iPodarmy

I know it’s been a long time. Simply put—I’ve not had the time or energy to whip up a podcast.

While I don’t plan on doing any podcasting in the immediate future, I’m planning on picking it back up sometime down the road. Hang tight, if you want, and thanks for listening.

This weekend is an annual Labor Day tradition in Seattle that has always been a great time for me:

Bumbershoot.

So, to celebrate and get ready for what I imagine will be a great time, I’ve selected some great songs from artists that will be featured at this weekends festival. They’re all artists that I’m personally interested in, and while I think they provide a pretty good variety, they can’t really capture the diversity and energy that Bumbershoot brings to the city. As always, the information about the artists is below. Hope you like this one.

Link: Podcast #10 : September 1, 2005 (36 minutes | 96kbps mp3 | 25.90mb)

Playlist

• “Infanta’” by The Decemberists [Info]
• “Bleeding Powers” by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists [Info]
• “Motion Movement” by Blue Scholars [Info]
• “Don’t Stop” by Brazilian Girls [Info]
• “All Medicated Geniuses” by Pretty Girls Make Graves [Info]
• “Massive Cure” by Smoosh [Info]
• “The Only Gift That I Need” by Dashboard Confessional [Info]
• “I Know I Know I Know’” by Tegan & Sara [Info]
• “Every Bitter Drop” by The Posies [Info]
• “Say What You Mean (Live at KEXP)” by Maktub [Info]

My Odeo Channel

I’ve got lots of good music this time, but little to say. I’ve been working my butt of this week and want to spend my Friday relaxing and listening to tunes. If you’re in the same mode, have a listen!

Also, before I forget, I’ll be away for a few weeks (wedding, honeymoon—you know, important and fun stuff) so there won’t be a podcast (unless it’s a drunken one from Mexico) until I get back. Have a great rest of the summer everyone!

Link: Podcast #9 : August 5, 2005 (32 minutes | 96kbps mp3 | 21.60mb)

Playlist

• “Wish’” by Solvent [Info via Vu D’ici]
• “Stevie Nix” by The Hold Steady [Info]
• “Take What’s Mine” by Baumer [Info via Molly O’Poverty]
• “Aside” by The Weakerthans [Info]
• “Cover” by Engine Down [Info]
• “10:1” by Rogue Wave [Info]
• “Chemocentric’” by Pris [Info]
• “Death By Mixtap” by The Lashes [Info]

My Odeo Channel

I don’t have a bunch to say this time. Download this sucker, put it into your ipod and get out and enjoy some summer!

Link: Podcast #8 : July 24, 2005 (33 minutes | 96kbps mp3 | 23.74mb)

Playlist

• “NeverUmind’” by Pris [Info]
• “Sound Scientist” by Bill [Info]
• “Clinically Dead” by Chad VanGaalen [Info]
• “Tainted Love (Rough Love)” by Shaun Inman [Info]
• “Secret Society” by Postcard [Info]
• “Sad Eyed Woman” by Tricky Woo [Info]
• “20/20” by De La Vega [Info]
• “The Godfather” by Harry and The Potters [Info]

My Odeo Channel

The Podsafe Music Network is up and running and looks to be a pretty good resource for podcasters to fine podsafe music. It’s still in beta and needs some work. The sign-up form, for example, is a bit poorly designed (small type, bad error messages, the whole bit) and why do they need my phone number? Ah, so many sites out there could benefit from some good old people-centered design.

Ah well.

The good news is that some of the tunes seem pretty good.

A short one this time, it took me way to long to get this one produced. AudioHijack was not my friend this week. I also had to re-record a few segments. I’m still not too comfortable with how everything sounds, there are some points where I sound really stoned. Which is ironic because I don’t smoke at all. It’s probably because I had to do this one pretty late and I was really ready for bed. So you’ll forgive me, please, if this is a bit rough around the edges.

Ah well. In any case, I’ve got some great stuff this time though, leading off with one of my favorite hip-hop acts—The Bluescholars—and some killer music from Japan. Enjoy!

Link: Podcast #7 : July 11, 2005 (27 minutes | 96kbps mp3 | 19.72mb)

Playlist

• “Freewheelin’” by Blue Scholars [Info]
• “Commodoll” by Polysics [Info]
• “Not What You Think” by No-Fi Soul Rebellion [Info]
• “The Burn” by Ghost Story [Info]
• “The Wives of Artie Shaw” by Kinski [Info]
• “Rock & Roll Can Rescue The World” by Electric Eel Shock [Info]

My Odeo Channel

Wow. Six podcasts! I’ve got to say I wasn’t sure I’d get that far. But I’m having fun and I’m going to keep at it. Hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.

So, this week I’ve got some great stuff for you. Seems like every week I’ve got one more avenue for finding good music that I can share. I want to thank everyone who’s helped out with tips and requests and encouragement. I know my audience is pretty small, but you guys (and gals) are the best!

Link: Podcast #6 : July 1, 2005 (37 minutes | 96kbps mp3 | 26.8mb)

Playlist

• “Three Birds” by James Apollo [Info]
• “Meant to Be” by Rob Costlow [Info]
• “Breaklights” by Man In Grey [Info]
• “Back, Black and Still Reliable” by Midwest Product [Info via Scissorkick]
• “Jaia Jaia” by Masala [Info]
• “Problemes d’Amour by Alexander Robotnick [Info]
• “Out” by Lo and The Magnetics [Info via CBC Radio 3]
• “So Sorry (bootleg)” by Runner and The Themodynamics [Info]

My Odeo Channel

iTunes 4.9 was released yesterday and it’s pretty darn cool. It has a few minor problems, but in general I really like getting my podcasts right in iTunes like that.

However, even with the podcast directory, I don’t see iTunes as the best place to find content. I’ll be using Odeo for that.

Odeo is to iTunes in a way Flickr is to iPhoto for me. Not in the way they function really, although Odeo is alot like Flickr, but that they serve two different purposes. iTunes is my playing / catching application, and I’m hoping Odeo can be my social/network/find content application. It looks pretty good so far.

I really like the functionality of iTunes as it relates to podcasts and the social aspect of Odeo is nice too. Two great tastes??? We’ll see.

Overall it’s a nice little service/application. I wasn’t able to get into the podcast creation stuff, as that’s not ready yet, but I did take a spin around everything else. Here are my first impressions.

Notes and Observations

• The design and interface are slick. Is pink the new pink?
• It’s kind of like Flickr. You can make comments and tag podcasts with your own tags. I really like the tag based organization as it opens up a whole new way to find podcasts. This is a killer feature.
• I really like the listen features. It’s nice because it makes it easy to kind of, well, browse and “try before you subscribe.” This, again, is killer—I like to be able to easy listen to a show, before I decide I want to add it to my download queue.
• The queue is kind of neat, it allows you to add individual podcasts without subscribing. This would be good to line up new shows to check out.
• Adding a show was pretty easy and allowed for a bit more in the way of describing a show (via tags, etc.) than most other directories out there.
• You can look at other people’s profiles and see what channels and shows they are subscribing to or have in their queue, where they’ve made comments and what those are and what, if anything, their producing. This is another nice way to discover something new. You can check out what your friends or people with similar tastes have found.
• You can then add them as a contact (again ala Flickr) to help keep track of what their up to.

I think in general the most impressive part of Odeo was the way it helps you find new shows to listen to. The fact that you can tag and comment on shows, as well as listen to and line up shows to check out are like nothing else that I’ve seen. I can see those features being very useful.

I also quite liked all the user features. If they can get a community going around it, it could be a very, very good thing.

This week’s show is a bit shorter than last week. There’s some great stuff in there though. With the CBC Radio 3 podcast coming out recently it’s given me a new way to find great new music. Thanks to Peter for hooking me up with that information. I’ve found some good stuff already.

As always, if you’ve got a line on some good music, for the show or otherwise, please let me know. Hope y’all like this one. I’ll be back with another in a few weeks.

Link: Podcast #5 : June 10, 2005 (41 minutes | 96kbps mp3 | 29.65mb)

Playlist

• “Clowne Towne” by Xiu Xiu (live) [Info]
• “Dirty Lives” by Love As Laughter[Info at Sub Pop]
• “Body Technology” by Femme Generation [Info via CBC Radio 3]
• “Through The Broken City” by Bend Sinister [Info via CBC Radio 3]
• “Our Song” by Ripley Caine [Info via Staccato]
• “R.F.O.” by Fug [Info]
• “Cheer Up Baby” by Dolour [Info]
• “Be Movie Bass Music” by Kobayashi [Info]
• “Run” by Sonny Jim [Info via Staccato]

My Odeo Channel