September, 2008 Archive

Awesomeness: Jason Mraz in Zürich

Alright, firstly I want to apologize for all the errors that will be in this text (I hope none of them grammar or spelling errors, though), since I (unfortunately) don’t remember everything exactly, and did not tape the show, which, looking back, I should have done.

So, me and a good friend of mine went to the Jason Mraz concert in the “Kaufleuten”, which is a renowned club and lounge in Zürich, we arrived just early enough to place ourselves somewhere in the middle of the first two thirds of the hall, with some hundred other exited people (some more than others).

Jason Mraz in Zurich

Image courtesy by evamaria_n

Opening (on 19:30) for Jason Mraz was Ingrid Michaelson, a New York-based indie-pop singer-songwriter (according to Wikipedia), she talked and joked a little and played some of her songs, I heard her for the first time and was quite impressed, she has a beautiful voice and her music is the style I like. She played (Please feel free to comment, if I have missed a song or when the order is wrong):

Be OK

Keep Breathing

Giving Up

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Jason Mraz in Zurich

Image courtesy by evamaria_n

After that (and a short wile of waiting) Jason Mraz came on stage, together with Toca Rivera and Ian Sheridan. Here’s what I remember of the songs they played, the order is somewhat random, though I tried to order them correctly, that means, the songs are somewhat in the right place.

Make It Mine

Unfold

Conversation With Myself

Peg (A song by Steely Dan)

Remedy

Lucky (with Ingrid Michaelson)

Live High

Dynamo of Volition (A song by )

Mary Jane (A funk-song they had been experimenting on just before the show, so I guess it was the first time they played it.)

I’m Yours

Ain’t Got No Dope

You And I Both

Life Is Wonderful

If It Kills Me

Butterfly

And lastly some unordered impressions:

  • During the whole show there was this guy somewhere in the back, and he was always shouting stupid stuff, he didn’t sound drunk but he acted as though he was, which was kinda funny at first but became annoying very fast. ;)
  • There was a girl in the front who apparently had birthday just that day and her friends were shouting, that it’s her birthday, Jason finally noticed them and stated that it was a tradition for all the birthday girls on his shows to come on stage and get naked, which she then sadly didn’t do. ;)
  • The last forth of the concert Jason played Ingrid’s Ukulele (Oh, did a mention that? Ingrid played all her songs, except one, with an Ukulele) instead of his acoustic guitar. (Here’s a video of that.) And I was always hoping he wold begin to play Smells Like Teen Spirit.
  • Jason talked about our modern patchwork religions, using the analogy of a salad buffet, where anyone can choose a little of anything he likes and put it together and finally have his own kind of salad and be happy about it.
  • There are some videos on YouTube, but the turnout has been way smaller than I expected.
  • It was the first concert of Ingrid Michaelson outside the US.

So that’s all for now. I am still hoping that there are more videos out there, so I’ll keep searching and I’ll put them on here when I find them. I’m also hoping, that someone taped the show, because it was simply great, and I though I saw some one tapeing, so if it turns up, I’ll be posting it here as well.
I would also, very much, like your comments. If you have something to add or to correct, please feel free to write, thanks.

Review of “The Village Sessions” - John Mayer

john mayer - the village sessions - front

john mayer - the village sessions - rest

Oh, just buy it, for god’s sake! ;)
John Mayer’s “The Village Sessions” is a beautiful, fitting, acoustic live album. I’m a little disappionted that it is so short (just 6 tracks) but hey, one track outshines the other, so what more is there to ask for.
If you want a post-Continuum live album, this certainly is the one to go on.

5/5

1. Waiting On The World To Change (feat. Ben Harper) (2:52)

01 - Waiting On The World To Change (feat. Ben Harper)

One, Two, Three, Four…
This is the song with which John Mayer advertised for his 4th studio album “Continuum“, this live version is as beautiful and encouraging as ever, although not as rebellious, a little too smooth for my taste. (Probably Ben Harper’s involvement has something to do with that) But very clean, there are choruses in the background, I particularly like the acoustic guitar in this one. And the ending is great.

2. Belief (3:44)

02 - Belief

Another song from “Continuum”, the acoustic guitars work very well again, this version draws even more power form the piece itself, the rhythm and the melody because the instrumentation is as sparely as possible.

3. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room (3:53)

03 - Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

This is probably one of my favorites form “Continuum”, though it is really hard to tell, since there are just exceptionally great songs in “Continuum”. For this song, acoustic is perfect. Since it is a kinda sad piece, the less instruments there are, the better it fits,  and the solo in the middle is even more beautiful, it almost is as if he makes the guitar sing. Oh, yeah, this song definitely is my favorite form this album. You should buy it just to be able to listen to this song, seriously.

4. Good Love Is On The Way (3:24)

04 - Good Love Is On The Way

The first Non-Continuum song on “Village Sessions”, I first thought this was a cover, but it apparently is not. It’s from “Try!“, an album John Mayer made with Steve Jordan and Pino Palladion. It’s a little more bluesy than the previous ones. And again, nicely arranged, but it has lost power compared to the Try!-version.

5. I’m Gonna Find Another You (2:47)

05 - I'm Gonna Find Another You

What is there to say, I’ve said it all already. The tuned down, acoustciness works great with this song as well. Above all with this song it produces a certain vulnerability that really fits.

6. In Repair (5:47)

06 - In Repair

Once again: Acoustic! I love the solo, the tone of the guitar is so warm, and it really starts to rock in the end. Great!

Hooray! 3rd Term I come…

I’ve finally passed the “Basisprüfung”, which is a block of 7 exams to test the accumulated knowledge of one year (just the first actually) of electrical engineering studies. It was my second try (last year I failed), so I’m happy it finally worked out (with a grade of 5.01 (The grades in Switzerland range from 6 to 1, where 6 is the highest and 4 is the line between fail and pass)), which means I’m pretty happy right now and excited as well, since there will be a lot of new stuff coming at me. (The 3rd term starts at the 17. of September, right after the one and only “I’m Yours” Jason Mraz concert in Switzerland, I’m obviously attending).

Review of “Live at Lestats (April 15, 2004)” - Jason Mraz


This picture is not actually from the 15. April 2004, but hey, it’s at Lestats too, at least.

This is probably the best live bootleg I know of a Jason Mraz show. It’s a little short but the sound quality is flawless, Jason’s voice is perfect as always and the songs are mostly live debuts and very good as well. Additionally there are some funny intermezzi, which make this album even more enjoyable to listen to.

You can get it here.

5/5

1. Intro (0:36)

01 - Intro

A little intro with Mraz saying “I’ve been in my apartement for a long time and I’ve been singing these new songs. You never know If a song is good until you leave your apartement.”

2. Flying My Guilt Over A Quilt (4:22)

02 - Flying My Guilt Over A Quilt

Later known as “Plane” a song about his (at that time) current girlfriend and their long distance relationship. This definitely is one of my favorite versions of “Plane”, its wonderfully clean and raw and very exciting and powerful at the same time. It’s just Mraz playing his acoustic guitar and singing, no other distracting instrumentation. I also love the variation of the tempo and volume.

3. “Your clapping totally threw me off” (0:43)

03 - 'Your clapping totally threw me off'

Mraz begins playing for the next song, but has to stop, because the clapping of a viewer throws him off. And Mraz jokes around a little. Very funny to listen to.

4. Warming Up (4:38)

04 - Warming Up

A very relaxed, more intro-like (though too long for that) song. This is the only recording I have seen this song on, so you could say it’s a rarity. It’s also the first time Jason played this song in front of a larger (in this case about one-hundred people) audience.

5. Fine Dining (4:28)

05 - Fine Dining

Another first recording, and again the only recording of this song I know of, which, in my opinion, is strange, since this song is one of my favorites of all songs I know of Jason Mraz. It’s overall very mraz-like, incredibly funny lyrics, a catchy melody, gorgeous acoustic instrumentation (just the guitar again).

6. “I brought some CD’s” (1:01)

06 - 'I brought some CDs'

Intro to “Song For A Friend”, but in the middle of it Jason remembers, that he brought some CD’s of covers he did, which he wasn’t allowed to sell, as turned out, so he’s giving them away to the audience.

7. Song For A Friend (4:25)

07 - Song For A Friend

A song Jason wrote for one (I don’t know if any in particular) of his male friends. Again, very clean, overall a beautiful acoustic version without any ballast.

8. What It Takes (4:34)

08 - What It Takes

A version of “Life is Wonderful”, probably also my favorite version of this song (so you see, this recording is, though short, quite excellent)

Live Bootlegs

I am going to review some excellent live bootlegs, therefore I have decided to explain some things about live bootlegs and I’ll also talk a little about lossless audio files (and converting them into more handy types).

Live bootlegs are recordings of live music shows/appearances, they are recorded by fans with equipment of varying quality. In most cases live bootlegs are not explicitly allowed or even forbidden, but in some cases (like Jason Mraz) the artist himself encourages bootlegging, and also allows the distribution of bootlegs through the web.

Where do I get live bootlegs?
You could try googling, or just go to archive.org.

Now what’s the deal with these odd audio formats (such as Flac or Shorten) you might ask:
Well, let me put it this way. If you record a piece of music, you will get a file of about 30-50 MB at size. This is the raw audio data, and it is called “lossless” because all the data recorded is in that file, nothing has been lost. Then there are lossless compressions, that means the file size of an audio file is shrunken without any actual data being lost. SHORTEN or FLAC for example are such audio formats, the file size with these should be around half of the uncompressed audio file.
You can also compress an audio file with a “lossy” audio format, that means in order to decrease the file size some of the data will be deleted (this will be sound you can’t actually hear with your ears, because the frequency is way to high (or low)), that way you can achieve an audio file with about one tenth of the size of the original lossless, uncompressed audio file.

Now, as I said, bootleggers distribute their recorded music as lossless audio files (they do that, so that the quality of the files won’t degrade through sharing) but for most people these files are way too big, so you will want to reduce their size by converting them into a lossy audio format. (Also most portable music players won’t be able to play lossless audio files)

There are several free and open source applications for various operation systems that can do that for you, here are some. If you run into troubles, need more help or other programs, don’t hesitate to write a comment and I’ll look into it. Because so far I’ve only worked with soundKonverter (I, almost exclusively, use Linux).