Joe Perry - Beatweek.com

Transcription

issue #125
Joe
Perry
The Beatweek
interview
Queen • Helen Hunt • William H Macy • Goo Goo Dolls
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Bill Palmer Editor in Chief Lance Anderson Creative Consultant a Verge of LA Christine Chan Senior Editor Daynah Senior Editor apple.ism daynah.net • php-princess.net Linda Domingo Contributing Editor Keri Franz Contributing Editor Cool-Linda-D.com Steve Loopipe Contributing Editor Natalie Gelman Contributing Editor
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Goo Goo
Dolls
the Beatweek
interview
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With their new record, Goo Goo Dolls want to take you home. “That's the thing that's
most important right now,” says lead singer Johnny Rzeznik of the theme which carries
through more than one song on Something For The Rest Of Us. It’s a long road to have
traveled for a band who fifteen years ago were of a mindset to use a title like “A Boy
Named Goo” for their breakthrough album. But that was a different era, for the world
at large and for the band. Or as co-founding member Robby Takac puts it, “I think a
lot of it i it s just sort of growing up as people.” The band spent a decade
toiling anonymously before being
rocketed to fame in the mid nineties,
only to then be told by critics that they
were all but guaranteed to be a one hit
wonder. A dozen hit songs later, and
Goo Goo Dolls are doing just fine – but
the same can’t be said for the world
around them.
have what we used to have. What do
we have? We have each other. And I
think that's extremely important. I think
it's actually gonna wind up being a
good thing, that people are relying on
each other more, rather than
machines.”
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And who better to deliver that message
than a band from Buffalo, New York, a
city that’s been all too familiar with
recession since back before recession
was cool.
“We're in some pretty intense times right
now,” says Robby of the public state of
affairs in 2010. “There's a lot of crazy
stuff going on out there, and I think it's
had a pretty dramatic effect on a lot of
people.”
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“I think that they really got to
understand the value and the
importance of having a secure
situation,” Robby says of the band’s
long-struggling hometown, “and having
a job and having a family and people
around you who are going to take care
and watch out for you when you might
be in one of those valleys of the peaks
and valleys of life in a once-booming
town. I think that that might be part of
the reason why twenty-five years later,
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But the end of the world as we know it
may not be a bad thing, says Johnny. “I
think America is going through a serious
paradigm shift where they're starting to
realize that having three cars and a half
a million dollar house is not the most
important thing in life, and a new TV
every year and every gizmo and
gadget you can think of. I think that
people are starting to realize we don't
Beatweek Magazine Issue #125
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we're still here right now, doing what
we're doing.”
single, but also in its centerpiece ballad
Johnny wrote entitled Notbroken, after
hearing from a real-life soldier’s wife. “I
was writing that song as a loveletter
from a woman to her husband who was
injured in the war. He didn't want to
come home because he was worried
that he wasn't the man that she loved,
and so he didn't want to come home.
And what she's saying is it doesn't
matter how long I have to wait for you,
I'll be here.”
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Although Johnny says that Something
For The Rest Of Us is an emotional but
“not a very sentimental” album, he
nonetheless references It’s A Wonderful
Life to help explain the album’s title. ;I
know it sounds strange, but George
Bailey said it best. People are like "Who's
the rest of us?’ It's like well, George
Bailey said it's the people who do the
living and working and paying and
dying. I always thought that was a
really powerful statement.”
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Like all bands who have radio fans and
real fans, Goo Goo Dolls exist on two
levels. But in this case what you get
from the radio and what you get from
the full fan experience differ in ways
casual listeners may not have been
expecting. The most pronounced is the
fact that while guitarist Johnny Rzeznik
sings the Goo Goo Dolls hits you’ve
heard on the radio, and most of what
you’ll hear on one of their albums, the
band in fact has two lead singers. True
to form, Something For The Rest Of Us
features a pair of songs with lead
vocalist duties handled by bassist
Robby Takac, entitled “Now I Hear”
and “Say You’re Free.”
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The theme of home shines through not
only in the title of the album’s lead
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It’s a trick up the band’s sleeve that’s
been known to catch first time concertgoers off guard. “I sing, and the first
thing they're like ‘What the hell, this guy
sings too?’ and so they're sort of
intrigued by it,” Robby says of the
handful of songs that he sings during a
typical Goo Goo Dolls show. “And by
the second song, there's a parting of
the crowd, man. It's hilarious. A portion
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of them are like rock on, alright,
they're having a great time.” And,
he jokes, “the other ones are
discussing what they're gonna drink
next.”
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Giving audiences a little more than
they bargained for is one of the
things that’s kept the band
commercially relevant over the
years. Another is that they’ve
avoided burning themselves out by
consistently pacing their albums four
years apart – although that may be
more out of circumstance than by
any design. After spending a year
putting an album together and then
another two years touring on it, Johnny
says that during the fourth year in the
cycle “we try to take some time off and
get a life for awhile, or go back to some
sort of normalcy. And then we'll get
back together again.”
managed to in some capacity of
relevance stay here, those first ten years
may not have been commercially
relevant, but I think they were pretty
relevant in a lot of ways because there
was a scene that was kind of coming
up. And without that scene, none of this
post punk, none of this alternative radio
stuf f probably ever would have
happened.”
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“Do that a few times,” Robby says of
that cycle, ”and all the sudden your
band's been together for twenty-five
years.”
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“I'm starting to see really young people
at a lot of our shows right now, a lot of
the time accompanied by an older
person,” he says of the faces he sees in
the crowd at concerts these days. And
when he was recently caught off guard
by the fact that an old friend’s teenage
kids wanted to pose with the band for a
picture, it was his friend who put the
now generation-spanning career of the
Goo Goo Dolls into perspective for him:
“You've got to remember man, to these
kids, you guys have just always been.” !
That longevity now sees the band just a
couple of years away from Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame eligibility, “I think
there's about a hundred and fifty
bands, or a hundred and fifty thousand
bands maybe, who need to get in
there way before we do,” Robby says
of the debates springing up on the
internet already regarding whether
Goo Goo Dolls should be inducted.
“But the fact that we've actually
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Beatweek.com
Review: Braven 710
bluetooth speaker • $169
The Braven 710 is the latest attempt by the tech industry to push the limits of sonic
quality over bluetooth wireless frequencies within a small package. The product is
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cased
in aluminum and tries to stand out with metallic color choices like gold and
blue and silver, but what ultimately stands out is its audio quality - even at higher
volumes.
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Bluetooth is a limited frequency, which has pushed some vendors to try their hand at
wi-fi speakers with mixed results. But Braven has stuck with bluetooth here, and has
built aptX technology into the speaker in order to up the audio ante. That results in
audio that seemingly sounds too good to be coming from a fairly small unit, which be
easily toted around in a laptop bag, if too big to be considered pocket sized. Throw in
the twelve hour battery life and the built in volume and play/pause buttons on the
side, and the 710 shapes up to be a real winner.
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If we're being picky, it would be nice to see a next/previous track button included on
the unit. And the rapidly falling prices in the portable bluetooth speaker market mean
that while the $169 price point of the Braven 710 is a good deal today, it may not be
tomorrow. But this product is highly recommendable.
Review: Boom Swimmer
waterproof bluetooth speaker • $59
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The rise of bluetooth wireless speakers means that users can listen to the audio from
their smartphone or tablet in environments where taking the device itself wouldn’t be
practical. Naturally, that trend has spread to waterproof speakers. The Boom Swimmer
isn’t the first to tackle this concept, but it does take a unique approach to the matter.
Rather than assuming you want to set the speaker down in a traditional manner, the
Boom Swimmer tries to be more creative. That comes in the form of a built in “tail”
which can be wrapped around objects like a shower rod or a pool railing. While this is
certainly a low tech solution, we found it to be surprisingly effective. Another low tech
inclusion is the ability to unscrew the end and mount it to a flat surface with a suction
cup in order to create a greater bass sound, but again, it works.
For $59, the audio quality of the Boom Swimmer is merely adequate. It’s built on the
assumption that you’re not looking for pristine audio quality while you’re splashing
around in a pool or taking a shower anyway, an assumption that’s probably correct in
most instances. But the eight hour built in rechargeable battery is a strong feature at
this price point.
The tail can be twisted around to prop up the speaker and use it in a traditional nonwater situation. But more realistically, the Boom Swimmer is best suited for people who
plan to use it in wet situations regularly. And considering that most of its direct
waterproof competitors are priced in the triple digits, the Boom Swimmer ends up
being a strong budget option.
Helen Hunt by Dana Feldman
William H Macy !
The
Beatweek
interview by Dana
Feldman Fox Searchlight Pictures’ THE SESSIONS is already garnering well-deserved Oscar
buzz for stellar performances from John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy.
This film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival winning both the coveted
Audience Award as well as the Jury Prize for ensemble cast.
The cast sat down with Beatweek to talk about the new film and more...
Based on the autobiographical writings
of the journalist and poet known for his
biting honesty and sharp wit, Mark
O’Brien, the Berkeley graduate who
spent spent the majority of his life in an
iron lung due to childhood polio, the
film is justly described by Hawkes as a
beautifully drawn story. At the age of
thirty-eight, O’Brien (Hawkes) decided
that it was time to lose his virginity. With
the help of a sex surrogate, Cheryl
Cohen Greene (Hunt), and the
friendship with his priest (Macy), he set
out to fulfill his goal.
his story is something genuinely
unexpected.”
Filming without rehearsing, Lewin
describes what he calls part of a
process. “There’s no formula, if there
was, I’d bottle and sell it!” He laughs as
he compares this to a romance. “When
it works, you’re grateful.” The film’s
emotional temperature, he says, lives
on its sense of humor. “It was important
for me that this wasn’t just a movie
about a horizontal guy, but that it was
also about the universe around him and
the people surrounding him.”
Writer/director/producer Ben Lewin,
who had also contracted polio as a
child, explains that O’Brien’s 1990
article entitled, “On Seeing a Sex
Surrogate,” published in the literary
magazine “The Sun,” was the blueprint
for what would become the script. “My
take on the subject matter and the
characters changed and expanded as
the journey progressed.” Lewin has
described O’Brien’s article as sad,
despondent and pessimistic. Lewin produced “The Sessions”
alongside his wife Judi Levine who says
that she’s not big on tearjerkers. “I like
happy endings. I like anything with a
sense of humor.”
Per Hawkes on portraying O’Brien in
what he refers to as a true and
beautiful film. “I knew I would have to
contort my body. Mark only had about
ninety degrees of motion with his head
and his spine was significantly curved so
I began with that reality.” Explaining
that you can’t fake that type of
positioning, Hawkes worked with the
props department to design a soccerball-sized foam ball that he put under
the left side of his spine to have it curve
without the usage of special effects
make-up or CGI. “It was dubbed ‘The
Torture Ball’. But what I went through to
play the role was nothing compared to
O’Brien’s lived experience minute by
minute, day by day.” Staying inside the
iron lung between takes because of the
difficulty getting in and out of it was
another challenge for Hawkes. “It was
difficult to be inside of it for long periods
“These were the writings from a man
who had given up the hope of ever
finding a close romantic relationship
with a woman that non-disabled
people seem to enjoy. But the
melancholic ending he wrote had an
unexpected and joyful coda: her name
was Susan Fernbach.” Explaining that
he always saw this film as a love story,
he adds, “It doesn’t follow the usual
blueprint. But I felt if I could do with the
film what Mark had done to me with
the power and authenticity of his
writing that would be something. I think
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Beatweek.com
of time, but I
wanted
to
capture the reality
of Mark the best I
could. I made the
physicality so
ingrained in me
that I wouldn’t
think about it
during filming. I’d
forget that I was
horizontal.”
With the goal of
bringing
a
recognizable person to those who knew
the real O’Brien who passed away in
1999 at the age of forty-nine, Hawkes
explains the pressures of portraying a
real person. “I want to honor the person
I’m portraying and honor those who
loved and survived him, that’s the first
audience to me, that’s who I want to
connect with. It’s an extra weight to
carry.”
never met anyone like her. The story felt
true and I knew that my job was to be
able to leave this man able to have a
sexual life. But sometimes you feel what
you didn’t expect.” A film, in part,
about self-acceptance, Hunt adds, “I
have a daughter and I want to live in
the world where we say ‘This is the body
God gave me’.” When asked if she felt
that this was a role that took a lot of
courage to embody, she says frankly,
“If courage is being scared and doing it
anyway than I have a bit of that.”
Of not knowing Hunt before the making
of this film, Hawkes reflects advice once
given to him by James Mangold. “He
once said to me that he’d get nervous
if there was great work between actors
in rehearsal with no cameras because
you want to capture things for the first
time on film between the actors. So,
Helen and I decided not to get to know
one another until filming our scenes. It’s
a risky way to work without a net, a
more bare bones, honest approach.”
“The three things I used to ask myself
before taking on a role were: What
does this have to do with the human
condition? How much do I get paid?
And do I have to get wet?” Macy
laughs at this before describing what it
was like to play Father Brendan, the
priest who guides O’Brien on his quest.
“It’s difficult to combine these two
subjects; people with disabilities and sex
and let’s talk about it in a church!”
Adding on a more serious note, “I’m a
proponent that a good script has
everything you need. Everyone will
always know someone with disabilities.“ Per Hunt, who says that it was the story
and the writing that attracted her, “My
life’s work meets good writing.” Of the
real sex surrogate of whom she
portrayed, “When I met Cheryl I’d
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Beatweek.com
Review: Ferrari by Logic3 Scuderia FS1
bluetooth stereo dock • $549
Fancy sports cars are a common sight at
the trade show booths of tech
companies looking to attract attention.
But the Ferrari Scuderia at the center of
the Logic3 booth at CES was there with
good reason: the company offers stereos
and headphones carrying the Ferrari
logo. The Scuderia FS1 is a stereo dock which
offers all the trappings of the Ferrari
lifestyle, from the car logo on the front to
the angular red highlights winding
through the silver and black styling. As
the FS1 sits on my desk for testing it's easily the coolest looking tech item on my desk,
which is saying something. The question then becomes whether this $549 stereo dock
offers an audio experience to match the stylistic one.
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The short answer is yes. Despite being only about a foot wide and less than six inches
deep, the audio from the FS1 offers the illusion of a multi unit stereo. In fact it's really a
single-housing 2.1 system, with a pair of tweeters on the front and subwoofer on the
bottom. The treble is extremely crisp, and the bass runs deep and wide. In terms of
audio quality and stereo separation, it's the best audio I've heard from a unit of this
size.
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In terms of connectivity, the FS1 aims to please. Front and center is a dock connector
port for previous iPhone and iPod models, while a line-in port and USB port on bottom
allow for the audio connection and charging of other mobile devices. But the built in
bluetooth connection is the most versatile, allowing almost any smartphone, tablet,
Mac or PC to be connected wirelessly. The included remote control features the
same Ferrari logo and styling of the unit.
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The only regret with the FS1 is that it's still relying on Apple's old dock connector port
for devices like the iPhone 4S and hasn't yet been updated for Lightning devices,
meaning that iPhone 5 users will only be able to connect via bluetooth and not
docking. But that's not a factor in the star rating of the product.
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If I wanted to be picky, I'd point out that Logic3 would have done well to include
play-pause buttons on the unit itself and not merely on the remote, but would be
perhaps too picky. The bottom line is that the FS1 offers the kind of exquisite audio
experience that's worth every penny of its hefty price tag. The fact that it looks like a
Ferrari is just a free bonus.
Review: XtremeMac Tango Air
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AirPlay speaker • $299
How best to describe the Tango Air? XtremeMac has essentially taken its diminutive
Soma wireless speaker, blown it up to several times the size, and upgraded the wireless
connectivity from bluetooth to AirPlay, with a resulting significant boost in audio
quality and a $299 price tag to go with it.
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The two product lines share quite a bit of DNA, from the same button and battery life
indicator configurations to the metal arch running across one end. Here, however, the
arch is large enough to function essentially as a handle. Although this is not a portable
unit and doesn't run on battery, the handle can be used for standing the unit upright.
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AirPlay only works with Apple's iOS devices such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch,
but it allows for a slightly higher fidelity of wireless audio transfer than bluetooth. Tango
Air sounds strong on the high and low ends, and retains that audio fidelity even when
cranked to high volumes. I've tested slightly better-sounding competing $299 AirPlay
systems, but the Tango Air comes close. And the trendy styling is such that some users
may fall in love with it on looks alone.
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While I wish it had play-pause and next-previous buttons on board, it does have the
bonus functionality of including a USB port on the rear so you can recharge your
mobile device.
Review: XtremeMac Soma BT
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bluetooth speaker • $129
Portable bluetooth speaker units are the runaway hit accessory in 2013, because
they’re small and light enough that you can easily carry them around while, if right,
sounding good enough to add significant audio quality to a device like an iPad or
laptop. The XtremeMac Soma BT aims squarely at that market.
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It’s a fairly lightweight unit about eight inches by three inches by two inches. And
while it’s a single speaker housing, it employs the trick of firing its two upper range
tweeters out the front and a lower range passive subwoofer out the bottom in order
to create some degree of spacial stereo separation. As as result the Soma BT sounds
impressive when you’re somewhat close to it, and can be cranked quite loudly while
still sounding decent if you’re looking to use it on the other side of the room from you.
The six hour battery life is about average. The inclusion of detailed a battery life
indicator is a plus. It would be nice if it included play and pause buttons, like some of
its competitors, as opposed to just the volume buttons it offers.
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Where this device ranks in terms of the overall bluetooth speaker market depends on
which price point you can find it at. XtremeMac officially sells it for $129, which makes
it a four star product out of five. It sounds about as strong as the very best $99
competing products, which means you’re essentially paying $30 extra for the classy
styling, which almost looks like it could have been designed by Apple. But at the
moment Amazon is selling the Soma BT for a mere $69, which makes it an absolute
steal.
Incubus !
The Beatweek
interview “The people who were going to be listening to it,” says Mike Einziger matter of
factly of the surprising new album from his band Incubus, “We knew that their
first reaction to it was going to be like, what the fuck is this?” But then again, this
has always been a band known for its high risk, high reward left turns. During the five years in which Incubus were on hiatus prior to the arrival of If Not
Now, When?, Einziger went and did the last thing you’d expect a rock star to do
if given time off: he enrolled at Harvard. Armed with a new musical perspective,
he’s since reunited with his bandmates to craft their most mellow and
intricately layered album to date, in yet
another gambit for a band which has
spent twenty years challenging its
existing fanbase while scoring a string of
hits along the way. Having just returned
home after traveling for album
promotional purposes, Einziger offered
up a cerebral look at the approach to
the new record, how the time off
changed the band, and how even
when he attempted to crank up the
knobs late in the album process, mellow
still ruled the day. Oh, and he’s got an
answer for whether Incubus fans will
have to wait another five years for the
next record after this one. time learning about what music was
like during the 1600's and what it was
like during the 1700's and so on and so
forth. Are you getting used to living on the
road again?
It contextualized my overall picture of
the music landscape. It made it so
much bigger than it ever had been. For
me it felt like it had a massive humbling
effect, is the best way I could put it. I
guess no matter how great of a
musician you think you are or ever
could be, somebody can dedicate an
entire lifetime to it and still not come
anywhere near reaching a level of
mastery. The world of music is such a
huge place, and it got much bigger to
me when I got the time to really explore
that world a little bit.
It's actually kind of nice to get back to
what used to feel normal so many years
ago.
You and your bandmates are old
friends. You were still in contact with
each other during the hiatus, right?
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How did what you studied at Harvard
end up impacting your approach to this
new album?
Yeah of course. Obviously going to
school in Cambridge, I was physically
away from them for a couple years. But
we talked pretty regularly, and I'd be in
and out of town between LA and
Boston so I'd get to see them from time
to time. It was a big change though, for
me to be living a long way from them.
That was definitely something that was
very different because I'd been living
with those guys since I was fifteen.
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The easiest way to quantify how the
experience of being a student in
general has affected the way that I
think about music is really mostly along
the lines of studying music history. I'd
say that as far as music goes, studying
music history was what hit me the
hardest I guess as far as how I look at
music. Studying music on kind of a
grand timescale, hundreds of years,
how music has changed over large
periods of time as opposed to how rock
music has changed in the last ten
years. My scope of music has
broadened considerably by spending
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When you came back together to start
working on the new album, did you
have to shake the rust off or did the
ideas start flowing right away?
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It's not that we had to get the rust off or
anything like that. It was just different
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Beatweek.com
though. It was obvious that every single
person in the band had changed a lot.
The last time that we had actually tried
to write music together, really, it had
been three or four years since we had
really tried to make an album and since
we had had any substantial time
together trying to write music or even
really talking about music. So it was a
change. It was definitely a change
because all of us I think changed a lot
during that time period.
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This record ended up leaning more
toward the mellow side of your sound.
Did you guys have the sense early on
that you were going to head in that
direction?
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Not at all, it just kind of happened.
We've never sat down and tried to
come up with an idea for what kind of
album we want to make or how we
want an album to sound, or even
individual songs. They just kind of
happen. I suppose that we could sit
down and okay, we want to write more
aggressive music or louder music or
harder music or whatever, but that's just
never been the way that we've
operated. So we were going to start by
doing that with this album.
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Does it ever weigh on your mind that
you've got twenty years of fans out
there that are all going to have an
opinion on this one?
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Of course that thought enters our
minds. But at the same time, allowing
that to influence our creative process
would sort of defeat the purpose of
why we're making that music. I
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understand that there's expectations
and that fans want certain things, but
as a part of the band I don't even feel
like I'm really a good gauge for what
that would be. I didn't plan what that
other music was going to sound like
either. It all just happened. We're happy
that it happened, and we're happy
that people reacted the way that they
did to it, but it wasn't planned, you
know? So if we started trying to plan it
out that way, that would be the biggest
change that we could ever make to
our music. I don't think any of us,
ethically, that feels like it would pollute
our process somehow. I guess we could
try something like that sometime, but it
just doesn't feel right to any of us to
make music like that. I guess it would
just feel like pandering.
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Beatweek.com
We've had plenty of mellow songs. I
think that there's just a noticeable
absence of loud aggressive rock music
on this one. But there have been other
bands and other artists that have made
records that I guess maybe fall outside
of their normal sort of sound, and
sometimes people respond well to it
and sometimes they don't. Trust me, we
were well aware of that risk when we
were making this album. But part of that
risk is what's exciting to us, I guess. We've gone through similar transitions
earlier in our existence as a band.
When we made the album Make
Yourself back in 1999, we had just come
off the back of touring behind an
album called S.C.I.E.N.C.E., and
S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was considerably more
aggressive than Make Yourself was. And
when Make Yourself came out, a lot of
our fans seemed to be very
disappointed at first. But we just
followed our musical compass.
Wherever it seemed to lead us, we
followed it. So we've continued that
philosophy to this day. So yeah the
album sounds different, has a different
sound. We're kind of I think asking our
fans maybe to listen differently to our
music than perhaps they have ever
before.
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Of all the songs that are on this record,
which one was the first that emerged?
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The first song written was a song called
Tomorrow's Food. It's the very last song
on the album. It's the last song that we
recorded, but it was the first song that
we wrote. I wouldn't say it set the tone
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for the album because we actually
didn't know whether it was going to be
part of the album or not. It was just the
first song that we had written. I'd say the
song that set the tone for how the
album was going to sound was a song
called In The Company Of Wolves. That
song was really the first song that we
wrote together as a whole band for this
album, and I do feel like it did set the
tone for what the rest of the album was
sort of going to be, I guess
philosophically speaking and just also
as far as its dynamic. It's a song that's
very simple, you know? It's got a lot of
subtlety built into it and a lot of space
built into it, and I think that song
definitely was a pace setter.
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Can you talk about how you built up
the title track in terms of the
instrumentation and the sonic angles?
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That song was written pretty late. It was
actually written while we were
recording. It was written at a point
during the making of the album when
actually a couple of the other guys in
the band had voiced some concerns
about not having any rock songs, any
hard rock songs or aggressive rock
songs. I actually sat down with the
intention of maybe creating something
that rocked a bit, you know? And that
song, If Not Now, When?, was what
ended up coming out (laughs), just to
give you an idea of where my head
was at. I just sat down and wrote the
music for that song in my studio at
home, and it started off with a bassline
actually. The guitar line is sort of
arpeggiated and really simple. To me it
Beatweek.com
just sounded intriguing and moody and
interesting, and I thought it was
something that Brandon would respond
well to.
I guess there are some elements in it
that I thought were sort of contradictory
to each other. There were these huge
big distorted bass chords that I had put
in for the chorus sections, and they
ended up really low in the mix so they're
not as prominent as they were when I
had first written the musical parts. I think
those at first were part of what made
the song sound so interesting to me. But
once the vocals came in and Brandon
started singing over top of it, his vocals
were so powerful it almost felt like the
song didn't need that anymore. It was
really built in stages, that song. I got all
excited about all these little musical
nuances, and then once Brandon
came in and started singing, a lot of
them disappeared but in a good way
because the lyrics and the melodies, to
me, they sounded really important.
What he was saying sounded really
important, and the power of his voice
really came out. Maybe even some of
those musical nuances might have
gotten in the way of that a little bit.
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That song was a surprise. I was surprised
that Brandon reacted to the way that
he did when I showed it to him. He got
really excited about it. The bridge
section of that song, I always thought
was tonally kind of interesting, and I'm
definitely proud of the string
arrangements that I wrote for that song
as well. I didn't have any knowledge of
how to do that before I went and
started studying, so that was definitely a
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bonus to be able to write a string
arrangement like that.
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You know that as soon as the tour winds
down and this album cycle winds
down, the first thing you're going to get
from fans is "Do we have to wait another
five years for the next one?"
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(Laughs) I don't think we'll take that
long of a break between albums this
time, because we had never really
taken a break. We worked really hard
and just so many years of touring, so
many years of making records, that
none of us has really been able to start
a family or anything like that. It's really
difficult if we're going to have children
and things like that. I'm thirty-five years
old now. Brandon's thirty-five years old
now. We're getting to an age where
the clock is sort of ticking and we want
to be able to kind of live our lives. The
schedule that we had before really
didn't allow much for that sort of thing.
So being off this time, during these last
few years, I think kind of gave
everybody the first opportunity in their
lives to think about those things. Those
ideas were never options for us. So
we're just trying to figure it all out now
and balance what makes us happy as
human beings with scheduling issues
and doing things like putting out albums
and going on tours. We're at a lucky
place in our lives now where we
actually have a little bit of control over
those things. We don't want to make
people wait for a really long time, but
we'll cross those bridges when we
come to them. We'll do whatever feels
right to us. Beatweek.com
Review: BRV-BANK
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battery backup • $129
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Portable backup batteries are quickly becoming commoditized, but Braven is
trying to fight back against that trend by giving the BRV-BANK a feature set
which most wouldn't have imagined for such a product. The premise behind the
standard backup battery is that it comes with a USB port or two, connects to
your smartphones and tablets via their own charging cable, and that's the end
of the story. But in this instance that's just the beginning.
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Two features define the BRV-BANK. One is that it's water resistant. The other is
that it's app-controlled. The included smartphone app tells you how much juice
is left and allows you to dictate whether you want one or both of its USB ports to
offer a charge, and also acts as a locating beacon among other features. The
product is clearly designed to be used in an active, rugged environment - right
down to something called "Bear Mode" which sets off an alarm if the battery is
shaken or moved.
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The BRV-BANK is clearly well thought out and designed. The question becomes
whether its extra features are worth its price tag. The included 6000 mAh is a lot
of battery power, enough to fully recharge an iPhone 6 three or four times over.
But $129 is also a lot of money; you'd typically pay $70 to $100 for a 6000 mAh
battery which doesn't come with the water resistance or the app based
features. So while it's only suitable for those who plan to take advantage of
those features, it does a strong job of serving that market.
Review: PowerSkin PoP’n 2
iPhone battery pack • $69
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Battery cases are built on the idea that if you make a case just a bit heftier than
normal, you can squeeze an extra battery in there which will recharge your iPhone
while you’re using it. But this requires you to use the battery case instead of your
favorite case. PowerSkin aims to split the difference with its PoP’n 2 product, a battery
pack which attaches to the back of your iPhone or your favorite case via suction and
features a wraparound Lightning port connector on bottom.
PoP’n 2 is well designed. It employs twenty-four small suction cups in the name of
making sure it remains tightly attached. Its ruggedized rubber wraparound connector
is sturdy enough that there’s no fear of it getting damaged in your pocket. And the
battery itself stops short of the iPhone camera, ensuring you can still use it.
The original PoP’n was smaller, aimed at fitting the iPhone 5/5S. The Pop’n 2 takes
advantage of the larger size and offers twice the battery power, jumping from 2000
mAh to 4000 mAh, making it instantly preferable to the original. The $69 price point
seems fair. Works equally well with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, though obviously designed
based on the dimensions of the 6.
As far as the stick-a-battery-pack-on-your-iPhone approach goes, the PoP’n 2 is about
the best implementation one might imagine. Still, it’s a less elegant solution than
actual battery cases from PowerSkin and other vendors. Those who want extra
battery power on a consistent basis would do well to simply get a battery case. As
such, the PoP’n feels aimed more at those users who either want to use it with their
own case, or simply want to skip the hassle of having to disassemble or reassemble a
battery case on a regular basis.
Review: iHome iPL10
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dockable stereo alarm • $79
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iHome is best known for is $99 dockable stereo alarm clocks for iPhone and iPod. But
its iPL10 offers a new $79 variation on that theme for those who want something with a
smaller footprint or are on a budget. The iPL10 is a square unit about as long and wide
as the long side of an iPhone, and only about three inches tall. There’s a Lightning
dock port on top for the iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5.
The iPL10 offers a good range of features for its price. The dimmer button for the front
LED screen has four brightness settings, an FM radio is built in, and there next and
previous track buttons on top. But not surprisingly, there is no remote control included.
There’s also a USB port around back for use with iPads that are too big to dock, or with
older iPhones that use Apple’s previous 30-pin connector port. While several stereo
systems offer this, the difference here is that music can be played and controlled
through the USB port by toggling to it with the Mode button. Still, those still using an
older device like the iPhone 4S would do better to simply buy an older iHome dock
with the older Apple port built in.
The weak point of the iPL10 is that its audio quality is merely okay. The bass is
respectable but the treble is a bit thin. That’s probably unavoidable given that that
this unit is half the size of iHome’s flagship dockable stereo models. That makes the
iPL10 a solid product overall, but it only really makes sense for those users who need
the smaller footprint on their nightstand.
Review: dreamGEAR Twist and bluSound
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bluetooth stereos • $79 and $89
portable bluetooth wireless speakers are
increasingly common on the market, so the two entries
from dreamGEAR attempt to put a twist on things –
one of them literally. The i.Sound Twist is a ten inch
speaker which, while a rectangular unit on its ends,
has a ninety degree shift in its center which gives the
illusion that someone literally took the speaker and
rotated it in their hands. The i.Sound bluSound is a
smaller unit which has the look of a traditional portable
speaker dock but turns out to be compatible with a
wide variety of devices.
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The Twist features a pair of front tweeters and a rear
firing subwoofer, with all three speakers interestingly on
the right side of the unit. On board buttons allow for
control of volume and playback, as well as taking
phone calls, while your iPhone or other device is
paired up with it. It comes in a choice of black red,
graphite, or acrylic white.
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BluSound has a similar array of buttons across the top
of the unit, but what differentiates it is the small slideout stand on the front of the unit. It's not a charging
dock, but it allows you to set a device like an iPhone or other smartphone on the front
of the unit while its music is wirelessly streaming to the pair of front facing speakers.
Because there's no charging going on, the stand on BluSound will work with any kind
of smartphone, regardless of charging port, including the new iPhone 5. There's a USB
port on the back for if you do want to run a cable around and charge your device.
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Unfortunately, neither device stands out in the audio department. Twist sounds solid at
low volumes, but if you turn it loud enough to use it from more than a few feet away,
the bass gets a bit thuddy and the treble a bit tinny. bluSound, being smaller and
having no subwoofer, sounds a bit tinny at any volume. That's not to say that either
unit sounds bad for its size; mediocre might be the most apt description.
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That said, the Twist does look uniquely cool, and bluSound is highly portable and
versatile. It comes down to how you're prioritizing styling vs functionality vs audio
quality.
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Tommy
Emmanuel live in concert Guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel descended on The Plaza Live for his Orlando
concert, an old movie theater that has been made into a concert stage without many
changes. The old rocking chairs were gone (and missed) and replaced with folding
chairs. They still sold popcorn in the lobby. We had great seats about six rows back
and in this intimate setting we could see every move of this great man's fingers. He
took the stage without fanfare, kind of like an old friend walking into your living room.
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After the first few songs we were completely entranced in Tommy's music, as was the
entire audience. His amazing rendition of Classical Gas garnished his first of eight
standing ovations and caused my guest to lean in to me and whisper "this man ain't
human!" He received his second ovation after playing a Beatles medley which
included "Here Comes the Sun", "When I'm 64", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Day
Tripper", and "Lady Madonna". What a ride. He then played one of his new songs "Blood Brother" which I thought was hauntingly
beautiful and then an old favorite "Angelina" which he told us was written for his
youngest daughter. This was the first
tidbit of Tommy's personal life that he
slipped in and around his music. He
also shared with us that he had to retire
his old beat up guitars (one of which he
had broken and had repaired 26 times)
and replace them with new ones. This
news brought groans from the
audience many of whom were
obviously guitar players. He took one
of his new guitars off the pedestal and
said he called it "Lieutenant Dan"
because you never know what you are
gonna get. What we got was a
beautiful rendition of "Somewhere over
the Rainbow" after which he received
another standing ovation.
which he said they recorded in one
take with Chet on the day that he was
taken to the hospital for brain surgery.
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One of my favorites of the evening was
a song called "The Trail" which was
about Native Americans and reminded
me of a Pow Wow that I had been to in
Wyoming once. It was one of his many
numbers that made you think there
must have been more guitar players on
stage and several percussionists. He
even joked about this phenomenon
saying, "We don't need no stinking
band, We are the stinking band!"
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He tried to explain and show us how he
could play rhythm and bass at the
same time and thought he was making
it look easy. It made me dizzy watching
his fingers fly. After opening act Pam
Rose joined him for James Taylor's
"Shower the People" and another
standing ovation, Tommy left the stage
only to return for his encore of the song
my husband (and apparently many
others) were waiting to hear, "Half Way
Home" . When he left the stage after
his final ovation I felt drained. As he
said about himself "I don't gear myself
up for a show, I have to gear myself
down!"
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He also shared how he got his first guitar
at the age of four and learned chords
from his mother who played the
Hawaiian steel guitar. But he loved
music from birth and would stand by
his mother's old washing machine and
dance, hence his sometimes strange
movements on stage while he played
which he called his washing machine
dance. He also showed us his "geezer
tuner" which only had two lights, green
if he was in tune and red if he wasn't.
But later in the show he mistrusted that
green light and tuned his new guitar
even though the tuner light was green.
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I knew I had been in the presence of
musical genius and yet his warm, down
to earth personality made me feel like I
had just made a new friend. His
Australian charm, his wicked sense of
humor, and his quirky washing machine
moves had truly won me over. If you
have never seen this man perform in
person or heard any of his songs look
him up now. He truly is amazing. Another standing ovation was given for
"Guitar Boogie" and he dedicated an
unbelievable rendition of Amazing
grace to a woman in the audience
who was celebrating her 85th birthday.
He also dedicated a song to Chet
Atkins, his longtime friend who passed
away 12 years ago from brain cancer.
He played "Smoky Mountain Lullaby"
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Review: Blue Mo-Fi
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powered on-ear headphones • $349
Blue, a company best known for its microphone products, has finally made the leap
into the increasingly popular headphone market. And instead of going the standard
fare route, the Blue Mo-Fi is aimed at disrupting the high end of the market. Various
vendors offer amplifiers which aim to boost the quality of the compressed music files
being played on smartphones and MP3 players. But the Mo-Fi builds that technology
directly into the headphones.
The results are, in a word, striking. When in standard mode, the Mo-Fi sounds like just
another pristine set of $349 headphones (that’s not an insult). But with the
enhancement turned on, suddenly the audio experience jumps to being best in class.
It’s the kind of boost that makes you want to go back and listen to your favorite
albums again to see what you’ve been missing.
That bit of magic requires a built in battery which lasts up to twelve hours and has to
be recharged. But the key here is that when the battery is dead, the Mo-Fi can
continue to be used in standard mode – which again, sounds plenty fantastic in its
own right.
As much as the Mo-Fi is defined by its audio enhancement mechanisms, it’s also
defined by its physical design. These are large headphones, and I’m not just referring
to cup size, which are conveniently oval shaped and fit your ears better than large
circular competitors. But the entire construction of the headphones is on the large
side, from the adjustable-tension headband on down.
I won’t go so far as to use the word bulky, but these headphones are on the heavy
side and I’d rather use at home than try wearing while going for a casual walk. At this
price point, you only want to be buying one set of headphones – so I’d (strongly)
recommend the Mo-Fi to people who primarily want to use their headphones with
their mobile device while at home.
Review: AblePlanet True Fidelity PS400BG
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on-ear headphones • $99
In this era of flashy expensive celebrity endorsed headphones, the $99 True Fidelity
PS400BG headphones simply aim to deliver a quality listening experience. They
feature an all black design save for a silver logo on each side, and offer more
comfortable cup and headband padding than most headphones in their price
range.
The audio from the PS400BG is solid across the bass and treble ranges, and in my tests
sounded appropriate on the various music genres I tested. The bass stands out as
being particularly high fidelity for $99 headphones, both on the traditional bass lines of
rock songs and with the synthetic bass of hip hop.
Included are a quarter inch stereo adapter, airline adapter, and drawstring carrying
pouch. The pouch isn’t as sophisticated as the zippered hardshell cases which often
come with two and three hundred dollar systems, but in fairness the majority of
headphones in the price range of the PS400BG don’t come with a carrying case at
all.
Built in to the cabling is a volume wheel. iPhone users may end up wishing AblePlanet
had more familiar up and down volume buttons instead, but that’s perhaps not the
specific market being aimed at here. Regardless of whom the PS400BG is marketed
at, they’re highly impressive headphones and feel underpriced.
Review: Cygnett InSound
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noise canceling headphones • $129
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Quality noise canceling headphones, which surround your head with white noise to
create a virtual bubble for you and your music without outside noise interruption, are
often priced in the two to three hundred dollar range. That makes the $129 InSound
from Cygnett a potential value play. The all-black InSound looks like a fairly standard
headphone product – until you turn it on.
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Powered by a pair of AAA batteries inside the left headphone cup, the InSound offers
an audio experience which is impressive for its price range. The higher and lower
ranges are crisply enunciated, and despite a slightly emphasized bass, the audio is
balanced enough that it sounded good with every genre I tested it against. The
active noise canceling technology, while not as absolute as that found on
significantly more expensive products, is enough to mostly drown out a noisy neighbor
or an airplane engine.
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InSound can also be used with the noise cancelling turned off. However, in this mode
the treble goes a bit flat and the bass fades to the background. The headphones are
usable in this mode, but it's not ideal, which means that you're best off leaving the
noise canceling turned on all the time, only switching to the off position when you're
not wearing them or when the battery is dead.
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That said, noise canceling headphones are aimed at users who want the noise
canceling technology turned on more or all of the time, and the InSound sounds
great in that mode. Included are a zippered hard carrying case, an airplane adapter,
and black and red headphone cables which can be interchanged. I'd like the
InSound a little more if the cables included a mic and three buttons for full interaction
with devices like the iPhone; as it stands you'll need to control playback directly via
your mobile device itself. But the InSound does have a volume wheel on right
headphone cup, so you won't need to go reaching for your mobile device for volume
control.
Everything Worth Doing Takes Time
by Chris Brogan
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START SOMEWHERE
People complain all the time that
nurturing the digital channel takes
time. “I just got on Twitter. I don’t
have time to get a hundred
thousand followers!” Of course you
don’t. You have all the time in the
world to figure out ways to
automate or falsely inflate or do a
hundred other efforts that won’t
help. And you’ve neglected to just
start.
Do you know who also says it will
take to long? Kids. On everything they don’t want to do. Homework, room cleaning,
etc.
Start your digital presence accounts and get in the habit of spending even 20
minutes a day on them. 20 minutes.
Spend 10 of it talking and 10 of it listening. Or if you want to really do some amazing
work, spend 5 minutes talking and 15 listening.
When I say “listen,” maybe you’re not following your prospects and potential
community of value. Go to Twitter.com/search and spend time there, searching for
people who might benefit you. On Google+, go to Find People On Plus, who match
your demographic needs in some way.
NO ONE STARTS AS A CELEBRITY
Imagine being a young woman working on your high school radio station. From
there, you get the improbable job of working at the local TV news show. You work for
years and then are given the lowest-rated spots on the air and told to make
something of them. Eventually, it starts to pick up. But this is years later, almost a
decade. And then, ten years later, you’re given your own TV show.
Now, at a net worth of over $2.7 billion, Oprah Winfrey is the richest self-made woman
in the history of America.
A decade.
BUT I DON’T HAVE TIME
I hear this often, too. No
one has time, if they’re
fortunate enough to have
work worth doing. But
when you say you don’t
have time to build a
platform of value, you’re
saying, “I am working on
my health but I have to
swing by the Drive Thru
window for lunch.”
grown before, they forage. This is the
basics of what platform building is
about. You eat what you have while
you plant and nurture what is to come.
There’s no other way to do this. Buying
your way into the future is purchasing
an expensive lie that won’t pay you
back.
“Time” comes from preparation. I told
you 20 minutes before. Would it surprise
you that it really doesn’t take much
more than 20 minutes a day for most of
what needs doing even now, after
years and years of building a platform?
THE TIME PROBLEM IS A BRAVERY
PROBLEM
What does take time in building up a
network of any kind of value is creating
interesting content that is of actual use
to your community. That takes time. I
can’t see a way around that. But the
acts required to show people that you
care? To connect and make people
feel seen doesn’t take very long at all
and pays off greatly. Because it’s
people that will fuel your growth.
The trick is this: we always have time for
that which brings us great success. We
find it. When something gives us
feedback and that feedback feels
rewarding, we’ll do more of it. But what
happens is that when you’re starting
out, when your voice isn’t quite as
heard (yet!), you fear it will never be
heard. You can’t hear the roar of the
crowd because you’re still working your
way up to that stage.
BUT I HAVE TO EAT TODAY!
Here’s a truth: farmers don’t starve
while they plan their crops. They eat the
yield of the previous harvest. And if they
can’t make a meal of what they’ve
Be brave. It takes work, yes, but the
value is there. You’ll see. 31
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Joe
Perry
Talks Aerosmith,
his new memoir
Rocks, and life
lessons
photo by
Ross Halfin
“I’d still be a rocker,” says Joe Perry when asked about what might have been.
But the Aerosmith guitarist reveals that he flirted early on with becoming a
marine biologist instead. His new memoir is called Rocks, and it’s a candid
glimpse into his childhood, the ups and downs of his band, and what he’s
learned from it. Joe talks about all of the above in our Beatweek interview…
Why was now the time to write Rocks?
Why not five years ago, or five years
from now.
have to be a rock and roll fan or an
Aerosmith fan to get something from
the book, because there’s a lot of
common human nature, dealing with
egos in different families and things like
that which are common in life. I wanted
to point that out.
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There are so many changes going on in
the music business, and during this
change of the way that music is getting
out to the fans it was the fortieth
anniversary of the band. We were
finishing our last record for Sony, my
youngest song just graduated from BU,
so all four boys are out of the house, so
personally things were kind of changing
and we’re going into a new era, so to
speak. It felt like time to do it. It always
felt like there was one more thing to do
before I could settle down to write a
book like this. I could have written it five
years ago, but it just felt like there was
always something left. One more thing.
It just felt like it was time.
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I was lucky enough to have really nice
parents, and I really wanted to be
happy with what I was doing. I just
wasn’t designed that way. I had a
learning disability that they really didn’t
have a name for at that point. It really
held me back from doing what they
wanted me to do. But I also felt like the
life that they had set out and planned
for me wasn’t what I saw myself doing. I
was too much of a rebel, too much of a
loner, too much of an outsider. I never
saw myself putting on a tie and going
to work every day. I just didn’t.
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In a lot of these stories, the traditional
parents are the villains. But your
parents, despite your disagreements
with them, end up being the heroes of
the story.
Being an oceanographer sound pretty
attractive and exciting, and I would get
to see the world. But that would also
take a fair amount of skill in the
classroom that I didn’t have. So that
knocked that out of the box. But as
much as they wanted me to follow that
path, they realized that I was cut out for
something different. In their own subtle
way, they were helpful. I don’t think I
realized it until I actually wrote the book
and then read it, and saw it in a
chapter, instead of thinking back to this
instance or that instance out of
context. It was part of the story.
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There are certain things that are
stereotypical of the rock band story, but
I wanted to dig down a little deeper.
The book almost starts with a question:
how did I end up there? I came from a
very non-musical family. I had to really
go digging to find this pop music and
then of course rock and roll. And at the
same time, having some natural affinity
for playing the guitar. Then as time went
on, those years that every kid goes
through, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,
you’re wondering what you’re going to
do with yourself. I think that a lot of
people can relate to that. You don’t
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There were times apparently when my
father went to see the band play, and
he never told me that he went. I found
this out from my uncle, who has long
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Beatweek.com
photo by Melissa Mahoney
since passed away. He said ‘Your dad
was real proud of you, we used to go
shows together and we would’ tell you.’
Fortunately I was able to show him the
gold record before he passed away, so
he knew at least I had a source of
income. That made me really happy.
Yeah, it was important for me to put
that in there.
subconscious level. The whole period
that I was going through that was a
really tumultuous time, and I’m not sure
if I made that evident enough in the
book. One thing I probably would have
focused on more is just how crazy it was
during that period, the sixties.
Everything from the assassinations to
the marches for equality, the college
kids taking their vacations to go down
to march down south, and of course
the Vietnam war and worrying about
getting drafted. Those were really big
things. There was a lot going on in the
background, and certainly a lot to
rebel against at that time. People’s lives
changed because of it in a big way. I
think that’s an important thing to keep
in mind when you read about some of
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If certain things hadn’t happened, such
as you getting kicked out of school for
having long hair, would you still have
found your way to music or I would I be
speaking with Marine Biologist Joseph
Perry right now?
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I have to say that there was something
about music that drew me on a
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Beatweek.com
the decisions I had to make, and how
music was such a part of everyone’s life
at that point, especially for young
adults my age. That music meant so
much. The Beatles White Album. We
listened to those records over and over
while we were sitting there fretting over,
what’s my draft number? It was a really,
really hard time.
the kind of success we had. So it was
interesting to go back and think about
those times. Certainly, my summer with
Judy Carne was a high point, no pun
intended. She turned me into a man, I’ll
tell you.
!
But then also, meeting [wife] Billie. I was
so fortunate to be away from
Aerosmith, not to be this big rock star
playing in front of sixty thousand
people, just playing in what she saw as
a local band. So I knew that she liked
me for me. I certainly didn’t have any
money at that point. In fact the first
time I took her out to dinner, they
brought my credit card back cut in
half. So it wasn’t about the money. It
was about finding two kindred spirits. I
found my best friend, and still I’m
amazed that I was fortunate enough to
be in that position, just me and my
guitar, in meeting her. It was just a
miracle. I see guys that are hugely
successful, and they’re still looking for
their mate. It’s got to be really hard.
!
I really thought that I could add
something to the science end. I love
the ocean, I love the outdoors, and I’m
still fascinated by it. But rock and roll
was right there. It fell in with my own
feelings. I wasn’t going to stay in that
small town. I knew the world was too
big to just stay there and follow that
kind of path, even if I could have. So I
have to say, I would probably still be
playing rock and roll. Maybe be more
involved with oceanography. At this
point I’m a big supporter of the Sea
Shepherds. We’re constantly watching
the alternative news to see what’s
going on with the oceans and the
weather and the climate and all that
stuff. I still have a fascination with it.
!
And yet see seems to be the one who
steered you back toward reconnecting
with Aerosmith.
!
What was the hardest chapter to go
back and revisit? What was the most
enjoyable subject matter to go back
and write about?
!
Definitely. I think part of that was
because she didn’t know, not that I
think it would have mattered, because
so much had changed between the
time I left and the time I went back,
that I think she probably would have
given me the same advice. A lot went
on during those late years, late
seventies. A lot of that was my own
issue. The band never really sat in a
really objective way and dealt with
some of the problems that we had. We
!
Some of the stuff that happened to us
in the seventies when we were just
starting, some of the stuff that fell
together, I’m really kind of stunned by
the turns of events. Being at the right
place at the right time, or running into
this one who could literally bail us out. I
always felt like there was something
bigger going on, even before we had
36
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Beatweek.com
photo by Roman Perry
were still basically kids getting fucked
up. If we had our arguments it would
often end up with someone walking out
of the room slamming the door and
going and going and getting fucked
up. That’s not how you handle things if
you’re looking for longevity.
The introduction is by Johnny Depp. I
was aware that the two of you were
close friends. I was not aware that
you’ve only known each other for three
years. Are you surprised that you could
meet someone at this point in your life
and become so close of friends with
them that quickly that you’d pick them
to write the introduction to your
memoir?
So those are the kind of things that we
learned after the band got back
together, how to separate the two.
Keeping the band together and not
letting the differences in the way we
wanted to live our private lives get in
the way.
!
As it happens we became friends pretty
fast because he’s a musician. After the
first half hour of meeting him and the
old ‘I’m a huge fan, I’ve seen this movie
sixteen times’ and then him saying ‘I
!
37
!
Beatweek.com
remember seeing you guys play when I
was fifteen and I picked up a guitar’
and all that, after that got out of the
way, we just talked music and family
and that kind of thing. And we became
really good friends. During that period
he was around here, around LA, and
we got to know each other pretty well.
It’s really not so much about the length
of time, it’s the quality of the time you
spend with somebody that dictates if
you’re gonna be really close friends of
acquaintances. And we’re very similar.
We’re both very private people, we’d
just as soon not walk on the red carpet.
We’re not out there wanting to be seen
every week. We just like doing our gigs
then going home. As it turns out, we just
became really good friends. It’s really
hard to find people that you can trust
and become friends with at this point in
my life.
!
What do you most want your sons to
take away from the book?
!
I think there’s not much in there that
they haven’t heard in some form or
other, when it’s being in the room when
I’ve made phone calls, or being upstairs
when the band’s been rehearsing. I
know at one point the two of them had
a band together, and we were
recording Honkin’ On Bobo. You could
go down in my basement and take a
left, you’re in my garage. Take a right,
you’re in my studio. There were a
couple weeks going by where they
were rehearsing in the garage, and the
band was recording Honkin’ On Bobo.
The whole house was filled with music.
So they’re pretty immersed in the
business. They’ve seen the high points.
They were raised on the road. Billie and
I decided early on we were going to be
together. I wanted her to be with me,
and then when it came time to have
kids, they were going to be with us too.
So we raised them on the road. We’re a
really tight family. So it was a different
way to live, but it was also a great way
to raise a family. A lot of times we felt
like gypsies out there. It was just a great
time. The band was in a very creative
place too.!
!
!
!
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Beatweek.com
Review: STM Bags Blazer
!
!
15” laptop sleeve
!
At a time when even fifteen inch laptops are growing increasingly thinner, the
Blazer from STM aims for svelteness to match. It's about a thin as a reasonably
well padded laptop sleeve can be, not much more than an inch thick, yet
manages to be fairly versatile.
!
The Blazer comes with three low profile ways of carrying it: a small built-in handle
on the side, and a detachable top strap which slides out to either be a
handstrap or a shoulder strap. In addition the main zippered laptop sleeve there
is also one nearly full-height pocket on each side, one zippered, one open.
There's also a small corner pocket on the one side.
!
That's a good amount of storage for a slim profile laptop sleeve, and a solid
product all around. The fifteen inch Blazer sells for $44.99, while the ten, eleven,
and thirteen inch versions (not tested) sell for lesser prices.
Review: Chrome Barrage Cargo
!
!
laptop backpack
!
If most laptop backpacks feel like variations on the same theme, Chrome Industries
tries to bury that blueprint with the Barrage Cargo. It’s a rolltop waterproof bag which
manages to be almost zipper-free while replacing the traditional shoulder strap
adjustment system with something which very much resembles a seatbelt, along with
a see through mesh pouch on the outside and a logo which looks like it belongs on an
expensive sports car.
Of course a statement like that only matter if it can be backed up properly with
functionality. The Barrage Cargo is somewhat unique in that it doesn’t employ a series
of progressively shorter pockets as most backpacks do. Instead there’s the main
rolltop pouch, height adjustable depending on how tightly you roll it, inside of which is
a laptop slot and a general storage area. On the front of that is the lone zippered
pouch, also the full height of the bag. The mesh on front is capable of holding quite a
bit of gear, though you’d only want to stash stuff there that you want others to see.
The storage is rounded out by a drink bottle pocket on each side.
That’s all good news for those users who are looking to pack a lot of gear and aren’t
concerned about keeping it all separated, who tend to view the series of
progressively smaller pockets as a divisive waste of space. Those who depend on
having a large number of smaller pockets are probably looking at the wrong bag.
The most fascinating feature may be the way in which the shoulder straps work. Metal
latches hold the adjustable straps in place. A belt across your chest holds the two
straps together, connecting into an actual miniature seat belt buckle, complete with
a logo which again looks like it belongs on a sports car. The buckle helps reinforce the
idea that the Chrome Barrage Cargo Backpack can be used to tote a heavy
payload, while also adding to the uniqueness of its styling.
Review: STM Bags Velo 2
!
!
15” laptop bag
!
With the Velo 2, STM aims for the kitchen sink of laptop shoulder bags, throwing in
pockets and zippers left and right in an attempt to appeal to the accessory-happy
traveler. The result is a product which, while a bit busy in a design sense, offers copious
amounts of storage space and plenty of ways to keep various gadgets separated.
The Velo 2 is carried by an adjustable length padded shoulder strap or a top mounted
handle, and its front flap opens via a pair of plastic release clips to reveal a treasure
trove of pockets inside.
!
The main storage area has room for a fifteen inch laptop along with a tablet slot and
adjoining space for cables. In front of it are two more layered zippered pouches.
Each side of the bag has a horizontal zippered pocket of its own. There's also a strap
along the back for attaching the bag to a luggage handle. And in a detail most such
bags overlook, there's an extra layer of padding on the back where it's most likely to
rub against the side of your body while carrying it.
!
I was initially unsure of how to get the plastic clips open until I realized you press right
on the STM logo, after which opening them became very easy. The only thing I can
knock the Velo 2 for is that its shoulder strap isn't removable for those times when you
might only want to carry it by the handle. But aside from that this is a nice solid bag.
Comes in black, blue, or grey. Also available in a smaller thirteen inch size (not tested)
for the same price.
Review: Logitech Keyboard Folio
!
!
hard shell keyboard for iPad
!
With its Keyboard Folio for iPad, Logitech follows a familiar structural concept: place
the iPad inside a folio case, build a physical keyboard into the inside face, and pair
the two over bluetooth to allow the case to be propped open sideways as a
makeshift mobile workstation. But while the function has been done before, the form
and styling differ here aggressively.
Most iPad keyboard cases are made of black leather or brushed metal aluminum,
screaming “formal businessperson” at onlookers. But Logitech tries a different tack
entirely, using hard fabric on the outside in colors like blue or pink or yellow (and yes
black) with rubber siding. The result is a bright and friendly looking product which aims
to reel in personal users and not merely people who wear suits.
But looks only count for so much, so we come back to the function of Logitech’s
Keyboard Folio. There are a couple niceties here. One is that when you set the iPad
up for typing, a magnet locks it into place just in front of the keyboard, saving you
from having to rely on mere gravity to hold it in place. And the keyboard layout itself is
nicely done, with chiclet keys similar in design to Apple’s own MacBook keyboard, but
slightly rounder in shape, and bright white against a light grey plastic backdrop. All
four arrow keys are full size, and the only complaint might be that there’s a single
command key instead of two.
There are a number of good iPad keyboard folio cases on the market. The Logitech
Keyboard Folio ranks in the upper crust in terms of function, and offers a breath of
fresh air in terms of styling. Works with iPad 2, iPad 3, and current iPad 4.
Review: Sensu Brush
touchscreen stylus
!
!
!
With its cap on, the Sensu Brush resembles any other iPad stylus with a rubber tip. With
its cap removed and placed on the other end, the device is indistinguishable from a
paint brush, right down to the bristles. But this is not a novelty product; Sensu is aiming
to deliver a stylus for touchscreen devices with two very different kinds of functionality.
!
The rubber tip stylus is common for users who either don't want to use their own
fingertips, or who want more precise control for use with a creative app such as a
drawing program. The brush stylus is a more niche product aimed squarely at artists
who want to "paint" on their touchscreen using brush strokes. Of course in the iPad
era, anyone can be an artist if they like. And so the Sensu becomes a nice starting
point for those users who are looking to evolve beyond digital fingerpainting, so to
speak.
!
In my tests with the Sensu Brush, I tried using both the rubber and brush tips in not only
artistic apps, but also in basic navigation of my iPad and iPhone. I found that it
worked well in each of the various scenarios. It seems the product was designed to be
used more often in brush mode than rubber mode, as the configuration of the former
gives your a nicely rubber padded grip right where your fingers are inclined to hold it,
while the latter leaves you simply gripping the metal material of the cap. So I'd
recommend the Sensu more for users who intend to put both ends of the device to
good use, rather than users who only really plan to use the rubber tip with regularity.
!
At $39, the Sensu Brush is not inexpensive as far as the stylus market goes. But its
combination of dual functionality and a nice solid look and feel makes it a worthy
consideration for artists and wannabe artists alike.
Review: ZAGGsparq 6000
!
!
USB battery• $69
!
High capacity USB battery bricks are becoming more common as we rely on mobile
devices more heavily, but those batteries eventually need to be recharged
themselves via wall socket. The idea behind the ZAGGsparq 6000 is to combine a
battery with a wall charger by simply including a flip-out electrical plug on the bottom
of the battery. This facilitates recharging your devices and the ZAGGsparq at the
same time, and when retracted, doesn't detract from its ability to function as a
portable battery.
!
The 6000 mAh of included power is enough to come close to recharging a device like
the iPhone four times, and the pair of USB ports means that you can charge two
devices at a time if need be. I've tested similar batteries which offer slightly more juice
for less money, but the difference here is that the USB ports on the ZAGGsparq are
2.1amps which means that they charge devices at a much faster speed than the 1.0
amp ports found on cheaper batteries; this is particularly evident when charging a
power hungry device like the iPad.
!
So while the ZAGGsparq 6000 is far from the least expensive device of its type and
size, it's one of the most appealing – both because it doubles as a wall charger and
because of its fast charging.
Review: Just Mobile Slide
!
!
iPad and iPad mini stand • $39
!
The in-between size of the iPad mini means that the physics behind existing stands for
both the full size iPad and smaller iPhone may or may not properly apply. So when
Just Mobile announced that its brushed metal aluminum Slide stand for iPad is now
also aimed at the iPad mini, I had to try it for myself. Slide is one of those minimalist
products where if you weren’t familiar with Just Mobile’s penchant for clever
minimalism, you might be tempted to dismiss it as a simple thin piece of metal at the
outset. But as has so often been the case with its products, Slide is a deceptively
sturdy and adjustable product.
The secret to Slide is that it has a heavy black rubberized cylinder hiding inside its
rolled up end, giving enough heft to the product to keep an iPad properly balanced
on its shelf end. But the cylinder also provides the adjustability: take it out and place it
anywhere along the top of the device to position your iPad at any angle you like. It’s
almost too clever, and yet my tests that showed that it has no problem keeping the
iPad steady and sturdy at any angle. As it turns out, Slide handles the iPad mini just as
well as it handles the full size iPad.
I’ve tested competing metal iPad mini stands that were more expensive and
significantly bulkier yet didn’t keep the mini as steady. That makes the Just Mobile
Slide the best in its category, and possibly underpriced.
Review: LapDawg X4
!
!
adjustable lap desk • $69
!
Most laptop stands are designed for your desk, aimed at slightly elevating and
angling and nothing more. But the LapDawg X4 aims for a much wider variety of
positions and uses. It has a pair of legs which pivot in three places, forward or
backward, which allows for use anywhere from a desk to in bed to on the floor.
!
The pivot points are the key to the flexibility of the product. You can lock them in at
nearly any increment, meaning that you can turn the X4 into whatever kind of stand
you want it to be. If you’re sitting on the floor, you might position the two two sections
vertically, the bottom section horizontally on the floor, and the stand section at
whatever angle you want to view your laptop. In bed, you might set the bottom two
sections horizontally. On your desk you wouldn’t need the bottom section, and so it
conveniently folds up parallel with the midsection. LapDawg also points out that in
addition to being a laptop stand, the X4 can be used to support anything from
breakfast to a book.
!
In my tests I found it to be highly versatile. It took me a bit to determine precisely
which configurations worked best in what locations, but once I figured them out,
adjusting the legs from one position to another way easy. My 17” MacBook Pro was
plenty sturdy on it, so any size laptop should be the same. The LapDawg X4 would be overkill if you’re merely looking for a desk stand and don’t
plan to use it in any other manner. But if you tend to use your laptop around the house
in various positions, this product might be what you’ve always been looking for. Review: Urban Crew
laptop backpack with alarm • $99
!
!iSafe Bags takes the fact that people are increasingly carrying
!
whistle or noisemaker devices in case of attack, throws in the fact
that carrying a backpack makes you more of a target due to the
assumption that there’s a valuable laptop or tablet inside, and
offers the novel solution of a backpack with a panic alarm built
into it. The Urban Crew Campus Laptop Backpack looks and
functions just like any other backpack, with the exception of a ripcord hidden under the right shoulder strap which sounds an alarm.
As a backpack, the Urban Crew features a main zippered pocket for any device up a
15.6 inch laptop, along with three progressively smaller zippered pockets for holding
other items. The smallest includes pencil slots and a mesh pocket for supplies. On top is
yet another zippered pouch for small items. The backpack is black, but comes with an
optional choice of color highlights ranging from pink to neon green.
But the defining feature of course is the alarm. It works much like a rip cord on a
parachute, where all you have to do is lift the flap on your right shoulder and yank the
cable underneath it. The result is an alarm that’s louder and more piercing than a fire
alarm, and more closely resembles a Star Trek “red alarm” siren. If you don’t know it’s
coming, and you don’t immediately know how to shut if off, the alarm is going to send
you into a distracted panic. After testing it out a few times in a row, I had enough of a
headache that I had to sit down. This is, of course, precisely what you want it to do. If
you’re being assaulted, the attacker is going to be paralyzed by the alarm. And if
someone is trying to steal the backpack, they won’t get more than a few feet before
ditching the bag and running away from it just to get away from the noise. Even if your
attacker is determined enough to keep assaulting you through the piercing noise,
anyone who’s remotely near you is going to be made keenly aware that there’s an
emergency going on so they can help out.
If you’re going to buy this for your kids, make sure you show them precisely where the
rip cord is. It’s very easy to get to once you know where it is, but you’ll want them to
have that knowledge beforehand rather than trying to find it during an emergency.
Advise them not to tell their classmates about the alarm, so that no pranksters get any
funny ideas. And if you have the misfortunate to have to use the alarm a number of
times, you’ll eventually need to replace its batteries. My experience with laptop
backpacks tells me that the Urban Crew has the build, materials, and durability of a
very nice $49 laptop backpack. That means you’re paying an extra fifty dollars (forty
dollars right now, due to the introductory price) for the alarm functionality. That’s a lot
of money if you or your kids are unlikely to be in a situation where they’d ever need it.
But if you do have legitimate safety concerns, then the Urban Crew is a great way to
make sure your kids not only have a safety alarm system, but never forget to take it
with them when going to and from school.
Review: Earloomz NBA Team Logo
bluetooth headsets • $34
!
!When bluetooth earpieces first arrived, debate raged
as to! whether those seen wearing them were really
that pressed for time or were merely trying to get
noticed. But as more States have enacted hands-free
driving laws, such headsets have become more the
norm. The market has essentially divided itself into two
kind of headsets: those in the fifty to one hundred
dollar range which feature high quality audio with
bells and whistles like noise canceling mics, and those
in the sub-fifty dollar range which aren’t anything
special and simply get the job done. Earloomz aims
to split the difference with its NBA themed bluetooth
headsets which clock in at $34 and, while not offering any standout features, will still
get you noticed.
Headsets are so long and narrow that getting any kind of team logo is a challenge.
On the unit I tested, Earloomz approached the Miami Heat by including as much of
its flaming basketball logo as possible, along with a white “MH” and an orange
background. That’s likely enough to get you recognized as being a Heat fan by those
who walk past you on the street in Miami, even if those in other cities might not get
the reference when you’re traveling. On the other models, the word “Lakers” is
squeezed tightly above the team’s yellow and purple logo, while the Clippers model
simply consists of a stylized C over top of LA.
The headset is of about average size and is lightweight. I found its circular rubber
padding to be comfortable, and it stayed in my ear plenty well, with or without the
included very thin plastic wraparound clips (one black and one clear), which are
removable. Also in the package is a black rope lanyard, an unusual inclusion for such
a product, which gives you some place other than your pocket to put it when you
need to take it out of your ear.
Assuming you’re planning to use this product to make phone calls and not merely
support your favorite teams, audio quality is as important here as styling. In my tests I
found the call quality to be plenty acceptable under normal conditions. You’ll be fine
in a light breeze, but a big wind gust could prove troublesome. That’s where the bells
and whistles of the more expensive headsets come in handy. But for $34, the
Earloomz offers about what you’d expect as an audio product. That means you’re
essentially not paying anything extra for the NBA team styling.
Review: NewerTech NuStand Alloy
Apple TV stand • $15
!
!NewerTech says that the Apple TV looks silly just
! there on your television stand, and offers
sitting
a simple vertical stand as an alternative. And
here all this time I thought my Apple TV looked
just fine sitting flat, all by itself, looking like an
overgrown black drink coaster. Hmm, maybe
they’re right. So I decided to test out their
NuStand Alloy.
The stand is a lightweight black metal arch with
a rubber padded slot in the middle. Setup took
literally a second or two, as you simply slide your
Apple TV into the slot. There’s a red and white
NewerTech logo on the tip of the stand, but
because it’s fully symmetrical, you can choose to position the logo on the rear of the
stand where no one can see it if you prefer.
By default the Apple TV sits fully upright in the stand with its ports on the back. On a
whim I rotates my Apple TV forty-five degrees and reinserted it diagonally, just
because I thought it looked cool that way, and it worked just as well, although in this
instance it blocked access to the audio and ethernet ports, which I’m not using
anyway. To be clear, all four ports are fully accessible when you position the Apple TV
fully upright as intended.
It’s worth noting that despite being a vertical stand, the NuStand Alloy isn’t designed
to save any space. It takes up about as much space left to right as my Apple TV did
when it was just sitting there, and of course it takes up more vertical space. But this
isn’t about saving space. It’s about taking the square-hockey-puck known as Apple
TV and making it look like it’s on your television stand on purpose.
In the end it’s the black metal look of the NuStand that sold me, as it matches
stylistically with my Apple TV and also with the black frame of my television above it.
As is always the case, your mileage may vary when it comes to style points.
Two items of note: this is for the current smaller Apple TV, not the sandwich tin-sized
model of years past. And although I didn’t test it, NewerTech offers a similar stand for
the Mac mini.
Review: Red Vintage CoFi Case
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
leather iPad case • $49
Some users want their iPad’s screen visible and accessible at all times while carrying it
around with them, while others simply want to shish it away in something elegant
while toting it. The Red Vintage CoFi Case is aimed squarely at the latter. It’s a
zippered top pouch which leaves your iPad unrecognizable inside its confines. And
it’s certainly elegant.
The entire exterior of the CoFi Case consists of red textured leather, emanating with
the unmistakable scent of cowhide. The inside is lined with white fleece padding
aimed at keeping your iPad safe. It works with any generation of iPad, including the
new iPad 4, along with any other full sized tablet that’s no larger than an iPad.
The black zipper features a silver loop with a three inch red leather pull tab on it.
Perhaps this could have been made into a finger loop instead, so as to provide the
case with some method of being carried other than simply grabbing the entire case
with your hand. But that’s a minor concern. Overall the Red Vintage CoFi Case is
nicely done and well made. As far as genuine leather iPad cases are concerned, the
$49 price tag on this one is a good value.
Review: ibattz Mojo Battstation Tough Dual Pro
USB battery • $29
!Battery cases which form-fit your mobile device are
all
! the rage, but sometimes more power is needed
than
! can be crammed into a case, or more than one
device needs power, and so external battery bricks
!come in handy. iBattz offers the Mojo Battstation
Tough Dual Pro, whose pair of USB ports allow you to
!charge any two USB devices at a time, from iPhones
!
and iPads to Brand-B tablets and so on.
The Battstation offers several appealing
characteristics. Unlike most of its competitors it’s
encased in ruggedized rubber, in a nod to the fact
that external batteries are more likely to get used on
the go and therefore get banged around. It has a built in small flashlight, again in
recognition of the decent chance that this product will be used either outdoors or
during a power outage. And while it comes with a generic micro-USB cable, it also
includes a pair of 30-pin adapter heads for use with devices like the iPhone 4S and
iPad 3 (those with a new Lightning-based device like the iPhone 5 or iPad mini can
use the Lightning cable which came with their device).
But perhaps the most important thing to like about this product is that while it offers
7200 mAh of power, enough to charge multiple devices multiple times, it costs a mere
$29. For reference, similar competing products offer 4400 mAh for $49, 10000 mAh for
$99, and so on. That makes the Battstation an absolute steal.
There are two points of caution here. The minor one is that because this is intended as
a rugged product, the ports are covered by rubber flaps. It’ll take you a few seconds
to get your fingernail in there to pull them back, as there are no pull-tabs. However,
the entire rubber layer can be removed, leaving you with just the plastic battery
module which makes the whole thing smaller and the ports more accessible. The
major caveat, for some users at least, is that this is a 1.0 amp product, not a 2.1 amp
product. That means that while iPhone and iPod users may notice much of a
difference, power hungry devices like the iPad will take a long, long time to charge.
That makes the product more geared toward those who are mostly charging smaller
devices, or who are charging tablets overnight and don’t care how long it takes. Still,
this product from iBattz is a huge bargain and it makes all other external USB battery
bricks suddenly look overpriced.
The Battstation unit I tested is 7200 mAh for $29, an absolute steal. Also offered is an
8400 mAh for $39, which offers fractionally more juice but isn’t quite such a bargain.
Review: RadTech BT600
!
bluetooth mouse • $59
!Apple's Magic Mouse is an innovative buttonless
contraption,
but some Mac users may end up wishing
!
!they had a more normal mouse. And while Windows
users often find great bargains on their latest PC,
!there's a good chance that the peripherals which
!come bundled with it leave something to be desired.
That leaves some users from
! both platforms looking for
a third party alternative. RadTech offers the BT600, a
full sized bluetooth wireless mouse with five physical
buttons, and a novel way of recharging the unit.
!
BT600 is a laser mouse, which means no ball inside and therefore no mouse pad
needed. Its curved top surface has a pair of large embedded buttons, and turns
convex on the sides for gripping. Another pair of buttons is on the right, and the
scrolling wheel is the fifth button. A round power button on top triggers a blue light
within the scroll wheel to let you know it's been turned on.
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Included are two rechargeable AA batteries, which can be recharged while still
inside the mouse by connecting the entire mouse to the computer via USB. This means
that you never need to remove the batteries, and you can keep using the mouse
while they're recharging – a trick which some other vendors could take note of. This
trick alone means that the BT600 is one of the better bluetooth mouse products I've
ever laid my hand on.
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When it comes to cosmetics, this mouse comes in a choice of black or white, with
prominent silver highlighting. The top surface is textured rubber, while the sides are
smooth plastic. Customizing the five buttons can be done with RadTech's own Mac
app, which is easy to use, or with a choice of third party Windows apps, which I didn't
test.
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About the only thing not to like here is that while the almost-symmetrical design
means that you can use it with your left hand if you need to, the side buttons are
clearly positioned for right hand use. But while left handers may want to look
elsewhere, the other ninety percent of the population is in for an impressive mousing
experience – particularly when the batteries eventually run down.
Review: iLuv HearSay iEP515
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in-ear headphones • $59
With the HearSay, iLuv ventures into territory oft neglected by the overall market: a
set of earbuds which aims to offer all the niceties of a $99 product while clocking in
with a more value oriented $59 price tag. The means the inclusion of a built in mic
and volume buttons. It also means the inclusion of increasingly trendy – and less
tangle prone – flat ribbon cabling, along with a choice of colors including red, black,
and white.
The key for an earbud product like the HearSay (model number iEP515) which looks
and feels like a more expensive product is that it has to offer decent sound quality as
well. In my tests I found that the HearSay is strong in the lower and middle ranges,
with the bass in particular being solid, while the upper treble ranges are merely
adequate. Earbuds in this price range never get more than two of the three ranges
right, so this is acceptable for what you’re paying, so long as you’re not fanatical
about your treble. The overall audio quality of the HearSay is better than most of the
competition in this range.
The one oddity is that the rubber posts which go in your ear canal are right up
against the fattest part of the earbud ,instead of being tapered or set back a bit as is
the case with most earbuds. Users with smaller ear canals may find this design
uncomfortable, while users with larger ear canals are unlikely to notice one way or
the other. So the recommendability of the HearSay iEP515 is different for each user.
But for those who don’t have small ear canals, the above-average audio quality,
built in mic and buttons, and striking design are all apt motivators.
Review: Fanny Wang WangBuds
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Headphone maker Fanny Wang makes its first foray into earbuds with the WangBuds,
and rather than taking the predictable route of adding to the veritable sea of in-ear
earbuds on the market, the company instead offers something completely different.
The earbuds bundled with the iPhone and other audio products offer flat grilles which
sit next to your ear canal, while most brand name third party earbuds are designed
around small rubber buds which are slide inside your ear canal. WangBuds employ
something of a hybrid between the two: the have a flat grille, but are covered by
rubber pieces which steer the audio directly to the edge of your ear canal. I’ve seen
this concept employed before on single-ear bluetooth headsets, but never on a set
of mainstream earbuds. That alone left me intrigued.
My tests with the WangBuds left me with a new appreciation for what can be done
audio-wise with on-ear earbuds. The audio is far and away better than what you get
from Apple’s bundled earbuds, and the rubber routing system also created a more
intimate and noise-isolated listening experience. The catch is that the WangBuds do
not offer as intimate a listening experience as the best similarly priced in-ear earbuds
do. That then begs the question of whom this product is for.
There are a good number of users who complain that they don’t like in-ear earbuds,
because none of the various sized rubber tips will stay in place for long, or because
having something inside their ear canals throws off their balance. So for that crowd,
who are otherwise stuck with the earbuds which came with their device, the
WangBuds offer an appealing alternative. They’re likely a niche product, but a useful
one whose niche has been up to this point underserved.
The choice of white, red, or black also provides some stylistic flexibility. And the
inclusion of a built in mic and three buttons makes the WangBuds a true replacement
for the iPhone and iPod bundled earbuds.
Review: NeoBuds Pro Musician
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Can the word “Pro” be used to legitimately describe any twenty dollar product? That
question gets put to the test with the NeoBuds earbuds from POCKETLABWORKS, a
company which makes audio gear aimed at musicians. These all white earbuds
piqued my curiosity because even the least expensive of in-ear earbuds tend to
sound better than the on-ear earbuds which Apple ships with its iPod and iPhone.
Most people don’t want to pay anywhere from fifty to hundreds of dollars for the inear buds which dominate the market, so could the NeoBuds fill that role?
That comes down, of course, to a test of their audio prowess. Intriguingly enough, the
NeoBuds sound really, really good for their price. The offer a respectable listening
experience across the low, mid, and high ranges, and sound good across every
genre I tested them with. Spend fifty bucks elsewhere and you’ll get much better
audio. But if twenty dollars is your budget, the NeoBuds represent a fantastic value.
Two caveats keep me from being able to recommend them as enthusiastically as
they’d like. One is that the metal buds run right up against the rubber bud tips,
meaning that users with small ear canals may find them to be only moderately
comfortable; it would be better if the metal casing were either tapered or further
back from the tips. The second is that the NeoBuds don’t have a mic or buttons built
into their cabling, as is the case with Apple’s bundled earbuds and most third party
in-ear earbuds. That means that in order to control the volume or pause the music
you’ll need to pull your iPod or iPhone out of your pocket, and making phone calls
through the NeoBuds isn’t an option. Adding such controls would likely boost the
price tag slightly, but it would make for a full fledged replacement for Apple’s
earbuds instead of a compromise.
That said, for those users who have medium or large sized ear canals and don’t have
any use for the built in mic or buttons anyway, the NeoBuds are a steal.
PC
Weenies
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by Krishna Sadasivam
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...more at pcweenies.com
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