delicado

So I’ve all but switched away from CDs, having completed a mammoth project to digitize all my CDs earlier this year. The CDs are now in storage. I ripped them to FLAC but then found that the best solution for me was probably iTunes with an iPod Touch as a remote. I won’t bore you with the details but it worked out pretty well.

Having finally ripped all the CDs (let’s forget about records here for a second, although they all still have pride of place in my living room), I was curious as to who the top artist would be. Serge, Astrud, Lalo, Scott, Ennio?

Finding out was actually a ridiculously long process. I tried one application that made me install lots of hideous Microsoft BS. I couldn’t get it to work and eventually wound up with a simple PHP/MySQL solution that’s probably no better than something I could have written myself. But the important thing is I didn’t have to write it myself!

Anyway, drum roll…

The top artists (ie by number of tracks) turned out as follows:

481 Ennio Morricone
298 The Beach Boys
288 Serge Gainsbourg
276 Julie London
255 Cal Tjader
225 Lalo Schifrin
201 Les Baxter
199 Scott Walker
198 Elis Regina
192 Marcos Valle
179 Duke Ellington
174 Antonio Carlos Jobim
173 Lee Hazlewood
164 Dusty Springfield
155 Esquivel
151 Astrud Gilberto
148 The Zombies
136 Hildegard Knef
127 John Barry
126 Peggy Lee
124 The Beatles
123 Pet Shop Boys
118 David Bowie
118 Petula Clark
115 Quincy Jones
115 Henry Mancini
115 Joy Division
114 Roy Budd
114 Pixies

There are of course a number of flaws to this method of analysis:
– It all depends on how many tracks the artist recorded. Looking at it that way it’s no surprise that Morricone is top or that the Smiths didn’t make the list, for example (they couldn’t have – barring me owning lots of live bootlegs with different track names!)
– The list seems skewed towards artists by whom I own box sets (Joy Division, Quincy Jones, Peggy Lee, Hildegard Knef, Zombies, Duke Ellington, Elis Regina. Beach Boys all fall under this category)
– It takes no account of listening habits.

If we were to take a look at a list of the top ten most listened to artists, it reveals a few things – e.g. that there’s now a baby in the house – hence lots of nice quiet music – plus I’m not around most days so another person’s choices are being reflected:

148 Julie London
125 Kahimi Karie
68 Novi Singers
67 Elis Regina
61 Pixies
57 ESG
46 blossom dearie
45 Collage
43 Sonic Youth
39 Blur
36 Gram Parsons
34 Astrud Gilberto
34 The Beatles
33 Baden Powell
32 Belle And Sebastian
32 Money Mark
30 Lou Reed
30 Siouxsie and The Banshees
30 Elis Regina e Jair Rodrigues
30 Peggy Lee
30 Bell Sisters
29 Cass Elliot
28 June Christy
26 Michael Jackson
26 Dusty Springfield
25 PJ Harvey
24 Minnie Riperton
24 Scott Walker
24 B.J. Ward
23 The Five Stairsteps

Fascinating stuff (or is it?)

Prisencolinesunaciusol – if you have not seen this, do not delay!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ger_CT_zvQ]

Do I like the new Goldfrapp album? The short answer is “What’s not to like about the Cocteau Twins”! Seriously, it really strongly reminds me of them – have you ever heard the Cocteaus’ ‘Twinlights’ acoustic EP from 1995?

Anyway I think the album is ok but I need to give it time to grow on me. I’ll post some more about this at some point.

Wow, where did those months go?

Thought I would squeeze in one more post before 2007 leaves me standing there.

It hasn’t been a bad year. Took a trip to California. Played some Misty Roses shows. Got an iPod that pleased me enough that I’ve actually been using it and becoming a bit more passionate about music again. I could probably count the LPs I’ve bought this year on one hand though, which pretty amazing when I remember how much my life used to be about that!

To anyone that reads this – hope 2008 is treating you well!

Just back from a Misty Roses tour in Boston/Providence/NYC with the magnificent San Serac.

Actually didn’t pick up many records – too busy with band stuff. But Robert found some interesting 60s latin soul records in his building that he donated to me. I popped into my old favorite store, Academy, but came away with just a Lester Young CD. Again, no time!

I’ve finally got stuck into the pleasures of Last.fm (once known as audioscrobbler). So I’m going to copy William and include some recently listened to tracks on this page.

Funny – it feels to me like I’ve just taken a few months out from regular internet community involvement, but actually it has been about 3 or 4 years and the whole landscape has changed! I need to redesign/redevelop some of my sites!

hmm – I’m not sure where those five months went!

Bought some nice records the other day, the best of which was ‘This Guy’ by Duncan Lamont from 1970 on the Morgan label. Seriously good.

There have been dozens of CDs since I last wrote but weirdly the one that has had the most play is this.

More next year!

I was just listening to the new Pet Shop Boys album, fundamental. I haven’t totally warmed to it yet, but at least it sounds like the Pet Shop Boys, unlike Release, which I thought was poor.

I now work in absolutely central London which will take some getting used to. Fun so far though.

I have a new record player set up at home and have enjoyed dipping into some records.

It remains the case though that my passion and enjoyment of music have been somewhat butchered over the past 12 months. I’m not happy about this. If you read this and have an idea of a compilation you would really like to have made, let me know. Maybe I can make it for you and get back into doing that kind of thing again.

On the plus side, there is a new Misty Roses release coming out in October! It’s currently being pressed, but you can hear some tracks over at our Myspace page.

Sorry to have to use this blog as a sounding off point, but can I just say:
Dabs.com are a bunch of crooks. I ordered a hard drive. Their courier company apparently tried to deliver it twice, but I was home on one of the days they claimed an attempt had been made, and there was no sign of them. No card was ever left, and whenever I called the courier company (amtrak – who I would also avoid), I just got stuck in a loop of recorded messages – there was no option to actually talk to anyone.

I was pretty relaxed about this – I figured they would get it to me eventually. You would think they would, right? Wrong. They cancelled my order, and then refunded my money MINUS the 6 pounds delivery charge. It’s only 6 pounds. But this basically means I have paid 6 pounds for the privilege of spending a day waiting in at home, making several phone calls, and spending hours on their incredibly irritating website, which has been carefully built to minimize the number of complaints they receive, with the contact forms cleverly hidden behind two or three levels of menus. They have no one you can phone up, which is fine, but it also took 5 or 6 messages before I got anyone to actually write a personal message to me rather than just use a form letter. Needless to say, I still don’t have a harddrive. I really need a hard drive. I kind of needed one 18 days ago when I ordered it. Maybe I should try Amazon?

In the process of my asking for my money back, they have basically accused me of lying. So, just to be clear, do not ever use Dabs.com, because Dabs.com really suck.

Thank you for your time! I will let this go now! Please do the world a favour and spread the word so that no one else wastes their time and money.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKSuG1LOaYI]

Wondering where I’ve been? Let’s just say Jack is a very fucking dull boy at this point.