My 2007 in Blogs, Music, Events and Apps!

As has been my wont since the early 90’s, I like to write up the things that have tickled my fancy for the past year…

Blogs

This is should actually be in the singular, as there has been one particular blog that has lit my fire like no others.

Ace Jet 170 seems to have the ability to find objects that trigger the same emotional reactions, like these Routemaster and Underground Signs. A new AceJet post is often followed by a trawl on ebay…

Music

As usual, not everything in this list was released in 2007, but I couldn’t leave out Midlake’s Trials of Van Occupanther – 2006 be damned! Along with Midlake, the other big discovery for me was Band of Horses, and in particular ‘Cease to Begin’.

So limiting myself to only one song from each of my favourite albums, here is the top 20, in playlist style order:

There are few that didn’t quite make the final list, such as Of Montreal and Hammock.

Apps that have changed the way I work

Two apps have changed the way I work in 2007 like no others.

Coda

Since I first raved about Coda, I’ve met people who have either hated it, or see it as manna from heaven. As I suspected, it doesn’t really suit the hardcore TextMate users, but for me Coda has caused some big shifts in the way I work, and everything I do bar graphics is made in Coda these days.

The biggest change for me is that web development tools in browsers have become less of a necessity. The browser is regaining its position of being ‘pleasure’ while Coda is for everything that’s ‘work’ – like the distinction between home and office. I don’t even use Firefox & Firebug anymore, the revised Web Inspector in Leopard has been incorporated in Coda and that does everything I need and more.

My design process has also been changed by Coda. I’m working on visuals less and less in Fireworks and Illustrator, and starting on the HTML/CSS much much earlier. There are so many things that are hard to convey in a static mockup, and writing the CSS and HTML in Coda is so fast, there seems little point making one. I feel that I can iterate quickly and try out ideas. I still sketch and plan on paper, but a middle man has been cut out.

There’s more to love. The ‘Sites’ view has become more like a project folder or workspace. The saved tabs in a site can include not only the site files, but the remote and local previews, the Textpattern admin panels, phpMyAdmin and the project on Basecamp. I can’t do that in Textmate. The split views in Coda are another favourite feature. Apps like CSS Edit have useful tools, like the ability to override site styles, but the multiple windows for editing and previewing drive me mad.

I could go on, but in short, if I ever see someone from Panic, they’re in danger of getting a big kiss.

Billings

I mentioned Billings fairly recently, but beyond being a very well thought out time tracking and invoicing application, it’s meant that I have for the first time been aware of just how long I spend doing various different tasks, and how much I spend in terms of expenses and meetings. Having a timer in the menubar wins over a dashboard widget or floating window anyday.

Its also been a great motivator, making me more aware of time I haven’t spent working, without being annoying about it. If I had one request of Marketcircle though, it would be a quicker way of seeing which invoices are unpaid (such as an link in the sidebar), something I need to refer to a lot!

Events

• Moving into the Rissington offices with John, Jon and Simon, and recording The Rissington Podcast. Its the design studio I always wanted.
• The iPhone. Crappy camera aside, its the convergent device of my dreams. I can’t wait to see what happens when proper 3rd party apps are written for it. In particular I’d like a cut down version of Coda and a way of playing music wirelessly through airtunes.
• 2007 has been a good year for visitors – Luke Dorny, Scott Boms, Derek Featherstone and Ms Jen (thrice!) popping by to see family Hicks.
• Oxford Geek Nights are really something special
• First year of partnership with Leigh! Many people ask me how well we’re working together, but not only does she run her own projects, she’s also busy making stuff.
• The National, Imogen Heap and The Hold Steady were gig highlights.

Thanks for letting me get that out of my system – I’m done till next year!

Tags: 2007, apps, blogs, music, osx, review

Cover art for In Rainbows

It’s out, and I’m listening right now. It’s even better than I hoped it would be, but it’s bare bones at the moment. No cover art – well that just won’t do for this coverflow user. According to NME the art is coming, and it sounds like it will be a Stanley Donwood artgasm.

Here’s my attempt, with a 600px version available here. Do you fancy a go too? When you’re done, please post a 300px square copy here in the comments, using Textile (wrap the image URL in exclamation marks.). I’m looking forward to seeing what people come up with!

Tags: covers, music, radiohead

Midlake - 'Roscoe'

Last year my favourite discovery was The National. This year, that role goes to Midlake. First played to me by Richard Rutter back in February, it took me while to get around to buying the album this track came from “The Trials of Van Occupanther”. I’ve not stopped playing it since though, its completely won me over.

‘Roscoe’ is enough to give you a flavour, but you really need to listen the whole album. Their first record “Bamnan and Silvercork” is good too, but quite a different sound to Van Occupanther, more Flaming Lips. If you buy one new album this year, please make it Van Occupanther! Also, make sure you check out their collaboration on the latest Chemical Brothers album “The pills won’t help you now” – just beautiful.

Download: Midlake – ‘Roscoe’
Buy The Trials of Van Occupanther at Amazon.

Tags: foundsounds, music

The National - 'Fake Empire'

Alligator was my favourite album of last year, and after managing to hear a promo copy, Boxer is set to become this years. Listen to this opening track “Fake Empire” a few times, and let it simmer in your head. I just can’t get enough of The National.

Download: The National – ‘Fake Empire’

Tags: music, podcast, thenational

It's going to be a good year for music

It doesn’t seem like 5 mins since I was writing about my favourite albums of 2006, and already, I’ve bought some great music that are all contenders for this years top 5 list. In true Hicks style, 2 of these were released last year, but hey.

Raising your voice, trying to stop an echo – Hammock
Jarvis – Jarvis Cocker
Out of the Angeles – Amusement Parks on Fire
Girls and Boys in America – The Hold Steady
Neon Bible – Arcade Fire

All superb records, played non-stop.

Now I’ve heard that The National have a new album, ‘Boxer’, due out on May 21st, along with Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky” the week before. Stereogum have a sample from Boxer, Fake Empire available to download. Crikey!

It’s going to be a good year for music.

UPDATE : Just discovered that Interpol’s, as yet untitled, 3rd album is to be released in June. Yay!

Tags: lists, music

Arcade Fire - "No Cars Go"

Arcade Fire are the only band I’ve ever managed to discover before the world caught up. “No Cars Go” was one of the free demo songs available from their website, long before “Funeral” saw the light of day. I loved the song, so I was really chuffed to see that it made it on to their new album, Neon Bible. This is that original version, and while the quality isn’t tip top, it shows a band that would rightfully become very popular indeed!

Download: Arcade Fire – “No Cars Go”

Tags: music, podcast

Daytrotter

Normally a site I love simply gets a mention in the sidenotes, but I particularly wanted to spotlight the new(ish) music site Daytrotter. To quote the about section:

“We’re going to give you something that you truly have never heard. We are not giving you songs from someone you love’s record album, thereby stealing from someone you love. We’re giving you exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands.”

The list of bands recording sessions with Daytrotter is enough to get me excited (and the fact that they use Textpattern), but here’s the part I really, really love: illustration. There are a team of illustrators that work on the site, and rather than rely on publicity photographs, each session or feature has its own unique artwork. And damn fine illustration it is too.

As Mark Boulton said at SXSW this year “Illustration is missing in action on the web”.

Stock images in particular have become the fast easy way to illustrate content, while traditional artwork is barely anywhere to be seen. When A List Apart relaunched, they made the brave move to use illustration to accompany each article, and the effect was a huge breath of fresh air. Daytrotter joins that revolution! Rejoice!

Tags: music, pimp, sites

BBC Radio in MediaCentral

I’ve been playing with MediaCentral a lot recently, as it keeps adding more and more functionality that impresses me. While not perfect (This MacWorld review expresses my concerns) its a good looking, snappy FrontRow alternative, with a lot of potential.

The recent 2.3.1 release brings support for .ram files, which finally means that I can listen to BBC Radio in MediaCentral. All you need is a .ram file for each station, and to make life easy, you can download my set of BBC Radio Streams. Assuming you have Realplayer, all you need to do is place it’s contents in your /My MediaCentral/My Radio/ folder, and you’re away.

Tags: macmediacentre, music, radio

Endings

I’ve had an idea for a while now about doing a one-off podcast on the theme of ‘endings’. Some of my favourite tracks happen to be the last on the album, but I know I’m never going to get around to recording a podcast or wading through the murky waters of licensing.

So, here’s a plain old text list of my (current!) favourite endings:

1. ‘Everyone but me’ – Starflyer 59 (Americana) *
2. ‘Walk into the Sea’ – Low (The Great Destroyer)
3. ‘Comforting Sounds’ – Mew* (Frengers)
4. ‘Burger Queen’ – Placebo (Without you I’m nothing)
5. ‘The Party’ – Starflyer 59 (Everybody makes mistakes)
6. ‘Sandpit’ – Curve (Doppelganger)
7. ‘Reservations’ – Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
8. ‘Mr November’ – The National (Alligator)
9. ‘A Wolf at the Door’ – Radiohead (Hail to the thief)
10. ‘Life is Sweet’ – Maria McKee (Life is Sweet)

(* This also happens to be my favourite song of all time. I’ll probably look back at this list in a few months time I wonder why I didn’t list x instead of y, but this one always remains at the top for me.)

A few of these tracks happen to be available via iTunes, so I’ve created an iMix of Endings, although the best parts of the songs tend to be after the preview cuts off.

Think of it as a meme if you will, and post your favourite ways of ending an album!

Tags: memes, music

Pelle Carlberg - "Go to hell, Miss Rydell"

Along with The National, Swedish singer/songwriter Pelle Carlberg is the second of my favourite finds this year.

The bitter tale of responding to a bad review, “Go to hell, Miss Rydell” makes great listening for those with a Belle and Sebastian or Kings of Convenience bent. The album “Everything. Now!” is just superb – while the music may sound light, the lyrics are far from lightweight. There’s some real sadness/venom/longing in there. Powerful stuff.

Download: Pelle Carlberg – “Go to hell, Miss Rydell”

Tags: acoustic, music, podcast

Waiting for Songbird to nest on OS X

Despite what I said last year, working completely off a Powerbook does work (now that I have a functioning powerbook of course!). Only one thing mars the experience – high CPU usage from iTunes.

I have a lot of hungry apps open, Fireworks and Omniweb can be quite greedy, but they’re beginners next to iTunes with its range of 31-60%. Obviously, playing music from another source (such as radio or iPod) would solve this, but I prefer being able to play music from my computer. Especially when I have bluetooth niftiness such as Salling Clicker pausing iTunes whenever there’s a phone call.

Playing music is important part of work and home life, but on OS X, there seems to be no alternatives to iTunes. Audion has long since died, and while its still available, its no match for iTunes for managing and playing a library of music.

This is why I’ve been keeping an interested eye on SongBird – an open source XUL based app for playing media. I have no idea whether it uses less CPU, or when a version for OS X will arrive, but I’m really keen to try it. I love what they stand for and the approach they’re taking. I have high hopes! (I also love the sound of this job, shame I’m not qualified! :D ).

So in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas for lower CPU music playback on OS X, or tips to reduce iTunes CPU usage, I’d love to hear them. Have I missed a good OS X alternative?

Update: Some of the comments gave me an idea – I turned off my Volume Logic plugin and CPU dropped dramatically! Aha, culprit found!

Tags: itunes, music, opensource, songbird, xul

The National - Secret Meeting

Alligator should’ve been on my list of best albums of last year, its just that I’ve only just heard it. Its an album that hits the spot in all the right areas for me.

Secret Meeting isn’t my favourite track of that album, but it was the one offered as a free download, so here it is!

Download: The National – “Secret Meeting”

Tags: alternative, music, podcast

Starflyer 59 - "Wake up Early"

Being my favourite band and all, I’ve been desperate to find evidence of a Starflyer 59 song released for free, and finally I got one! There are different sides to Starflyer, the earlier white-noise shoegazing sound gave way to dabblings into Electronica and even a New Order style sound on the last album.

“Wake up Early” is the opening track from “I Am The Portuguese Blues” (the album before the current one) and its a reet belter. I wanted a track that would demonstrate their noisier sound, and I got it.

Download: Starflyer 59 – Wake up Early

Tags: alternative, music, podcast, starflyer59

The Very Hush Hush - "Love, Like Love"

Oakland California’s The Very Hush Hush use something in their music that’s always a winner for me – white noise. In this standout track from the album Mourir C’est Facile, I love the way the instruments all build up to one loud orgasm. Its the core sound of the shoegazing bands like My Bloody Valentine that I loved when I was at college. Its still a fresh sound to me.

Whoops, I’ve gone all wanky muso journalist by using ‘orgasm’.

Download: The Very Hush Hush – “Love, Like Love”

Tags: music, podcast, slowcore, whitenoise

Lavender Diamond - "Rise in the Springtime"

While I have a fair sized collection ready for Found Sounds, I always like hearing suggestions. Props got to Dalasie Michaelis for telling me about Lavender Diamond

There are two free downloads available on their site at the moment, but my favourite was the delicate “Rise in the Springtime”, which evokes those time-lapse documentaries of buds and shoots springing forth. Enjoy.

Download: Lavender Diamond – Rise in the Springtime

Tags: femalevocal, mellow, music, podcast

Gregor Samsa "Three"

Being named after a character from Kafka’s novel Metamorphosis, would make you expect something of a gothic flavour from Gregor Samsa. Not so. Think more ‘ambient indie’.

Taken from the 27:36 EP, this song is perfect for late night listening. Add a glass of Bowmore, and you’re done.

Download: Gregor Samsa – Three

Tags: ambient, music, podcast

Hicksdesign's Found Sounds

Here’s another of those small steps.

I’ve been wanting to dip my toes in the podcast pool for such a long time now, not to bring my droning about OS X browsers to an audio format, but to share music that I’m into. Podcasts are too much like hard work, but I loved the way that Buzz Anderson has done his – ad-hoc linking to single track mp3’s in de.licio.us. So Found Sounds is in effect, a complete and utter steal of his idea, sorry Buzz.

Whereas Buzz looks like he’s going to be using Odeo in the future, I wanted to use Textpattern for mine, with Feedburner converting the feed, providing the support for enclosures. I just add a rel=”enclosure” attribute to the mp3 link and away we go. Thanks go to Tom Martin for the method.

The criteria of Found Sounds is simple. If a band or record company has provided an mp3 free on their site, and I love it, it goes in. Occasionally, there may be crossover with those provided by 3hive, but I hope to avoid repetition if possible.

So, here’s the first post, here’s the second post, and here’s the feed to grab for it. Feel free to use the comment fields on each post to tell me what you thought.

P.S – I also got around to adding tags to posts, thanks to this wonderful plugin

Tags: hicksdesign, ideas, music, podcast, updates

Wolf Parade

Opinion seems divided over Wolf Parade, but I’m very much in love with this song. Perhaps coming from Montreal doesn’t help comparisons with The Arcade Fire (Wolf Parade are also supporting them on the current tour).

Download: Wolf Parade – “I’ll Believe In Anything”

Tags: alternative, music, podcast

Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

To kick off the inaugural ‘Found Sounds’ podcast, how about some Jenny Lewis? Known for her work in Rilo Kiley and The Postal Service, Jenny teams up the Watson Twins for her solo debut (does it still count as a solo album? hmmm) for a mellow country flavoured affair. Dreamy!

Download: Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins: “Melt Your Heart”

Tags: acoustic, country, music, podcast

5 artists I didn't appreciate when I was growing up...

...but realised their genius later in life, and wish I could go back to my early teenage years and give myself a big slap:

1. Elvis Costello
2. The Smiths
3. The Jesus and Mary Chain
4. The Stone Roses
5. David Bowie

Tags: list, music, nostalgia

Mac Media Centre - iTunes Remotes

Despite constant bribes the children still haven’t broken the old telly, so for now, the Mac Mini is acting solely as a server for iTunes and iPhoto. Thats just fine though, as it was mainly for music that I wanted to use it, and there isn’t much time for TV/DVDs. What I have done though is pick up a cheap Airport Express off ebay which is a great for sending music to the stereo without trailing wires.

So far, I’d been using my s700i phone with Salling Clicker to control everything, and this worked great. The only drawback is that when I’m away with my phone, Leigh is left without a remote. (There’s still VNC of course, but its not really a ‘small remote’!) . So I’ve been looking into other options available.

The Keyspan Express remote and particularly the ATI Remote Wonder, are possibilites, but when navigating iTunes without the TV & FrontRow, you really need visuals for choosing albums and playlists. What you need is basically an iPod Nano that acts as a remote. Actually, hang that, how about a 40” screen displaying Coverflow with just a Griffin PowerMate underneath?!

Next up was Coverbuddy. If you have a Sony PSP, Coverbuddy’s web interface has a special version sized for it, and it makes a nice remote. However, not only do i not have a PSP, but Coverbuddy only plays albums, not playlists. webRemote does both playlists and library, but seemed quite clunky after what I was used to on Salling Clicker. Like Coverbuddy, it also needs a web browser to work from.

Cut to the chase, it just occurred to me that Leigh had a Palm Tungsten C, and that I could use Salling Clicker with that. This meant enjoying the full graphics glory of the buillt-in iTunes Controller that I didn’t get on my Sony Erricson s700i. It worked so well, I just laughed for about an hour, punching the air like I was ‘Living on a Prayer’. Job done.

The 3 yr old Tungsten C is a maybe little bulky by todays PDA standards, but I’m sure that somewhere there is a smallish, light, supported handheld (or phone with a reasonable sized screen) thats also cheap to grab off ebay. I’d be keen to hear what device you’re using with Salling Clicker that gives you graphics.

Tags: itunes, mac, music, osx

Tell me I haven't lost it...

I have this little quirk. I buy stuff from iTunes because its super-quick and convenient, but I prefer getting physical CDs. So, sometimes, if I really love an album I’ve bought on iTunes, it gets re-purchased in non-DRM CD form.

In the January Sales I picked up a ‘proper’ copy of Takk by Sigur Ros, to replace my DRM’d version. Yes I know I could’ve just burnt a CD and re-imported (or many other such tricks) but its not just about the DRM. Its about the status – in the same way that only the best apps get a permanent position in my OS X dock, some albums are too important to have as just a download.

This means that occasionally, I’ve bought the same album twice. Is it just me?

Tags: itunes, music

Come with me on a journey

Not another chuffin best of 2005? Of course, what else?! As is my want at this time of year, I sit back in a comfy chair, with water biscuits and a well stocked cheeseboard to mark my highlights.

Favourite things of 2005:

• My Family. It sounds awfully trite, but I’m nothing without them. I love you.
• Merlin Manns podcasts.
• SXSW was amazing, meeting so many great people. Some I knew before, some I met for the first time, but all such good company!
• Rob Weychert’s Musical Breakfast. (The first part of 6six).
• VoodooPad. The more I use it, the more I love it. It has no equal.
• Flickr for its provision of doing quick, easy blogging to a community without worrying about the site design. I just hope the crack down on ‘non photographic content’ doesn’t get out of control next year.
• Safaristand for bringing Omniweb style tabs to Safari.
• That people still stop by here to read and offer comments, despite having little to offer in the way of Standards discussion or ground breaking CSS techniques! The goodwill from the Firefox logo is sure to give out soon though!

Music of 2005

Without a doubt, Sigur Ros’s “Takk” has been my favourite sound this year. However, while there have been great albums, nothing got as heavy rotation as ‘Antics” by Interpol did last year.

• Sigur Ros – ‘Takk’
• Starflyer 59 – ‘Talking Voice vs Singing Voice’
• Rufus Wainwright -”Want One & Two”
• Ladytron – ‘Witching Hour’
• Embrace – ‘Out of nothing’*
• Low -’The Great Destroyer’
• Arcade Fire -’Funeral’*
• British Sea Power – “Open Season”

*I actually got these last year, just after last Decembers ‘best of’ post, but I love them too much to leave them out.

Cheese of the year 2005

Without a doubt, it has to be the Oxford Isis. A great all-rounder.

Hopes for 2006

• Samantha starts school in January. This will be a big upheaval to our lifestyle – rather than finishing nursery at 5pm, she’ll be leaving school at 3pm. However, my hope is not that we ‘manage’ timewise, but that she makes friends and enjoys it. Our little girl is growing up! Sniff!
• That Omnigroup will get a substantial update to Omniweb out, with the latest webkit, more interface polish and find as you type support. I so want Omniweb to succeed, but in some important areas, they’re behind Safari. Especially Safari on Tiger loaded up with Saft and Safaristand!
• That I manage to create a mac-based home entertainment system – music/photo/movie/work server with my G5. Siobhan wants this too. I could just use Windows Media Center (which is excellent), but I want Mac-ness, and quite like the idea of cobbling it together.
• That no more embarrassingly manky items of clothing end up on ebay.
• That the practice of calling yourself ‘CEO’ of anything you create, will result in severe mocking and derision.

Predictions for 2006

• John Oxton will retire from blogging in January.
• John Oxton will return to blogging in March.
• John Oxton will retire from blogging in May.
• John Oxton will return to blogging in August.
• John Oxton will return to blogging in September, forgetting that he hadn’t left it yet.

Concern for 2006

OK, here is my worry. It feels as if a lot of people are getting a bit too worthy, earnest, serious and po-faced in their blogging. I’m not naming names, but to me, there seems to be very little fun of late. I might well be guilty of this myself.

Balancing informative articles with wit and humour is hard but John, Jeremy Greg and Merlin seem to manage.

Finally, an apology

Bear with me, I don’t want to sound all Britney Spears about this, but I might. People send me emails, a quantity of which surprises me, and I’m finding that I just can’t cope with it. It goes against my beliefs, but I’ve had to learn to live with not answering all of them. I know how it feels to never get a reply from someone – its rude and it sucks donkey – but there just aren’t enough hours left after famiily and work. If you’re one of the people feeling dissed from not getting a reply from me, sorry, its not personal.

Tags: music, review

The Story of the Sex Pistols

Whilst sorting through some attic boxes, a hidden treasure was discovered that had been forgotten for over 20 years. “The Smash HIts Yearbook 1984” no less, from a time when Neil Tennant was still working for that popular pop music comic, before deciding to spend the rest of his life standing in front of a motionless Chris Lowe.

The best part of this find, was the comic strip “The Story of the Sex Pistols”. I thought this was so insightful, that I’ve set up a photoset on Flickr so that you too can learn the truth behind the seminal punk band! Here’s a little taster:

“They look like they mean it!” was a cry often heard at those early gigs…

Tags: flickr, illustration, music

A Musical Baton

I’ve been passed a musical baton by Richard, and how can I resist?

Total volume of music files on my computer: 19.48 Gb.

The last CD I bought was:
“Talking Voice vs Singing Voice” by Starflyer 59. Although I’m about to buy “Open Season” by British Sea Power.

Song playing right now:
Little Sister by Rufus Wainwright (very ‘poncey’)

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Like Richard, this is more a case of recent rotation:

1. Everyone but Me by Starflyer 59
2. Snowden by Doves
3. Beautiful Child by Rufus Wainwright
4. In the wilderness by Mercury Rev
5. Homesick by The Kings of Convenience

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:
Neil Lee
Leigh
John Oxton
Dan Cederholm
Jason Santa Maria
(apologies if you’ve already been ‘got’)

Tags: memes, music

Rufus Wainwright

Leigh and I don’t get out to gigs as much as we used to. Apart from the rigmarole (and cost) of finding babysitters, Oxford, with the exception of the Zodiac in Cowley Road, isn’t gig central. There’s a thriving local scene for sure, out of which bands like Ride, Supergrass and Radiohead all came, but you really have to go London to see the majority of acts. Also, when you do manage to get out, there’s a heightened pressure to have a really good time – you don’t want to go through all that hassle and cost, just to see a bad movie do you?

So, giggling like teenagers let out for the night, we went to see Rufus Wainwright play at the New Theatre Oxford. No worries about a wasted night out, Rufus was engaging, compelling and moving. Somehow, he manages to keep going for hours, with his voice still as powerful at the 3rd encore as it was when he started. And what a voice.

The performance came to a real peak during ‘Oh what a world’ when the band strips down to lingerie or codpieces and don witches’ hats and cloaks. Some members looked more comfortable with this than others though. The contrast between Rufus (who also had a shiny pair of bright red high heels) and the blonde backing singer was very distinct.

I ‘really enjoyed’ listening to Rufus before – now I would count myself as a fan. Huzzah!

Tags: gigs, music, reviews

Lists of 2004

It’s that retrospective time of year again. Looking back over all the highlights of the year and recording them for posterity.

Albums:

1. Antics by Interpol
2. Everybody Makes Mistakes by Starflyer 59
3. Good news for people who love bad news by Modest Mouse

Quite simply, I’ve not been so excited, enthralled and addicted to an album as I have with ‘Antics’ in a long time. ‘Everybody makes mistakes’ didn’t actually come out in 2004, but I didn’t manage to get a copy until this year, and I’ve played it to death, so in it goes. Then end track “The Party” is a perfect song to finish the day on. Honorable mentions go to Wilco’s “A Ghost is Born”, Tanya Donelly’s “Beautysleep” (again, not actually released this year) and ‘I am the Portuguese Blues’, also by Starflyer 59 (which was released this year).

OS X Browser

1. Omniweb 5.1b4
2. Safari (+ Saft + PithHelmet + Stand + Safarisource)
3. Firefox

Ah, Omniweb how I love thee. The latest beta build is an almost perfect balance of features and performance. When I use other browsers, it just makes me pine for its doing-anything-with-them tabs, form editor and oodles of other things I can only do in OW. The interface isn’t perfect, but hopefully that’ll be improved in the future. Safari came in at a very close second. Depending on which day you ask me, numbers 1 and 2 can change places). Sorry Firefox, you’re not quite there yet on the mac, although you’re close. Maybe after 1.1? Camino has possibilities, but is still too bare bones for me. I’ve been really impressed by the latest Opera, with its combination browser/email/rss reader, but while being fully featured, it looks like a dogs dinner.

Site design I wished I’d come up with first:

1. Airbag
2. Jason Santa Maria
3. Justwatchthesky

Blog Posts

1. A story about someone else’s ass – Dooce.
   I cried with tears of joy
2. Screen Grab confab – Cameron Moll.
   Fascinating insight into peoples work.
3. I would RTFM if there was an FM to FR – Design by Fire.
   Andrei, I wish you blogged more often.

Events:

1. The very first Geekend
   A very special time, and we’ve even managed to fit in 2 more before the year was out. Nice to finally meet you all chaps.
2. Firefox
   I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
3. Being called the 13th most influential design blogger. I’m nowhere near, but it was flattering all the same, thankyou Cameron.

finally…

Thankyou Samantha and Daniel. You’re the highlight of every year

Looking forward:

Before the year is out, the family of Hicks is heading out to Sydney for two and half weeks. Its 0 degrees as I write this, and 42 over there. I’m just gonna melt, but I can’t wait. I love living in England, but the weather can really lower your spirits sometimes. It can be like living in Bladerunner – always dark, always raining.

So…

Using the same categories, name your top 3’s!

Tags: lists, music, osx, reviews, software

the day has finally come

Imagine if you will, my opening gambit with Leigh tonight:

“Darling, what colour iPod Mini was it that you liked?”…

Tags: ipod, music

Autumn Soundtrack

Hurrah. Today is September 1st, and (in book anyway) the first day of Autumn, my favourite time of the year.

This is the time when the sunlight is golden, low and casts long stretched shadows. The grass returns to lush green, and leaves turn, but the days are still (relatively) warm. Yes sir, I love this time of year, and it also makes me want to listen to a particular kind of music. Slow, introspective, often acoustic, maybe a touch melancholy, but never depressing.

Due the limitations of iMix (most of these aren’t available on the iTunes Music Store) here it is in screengrab form:

To also get us into the mood, P22 Type Foundry have released Stanyan Autumn, “a set of three fonts based upon a casual hand lettering text created by Anthony Goldschmidt for the deluxe 1969 edition of the book ”...and autumn came” by Rod McKuen”. Nice.

Tags: itunes, lists, music

Daily Check Ritual

Every morning, the first thing I do is click on a tab group called ‘check’.
These are the sites it brings up:

Shortstats

Shaun Inmans Shortstats are what I’ve been looking for a for a long time. It displays just the information I need – in one page. From this I can see that there are still a lot of IE6 users visiting the site (shame on you!), and that there are people still using the pre-beta Safari. Eh?

Anyway. I’m watching you.

Technorati Link Cosmos

Who’s linking to me and what are they saying about me? Call me paranoid, but I like to know these things. Its also an easy way of discovering new blogs.

Camino forums at Mozillazine

While I don’t have time to post as often as I used to, I still dip in every day to see whats going on with Camino – hoping that there is a new unofficial build of Camino 0.9. No other OS X browser (‘cept maybe Firefox of course!) has got such a good discussion forum.

NetDiver

I lose count of how many design portal sites there are, but nobody does it quite like NetDiver. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but the outstanding quailty of design showcased here is nothing short of inspirational. Whenever the creative fridge has just got some mouldy cheese left in it, this is where I stock up on the fresh stuff.

Shiira project homepage

The nightly builds seem to come very regularly, so I always check to see what those crazy Japanese have done this time.

Textpattern forum

This is relatively new addition, but I’ve gained some much from it. There is a really good community here.

3hive.com

I’ve saved the best till last. 3hive has been the musical equivalent to NetDiver for me. The deal is this: every day, links to free mp3 downloads are added. Many bands offer free downloads via their sites, and this is resource to list all these freebies. Its a no-risk opportunity to try out new music, and I’ve discovered the band ‘Low’, who I’ve gone crazy for. It’s also helped me categorise the kind of music I like – Slowcore! (So nice that I’ve now got a name for it)

What sites do you fire up first thing in the morning?

Tags: links, music

Playing iPods via iTunes

My ‘working away from home’ kit consists of just 2 things. My worn but trusty G4 Powerbook and my iPod. The iPod means I can play music in the car, as well as backup work to it. I’ve been trying to find a way of playing the music on my iPod through the Powerbook, without losing the link to my G5 where the music library is kept. There are plenty of apps that enable you to copy the iPod library onto your computer (such as PodWorks) – but I just don’t have the HD space for such a task. It also seems a little overboard – why copy everything when I should be able to just playback from the iPod?

I tried an app called iPodRip, but was less than satisfied with its ramshackle, ugly-relative-of-iTunes interface, tendency to crash regularly, and inability to display tracks in the right order. A better solution, was a free little app called Music Publisher which shares your iPods music library, allowing it to be played through iTunes. This also works across networks.

Even better however is an undocumented feature that I found after prompting by Shaun Inman. When you plug in your iPod you’ll be asked whether you want to break the existing link with the other iTunes database, and sync with the powerbook’s. Select no, and click the iPod icon at the bottom of the iTunes window. Click ‘Enable for Firewire use’ if you haven’t already, and change updating to manual (deselecting all automatic options), and lo! The tracks and playlists from your iPod show up in iTunes!

Tags: howto, ipod, itunes, mac, music, software

Darkest Night of the Year

At this time of year, I don’t actually mind the fact that its dark at 4 o’clock – it makes Christmas feel close. I can hear carolers outside in the street, but they’re teenagers that can’t hold a tune or remember more than 3 lines. So to get into the right mood, I’m listening to ‘The Darkest Night of the Year’ by Over the Rhine. Without doubt, the best Christmas album, a mixture of rearranged traditional carols, and new songs. No Slade, Bing Crosby or Wham, just decent, atmospheric music that creates a yuletide vibe.

Tags: christmas, music

lists of 2003

The end of the year is nearly upon us, and the time is ripe for a nostalgic look back over the year. In true boy-fashion, this reminiscing is reduced to a series of lists:

Events:

• The main joy this year was the birth of my son Daniel (my mini-me) back in April. We are now a family of four.
• Started playing with XHTML and CSS properly at the same time, I’d no idea where it’d lead…
• Being linked to by Zeldman, Shea and everyone else kind enough. I’ve been overwhelmed by the sense of community and just plain nice folks out there.
• Finally getting an iPod. As our American cousins would say, ‘It rocks’. It goes with me everywhere, in the car, on walks, even the loo. My life now has a soundtrack.

Songs:

• “Growing on me” by The Darkness
• “Light and Day” by The Polyphonic Spree
• “Am I wrong?” by the Mull Historical Society
• “The supermarket strikes back” by the Mull Historical Society
• “Second Sight” by Placebo
• “The Laws have changed” by The New Pornographers
• “Natural Anthem” by The Postal Service

Typefaces:

• Monark by Identikal
• DIN
• Precious Sans by G-Type
• American Scribe by Type Quarry
• London Underground by P22

Strong Bad Emails:

• Kids Book
• Dragon
• Japanese Cartoon
• The Process
• The Property of Ones

Inspirational Websites:

There are so many sites that visit/read and enjoy, so this is slightly unfair. But these are the ones that I wish I’d done…

• Lindisfarne Gospels
• Life after Death
• EXP Photo Journal
• Clandestina.Colors
• 1976 Design (I just love that live weather image!)
• Stopdesign. This is the site that started to road my web standards.

I’d love to know what you’d have in your top lists…

Tags: hicksdesign, lists, music

The Postal Service 'Give Up'

// SP CD 595 // Sub Pop Records

There’s something comforting about the way Jimmy Tamborello (LA’s Dntel) and Ben Gibbard (Seattle’s Death Cab For Cutie) collaborated to make this record. After initially working together on Dntel’s ‘(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan’, Gibbard started receiving CDs from Tamborello with beatsy electronic music, which he then manipulated in his computer, adding melodies and vocals along the way. A fellow Seattlite, Jen Wood, also added her vocals to tracks such as ‘Nothing Better’. It’s a mixture of new recording technology and old-fashioned communication that works like a dream – ‘Give Up’ is fresh, original and immediate.

The sound is best described as ‘delicate electro pop’, with elements of The Human League or early Depeche Mode, but also artists like Ben Folds and Ween. Don’t let those references put you off – the ‘bleeps’ might come straight of the 80’s, but the beats and guitars are contemporary. The final track ‘Natural Anthem’ wanders into drum and bass territory – it manages to avoid being too much of one genre.

Standout tracks are the delicious opener ‘The District Sleeps Alone Tonight’ , the single ‘Such Great Heights’ (available as a free mp3 download from the bands website), the dreamy ‘Recycled Air’ and ‘Brand New Colony’. However, this is an album with no filler, everyone is a gem in its own right. There’s also the added delight of Jeff Kleinsman’s beautiful sleeve artwork (these things are important!), a collage of decaying Art Deco and 30’s black and white photographs.

While both are continuing with their respective bands, the duo have made plans to record again in the future. Can’t wait…

Rating: 5/5

Links:

The Postal Service official website

Tags: music, reviews

light & Day

After what seems like an eternity, my shiny new iPod has arrived! Opening the packaging is such a treat and so well thought out. Its just about stops short of releasing dry ice when you open it. Everything inside is wrapped in cool little silver pouches waiting for you to just … ahem. Sorry, getting a little carried away here.

Of course, the second you touch it, big greasy fingerprints stick out like a sore thumb. It needs to be kept in a perpetual state of polish to keep it looking fresh.

So what better first song to play on it, than the one that’s really doing it for me at the moment (and is also used the US volkswagen/iPod ads) – ‘Light & Day’ by the Polyphonic Spree! Filled with spiritual joy of life, I’m off to find a white sheet to make me a robe…

Tags: ipod, music

hail to the thief

Hurrah for the new Radiohead album ‘hail to the thief’. Its not a return to the OK Computer days (I can’t see that ever happening), but it’s definitely an album of good tunes. The packaging of the special edition is beautiful, created by Stanley Donwood and using ‘Mrs Eaves’, a lush serif font from emigre. The lyrics are different matter however:
“Dance you f****r/flan in the face” – quite.

Tags: music, reviews

am i wrong?

While I’m on the subject of the Mull Historical Society, the new single ‘Am I wrong?’ is out on June 2nd. Their website is currently streaming the video – a fantastic pythony/beatles affair.

Tags: music