Music

My previous post on playing m4a files using Winamp is no longer useful as the 3ivx plug-in expires after a while. Therefore, please use the following solution:

• Uninstall 3ivx if you have it installed from my previous post.
• Visit Rarewares and download the MP4 Input Plugin for Winamp.
• Unzip the file (in_mp4.zip) and move the resulting in_mp4.dll file to your Winamp plug-ins folder, which commonly resides at C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins.

Just learned from their mailing list that Parikrama, India's lone flame in the land of rock, are apparently going to be writing and performing a song for Microsoft to help launch 3 new products - Visual Studio 2005, MSSQL server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006. And there apparently might be a video made as well..

oh and apparently Gill Bates is going to be there with bells on for the show :P

-K

This was Disc 4 of his 4 CD "Prince Of Darkness" release, that has now been released as a separate album.

An album full of covers - keep away if you value your ears.

ugh.

Symphony X have to be the most unglamourous metal band in the world. They have about the same amount of stage presence as .. er .. Manmohan Singh :P Excellent excellent band though and vastly under rated. But hopefully, Gigantour garnered them a little attention and a host of new fans.

Just wanted to get that off my chest ;)
-K

I needed to set up WinAMP to play m4a [MPEG-4 Audio] files, but was told that the only way to play it would be once I'd installed Quicktime on the system. However, I, like a lot of people suffer from a congenital [sic] aversion for QT - everything about it right from its file size, clunky interface, unintuitive short cuts, annoying tray icon, file association hijacking, browser hijacking, to the whole you-have-to-download-iTunes-or-suffer-the-consequences marketing BS, really gets under my skin.

So, I do my utmost to keep it away from my box with the same fervour as other rubbish like Real Player, [anything by] Yahoo! and the like. But, in the case of getting my m4a files playable via WinAMP [transcoding isn't really an option here], I was seemingly banging my head against a brick wall. Anyways, after much digging around, I found that it's actually rather simple, but just not documented well enough - hence this post :P

I've never really listened to a Robert Plant Album, just listened to some of his more popular hits (read 29 palms etc.). But I decided to check this album out on a whim, and I can tell you that this has been one of the most complete albums I've listened to in a long long while..

1.Another Tribe - Strong opening track with a catchy rhythm and great lyrics..

2.Shine it all around - One of my favourite tracks on the album; intoxicating bass-line, simple effective beats and great vocals.. Reminds me of Lenny Kravitz's "Fly Away" in a few sections..

3.Freedom Fries - One of the more energetic songs on the album; solid track but gets a little boring after a few listens..

Just been checking out the new DT album (a leaked copy as it's not due out until June 7th)..

Track Review post first listen:

1.The Root Of All Evil - Solid track to open with, sounds like they are continuing from where they left off in Train Of Thought.. Borrows from "This Dying Soul" just before the solo, which was pleasant and annoying to hear (if that makes sense :P)

2.The answer lies within - Mellow ballady track that I kept waiting in vain to pick up.. ugh

3.These Walls - Stereotypical DT track, nothing to see here.. move along people..

4.I walk beside you - Catchy track with a rather Eurythmicky riff, and a decent chorus. LaBrie's vocals have begun to get pretty monotonously tiring by this point..