music » Shihan Online

London

Ende April war ich für ca. 4 Tage mit ein paar Freunden in London.

Eine sehr sehenswerte Stadt. Ich war ja nun schon in einigen Städten, diese gehört definitiv zu meinen Favoriten. Sie bietet sehr viel. Wunderbare Archtiketur, etliche Sehenswürdigkeiten, Shopping-Möglichkeiten (ideal beim aktuellen Pfund-Kurs), Nachtleben, Parks und vieles mehr.

In der Stadt scheint es immer sehr hektisch zu sein. Millionen von Menschen die sich durch die Strassen drängen. Der Verkehr auf den Strassen ist ebenfalls extrem. Ich würde keinem Touristen empfehlen mit einem Auto die Stadt zu besuchen, zudem sind genügend öffentliche Verkehrsmittel vorhanden. Mit der Underground, oder dem Bus (zumeist ein Doppeldeckerbus) kommt man zu fairen Preisen schneller ans Ziel.

Übernachtet haben wir in Appartments (“Hyde Park Suites“) in der Nähe vom Hyde Park, in Paddington. Der Bahnhof Paddington (einer der Londoner Hauptbahnhöfe) ist nur ca.5 Gehminuten entfernt. Von dort kommt man z.B. mit der “Central Line” sehr schnell ins Zentrum, resp. zu Sehenswürdigkeiten.

In der Galerie könnt ihr einige Fotos vom Aufenthalt anschauen:
http://gallery.shihan-online.ch/main.php?g2_itemId=3660

Folgende Fotos habe ich überarbeitet:

The Eye of London by *shihan on deviant ART

Tower Bridge by *shihan on deviant ART

Man of Faith by *shihan on deviant ART

Houses of Parliament by *shihan on deviant ART

Ich hoffe euch haben die Bilder gefallen, vor allem die Überarbeiteten

Wie gesagt, ich kann London jedem empfehlen. Ich hoffe ich werde selber irgendwann mal wieder das Vergnügen haben, diese Stadt zu besichtigen.

Nine Inch Nails – Neues Album gratis veröffentlicht

NIИ Nine Inch Nails (NIИ) haben diese Woche ihr neues Album “The Slip” veröffentlicht. Das beste am Ganzen: als Dankeschön an die Fans für jahrelange Unterstützung kann es frei heruntergeladen werden. Ähnlich wie bei Coldplay kann man sich auf der Seite http://theslip.nin.com/ einen Download-Link zuschicken lassen.

Wenige Sekunden später erhält man eine Email mit dem Link zur Download-Seite. Auf dieser kann das neue Album dann heruntergeladen werden. Zur Auswahl stehen diverse Formate, z.B. mp3 oder WAVE. Ebenfalls ist im Download dann das Album-Artwork enthalten, welches normalerweise als CD-Booklet vorhanden ist.

Trent Reznor wird voraussichtlich das Album im Juli dieses Jahres auch auf CD und Vinyl veröffentlichen, dann aber natürlich nicht mehr gratis.

Wiedermal ist Trent Reznor ein genialer Coup gelungen. Nachdem er sich von seinem alten Label hatte lösen können ist er nun endlich frei das zu tun, wonach ihm ist – ohne Vorschriften von irgendwelchen Plattenbossen.

Wer mehr über die bisherigen Marketing-Aktionen von Trent resp. NIИ erfahren möchte, dem empfehle ich folgenden Link: http://www.fistfulayen.com/blog/?p=205

Coldplay – Get the new single “Violet Hill”

Coldplay is going to release a new album (“Viva la Vida or Death and all his Friends”) this year in June. To give you a little appetizer they are now giving away a free copy of the single “Violet Hill”, which will also be on the new album.

You can request the new song @ http://www.coldplay.com/song.html

After you’ve entered some details you will recive an email with a download link to a zip file, in which the song is contained (as MP3). When not getting the email, be sure to add the sender to your white list (more details on the coldplay page itself).

I for myself had to wait hours until I finally recived the email, maybe they had some problems with too many requests.. but who knows. This morning I finally recived the email with the link and I could download the song but I hadn’t the chance yet to listen to it. So if it sucks… blame me.

Fix you

Not the newest song but still one of the best, Coldplay’s “Fix you”. I cannot stop listening to it at the moment. There is no special reason I just think it’s a really great, strong and powerful song. Christ Martin has really created a masterpiece.

The best part, at least in my opinion, is of course when the guitar solo starts (when Chris starts running in the video). Very well done. Build your own opinion:

Also check out the lyrics: http://www.coldplaying.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=296&page=1

WordPress 2.3.3 and weekly music top artists

I’ve updated the blog to use wordpress 2.3.3, it’s an urgent security fix, so if you use wordpress too you should upgrade immediately.

In the meantime an update of my weekly top artists:

Shihan Online Best of 2007 Awards

Sorry kids, no real Golden Globes this year, but you don’t have to wait until the Academy Awards. The Shihan Online “Best of 2007 Awards” are here to shorten your waiting time. Yes I know, my votes are a little biased, but hey.. it’s my blog, it’s my opinion and yes I know, some titles are older and not exactly from this year…

Ok here we go:

Best movie
The Bourne Ultimatium
(2.) The Simpsons Movie
(3.) Die Hard 4

Best show
Veronica Mars (R.I.P.)
(2.) Heroes
(3.) Battlestar Galactica

Best band
Nine Inch Nails
(2.) Fauxliage
(3.) Ivy

Best song
Fauxliage – Let It Go
(2.) Ivy – Edge Of The Ocean
(3.) Arcade Fire – No Cars Go

Best game
MTA – San Andreas
(2). war§ow
(3). Battlefield 2142

Best news
Edmund Stoiber resigns
(2.) Christoph Blocher “resigns”
(3.) Germany wins 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup

Best event
Nine Inch Nails @ Volkshaus Zurich (and getting a tinnitus)

Your harsh comments are always welcome

Fauxliage

As I recently watched Moonlight I noticed a nice song at the end of episode 4 “Fever”. A quick search in the internet showed me that it was the “All the World” by Fauxliage. As it seems, the band doesn’t have an official homepage but they have a profile on MySpace where you can also listen to some of their tracks: http://www.myspace.com/fauxliage

What can I say, I like their style of music. I like bands with a female lead vocalist and electronica/ambient style.. or whatever it is call in this year. I’m sure you know the singer already, it is Leigh Nash. She was lead vocalist at a band called “Sixpence None the Richer”… sooooo kiss meeeeee lalalalaaaa…

Check it out!

Ivy – Feel so Free

I just can’t get enough of this song at the moment (I don’t care about the video, I just wanted to show you the music in full length):

More Information about Ivy

music makes my world go round

I know I’m late. Propably all of you already have heard of last.fm. Well I’ve heard from it since some years but never actually used it, instead about a year ago I tried out iLike which is basically the same thing only from another company. I cannot tell you what’s better. I barely used iLike in the last months and I’m not deep into the last.fm community. For the moment I must say I prefer the community functions, the layout of last.fm more. Also the software they use to collect the data of songs you played etc. seems to be better.

In case you wonder, here is the music I last played (yeah, I own them all ^^):

No Good

“The Prodigy” – They were once my favorite band. They caught my attention with their third album “The Fat of the Land” (TFoTL), since then I was hooked. Later I also bought their two previous albums “Music for the jillted Generation” and “Experience”. But after the release of TFoTL in 1997 they haven’t brought out any new stuff until 2004 (well, there was a Remix CD and a Single, but not a real album).

I wasn’t really awaiting their new work… actually I cannot tell you right now if I have bought “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned”, so it either hasn’t made a huge impression on me or the release of the single “Baby’s Got A Temper” has ruined it for me. TFoTL was such a huge success, that it was really hard to produce something better or at least close as good.

This morning as I was browsing through YouTube, I came accross one of my all time favorites from “The Prodigy”. One of the finest Techno/Big Beat (or whatever it is called) of the 90s.