Rotten Apple, Good Music

I'm definitely not an Apple person; I hate Macs and find them totally unnecessary. I like the internet image that shows a series of baby toys and the Mac one-button mouse with the tagline, "Macs, simple computers for simple people". Several years ago Macs served a purpose in graphical design and computer animation but those days are long gone. The new television commercials showing a middle-aged guy in a tweed jacket as a PC and a young punk as a Mac are clever but they work against Apple. Consumers sympathize with the PC and recognize the "Mac" as representative of its fanbase, smarmy spoiled loyalists.

The one thing that Apple has done right is the iPod. It's a wonderfully designed device. The execution is nearly, if not totally, flawless. The device is compact, simple to operate with one hand, and intuitive. I never read the manual for my iPod; I charged the battery and simply started using it. I am a manual-reading kind of guy, too. I'll spend the time to read the manual for even basic devices just to ensure that I have learned all the little tips and tricks. The iPod didn't require any reading.

Many detractors don't like the iPod because of the forced association with iTunes. Until today I never understood what the fuss was about. I installed iTunes a couple of years ago without any trouble and had not updated the software since. I read about the changes that Apple continually implemented in the digital rights management (DRM) of later versions of iTunes and I avoided all updates like the plague. As a result, I had no complaints. I could purchase music cheaply and easily without going to the store and subsequently burn music CDs for the car or stereo and then rip them back to MP3 format if I need to edit the files for ringtones or other purposes. The DRM had little effect on my music and use of it.

Today I wanted to purchase the new single from the Killers, "When You Were Young". I decided to pre-order the new album since "Hot Fuss" was so good and the new single is great. I heard the new single on the radio yesterday and immediately recognized the artist as the Killers.

When I tried to pre-order the new CD, "Sam's Town" iTunes forced me to upgrade to version 6. I was happily running version 4.7, thank you very much. I begrudgingly went to upgrade my iTunes version and was forced to install Quicktime 7(.1?), too. I'm sick of Apple's pathetic attempts to force the use of Quicktime upon iTunes users and iTunes upon Quicktime users. The only time I ever use Quicktime is if I want to view movie trailers at the Quicktime website. It's totally useless otherwise. Windows Media Player 9 and 10 support High Definition and offer more versatility.

After waiting 15 minutes for the Quicktime portion of the install to complete I shut down the install operation. I had to relaunch Windows and run the entire install again. Way to not piss me off, Apple. If you're going to bundle your crappy software, at least make sure the installation configuration is robust enough to work on PCs. In case you haven't heard, Apple, PCs dominate the market.

Time will tell if the new version of iTunes will really muck up my DRM and use of the software.

I've got my Killers single now and I'll have to wait until October 3rd for the rest of the CD.

I did buy the Angels and Airwaves (AvA) CD, "We Don't Need to Whisper" that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Simply put, this CD is one of the best I've ever heard. I'd be remiss to not mention it and explain it.

I don't for a second believe that "We Don't Need to Whisper" will be, or should be, universally praised and loved as much I love it. I understand the difference between something that will sell 10 million copies and something that might achieve a gold record. The beauty of this CD is that for those people who enjoy the genre of music it should really resonate. It struck a major chord with me.

Tom DeLonge clearly spent months crafting the CD. The major themes are repeated lyrically, as is the case on many a CD, but also musically, sort of like a movie score. There are hints of melodies that are contained in multiple songs. The end result is that the whole CD is simply brilliant. I can't remember another CD that made my spine tingle so much on the first listen.

Again, Tom isn't the world's best singer. The music isn't the most complicated or technically adept. The hooks are incredible though, and the emotion shines through.

I would recommend that anyone who likes alternative rock, rock, power-pop-punk, or similar check out the website at http://www.angelsandairwaves.com/ . You can watch the videos for "The Adventure" and "Do It For Me Now" at the site. If you enter the main site you can listen to "The Adventure" and "It Hurts". For some reason, the "Enter the Site" link will spawn new windows to clothing sites Tom is affiliated with. Click it a few times and you'll get into the site.

If you like the three songs you can hear on the site do yourself a huge favor and pick up the CD (even if you have to use iTunes).