More on music

Last night I was on the couch relaxing after a long day of work and rehearsal when one of those "1000 Songs" campaign ads for iPod came on. I'm a bit of a sucker for those spots, and overall I think that Apple has done an outstanding job of advertising.

I'd heard the commercial before, but I've never paid much attention to it. This is probably heresy for an advertiser, but I hate ads. I hate watching ads. Typically I just tune them out by staring at a dog or cat. When the spot ran last night the wife says she wonders who the band is, and adds that they sound like The White Stripes. I snap out of my zone and agree with her, noting I actually thought it was The White Stripes. She tells me they're singing about being in a cubicle. Hey, sounds like a great companion piece to the songs from Blue Man Group's The Complex.

I go investigate in the ol' iTunes Music Store and, lo and behold, the song is indeed called "Cubicle" by a band called Rinocerose. Well, there are some funky accents associated with half the letters, but I don't have my ASCII conversion table. You get the gist, right? Looks like the band is about to celebrate their 10th birthday and are a pretty big deal in Europe. Like Michael before me today, I have to remark at how I find new bands these days.

I'm not really what you'd call an "early adopter," even if I'm usually well ahead of the curve on knowing about things. I didn't even get my iPod until last year on my birthday, a silver mini. I quickly followed that up by getting the wife a nifty new nano the second they hit the shelves.

That said - I've become quite an iJunkie since then. I exclusively use iTunes on my computer (after close to a decade of loyalty to WinAmp), I have an AirTunes base station set up on a router to stream my music through the house, and of course the iPod itself which I use while gardening, in the truck (While transmitting on an FM band, not while wearing headphones!) and at my desk.

As a result, I listen to a lot more music than I used to, and it's made me a lot more adventurous musically. I find I crave more different types of music and I often binge on something new til something else comes along. Let's see if Rinocerose becomes a binge or a one-hitter I keep around for the novelty factor.

Got anything new you're listening to? Let us know about it!

- David J.