It wasn’t very long ago that I was a PC-only kinda guy. While I wasn’t particularly fond of Windows and never really got into Linux, there were certain PC-only software packages that just clicked with me and Winamp was one of them. Even now, in it’s sold-out, useless-feature bloated state, I sometimes wish they made Winamp for OSX.

A few months ago though I decided to start using iTunes exclusively, simply because it was a single application that worked on my PCs and the Mac. It wasn’t long after I made that decision that iTunes 7 came along. With 7 came a new feature, gapless playback. Now gapless playback may be new to iTunes but it isn’t a new technology by any means. If you’ve ever listened to long DJ mixes or Pink Floyd albums where the tracks blend seamlessly together, you’ve experienced gapless playback. To try to recreate this experience, iTunes manually checks the beginning and end of every song in your library to determine if the songs should be played without a gap. It sounds like a great feature at first and once an album is scanned, it doesn’t have to be scanned again, but several hours after starting iTunes on my Mac, this is what I see:

…it prevents me from playing music, takes several minutes for each song and there is NO WAY TO MAKE IT STOP! The reason why this process takes so long for me is because all of our music is stored on a network share on a Media Center PC that is hooked into our TV and surround sound in the living room. Back here in the office we have 2 machines. The G5 iMac, which I work from most of the time, and the PC that I use mainly to test sites in Internet Explorer. When I start up iTunes (on either the PC or the Mac), it cranks for a while on the Gapless Playback and eventually crashes. When I restart iTunes (or reboot on the PC) it seems to start back at the very beginning. I even tried un-mounting the network share, highlighting all the songs, going to “get info” and checking “No” for the gapless album preference as outlined on i.nconspicio.us, but as soon as I reconnect and try to play music, it starts up it’s Gapless Playback process again before it can play any songs. iTunes just can’t seem to make it through this process without crashing. I don’t know if it’s because of the network share or if there is possibly some corrupt MP3 files in my collection that cause it to crash, but I’m back to playing music in the office via the PC with Winamp and using hackish ways to swap out the music on my iPod.

Edit: In my quest to find a simpler music player for OSX, I found a good open source alternative: Cog. It’s very basic, but for now it does the job.

About a week and a half ago, my friend Jeremy Darty posted the first episode of his new podcast - Step ‘n Side. Back in the day Jeremy and I were the two renegade PC users in the graphic design program at UCF. As fate would have it, we both work on Macs full time now and I’m guessing he even produces his show in Garage Band. In his podcast, Jeremy is exploring and exposing some great alternative and independant bands and providing a steady stream of new podsafe music.

On Monday, Jeremy posted the second episode of his podcast and I have to say that there hasn’t been a single song in either episode that I didn’t like. So far he has played music from Brother Love, Lee Coulter, Munk, Darren Geffre, Rayko Pipes and the Kenny Ryan Band, Megaphone, and Seven Mary Three. Of all those bands, I had only really heard of Brother Love and (of course) Seven Mary Three. It’s pretty crazy that he got Seven Mary Three’s management to allow him to play one of their songs on his podcast. They’re a big name and have been around for about 10 years now. Back in 2002 Jeremy and I got to see them play at Spirit Splash, one of UCF’s annual homecoming traditions. When they got on stage they announced that although they had never canceled a show before, they almost canceled ours because lead singer Jason Ross was sick and had pretty much lost his voice. When they started to play “Cumbersome”, Jeremy and a few other guys jumped up on stage and got to help Jason belt out the chorus. Good Times!

Be sure to check out Step ‘n Side and let Jeremy know what you think about the music. He might even play your comment on the air and call you out like he did to me. :)

Be patient as the video takes a few seconds to load. This whole thing is my entry into Dustin Diaz’s final book give away in his 12 days of Christmas contests. I have to give credit for this performance to O-Zone who originally recorded the song (Dragostea Din Tea) and Gary Brolsma who made it famous. Confused? Try Googling Numa Numa.

Enjoy…

Wow! What a great show! Friday night Ames and I made a turn for the random and decided to try to get tickets at the door for Rascal Flatts and Blake Shelton at the O’Connell Center. Before the ticket line opened up, we were mingling around the will call line and found someone who had some tickets they wanted to sell. They had bought a set of great tickets, and then were able to get floor level tickets online. So, for a buck less than we would have paid for nose-bleed tickets, we got level 1 tickets right next to the stage.

Neither of us had heard of Shelly Fairchild, but she had a great voice and put on a good show as the opening act. I knew that I had heard some songs by Blake Shelton before, but I had no idea how many. If you’ve never heard him before, you should check out “Some Beach”, “Austin”, or “Playboys Of The Southwestern World”. Unfortunately, each one of those songs is on a different CD of his.

The reason everyone was there though (including us) was to see Rascal Flatts, and we were not disappointed. They are a great show to see live and I think we knew about every song they played. The stage set was amazing, and included a riser that put the performers (almost) within a hat throw away from us.

One of the funniest things to see during the concert was that people were actually opening up their cellphones and holding them in the air like lighters. At first I thought they were just trying broadcast the song to a friend on the other end, but then I noticed that there were greenish blue lights floating around all over the stadium. So, the next time you go to a concert, and hear a song that makes you want to hold a lighter up in the air, just flip open your cell phone.

On Friday night I found out that Kingsbury, a band from Orlando that a friend of mine plays bass for was going to be playing up here in Gainesville at a little venue called Faces Lounge. I haven't been to many shows like this, but to give you an idea of the atmosphere – the drinks were expensive, the age probably averaged about 19, and the first couple of bands were mediocre at best.

Needless to say, I was about ready to head home by the time Kingsbury was setting up but their very presence in the room radiated a level of seniority and confidence not yet represented by the previous bands. Kingsbury consists of the usual guitar/vocalist, lead guitar, drummer, bassist, and tosses in a keyboard. Their sound is dark and mellow, and the blue up-lighting they brought along further emphasized the mood of the music. It was really a great show and I look forward to seeing them again if they're in town. If you get a chance, check them out at Kingsburymusic.net, download "This Place is Coming Down", and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

It may have been the smallest concert I've ever been to, but a great time was had by all. When I said that BackBooth was a little place, I really had no idea how small. And even though it was small, the place was empty! Whoever promoted that show should be fired. There were maybe 75 people there - including the three bands.

Jhon, Brian, and I showed up about the same time. The opening band was "Still Nieve". They were a little obnoxious in my opinion, but the second band really rocked. I had heard someone say that Big Dismal sounds a lot like Creed, but I really didn't think that was the case. The only similarity I noticed was the use of a harmonic microphone now and then for voice distortion.

After they got off stage, we got to hang out with Eric Durrance (vocals/guitar) for a while. He seemed like a very down-to-earth character. We all talked about music, where we were from, and the music industry in general. Since I told him I was in Gainesville, he even offered to put us on the guest list for their show tonight in Jacksonville. It would have been a much bigger show (with Grits, Pillar, and Skillet), but I left Gainesville at 3pm yesterday and I have to get some hours in at work sometime. I picked up their album though, and after listening to it 2½ times through on the ride home, I still think I'll listen to it at work.

The crowd (if you could call them that) got much more into 12 stones at the end, and they really put on a good show. Some drunk guys in their 40s decided to start moshing and pushing people around toward the end, but other than that, it was an awesome night.

Update: I saw that my review was linked from bigdismalonline.com, so I thought I'd add the old site's pagename to the post so that those people don't get a 404 error - archive.php?month=04&year=2004