I’ve been listening to the mp3, “Discipline,” that Nine Inch Nails released on April 22. I think it’s a pretty decent track and it seems to be in line with the recent progression in NIN’s sound since With Teeth was released (not taking the recent release, Ghosts, into account), even if it does vaguely remind one of the band’s first album, Pretty Hate Machine.

“Discipline” isn’t weighed down by tons of samples or prominent background noise like in The Downward Spiral or the textures in some of the cuts on The Fragile. Instead the song is a light mix of vocals (lead and background), club like beats, piano, fuzzed out bass, and some very subtle atmospheric effects which only appear toward the end of the song and are pushed way back in the mix. The track reminds me of the song “Only” from the With Teeth album, in that both have roughly the same beat and that fuzzy and distorted bass line that seems to have become more common in Nine Inch Nails’ songs. With hi-hats signaling every beat, the song sounds like something you might hear in a club, leading me to think that this song has a lot of remix potential for dance DJs.

Surprisingly, the track has a raw and under-produced feel to it — there are a couple of unintentional sounding false starts in the vocals. It’s actually pretty interesting, in my opinion, that it was released (even if it was only via the web) with those quirks, since I’ve always read and heard that Trent Reznor is quite the perfectionist. Maybe now that he’s freed himself from the binds of contractual agreements, he’s loosened up a little bit and feels like instantly sharing his creations, even when there are little, Bob Ross inspired, “happy accidents” in them. I’m all for this, it’s better than the past alternative: waiting years for a single, tightly produced, label “OK’ed,” track.

Overall, this new offering by Trent and company is a pretty straightforward pop song and a nice teaser of what is, hopefully, to come.

April 19th was Record Store Day and I missed it completely, unfortunately. The indie stores that participate usually offer sweet discounts and some limited releases (this year there were limited 7″ and 10″ from REM, Built to Spill, and a few others), plus it’s just a cool way to promote vinyl. I believe that anyone who enjoys the subtleties of music should own a turntable…as a bonus every fifteen minutes, or so, listening to music becomes interactive!!

Speaking of limited releases, The Black Keys album “The Big Come Up,” is now available as 2 sets of limited color pressings via Alive Records. The 2 albums are pressed in pink and yellow and each is limited to 500 copies.

I’m slowly getting away from the whole colored vinyl thing, because it’s been my experience that most albums sound pretty crappy on colored vinyl — my copy of The Beach Boys’ limited edition Pet Sounds LP set was horrible and that made me very sad. However, a few of the colored pressings I’ve gotten from Southern Lord records sounded pretty damn good. Maybe’s it’s just the luck of the draw.

Sometimes there are artists and musicians that have a certain intensity and the ability to amaze us with that intensity, even if it’s not necessarily something new and unique. Eva Cassidy was one of those people. She was an amazing singer and musician who passed away before she really had a chance to make it big; she died of melanoma at the age of 33. Fortunately, there were a small number of live shows that were recorded and some studio sessions, that have been released since her passing. In my opinion the best release is the album Songbird.

The album is a series of covers, which can usually be a pretty hit or miss affair, but not in this case. Each song is a showcase of her singing and guitar playing. The album just about covers the litany of musical styles one can think of from standards to modern pop. The songs never sound trite or forced and her voice is soul crushing at times — I mean that in a good way. Check out this audio clip at LastFM of the song “Autumn Leaves.”

Her rendition of “Over the Rainbow” is the best version of the song I’ve ever heard performed; it’s simultaneously haunting and upbeat, that dissonance sets it apart. I’m still blown away that anyone can naturally sound that good without ProTools or vocoders. If you still have doubts, watch this live clip of her perfoming the song:

So if you like bluesy female vocals, with a slight jazz edge to them, check out Eva Cassidy. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

The Canon Powershot SD850 has all the features you need in a compact digital camera and it takes great pictures.

I bought this camera to replace a Nikon Coolpix which, unfortunately, was stolen over the holidays. I’m always hesitant to purchase items based on online reviews, but this Canon seemed to have such glowing reviews on every site that I figured I couldn’t go wrong. So far, that’s been true.
(more…)