Winamp 5.5 can go fuck itself.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I can't figure out how to drag and drop songs into an easy-to-use playlist; instead, I'm bombarded with information about albums, penned by Stephen Thomas Erlewine. It deleted my old Winamp, so there's no turning back. I used to just drop folders in the big Now Playing window and bam, there's my album, and I could easily tweak the metadata so that everything is correct. Now I just see a "Media Library" with

 

Album Review:

After having made his artistic name known via a couple of singles, ol' Neil took the big plunge with the full-length America's Funnyman, clearly designed to get him up to the level of attention that such comics as Bill Cosby and Robin Williams made with their own records. A pity, then, that his unique artistic gifts once more come to the fore to trip him up instead of prop him up -- one might even say it was intentional on the part of the producers who assembled the recordings, More »

 

This sucks.

 

EDIT: Oh I just changed it to "Playlist Editor" and it's okay. Haha! I'm so overreacting.

[MrRant]

It's sad when Windows Media Player has become better than Winamp. Winamp used to rule back in teh day.

 

Try http://www.oldversion.com and download an older version.

 

http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=winamp

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Media Player got shitty too. I couldn't edit my metadata as easily and it just got to be a pain in the ass, trying to sell me shit. New Winamp was annoying me like that too, so I just went to a classic skin, and now it's back to normal, except I can see my cover art again like I could on Media Player, which I like.

 

Well, I'm happy again. Let's do a reclamation project on this abortive piece of crap thread. Maybe someone can explain to me why I should actually like iTunes. Alternatively, we could use my Now Playing example to further explore Neil Hamburger.

[Jaxxson Mayhem]

You shouldn't like iTunes. There's no reason to.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

We could talk about Zappa for a couple of pages.

[AntiLeaf33]

I currently use Windows Media Player for my music. Have all of my songs in my library, so I don't really need to drag and drop my songs in. I usually just have all of my songs on and hit random. Having the Windows Media Player taskbar addon is a nice touch as well. Lets me change my songs easily without having to actually open the program up.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

We could talk about Zappa for a couple of pages.

Have you been, or do you plan to be Zappa-intensive this month? 14 years yesterday, y'know.

 

I can upload some albums if there's interest.

[Hank Kingsley]

What's wrong with iTunes? Too mainstream?

[Guest RyechnaiaSobaka]

iTunes for Windows, like all Apple software for Windows, is garbage. I'm thinking of QuickTime as another example of this.

 

Some people think it's a conspiracy, that Apple intentionally releases crap software for Windows in order to drive people crazy and make them think Windows computers are garbage. I don't believe this, because the problems you encounter would be with Apple software, and I don't see why one would conclude "Windows works like crap, let me go buy a computer made by the company that makes the software that breaks on Windows."

 

Posted on a Mac.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

What's wrong with iTunes? Too mainstream?

Yeah, I wrote the code for my own media player so that I'm the only one that has it. C-colon-backslash-indie-cred.

 

I don't even remember why I hate iTunes. My sister has it on her computer, and I seem to recall getting frustrated with something once. I'm really averse to change of any kind, so I wouldn't switch to it unless I totally had to, like when I had to switch to Winamp instead of Media Player because the Media Player 10 layout bothered me.

[MrRant]

MediaMonkey is alright. Does a good job with syncing to non iPod based players too.

[Gary Floyd]

I bought Hot Rats two months ago.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I forgot we were going to talk FZ in here, so that just appeared to be a strange non-sequitur at first. Anyway, hope you like it. Next steps would be Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo for further jazz fusion explorations, or if you want to get into some of the more angular Third Streamy stuff like "It Must Be a Camel," try Burnt Weeny Sandwich or Uncle Meat. If you really liked "Willie the Pimp," buy Bongo Fury.

[Gary Floyd]

I forgot we were going to talk FZ in here, so that just appeared to be a strange non-sequitur at first. Anyway, hope you like it. Next steps would be Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo for further jazz fusion explorations, or if you want to get into some of the more angular Third Streamy stuff like "It Must Be a Camel," try Burnt Weeny Sandwich or Uncle Meat. If you really liked "Willie the Pimp," buy Bongo Fury.

I have Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka on IPod, though I have plans on getting the CD's, as well as Burnt Weeny Sandwich.

[Cheech Tremendous]

I bought Hot Rats two months ago.

 

 

I asked about a month ago where to go after Sheik Yerbouti and was recommended You Are What You Is, One Size Fits All and Zoot Allures. Somehow, I ended up with Hot Rats, which I liked but isn't even in the same universe stylistically as Sheik. Now I'm unsure of which direction to take.

[Edwin MacPhisto]

iTunes is great. But, I'm on a Mac. Used to use Winamp. Still don't know Zappa. Bye, thread.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

You didn't touch on Neil Hamburger.

 

I asked about a month ago where to go after Sheik Yerbouti and was recommended You Are What You Is, One Size Fits All and Zoot Allures. Somehow, I ended up with Hot Rats, which I liked but isn't even in the same universe stylistically as Sheik. Now I'm unsure of which direction to take.

No, they're not similar at all. I gave directions from Hot Rats and Sheik, so you know what to do. Bearing that in mind, you will now buy Jazz From Hell.

[Henry Spencer]

I enjoy Hot Rats and Absolutely Free the most from what little Zappa I've heard.

[Henry Spencer]

Oh, and I have no idea who Neil Hamburger is, but the Wikipedia article I just read about him makes it sound like the most intolerable hipster shit ever.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

If it were intolerable hipster shit, I wouldn't like it.

[cd213]

I use my Zune player to listen to MP3s. Winamp, MediaPlayer and Nero ShowTime I use for videos and DVDs (when I watch DVDs on my computer, which is rare).

[Darthtiki]

My only gripe with iTunes is that the Album Info lookup to get the Album art is so limited and flawed that half my music has no cover art.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I get my cover art from RateYourMusic.

[BUTT]

Since Czech mentioned Stephen Thomas Erlewine, I feel this thread would be a good place to discuss his fawning, slavish fanboy review of a freakin' Joey McIntyre live album:

 

Teen idols have a difficult time growing up, since both the artist and the audience are reluctant to give up on the past. To his credit, Joe McIntyre -- known as Joey McIntyre when he was the little one in New Kids on the Block -- is eager to do whatever it takes to keep his career active, as long as he can keep performing. When teen pop was hot in 1999, he turned out a dance-pop album that fit the time. Now that the trend has passed and, with it, his major-label contract, he's changed his tune, hooking up with guitarist Eman Kiriakou and performing as an acoustic singer/songwriter (albeit one who lets the other guy play guitar), showcased on the 2002 album One Too Many: Live From New York. Those passionately dedicated Joe Mac fans -- and they are out there, as the enthusiastic screams throughout the album illustrate; "They're called Bravehearts, people," Joe tells us, before warning doubters "Don't f*ck with us!!!" -- may know what they're in for, but the rest will be startled by this remarkable album. Many artists like to claim their music defies category, but few truly produce work that can't be grouped into some loose category. With this album, Joe McIntyre has joined that elite group. I've written thousands of record reviews spanning millions of words, but I cannot find the right words in the English language to convey what a unique experience One Too Many is. Perhaps it could be dismissed with a tossed-off sentiment -- perhaps, "it sounds like a live recording from your local coffeehouse" or "it sounds like the end of a long party, where two guys sit in the corner and won't stop singing their own songs as they try to impress the girls." These are credible criticisms, but it still doesn't quite capture the uniqueness of Joe Mac's on-stage persona. It doesn't capture how he barely seems to have the patience to complete a song without interrupting it with a wisecrack, nor does it indicate that he spends the performance swearing like an unhinged, drunken sailor. It doesn't take into account his flair for off-color jokes, including a rant about conserving water by "showering together...[and] pissing in sinks" and a whole stretch of jibes on the between-tunes-patter "What If I Was Gay," a question he poses to Eman, who dutifully responds, "then I'd switch teams." Nor does it suggest that McIntyre covers Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" with the conviction of somebody that just discovered the song, unaware of its status as a modern standard. Here, in this intimate setting, McIntyre is the king of his world, strutting as the cock of the walk to a small group of adoring fans who eat up his allusions to Swingers, agree with him that they can't remember the words to Van Morrison's "Wild Night" during an impromptu cover, and agree that he's still gossip-worthy when he claims that an aside he muttered will "be all over the Internet tomorrow," when it sounds like the only people interested in this record were there at its recording. And these are simply a handful of the highlights on a record that sounds for all the world like a post-alternative singer/songwriter auditioning for a stint as a borscht belt comedian. Any one of these things would be noteworthy, but combined, the result is stunning, bewildering, hilarious, disarming, endearing, and utterly unforgettable.

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Who gives a shit about cover art when you're listening to mp3s? Does it make the music more "real" to you? Also, what's some people's beef with iTunes? I like it well enough, though I say this as someone who just uses it to, you know, listen to music.

[Annabelle]

Who gives a shit about cover art when you're listening to mp3s? Does it make the music more "real" to you? Also, what's some people's beef with iTunes? I like it well enough, though I say this as someone who just uses it to, you know, listen to music.

 

not realer but looks prettier on yer ipod

[bobobrazil1984]

especially if you have a bigger screened one like the Touch (which i do).

[Giuseppe Zangara]

Cover art became increasingly irrelevant in the CD-age, so it's bizarre that people have a fondness for images that are even smaller than the compact disc insert.

[Edwin MacPhisto]

I tag all my mp3s because I still have associations of albums with their art and don't mind seeing it when the song comes up. And yes, it looks pretty on the iPod.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Just let me be obsessive about stupid quirks and details like JPEGs for MP3s.