Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Andy, and I work for IT Services at the University of Birmingham in a Service Desk management/development role. In my spare time I listen to and write about music, dabble in free and open source software (mainly Ubuntu), and am sporadically involved in the Isles of Darkness live action roleplay society.

What hardware are you using?

At work everything is largely generic. I have a Dell desktop that is coming to the end of its life, but that is still more than capable of dealing with most of my emailing and calendaring needs. It is plugged into a 17″ Sony monitor that has been with me for about 4 years now, and which I keep holding on to as it is one of the few desktop monitors I’ve used that doesn’t give me a headache after hours of staring at it (yes, I know a new monitor and more breaks might be a more sensible plan).

Most of my actual work is done on an (again) fairly generic Fujitsu Siemens laptop, which I started using a couple of years ago, and which allows me to type for hours without my wrists hurting. I wouldn’t recommend this laptop above any other, but it does the job.

At home I have pretty much left desktop computers behind. My main workstation is a Sony Vaio VGN-NS10l (dual core, 3Gb ram), which I bought a couple of years ago and deals with anything I throw at it. I’ve also got a 10″ Dell Inspiron Mini, which goes everywhere with me, and is increasingly becoming the computer I do most of my web browsing, email and writing on. My backup machines are a G4 iBook and a EeePC 701, and we’ve also got another Mac and a Wii plugged into the TV downstairs. My wife has several other computers which I’ll not mention here except to say that we have more computers than there are rooms in our house (by quite a lot). And that’s not counting the ones that are propping open doors or otherwise not really being used for anything productive any longer.

And what software?

Work is a mix of Windows XP (desktop) and Ubuntu 10.04 (laptop). In Windows I largely use Outlook for email and calendaring, office communicator for collaboration, and very little else. In Linux I use Firefox for browsing (with Chrome and Epiphany for testing), Evolution for email, Empathy and Dropbox for collaboration, OpenOffice.org for creating documents and spreadsheets, and (generally) Bluefish for coding. Recently I’ve been using GIMP a lot too, and have also been dabbling with a few command-line image conversion tools. I also maintain several instances of Mediawiki, as well as a full LAMP environment for development, and use google calendar to plan and maintain my work-life balance.

At home both of my laptops are running the latest version of Ubuntu, which I’ve used as my primary OS since 2005. I use largely the same software as I use at work, although I’ve recently reverted to using gedit for writing blog posts and other bits of text, and only venturing into OpenOffice when I want to make something available to other people. Home is also where I spend a lot of time playing with WordPress and Virtualbox, and where I use Rhythmbox to listen to music (and Last.fm to catalogue what I’m listening to). I’ve also recently started using Google Reader, and I now don’t know how I coped without it.

My Macs run a very stripped down version of Leopard, and really only get used for iTunes and other media related things now (although I’d still use my iBook as my main portable computer if it weighed a little less). They also run Dropbox (as does every computer I own), and I’ve been syncing all my important files between all my machines for a couple of years now. I still can’t understand why more people don’t do this, and I’ve lost count of the number of times this one piece of software has got me out of a hole.

What would be your dream setup?

I change my mind about my ideal working environment a lot, but what I basically want is a laptop that is thin, light and stylish, and that can perform at the level where I could use it as my only computer (including storing 100gb of music). The nearest thing I’ve come across is the 13″ Macbook Pro, although I’d be happier with something the size and weight of my 10″ Dell Mini with all the power and stylishness of the Macbook Pro. Being able to run OS X and Ubuntu at the same time would also be great.

Of course, having used an iPad for the first time recently, I’d probably have to add that to my wish list, just because it’s a really stylish and functional piece of kit.

I also wonder if having a desktop computer with two large monitors would make me more productive. I have a feeling that most of what I do can be achieved on a single small screen, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to experiment with these things.

Question format borrowed from The Setup under the Attribution-Share Alike license.

I may also be abusing twitter a lot tonight. Check out #eurovision for live commentary.

Things I’ve downloaded so far include:

• Songs for Swinging Lovers by The Indelicates
• Ghosts in a Burning City by Red State Soundsystem
• Oh No… by Lily Rae

All of these are great in different ways, and are well worth a listen. I’ve also tracked down a few bizarre alternate arrangements of Indelicates songs, and a very strange band called Anal Beard who are amusing if nothing else.

My gut instinct is that no record released this year should make the list. Just because I’ve not had time to assess their importance. But at the same time I don’t think that’s fair to an album like The Hazards of Love, which I reckon I’ll still be listening to in 2019.

So without further ado, a first stab at a list of records from the last 10 years that I think people should own, and that in some way sum up the decade for me.

Radiohead – Kid A (2000) – To me this record redefined what a big selling record could sound like, and did a great job of sounding like everything I was currently listening to at the time (Tortoise, Jim O’Rourke, Miles Davies and a few even more esoteric things). Everything they released this decade would get into my top 100, but this is where they laid down the blueprint for what was to come. I bought this album the day I had my first interview to work at the University, and to me it perfectly sums up 2000.

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) – The album that introduced me to Wilco, and that marked them out as something more than just an alternative country band. It was also the first album (I think) that was streamed to listeners before it was released, and marked the first of four consecutive great albums they released between 2002-09. It was hard choosing between this, A Ghost is Born and Wilco (the album), but I think YHF just shades it, and is the one I’d recommend people start with.

The Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004) – They seemed to come out of nowhere, and to be critically acclaimed without ever being fashionable. This album was the one that really introduced me to them, and made me realise that there was something coming out of Canada that wasn’t 24 minute instrumental masterpieces or trite pop songs. I played this album to death in 2004, and still dip into it every now and again, and it is something I would recommend to anyone who likes music.

The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday (2005) – I didn’t discover this band until their 4th album (Stay Positive), but soon fell in love with their second effort from 2005. They are described as a bar band, but I see them as the 21st century version of Jack Kerouac and the best storytelling band ever. The music is loud and simple, the lyrics are narrative and hilarious, and the fact that something made in 2005 topped my listening charts for this year just goes to show it is something special.

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid (2008) – Last year’s album of the year by a mile, and something I keep going back to when I want to be reminded of 2008 (which was generally a good year). I’ve been a fan of theirs for a while, but this is the first album where I would recommend every single song.

1. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
2. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
3. The Horrors – Primary Colours
4. Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist
5. Florence and The Machine – Lungs
6. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
7. The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
8. Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
9. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust
10. Maxïmo Park – Quicken The Heart
11. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – The Century of Self
12. Robyn Hitchcock – Goodnight Oslo
13. Editors – In This Light And On This Evening
14. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers
15. Bear in Heaven – Beast Rest Forth Mouth
16. Julian Casablancas – Phrazes For The Young
17. Fresh Body Shop – The Ugly Army
18. Atlas Sound – Logos
19. David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything that Happens will Happen Today
20. Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

Oddly enough, three of my most played (and favourite) albums of 2009 were released prior to 2009. They slot into the top 5 as follows:

1. The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday
2. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
3. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
4. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
5. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive

Nothing else from before 2009 got anywhere near the top 20 (American Demo by The Indelicates being the closest by some distance).

• Listening to the new albums by The Flaming Lips, Atlas Sound, Charlotte Hatherley and Broadcast (all of which I’m really enjoying)
• Updating my main workstation to Ubuntu 9.10
• Learning about Google Wave
• Trying to juggle various work tasks (and not dropping anything hopefully).

Oh, and I still hate this time of year. Even though we had no annoying begging children this year, there is still the firework-hating dog to deal with.

In other (more relevant) news, I’ve been losing myself in the new Flaming Lips album for days. It’s epic (over an hour and a half if you download the iTunes version), and a very challenging listen, but if you like music that makes you think and that is a little (lot) to the left of the mainstream then I’d very much recommend it. I’m also liking the new Califone album (for those times when I need to be soothed rather than challenged), but have otherwise not bought a great deal of new music recently.

Of course, by “recently” I mean this month.

It’s certainly well worth 11 emusic credits, and probably worth a lot more than that.

I didn’t watch the Mercury Music ceremony in the end (Dollhouse was more pressing this week), but I’m slightly disappointed with the result. I’ve heard bits of the winning album, and I don’t think it offers anything I’ve not heard before. I’d like to have seen Florence winning, but it doesn’t change the fact that “Lungs” is a great album that would appeal to most people who can appreciate music made by someone who gives a damn.

The Butcher’s Ballroom by Diablo Swing Orchestra – Another great name, and an album that I can only describe as a cross between Opera and thrash metal. Except it is a lot better than I’ve made it sound, and is the sort of thing that should be made into a musical.

Before We Stand… We Crawl by Hungry Lucy – Interesting trip hop, with a female singer who can sing, and some killer melodies to go with it.

All are freely available to download.

1 Maxïmo Park – Quicken The Heart
2 Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers
3 The Horrors – Primary Colours
4 Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications
5 The Wind Whistles – Animals Are People Too
6 Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years
7 The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
8 Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
9 Crazed Outlook – Double Talk
10 Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

And then looking at everything from 1st Jan – 30th June:

1 The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
2 Maxïmo Park – Quicken The Heart
3 The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday
4 Frank Turner – Love Ire & Song + The First Three Years
5 The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
6 Modern Skirts – All Of Us In Our Night
7 And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – The Century of Self
8 British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
9 Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers
10 The Horrors – Primary Colours

So yes, I’ll do this again at the end of September.

I like this a lot. It’s lazy, charming and creative indie music, and fits the mood of a summer week off work perfectly. I’ve just downloaded two more albums in the hope that they are at least half as good (see http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/Pinkle for a full catalogue of releases). I’d buy “The Sounds of Music” and will certainly be trying to find out more about the artist (EDIT: I’ve now found a website at http://www.pinklemusic.com which explains more).

Dinner for One by Amity in Fame

Quite heavy, in a largely acoustic way (in the same was the new Mars Volta album is). I like this, and have found that it has got better with each listen. The only downside is that I’ve not wanted to play it from end to end for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. Certainly a burn it, although the title track in particular I’d pay for.

Animals are People Too by The Wind Whistles

A record I waited over a year for, and one which has not disappointed. The songs are shorter than the last album, but there are more of them and they have a more indie rock feel to them. None of these are a bad thing, and I would gladly file it next to “Window Sills”, which has been played a very large number of times over the last year.

So High by Le Galago

A British melodic indie group who come from Birkenhead, and sound a lot like Muse to my ears. This is not a bad thing as such, and they certainly have a sound (and in particular a singer) that could take them places. I like this, but it doesn’t tell me anything new about the world or myself, but I’m more than happy to listen to their songs when they appear on my playlist.

2 Days a Night by The Liquid Kitchen

I downloaded this a while ago, and listened to it a fair bit on my way to and from work. To my ears they sound a lot like Neil Young fronting a bar band, and I really have to remind myself on occasions that I’m not actually listening to Neil Young. Great if that is what you are after, but it seems like this really is their only trick and I’m not sure it would stretch to a second album without an input of new ideas. Worth a download though.

Born in the USB by William Doyle

I downloaded this for the title alone, but the music itself is rather fine too. It’s indie with a slight psychedelic edge, and opening track “Beneath the Soil” is possibly my favourite song of the last few weeks. It tails off a bit towards the end, but still warrants a good few listens.

If I had to list my concept albums of the 21st century, it would go something like (in no particular order):

• Frances the Mute by the Mars Volta
• Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
• Separation Sunday by The Hold Steady
• The Crane Wife by The Decemberists
• The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists
• The Raven by Lou Reed

1. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
2. Frank Turner – Love Ire & Song + The First Three Years
3. Maxïmo Park – Quicken The Heart
4. The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday
5. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
6. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
7. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – The Century of Self
8. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers
9. Modern Skirts – All Of Us In Our Night
10. Robyn Hitchcock – Goodnight Oslo

Ok, so some of these are not from 2009, but I think it’s a fair indication of what I’ve been listening to recently. Although Jarvis Cocker’s new album would be on the list in about 2 weeks I think (the stats come from last.fm and the album is very new).

It’s availabe for free from Jamendo, and from the artist’s website, and available to buy from iTunes.