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Stories and comments across the archive that link to allmusic.com.

Comments · 276

  1. Re:Work of Art - Albums as a by The-Bus · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Artists Protesting Single-Song Downloads
    Here's a few others, all very recent albums.

    Mr. Lif's I Phantom and Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves : Both concept albums (the latter being an opera), which can be sampled as single songs, but can't be enjoyed as a full album. I Phantom has recurring characters and storylines throughout and the final two songs are about the apocalypse which ultimately destroys everyone that was described earlier in the album.

    Beck's Sea Change is Beck's break-up album, and the album moves through different views and feelings he has until the final song, where he realizes what he did and how he got to where he is ("I never thought I'd live / Till the ugly truth / Showed me what it did").

    Air's City Reading is a group of three westerns read by their author, Alessandro Baricco, over backing music by Air. Again, no single song really does it justice.

    Then there's just tons of albums that are very good where every song is amazing, but these are all concept albums where it doesn't make sense to have only one song. Bottom line: You don't need to make a concept album. Make an album with good songs and no filler and we will buy the entire album.

  2. Re:Aren't they forgetting someone? by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 1 · on Gentoo, Fink, and DarwinPorts Join Forces
    Unless I'm alone here, being able to run X11 apps and native OS X apps at the same time is one of the best features of my OS X boxen.
    To quote Chicago, Leonard Nimoy (for those who don't believe me), R. Kelly, Diana Ross, Paul Oakenfold, Culture Shock, Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, ATB, Dean Fraser, Lovewar, Modern Talking, Olive, Saga, the Kingsmen Quartet, Michael McLean, and Patty Griffin, "You are not alone". :^)

    (This omniscient post is powered by the AMG All Music Guide...)
  3. Re:I like this type of Ask Slashdot by onomatomania · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?

    By the way, I've found the Allmusic Guide to be really good for this. Particularly, you can explore genres and styles (and representative artists / important albums), explore artists entire cataloges, find out who has worked with whom, and lots of just general reading about everything music related. It's pretty much like the IMDB of music, and a great deal of the albums and artists have actual thoughful reviews or mini-bios.

  4. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  5. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  6. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  7. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  8. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  9. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  10. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  11. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  12. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  13. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  14. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  15. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  16. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  17. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  18. My Top Choices by ignatzMouse · · Score: 1 · on What Jazz Records Would You Reccommend?
  19. I use... by Bish.dk · · Score: 1 · on Websites of Knowledge?

    The All Music Guide for music references.
    Merriam-Webster when I need help spelling in English.
    DVD-Basen when I want to find a review of a DVD-movie.

  20. All Music Guide by CaptainStormfield · · Score: 3, Informative · on Websites of Knowledge?

    I love the All Music Guide. This is a very useful database of artist bios, discographies, album reviews, and recommended albums for particular artists.

  21. Re:IMDb by rute20740 · · Score: 2, Informative · on Websites of Knowledge?

    On the same token, but for music, there's All Music Guide. I've found lots of information about even the most obscure bands on there. They also link you to other similar bands, or other projects the members have been in. A must for anyone who is into music.

  22. The All Music Guide by miket01 · · Score: 2, Informative · on Websites of Knowledge?

    AMG is my first stop for anything pop music related, excepting lyrics. I'd be interested in hearing about a good lyrics database that doesn't bombard me with pop-ups.

  23. Re:7 Minute Max??? by arcdx · · Score: 1 · on iTunes Indie Meeting Notes

    If you can't sell a song over seven minutes on its own, and you can't sell an album without offering the individual tracks, how the hell am I going to buy Tales From Topographic Oceans?

    Sheesh, I can only get one song off Larks' Tongues in Aspic.

    Geez, Steve, where's the love?

  24. How about 2002 by angle_slam · · Score: 1 · on Steal This Idea

    Steal This Album!.

  25. that's a lotta emails! by sweeney37 · · Score: 5, Funny · on P2P Bandwidth Hogging the Net

    let me break down the other 40 percent of the bandwidth for you:

    18% Porn
    12% Spam
    6% RIAA "Cease and Desist" Emails
    4% KaZaa Client Software

    Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to downloading the complete works of Engelbert Humperdinck

    Mike

  26. Encoding - C�rrent Best Practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative · on Neuros Gets (Beta) Linux Support

    You should not use --r3mix. It is old and deprecated - its removal from LAME has been considered. You should use LAME 3.90.2 with --alt-preset standard (aka "APS", ~ 192kbps VBR) or possibly --alt-preset extreme ("APX", ~ 256kbps VBR) for trickier encodes (classical, jazz, rock, experimental). Those without space concerns still wishing to use mp3 can try --alt-preset insane ("API", 320kbps CBR).

    The --alt-presets are optimisations for quality and have been very thoroughly tested by hydrogenaudio. They represent the current state-of-the-art in mp3 compression.

    For a scale, quality (normally transparent up to lossless) and size (50-80MB up to 300-700MB) go roughly (Qx represents Vorbis 1.0 quality number): APS < Q6 < APX < Q7 < Q8 < API < Q9 < Q10 < FLAC

    A music sharing network for people who care about quality exists. Because the bad guys read /. too, I'll leave it to you to find üs, but the rules are:

    Rip with Exact Audio Copy 0.9b4 (secure mode, accurate stream, NO C2, no normalisation, no read or sync errors, only complete discs with no missing audio tracks, save a log file) and encode to MP3s (LAME 3.90.2 or 3.92), Oggs (Vorbis 1.0) or FLACs. Tag correctly - for mp3 ONLY use id3 v1.1 and id3 v2.3.0 - with year and ideally genre from allmusic, name scheme "%A - %C\%A - %C - %N - %T" normal, various artists discs - name tracks "Artist / Title" and use name scheme "%C\%C - %N - %A - %T", add " (OST)" to album name for soundtracks. Move log into directory, rename to directory name + .log, add an .md5 md5sum for the log and audio files to complete the rip.

  27. The Standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative · on Ogg Now An RFC

    In quality terms, it doesn't get any better than EAC. (Unfortunate, and some of us are working on bringing CDex up to that standard.)

    There's a Standard for using that to make very, very good rips that should be indistinguishable from the original to just about anyone's ears and beat the pants off anything from Kazaa or even 192kbps FastEnc CBR "scene releases" from Usenet or IRC. I won't tell you the exact name of the standard. Rumour has it there are least three private networks, probably more, dedicated to it, but I don't know the details - only how you can get your own rips to sound great so you can put your CDs away safely and never have to get them out again:

    • Rip with Exact Audio Copy 0.9 beta 4 (not the prebetas, they're broken). We've tested and nothing else as good, even cdparanoia. (Sorry, it's Windows. Either try Wine or add Secure Mode to a Free Software ripper and let Hydrogen Audio (the doom9 of audio) et al test it for a few months before you even consider using it.)
    • Use Secure Mode, accurate stream, with NO C2 (even if your drive can do it), and disable the cache. (That's Secure Mode, Accurate Stream, Drive Caches Audio Data but NOT Drive is capable of retreiving C2.) Resync on track boundaries. Error Recovery Quality: High. Gap Detection Secure, Strategy any of A, B or C (try changing if you get a "protected" CD that won't rip). Speed Actual (which is usually max), allow speed reduction during extraction as many drives are more reliable reading scratched bits at lower speeds (this way it'll slow down only if it needs to, trying to read through a scratch). You may find spinning up first helps reading some CDs.
    • Skip tracks on read or sync errors. You'll get clicks if you don't and you're better off cleaning the CDs than that.
    • Do NOT normalise. Ever. (If you want replay gaining, let your Vorbis decoder do that on decoding, but NEVER do it before encoding!)
    • On Unknown CDs, automatically access online freedb database. There are sometimes errors, so crosscheck the titles with the case - for correct year and genre, use Allmusic - it's right more often than you are.
    • Create an m3u on extraction, and start 1 compressor queued in the background (with no window, after you've got it working) for each processor in your machine, plus 1 if you're hyperthreaded (I use 5). Remember not to close EAC until after there are no files queued for encoding!
    • For the naming scheme, use: %A - %C\%A - %C - %N - %T for normal albums. Use a Various Artists scheme too: %C\%C - %N - %A - %T - on CDs with Various Artists, check the Various box in the info at the top and make sure the track titles have a form Artist / Title, so, let's say, Madonna / What The Fuck Do You Think You're Doing :-). This way the names will all come out right. It also ensures that peer-to-peer programs which don't grok directories (most of them) will get the artist, album, and track number.
    • Always write a log file. It'll be named after the album, that's the only drawback. Move it into the folder and use a script to rename it or something (I know of three competing ones but won't name them here).
    • If you're feeling daring, calibrate your drive's read offset with AccurateRip (don't use that for ripping, though), and enter that offset into EAC (mine is a +12). If your drive can overread leadin AND leadout (get EAC to test that with detect read offset - you can get the read offset with that too, but it is more likely to give false readings than AccurateRip due to an inferior reference CD database), use that, if it can't overread BOTH, do NOT select that option (you'll get garbage). If you calibrate your read offset, use it, otherwise set it to 0. Don't use a combined offset.
    • Encode to EITHER FLAC (for lossless, generation-copy free rips) OR Ogg Vorbis 20020717 (1.0) using quality 6.0 or greater (192kbps nominal), 8.0 highly
  28. Re:Pffffft. by gangibson · · Score: 1 · on Mozilla's Joy Of Naming
    You're all wrong!! Bow down before the new name of Mozilla: TARKUS!!!

    I think that we can all be in agreeance on this.

  29. Re:Must protect song titles too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Lyric Sites In Trouble With The MPA

    Song titles are not copyrighted. See, for example, Stairway to Heaven

  30. Re:Gothic Imagination course? by belbo · · Score: 1 · on Students Get iPods as Study Aids
    I mean, Goth is something that sprung up long after July 1983, right?

    Wrong.

    The godfathers of goth-rock were British post-punkers Joy Division, whose bleak, remote, obsessively introspective music and lyrics laid the initial foundation for goth. But for all intents and purposes, the true birth of goth rock was "Bela Lugosi's Dead," the 1979 debut single by Bauhaus. Already chilly post-punk outfits like the Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees became full-on goth bands around the same time, and their heavy, menacing makeup and dark clothes became an important part of their fans' expression.

    Courtesy of AMG

  31. Re:The Bar Code! The Ubiquitous Bar Code! by horati0 · · Score: 1 · on Barcodes: The Number of the Beast

    The version I know and love appears on the Orb's criminally underrated Orblivion album, but the quote originally appeared in Mike Leigh's movie Naked.

  32. Re:OT: Your sig. by SomeGuyFromCA · · Score: 1 · on RIAA, MPAA Lose Suit Against Streamcast and Grokster

    Sort of pop/rock/rap fusion... think Beastie Boys, RatM, etc.

    Allmusic.com, btw, is a great reference.

  33. Quite So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Review: Cowboy Bebop

    unless you'd like to tell thousands of fans they are delusional. Think of it in the context of the "engrish" picked up by the Japanese youth. And the show does actually blend the two concepts fairly well. "Cowboy" in that the main cast is a group of bounty hunters, "wranglin'" outlaws for profit. "Bebop" is a jazzy type of music from the 40's and 50's, which can jump around in tempos and such. For more on Bebop, check AllMusic.com.

  34. Santana by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Copy-Protected CDs Going Mainstream

    There is nothing to worry about. All the GOOD Santana stuff (the 70s) is on Columbia, not Arista.

  35. Re:You're so right about the ugly people... by TarPitt · · Score: 1 · on Legal Issues Don't Bother American Downloaders
    When was the last time you saw a fat ugly woman with a beautiful voice in the Billboard charts.

    I think it was maybe 1968....

  36. Re:I wonder if Florian will attend... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Linux Audio Developers Conference
    How about giving some links and sharing the joy instead of bathing in your superiority. Arrogant twit.

    For those who don't know, Florian Schneider was part of Kraftwerk (musicbrainz), an experimental German pop duo (mostly) that was quite successful with electronic music.

  37. What about corresponding sites for music? by blamblamblam · · Score: 1 · on An IMDb for Books

    Anybody know of any decent music databases analogous to IMDB? I would propose All Music Guide, which I actually think tells me more about music than IMDB tells me about movies.

  38. since 98 by Hubert_Shrump · · Score: 0, Offtopic · on Collecting Stardust

    Finally, someone else collecting Stardust. There are enough remixes out there.

    Cassius does a good one.

    Vinyl: It's what's for mixing.

  39. since 98 by Hubert_Shrump · · Score: 0, Offtopic · on Collecting Stardust

    Finally, someone else collecting Stardust. There are enough remixes out there.

    Cassius does a good one.

    Vinyl: It's what's for mixing.

  40. A double-plus-good solution by replica · · Score: 1 · on New Computer Program Determines "Hitability"
    Input any of the myriad Merzbow albums. Enjoy a cocktail while the Rewarder-Of-Homogenity-Machine screams in abject terror.

    The divide between popular and good music happened a long time ago. The connoisseur has nothing to fear from this machine. The legions of MTV viewers will have to settle for a shiney-thing that looks strikingly similar to the last shiney-thing.

  41. A double-plus-good solution by replica · · Score: 1 · on New Computer Program Determines "Hitability"
    Input any of the myriad Merzbow albums. Enjoy a cocktail while the Rewarder-Of-Homogenity-Machine screams in abject terror.

    The divide between popular and good music happened a long time ago. The connoisseur has nothing to fear from this machine. The legions of MTV viewers will have to settle for a shiney-thing that looks strikingly similar to the last shiney-thing.

  42. John Cage by FosterSJC · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Soundless Music?

    This is reminiscent of some of John Cage's avante-garde work. Here is the AMG write-up.
    While his creations did not use inaudible sound explicitly, he is famous for his 4'33", a piece of this length completely silent. I have a friend who saw it "performed" live, and he was apparently quite moved. The pianist sits down at the piano, lifts the key-gaurd, and prepares to play. The performer remains attentive at the keys for 4 minutes and 33 seconds, then finishes and closes the key-guard.
    My friend said he was struck by how open he became to the sounds around him, to the concertgoers. These were things he'd never heard before. And there was an order to it, that was somehow created from all of the audience members intensely focused on eachother.

  43. Re:On the mark... by ninjadroid · · Score: 1 · on Don't Sever A High-Tech Lifeline for Musicians

    But isn't it interesting that everyone remembers "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and not "Photograph"?

    Are you just stupid or are you lazy? Both of those songs made it within the top 25 of the Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts. It should be noted, however, that "Photograph" was number 1, whereas "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was number 25.

    Isn't it interesting everyone remembers "Rollin'" and not "Rearranged"?

    You're stupid. Both of those songs were all over the charts. On the Billboard Hot 100, "Re-arranged" was number 75 and "Rollin'" was 65. On the Modern Rock Charts, "Re-arranged" was number 1 and "Rollin'" was 5. Both these songs have been incredibly prolific, and unless you have evidence to disprove what I'm saying you should seriously re-evaluate your stance.

    But unlike you, i understand and accept that the majority of people prefer pop music and are quite happy with it.

    Guess you're too lazy to really read my post. All four of my example songs, including the 2 I liked, are Pop Music. My favorite band happens to be Weezer, which is decidedly Pop. I didn't say a damn thing about how inherently bad Pop is and how inherently great Indie is because that would be elitism. I too listen to off-the-beaten-path stuff, like Down to Earth, in addition to mainstream music. But I refuse to like something simply because it is popular, and this is where I differ with most of my peers, which was the point of my original post.

    You can't blame them for exploiting a large market - that's what owning a successful business is all about.

    That is cold and evil, man. Cold and evil. I suppose quality and integrity mean nothing.

  44. Re:On the mark... by ninjadroid · · Score: 1 · on Don't Sever A High-Tech Lifeline for Musicians

    But isn't it interesting that everyone remembers "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and not "Photograph"?

    Are you just stupid or are you lazy? Both of those songs made it within the top 25 of the Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts. It should be noted, however, that "Photograph" was number 1, whereas "Pour Some Sugar on Me" was number 25.

    Isn't it interesting everyone remembers "Rollin'" and not "Rearranged"?

    You're stupid. Both of those songs were all over the charts. On the Billboard Hot 100, "Re-arranged" was number 75 and "Rollin'" was 65. On the Modern Rock Charts, "Re-arranged" was number 1 and "Rollin'" was 5. Both these songs have been incredibly prolific, and unless you have evidence to disprove what I'm saying you should seriously re-evaluate your stance.

    But unlike you, i understand and accept that the majority of people prefer pop music and are quite happy with it.

    Guess you're too lazy to really read my post. All four of my example songs, including the 2 I liked, are Pop Music. My favorite band happens to be Weezer, which is decidedly Pop. I didn't say a damn thing about how inherently bad Pop is and how inherently great Indie is because that would be elitism. I too listen to off-the-beaten-path stuff, like Down to Earth, in addition to mainstream music. But I refuse to like something simply because it is popular, and this is where I differ with most of my peers, which was the point of my original post.

    You can't blame them for exploiting a large market - that's what owning a successful business is all about.

    That is cold and evil, man. Cold and evil. I suppose quality and integrity mean nothing.

  45. Re:Note to the Snyders... by zztzed · · Score: 1 · on NARAS vs. the RIAA

    He's written like that since at least 1983.

  46. weezer and the pod by srichman · · Score: 1 · on Gibson to Embed Guitars with Ethernet
    It's interesting to note that Weezer (certainly a guitar-driven band) has been touring with PODs instead of Marshalls lately, though they use real amps in the studio. PODs are certainly a lot more convenient to lug around than Marshall stacks, but, in that interview, the band's frontman makes the claim that they sound better in a messy arena environment.

    Actually, I've recently heard Weezer has quit using the PODs live. Can anyone confirm or disconfirm this suspicion?

  47. Don't like promoted music? The simple answer is: by glesga_kiss · · Score: 1 · on Recording Industry Extinction Predicted RSN


    Shoutcast

    Basically, an extremely large list of internet radio stations, most of which are non-profit and done by music lovers, not executives. Simply select a genre and then a station. Listen.

    If you hear something you like, the artist and track name are shown in the media player. Go to Allmusic or a similar music database, and you usually get a complete listing of their work.

    Download said band's material from p2p and serve. Remember, if you like their stuff, don't forget to buy merchandise and go to concerts.

    If you insist on hearing new stuff on MTV and radio, you'll only get the "commercially viable" stuff. That is, Britany Spears.

  48. Oh, that's easy, but how fast is by Uninvited+Guest · · Score: 1 · on The Speed Of Gravity Revealed

    The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness? Huh? Well?

  49. Allmusic.com by nagarjun · · Score: 1 · on Discovering New Music?

    There is a little-known site called Allmusic which you ought to look at.

    Here's how the system works. Let's say you search for Pink Floyd. Their artist page displays the following related info:

    • Similar Artists (in this case, Queen, The Who et al )
    • Influences (Beatles, Dylan)
    • Followers (Styx, Uriah Heep)
    • Formal Connections (Gillmor, Barret)
    • Performed Songs by..

    In addition, you get to search for "other pyschedlic rock", "others in British Invasion" etc. More goodies at the site itself. Allmusic does not show up on Google too often only because they are fiercely protective of their URLs.

  50. All Music Guide by jacobjyu · · Score: 1 · on Discovering New Music?

    I usually browse the catalogue they have at All Music Guide . The best thing is being able to browse artists by the extensive number of genres available, and just browsing genres by themselves. You can literally lose yourself in the number of new bands that have been hiding from you and just waiting to be discovered. Unlike Amazon, the system isn't obstrusively selling CDs in your face, and I think the number of artists they have catalogued and described about is more.