NP: John Mayer, Heavier Things (CD)

Well, now that I'm trying to ramp up my drumming calendar, it was bound to happen. Big conflict between Foxide and Abi, but Foxide had the date first. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but it's still a bit of a drag. The CD release was supposed to be in early February, so I didn't even really worry about it when the Joe's gig came up. Worst case scenario is that they'll sub me out on Abi's gig, which wouldn't be the end of the world. Eric would kill me, though, as I got him into this.

Which reminds me, I told Geno about the book at Vaughan's on Tuesday, and he was very supportive, to the point where he'd help me get in touch with some of the artists I might want to talk to. I also think he was probing to see what kind of involvement I might be interested in with his new band, but I deflected the question pretty hard. I don't have to have a "career" in music, as long as I'm playing, but he plays in a different musical world than I do, so that may be tough to get across.

And Microsoft now has a plug-in for Media Player 9 that can apparently transport the name of whatever's playing to both MovableType and LiveJournal. Which would be great, except that there are many times, now for example, when I don't even use my computer to drive my daily soundtracks, and when I do, it's not with Windows Media Player anyway.

Speaking of that, I bought my first individual track from an online music store. Unfortunately, I was tricked into thinking that RealPlayer's store used AAC files, which I then mistakenly thought I could play with the new WinAmp. It looks like they use the Advanced Audio Coding codec, but put their own proprietary wrapper around it. This sorta sucks, although I haven't actually tried to play the file (Dido's "Thank You," if you're wondering, as I'm probably going to use the store purely for tax-deductible research purposes). And I swore they had the new Incubus single available, but when I looked with intent to buy, it wasn't there. This is exactly the sort of thing that drives people to murkier ethical and legal options. I have a copy of the song now, that's all I'm sayin'.

Finally, you can't beat the warm fuzzy feeling you get when someone tells you they were blasting your old band's CD in the car on the way down to see a show. Scottish rocks! URT still rocks!

I also need to point out that I bought a bottle of water last night before rehearsal, then left it in my car whilst checking out The Changes at Schuba's. When I left, three hours later, there was ice in the bottle. It's a bit nippy out.