Welcome Friends..
..But Beware, the Lion Is Back !!
|
|
Saturday, December 31, 2005
G Spots : a 100 gig odyssey
this
started off as a beginner's guide to rock n' roll..one fav song from
each artist; but i ran out of steam some entries later. there isnt
really anyway to catalogue all those amazing songs in just one blog
post (unless that post is like really really long). a longish post
loses its purpose though..nodbody will bother reading it; there is
already a surfeit of authentic info on the net and i dont need the
revision. however..i just hafta write something..so i'll try to compile
a list of all those amazing albums which stand out not only for their
songs but also the synergy that differentiates a compilation of great
singles from one golden record. after just a couple, i lost steam
yet again. cataloguing a year's worth of downloading effort isn't
really chicken run. so..this is a just a trash-can of all those
yesteryear's posts. i wish to start the new year, on a clean chit.
i
am one of those closeted singers who bang with an imaginary guitar in
hand wth the door of your room closed even though there isnt anybody
around to see the histronics. so ma, whenever u catch my door closed
during late nights, i am doing nothing but listening to high definition
music on my CD-man. honest !
~i'll pretend i cannot hear the dirty, lecherous sniggers~
Anyway,
when i started off collecting music, there seemed to be an
inexhaustible supply around..there were so many CDs..so many artists
that i couldnt help but want to gather as many of those as i could,
like a greedy magpie. now that i am older and wiser..i can definitely
tell you that all the music around isnt much. there is only so much of
britney that u can hear sanely. its darn tough to get even 50 gigs of
music that you like (128 kpbs bitrate  )
first there was chillibean.
a mother of two (?), her FTP server was my sole saviour for 3-4
months..my baby steps into the world of internet. though i subsequently
got banned from her FTP, because of leeching..i did manage to get
Springsteen & R.E.M. off her, along with loads of misc. artists.
though the time after the ban was a dark one for me..my unlimited
downloads connection was sitting idle all day. i had already been
bitten where the sun dont shine by the p2p wares..so i dint think of
going back. thanks to ankur, an atavistic n00b, i joined some yahoo
group where the saviour appeared in the name of Mr. Dominique Lagae, from whose frequent http links, i got the idea (strictly mine) about how to search for music links. it was U2's album:how to dismantle an atomic bomb, for which i searched using my brand new search skills. to my utter delight, i stumbled upon that goldmine: Stairway To Heaven; truly a web-forum like none other. i found out people like Chris & Joaoabel,
who measure their music not in measely gigs but in TB's & who were
gracious enough to uploads megs and megs of stuff for me.
Stairway to heaven was the best thing that had ever happened to me. it
showed me google search strings for the first time..witten down. what i
was using was a crude version of these time-perfected techniqes. it was
then that i broke through thru 50 gig barrier.
and promptly hit the roof with my head. the problem was..that this
wasnt really an efficient way of searching for music. most of the times
i would get a 404 dead link message or a 401 authorization required
link. i was stagnating in the misearble muddle called rapidshare and
there seemed no way out.
unexpectedly, help came from a truly unexpected quarter. i had made a
webpage listing of all my ebooks in the hope that it would serve as
useful trading chips with other mildly learned web-masters. this one
chap, who needed some books..suggested a site named puzo.org
in exchange for some of the books he wanted. the funny thing is that i
never asked for anything, i would have sent him the books even without
his link..but he did send one and boy! did it change my fortunes.
while browsing through puzo.org,
which seems likea normal warez forum to be, i saw a link which said
1167 albums or something. sensing a plethora of rapidshare links i went
there and found something really unexpected. there was text file which
listed loads of "mms://" links...which is nothing but streaming music.
imagine getting the links for streaming music. i had to get a download
manager called Net Transport as my FlashGet did not support mms://
links. plus, i had to get a converter named Goldwave which would
convert the .asf extension files to .mp3.
links were listed for more than 1500 albums as i found out later..and
re-engineering them would open up the potential download links for more
than 25,000 albums. i have ripped streaming music. how cool is that
though, i havent done the re-engineering..anybody who wants to, can
ping me. (i'll take co-ownership of 10% of the download links, thank
you)
anyway..as the story goes..this is really all the things that i have
done to get to the 100 gigs mark. the one thing i am proud of is that
most of my collection is complete albums, not just assorted songs, with
gracenote's IDv3 tags. and none of it came through p2p. the last one,
in my not-so-humble opinion, is darn mean achievement.
so..thats the story..morning glory. i dunno about next year..mebber
i'll increase it to 300 gigs..mebbe i'll collect movies..who knows, but
i am enjoying he music right now. in the process of hearing this, i put
collated some of my saner comments on some songs/albums and have put
them in the postscript. they arent really for any purpose, but i'd hate
to lose the electronic bits of data which i put together from my own
typing hands.
happy new year to everybody and if u are still under the infuence of ur favourite form of addiction..rock on !!
P.S.
the artists are in no particular order..as far as i can, i will try to
pursue some semblance of a sequence..however..no promises
The Eagles - Lyin' Eyes
the
song is about a guy who discovers that his girl loves someone else. yet
the music is so..fresh. with fiery eyes and dreams..aaah!! sweet
heaven. eagles have this tendency to be rambunctious storytellers..this
is just outstanding
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
but i ....am comfortably numb. no song perhaps encompasses the brilliance of Pink Floyd than this one.
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama
even
though Freebird has a longer reign as a bigger hit..making it synoymous
with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sweet Home Alabama scores where Freebird doesnt.
its got an incredible guitar riff which tugs at your heartstrings..the
live version is mind-blowing. for a rock intro 101, this one's
essential.
Mariah Carey - Bringin' On The Heartbreak
the
song is actually a cover of the Def Leppard's original track.. which
was a kind off fast'ish rock number..but mariah being the golden voice
that she is..takes it to just another level altogether. if you've heard
Santana's Smooth..you could pronbably fill the experience of listening
to this song with the essence of that track. truly memorable.
ACDC - Back In Black
for
the original masters of loud music, this one swings ...dangerously.
never listen to the track under inebriation. you're liable to swing out
of consciousness by the nth repeat. the little guitar riffs in between
strike you like mini-thunderbolts of harmless lightning. listen to it
to understand why they got that little moniker of a lightning shaped
scar separating the AC from DC....now Ms Rowling..where was i ?
Del Amitri - Always The Last To know
the
track is about a guy who gets ditched by his girl. familiar story, eh!
seriously..how i wish this band were given a wee bit more of
recognition than the current crop that we have. strangely uplifting
music for such a downbeat track. truly marvelous..and when you combine
it with the irrepressible Spit In The Rain..your happiness is complete.
Guns N Roses - Patience
i
always love it when artists perform out of their field..in this case, a
down and dirty rock band : GnR goes out to prove that they can also
make a mean ballad. not taking anything away from te iconic Sweet Child
O' Mine..but this one stands out for its sheer beauty and effort
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (Album)
If
you havent heard Rumors, your rock education is incomplete. its as
simple as that. when 8 out of 11 tracks are worth their individual
weight n gold..you get an album like rumours..bold, ambitious and music
like you'd never have heard. for a true taste of m/s fleetwood, mac and
buckingham there's you could go your own way. you could refuse of
course, but you'll have no choice but to go their way once the music
washes over your stubborn metallica-based head like some spell of magic.
Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA (Album)
When
picking one song becomes a problem, you pick the Greatest Hits Album,
right ? nah, because when the artists is the Boss, you pick his one
biggest, meanest, baddest album..vintage is a word that was coined for
describing works like these. i could describe Springsteen's music for
all the length of this blog..however, i shall desist the temptation.
|
|
|
