coxy's blog

Hurrah! The best web news I've heard all day - possibly all week! Spotify, the media player that's basically one massive music library which allows you to stream any music on-demand for free, has just implemented Last.fm scrobbling.

As I said when I requested the feature, I'm a massive Last.fm fan and although really liked Spotify, couldn't see myself using it on a serious level until they did introduced scrobbling. And now they have, I'll stick to my work and be using Spotify a lot more often.

If you're a label or artist, I recommend that you get in touch with Spotify and see what the score is with getting your tracks on their service. For sure.

Following on from yesterday's blog about my issues with the social music revolution that is Last.fm, I'm happy to be posting the second of my solutions for you all to embrace.

Ever since my six year old mac got tossed aside in favour of a brand new PC, my Last.fm profile set on a spiral of being wildly inaccurate for not being able to scrobble from my iPod. Furthermore, my iPod eventually died, which meant I bought a Creative MP3 player - another kick in the teeth for my scrobbling accuracy.

Skip forward a year or so and I find myself with a Windows Mobile device. I had this idea that one could develop an application that would stream and scrobble music from Last.fm Radio and the built-in Windows Media Player, via a wifi connection or data-plan. I got so excited, I even made some mock-ups (which is what you see on the right).

Alas, the other day I did a quick internet search to see if such an application was already in development - and I found my way to a group on Last.fm called 'Last.fm Mobile'.

Last.fm Mobile is just what I was looking for; whilst still in experimental stages, the Pocket PC version has scrobbling and radio functionality, and the smartphone version (which I use) is limited to scrobbling from Windows Media Player - but it works perfectly.

I'm so pleased that this application exists and that, in such an early stage, it works well. So much so, I've dropped my Creative MP3 player in favour of my Windows Mobile Smartphone so now I can scrobble my listening habits when I'm out of the house.

If you have a Windows Mobile device and a Last.fm profile, it'll be your perfect partner. You can grab the software from the Last.fm Mobile Forum or download a version direct from my hosting:

Screenshots:

Downloads:
Last.fm Mobile for Pocket PC (v1.4)
Last.fm Mobile for Smartphone (v1.1)

Update: Visitors looking for this will now find that it's been renamed to 'Pocket Scrobbler' and that there's an official Last.fm Group. You can download the app at SourceForge.

Windows Mobile 5 users require CF 2.0 for the application to work, which they can download for free.

Oh, how true. I have a feeling I'm going to feel so unproductive over the coming week; I'm already starting to feel that way now and the week's not even begun (should we be counting Monday as the start of the week). I always manage to find things to entertain myself, though.

So, last week I was working at Flame Digital. It was alright, I guess. I was working on a website for them; basically filling it with content for them over two days - so really simple job. I didn't feel particularly productive, mind. Anyway, I have to draw up and invoice and get that to them tomorrow so I can get some money for my time. I would've liked to see that project through to the end too - rather than just spend two days on it.

Over the past two days, ish, I've made myself another website to maintain. I started it Friday night after dinner, ran through to 1am and then worked on it most of Saturday. The website itself if all based around Urmston - which is where I live. There's a website called Urmston.net and I don't particularly dislike it, but I don't really like it either - it's quite poorly made and has an older demographic than what I'd be aiming at anyway. So I started a site called Two Ways.

It's a bit messy at the minute, especially on Internet Explorer (urgh!), but it'll all look fine when I've finished it though and hopefully I can get a few people using it. There's a forums (aptly named 'Gossip') so people can chat away about whatever they want, an events calendar so people can promote local school fairs, gigs, bingo nights and other such shin-digs, a photos section which is currently feeding photos in from the Urmston group pool at flickr.com, polls - and I hope to include some sort of local directory or businesses, services and places to visit in the area.

Aside from wanting to make a site more useful than Urmston.net, I wanted a project to get to grips with Mambo content management system. I've tried implementing it twice before now and failing miserably - but I think I've got it now - and it's not as bad or hard as I first thought. Expect Pickled Dick's new site to be using Mambo - because I'm doing that for them when they get back off tour.

In terms of music, I'm getting back into Last.fm. In the days of Audioscrobbler, I always buzzed off the service; and after it switched to Last.fm and a load of things improved, so did my interest level. But then it all just disappeared, and whilst it had been logging my music, my subscription ran out and I half-forgot about the service (though I always refer to it for information about artists / musicians). I really like the site, though - and have started using the Last.fm Radio more in recent weeks. It incorporates well into Amarok (my iTunes) and so has been really simple to use because it can play your playlists like it would any other track and there's no need to download the official Last.fm software.

I encourage you to sign up if you haven't got an account already, and for those that have, use the Last.fm player more; play your 'Recommended Radio', or 'Personal Radio' if you have a subscription. Or, you could give My Personal Radio a listen - seeing as I can't.

The other week I watched a few bands play at 'Into The Black' (listed on upcoming.org & Last.fm) and I quite taken by a band called Vile Vile Creatures. I listened to some of their recorded stuff and it doesn't quite compare to the live experience, which was great - even when performed to a room of about 15 people.

Regardless, I'm leaving you with four tracks of theirs for your ears to wrestle with, and if you ever get the opportunity to see them live; do so, it'll be worthwhile.

Vile Vile Creatures - [non album tracks]
(10mb, MP3s zipped)

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Merry Christmas one and all!! What's that? I'm a little late? That is true. I've been my usual lazy self and not updated my blog in a while - so, that means this one is going to be a lengthy post. Grab yourself a chair, a cup of tea, and let Matthew tell you all about it...

Christmas Time
First thing first, last thing last - and christmas seems to be top of everyone's agenda. For me, Christmas this year was slightly disappointing to be honest. Okay, good points were that it was a nice christmas dinner and that I got to see Amanda (best friend) on christmas day. But aside from that - things just didn't feel right.

Christmas day we usually get up and then open all the presents. Around noon, my grandparents come round for dinner, and we have a full christmas dinner. The afternoon sees us watching a film on TV with my grandparents, and then they head home in the evening and we go to my nanna's (my dad's side of the family) for more festive fun.

But, wait a second... that is similar to what happened this year. I got up, we opened presents. Then I went round to see Amanda, came home to dinner with my grandparents. We watched Shrek after dinner, and they went home - we went to my nanna's... But the christmas vibe wasn't there. I don't know what it was. It just felt different.

And then, Boxing Day was disappointing. Boxing Day is usually good, because I go round to my grandmas who makes a Christmas dinner - and the festive spirit continues there. What is particularly good about it is that my Auntie Vera used to come round - and I love her to bits. Only, this year there was no Boxing Day dinner round at my grandmas, because she's broken her arm. And can't cook. And my Auntie Vera wasn't there, because she's dead. So, Boxing Day I sat home all day... doing nothing.

Ah well. Things will be 'right next year.


Music
Before the joys of Christmas, on the 20th December I took a trip to Night & Day Cafe - possibly my favourite gig venue. Playing that night were meant to be a band called Jamestown, who I know through the wonders of MySpace - and so I thought I'd go along.

Because I like to be in the know - I checked out the other bands that were playing that day on the internet and listened to a few of their songs. One band that stood out in particular was Little Man Tate, and so when Jamestown announced they'd cancelled their performance, I went along to see Little Man Tate anyway.

They, along with Bromheads Jacket are my new favourite band. Live, they were brilliant - and their songs are fantastic too. I also used the gig as a photo opportunity and got some brilliant shots that night to add to my collection. This time, I'm actually going to email them round to a few publications - to see if anyone wants to make a purchase - because Little Man Tate are an upcoming band from Sheffield (as are many since Arctic Monkeys fame hype).

I was chatting to the lead singer of Little Man Tate after they came offstage who invited us for a drink, and told him that I'll be trying to sell the photos - which he was quite happy to let me to. Though, he was slightly pissed.

As for Bromheads Jacket, my other new favourite band, they are playing at Manchester's Jabez Clegg on the 18th January 2006. You're all very welcome to come and stalk me, or watch the band - but no touching, of either, without my permission. You can legally download some of their tracks here. Wonderful.


Photography
I found a great photographer's site. Its amazing what you can find when you look. Jenny Lewis is photographer to the stars with a nice array of portrait photography of famous people including Sharon Osbourne, Keira Knightley, Nick Cave and that guy out of Shameless and the new Narnia film. She also has her focus on photography for bands and musicians, shooting The Beastie Boys, Green Day, Tom Vek and Goldie Lookin Chain. Check it out.

And whilst you're marvelling at her wonderful shots, don't forget to check out my gig photos.


World Wide Web
Elsewhere on the net, I've got back into Last.fm (aka Audioscrobbler). Since they changed it from Audioscrobbler to Last.fm, I went off it. They upped the subscription costs and my plugin stopped working with my iPod - but all is well again in the world and the plugin works again for me, and I've coughed up some money to become a subscriber - because I now have the money to.

So, my profile is flourishing beautifully - and you should feel free to check out my musical tastes.


The Rest
Thank you to everyone that bought me Christmas presents. Especially Amanda who bought me a lovely hoodie, two-tone iPod cover and a soft toy keyring thing.
I think the HMV girl who I fell head over heels for has a boyfriend. But the bright side to that is that now it'll be easy to, and I'm gonna, ask her out someplace after work. As friends, you understand... because I'm more confident when I've no intention of 'gettin jiggy' with someone.
The past few days I've had the most awful cold. Its awful because its not really a cold, its just a bunged up nose that won't debung, which makes it hard to breath.
The other day I bought myself Ghostbusters 1 & 2 on DVD. Special edition and everything! Its ages since I seen that film, so it will be brilliant to watch it again.
I think I might head out now, go for a walk, and take some photos.


Sexy In Latin
Today's post title derives from the Little Man Tate song, Sexy In Latin.