I recently upgraded my cell phone to the Motorola V750. For the price (free after contract) it is a pretty decent phone. With a still camera, video camera, bluetooth, and micro SD card it packed a lot of punch.
The one thing that really baffelled me was how to get ringtones to the phone without paying for them. My cell carrier (Verizon) was more than happy to sell me ringtones on the phone with their “My Music” feature on the phone. That option would cost me money.
Here’s the solution:
Grab the mp3 you want.
You need to make sure that the mp3 is less than 30 seconds long. If you have an audio editing program you can cut down the mp3 that you want. If you don’t have one, I suggest you grab the open-source Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) and trim the file so it’s less than 30 seconds.
Save the mp3 locally to your computer.
E-mail your phone with the amp3 attached. If you don’t know your phone’s e-mail address try sending a text message to your e-mail address. You’ll see your phone’s e-mail address in the “To:” field.
When you get the message on your phone you will click on “options” and “save attachment as ring tone”.
Then head to your sounds settings and you’ll see the ringtone on your list.
Enjoy!
Top 10.5 Hardest Non-Metal Albums of the 1990s
The 1990s showed lots of promise for alternative music. Its a shame it didn’t last. What does last is the enduring sounds of some of the hardest music heard to date. Here’s a list of albums that are alternative & hard, but not metal.
Before you start reading this list please note: This is my personal list that I wanted to share. There are many albums/artists on this list that you would classify as “metal”, but I do not. Most artists would be classified as punk, alternative, industrial, techno, break-beat, and the like…not metal. With that said, here we go:
10.5
Judgment Night (stdk)
by Various Artists (1993)
This gets a .5 rating due to the fact that half of the bands on the album were metal bands. Couple that with rap bands of the day (both sets of groups in their pr
imes) and you have a great CD. Hightlights from the CD include the Helmet/House of Pain tune “Just Another Victim”, “Judgement Night” by Biohazard and Onyx (both of which were pretty hard bands), “Disoder” by Iced-T and Slayer (the apex of the CD).
10
Manic Compression
by Quicksand (1995)
Although some would argue that Quicksand’s second effort “Manic Compression” was not their best, it certainly makes your heart race. It has the perfect blend of punk agnst, distorted bass, and crunchy guitar licks.
This first time I heard “Bombtrack” the lead track off of the debut CD from Rage Against The Machine I was hooked. Many rap/rock band owe Rage for their ability to break through with the genre.
With the music talent and songwriting ability of the members of Rage this album is solid with awesome music, production, and lyrics that many listeners took to their hearts and still hold close today.
08
Transnational Speedway League: Anthems, Anecdotes & Undeniable Truths
by Clutch (1993)
Clutch has been making music for well over a decade now and their success is due, in my opinion, to their debut CD “Transnational Speedway League…”. These guys took the southern-fried rock that ZZ-Top brought to us and added some gasoline, adrenaline, and pure rock fury. By the time you hit the 4:52 mark in “Binge in Purge” you need release of rock and Clutch delivers.
This CD is true to its roots from start to finish.
07
Burn, Berlin, Burn!
by Atari Teenage Riot (1997)
06
Nevermind
by Nirvana (1991)
Some may think that Nirvana’s “Nevermind” started the grunge scene in America (and they’d be right) it also ushered in a time when hard rock was accepted in main-stream media.
Although “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is one of the defining tunes of the grunge era it also is one of the heaviest. “”In Bloom” was certainly playing in the bed room of Rivers Cuomo (Weezer) due to it’s blend of catchy vocals and tough guitar chords.
Perhaps it was Kurt Cobain’s inability to follow the rules on guitar that made this album so rough around the edges and so dear to many a fan of 1990′s music.
05
La Sexorcisto-Devil Music Vol. 1
by White Zombie (1992)
At first glance one would think that Rob Zombie, leader of White Zombie, was Al Jourgenson’s younger brother that would not hold water once he started singing. Zombie was able to fuse rock with style of b-horror films. This album’s sales soared once the video for “Thunder Kiss ’65″ made its way to MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead”. Aside from the cartoon dumb-witted duo, Many music critics think this is one of the best albums of the 90s.
In the early 90s Prodigy made head-way as a techno band but in 1997 they took a turn to the dark side. They caught a lot of flack for the tune “Smack My Bitch Up” from people who thought the lyrics were inappropriate. No one can deny that tunes like “Breather”, “Firestarter”, and “Funky Shit” (taking a Beastie Boys sample) were on the cusp of a new genre close to the metal/industrial/techno border.
03
Angst
by KMFDM (1993)
When I was in college I put this album cover on a poster for a radio show I did. It caused one of biggest stirs of my junior year. This album had the same reaction to listeners to the German-based band, but that time in a good way. Taking a page from the hip-hop of the 90s KMFDM’s Angst starts off with a track where they talk about great they are. With killer guitar riff and a line like “Easy to swallow, KMFDM light” they had me sold. Other notable heavy tracks include “Drug Against War”, “Sucks” and “Glory”.
02
Cleansing
by Prong (1994)
Prong’s “Cleansing” knocked my Doc Martins off when I first heard it. There were awesome drum beats with bass kept the great guitar and vocal tracks going. There’s not really too much more I need to say about this record except to say that if you like this list so far and have never heard this CD try to hear tunes like; “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?”, “Broken Pieces”, “Cut-Rate”, and my personal fav, “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”.
01
Psalm 69
by Ministry (1992)
The first time I heard a song from this album it was for a video game (Predator vs. Robocop). After hearing that song I thirsted more…and I was not disappointed. This album has more than enough hard sounds and killer riffs coupled with teenage/college angst. It was a perfect record for me. Although there are plenty of great tracks on this album I would suggest N.W.O. (featuring Bush 41), Just One Fix, Jesus Built My Hotrod (my favorite on the album), Psalm 69, and Corrosion (the tune from that video game commercial). This album was one of a few that changed my whole perspective on music and dare I say, life. If you haven’t heard this I would suggest you give a listen to it.
The RIAA has forced YouTube to pull videos from its site that have guitarists playing copyrighted music. Guitar students, who use the site to learn to play guitar have lost a resource that was free, searchable, and easy to use.
In one instance, a guitar teacher had over 100 videos taken down from his account. In a statement it mentioned that the teacher was infringing on copyrights. Most of the videos taught people how to play Rolling Stones songs.
In England they plan on releasing Bob Marley’s “Exodus” album to mark the 30 anniversary of its release. Although most people own “Legend”, “Exodus” was also great representation of this work.
The re-release is set to be on USB and Micro SD memory cards. Only 4,000 of the USB sticks and 2,000 SD’s will be available, starting next Monday.
There’s no word on what bitrate the tracks will be on, but you can expect to have them DRM’d to allow “protection” against transferring it to devices you already own.
I’m sure all of this is what Bob would have wanted.