As I was browsing the web yesterday looking for some free live concert recordings, I stumbled upon AOL’s CD Listening Party Page. This is a site that gives you a chance to listen to entire recordings that are coming out. They change the selections on a weekly basis so that they don’t stay up too long, but otherwise, you are really listening to the whole thing.

Doing a bit of research, the quality of the selections really varies from one week to another. However, I lucked out this week falling on Jack Johnson’s latest, Sleep through the Static. If you read my blog regularly, you might remember that I said that I did not really like this new album after listening to the 30-second sound clips on iTunes. However, I must say that my opinion has changed after listening to all of the tracks in their entirety. While my opinion that a lot of the tracks are a bit more gloomy, the album still has a very nice ring to it and flows very smoothly from one track to the next. I have not gotten myself a copy of this CD yet, but it is a definite possibility now.

I am guessing that the selection of music on the AOL site will probably change on Tuesday, so head on over if you feel like listening to it. Enjoy!

I’ve been using the iTunes Music Store for a couple of years, ever since I got my first iPod. While I love the concepts of being able to buy music singles or entire albums at my leisure and getting easy previews of the songs, I’ve been appalled recently by the number of album pre-orders that are showing up on iTMS. For example, the new Jack Johnson CD (Sleep through the static) has been on there since Christmas).

Pre-ordering a DVD of a movie you have seen or that you saw a good preview for is one thing, but my main problem with the concept of pre-ordering music is that you have no clue whether or not an artist’s next CD will be good or not. All you get is a single song preview which is typically one of the best tracks of the album, or which is just the first single released.

Again, going back to Jack Johnson, I was tempted to make a pre-order for his new CD since I absolutely loved his last one, “In Between Dreams”. It was kind of tempting since they even offered an extra track that you would not get when the CD actually comes out. In the end, I decided not to pre-order and was actually glad about it when I logged onto iTunes today and saw that there are not really any tracks that catch my ear on his latest effort. Perhaps 30 seconds song clips are too short to form an opinion, but the opinion of many others on the site seemed to indicate similar feelings towards the new album. So, in short, I wonder how music pre-orders have become so popular.

While a surround sound system is useful for a home theatre system, you often need to have other radios around the house, especially the kitchen, to listen to music while performing your chores.

The old Sanyo Boombox that I had since my college days was starting to behave very strangely, not always responding to button presses or doing the wrong thing on a button press, so I decided that it was time to retire it.

Using my AirMiles points (yes, these do come in handy sometimes), I ordered myself the Sony ZSSAT1 boombox. It comes with AM/FM radio with digital tuning (no more static!), a CD player that recognizes MP3s, a stereo line in jack to plug in my iPod as well as the ability to plug in an external antenna to get satellite radio programming.

While I will probably never use the satellite functionality, this is a very nice little radio with a full sound and all of the options needed to listen to my music any way I like. If you’re looking for a nice little radio, I would definitely recommend this one.

My wife Andrée and I had the pleasure of seeing Daniel Bélanger on stage at a local college’s theatre this Thursday. After last seeing him on stage about 5 years ago, Bélanger is back on the road to support the release of a new album, L’échec du matériel.

With his laid back appearance (long beard, untamed hair, jeans and a sweater), his presence on stage was very strong and gave us an insight on his personality. The stage itself was also very interesting, with antennas and chimneys to make it look as if the band was playing on the rooftops.

More than half the set list was made up from songs from his latest album, but he still gave some room to his classics with some new musical arrangements. He also did about five songs where he was playing the guitar alone on stage to accompany his lyrics.

All in all, it was a very good show. It was also the first time that we were leaving Gabrielle was babysat at home. At least we felt that they were in good care since it was my sister taking care of them. The only other time when she had not been with us was for two nights at her grand-mother’s in December.

I was a bit surprised today to learn that Steven Page, lead singer of Barenaked Ladies, one of my all-time favorite bands, has released a solo project in June of this year. Entitled The Vanity Project, this new CD contains a series of songs that Page co-wrote with long-time collaborator Stephen Duffy. I’ve only listened to the excepts available on the web site so far. Some songs sound quite interesting while other are a bit too much of a departure from the BNL sound for me. I’ll have to try to listen to the entire CD in the near future to form a better opinion.

Coinciding with the release of the movie, the fourth and fifth chapters of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is coming to BBC radio starting today. The first two phases dated from the 70’s. Phase 3 was then produced last fall and was quite funny to hear. Phases 4 and 5 should be just as good. If you don’t live in the UK, just look around the net. There are a few places where these episodes can be downloaded from.

Through their Mailing List, Guano Apes has announced that they are soon coming back with a new CD. The first single will be released on November 15th. It has been quite a while so we heard from them. They have been on a break since early last year and released a Live CD/DVD since then.

Besides this, the band is also working on a Best Of compilation, along with a documentary DVD.

The newest Barenaked Ladies CD has been announced for release on October 5th. Titled “Barenaked for the Holidays“, it will contain 20 classic holiday-season tracks. Having heard some of the Christmas songs they recorded previously, this should be a fun CD to listen to.

The Dave Matthews Band has been quite productive in releasing live materials on DVD over the last few years. After the single-disc Listener Supported and Live at Boulder Field, and the double-disc Live in Central Park, we now find them in a two CD and one DVD package containing footage and music from a three-day concert series done at the Gorge, an outdoor scene located on the west coast of the United States. “The Gorge” from the Dave Matthews Band goes on sale on June 29th.

Fans of Daniel Belanger will be pleased to learn that he has just released a new CD. Entitled Deflaboxe, this new album is not traditionnal songs. Instead, it is ten music pieces where he reads poems about boxing. He was working on this before releasing Rever Mieux but then decided to release a more pop album. I am glad he decided to go back. The music is an interested blend of electronic and sampling.