflakes, WHA? I hear you say … just read the press release from Kellogg’s:
Source: Kellogg’s combats fake flakes
Kellogg’s has developed a hi-tech method to stamp out imitation cereals – by branding Corn Flakes with the company logo.
The new technology enables the firm – which makes 67 million boxes of Corn Flakes every year – to burn the famous signature onto individual flakes using lasers.
Kellogg’s plan to produce a number of one-off trial batches of the branded flakes to test the system.
Bosses will then consider inserting a proportion of branded flakes into each box to guarantee the cereal’s origins and protect against imitation products.
If the system is successful it could be used on Kellogg’s other best-loved brands including Frosties, Special K, Crunchy Nut and Bran Flakes.
The laser uses a concentrated beam of light which focuses the energy within the beam, down to a very small spot on the Corn Flake.
Mirror galvanometers are then used to steer the beam creating multiple vectors that reflect the laser from different angles and ultimately make up the image.
The energy density within the laser spot diameter is sufficient enough to give the surface of the flake a darker, toasted appearance without changing the taste.
Kellogg’s embarked on the project to reinforce that they don’t make cereals for any other companies and to fire a shot across the bows of makers of ‘fake flakes’.
Yesterday Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at the company, said: ”In recent years there has been an increase in the number of own brands trying to capitalise on the popularity of Kellogg’s corn flakes.
”We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else.
”We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.
”We’ve established that it is possible to apply a logo or image onto food, now we need to see if there is a way of repeating it on large quantities of our cereal. We’re looking into it.”
The company also released figures which show sales of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes have risen in 2009 as shoppers with limited budgets opt for recognised, reliable brands.
A staggering 128 billion bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are eaten worldwide every year in countries as far afield as Guatemala, Japan, Argentina and India.
And an incredible 2.8 million bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes are eaten in the UK everyday – that’s one billion a year.
The firm’s Manchester factory is also the biggest Corn Flake production line in the world and churns out cereals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes were also the first cereal to land on the moon – as the breakfast of choice for the crew onboard Apollo 11
New toys for this web designer
Yep, just ordered more design related toys.
From the team @ Design Commission and the store that is uistencils I’ve ordered a few things that I’m looking forward to having in my design room. The items (pictured below) are perfect for creating more in-depth sketches, wireframes and ideas before I even open up Photoshop. My theory is always, plan on paper first and have more fun on screen with the finishing touches.
My Shopping List:
1. Website stencil kit (x1)
2. iPhone stencil kit (x1)
3. Browser sketch pad (x3)
Note: Would like to thank the Australian dollar for being so strong at the moment, all this (including shipping) for about $80 AUD. I’ll update when they arrive.
Photoshop is in my pocket
Camera related iPhone apps seem to be plentiful on the iTunes App Store and it has taken a while but Adobe joined the party and released Photoshop for the iPhone today. About time if you ask me.
While not the full desktop version of Photoshop we are used to, the app seems to be perfect for those quick on the go fixes you want to do for that picture before you upload to Twitter or Flickr. If you’ve taken a photo on your night out and it has come out a little dark, you can now pull Photoshop out of your pocket and do some exposure touches while waiting for that next drink at the bar and then upload.
With a simple to use interface you’re able to do the following:
Basics: Crop, Rotate and Flip
Colour: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White
Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus
Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White
I took it for a quick spin using a photo I took at a recent Handsome Furs show, the original (on the left) was still a great shot but I added a warm vintage effect, upped the saturation and a few other touches here and there. It isn’t the greatest Photoshop work ever done but it was done in less than 15 seconds and ready to saved, emailed or uploaded.
With this app now, I can say goodbye to a few single apps I’ve had for rotating images, cropping and colour effects. This is version 1 and I hope that Adobe will see the benefit in adding new features to this app, there are a lot to choose from.
So if I’ve sold you on getting this FREE app, head to the iTunes store and get it … although currently only for people with US iTunes accounts I’m sure it will filter onto the other international stores eventually.
Scoff from the Nirvana – Bleach Deluxe release
Sub Pop is reissuing and remastering Nirvana’s first album, 1989’s “Bleach,” for its 20th anniversary, and with it will come some previously unreleased material.
“Scoff,” included on the original tracklist, was one of the many songs performed at a concert in February 1990, at Portland’s Pine Street Theatre; that show is included in the extra disc/vinyl record in the forthcoming deluxe edition.
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The original producer of “Bleach,” Jack Endino, had the honors of remastering this expanded, sexy set, due Nov. 3.
A now a fun, fun fact in the world of Nirvana and small, stalwart independent labels: A few years ago, before he announced the label would quit putting out new records this spring, Touch & Go’s beloved founder Corey Rusk, in an interview, described to me how Nirvana could have, should have, been on his label.
“I met Kurt Cobain at a Nirvana show, around the time Bleach came out,” says Rusk. “As I was talking with him, he said, ‘Touch and Go was my favorite label growing up. We sent you a demo but we never heard from you.’ Back in those days, we listened to every demo. We’d still felt like some kid took the trouble to send this to us. I actually kept every demo that ever got sent to us back then, so I got home and dug through every box in the garage. I felt like, ‘Did he really send it?’ But it wasn’t there. ‘Did I throw it out? Maybe it never made it?’ I loved Bleach. It was heartbreaking, because here was a great band that sent us a great demo.”
It is hard to believe this music is now 20 years old.
The Snow Leopard Rainbow
I’m one of those people that likes to, sometimes, have their desktop animated. Since upgrading to Snow Leopard I’ve really enjoyed the look of the new Aurora desktop, it was a great update to the original Leopard design.
So if you’re like me, and want to “mix up” your desktop life a little – I’ve created 6 variations for you to brighten up that screen of yours (download).
To get the full effect, in System Preferences on your Mac set your desktop to animate every 10 mins, 1 minute or even 5 seconds so your desktop will change … like some wonderful aurora in the outer regions of the galaxy. As seen below via the magic of Snow Leopard new screencast feature. (and yes, this was the main reason for the update I wanted to test this new toy)
Jebediah Live at Mojos Fremantle 16.09.09
Last night Jebediah performed to a very appreciative, but small, crowd at Mojo’s in Fremantle, Perth WA. The purpose of the show was as an ‘open night’ rehearsal before the band heads off to perform at the Blueprint Festival in Ararat,Victoria.
I’ve uploaded some shots to flickr, plus a few little video’s too … sure they are from my iPhone but it is still good enough. The whole show was just fun from start to finish, one of those rare nights where the band and crowd are having an equally good time.
Setlist (few might be out of order)
Lino / Animal / Yesterday When I Was Brave / NDC / Fall Down / Comet / It’s Over / Please Leave / Feet Touch The Ground / Monument / More Alone / First Time / No Sleep / To Your Door / Leaving Home (Kev screwed up the lyrics, so they had to stop half way through and start again) / Seven Signs of Ageing / Harpoon / Jerks of Attention
Leaving Home (30 sec clip)
View the other photo’s on Flickr: Jebediah – 16.09.09 Mojo’s Fremantle
