Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Foals – Antidotes

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

The Cool Kids – The Bake Sale

TV on the Radio – Dear Science

Okkervil River – The Stand-Ins

MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

Zune pass is Microsoft’s subscription model for streaming music.  It costs $14.99 a month and as long as you have an active subscription you can play (on up to 3 PCs) any songs from their vast library.  You can also download these songs and load them onto a DRM approved device (like the Zune) for the duration of your subscription.  Along with the monthly access to the entire library, Microsoft added a new element that lets you download and keep forever, 10 songs per month.  The biggest gap in this service which I didn’t realize wouldn’t work until I actually tried it, is that you cannot access the Zune Marketplace via the xbox 360 console.  This means that you can’t browse and stream unlimited music directly from the xbox, a huge oversight in my opinion since most people would love to be able to select and play any music in their main entertainment room instead of just the room they have a PC in.  Other than that, there are a lot of nice features about the Zune pass and Zune marketplace (social playlists and channels) that have me debating moving to a subscription based model for my music needs.

With the newest version of the Xbox 360 UI, Xbox Live Gold members and members of certain Netflix subscription plans can now access a large library of streaming content directly on their Xbox consoles.  I have tried this for a few days and it is implemented very well.  On the netflix website you select which movies you want to show up in your “instant queue” on the xbox, and once you navigate to the Netflix section on your console you get a nice interface that lets you play and watch the content you selected.  The standard streaming quality is very acceptable and some features are available in HD which looks very nice.  The best “instant queue” selections are mostly limited to Documentaries, Indie films and TV shows, but there is a large selection of almost anything you could want, and the most basic plan at $8.99 allows for you to have 1 DVD (or BluRay) out at a time to fill the gap.  A couple of improvements I would like to see are allowing you to browse the entire netflix instant library via the xbox console to add films to your queue, more HD content, and also better sound on the higher quality films.  It seems I am only limited to 2 channel audio, which is unfortunate.

With these two media subscriptions, Microsoft and Netflix really have a nice fulfillment of my music and movie needs.  This got me thinking, with a few of the improvements I listed above (most notably the Zune Marketplace accessible on the Xbox 360 console) Microsoft could easily offer a single subscription model that would compete and go beyond anything other media service providers currently offer.  Imagine if you had following options.

• Xbox Media Pass Basic – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming, and zune pass streaming  $20/month
• Xbox Media Pass Mid-range – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming + 1 at a time,  zune pass + 800 MS Points – $30/month
• Xbox Media Pass Deluxe – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming + 3 at a time, zune pass + 1600 MS Points – $50/month

The price points can be adjusted some, but you see where I’m going.  I would be very VERY interested in purchasing one of these plans, and even possibly a yearly subscription if it was given at a discounted rate.  The other adjustment that would have to be made according to how I have the model laid out, is that Microsoft would have to make their point system universal.  800 MS points would be good on the Xbox console or Marketplace for purchasing game or video content and good on the PC or Zune for purchasing individual tracks or whole albums.  I really think if Microsoft was able to combine these services and integrate them well, they would really start to separate themselves from everyone else in both the console and media offerings marketplace.

High Quality WMV download link

First a quick note on the song. As soon as I saw the “look” of the video during a test run the night before I knew what song I would use if this was successful. One of my favorite songs from last year is “All Your Friends” by LCD Soundsystem. The rhythm is perfect for the type of video that was produced, and the theme of the song hits home. If you listen to or read the lyrics they might be a little confusing, but what I get from it is that later in life, looking back you’ll mostly remember the good times with your friends and not much else, even if some of the stuff you did with your friends was pretty stupid. It’s a theme that really struck a cord with me.

I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision
For another five years of lies
You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can
And the next ten people who are trying to be polite
When you’re blowing eighty-five days in the middle of France
Yeah, I know it gets tired only where are your friends tonight?

Sorry to get sidetracked on the song. Anyway, I can watch the video a few times and still notice something new that makes me smile since there is so much going on. One thing that might change if I keep doing this, is this no one knew that the camera was recording, so everything goes on unrelated to the camera. We might be able to perform some pretty cool captures if people know its recording every 4 seconds. Also we’ve talked about setting up a second one somewhere else to capture even more, but I think the placement of this one got a much as possibly ( you can even see corn hole action outside at one point). Let me know what you think in the comments.

A second reason 106.7 is great, is because they mix up the commercial layout. Instead of getting 45-50 minutes of “non stop hits” followed by an extended commercial break, they’ll play about 3-5 songs, followed by 1-3 30 second commercials. So far, I totally love this new method. To go along with that, they have very few DJ interruptions except for maybe a traffic or weather update, or a quick “This is 106.7″. So you’ll never go more than 2 minutes without hearing a song, which is awesome. I’m somewhat curious if over the course of an hour I’ll hear the same amount of commercials, just spread out differently, or if they can charge a higher premium to their advertisers, since the listener is a lot more likely to stick around to a radio station that only has a 30 to 90 second interruption, instead of a 10 minute break. It’d be a very interesting marketing study to read.

Usually when I’m in the car I’m listening to 1 of 3 things. My ipod/Cd player, 1460 or other talk radio, or music on some FM station. Over the past week or so, 106.7 has dominated that third option, and I don’t see it changing very soon.

Girl Talk – Night Ripper

I’m sure most people are familiar with “mashups” that, at a basic level are usually 2 or more songs mixed together to form a new song that usually contains the same beat, rhythm or just sound good together. One of the more popular mashups of recent is Green Day’s – Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Oasis’ – Wonderwall. Well, Night Ripper is an album full of mashups that all combine together to form what ends up being one long 40 minute jam. It’s great for parties because there are over 100 different song samples used and almost anyone will recognize something (plus it contains zero country samples )

Band of Horses – Everything All the Time

Band of Horses is an indie-rock band who has put out an amazing album. If you’re a fan of bands like Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips, or The Shins, Band of Horses should please you as I consider them a combination of all three of those sounds. The Funeral is my favorite track on this album and one of the songs I’ve listened to the most this past year. Give it a listen and if you like it, check out the rest of the album.

TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain

TV on the Radio is kind of hard to describe. They mix such a wide variety of sound in such an individual way I really can’t explain it. At times it can sound like hip-hop, but others it might be indie-rock or even punk or electronic. The best way I may have seen to describe it might be art-rock. This album really creates a unique sound that is very enjoyable.

Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury

I’m not a huge fan of hip-hop or rap in general, but every so often a song comes out that I can stand. Maybe it’s just my tastes changing or maturing, but Hell Hath No Fury is full of tracks that I can enjoy over and over again. Mr. Me Too, Wamp Wamp, and Hello New World are my favorites off this album.

The Decemberists – The Crane Wife

If I were to add another 3 or 4 bands to my list of favorites at the beginning of this post, The Decemberists would definitely be on there. The Crane Wife is more of what this band rocks at which is storytelling indy-pop, with an accordion! I was a little worried at first, fearing The Decemberists had reached their peak with their previous album Picaresque, especially after signing onto a major label, but this album maintains everything good about their sound.

Well there you have it. 5 of my favorites from this year. I apologize if the recaps of the albums sound a little unusual or vague, but its hard for me to sometimes describe why I like something. A few other albums that I enjoy but didn’t include on this list from 2006 are:

Tapes n’ Tapes – The Loon
Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
Ratatat – Classics
Moneen – The Red Tree
Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
Lupe Fiasco – Food and Liquor
Phoenix – It’s Never Been Like That
Incubus – Light Grenades

I hope to be able to put together a top 5 movies of 2006 list before leaving for Arizona Saturday morning. But if my past goal settings for this blog are of any sign, I won’t make it.