All posts by Evan Hamilton

Evan Hamilton’s Top 5 Songs of the Year

Music

Yes, I’ve fallen prey to list-mania.  I can’t resist it.  Here’s the new music I loved in 2009 (in no particular order).

A disclaimer: I don’t listen to a lot of new popular music because I’m weird and picky.  I’m sure there’s stuff that is better that I haven’t heard (or at least you think it’s better). These are my top songs, so take that as you will.

Them Crooked Vultures – No One Loves Me & Neither Do I

Choosing the best track off of Them Crooked Vultures was difficult.  If I were going for best groove I’d call out Gunman.  Most intruiging might be Bandoliers.  But No One Loves Me & Neither Do I is such a brilliant combination of pop, rock, and HEAVY that you can’t help but rock the hell out to it.  Just try.

Golden Shoulders – Little Nixon

Fantastic band from my hometown of Grass Valley.  Every song this guy writes is great, but this one stands out as one of the best on “Get Reasonable.”  Great digs at George Bush without being heavyhanded (like 95% of Bush songs).  Fantastic music that is hard to define from one moment to the next.  Makes me want to flail about.  Win, all the way.

(track can be heard at http://goldenshoulders.com/music.php)

Heartless Bastards – Could Be So Happy

There’s something so happy and beautiful about this song. It’s got a dark side, but the acceptance of one’s own issues is an important part of getting past them. Erika Wennerstrom’s vocals are not the most beautiful, but they strike me as completely honest and I can groove to that.  The Mountain was possibly the best surprise of the year.

Wilco – Wilco (the song)

Deny it all you want, but this song is great.  Wilco (The Album) is certainly not my favorite Wilco album, but “Wilco (the song)” is great.  For anyone who’s ever hid from the world in their headphones, this song proclaims “tired of being exposed to the cold/the stare of your stereo/put on your headphones/before you explode/Wilco’ll love you, baby”.  Amen.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Soft Shock (acoustic)

I was not a fan of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album.  I love the YYYs intensely, but I wasn’t a fan of their transition from raw and original to a ripoff of every hipster electronica band. However, the acoustic bonus tracks on the special edition of It’s Blitz! are strikingly beautiful in comparison to the fuzzy robotic tunes on the record proper.  “Soft Shock” has an incredibly unique set of instrumentation that suggests folks but then goes somewhere completely different with the melody.  I could listen to this song for a long time.

(acoustic version not available for streaming)

Monters are not Myths Song I’m Most Proud Of – Netcat

It’s impossible for me to objectively rate my own songs, but I’m extremely proud of how “Netcat” turned out on our new album, Corporate Grown.  Most of this is thanks to the brilliant band behind me, including the awesome banjo of Clide Lynne of The Paper Crocodiles.  Call me a shameless promoter, but I want everyone to hear it.

Hope you all a happy new year with lots of great music!

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Rawk – Them Crooked Vultures and Nirvana – Live at Reading

Music

This has been a great month for my ears.  Not only did a new live Nirvana album drop, but the much-anticipated supergroup Them Crooked Vultures released their self-titled album.  Here’s what you need to know.

Them Crooked Vultures is a musician’s album. And it rocks.

I use the term “musician’s album” loosely, but it’s essentially true: Them Crooked Vultures is for those who trip out on insane musicianship, originality, and balls. Big balls. But it’s not necessarily as mainstream-friendly as even a band like Nirvana (who sacrificed very little of their heaviness for the masses).

For the uninformed, Them Crooked Vultures is the culmination of members from 4 unparalleled groups: Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, and John-Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. If you dislike any of the aforementioned bands, you may not like this album. If you like any of them, you will probably appreciate it. If you like all four, you need this album.

First and foremost: every single note that John-Paul Jones and Dave Grohl play are gold. I’m not trying to diminish Josh Homme’s contribution – I just think that the rhythm section of this band is the best currently out there, and possibly the best ever. These two know how to groove and rock harder than any band I’ve heard or seen, and if you want to challenge that just listen to the funk of “Gunman”.

The epicness of this album is felt inexorably in the music, but also in the lyrics. Josh Homme seems unleashed by the power of his bandmates, and offers an amazing range of lyrics. Puns intermingle with the most epic of phrases, and the only thing you can do is smile when he croons:

    • “don’t hold it against me unless it gets hard”

 

  • “you get what you give, I give good bye”

 

 

  • “well if sex is a weapon then smash bang pow, how you like me now?”

 

 

  • “hold me real close/then do it again/I ache for the touch of my dead-end friends”

 

 

  • “she said I have a beautiful place to put your face and she was right”

 

 

  • “know that I wanna be your dangerous side effect”

 

You can’t argue with that.

I have very much love for Josh Homme, and this album is one of the highlights of his career.  This album explores largely new space for Homme. Most of the songs were written in the studio (unusual for him) and the melodies are both insanely epic and unforgettably original. A few tracks on the album retread some of the same (but not bad) ground as Queens of the Stone Age. I don’t hold it against Homme, but it certainly makes songs like “Interludes with Ludes” and “Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up” less engaging.

I’m happy to blame Alain Johannes for a lot of the familiar territory here; he’s been a frequent contributor on Queens of the Stone Age albums, and his presence as the invisible member of Them Crooked Vultures suggests that Homme was more inclined to stay true to his roots. Again, I’m not complaining – but I’d be interested to hear what a Them Crooked Vultures album would sound like without Johannes.

Regardless of my gripes, this is an album I can’t stop playing, and the live show was just as intense. The joy of seeing Dave Grohl smash the drums with reckless, happy abandon while Josh Homme belted and riffed and John-Paul Jones kept a relentless bassline rolling was enough to make me want to chug Ketel One out of the bottle while playing epic rock’n’roll (as Josh Homme did during the show).

Nirvana – Live at Reading is a concert goer’s album. And it rocks.

My other purchase this week also included Dave Grohl, which is a testament to his rockness. If you don’t like Nirvana, go home now (and don’t talk to me). If you are a hardcord Nirvanaphile and have a bunch of bootleg recordings, this isn’t going to do anything for you. But if you haven’t heard Nirvana live and want a peek into their greatness onstage, Live at Reading is perfect for you. How can you not love the out-of-tune singing, laugh, and “screw it” affectation at the start of “Sliver”?

With any deceased artist it’s hard not to see things in their art that might not be there. I found it impossible not to feel a twinge when the audience is singing along to “today I found my friends/they’re in my head” during “Lithium”. Perhaps it’s just a well-produced piece of concert mastery, but for a moment you feel like Cobain had the friends he had been searching for.

The setlist is great, hitting all of the major songs but also some less-popular gems like the “Blew”, “Aneurysm”, and “Lounge Act”. But what fascinated me most were the changes to the singles. There’s the intentional or subconscious middle-finger of screwing up the two-note signature riff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, an anthem that Cobain thought had jumped the shark (before the phrase existed). There’s the change of the “All Apologies” lyric from “everyone is gay” to “all my birds are gray”…perhaps out of guilt for the negative connotations?

Regardless of on what level(s) you enjoy this record, Live at Reading is just plain fun. After an hour of screaming, cracking snare drums and thumping bass, the set ends with a totally destroyed rendition of the national anthem, which seems to wrap up the vibe of the show: “welcome to our united states of insanity”.

Photo #1:http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamdb/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I Heart Physical Keyboards

Marketing, Tech

G1 android phone with keyboard open Everywhere I look, I feel like I see the tech press dissing physical keyboards on smartphones.  TechCrunch, specifically, seems to use a phone with a physical keyboard for 3 days, declare the keyboard stupid, and then go back to misspelling things on their iPhone soft keyboards.

[The G2 Android Phone] is much more usable as a device. And we can thank one thing for that, as well as for much of its much improved design: The removal of the physical keyboard. – From HTC Killed the Physical Keyboard. Smart Move.

(I happen to love my G1, TechCrunch. As does everyone I know who has one.)

The argument against physical keyboards seems to be that they waste space, which strikes me as incredibly odd. From an interface perspective, a keyboard that slides under the screen doesn’t waste space. From a bulkiness perspective: really? Why do you need/want a phone with the thickness and weight of a granola bar? I like sleekness too, but you may want to have your doctor check you for osteoporosis if you really find the G1 too heavy to handle.

I want to make a very clear statement here to phone manufacturers: I heart physical keyboards.  In fact, I refuse to buy a phone without one.

I’m not saying they’re for everyone – I’m sure soft keyboards are just fine for some people.  But there are several reasons physical keyboards are a smart choice:

1) Some people, including myself, have big fingers.  It’s really hard to hit those tiny soft keyboard buttons, and I spend WAY too much time fixing spelling errors than actually writing. Wasting time = bad.

2) Physical feedback always wins. While the slight force feedback and click noises of a soft keyboard are a nice touch, they don’t help me feel find my way around.  I learned to type on a computer keyboard with actual keys, and that’s how I’m used to typing.  Not to mention, the snap of sliding the screen back to get to the keyboard is just straight-up enjoyable.

3) Fast writers. My brain is usually slightly ahead of my fingers even on a computer, and using a soft keyboard makes it impossible for me to communicate my thoughts in any form of real-time.

G1 android phone with keyboard slideout

4) There’s a reason that soft keyboards come with automatic spelling correction and word completion – because they are hard to use. iPhone users may be used to taking 5 minutes to write “hey I’m drown at the zebra, do you witch to come buy?”, but I find those messages obnoxious to read and embarassing to send.

5) The two aren’t mutually exclusive! You can have a physical keyboard and still provide a soft keyboard.  If you’re a TechCrunch writer and you hate physical keyboards, you can simply NEVER OPEN IT.  Magic.  Everyone is happy.

So please, phone manufacturers: don’t stop making physical keyboards.  Please don’t.  Because if you do, I won’t buy your phone (or recommend them to my friends).  And you wouldn’t want that, right?

Photo 1 Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alwayshere/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo 2 Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsun/ / CC BY 2.0

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Software Community Managers: How Do You Know Your Best Customers?

Community, Tech

Josh Bernoff has a great post over at the Forrester Groundswell blog:

“Here’s a conversation I often have with marketers:

Josh: Who are your best customers?

Marketer: Women with a child under 4. [Or ‘People with assets of at least $1 million.’ Or some such.]

Josh: No, I really mean ‘Who are your best customers?’ What are their names?

Marketer: [No response.]

If you’re seeking word of mouth, you should know who your best customers are . . . by name.”

I agree with this 120%.

Your community is not demographics, it’s not numbers, it’s not users (god I hate that word). It’s people.

That said, while attending the (thoroughly excellent) Good Ideas Salon Community Management Panel at YouTube I realized that I am in a much different situation than those managing social networking communities. Or even shopkeeper communities like Matt Stinchcomb of Etsy.

I don’t hang out where my community talks about things that they are passionate. They use the Flock software by themselves, and I meet them primarily when they have an issue (or occasionally give us praise). How can I get to know these people?

Josh mentions that “there is no one more enthusiastic than a friend who used to hate you”, which I’ll second wholeheartedly. But I still don’t know much about that person/those people aside from the fact that they use Flock. I don’t get to know them through their social interactions like Jen Burton of Digg gets to.

Which is not to say I don’t meet great people…I just don’t get to know them the same way.  So help me out, folks…what do you do?

Software Community Managers, speak up: how do you really get to know your community?

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Twitter’s New Homepage Can See the Future

Community, Tech

Today Twitter rolled out a massively re-designed homepage.  For such an incredibly successful young service, this is a major change.  And their design shows where Twitter – and possibly the social web – are headed.

Let’s dive into the details:

1. Twitter’s new focus is on searching and discovering what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.  It’s about DISCOVERY, not publishing or chatting.

2. Search is first and foremost.  The search box almost has the same prominence as the signup button.  Twitter obviously feels this is the killer feature that will, in the end, drive more adoption.

3. Trending topics are now on the homepage.  Twitter knows they’re going to draw people in with relevant, current content, not quotes from the New York times about how nifty Twitter is.


4. Trending topics fall into three categories (minute, day, and week) but this is very downplayed.  To the first-time visitor, this is content, plain and simple…while they can pay attention and discover this granularity, it’s not shoved in their face – no need to overwhelm potential new users.

5. The very small text above the signup button says “Join the conversation”.  Conversation has been stressed and established – now they gently encourage you to join in.

6. I don’t know if this was a feature before, but Twitter is now surfacing this as a tip: you can do location-based searches. Your discovery can now be local.

I’ll resist further analysis than this for now:

I think this reinforces the thought that the killer new social app isn’t microblogging: it’s discovery, serendipity, and eventually participation.  And I’m excited.

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