Pedro Assunção » music

Isn’t music very similar?

Pedro Assuncao — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:36:07 +0000

One thing that both annoys and amazes me is the limited number of chord combinations in most songs. It’s extremely frequent to hear a musical composition and get that feeling that you heard it before. And we are probably right most of the times.

In the last AC/DC album there is a song entitled “Big Jack”. As soon as i heard it i immediately recalled another song by a very polemic Portuguese singer from the the 80s: António Variações (look up his songs, they were pretty innovative back then, actually).

I still trying to think why i am writing this but guess that i can’t help wondering, first, why aren’t there any more musical notes (i guess i should look that up) and, second, why most bands don’t explore more and keep falling to the same chord combinations all the time. The easy explanation is the amount of money that you can make with little work on a catchy pop song, but i feel sad if that’s the only one.

The quest for a simple music player on mac OSX

The best drummer of all time

Pedro Assuncao — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:14:09 +0000

As far as drummers go i always looked at Mike Portnoy – from the band DreamTheater – as one of my all time favorites. Only recently (and to my sorrow since he died in 1987) i came across the one who is definitely the greatest drummer of all time. I’m talking about Buddy Rich.

Don’t believe me? Check it out!

The quest for a simple music player on mac OSX

Pedro Assuncao — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:11:41 +0000

I have to say this: looking for a simple music player for OSX is like searching for a needle in the middle of lots of big sticks; it should be easy, except the needle is under the carpet.

Nevertheless, between trying out iTunes, Songbird, and a few other options, i have always felt like there should be something, you know, simple and memory efficient. Don’t get me wrong, i love the interface on iTunes. And i do love what the guys at songbird are trying to accomplish. But the fact remains: I want a music player for OSX that does not freeze whenever i task-switch back to it. This happens on a 4GB ram macbook pro with both iTunes and Songbird!

So, a lot of google queries later, i came across Cog. It’s a very minimalistic music player that does one thing: it plays music. No multiple playlists, no plugins, no fuzz, it plays music. Period.

Time will tell if i’ll stick to it or miss something, but so far so good.

If anyone knows a better one, please let me know

Prime Cuts, by Mike Portnoy

Pedro Assuncao — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:41:02 +0000

I recently rediscovered this CD I had hanging around for a while in a box. It’s called Prime Cuts and, in my opinion, is a must for all drums players/lovers. Not only it was released by the great Mike Portnoy (http://www.mikeportnoy.com/) but also, since most of the rest of the performers are part of the band Dreamtheater (http://www.dreamtheater.net/), is a CD that has a great progressive (and positive!) feeling to it.

RFM online radio on OSX

Pedro Assuncao — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:59:17 +0000

Oh man, do I love OSX or what? I’ve been trying for ages to get a Portuguese radio stream (RFM) to work on ubuntu (no luck with rhythmbox, or even firefox for that matter). It might be related to the fact that they use an .asx stream (windows stuff, ouch).

But here comes Apple to the rescue; It turns out that VLC (VideoLan Player) under OSX manages to play this stream properly (btw, here it is: http://www.rfm.pt/live/streamnew_rfm.asx). I can finally listen to some Portuguese news in Amsterdam

As a related note: Get well soon Steve; Apple needs you!

Cold in Amsterdam

Pedro Assuncao — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:57:19 +0000

Listening to the soundtrack of the movie Rockstar. My new favorite song is now “We all die young”, by the fictional band “Steel Dragon”.

In other news, it’s freaking cold in Amsterdam: http://picasaweb.google.com/assuncas/20080110_Cold_Day_Amsterdam