Before you get the idea that this will be fanboy activism, realize that I could care less about the Microsoft/Apple debates, politics, and the social innuendos and biases surrounding the computer world. This is just my experience and in no way will it reflect that better alternative exist. Since my purchase of a used MacBook Pro and formerly having a previous history of Windows PCs, I’ve gladly formed some new habits and learned a few things to reacquaint myself to multi-OS literacy. Although the used product was expensive compared to new hardware, I also paid for the the operating system and Apple-only hardware and design. My review of significant findings are as follows:

What I dig on the Mac:

-Expose. It’s customizable, simple, and practical. It lets you view all windows (like thumbnails) in your workspace so you can locate the right window scaled down to fit your display. You can assign a keyboard shortcut (hotkey) or lead your mouse to any of the corners of your screen.
-Trackpad two-finger scroll. I can scroll anywhere on the pad by having 2 fingers dragging in any direction.
-Garageband is nice for looping and more electronic based audio development. It’s a nice alongside Audacity.
-Different iTunes tools for adding lyrics, global hotkeys, and a bunch of Applescripts. The remote control is nice for long distance music control.
-straightforward system build.

Not all is paradise though. What I miss for native Mac integration:

-Right Click Mouse Button (Easily solved with any third party modern 3-button mouse)
-Ruckus Player- the program that plays millions of popular tracks through a protected wma files. Free for college students. Possible with separate Windows OS installation or virtual machine.
-Mp3tag. There is no id3 tag editor as insane as this that I’ve seen. Media Rage comes close, but it’s not free. iTunes is pathetic for editing info but it has basic features (a few Applescripts can do a few things).
-iTSfv has a ton of features that backup and adjust file information of your iTunes Library. This works handy for transferring the database or retaining playcount and “Last Played” data for files that might have moved.

There has yet to be a satisfactory system or program that allows tagging multiple custom keywords for a music collection that works on a personal audio library. Besides documenting the available options, this is sort of a request to developers (especially on mac or multi-OS) who use digital music (and possibly iTunes). Let’s get open source with it.

Whats Out There

If you are up for what i consider cumbersome customization then foobar2000 for windows seems to have plenty of user-made add-ons including tagging capabilities. I no longer have a PC and rarely use Vista on my mac, but I have no ambition to return to the aggravation of tweaking and building it all manually.

If you can tackle your collection by hand, then a standard audio playing software like iTunes can plug you in with genres and smart playlists. Genres aren’t always tagged appropriately when imported or bought (especially if downloaded from band websites or record labels). If you want to go in and add keywords in the comment or grouping tag, you can put a classification in a smart playlist to add where COMMENT = [the genre you added] or GROUPING = [electronica].

There are some shareware programs for windows but they seemed to do a poor job if at all. Some auto-tag correctors claim to add missing things like when the artist name is missing from an otherwise tagged mp3, but they can’t automate or choose genre for you. MP3TAG is capable of scripting from websites. Last.fm, Rateyourmusic, allmusicguide, myspace, and wikipedia all have multiple genres in varying depth and of debatable applicability. If songs, albums, or artists could be assigned a selection of these then tagging would be less of a hassle. Even better would be to have a cloud of suggestions picked out and then embedded directly to the mp3s. Then if something like iTunes could parse, order, and manage them with a plugin or some other magical way that it becomes native- who knows who could rule the music world then.

Criticism of existing methods

It’s clunky to have to create smart playlists in iTunes for each keyword that is used within a tag. And there is no easy way to go about adding or subtracting tags to files. You can manually edit each track or use an append script but this isn’t all that fun. What audiophiles need is a local delicious-style tagging system. Or a offline last.fm-type genre manager.

Qloud once had this going on, but it was more internet and community based, yet integrated with iTunes (it was a plugin that slowed the program down though). Now they removed the tag features from the current version for Mac and Windows.

Without getting too comprehensive or bloated, a program could be developed where it uses either a database or the comment/grouping/genre to write tags to, and each tag could be separated with a specified delimiter (comma, semicolon, or other character). Doesn’t Windows Media Player even have multi-genre capabilities? And if the Genre browser native to iTunes wouldn’t be able to parse individual tags, a menu (something like a widget or mini-software window) could be used to conveniently choose or edit tags.

Other Futures

Songbird is an open source alternative that still needs improvement in the speed performance department but it does have some noteworthy features. Foobar2000 might have some tagging capabilities, but it is not very intuitive to set up.

There will be something on the horizon one day.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but Apple allows 5 computers to have access to your paid-for library. So this can apply to your home desktop, laptop, your old clunker you left at your parents, office PC, and maybe a computer or 2 you use when you are at a friend’s house.

That last bit is where iTunes grants some flexibility. It doesn’t know who your friends are. You might have some legal ownership to the computer, and even if you don’t- you still use it and have a right to listen to your library locally when using somebody else’s computer. It’s similar to the circle of friends features (My 5) that cell-phone services offer.

Being able to pool music from your friends and have your friends pool your iTunes purchases is a nice way to stay within the bounds of iTunes DRM.

I’ve noticed that the great Andrew Bird is great at pulling out words I rarely hear, often aesthetic exuberant sounding words. Sometimes I wonder if he is more focused at the pleasantry of auditory pronouncements or if these words are chosen because of the song’s communicative value.

Noble Beast is an intellectual treat of dictionary treasures. The song “Oh No” is nice and stirring. Whistle along to the other tracks.

Owen and Carl Broemel. These guys go well together, and they are both haven’t seen much fame compared to other things they’ve been involved in. I don’t think there is any known relationship between the two, but they would make a great split album together. And they’d do a fine job of making a smooth back-to-back playlist session.

Owen is a solo project of one of the members of Cap’n Jazz and American Football. I admit that I haven’t heard enough of these bands, but I’ve heard the album At Home With Owen for free through the broke-but-music-loving-slut’s-dream known as Ruckus Network. Too bad there aren’t albums of the other bands on there though. Anyway, Owen has a sound that is easy on the ears. His discography is pleasurable all around and sultry for the plaintive down-and-outers and the jolly giants.

And then there is My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel soft acoustic jams.

Musical Family Tree out of Indiana hosts the solo album of Carl Broemel who calls Indiana his home state. This blog made it easy to download it all at once if you don’t want to click each track to save it.

What if I told you I possess a leaked track of Jerry DeCicca on vocals from a forthcoming project. I have no idea if this is the Black Swans or affiliated with La Société Expéditionnaire but it seems like a demo for a 2009 album. I like the electric southern blues direction of this.

This track is shrouded in utter mystery. The song may be written by a Tucsonan that the Ohio musician discovered late 2008 [tip thanks to Mr. Allen from the local radio station]. It could also be possible that someone overdubbed his voice in there, because the Black Swans don’t normally use such a distorted guitar. Is this a collaboration with The Warm Inventions (Hope Sandoval’s latest band after Mazzy Star). And who is the background singer? Whatever the story, it’s a good one.

Premiere of “First Time”

Cover art just release for the album which is self-titled, along with a title track. The song is the only publicly performed on this record as heard on Colbert Report and played for some recent live shows.

This could be a cover for a potential single?

The tracklist came out too:

1. Wilco (the song)
2. Deeper Down
3. One Wing
4. Bull Black Nova
5. You And I
6. You Never Know
7. Country Disappeared
8. Solitaire
9. I’ll Fight
10. Sonny Feeling
11. Everlasting Everything

Included on the new LP is a duet with Feist, and that’s the track “You and I.” The whole CD should be ready for the masses on June 30, 2009. And guess what? The album leaked. And Wilco responded by allowing streaming from their homepage.

I was going to do a Top 10 list, but I honestly don’t listen to that many albums to narrow down from a single year. Chances are I’ll discover numerous albums from 2008, but until then I’ll point out some that I ended up listening to
.

1. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

Busting out with something great, Bon Iver surprises everyone with a distinctive voice and beautifully arranged mid-fi indie folk. The singer was part of a band called DeYarmond Edison, a band with a more rootsy folk sound. Check out “Skinny Love.”

2. French Kicks – Swimming

This band has been putting out stuff for a while, but this one doesn’t disappoint. The first song, “Abandon,” is a sonically pleasing harmony of voices akin to a matured Beach Boys sound. The production is nice too. The noticeable, but fitting reverb of the guitars and vocals mixing reminds me of the signature sound of the Walkmen, but with a subtler far-away reverb (sounds more distant instead of echo/twang common in surf music).

3. City and Colour – Bring Me Your Love

A heartfelt album of emotional immersion. Despite my lack of following the associated band Alexisonfire, I can enjoy what has come of this. City and Colour is a side-project of Dallas Green of Alexisonfire. The former is a contemplative, acoustic music; The latter is a screamo blend of poppy singing and screaming combined with dynamic hard and soft instrumentation (post-hardcore). This album is something special, stripped and honest.

4. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

When you highlight and condense musical pop culture for the generation of impatient, A.D.D.-blessed, hip, and postmodern culture of America, you are an automatic winner. Contemporary rap rhymes, the greatest dance beats, classic anthems, epic instrumentation, and mastery of DJing and mashups is what composes Girl Talk. While others have put there efforts in the same basket (other good artists include The Hood Internet or The Avalanches), Girl Talk consolidates a handful of great bits into a seamless stream of mini-samples.

5. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Light, happy, and ethno-tropical feeling of joyous punk mixed with a hint of the trendy coastline is Vampire Weekend. While it may get downplayed as being overly hipster indie snob stylistically, it surpasses the shallowness of trying to define itself as elitist. Call them cheery preppies, but they manage to create an atmosphere with unique propositions (think Beach Boys at their overly cheesiest, then the Beatles on vacation in Jamaica making a complimentary album for the White Album, then an African group form a punk band, all while raindrops keep falling on their heads).

• Runner up: The Walkmen – You & Me

This is a great album. I haven’t decided if this one matches my three Walkmen favorites Bows + Arrows, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone, and A Hundred Miles Off. There is nothing wrong with the album entirely, but I haven’t found that lasting punch. It’s a bit softer, more nostalgic, and just as pleasant as any of their previous works. I just haven’t tripped on the secret ingredient. But it tastes extremely delicious.

Apologies for this being posted so distant from the New Year. I had this written in January, but never got around to polishing it for publishing.