Newfoundfreedom

38 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

Chortle. 

 

My mum knew a guy who was at DHL when it was a smallish operation here, just expanding into Europe, so mid-late 1970s. 

 

He was always on the lookout for 'smart, intelligent kids' to courier documents to New York/Boston and back; flight there, cab (or picked up from the airport) into Manhattan, wait for documents to be signed, overnight somewhere if necessary, cab back to airport, fly home.  It was cheaper to fly and pay a 14/15 year old rather than an adult and cheaper as you weren't on the payroll.

 

Foolishly I never took his offer up, but a friend of mine did it quite a few times; he'd just throw a Monday or Friday sickie from school (he'd fly out early Friday morning and be in Manhattan around lunchtime), 'grumbling appendix' was the main reason given, all with his parent's approval!  He'd take orders for records, so he'd come back with a rucksack of vinyl and always had loads of ready £££.  He claims to have popped his cherry on one trip.  What a life. 

 

I envy him to this day and he still has his appendix!

 

 

 

 

That sounds so cool! I'd love to have done that! 

34 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Liked this from the off. The 'something not quite right' sound reminded me of Jonathan Richman. Started to drag a bit at Neighbours and World's Gone Mad, then came back much stronger. 

 

You're the Light stand out track on first listen.

 

Love the way the drums have been recorded - can actually hear the bass drum as you would acoustically, not a huge over processed thump. 

 

Pressure is on the random generator for next week!

Yeah I agree. Several of the tracks have a "live recording" feel to them that you can hear especially with the drums. It makes a nice change from over processed or drum machine tracks we hear so often now. 

Thoughts after the first listen. 

My initial reaction to the first track was, oh God that sounds awful. Something sounded out of tune or off key to my ear. Whether this was an artistic choice, a genuine pink torpedo up, or my listening skills I don't know. It will be interesting to see if I feel the same on subsequent listens. 

By about track 3 I was really starting to get the feel of the band. Very reminiscent to me of a lot of the Indie stuff that was around in the early 90's. 

By the second half of the album I was tapping my feet and really getting into it. 

I can see this one being a real grower. I've already added it to my library on Tidal. Looking forward to listening to it again, next time with headphones (as opposed to sound system) for a more immersive experience. 

It's a definite thumbs up from me. 👍

Ok. Drum roll...............

And the winner is......

Lunglight by The Shaky Hands. 

Bandcamp

https://theshakyhandspdx.bandcamp.com/album/lunglight

Spotify

Apple Music

https://music.apple.com/bg/album/lunglight/289937827

YouTube

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mXabWDHTNlQozeNovb8gqvHuSdroZBI4o&si=m0zrssY_NFCZ1n13

Tidal

https://tidal.com/album/19117087

Hopefully shouldn't be too challenging a listen for me this one. 

Please feel free to post links to any other streams you find on your service of choice. 

Enjoy. 😉

Ok guys and gals. It's D Day. 😁

I'll be rolling the dice for the first time this evening. Probably around 5 o'clock UK time.

Fingers crossed it's nothing too challenging for the first outing. 🤞

11 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Is there a crossover of things on bandcamp and other streaming services?

From playing with the app it seems to list all the streaming services where the album is available. 

But ultimately it's up to the actual artist where they're streaming the album. So some might be on Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and everywhere else you can imagine. 

Others might only be available on a single streaming service. 

The reason I initially mentioned using only albums on Bandcamp is because it's free and everyone has access at the click of a link.

If people have to faff around signing up to different steaming services (even if it's free) it might put them off participating. 

However. For those who have access to any of the paid streaming services I will post the links (as and where available). 

I'll list whatever links come up with the album, then people can use their steaming platform of choice. 😁

Two days to go until the first selection!

What's it gonna be?

Scandinavian Death Metal? Freeform Jazz? Insipid Insipid 90's Pop? 

Anyone getting worried yet? 😂

3 hours ago, sandy_r said:

 

 

'Bolt-on' neck

 

Vampyre guitar

 

Supplied with 'Fright' case

 

...is Halloween due, by any chance?...

 

The price is definitely terrifying!

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

You could do Spotify - that's free and probably has a larger selection than Bandcamp.

 

Also IIRC you can only stream each track a certain number of times (3?) on Bandcamp without buying it.

I tried Spotify (I don't have an account) and it would only play a few seconds sample of each track on the album. 

I like the Bandcamp idea because it's a good way of supporting smaller artists. 3 listens should be enough to decide whether or not you like an album. And if anyone decides to then buy the album is a win win. 

People are of course welcome to stream the album on which ever service they have available. 😁👍

2 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

It really could be anything, although if it has to be available on Bandcamp that will limit the choices.

 

I've just done 5 SHFLs and got a very eclectic mix of classical music, avant garde, electronica, pop, and a film sound track...

Yeah. Unfortunately there will be some suggestions that pop up that aren't on Bandcamp. Which is why I said the first suggestion available. To make it work I want to make sure it's free and accessible to everyone. Some people won't have access to paid steaming services. 

33 minutes ago, toneknob said:

I'm in. Do I have to listen to it more than once if I don't like it?

 

Along a similar vein a few years ago I made a bet with myself to listen to an album that I'd never listened to before every day for a year (familiar artists were allowed but the more off my usual piste the better). I'd already won the bet by early December and carried on until close to Christmas (I think I gave myself a week or two off)

 

You don't have to do anything you don't want. 

I'm planning on giving each album at least 3 goes through during the week to at least get a bit familiar with the material. 

37 minutes ago, Crusoe said:

"And the first album will be... Spiceworld by The Spice Girls" 😄

You never know. It's in the hands of the Gods. 😂

3 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Will there be wine & biccies?

I hope so. What time should I pop round? 

I can play both kinds of music.

Country AND Western. 

1 hour ago, sprocketflup said:

Does the SHFL app have a particular 'pool' of albums that it can choose from?

I'm not exactly sure how it works, but from the random sampling I've done it seems quite eclectic. 

From the blurb on the app....

Shfl is a music recommendation tool — one that depends only on the very simplest algorithm of them all, random sampling. It is built from a massive number of specific recommendations from individual people — music critics, musicians, and a few carefully chosen lists from around the web. The only way to make a random sampler work for recommendations is if the population sampled from is full of wonderful things, and this one is — a carefully designed warren where you can go directly from Danny Brown to Scarlatti.

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

Just my luck I’d get jazz for a week

Yes that's my worst nightmare too 😂

But in the spirit of keeping an open mind I will try my best to listen to whatever pops up. 

Most definitely. I'm a hobby player and I only want to play things I enjoy. While I realise and accept that this will almost certainly limit my ability I don't really care. 

By which I mean (for example) I don't care that I lack the ability to play jazz standards, when I'd rather listen to roadworks than listen to jazz. I don't want to play it, therefore I don't miss not having the ability to play it. 

If I had any desire to be a professional musician then i would most likely see things differently. 

19 minutes ago, sandy_r said:

sounds like a good way to broaden one's musical horizons, as you say

 

I'm not familiar with book club procedure - is the plan for you to write a short review after listening, and invite comments on the same album from other listeners? 

 

cheers

 

I've never been in one 😆

But yes. That's pretty much the idea. Not necessarily a long winded review (unless that's what you want to do) but a casual discussion about the album. Maybe what you liked about it or disliked. Maybe certain tracks or sections which you particularly enjoyed. Recommendations for similar things to listen to. Anything like that. 

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Count me in.

Excellent! We'll start with the first one this Friday. 😁

Thankfully over here in the sunny side of Europe we get Thomann delivery via UPS. Never had a single problem either with delivery or returns, and I buy pretty much all my gear from Thomann. 

I find myself listening to less and less music these days, and when I do, I find I just fall back on all the same old stuff. 

So here's my idea. If anyone's interested. I'm going to start an "Album of the Week Club". This would work on the same basis as a book club. Every week (let's say Friday) I will use an app to choose an album totally at random from any genre or period of time. Then I'll spend the week listening to the album and giving my thoughts. 

I'm hoping to do this with as open a mind as possible as there are many genres that my natural reflex is to dislike, so I'm hoping to broaden my horizons and listen to things that I wouldn't ordinarily be interested in. 

Of course there's also the chance that the generator could choose one of my favourite albums. That's the luck of the draw. 

So, anyone else stuck in a musical rut and fancy joining me on this little social experiment? 

The rules. 

I'll be using a random album generator app called Shfl (shuffle) to choose the album. I will then check to see if the album is available to stream for free on Bandcamp and provide a link. The first album selected each week (with a steaming link) will be the album I listen to for the following week, regardless of genre or personal taste. Until the following week when another album will be selected. 

13 hours ago, Skybone said:

I signed up my son for the free trial of Melodics when he got his Alesis kit, but he didn't take to it.

 

Might be worth looking at?

 

https://melodics.com/drums

Thanks. I'll have a look. 

Edit.

I really like the look of that as is tailored much more towards edrums. I've just signed up to the monthly trial of Drumeo. I think I'll try this along side and see which I find the most useful. 

Cheers. 

Ok I've just signed up for the 30 day free trial on Drumeo. My wife's a singer so she can hopefully get some use out of Singeo making it worthwhile keeping the sub. 

I might even be brave and post a couple of progress videos. 😆

16 minutes ago, Boodang said:

I would say that drumeo is worth ever penny tho. 

I've just noticed that the Drumeo sub also gives you access to Singeo, Guitareo and Pianote. Definitely makes it worth the sub.