I hope you’re enjoying your holiday morning so far. We’re out of bed and getting ready to get together with my girlfriend’s family for breakfast. I’m thankful for all the wonderful people I get to spend Christmas with out here in Idaho as my family celebrates in Pennsylvania. Right now I’m listening to Sirius XM’s The Coffee House which is featuring acoustic Christmas songs which is quite relaxing and joyful. Have a good morning, and Merry Christmas!
For $35, the Google Chromecast is a great Christmas gift. The Chromecast acts like a Roku player (or similar streaming media player) however it’s controlled by your smartphone or computer over WiFi. Once it’s set up you use apps on your phone or computer to stream content to your TV. However the Chromecast doesn’t pull data from your phone or device, it will connect to the content on it’s own and stream it from the source so you’re free to use your phone for whatever else once it starts streaming.
For example, you can launch the Netflix app on your phone and hit the Chromecast button to start up the Netflix app on the Chromecast. Once you select something to play it’ll begin loading on the Chromecast and you can close out the app on your phone. You can use the app on your phone to control the content by fast forwarding or pausing if you like.
Recently Google added a few more apps to make the Chromecast more versatile. Originally it could only stream from a handful of apps such as Netflix and Google Play. Now there are more options including HBO Go, Hulu Plus and Pandora (and several more that I’ve never used such as VEVO, RedBullTV and RealPlayer Cloud). The HBO Go and Pandora apps are my favorite additions. I’d like to see a Dish Anywhere app sometime in the future, but HBO will do for now.
You can view the video below for a look at the new apps and to see the Chromecast in action. For $35 it has a great, easy to use design and I love using it. Sure I have all of the same apps and more on my PS3, but the ease of controlling everything seamlessly through my phone is great. I can start something playing on Netflix while I search for something to watch on HBO and switch between the two in a matter of seconds. On the PS3 the time it takes to exit one app and enter another is painful.
Spotify has been one of my favorite music apps since it allows you to add specific songs or albums to playlists and play them at will, so long as you’re a subscriber for $10 a month. However, today Spotify has rolled out a new free service which allows you to play any album or playlist on shuffle for free. You can’t start with a specific song, but you can add specific songs to playlists and play it on shuffle. There will be ads of course, and Spotify occasionally throws in related songs that aren’t in your playlist to mix it up a bit, but it’s still a great service. I usually listen to albums on shuffle anyway, so it’s great to be able to do this without paying the monthly fee.
Thanks to the new free service today I discovered a new artist and album I’m really enjoying. I had never heard of Sevyn Streeter, but the album cover enticed me and I started listening. Her debut EP Call me Crazy came out last week and it’s certainly worth listening to. She has a sort of Katy Perry sound, if at times a little slower and more provocative. My favorite track is “Sex on the Ceiling”.
I heard this song last week on ‘Ra Ra Riot Radio’ on iTunes radio and have been in love with it since. Great song and music video.
I hadn’t previously heard of the band Girls, and maybe you haven’t either so I’ll share a bit of information from their Wikipedia page. They formed in San Francisco in 2007 by two members, Christopher Owens (who spent most of his life growing up in the cult Children of God) and Chet “JR” White. They released two albums, Album (2009) and Father, Son, Holy Ghost before breaking up during the summer of 2012.
It’s unfortunate that they’re no longer together as I really enjoy their sound. Check it out:
Sunday night we saw Three Days Grace with Otherwise at the Knitting Factory in Boise and it was an awesome time. I’ve seen Three Days Grace a handful of times before in Pennsylvania, but this was my first concert since being stationed in Idaho. Otherwise was really awesome to see live and they put on an energetic performance that worked perfectly to excite the crowd for Three Days Grace.
Three Days Grace played an amazing show, which was a relief because I wasn’t sure how I’d like Matt Walst (the bassist’s brother who happens to front My Darkest Days) who took over on vocals after Adam left the band. He performed their songs superbly and put on an incredible show.
I’m on my lunch break right now but wanted to share this amazing SiriusXM exclusive acoustic performance of “Chocolate” by The 1975. The song is incredible in the first place, but this version is just incredible.
I recently discovered Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, though I’m not sure how. I think it was from listening to Sirius XMU, but somehow or another I heard the song “We No Who U R” and my jaw immediately dropped. The slow instrumental and deep, soothing yet brooding voice stunned me. It’s incredibly beautiful music with beautiful lyrics. The first two lines of the song are as follows:
Tree don’t care what the little bird sings
We go down with the dew in the morning light
Nick Cave’s lyrics are beautiful and poetic and for some reason they occasionally remind me of T.S. Eliot and at times his sentence structure makes me think of Hemingway. It could be all in my head, it’s been awhile since I’ve studied either.
To my surprise I discovered Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds has been making music since 1983, and their 2013 album Push The Sky Away is their 15th studio album! Talk about being prolific. I have a lot of catching up to do, but as of right now I’m so in love with Push The Sky away it’s hard to listen to anything else. I’m most definitely ordering this album on vinyl, I imagine it’ll sound great on my record player.
Two of my favorite songs from the album are actually bonus tracks, “Needle Boy” and “Lightning Bolts”. The narrative in these songs and the way they’re sung just leave me in awe.
And the girls from Jubilee Street hang out their windows,
And they wave and ask me how I am tonight,
I say I’m good, I’m all right.
I just love that!
“Needle Boy” is very brooding, it gives me the chills.
Last, but not least, I’ll leave you with “We Real Cool” (love the title!)
I listen to SiriusXM often in the car, but just as often on my computer or phone while I’m working out, cleaning or reading. The other day I was surprised to find a new and improved SiriusXM internet player. You can still listen in on the live broadcasts on the hundreds of channels available, but now there’s a new feature called MySXM.
As you can see below the MySXM logo appears next to the player and you can click on it to switch between your personalized MySXM channel and the live channel.
MySXM will let you adjust the types of songs a channel plays, giving you an experience somewhat similar to Pandora or Spotify. For example Alt Nation lets me choose whether I’d prefer more familiar songs or newer songs. Guitar based songs or more electronic based songs, and lastly newer or veteran artists. It’s an interesting addition to a great music service.
First is The Format’s “On Your Porch” from the band’s 2003 debut album ‘Interventions + Lullabies’. I love the story the song tells and its simple acoustic melody.
Secondly I’m loving “Until I Am Whole” by The Mountain Goats from their 2012 album ‘Transcendental Youth’. The song has a bit of an eerie feel and the vocals remind me a lot of The Decembrists’ sound. There’s something special about this song, it’s soothing and yet a bit dark at the same time.
I haven’t had a lot of time to play with iTunes 11 today before work, but I figured I’d leave you with some screenshots to show off the updated interface for now:
Gumballs Plays Games 