John Michl

I recently bought an Acura RDX with Tech Package. The audio system has 5.1 DVD audio surround sound. It is fantastic! With my entire CD collection converted to MP3 and living in iTunes Match, I thought I’d never by another disc. I was wrong. After listening to the DVD Audio disc provided with my new RDX, I went in search of of some super high quality music. My tastes are classic rock, jazz, blues, and some eclectic genres. Unfortunately, I haven’t found much yet since most DVD Audio discs seem out of print. Here’s what I’ve got so far.

• Diana Krall: When I Look in Your Eyes
• Grover Washington, Jr: Winelight
• Steely Dan: Gaucho (on order)
• John Coltrane: Blue Train

Any disc recommendations or better yet, sources for DVD audio? Amazon seems limited.

I just learned that Doyle Dykes, Taylor Guitar Clinician and incredible guitarist, will perform at Discovery World in Milwaukee on November 25, 2008 at 7 p.m. I saw Doyle a few years ago at a music store and his playing and stories blew my mind. The event benefits Discovery World and Guitars for Vets. Anyone care to join me?  Tickets are $10 each exclusively available through Discovery World 414-765-9966 or online. May also be available at the door if space is still available.  Who’ll join me?

Here’s Doyle playing Wabash Cannonball.  I think there may be some Orange Blossom Special thrown in for good measure.

Here’s a brilliant idea. PaperCDCase.com let’s you enter a list of 28 song titles and create a printable paper cd case complete with folding instructions.  Better yet, if you use iTunes on a Mac install this script from Doug’s Scripts and automatically send the contents of a playlist to the CD case maker.  Glad I switched to Mac or I’d be typing in those playlists!

Here’s a PDF of my first case.  Sample CD Case

Back in the seventies, I remember hanging out with my best friend Tim and listening to Dark Side of the Moon.” Tim’s older brother Pat had the vinyl LP of this Pink Floyd classic and we would stay up to the wee hours of the morning, sitting in their bedroom with the lights off listening the album, start to finish, over and over and over. (“That 70′s Show” brings back many of those memories.) Several months ago I was listening to a podcast about obscure music and bumped into a reggae oriented rendition of this classic dubbed, “Dub Side of the Moon.”

What?? That seems blasphemous and un-American. (Oops, Floyd was British.) Anyway, the podcast played a reggae version of “Money“. I thought to myself, “hmmm, that’s kind of interesting.” So…I plopped it on my Amazon wishlist.

Last weekend I found the “CD” while using my free trial credits eMusic. I downloaded all of the tracks and have listened to the entire “album” — start to finish — over and over and over. This “tribute” actually works. It is creative and offers a unique perspective to this great music but yet honors the brilliance of the original band.

Click below to sign up to receive 25 DRM-free, MP3 downloads. Then search for Dub Side of the Moon. You can listen on-line before downloading. You won’t be disappointed.

Prefer Amazon.com?
Dark Side of the Moon 30th Anniversary Edition Pink Floyd
Dub Side of the Moon (Both CD and MP3 available)

Did you catch the “Next Great American Band” auditions a few weeks ago? After a tune performed by a traditional sounding bluegrass band, one of the judges asked if the band could play anything more “mainstream” than traditional bluegrass that would appeal to a wider audience. They launched into a bluegrass version of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” Granted it was tongue in cheek but it was pretty creative.

Today my iPod randomly dished out Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” But wait, that sounds like “newgrass” not hard rock. Sure enough, it wasn’t Aerosmith but rather The String Cheese Incident and they were pickin’ and grinnin’ “Walk this Way.” How fun is that?!?

Last week I cashed in on a free trial at eMusic. A free two week trial yielded 25 DRM-free MP3 music tracks and one MP3 audiobook. I picked up a couple of CDs worth including The String Cheese Incident and Bare Naked Ladies plus the audio book Super Crunchers. I don’t recall when I first heard of The String Cheese Incident but being from Wisconsin, I was certainly attracted to the name. I’m pretty sure it was on some music-related podcast. Any who, sometime in the last year or so I added them to my Amazon wishlist which is how I typically “bookmark” books and CDs for future consideration.

I’ve posted a link below so you can try out e-Music, too. The free two-week trial comes with no string (cheese) attached. (Which is good since that could be messy.)

Prefer Amazon.com?
Aerosmith – Walk This Way
A String Cheese Incident
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, mentioned in his blog last week that the only thing heading south in the music is industry is sales of CDs. Even vinyl sales are up! According to Anderson…

“I think most music will soon be free, as artists give away the product as marketing for their performances and licensing, and as a celebrity accelerant that creates more opportunities to make money than just from the sale of a record.”

That certainly is a different way to think of the “music industry.” Sounds good to me. If you haven’t read The Long Tail, do so. For me, it really drove home the impact of our digital age.

Apple recently announced lower prices on DRM-free (iTunes Plus) tracks. In addition, they have the “largest” such on-line library in the world. Could be true but in my little test, Amazon is still better with their MP3 tracks. Amazon tracks are 89 cents compared to iTunes 99 cents. On a single download it may not be much but on 1,000 tracks its $100 bucks! Enough for another 112 tracks. I decided to check if the two albums I purchased a couple of weeks ago were available on iTunes.

Cat Stevens Greatest Hits is available on iTunes but not in DRM-free format. The bigger surprise, however, is that Greatest Hits: 30 Years Of Rock is available from Amazon as an MP3 download for $8.99 and from iTunes for $12.99. I think I’ll stick with Amazon.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could buy any song you wanted, from any source and play it on any device.  As previously mentioned, I’m a big iPod fan but not iTunes.  I buy my music in MP3 format from Amazon.  A recent article in BusinessWeek mentioned that Universal and several other major music distributors may be pulling the plug on iTunes.  Seems they want a bigger piece of the action.  Surprise, surprise.

I’m not a big fan of the recording industry as a whole.  However, it appears that Universal is at least going to “test” selling DRM-free MP3s.  See quote below:

In August, Morris announced a five-month test with Wal-Mart, Google, and Best Buy. The three companies will sell music downloads that can be played on any device–a freedom not available to buyers of iTunes songs, most of which play only on Apple devices and software. Morris wants to see if the downloads, which won’t have copy protection, will help cut into piracy and hike sales.

So…give it a shot.  Buy a few MP3s instead of iTunes downloads.  Let’s do our part to show the industry there will be less piracy if it is easy to buy music that can be played on any device.

A few days ago I talked about meeting Stefon Harris at a local concert series. I ran across this article today originally posted in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Sunday, October 7. Interested in hearing some of the music from the concert. MP3 downloads are available here. At last glance, you can buy the entire album as an MP3 download for just over five bucks! I paid $20 at the concert for the CD.

I just heard that Jars of Clay and Third Day will be performing a Christmas concert at Elmbrook Church on December 9th. I’ve always wanted to see both groups. I’ll bet this sells out so better get tickets soon.

The new Jars CD will be released next week. Amazon is also selling DRM free MP3s of the Jars CD. I’ll be one of the first to buy. Click on the CD covers to listen to previews of the songs.