Music Archives - Page 10 of 33

26,000 Scrobbled and counting

October 30, 2009January 28, 2021Jeromey Balderrama

Yesterday I eclipsed my 26,000 song that I Scrobbled on Last.fm. A “Scrobble” is essentially a song play that was tracked by Last.fm. By keeping track what I listen to, Last.fm has put together some pretty interesting statistics of my music tastes, as well as recommended songs that I would like (a feature I really haven’t used too much).

I’ve always wanted to write a reflective post of my top 10 artists according to Last.fm but missed the boat on the 20,000th and 25,000th thousand Scrobbles, so I figured that 26,000 was a nice round number and would take the opportunity to do so. Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite bands:

10. System of a Down (262 Plays) – Probably my favorite hard rock band – and I guess statistically-speaking, this is right. Top Album: Toxicity Top Songs: Chop Suey, Prison Song, B.Y.O.B., Hypnotize, Revenga

9. Fiction Plane (276 Plays) – I heard them open for the Police and have loved them ever since. Top Album: Left Side of the Brain Top Songs: Two Sisters, It’s A Lie, Death Machine, Running the Country, Presuppose

8. Gym Class Heroes 286 Plays) – The most surprising to me. I think it’s because I really like 2-3 tracks and have really overplayed them. Track #3 (29 plays) nearly doubles Track #4 (15 plays) Top Album: As Cruel as School Children Top Songs: 4th Period: Clothes Off, Cupid’s Chokehold, Peace Sign/Index Down, 3rd Period: New Friend Request, Catch Me If You Can

7. O.A.R. (296 Plays) – O.A.R. is great music to unwind to. I get in these moods where I’ll queue up a bunch of tracks on the playlist and let it rip. Top Album: All Sides. Top Track: War Song, Shattered, The Stranger, Something Coming Over, This Town

6. Five for Fighting (330 Plays) – One of my favorite bands, and I’m so excited that I’ll get to see John Ondrasik acoustically on Sunday! Top Album: Two Lights. Top Songs: World, The Riddle, 100 Years, Something About You, Superman (It’s Not Easy)

5. Outkast (344 Plays) – Definitely my favorite rap group, I especially love the stuff that Andre 3000 does. Top Album: Speakeroxxx/The Love Below. Top Songs: Rosa Parks, Humble Mumble, Hey Ya!, Ms. Jackson, Spottieottiedopaliscious

4. Jimmy Eat World (345 Plays) – Probably tops my “Bands I haven’t seen live but really want to” list. Top Album: Bleed American. Top Songs: Here It Goes, Open Bar Reception, Big Casino, Sweetness, The Middle

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers (425 Plays) – Not much to say, just a great, solid band whose old and new stuff I enjoy. Top Album: Stadium Arcadium. Top Songs: Dani California, Under the Bridge, Show Me Your Soul, Readymade, Californication

2. Michael Franti & Spearhead (431 Plays) – A band that I have loved for years, and am glad that more people are finding out about them. Also the only band in this list where I’ve personally met the singer. Top Album: Stay Human Top Songs: One Step Closer to You, People in the Middle, A Little Bit of Riddim, Listener Supported, East to the West

and as if #1 was going to be any surprise.

#1 – Dave Matthews Band (1,255 Plays) - Almost triples #2 on the list. Considering how much effort I’ve put in to seeing them live, I should love to play them a lot. Top Album: Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King. Top Songs: Grey Street, #41, What Would You Say, Ants Marching, Funny the Way It Is

Note: I removed podcasts from my top 10 list. There was one that fell under this list (ESPN at #2 – which is a family of podcasts).

I would highly recommend that if you’re a fan of music and would like to see what you’re listening to, that you give Last.fm a try. We’ll see what happens when I approach 50,000 Scrobbles, and if my music taste changes much. If you’re on Last.fm, I’d love for you to add my as a friend: RomeyInFC

When will Apple open up iTunes LP’s?

October 25, 2009August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

At the recent Apple’s iPod Gushfest, they announced a new feature in music purchases in the LP format. This is supposed to be the next generation of the album format’s liner notes, photos and additional goodies you get when you pony up money for a CD. This looked like a feature that may turn out to be cool (depending on how much they charge for this), but as a band that sells on iTunes I was very interested in how the LP was going to become available.

Details are starting to formulate, but because Apple hasn’t been very forthcoming with details (as if that’s a surprise), it’s given away to rampant speculation. Initially the news broke that Indie (Independent) artists trying to implement the LP solution were told by iTunes reps that LP’s weren’t available to Independents. Not only that, but to get an LP into iTunes, labels needed to pony up a $10,000 production fee.

Apple refuted the claim saying that they’re going to release open specs, and that no production fee would be charged. The fact that they’re going to release the open specs should hopefully enable content creators to create them – but we’ll see if they really become successful. It’s surprising that iTunes doesn’t appear to have a sense of urgency about putting these specs out, considering that these have been out for over 6 weeks and only has 16 LP’s to show for it.

My guess is that unless they open LP to include a lossless audio format, there’ really isn’t going to be much incentive to get people spend the extra money and buy these instead of a CD. I would also guess that Apple probably put these together due to pressure from the record companies and probably won’t invest their full attention towards this – not unlike the Apple TV.

New Greenfoot Gig Posters

October 21, 2009August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

Today I put the finishing touches on the new gig posters for our Greenfoot show coming up next week at Chipper’s Lanes. This is our second time playing at the bowling ally, and with as much fun as we had last time, we’re really looking forward to it. I also had a lot of fun putting together the gig poster from last time, so I used a lot of elements from the previous poster to create these new posters and made a series of them:

Aside from the obvious changes of the text, I made some minor changes to the foot on the bowling ball, trying to make it look more realistic. I also added a slight curve to the our URL and add the depth to it. I then focused my attention on the images of each of us and imposing them onto the lanes. I would be anxious to hear any thoughts or feedback that you may have.

Also if you’re in Fort Collins and are free on Thurdsay, Oct 29, come out and check us out at Chippers Lanes!

Greenfoot @ Signatures Thoughts

October 15, 2009August 23, 2017Jeromey Balderrama

Last weekend Greenfoot played our first show at Signatures Night Club, a fantastic show at a great venue for musicians. I don’t think Signatures is necessarily new, but it’s under new ownership that has definitely put a lot of time into making it a classy place. It’s clean and laid out well. It’s got a great “small club” atmosphere, essentially two separate rooms: 1 has the bar with the pool tables and TV’s, while the other room is tables and the stage for the band.

The atmosphere brings out a good energy throughout the whole club. The regulars are receptive to live music and definitely give bands the benefit of the doubt. Considering that Denver went through a snow storm that left a ton of ice, and that we were playing in weather conditions that postponed the Rockies game, we had an ok turnout. The weather definitely kept people away, but we still really appreciated those that made the trip out and made sure they weren’t disappointed.

This was our first show back from taking the summer off, and I was surprised at just how tight we played. We kept things laid back and loose (which I know sounds contradictory), but really felt comfortable, especially with introducing the new covers that we had. We did some fine-tuning of our originals, introducing some songs with some noticeable changes, which came off pretty well.

The owner at Signature’s is a really stand up guy, who is really supportive of live music, rock & roll, and the musician community. He was great to us all evening and really took a genuine interest and appreciation in our music. We are definitely looking forward to going back in the winter, hopefully in December. Sorry that we didn’t manage to get any pictures, but I’ll share a video of us performing 1 Night Stand (from an earlier show) – the owner’s favorite song.