Well it is the beginning of February and no that does not mean Super Bowl time that means KCRW Winter Subscription drive time.

KCRW 89.9fm is a non-profit radio station that airs out of Santa Monica College.  In my opinion, it is one of the finest radio stations in the country, if not world (!?!).  I have been in Los Angeles for a year and half now, and it seems that each month I listen to KCRW more and more.

They have a perfect blend of programming. If I’m up super early, I get NPR’s Morning Edition, which “prepares listeners for the day ahead with two hours of up-to-the-minute news, background analysis, commentary, and coverage of arts and sports.” Following the news is my favorite KCRW program, Morning Becomes Eclectic.  I often find myself introducing my friends and colleagues to different artists and songs. Well, my “secret” is that I discover a great deal of them through Jason Bentley and the morning program.  The program is supplemented by quick NPR news blasts and live in-studio performances.

If that wasn’t enough, most everything aired on KCRW is archived and can be played on demand via their website.  I also enjoy Anne Litt and Nic Harcourt on the weekends.  There are programs for everyone on KCRW.  They have an extremely diverse graphic, including age.  Young, old, or in between, there is something for everyone at KCRW.

Along with the music programs, they offer several hours of NPR programming.  I cannot stress enough how important NPR is in my life and yours as well.  Let’s face it…NBC is liberal, Fox is conservative, and CNN is just retarded. (Can I say that?  Well I did…)  All three in my opinion are not credible places to ascertain news.  NPR is the only way to get news that I trust, as well as news that hasn’t been spun upside down and inside out a fifteen times.

What I believe makes NPR and KCRW work, is that it is both non-profit and listener supported.  Which is where you come in.  If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, please consider making a donation to KCRW!  If you donate over fifty buck’s you get this little discount (Fringe Benefit) card that will save you money all over the city.  If you are from another city, find out what your local NPR station is and give them a donation.  I know times are tough, but listener supported, un-filtered local radio is just something we cannot afford to lose.

DONATE NOW – KCRW

DONATE NOW – NPR

I was here today, where were you?

YES.

•   Motion City Soundtrack: My Dinosaur Life
•   Fanfarlo: Reservoir
•   A Clean Apartment.
•   Sleeping in.
•   Coffee.
•   Friends that can sing.
•   Receiving compliments on how good my hair smells.
•   Bar-B-Que sauce.

NO.

•   Rain in Los Angeles.
•   (Monday) morning traffic on the 405.
•   Forgetting to do laundry.
•   Natural disasters in poor countries.

MAYBE.

•  Love.
•  Waking up early to exercise.

With digital downloads, online album previews, and just by simply not realizing an artist until after their album release, it’s pretty rare these days I get “stoked” about release dates.  But this Tuesday is one of those special occasions.

After previewing it online last week, I finally was able to purchase Motion City Soundtrack’s latest release, My Dinosaur Life at 12:01am this morning.  (Amazon Mp3 for a reasonable 7.99).  I have been anticipating this album for a few weeks, and let me just say it does not disappoint.  It is getting rave reviews from all around, and is a solid listen from top to bottom.  For the record it’s 2:55pm and I have already listened to it 7 times.

Some production notes include that is their first album on a major label and Mark Hoppus produced it.  Hoppus also produced 2005’s Committ This To Memory.  Some people read too much into the major label thing.  As long as they don’t change their sound too much, or completely sell out and write crappy music to sell records and get worthless Grammy’s (Green Day), I don’t really care.

But whichever way you spin it, there is no denying My Dinosaur Life is a great album.  Might even be Motion City’s best.  Favorite tracks include:  “A Lifeless Ordinary,” “History Lesson,” and “Stand Too Close.”  You can read a more thorough review of the album here, and right now you should go to Amazon Mp3 or your local record store and buy it!

Along with my emo guilty pleasure, there are a few huge albums coming out that I’m really looking forward to.  KCRW and NPR just started playing the first single from the Broken Bells, the collaboration between The Shins’ James Mercer and Danger Mouse.  This album doesn’t come out until March!  I don’t know if I can wait that long…

2010 Releases:

Motion City Soundtrack: My Dinosaur Life – 01/19
Spoon: Transference – 01/19
Two Door Cinema Club: Tourist History -  03/01
Broken Bells: Broken Bells – 03/09
Jónsi: Go - 03/23

Wow.  What an exciting weekend.  I spent a good hour or two re-ripping some CDs I had on hand into my iTunes library.  When I had originally ripped them,  iTunes default import settings converted the tracks to ACC files.  I need them to be MP3s.  Why you ask?   Because my car’s CD player plays MP3 discs.  Which means?   It means awesome.  Instead of being limited by the 1-hour or so audio CD, I can burn a MP3 audio disc with folders of music.  For example, I can burn all of Bayside (Sirens and Condolences, Bayside, Bayside Acoustic, The Walking Wounded, Bayside Live at the Bayside Social Club, The Walking Wounded Gold Edition, and Shudder) all on one CD.  Which also means safety!  I won’t be fiddling around with multiple discs; I simply can just switch from folder to folder.  Are you bored yet?

Earlier in the day I was going to update my budget (seriously, I’m going for the most boring post ever), while watching the amazing Brett Favre and his Vikings, but my computer shut off after being away from a power source for 10 minutes!  WTF!  I wanted to chuck my computer to the ground.  I’ve had this thing for 3 and half years and it has eaten like 3 or 4 batteries.  And batteries aren’t cheap.  At 120 bucks a pop, I would like a battery to last more than one year.  There’s an application called Coconut Battery that monitors battery life.  This is mine.  Only 96 battery load cycles.  Now, I understand.  You buy a car you’ll eventually need to change it’s tires.  So I shouldn’t get too upset when I need to change the battery.  However, my situation is a little ridiculous.  Get it together, Mac.  Finally NewerTech, a third party manufacturer, is making replacement batteries for the MacBookPro.  They are cheaper and presumably better.  (There’s no way to go but up?)

Tip: Batteries should be changed in a Mac about every 300 cycles.  If you want to know your cycle count, you can use Coconut Battery, or within your mac go to Apple –> About This Mac –> More Info –> Power –> Under Battery Information –> Health Info –> Cycle Count.  Of course, that is just a gauge.  Rate your computer on it’s performance.  If it’s sluggish, and you’ve never changed your battery, a fresh piece of power might help.

So after I watched Favre put away the Cowboys, I putzed upstairs, plugged Conrad (my computer) in, and finished updating my budget.  Here’s another tip.  There is a gorgeous finance application for a Mac called Squirrel.  Yes, I just said gorgeous and finance in the same sentence, and yes the software is called Squirrel.  It allows you to set up accounts for your credit card, cash, and checking accounts.  You can set up categories to sort your expenses and income.  There’s charts and graphs and say you’ve set up $100 to spend on recreation, and you’ve already spent $90, well you know it’s going to be a movie rental weekend.  Yes, I know it seems very tedious and boring and who the %&*$ has time to do all that, but the dividends are great.  At the end of the month you see where the hell all your money went.  And then when you get really good at it, you know where your money’s going before you even spend it.  And maybe you save it. (I’m working on that.) And like I said it’s much prettier than an excel spreadsheet.

So, with the knowledge that my computer battery is a piece of crap, and with the knowledge that I don’t have much room in my budget to spend on things other than food, gas, and rent (no new battery anytime soon), I decided it’s a good idea to back up my computer in case it explodes.  That didn’t take too long because I’m actually pretty good about backing up.  (Had a hard drive crash once.  After that, you become pretty proactive with making sure your data is protected.)  Then I did some more maintenance.

I have a 100GB hard drive, so I try to free up space when I get a chance.  There is a free application called Grand Perspective that scans your hard drive and gives you a visual of the data.  The screen shot is after my initial clean up, but I had some huge blocks of video files that I ended up getting rid of.  Following the space scan, I ran TechToolPro’s computer suite tests.  Surprise, surprise Conrad failed the temperature test.  Seriously, he gets up to 190 degrees.  Luckily, other than that he was fine.

This is what happens when it rains on the weekend and I am unable to unwind with a nice long bike ride.

Last Thursday night I attended a show featuring the lead singers of a few of my favorite bands.  Anthony Raneri, lead singer of my beloved Bayside kicked things off.  Even though I think the band has sold out (over produced recent album, t-shirts in Hot Topic!?, obnoxious scenesters that attend their shows, maybe I’m just old…), I thought Anthony’s performance was awesome.  His voice is one of a kind.  When Anthony sings, the sound waves in the room convert to a form of purity unlike any other.  Not to mention, this was at the Troubador, which is my favorite venue in Los Angeles.

Following Mr. Bayside was Chris Conley.   Saves the Day anyone?  The last time I saw Saves the Day I was at Waterstreet Music Hall in Rochester, NY with my best friend Jen.  Unfortunately, we had to leave early because I had to be back in my room by 12am so I could email a scholarship application for Japan.  It was a great show from what I saw, and yes…I got the scholarship.  A great show, and 5 grand for Japan.  Sadly, Thursday’s performance wasn’t as good.  Ah well, the memories.

Third was Matt Pryor.  Last year, my friend introduced me to his solo work.  What a gem.  Pryor was a bit nervous (and drunk), but put together a nice set.  He mixed in some Get Up Kids and New Amsterdams, along with most of his solo stuff. His set included the fitting track, “Totally New Year.”

The New Year.  Such an interesting time.  It seems most of us just couldn’t wait to get 2009 behind us.  It also seems we say that every year.  It is a great time, though.  Everyone seems so rejuvenated, reinvigorated, and prophesizing big things to come. I personally jumped on that train this time.  I’ve started working out more.   I’m on Day 10 and still sticking with it.  Baby steps!  Baby steps!  Additionally, I’ve made it a resolution to ride my bike more.  I want to be able to do a century ride (100 miles), or a time-trial, or something.  I’m bummed to hear they cancelled the bike tour that usually happens before the LA Marathon this year.  So now I’m looking for another race.  Also, I’m trying to get in better shape so I can do a little mountain biking.  The bike shop where I bought my bike, Cynergy Cycles, sponsors a mountain bike ride every Sunday morning and provides the bikes.  Trying to get fit enough to join them!

Additionally, I made the decision to switch from nights to days.  Nights are comforting.  Not too many people around, I am my own boss, and I am independent.  It also enables me to shadow assistant editors, which will hopefully help my career and promotion.  However, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and switch to days.  I’m a bit nervous, but I think I will adjust.  I’ve been out in LA a year and half now, most of which has been working nights.  Hopefully I will be more social and meet some new people outside of work and actually have the evenings free to pursue such relationships.  I’m still looking for Mr. Darcy, wherever he is, so maybe this is the year.

You know that life won’t wait,
You’ll have to make your move
The choices you make, every awful mistake,
Will try to define you
This will be a totally new year.

So I’ve been a member of eMusic, a digital music download service for about 3 and a half years now.  It is far more superior than any other kind of similar service out there.  I think I started out with a plan that was like 10 bucks a month for 15 songs, but have gotten a little out of control and am up to 50 songs a month for 20 bucks.  What I like so much about eMusic (as compared to iTunes) is that the songs are DRM free.  You can play the songs as many times as you’d like, and in as many computers, iPods, smartphones, etc. as you’d like.  Their selection definitely works for me; however they do not have many major artists.  So if you’re all about the Billboard Top 50, then go overpay for crappy music on over at iTunes.

So my point to all of this is, I don’t really want to put ads on my site.  For starters, I’m pretty sure only like 10 people grace the presence of this site anyway.  But, since I am such a fan of the product, I may from time to time put up a banner for eMusic.  If you sign up for the free trial I get paid!  Haha.   I figure I give them so much of my money I my as well try to get a little back.

Anyway, here’s the official jargon:

eMusic is the #1 site for independent music, with a library of over 4,500,000 MP3s. eMusic sets itself apart from other services by offering MP3s free from copy protection. This means that eMusic customers truly own the music they download. Our MP3’s play on any portable music player (including the iPod and Zune), can be downloaded to unlimited computers as well as burned to CD. Other digital music services either charge extra or do not offer the flexibility eMusic provides to their customers.

I meant to post this about 3 weeks ago…

2009 was a great year for music.  I discovered a few great breakout artists, as well as stellar albums from main staples in my library.  As always, I’m all about supporting the artists, so I would recommend purchasing their music from eMusic or Amazon.mp3, or even better, catching a live show!

Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone may perhaps be the best album of her career.  It certainly did the best in sales. I’m happy to see her showing up on NPR, Amazon, Spin Magazine and others’ Top Album of the Year lists.  I cannot say this enough – Neko Case truly is the best female vocalist on the planet.  She’s just that good.

Telekinesis: Telekinesis
I saw this band open a Ra Ra Riot show at the El Rey.  I was absolutely blown away.  The lead singer is also the drummer, which made the show exciting to watch.  Subsequently, I saw the band, actually it’s a moniker for Michael Benjamin Lerner, play two more shows.  I chatted with Michael for a bit and he’s extremely modest and down to earth.  I think Telekinesis might get big within the next couple of years.  You can hear part of their song, “ Coast of Carolina” on a Ford Commercial.

Gregory Alan Isakov: This Empty Northern Hemisphere
My friend Tony introduced me to this artist, and what can I say – another guy that just blew me away.  Beautiful voice, catchy lyrics, and just overall well-crafted folk/country/indie.   Both his albums out are worth a listen.  He’s great live, too.  I saw him with about 50 people at a small club in Brooklyn.  Amazing.

Lily Allen: It’s Not Me, It’s You
What a great pop album.  Very catchy, bouncy, and most importantly she writes about what she knows best – herself. In fact, NPR’s All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen got so obsessed with her first-person lyrics, he counted 195 references to “me” and  186 to “you” over the course of the album!

Metric: Fantasies
Wow.  Emily Haines and her Toronto friends put together this album and it is incredible.  It was in my rotation for about a month.  I did not listen to anything else!!  Gimme Sympathy just might be the best single of the year for me.

Say Anything: Say Anything
Say Anything.  Oh, Max Bemis, I love you.  I was feeling a little depressed, a little down, lethargic…and then I got this album.  Don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not, but I have been upbeat ever since!  “You can do better!  You can do better!  You can be the greatest man in the world!”

Other Great Albums:

The Noisettes: Wild Young Hearts
Cursive: Mama, I’m Swollen
David Gray: Draw the Line
Pearl Jam: Backspacer
Sea Wolf: White Water, White Bloom
Dark Was the Night Compilation

Came out in 2008 but I discovered them this year and they are awesome:
Rural Alberta Advantage: Hometowns.

Well there ya have it, my favorite albums of 2009.  Notably missing from this list are Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.  The rest of the ‘indie’ world is going goo-goo all over these albums, but I just don’t hear it.  Also, the most disappointing album – Davy by Coconut Records.  Couldn’t even get through it.

On the radar:  2010 is looking at some new albums from Frightened Rabbit, Alkaline Trio, Bayside/Anthony Raneri solo?, Spoon, among many others.  Not to mention SOMETHING CORPORATE’S first show in 5 years at Bamboozle Left.  See you there!

Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom

Say Anything – Say Anything

Pearl Jam – Backspacer

Alkaline Trio – Crimson, From Here to Infirmary, Good Mourning, Maybe I’ll Catch Fire

Middle East – The Recordings of The Middle East

NPR All Songs Considered – Decade in Music

Hi Friends,

I just spent the last few hours looking through my photo library.  I’ve selected 20 that are my favorites from this year.  Most involve in some way or another baseball, the outdoors, coffee, and big cities.  Makes perfect sense, eh!?

Follow the link to check them out.  Enjoy!!

www.ashleyrath.com/gallery