en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal The Last.fm journal for helver. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2008/03/04/7qw5q_good_show_by_a_great_performer Tue, 4 Mar 2008 13:57:38 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2008/03/04/7qw5q_good_show_by_a_great_performer Mon 3 Mar – The Robert Cray Band

Robert Cray took the Bircheme stage at about 8:20pm on March 3 for a sold out one and a half hour long blues and soul set that entranced, enticed and engaged the mostly aging, mostly white, mostly upper middle class audience that greatly appreciated Cray's strong voice and dazzling guitar skills. He started off with I was warned, and ended the track with the addition of a falsetto "You Suck!", referencing the woman that done him wrong. This kind of ad libbing and crowd interaction was indicative of the show and helped to engage the crowd.

Some of the more memorable numbers included a great rendition of Right Next Door (Because Of Me), Poor Johnny, 12 Year Old Boy, and as part of his encore, Time Makes Two.

All in all, a very strong performance in a very civilized club environment.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2008/01/18/7qw3l_the_12_stars... Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:05:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2008/01/18/7qw3l_the_12_stars... The list of shame... Admittedly, most of these are either spoken intros/outros/movie snippets and like, and live versions that I thought were pretty poorly done. Oh yeah, and Village People...

Album / Artist - Track

Live - How The West Was Won/Led Zeppelin - L.A. Drone
Reservoir Dogs/Steven Wright - Rock Flock Of Five
The Lost Boys/Thomas Newman - To The Shock Of Miss Louise
Live - From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah/Nirvana - Intro
Americana/The Offspring - Welcome
Conspiracy Of One/The Offspring - Intro
Ixnay On The Hombre/The Offspring - Disclaimer
Ixnay On The Hombre/The Offspring - Intermission
Smash/The Offspring - Time To Relax
Stankonia/OutKast - Good Hair (Interlude)
Stankonia/OutKast - Crusin' In The ATL (Interlude)
Paradise Theatre/Styx - State Street Sadie
40 oz. To Freedom!/Sublime - Hidden Track
CrazySexyCool/TLC - Can I Get A Witness - Interlude
CrazySexyCool/TLC - Intermission-lude
CrazySexyCool/TLC - Intro-lude
Sublime Acoustic/Sublime - Wrong Way
Strange Little Girls/Tori Amos - Heart Of Gold
Double Wide/Uncle Kracker - Intro
Balance/Van Halen - Strung Out
Stankonia/OutKast - D.F. (Interlude)
Stankonia/OutKast - Kim & Cookie (Interlude)
Greatest Hits - The Ozzman Cometh/Ozzy Osbourne - Interview With Ozzy 1988
Greatest Hits/Village People - Go West
Greatest Hits/Village People - My Roomate
Greatest Hits/Village People - Sodom And Gomorrah
Greatest Hits/Village People - Y.M.C.A. (Disco Mix)
Greatest Hits/Village People - In The Navy (Disco Mix)
Fast Food For Thought/Wartime - Mindfield
Off The Deep End/Weird Al Yankovic - You Don't Love Me Anymore
XXX/ZZ Top - Live Intro By Ross Mitchell
Miscellaneous/Jimmy Clanton - I'll Praise You Forever
Stankonia/OutKast - I'm Cool (Interlude)
Greatest Hits - Tear The Roof Off - 1974-1980/Parliament - Prelude
Stone Free - A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix/Nigel Kennedy - Fire
Stankonia/OutKast - Drinkin' Again (Interlude)
Gravity's Rainbow/Pat Benatar - Pictures Of A Gone World
Stankonia/OutKast - Intro
Innamorata/Pat Benatar - Gina's Song
Box Set - Paul Simon 1964-93/Paul Simon - The Breakup
Vitalogy/Pearl Jam - Hey Foxymophandlemama That's Me
The Fundamental Elements Of Southtown/P.O.D. - Psalm 150
Oolooloo/The Pietasters - (break)
Do It/Rollins Band - No One
Detonator/Ratt - Intro To Shame
Reservoir Dogs/Steven Wright - Bohemiath
Reservoir Dogs/Steven Wright - Home Of Rock
Reservoir Dogs/Steven Wright - Super Sounds
No Security/The Rolling Stones - Intro
Get Some - Go Again/Rollins Band - Fuck Yo Mama
A Show Of Hands/Rush - Intro
White Light, White Heat, White Trash/Social Distortion - Down Here (With The Rest Of Us)
Live - Pumpkins Live/The Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise
Stone Sour/Stone Sour - Omega
Tha Doggfather/Snoop Dogg - Ride 4 Me
Pulp Fiction/Samuel L. Jackson - Personality Goes A Long Way
Pulp Fiction/Samuel L. Jackson - Ezekiel 25,17
Tha Doggfather/Snoop Dogg - When I Grow Up
Schoolhouse Rock - America Rock/Schoolhouse Rock - Schoolhouse Rocky
Schoolhouse Rock - Grammar Rock/Schoolhouse Rock - Schoolhouse Rocky
Schoolhouse Rock - Multiplication Rock/Schoolhouse Rock - Schoolhouse Rocky
Austin Powers - International Man Of Mystery/George S. Clinton - The Shag-Adelic Austin Powers Score Medley
Adore/The Smashing Pumpkins - 17
Live - Pumpkins Live/The Smashing Pumpkins - Ava Adore
Live - Pumpkins Live/The Smashing Pumpkins - Boys Don't Cry
Live - Pumpkins Live/The Smashing Pumpkins - Bye June
Live - Pumpkins Live/The Smashing Pumpkins - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Tha Doggfather/Snoop Dogg - Intro
Tha Doggfather/Snoop Dogg - Outro
Tha Doggfather/Snoop Dogg - Traffic Jam
Tha Last Meal/Snoop Dogg - Intro
Live - Live At The Roxy/Social Distortion - Cold Feelings
Live - Live At The Roxy/Social Distortion - Secret Track
Reservoir Dogs/Steven Wright - And Now Little Green Bag
Reservoir Dogs/Steven Wright - Keep On Truckin'
Sublime Nisc/Sublime - Minor Threat
Robbin' The Hood/Sublime - Raleigh Soliloquy Pt. I
Robbin' The Hood/Sublime - Raleigh Soliloquy Pt. Ii
14:59/Sugar Ray - New Direction
Live - Live At Carnegie Hall/Stevie Ray Vaughan - Intro
Free Your Soul... And Save My Mind/Suicidal Tendencies - Cyco Speak
All Killer No Filler/Sum 41 - Intro To Destruction
CrazySexyCool/TLC - Sexy - Interlude
Symphony Or Damn/Terence Trent D'Arby - Welcome To My Monasteryo
CrazySexyCool/TLC - CrazySexyCool - Interlude
Troublegum/Therapy - Brainsaw
Flood/They Might Be Giants - Theme From Flood]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2008/01/14/7qvxm_done. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:04:22 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2008/01/14/7qvxm_done. Fifteen months. Over 80,000 spins. Started with 10,000 Maniacs in October of 2006. Ended with ZZ Top in January 2008. I've listened to every song in my library (with the exception of Classical and Children's music). I've gone through and listened (actually listened) to every song and ranked them all in Amarok. Call me obsessive, I don't care. I set out to do this and got it done. Now, I can settle back and build a couple of smart playlists to play only my highest ranking songs...

Then, my next project is hacking amarok to not only do random play, but also take ranking into account when randomizing - a second randomization - so that if the random number doesn't exceed a certain threshold based on the ranking you gave a song, that it doesn't play - you skip to the next song. So you end up with random plays weighted by the songs that you've ranked higher. But there's still the chance that you'll hear that Vanilla Ice, or Friggin' Egg Raid on Mojo. Speaking of which, if I never hear that song again, it'll be too soon...

Final Tally:
17701 Tracks
1/2 Star: 86
1 Star: 562
1 1/2 Stars: 1111
2 Stars: 2928
2 1/2 Stars: 2369
3 Stars: 3382
3 1/2 Stars: 2329
4 Stars: 2176
4 1/2 Stars: 1369
5 Stars: 1377

Tracks that got hosed up and I need to rerip: 3]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/12/18/7qvu1_serendipitous_timing Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:08:13 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/12/18/7qvu1_serendipitous_timing So here it is, December 18... and what should pop up in my quest to rank every song in my library but Trans-Siberian Orchestra's The Christmas Attic. If that's not the spirit of Christmas reaching down and touching me in a positive way, I don't know what is...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/08/23/7qvru_ummm..._wow... Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:30:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/08/23/7qvru_ummm..._wow... As I'm cruising through my entire mp3 library, I'm finding things that I didn't know I had (like Jackyl) and I'm also finding things that I didn't know I liked (like Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise).

I've had a couple of RBBS CDs (Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, and Time to Discover) for awhile, but never really got around to listening to them seriously. Well, I just listened to them. And I'm really impressed. They've got a really laid back soul type thing going on. It's very mellow. I really enjoyed those tracks and I'll be sure to get them into a more appropriate rotation.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/04/15/7qvql_g3_jamming_in_dc Sun, 15 Apr 2007 02:14:43 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/04/15/7qvql_g3_jamming_in_dc Fri 13 Apr – G3 - Last night I had the great pleasure to see the G3 show at the Warner Theater in Washington, DC. I hadn't been the Warner before, but getting there was a breeze. It's basically sitting on top of the Metro Center station so there was no problem there. The only logistical issue was the fact that me and my buddy got there around 7:15 for the 8:00 show and most of the restaurants in the area are either sit down restaurants where we couldn't have gotten in and out in 45 minutes, or were closed by 7pm. Very unfortunate.

The show was excellent. Things got started with Paul Gilbert. He played about 10 songs - a few from his solo albums, a couple from his Racer X days and a riff from Mr. Big's I'm The One Who Wants To Be With You. Gilbert brought along former Racer X bandmate Bruce Bouillet who actually ended up as the 4th G at the end of the G3 Jam Session. I hadn't heard Gilbert play before and I thought he did OK. I liked his Racer X stuff better than most of his solo material. The only song that really stood out for me was Rusty Old Boat and that only because it was so weird. It's certainly possible that my opinions of Gilbert were influenced by his appearance: red leather pants, white t-shirt, headphones, and pasty pale spindly white stick-lick arms. Definitely not a look designed to drive the ladies wild. I thought that he needed Bouillet to play off of, and I thought he did really well in the Jam Session where he didn't have to carry the songs by himself.

John Petrucci was next. I was really looking forward to hearing him play, and quite honestly, I wasn't all that impressed. It was obvious that he was making stuff happen and that his fingers were flying all over his guitar, but there was something wrong with his sound - almost like he was playing inside a sock or something. Very strange. As my buddy pointed out, there were a couple of songs in there that had some compelling ideas, but in his development of those ideas he seemed to go off in a different direction and never came back to the basis for the song. I know that last sentence sounded like a lot of drivel, but it was relevant at the time. Petrucci had his Dream Theater bandmate Mike Portnoy on drums. Portnoy was excellent and I really thought he provided some flair and excitement to Petrucci's set.

Joe Satriani played third. I hadn't seen Joe since July 2006 on his Super Colossal tour. I was pleased that he didn't spend too much of short set on Super Colossal tracks. He hit the bright spots with Satch Boogie, Circles, Cool #9, Flying in a Blue Dream, Always With You, Always With Me, Echo, Summer Song,The Extremist, Super Colossal, The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing, and Crystal Planet. At the end of his set (Always With You, Always With Me), Gilbert and Petrucci came out and did what they called an "impromptu G3 Jam Session". I'll be honest, I love Satriani and have most of his albums - but he was the best guitarist on stage that night. And I love it when he does his bald headed, sunglasses, grinning, energizer bunny, bobblehead gremlin thing. Very enjoyable.

The Jam Session was four songs: Purple Haze, Foxey Lady, Down, Down, Down, and Jumping Jack Flash. Gilbert took the vocal duties for Purple Haze, Foxey Lady and Jumping Jack Flash, with Satch taking it front spot for Down Down Down. It was alot of fun to see the three of them playing together and off one another. By far, the highlight of the show was Purple Haze where the G3 were trading riffs and finally Gilbert resorted to an electric drill to do his picking, but that wasn't enough, so he took his guitar off, set it flat on the stage and played it down there. But that wasn't quite enough help, so both Satch and Petrucci got down and helped him out - Yes. All three kneeling on stage playing Gilbert's guitar that is laying on the stage. That earned them their standing ovation.

In short, I'm looking forward to seeing the next incarnation of the G3 and I hope I'll be able to see them when they come to town.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/03/01/7qvlk_thanks%2C_last.fm%21 Thu, 1 Mar 2007 13:43:43 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/03/01/7qvlk_thanks%2C_last.fm%21 While cruising around through the artist pages of some of my favorite blues guitarists (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Kenny Wayne Shepherd), I noticed that both had a link to Gary Moore. I thought that was interesting, so the next time I was cruising around my favorite used CD store, I saw Gary's Still Got the Blues and I bought it. That was four months ago. I finally listened to it last night and I was seriously impressed. First, there were a couple of tracks I recognized from the radio or movie soundtracks. But the entire album was very, very good. It reminded me a lot of Robert Cray.

At any rate, thanks, Last.fm for introducing me to excellent addition to my collection!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/02/08/7qvka_my_pet_project Thu, 8 Feb 2007 18:23:45 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2007/02/08/7qvka_my_pet_project If any of you have noticed my history of tracks played recently, you may have recognized the fact that I'm (slowly) working my way through my entire 17,000 track library alphabetically by artist. I started in October of 1996 and as of February 2007 I'm into the G's.

No, I'm not suffering from an OCD. I actually LIKE a good random mix of music. The entire reason I'm putting myself through this is to get a pretty solid rating attached to each song so that I can say "Play the best songs" and I'll get the songs that are the best.

And, if I get a couple of minutes, I'll write a utility that'll allow me to do a playlist containing all the songs in my library but that'll incorporate ratings so that the best ones will play more often, but the bad ones will come up every so often... Although with 17,000 songs, that every so often might be once every 10 years...

But that's the point. So if you keep track of what I'm listening to, you'll have a pretty good idea of how close I am to being done. Just remember that I've got 13 ZZ Top albums...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2006/10/11/7qvha_e.c._was_here... Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:32:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2006/10/11/7qvha_e.c._was_here... So I got to see Eric Clapton last night at the MCI Center (or is it Verizone Center) in Washington, DC last night. Robert Cray opened, but due to traffic and other personal scheduling issues, we got to the show at intermission, so I didn't get to see Cray doing his own thing. Not to worry, however, Young Bob joined Slowhand on stage for two numbers including the encore - Crossroads.

I was generally pleased with the set list that opened with Pretending, had a nice little acoustic mini-set in the middle and closed with Cocaine.

My only real problem was that for the duration of the set, there were two too many guitarsists on the stage. Apparently Clapton is giving a couple of young guitarists an opportunity to play with the master, and there was a very obvious difference in skill between the learners and the master. Generally, I was just waiting for the young guys' solos to end, but on Layla, Clapton's guitar duet with his understudy resulted in a chaotic sound that was nothing like the original duet with Duane Allman. My feeling is that if and when Clapton needed another guitarist, he should have asked Cray to come out and join him...

Aside from that, Cray's contributions to the set were welcome and Clapton was awesome...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2006/10/05/7qvgg_e.c._will_be_there.. Thu, 5 Oct 2006 19:29:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/helver/journal/2006/10/05/7qvgg_e.c._will_be_there.. As part of my new job, I travel pretty regularly (about once per month) to DC. My next trip is next week (10/9-10/13), so I was looking around for something to do while I'm there other than to just geek out and play Myst or screw around trying to get my laptop's Wifi working...

I was checking on pollstar.com and saw that not only was Eric Clapton on tour, bu tthat he would be in DC 10/10. Not only that, but Robert Cray will be opening for him... Both are on my list of favorite artists, so I'm going to try to make it to the show, and maybe drag my brother along for good measure.

The interesting thing is that the last time I saw Clapton, it was a solo date when he was on tour with Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan. A couple of days after the show, SRV died in the helicopter crash. So through no fault of my own, I missed both Cray and SRV that time... I'm going to try to avoid making the same mistake again...]]>