Super CD 3 - JH Review

This is my review of Charles' Super CD 3. I probably listened to this CD in my car for a week straight. I had quite a few favorite songs that were new to me. It was actually difficult to pick a favorite between Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease" and Josh Ritter's "Snow is Gone." I did ultimately pick Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease" as my favorite. I love the Black Keys, but I had not heard that song before, and I really loved it. Same for the Decemberists, most of the songs of theirs are so slow and chill. I liked "July, July!" for its upbeat vibe. 

Charles was adamant about not shuffling the songs. I can understand why. This is a well crafted playlist that flows nicely from song to song. I found myself not wanting to shuffle, once I had the songs in the correct order after importing them from the dropbox. This playlist is a great start!

How to import/export playlists in Itunes

One of the things we hope to do on this blog will be to trade playlists.  Although its not really 100% necessary, you may want to know how to export your playlist to XML format and to be able to import a playlist from somebody else.  The only issue with doing this, is that if you don't have all the songs in your library, it will remove those from the list during the import process.  Here is the Apple tech article on how to do this.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1744?viewlocale=en_US

I have not done this in a couple of years, so I can't remember if it gives you an error and alerts you to which songs you are missing or not.  Maybe somebody can export a playlist and post it, and I can try to import it to see what happens.  I have a couple of my playlists already exported and stored in the "Playlist XML Files" Folder.

Let me know if you have any questions on this.

Jackie's Playlist #2 - CM Review

This is my review of Jackie's second playlist.  Overall I liked the first playlist better, but this playlist has some really great songs.  I actually like the Tom Petty and Ryan Adams selections on this playlist better.  I picked "If it Wasn't For You" by Various Cruelties as my favorite song of the CD.  Although The Shins are my biggest takeaway. I have listened to them before, but wasn't really blown away. I'm ready to give them another chance.

As a side note, I think its kind of a cool touch if you take the screen shot with your favorite song of the CD playing, so it has the audio icon next to it.  I think its a nice touch.

Jackie's Playlist #1 - CM Review

The CD that started it all.  As background, in a random conversation Jackie promised to send me a CD chock full of all the new music she was obsessed with.  Two or three months later (not sure because I had lost track at that point) I received not just one, but two CD's!  Great, antique pieces of plastic.

I've had this CD for at least three weeks, and have been playing it non-stop in my car, at home and at work. I really like this CD, and don't find myself skipping any songs on it.  This is a good indicator that its a quality mixed CD.  Its a bit heavy handed with the Mumford & Sons, but since I enjoyed them I'll giver her a pass.  My favorite song, easily, was "Changing" by The Airborne Toxic Event.  Second to that was probably Dr. Dog. It helps that they have such a ridiculous band name.  Overall I recommend it highly, and I think some of these songs will make it into some of my future playlists.  Thanks for sharing Jackie!

Quick explanation and ideas for this blog

All,
We decided to create a blog where we can discuss new music or playlists that are posted. Its also a place where folks can request help on a playlist, discuss local bands or concerts.

Once you post some new music or  playlist, its always fun to get feedback from others on what songs they liked or didn't like.  I didn't know the best way to accomplish this, while still making it very easy. Below is our first attempt at standardizing the way in which you can review submitted new music lists.

To review a CD, open itunes, open up the playlist, and go to View/View Options/Comments (click box).  To add comments to the song, just right click and press info (or cmd + i), and type into the comments box. The idea is to rate each song and add comments to those songs for which you have something to add.

Next do a screen shot (cmd+shift+4 on mac, print screen button on windows). Below is an example, which is my review of Jackie's Playlist #1. The first step is to "un-check" any songs that you had not heard before.  Make sure to go back and check them after you take the screen shot. Next, make sure your favorite song from the playlist is playing while taking the screen shot, so it quickly shows everybody which one was best.  Also its best to size or crop the file to 850 pixels wide, then press "original size" after you insert it in your post.  I usually rearrange the columns, to get rid of the genre, time, # of plays, etc, so that the information for the review is as big as possible.

Also don't forget to add labels (tags).  Type the persons name who made the playlist, Your initials + Review (CM Review as my example) and the year most relevant for the songs, and either "new music" or "playlist" depending on what it is.  Also include any other labels which will be useful later one when we have lots of reviews and posts.