New year = New TUNES!! I updated the music player in the left sidebar with all new tunes for 2008. There’s an absolutely trippy new Erykah Badu song, a great grime remix with Mumdance and Jammer, some Bassline yumminess and more. I’ll be adding more very soon. It’s been a chaotic few weeks at the ([HT]) HQ as far as internet technology goes. First we lost our DSL for 2 weeks, then the server was half-way down. Luckily, the website worked ok for most of it, but I haven’t been able to upload audio and video all this time, so things really slowed down. It seems we are back in action now, so expect onslaughts of multimedia in the coming weeks.
I’m also putting the finishing touches on a new concert review for the Eek-A-Mouse and Pato Banton concert in SF this month. That will definitely be published this week, so check back or subscribe to the RSS feed.
Also, you might notice that the menu at the top of the page has changed slightly to squeeze in a link for concert reviews. Now there is a channel dedicated to multimedia concert reviews and the link is at the top of every page.
Thanks for reading!!
What are you listening to this month?
For reasons beyond my control, I am forced to relive 1992 on the internet. That’s right, my high-speed DSL has transformed into a dial-up connection until the end of next week. I am barely suffering through the 8 hours per day that I spend online working for MOG, so by the time I “get home from work” I just don’t have any energy or patience left for “blogging.” But there is a silver lining to all of this! I have been trying to highlight the links to related content that exist in the footer of each page on HearingTest and this is a great week for them to shine!
I may not be uploading or posting much over the next week, but I will add links to that list daily. Basically, they are bookmarks to articles written on other websites that either relate to the articles published here, or are updates to stories that were reported here. Since I don’t have time to write up every news story or interesting thing that I come across, I bookmark the ones I don’t cover. And sometimes someone has already said it best and there is no reason to write something new, so I like to link to the original story instead. So definitely keep an eye on those links, especially anytime you are waiting for HT to be updated.
Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the list titled “More Music News Links”. It’s a del.icio.us bookmark list called RobotArmy, so anyone can subscribe to the RSS for the list. Just click on the title above the list and it will take you the del.icio.us page with all the articles ever bookmarked by me and my Robot Army.
Sorry for the delay in feature articles and news updates here this week! No one is more anxious for them to return to normal than I am… Enjoy the bookmarks!
It’s winter! Even sunny California has been experiencing bitter cold temperatures, while the Sierra mountain range has been getting tons of fresh fluffy snow! I’m so excited I might explode. The slopes where I like to snowboard have gotten loads of early-season snow and it’s shaping up to be one of the best winters in years for riding. Meanwhile, most of the world is celebrating some holiday or another. You can probably tell from the number of updates here that I’ve been on holiday, but I’ve been working hard on an end of the year list to share with you. I finally finished compiling multiple lists of the best tunes of 2007 and now I’m just polishing up the audio playlists. Tomorrow (December 27th) I will publish the Top Ranking Tunes of 2007 with audio just in time for you to put the finishing touches on your end-of-the-year shopping list. I hope everyone enjoyed a bountiful holiday with loved ones (even if you spent it alone! One must love thyself!) and I hope to see you out on the slopes soon!
Tune In Tomorrow for 2007’s Top Rankin Tunes!
Thanks for reading ([HearingTest])!
New this week at ([HearingTest]) - Artist Pages -
At the end of each article (from now on) you will find links for Artist Pages. These will take you to a page that lists all the articles, videos, audio etc. for the artist the page is about. I’ve just started the process, so only stories from the last 2 months are included right now. But if you jump down to the footer of an Artist Page, you will see a list of the last 9 or so articles published on ([HT]) about that artist.
It’s a work in progress, but I wanted you to know what those links are. Now you can follow everything written about any one band or artist. You can also use the search function, but I’ve noticed the results are less specific…
Normally, I would want to end a month with a REWIND! of that month’s best feature articles. And in the future I will do exactly that. But, since this site is on autopilot while I am out of town, I am going to something different today.
HearingTestTube Videos
As regular readers know, HearingTest has its own channel over at youtube. When publicists send me video files, I put them up for viewing over there and when I see something that really inspires me or makes me laugh, I save it to my favorites list. I haven’t mentioned the favorites list over here before, so I thought I would point that out now. You can find it on the HT channel at:
When you get there, just scroll down to the box of favorites on the lower right. There is a mixture of stuff in there right now, including the entire BBC documentary about the Radiophonic Workshop and the gas video, plus some neat electronica madness.
Reactable - from the favorites list:
New Features
When the new HearingTest site is launched, it will have things like this integrated into the page. Like a video log of all the vids used in HearingTest posts, so you can watch all the week’s video news as a string of videos! The new site will have a lot more options for stuff like this, because of having it’s own domain and host. That - plus my relentless pursuit of better code - will hopefully create the best site for music news and culture that can be found anywhere on the web!
For anyone who has not yet checked out the HearingTestTube channel, you can also find a collection of videos from 2 shows:
The Teen Suicide 002 Record Release party with Teen Suicide and 5lowershop
The Sonic Boom performance at The Hemlock Tavern in SF
Enjoy tubing! Coming up this week, news of the new Reggae Rising Music Festival in July, Burning Man going green this year, and the 777 tour with Earth, Sunn O))), Wolves In The Throneroom, and Weedeater hits San Francisco like a wrecking ball of heavy metal! I CAN’T WAIT!! You will definitely get the full sensory review as soon as possible. The show is Wednesday night, July 4th, so hopefully the review will be up by the next Sunday. We’ll see.
Sorry about the slow pace of reports this week. The artillery of music information will return shortly, I promise! Have a great week…
Please let me know if you prefer this theme/layout/color palette more or less than the previous black and white one. i feel like this one is a little easier to navigate, but i like the style of the other one better. colours on this one are optional. i hope to completely renovate the colour scheme soon, because i want to use an energy-saving palette. that’s where most of the screen is dominated by dark colours, with the text and links in medium-light colours. this significantly reduces the amount of energy used while viewing, because it requires less illumination. so, that will be a big site overhaul, and this one is temporary. i would just like to know what works best for people, and what totally does not work, so i can work those suggestions into the new style…..
and thanks to those who emailed and commented in the last month, your feedback has been delightful!
if you head over to the HearingTest youtube channel, you will get a sneak peak at the videos that i will be posting up soon. they are short little videos taken at the Teen Suicide 002 Record Release Party on April 27, 2007. i will be posting them along with a slideshow of pix as soon as i finish resizing the photos.
Meanwhile, most of the world is celebrating some holiday or another. You can probably tell from the number of updates here that I’ve been on holiday, but I’ve been working hard on an end of the year list to share with you. I finally finished compiling multiple lists of the best tunes of 2007 and now I’m just polishing up the audio playlists. Tomorrow (December 27th) I will publish the Top Ranking Tunes of 2007 with audio just in time for you to put the finishing touches on your end-of-the-year shopping list. I hope everyone enjoyed a bountiful holiday with loved ones (even if you spent it alone! One must love thyself!) and I hope to see you out on the slopes soon!
