Keyboard tribute to Steve Jobs
Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater made a little tribute performance to Steve Jobs.
“Although I never met Steve Jobs personally, his work greatly influenced my life and my work. I’m grateful to have been touched by his wizardry and that he shared his vision with all of us. This is a song I wrote for my own iOS instrument called MorphWiz and is a tribute to an amazing and inspirational human being.”
Nice one.
R.I.P. Steve Jobs!
[ source: Blabbermouth ]
Want to hear Maynard James Keenan groan?
Get any album he’s ever appeared on then, duh. What’s that, you got tired of them all and would like to hear something new?
You’re in for a treat, because SPIN is streaming the entire new Puscifer album, Conditions of My Parole. That’s like all Maynard, all groaning, all the time. Awesome, right?
Yeah, whatever. Now excuse me, I have to take a poop.
Tuesday Trivia: The one Kiss product we won’t make fun of
We’ve written extensively about Kiss products, from kaskets to kondoms. We obviously also made plenty of fun regarding them. I mean, the only reason I’m posting the trailer for their movie “Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park” above is so you can laugh even if you find my humor weak and this article lame. Plus some of you might find that corn-fest new, so I’m doing a double job, really.
After you’ve done laughing, get ready to take a look at one thing that bears the Kiss name that I could actually check out that might not be complete shit (hence the trivia). Read on to find out what it is.
Shuffled be thy metal
As a metalhead with audiophile leanings, I resisted the move to a portable digital listening device for as long as possible, preferring to lug around my top of the range cassette Walkman or CD player, but time catches up with us all.
In November 2006, I purchased a second generation iPod Shuffle, it has had a profound effect on me. There is an episode of ‘Family Guy’ where Peter gets a soundtrack to his life, the Shuffle has given me the same gift.
Like most of us, I have an extensive CD collection, but listening to the Shuffle for 9 hours per day, 5 days per week, has allowed me to data-mine my collection like never before. Hidden gems languishing on the shelf since time immemorial now see the light of day at least 3 times per year! Marvellous.
Although it is possible to squeeze 240+ tracks onto this Shuffle, don’t – the sound quality is so bad you’re better off whistling a jaunty tune. I converted a track from CD into all the available options the Shuffle can handle, then listened intently.
Verdict: if you select a bit rate of 320Kbps with a sample rate of 44.1Khz and a format of AAC, then the converted music is very listenable, although now the Shuffle will only hold approx 100 tracks – that’s still 7 hours worth of listening so I find it perfect for my working day. Bastards insist on talking to me or phoning me, so although I wear my device for 9 hours per day, I only manage about 7 hours of listening.
And talking of sound quality don’t even bother to unwrap the Apple earbuds which come with the Shuffle, rather use them as a bolas to bring down small rodents or simply consign them to the nearest bin. Rubbish. For £20 I bought a pair of Sennheiser PMX 60’s, the ultimate in comfortable good quality streetwear earphones, in fact I’m now on my 3rd pair. Metal never sounded so good.
Guns N’ Roses ain’t dissing you, yo’
Yo yo yo, Blabbermouth have been supplied with a statement from Guns N’ Roses in response to the band performing two hours late at last week’s Rock in Rio festival. In it, the band apologize for their lateness, and emphasise that it is allegedly due to the rain and the festival’s “poor management” that the band took to the stage late, going on to say it was nothing to do with themselves. You can read the full statement below.
“Guns N’ Roses would like to set the record straight on Rock In Rio. The festival’s inadequate production and the downpour of rain delayed the event. Anyone who was there knows that System of a Down did not leave the stage until close to 1:15 in the morning. System‘s extensive stage production did not finish coming offstage until 1:45 a.m. GN’R‘s production was up and ready to go at 2:15 a.m. Axl Rose, got to the venue before 1 a.m. and he came ready to go onstage. The inadequate cover of the Rock In Rio stage caused a further delay when the soundboard went down due to water damage and was replaced as quick as possible. GN’R walked onstage at 2:40 a.m. and played for two-and-a-half hours in the pouring rain. GN’R would never seek to intentionally disrespect anyone, especially their fans.”
I guess what the band say could be true, I don’t know – I wasn’t there, but if this were the first time Guns N’ Roses had taken to the stage late, I might be a bit more willing to sympathize with the band. Since it’s about the millionth time, I really don’t know if I completely buy it, or care – for that matter.
