The Continuing Adventures of the Pub

[murlough23]

I put the newest Radiohead leak on it, titled "These Are My Twisted Words".

I got the Harry Patch song, but didn't see that one. Am I just blind?

Also, put up a new Flaming Lips track.

That one was pretty weird, even for the Lips. It'll have to grow on me.

I tried to get caught up on folks' pub tracks today. My brief reactions to some of them are as follows.

Liked: fun., Paper Route, Jeff Buckley, Ashley Cleveland, Margaret Becker, Out of the Grey (classic live performance!)
Intriguing, but not sure how I feel: Radiohead's Harry Patch song, The Tall Pines, Ayreon
Seriously, what the hell?!: Korpiklaani, Toy-Box

I uploaded a new Pub track today since I hadn't in a while: Rob Thomas's "Fire on the Mountain". I found most of his new album rather lackluster, but this is a solid, anthemic track. You'll probably hate it if you're of the mindset that only U2 is allowed to be anthemic, but for those who like pop/rock with big, meaty choruses, this should float your boat.

[dgp11776]

Liked: Paper Route

Nice...you should try the rest of that album - it's pretty fantastic.

[murlough23]

Nice...you should try the rest of that album - it's pretty fantastic.

I'll make a note to do so.

NP: "Pins & Needles", Mute Math

[bloop]

I got the Harry Patch song, but didn't see that one. Am I just blind?

No, I took it down since you can get it at their website anyway free of charge.  I'll put it back up.

That one was pretty weird, even for the Lips. It'll have to grow on me.

It reminds me quite a bit of older Lips material (Transmissions-era)

[murlough23]

No, I took it down since you can get it at their website anyway free of charge.  I'll put it back up.

Or I can just go get it from their website.

It reminds me quite a bit of older Lips material (Transmissions-era)

Never heard any of that stuff, which is probably why I was confused.

I tried to get caught up on folks' pub tracks today. My brief reactions to some of them are as follows.

That's what usually happens to me.

NP: "Valium", Mute Math

[dgp11776]

I thought I uploaded two songs ("Summer Tongues" by Anchor & Braille and "Don't Need Me" by Jonathan Jones), but I don't see them anywhere.

[bloop]

strange.  This is all I have in the log.

11:49:29 PM Check update: no new version
9:10:34 AM 74.162.20.7:50749 Requested GET /
9:10:53 AM thephorum@74.162.20.7:50770 Requested GET /The Pub/
9:10:57 AM thephorum@74.162.20.7:50770 Requested GET /The Pub/~upload
9:14:25 AM 74.162.20.7:50928 Upload failed, Not allowed: 05 Summer Tongues.mp3
9:14:25 AM 74.162.20.7:50928 Uploading 05 Summer Tongues.mp3
9:21:52 AM thephorum@74.162.20.7:50407 Requested GET /The Pub/
9:22:07 AM 74.162.20.7:50406 Requested GET /
9:22:10 AM thephorum@74.162.20.7:50406 Requested GET /The Pub/
9:23:37 AM 74.162.20.7:50489 Requested GET /
9:23:40 AM 74.162.20.7:50489 Requested GET /Melissa - Shared/
9:23:43 AM 74.162.20.7:50489 Requested GET /Melissa - Shared/honor society.jpg
9:23:54 AM thephorum@74.162.20.7:50505 Requested GET /The Pub/

I'll start it up again, but it should work.

[murlough23]

Just to confuse the logs, I should upload the Copeland song "Not Allowed".

[dgp11776]

Okay, it worked that time.  I haven't read back enough to know, but I'm guessing bloop renames the files?

[murlough23]

I usually name the files myself before uploading them.

I reversed Mew's "New Terrain" to see if the backmasked stuff made any sense. It doesn't seem to. But I Pubbed it for those with more astute ears than mine.

[bloop]

Yeah, I actually don't rename them, as a general rule, because I don't always have a way of knowing who uploaded what.

[bloop]

Put up a Destroyer track, and a few new Flaming Lips B-Sides

[bloop]

Been working on this one for a few days now.

[murlough23]

I'm putting up one of the new Future of Forestry tracks, which you could also easily hear on their MySpace, but this way you get slightly better quality. It's a great example of the more percussive approach on Travel II.

EDIT: Wow, that sure uploaded fast.

[chrisnu]

Thanks for uploading the Future of Forestry track. They are a group I need to get into more.

[bloop]

Is the beginning of September a popular time to swamp me with remasters or what?

[murlough23]

Is the beginning of September a popular time to swamp me with remasters or what?

Who did this besides the Beatles? (Iona remastered Journey into the Morn, but I doubt this is on your radar. It's not really even on mine, as the original sounds just fine.)

[bloop]

Neil Young's remasters, as well as The Stone Roses.

and I like Iona a whole lot, but I wasn't aware of a new remaster.

[murlough23]

and I like Iona a whole lot, but I wasn't aware of a new remaster.

Actually, it might just be a re-release since JITM was out of print. I'm a diehard fan but I'm cool with the original, so if you've heard that, I'm sure that's enough.

[bloop]

I don't think I've heard JITM, actually.  I have The River Flows (which collects their first three albums), and a separate copy of Beyond These Shores and The Circling Hour somewhere.  They're the rare band that my wife knew about before I did (I learned of them in my college days).

It's good to hear that it was re-released rather than remastered, though.  I sometimes have to wonder why albums released not all that long ago would even need remastering.  Was early 90s mastering really that shoddy?

(I'm pretty sure the Radiohead albums that were re-released this year were not remastered, which kind of makes sense given how relatively new they are).

[murlough23]

I don't think I've heard JITM, actually.  I have The River Flows (which collects their first three albums), and a separate copy of Beyond These Shores and The Circling Hour somewhere.  They're the rare band that my wife knew about before I did (I learned of them in my college days).

The River Flows, as you know, collects their first three albums plus some rarities on the 4th disc. All three albums were supposedly remastered, but I had the original Kells and Shores and I honestly couldn't tell the difference apart from them being louder. Iona was not only remastered, but remixed in several places - partly because the original master tapes were lost/damaged and partly because the band was only an ad hoc three-piece back then and they wanted to complete the original vision that they had for the album. A few tracks were left completely untouched except for making them match the volume of the newer recordings.

It's good to hear that it was re-released rather than remastered, though.  I sometimes have to wonder why albums released not all that long ago would even need remastering.  Was early 90s mastering really that shoddy?

Early 90's, yes. By the mid-90's I think it was mostly worked out to a level I'm comfortable with.

In either incarnation, JITM is worth hearing. That was my first Iona album, and I credit it with vastly expanding my patience for music that went beyond the bounds of the radio-friendly pop song. (Even then, it's probably their most accessible disc.) BTS is my all-time favorite of their albums, but Open Sky is a very close second, and if you haven't heard that one, it's definitely a Top 10 entry in my eventual "Best of the 2000's" list since it's my #1 CD from the year 2000. I can hook you up with both if you'd like.

[bloop]

In either incarnation, JITM is worth hearing. That was my first Iona album, and I credit it with vastly expanding my patience for music that went beyond the bounds of the radio-friendly pop song. (Even then, it's probably their most accessible disc.) BTS is my all-time favorite of their albums, but Open Sky is a very close second, and if you haven't heard that one, it's definitely a Top 10 entry in my eventual "Best of the 2000's" list since it's my #1 CD from the year 2000. I can hook you up with both if you'd like.

I don't know...I think there are some really phenomenal albums in terms of audio quality in the early 90s before the loudness war nonsense.

Oh, and I have Open Sky, not The Circling Hour as I previously said, but I'm not sure where Melissa put it.  While I appreciate the offer, I do have my sources this time.  

*edit* Found it.  Yay!

[murlough23]

Oh, and I have Open Sky, not The Circling Hour as I previously said, but I'm not sure where Melissa put it.  While I appreciate the offer, I do have my sources this time.  

Cool. I didn't figure their music was easy to find, even if you wanted to legally purchase it. Just let me know if there's anything you need help getting your hands on. (I'd even recommend their two live albums, but I'm probably pushing my luck at this point.)

[murlough23]

Uploaded three old-school Iona songs as a carrot for bloop (and anyone else!) to fill in the gaps in their discography.

First is "Inside my Heart" from Journey into the Morn, which starts as an acoustic devotional poem and erupts into a glorious electric coda, thanks to the wizardry of Dave Bainbridge.

Second is a live rendition of "Bí-Se I Mo Shúil, Part 2", originally from JITM as well, but they did it one better in this live version from Heaven's Bright Sun. It's the hymn "Be Thou My Vision", sung in Gaelic to a different tune than what we're all used to. The second half is a glorious instrumental breakdown in a tricky time signature - one of the first compositions that got me hooked on that sort of thing.

Third and final is another superior live rendition - the title track from Beyond These Shores, recreated with the backing of the All Souls Orchestra for the live album Woven Cord. Frank Van Essen had rejoined the band at this point - his violin solo is what makes the song work for me. (The original album version wasn't one of my favorites even though it comes from my favorite Iona album.) I'd recommend Woven Cord if you're interested in hearing what this band can do with more of a classical/orchestral feel to their arrangements.

[Brenden]

Uploaded a couple highlights from the new Flight Of The Conchords album and a song from the new Neon Horse.

[bloop]

For a change of pace, I put up Patton Oswalt (do I need to say "NSFW"?), and added tags on what I already had on the pub.

[murlough23]

For a change of pace, I put up Patton Oswalt (do I need to say "NSFW"?), and added tags on what I already had on the pub.

It's SFW if you use headphones. I'm listening to it now. Holy shit, that's the Ratatouille guy!

[bloop]

Put some Thao Nguyen up.

[bloop]

Took down Oswalt.  Put up Yorke's new Twilight song, and some Flaming Lips.

[Vlad!]

It's been a while...

I uploaded two tracks from Into the Electric Castle...I didn't like this album as much as The Flight of the Migrator or The Human Equation after the first couple listens, but it's started to grow on me. I feel like these two tracks show how diverse this album is.

Bloop, you can go ahead and remove my other tracks (Russian Lullaby, Mystery, and Wooden Pints).

[bloop]

OK - I'm just happy no one is complaining that the pub has been down so much.  My computer has issues.  If you have any idea what would cause a hard drive to chug along all the time, making any given task take 15 minutes, help me out.  I've tried my anti-virus, ad-aware, and deleting software I don't recognize or don't use, but to no avail.  I really don't want to do a clean install (it seems like a lot of work to get everything back the way I like it), but if I have to, I have to.

[Vlad!]

If you have any idea what would cause a hard drive to chug along all the time, making any given task take 15 minutes, help me out.

Windows?

I think the Windows Task Manager can give you data about what's using your drive. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, then click the "Processes" tab. Then click View > Select columns... and check the Page Faults and Page Faults Delta boxes and all the I/O boxes. Press OK.

In the resulting sea of information, click the column headings to sort by those columns. My guess is that you don't have enough memory and you are running enough memory-hogging applications that it's thrashing the page file. To confirm this guess, sort by 'page faults delta'. If you have one program that's page faulting a lot (delta is over 64 or so) or several programs that are page faulting a decent amount (delta is over 32 or so) then it looks like you have thrashing.

If your page file looks fine, sort by the I/O columns to see what processes are slamming your disk. It could just be that a nice defragment will fix the problem. Also, if you're using a desktop search program like Google Desktop or Windows Live Desktop Search (or whatever nonsense they call it these days), it will probably be churning your drive (if you're using NTFS, which you probably are, Windows also indexes the drive automatically, which is fairly worthless. Go to My Computer, right-click your drive, say 'Properties', and uncheck the box that says "Index this drive for blah blah blah". It will probably throw a dialog up in your face, and if so say something like "apply to all files and folders".)

If the problem is the page file, increase the amount of RAM in the system. If the problem is that you're hitting your disk too much, either kill some programs or buy an SSD. If you buy an SSD, I'd recommend keeping your oldschool disk in the computer as well and using that for your page file, since there's no faster way to wear out an SSD than having a large page file on it).

Windows 7 actually has made some pretty significant advances in the "having to set up all my crap when I re-install" front, but until they get rid of the system registry (which will never, ever happen), Windows will never be as good as Linux on this front. Unfortunately, if you're running XP, you are forced to have your "Documents and Settings" directory on the same partition as your Windows directory. Dumb!

(I honestly don't know if they fixed this in Vista or Win7, since I stopped using Windows after XP...I'm assuming they did, but maybe I'm giving them too much credit).

[murlough23]

I'm pretty sure Windows 7 fixed ALL the problems that Vista had, just in time for them to invent new ones. 

[bloop]

I'm running XP.  I'll try the stuff that doesn't cost anything first, then tell the wife I probably need some RAM.

[Vlad!]

I'm pretty sure Windows 7 fixed ALL the problems that Vista had, just in time for them to invent new ones. 

I doubt that it fixed all the problems, if only because Windows 7 is essentially a minor release of the NT 6 kernel (which is a source of no small amusement to me; I was surprised when I discovered that Windows 7 is entirely a misnomer, since it's Windows NT 6.1).

I'm running XP.  I'll try the stuff that doesn't cost anything first, then tell the wife I probably need some RAM.

If it's just a ploy to get more RAM then that's fine, but if you actually want to solve your problem then I suggest a more measured "analyze, find, and address the root issue" approach rather than a "throw hardware at it and hope it works" approach.

[bloop]

I tried your page file delta thing, and it looks like I do, in fact, need more RAM (a couple numbers displayed were much, much higher than 64, but they disappeared very fast too).  I was just about ready to do the ultimate in "throw hardware at it", though, with a new computer.

Honestly, I want my next upgrade to be a new machine.  I'd rather not spend $ on RAM only to discover that it did nothing to help my, at this point, pretty aged computer.  On the other hand, a new machine is significantly more $ than more RAM, so if it'll work, it might be worth it.

[Vlad!]

Hm, might be a lack of RAM, or it might be a combination of hitting the page file plus something churning the disk (a big music database will probably hit the disk a lot and Firefox causes quite a few page faults, so running iTunes and Firefox together could very probably cause the problem you're describing).

[bloop]

Hmm...I'll keep that in mind to use iTunes only when necessary, but it's not isolating the problem since it occurs with or without that program running.  Also, my music db on it is not large.

[murlough23]

Hm, might be a lack of RAM, or it might be a combination of hitting the page file plus something churning the disk (a big music database will probably hit the disk a lot and Firefox causes quite a few page faults, so running iTunes and Firefox together could very probably cause the problem you're describing).

Well, that explains my computer right there.

[bloop]

I put some Baroness up, seeing as I'm in a metal sort of mood.