Fail and Some Wins

So as you can probably see by scrolling a short way down this page about 6 months (-ish) ago I decided to come back from my unexpected "blog hiatus". And as you can see by the 1 post since then it ... ahh ... yeah. So a bit of a fail there. But I've been busy with uni, work, music, and even helping set up a youth council! So a few wins there.


And now I'm not sure how to carry that on so I'll add a few random thoughts to the end of this post to make it a bit more substantial.

1. I haven't been listening to much of the hard rock or metal on my ipod recently. My playlist has been more along the lines of Chopin, Enya, The Rocket Summer, The Fray, Sigur Ros and an overall mix of soft rock, easy listening, and classical. If anything heavy came up on shuffle I would skip it without hesitating. But since my last exam on Monday I've noticed Red, Underoath, Muse, and other hard and fast tracks have been creeping back in. When I realised it I found it slightly amusing.
2. Remember that 30 day song challenge thing that went around Facebook earlier in the year? I ended up falling behind a bit and never finished it but I've been considering doing it on my Tumblr. I just need to figure out what my favourite song is and trust me that is not an easy task for someone who's Top Rated playlist in iTunes has about 2/3 of the library in it! Watch this space.
3. I'm learning the first song in this clip now. The arrangement is not exactly the same but is similar and I can't play it at anything like this speed yet...

An Awesome Night

I love live music. I really love it. Really really really really ... well you get the picture. The only problem is most shows tend to be a bit out of the reach of a student's financial means, or at the least really stretch it, so I choose what I go to carefully and won't usually go to more than 1 or 2 a year. So it was no small matter me going to the Avalanche City show last Saturday night at the Studio on K' Road. It was pretty much perfect having a main act that I really love and supporting acts that I quite like as well as not being too expensive and not being too far away.
The first act, Alaska, are an indie-folk style band a bit like Mumford and Sons but more folky (if that's a word). I'm pretty sure I'd seen them at Parachute or somewhere before but if I had they have changed a LOT. (Btw check their stuff out at alaska.bandcamp.com). Luke Thompson, the official headliner, was quite different. He reminded me a bit of Ben Abraham but played much more acoustic stuff. Well to start with at least. Near then end he got Dave from Avalanche City and a couple of other musicians to come out and do a bit of a jam on his single Water and that was pretty awesome! (Here's a video. It's just a fanvid but the quality is reasonable)
Then it was the main event. I had no idea what to expect, to be honest, from a band that had been formed after the recording of the album to perform it (they kinda remind me of the Foo Fighters in that respect) but they definitely did not dissapoint. Dave Baxter (the lead singer, songwriter, and until a few months ago the whole band) lead the band really well and they were all very very tight even on the tricky xylaphone duet for Everybody Knows. I'm not quite sure what else to say - they were amazing! If you have only heard Love Love Love (that song on the TV2 ad) you are really missing out. As much as it is an awesome song the album has even better ones on it. Seriously, check it out! And they are even better live!

(Oh and big ups to my mate Luka for coming with me. Awesome night!)


On a side note there is now an AnalogueDigital tumblr where you can check out some interesting stuff that I have found on my periodical trawls around the intartubes (yeah and I'm studying CompSci as well :D ). Please follow me! 8-)

The Return

Well that was a rather long and undisclosed break/hiatus/whatever you want to call it. I kinda didn't even plan it but it happened anyway. I just kinda lost the buzz. But I'm back. SO what has happened since? Well first off I got a turntable for Christmas (yes 7 1/2 months ago :-O). I found my grandparents have a huge, i.e. 300+, stack of LPs in their attic that they've said I can take whatever I want from which is pretty awesome for a semi-audiophile like me. Currently I've got about 20-30 singles and LPs in my makeshift cabinet (the box the turntable came in) and of those I have so far digitised:

• Antmusic (single) - Adam and the Ants
• Abbey Road - The Beatles
• Walk of Life (single) - Dire Straits
• ELO Greatest Hits - Electric Light Orchestra
• The Big Picture - Michael W. Smith
• Graceland - Paul Simon

which isn't really that many considering how many are sitting in the box.

I'm going to update the 'What I'm Playing' box soon as its really outdated. I'm currently working through a Beethoven sonata among other things which is cool since I've never played an entire sonata before. I'm also trying to arrange Someone Like You by Adele which sounds easy since its played entirely on piano anyway but since I can't hope to sing anything like as good as her I'm trying, with minimal success, to incorporate the melody into the arrangement.

As a side note the Tron: Legacy soundtrack was dissapointing. There was too much mediocre orchestra and not enough Daft Punk and, although some tracks were stunning, overall it just sounded like every other movie soundtrack being made. The movie itself was awesome though :D