Wikimedia may begin hosting student performances of classical works (via, article), which would be awesome and make my job over here pretty damn easy.

Gosh, this is confusing. Here’s a list of terms I’ve seen used to indicate modern classical music:

“modern composition”
“avant-garde music”
“experimental music”
“non-pop”
“contemporary classical music”
“fine art music”
“alternative classical music”
“new music”

The problem is that none of these satisfyingly describes what they mean, and the lack of a universal label for the non-popular, non-folk/world music frustrating. But, since everything is a fusion now anyway, maybe labels are useless in this age.

I’ve just started yet another new blog. This one will link to good, free, downloadable, complete music albums from around the web. I’m pretty sure it’ll be updated more often than any of my other blogs, and it’ll likely also garner more interest. Check it out; I’ve already posted more than a dozen albums, and I’ll try to update it daily! Tell your friends!

Free Albums Galore

Gotta keep up with the latest meme. Seems like I’ve read it a hundred times in the last week, time to write up my own answers:

Total volume of music on my computer:

94 GB in 17,609 files. There’d be a lot more if I didn’t delete 80% of the music I downloaded (because of my then-narrow tastes) from 2001 through 2004.

Last CD I bought:

Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return (1988). Two hours of new age bliss. If Allofmp3 ever decides to add Dream Theater’s Octavarium (2005) to their catalog, that’ll be the next one I buy. Or maybe Trance (2005) by Michael Gordon (of Bang on a Can All-Stars fame), which I thankfully caught on Kyle Gann’s awesome PostClassic radio station.

Favorite song from that album:

It all blends together as a cohesive album like it’s meant to, so I can’t pick a favorite track.

Song playing now:

Shivaree - “I Close My Eyes”. When I started writing this it was an unidentified compilation of medieval music I just digitally restored from a cryptically marked cassette tape from my dad’s attic. While revising this post, I’m listening to Transmutator’s trance cover of Metallica’s “Orion”.

Songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot:

Newsboys - “Lost the Plot” was the first song I learned to play on the guitar and its pained lyrics still make my eyes water. Right now I listen to TV on the Radio - “Young Liars” more than any other song.

Gosh, seems like I’ve been waiting to hear this news forever. Yessssssss…