All – We’ll be releasing this year’s “XMAS,” with Cory’s new song “It’s a Christmas Thing,” in just a bit tonight.  (Update: archive.org’s FTP is being super-slow; I expect now to have XMAS out tomorrow (Monday) night.  Thanks for your patience. -h)  I recorded the backing vocals and horns/keys late this afternoon, which is pretty rocking; it never gets old recording and releasing something so quickly.  Baby Jesus Save the Internets.

In addition to the new track, Cory’s version of “How We Can Know” from “The Silent Woods” has replaced the older 2005 version on “XMAS.”

I talked to ScoMo the other day, and he may yet contribute this year; if so, it will become track 2, and bump the others back.

Next week we’ll be announcing our release schedule for early 2009, which is super-exciting.  You have no idea.  But you will.  Next week.  -h

This month I’ve entered my serious transition from CDs to iTunes.  I figure I have about half of my physical library imported at this point, including the vast majority of my favorite stuff.  Since I’m a latecomer to this, and an avid album-listener, things of note include:

• My iTunes likes Lincoln, NE “instrumetal” band Mr. 1986 waaay more than my ratings would seem to indicate.  Likewise with indie rockers Grandaddy, and British electronic group Faithless.  The Clash seem to pop up often, too, which I’m not complaining about.
• You may not know that there’s an undocumented but super-handy organizational feature.  As you’re browsing your library, click the “Album” header for two additional options: “Album by year” (my choice!) or “Album by artist.”
• Hip-hop makes up a significantly smaller portion of my library than I expected.  My explanation is that there’s less hip-hop in my older music, and that I return to my favorites more often than I do with other genres.

Oh!  Essential; I’m practicing a strict no-earbuds discipline.  One thing that bums me out about iPods is the privitization of musical experience.  So my iTunes is plugged in to my stereo, and my iPod always goes into the radio or computer speakers.  These are remarkable tools to *facilitate* the sharing of music, not inhibit it, and I’m determined to make the most of that possibility.

• I’ve split my jazz into the genres “Jazz” (everything up to bebop) and “Jazz – Bop & post-” (which is, naturally, bop and everything after it).  Roughly, that means the former is jazz that functions as dance music, while the latter is art jazz.  I tried to split the first category into New Orleans style and big band/swing, but that line was too fuzzy to be meaningful within my limited library.
• Speaking of genres, “Alternative & Punk” is an absolute joke.  It’s so ubiquitous as to be meaningless.  I respect bands that have the guts to say they’re “Metal” or “Rock” or just straight-up “Punk.”  I’m really trying to carve up my library into 10-20 roughly similarly sized genres, not to try to box artists in, but to help create useful smart playlists and mixes for different situations.

Happy holidays; we’re working on XMAS 2k8 as you read. -h

From Chuck Klosterman’s AV Club review;

“… I find myself impressed by how close Chinese Democracy comes to fulfilling the absurdly impossible expectation it self-generated …”

See you. Tomorrow. -h

Found this via the Lincoln Journal-Star’s GroundZero:

Are you guys getting your wi-fi het up to download Arturo Got The Shaft’s “A Life Without Fireflies” on the 23rd???????????!!!!!!!!!!?

PUNK MATTERS.

Axl doesn’t.
==========

My Mac is now up and running at home, and in-between homework, mastering a live set for The Killigans, life, and working on “25d” for XMAS … I’ve been dropping CDs into iTunes.  I haven’t actually *used* it much yet.  More to come.

There are three practice tape songs with vocals up at www.myspace.com/fiftybearsinafight

LOVE

-h

…and I’ll let you know how that goes.  We haven’t played in more than a month, I think.  Practice at 6, hit the road at 8, show at 11 or 12 probably.  If you’re out tonight, raise a glass to my muscle memory…  See my Ultimate Oven Fries recipe posting in a few minutes, if you’re in.  Or, you have time to make them before you go out, really.

I bought Fleet Foxes at Starbucks yesterday, the first time I’ve ever purchased music there.  That disc has been on my list for a while.  Am pumped.

Backordered wi-fi antennas mean that my Mac is still incommunicado with the interwebs, so I haven’t shifted much to iTunes yet. -h

A Man of Many Talents, Eager to Use Them All by Allan Kozinn, October 3 2008 at NYTimes.com

At 28, Mr. Burhans has pursued a career path so logical that it seems almost foolproof. Just sing, compose and master several instruments (besides the violin he plays viola, guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion) and the New York freelance world is your oyster. But this is a new development. Until recently, the conventional wisdom went, musicians with diverse talents should specialize: decide whether they are better suited to composing or performing, singing or playing an instrument, working in classical music or a variety of pop.

And while most young musicians still make the traditional choices and scramble to find work in freelance ensembles until they have established themselves as recitalists or chamber players, others are seeking to diversify. Mr. Burhans’s generation is the third to come of age during the rock era, and where conservatories once taught only classical music, most now offer courses and even degrees in jazz and rock, recording technology and the music industry itself. And musicians who grew up hearing everything from Mozart and Ligeti to Wilco and Radiohead are less inclined than their elders to compartmentalize their passions.

“I was always told, when I was a kid, that you have to decide at some point what it is you want to do,” Mr. Burhans said one afternoon early in his composing break. “And I thought, that’s cool. I’m going to school and study violin, viola and composition, and I’m playing in jazz and rock bands, and when I move to New York, that will decide it for me. People will see what I’m best at, and that’s what I’m going to do.

“But when I got here, I actually did the opposite. I kept doing them all, and I love it. The variety keeps me on my toes, creatively.”

TKTK