The world doesn’t need another blogger raving about his iPhone, but I just can’t resist any longer. I finally got my iPhone a few weeks ago and it has lived up to the extremely high hopes that I had for it. I put my old Sony Walkman phone to bed permanently and I have to chuckle at the post I made back in 2006 calling it an iPod Nano Killer.

Here are some of the ways that the iPhone has been sucking up my time so far:

Website optimization
This blog along with my other sites are now optimized for the iPhone browser. If you are a web designer, you should definitely check out the article at A List Apart for a good introduction to designing websites for the iPhone.

Email
I switched all my email accounts to IMAP from POP. This works better with the iPhone. I don’t want to get into the details, but if you are going to use email on your phone you should do some research on IMAP.

Portfolio on my phone
As a recent convert to iPhoto, I am just starting to realize how great that program is. One thing I can do is create a photo album in iPhoto of all my design samples. Then I can sync that album to my phone and I instantly have my design portfolio on my phone. Pretty handy, or at least I think it will be.

Twitter
I finally signed up for twitter and you can now follow my tweets in the sidebar of this blog.

Album Art
Now that I have an iPod that displays album art, it was time to update the music in my library that lacked album covers. A big chunk of my music wasn’t purchased through iTunes, or is somewhat obscure, so I had a big chore of updating my songs. A big help was an Applescript that creates a playlist of all songs without album art.

Wish list
An iPhone password application that syncs with my MacBook Pro. I use Steel currently. Pastor looks promising.

I haven’t made a music post in a while and being that is is about the middle of 2008 I thought I would give you some tracks from my favorite albums of the year so far. Here is a 12 track mix tape that is pretty darn good, if I don’t say so myself…

1. Lose Big, by Eef Barzelay
Mp3: The Girls Don’t Care

2. Fleet Foxes, by Fleet Foxes
Mp3: White Winter Hymnal

3. Vampire Weekend, By Vampire Weekend
Mp3: M79

4. LP3, by Ratatat
Mp3: Schiller

5. In Ghost Colours, by Cut Copy
Mp3: Strangers In the Wind

6. Smilers, by Aimee Mann
Mp3: Freeway

7. Pork and Beans, By Weezer
Mp3: The Greatest man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)

8. Lucky, by Nada Surf
Mp3: Weightless

9. Narrow Doors, by Death Cab for Cutie
Mp3: I Will Possess Your Heart

10. Distortion, by The Magnetic Fields
Mp3: California Girls (Alternate Version)

Bonus Tracks:
Fate, by Dr. Dog
Mp3: The Old Days
(This is a track from their upcoming album that I am really looking forward to.)

Spoon’s Daytrotter Session
Mp3: Peace Like A River (Paul Simon cover)

Even with our huge 100+ gigabyte hard drives, space eventually becomes an issue. Anything you can do to save space is helpful. As your music collection grows it becomes more and more important to control your music library. For the most part iTunes does a great job. If you have iTunes set to automatically manage your library then you probably already have things pretty organized.

There is one major flaw, however, that you may or may not be aware of. When you delete a song from iTunes it asks you if “you want to move the selected song to the Trash, or keep it in the iTunes Music folder?”

By default iTunes will keep the file and just delete it from iTunes memory. Unfortunately, this creates an orphaned file somewhere in your Music Folder. ITunes no longer knows that it exists and unless you have the patience to manually go through your folders these files are doing nothing but taking up space. Even if you are pretty careful about clicking “Move to Trash” every time you delete a music file there will inevitably be times when you accidently keep the files.

It is pretty easy to see how much space the orphaned iTunes files on your computer take up. At the bottom of your iTunes screen you should see a line saying something like “14118 items, 37.6 days, 66.88 GB.” Compare that last number to the size of the folder where iTunes saves your music. Unless you changed your settings that would be in user/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/. If the size of that folder is larger than what iTunes is telling you then you have some orphaned files.

In my case, my music folder was 3 gigabytes larger than my iTunes library so it was definitely worth it to recover the disk space. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn’t have a built in way of fixing this problem. You could try moving your library then reimporting all the music. That will work, but you might lose your playlists and if you have a large library this will take a long time.

Luckily there is another solution. Doug’s Applescripts for iTunes is a great place to find scripts that extend the features of iTunes. The script that will help us consolidate our music library is called “List Music Folder Files Not Added v2.0.” Follow the instructions on Doug’s site to install the script. It will show up in the iTunes menu bar under the little script icon. Click on it to run the script and then follow the directions. If your library is pretty large it may take several minutes for the script to complete. When it is complete you will have a text file containing paths to all the orphaned file in your music folder.

Now that you have a list of orphaned files you can delete them. You can do that manually, but that could take a while. A better way to eliminate them is to add them all back into your library and the delete them. To do that, change the extension on the text document from “.txt” to “.m3u”. Next, double click on the file and it should open in iTunes and begin adding all the orphaned files to iTunes. Then all you have to do is go to “View” and click “View Options.” Make sure that “Date Added” is checked and click “ok.” This gives you an extra column with “Date Added” as the header. Click on this heading and your library will be listed with the most recent additions at the top. You should see all the orphaned files that you just re-added to your library. Now delete them and make extra sure that you click “Move to Trash.” Empty your trash and you are done.

I hope that helps you clear up some space on your computer. I am on a Mac, so if you are on a PC and find that this doesn’t work please add your advice to the comments. Good luck!

Just a quick post before the weekend is over. This one is probably only funny to fans of Kermit the Frog, Elliott Smith, and Royal Tenenbaums. To the other two people in the world that share those interests, here is a video for you:

By the way, Sad Kermit has his own MySpace page. Enjoy.

The end of the year means it is time for the annual “Best Of” lists. It was a good year in music with some of my favorite bands releasing new albums (The Shins, Iron and Wine, Rogue Wave), some new groups (Maps, St Vincent, Patrick Watson, Yeasayer), and some bands that are just new to me (The National, Great Lake Swimmers, Rilo Kiley). If some of these are new to you, take a listen to the sample mp3 I link to. The titles link to Amazon and purchasing the music helps support this site.

1. The Shepherd’s Dog, by Iron & Wine
Mp3: House by the Sea

2. Wincing the Night Away, by the Shins
Mp3: Girl Sailor

3. Ongiara, by Great Lake Swimmers
Mp3: Your Rocky Spine

4. Boxer, by The National
Mp3: Fake Empire

5. Close to Paradise, by Patrick Watson
Mp3: Close to Paradise

6. All Hour Cymbals, by Yeasayer
Mp3: 2080 (also my vote for best song of the year)

7. Asleep at Heaven’s Gate, by Rogue Wave
Mp3: Fantasies

8. We Can Create, by Maps
Mp3: Lost My Soul

9. Under the Blacklight, By Rilo Kiley
Mp3: Close Call

10. Marry Me, by St. Vincent
Mp3: Now. Now.

Honorable Mention:
In Rainbows, by Radiohead
Mp3: Bodysnatchers

Icky Thump, by The White Stripes
Mp3: Icky Thump

Neon Bible, by Arcade Fire
Mp3: Black Mirror

I’m Not There (Soundtrack)
Mp3: You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink, by Bodies of Water
Mp3: I Guess We’ll Forget the Sound, I Guess, I guess

Juiced, by The Cansecos
Mp3: Free download from website

Hopefully 2008 will be just as good as 2007. If you want to take a look back, here are my lists from former years: 2006, 2005 2004

I either buy music on iTunes or at independently owned record stores. If I am in Denver I visit Twist and Shout. If I am in visiting Lincoln, Nebraska I stop at Recycled Sounds. Here in Greeley I enjoy The Finest. You probably have a pretty good idea of what these stores are like. The walls are covered in concert posters. The walls are lined with old vinyl stuffed into cardboard boxes. An eclectic blend of music plays over the sound system. There is an intimidating alternative-looking guy at the counter. They all seem to have that smell of incense. I could probably buy most of the same music anywhere else: Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target or even the grocery store. It just wouln’t be the same. It would feel cheap. It wouldn’t be any fun. Buying music is fun when it is tied to a memorable experience. Searching through a stack of LPs feels like a treasure hunt. It is fun to take a risk and take the recommendation of that intimidating chick behind the counter. It is nice to have the memory of hearing a song for the first time in a dusty old record shop. You don’t get that fuzzy feeling from dropping $17.00 at a Circuit City.

The funny thing is that the record store is my second choice for where to buy music. The majority of my music purchases happen on iTunes. It is convenient. It is automatically synced with my iPod. I can “discover” a band through an mp3 blog and instantly sample and purchase some songs. I can buy single songs or a whole album. It is still an experience even if it is nothing like the record store.

Since I am on the topic of music, maybe you would like to know what I have been listening to over the past couple weeks. Here are some bands that have been getting repeat listenings with links to The Hype Machine where you can download some mp3’s

Yeasayer - Check out “2080″ if you haven’t heard it.
Phoenix - I started listening to them based on a recommendation from Wes Anderson.
Sea Wolf - “Black Dirt” is a great track.

I had a lot of fun this weekend browsing through the massive collection of Live music on Archive.org. There is so much free music available there that it is a daunting task to sort the treasures from the trash. For your convenience I have made a list of some of the really good performances that I have been enjoying. In case you were wondering, this is legal and all the bands have given permission for these bootlegs to be distributed. I can’t really say this is “the best of Archive.org” because I know there must be a ton of other amazing recordings there, but you can’t go wrong with the following concerts. The following are some of my favorite artists and the performances and sound quality is nearly album worthy.

Calexico
Live at the Rialto Theatre in Tucsan, Arizona, December 2nd, 2006
Sample MP3: Cruel

If I could only recommend one band for you to check out on Archive.org it would be Calexico. The recordings I sampled were really impressive both in there sound quality and musicianship. Their performance at the China Theater in Sweden in 2003 was another one that you might want to check out.

Elliott Smith
Live at the Black Cat, Washington DC, April 17th, 1998
Sample MP3: Between the Bars

When an artist dies in their prime recordings of them playing live take on a new meaning. This acoustic set sounds great and catches Elliott early in his indie career.

Waterdeep
Live at the Venue, Olatthe Kansas, April 14, 2000
Sample MP3: Sweet River Roll

I have been a Waterdeep fan for years and was really happy to find so many of their concerts available on Archive.org. They are one of the few Christian bands that I really like. They seem to only tour in the midwest so I may have to make a trip to Kansas if I ever want to catch one of their shows.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Live at the Singletary Center for the Arts, April 6th, 2004
Sample MP3: Something

If you have never heard of Bela Fleck, he is a banjo player. If that sounds lame you should give it a chance. It changed the way I thought about the banjo.

Rogue Wave
Live at Bimbo’s 365 Club, San Francisco, CA, March 30th, 2006
Sample MP3: Falcon Settles Me

This probably isn’t the cleanest recording or performance on Archive.org, but Rogue Wave is one of my favorite bands and this one is definitely worth a listen if you haven’t heard them.

Here is a list of well known bands that you may want to check out that have free recordings available on Archive.org:
Jack Johnson
My Morning Jacket
Jason Mraz
Tenacious D
Ryan Adams
Grateful Dead
Smashing Pumpkins
Ween
John Butler Trio
Keller Williams
String Cheese Incident
Yonder Mountain String Band
Moe
Andrew Bird
The Decemberists
Drive-By Truckers

The only downside to Archive.org is that many of the concerts are only available in .flac or .shn format so it can be a little tricky to get them into iTunes. (If you are on a Mac and need a way to decode .flac or .shn files to .aiff so you can open them in iTunes an from there convert them to mp3’s you can download Xact for free here.) It can also be cumbersome to re-label poorly named and tagged files but you can’t complain when the music is free. Enjoy, and let me know if you find any other treasures on Archive.org that you would recommend.

I can’t remember an album that I have anticipated as much as Iron & Wine’s “The Shepherd’s Dog” which comes out on Tuesday. I have heard several tracks from internet leaks and it sounds like it will be a pretty fantastic record. For the second installment of my “3 MP3’s from Adrian3,” here are a couple live recordings and a rare track…

Ressurection Fern
This song will be on the new album, but this MP3 is a live performance in Wisconsin. I got the audio off of Amazon, which has a video of the performance, too. It is a really great song.

Dead Man’s Will
This is a rare solo version that was later re-recorded by Sam Beam and Calexico. I think I prefer this version because it is a little more haunting.

Bird Stealing Bread
This is another live track. It comin es from Bonnaroo 2005. The album can only be purchased here.

Introducing a new feature to my blog where I post 3 mp3’s. Here is the first batch from a few albums I have been enjoying lately…

Silver Lining, by Rilo Kiley
From their album, Under the Blacklight

Melody Day, by Caribou
From their album, Andorra

Small Town Crew, by The Brunettes
From their album, Structure & Cosmetics

I have a bootleg (at least I think it is a bootleg) of a Simon and Garfunkel concert from New York in 1966. The sound quality isn’t that great and you can get a much better recording of the same songs at practically the same time period commercially. The problem with the commercial release, although it is superb, is that it edits out some of Paul and Art’s dialogue between songs. Most notably is the intro to Sparrow. On the commercial release the songs starts with Paul saying “relative to nothing, this song is called Sparrow.” It kind of makes sense I guess, but it makes more sense when you realize what was edited out. Paul tells a story about how he was “digging” his reflection in a window only to have his daydream rudely interrupted by a bird. Well, he tells it better than I can, so for your enjoyment I have ripped the full intro so you can hear it for yourself. Paul Simon’s accent cracks me up, too.

There Goes A Happy Bird, by Paul Simon (2.7mb MP3)