en480c4

Thanks for posting that... I'm going through it for the 2nd time this morning and quite enjoy it. IV in particular reminds me of Shapes of Despair's opening track on Shapes of... with far better production... I've really enjoyed Soma from Windhand lately. It strikes me as a bit of a mix of Agalloch, Isis & The Eye of Every Storm-era Neurosis. And I can't get enough Agalloch in general. I've been spending days at work going through their discography start to finish.

Windhand - Soma Like. Like very much.

Happy belated birthday!

This is a harder post than I expected... Boring list with no pictures. In no particular order. Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse A near perfect album that never grows old. I only wish it was longer. A perfect balance of everything they do. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood Another near perfect album that is done before I'm ready. I don't know if you could go wrong with Blacklisted here, either. But this was my first Neko album and holds a place close to my heart. Swallow the Sun - Plague of Butterflies This album makes the list due to the strength of the 34 minute title track alone, though the other 4 revisited songs are all solid. Rykarda Parasol - Our Hearts First Meet It's difficult for me to put my love of her voice or songwriting into words. "Texas Midnight Radio" gets me every time. Trauma Pet - You Cannot Feel This I don't find myself listening to this as much recently, but dark synth pop with really strong female vocals is right up my alley, and this does it better than the rest for me. Honorable Mention Nine Inch Nails - Still It's tough to choose just one of their albums, and even tougher to choose an acoustic one like this. But the reworkings of some songs are strong and the closing originals are masterful. Agalloch - The Mantle One of the best albums for atmosphere I've heard. I love the textures and balance of electric and acoustic instruments. Rasputina - A Radical Recital I really wanted to pick one of their studio albums, but the truth is I reach for this since it's such a great compilation of my favorite tracks and their live energy is well captured. Shannon McNally - North American Ghost Music Loooooove her voice, but I don't love her studio productions... Too sterile. But this live album is stunning. Her vocals are amazing, and she's backed by a great live band. Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell Their strongest album start to finish for me. As much as I detest the "beauty and the beast" label for this kind of album, the mix of male and female vocals is perfect. Supremely disappointed Lisa Johansson left the band. And the list goes on... http://www.last.fm/user/en480c4/charts?subtype=artists&rangetype=overall&go=Go

I use my smart cover with the mini to hold it one-handed. If you fold completely, so all three sections are stacked and it's three layers thick along the left edge, it creates a perfect "handle" for the fingers to catch on while the thumb wraps around the front. I don't use it this way all of the time, but typically if I'm reading a book, this is the best setup for me.

Sorry to hear it, Justin. Good luck with the recovery!

At Neko Case at the Orpheum Theater in Boston tonight. First night away from the kiddo, and so far, so good! Lucy Wainwright Roche opened and was great. Fantastic crowd banter to boot. They're finishing setup for Neko now... Can't wait!!!

Sorry to hear it Todd.

A forum my wife frequents has a thread for favorite out-of-focus shots. This is one of mine... Focus grabbed the top of the head, and despite that, I think its great. The eyes are in focus just enough. Penelope just shy of 8 weeks.

Thanks for posting both of these... very different but both very good. The Unexpect comparison was right on, and I found AKW in particular to be quite excellent.

A belated happy birthday, Peter!

I never checked mine, just because I don't play any accellerometer-based games or use the level. I just checked and it appears to be OK. Whew... Non-crisis averted.

Not sure how I missed this... Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Birthday Peter. Hope you had a great day.

Slacker.

MS MR - Secondhand Rapture

Yeah, I had just cleaned the interior...

Realized I've gotten old and soft... I put the hard top on the Jeep today, the earliest I think I've ever done it with any of my Jeeps. Between the hot summer and having a newborn, I just wasn't getting the top down. And I'll be damned if I'm not happy to have the quieter top back on.

Anna Calvi - S/T

Lights - Siberia

Thanks... This was excellent! As is this: Lorde - Pure Heroin

Got my 5S yesterday. Holy hell this thing is snappy. No real complaints running iOS7 on my 4s, but wow. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to get audio to my speakers at work. I've been using a 30 pin dock with my 4S, and need the volume control on the phone. I've read that the lightning docks all lock the level as full line out, which is problematic. Hmmmm... Any suggestions are appreciated.

I noticed that when I was typing them out... And Frankie, oddly enough, is a she. I really like Au Revoir Simone's stuff I heard on Spotify. I'll have to dig a little deeper. I'll be curious on what people think about Anneke's album. Her stuff is usually pretty hot and cold for me.

I haven't listened yet... It's taken me all day to get to the last track on the CHVRCHES album, which is fantastic!

3 releases today worth mentioning... Sarah Jarosz - Build Me Up From Bones CHVRCHES - The Bones if What You Believe Frankie Rose - Herein Wild I've been looking forward to two of them, and the third was a pleasant surprise to find out about yesterday.