Cougar Microbes

Having resisted the temptation to digitalize my collection for a long time (largely due to my investment in thousands of Cd’s, Tapes, Minidisks and vinyl over several years) I was finally thrust into the 21st century when I bought my first old generation ipod.

At the time Itunes did not do fancy things like finding track names or filling in missing album covers. Still I became obsessed with transferring my entire collection on to the magical device whilst spending hours (if not days) filling in missing information. I could honestly write a thesis on iTunes now.

Over the years my collection has grown rapidly and despite a valliant effort the tidiness regime recently began to unravel. Simply put I now had too many songs to have an accurate overview of the missing information and frankly one of the last things I wanted to do after a long day at work is to dissect my entire collection.

I realised I had turned the block when a friend was looking through my collection and commented “I though you were the kind to keep your iTunes in order“. Fortunately I was asked to test drive a piece of software that appealed to my obsession with keeping Itunes in order and could also, potentially, improve my music listening habits helping me rediscover my collection. Having already read about TuneUp I was eager to give it a spin.

After a pretty quick and painless installation the application launches itself side by side with iTunes acting like an added dashboard. After an initial scan of my library I was given the option to drag individual or groups of tracks for TuneUp to process.

Since the application gave me the option to add a ‘cleaned by tune up‘ note to the track’s metadata I decided to set a smart playlist to look for tracks that didn’t mention this phrase. This way I was able to distinguish between tracks I already actioned and those I still needed to run through the application.

Although the manufacturers recommend running 500 songs at a time I often surpassed that processing thousands of tracks in one sessions and though this was sometimes slightly sluggish I suspect this has more to do with ITunes inner workings.

There are also few omissions and tiny mistakes in the catalogue on offer but overall it has to be said I was impressed with the accuracy of results. Not only did the application spot and fix many of my foreign tracks (Italy,Israel, Brazil, Spain etc.) but it also had information for many smaller acts, obscure remixes and albums yet to be released.

The application is bundled with the extra eye-candy they call Tuniverse, a comprehensive resource for the artist I was playing including recent news, biographies and video content. Much like Last.fm there is also a display for upcoming concerts for artists in you like in your area.

In the future I would like to be given the option to select which album a track belongs to (such as in the case of a Greatest Hits Collection where a track may appear on additional releases) but overall TuneUp does an amazing job in fixing your iTunes metadata and guaranteeing it is accurate and up to date.

As my collection continues to grow I’m not sure what I would do without it now.

TRACKS:

Bob Marley – Iron Lion Zion [5 Alive Fugitive Edit]

Things have moved along quite fast since I set up Cougar Microbes are marching in like army ants… and we have have to evolve with the times. At first the bookmark menu on the site just had the RSS button. Now its full of cool ways to link up with our writing and listen to tracks we post.

I joined Twitter and am enjoying the random banter and wealth of information. If you haven’t tried it yet I truly recommend it and if you are already on it go ahead and follow us.

Also Check out our myspace, We are not really a band or a teenage girl but you should still be our friend

Here are some technology/future themed tracks to show we have moved with the times… until, that is, the newest craze is launched…

Back in the early 00s, long before Last.fm, Pandora and Hype Machine came along, there was an ace little website called Music Buddha. You initially picked one of 7 genres which then allowed you to surf various subgenres. When selecting the subgenre you were interested in you were offered a selection of artists. You could then listen to a few sound clips, rate the music from “completely my style” to “not my style” and then when clicking on ENLIGHTEN ME you were offered tailor made suggestions, amazing! The beauty of www.mubu.com was that it relied heavily on Independent bands and not just those on the majors. A large proportion of my “discoveries” around that time came directly from what i considered the most valuable recommendation service online.

One such discovery was a little treat of an EP titled ‘Death Of The Alphabet‘ by a band called Schatzi who specialised in delightful Weezer-esque alt-rock. With big guitars, honey melodies, sardonic lyrics and more hooks than a junior school cloak room it ticked all the right boxes. The title track became one of those “songs of the summer” and i had to buy the CD and this selection of tracks showed a very confident band having a blast. Allmusic.com even went as far as saying “With its tight, appealing songwriting and surprisingly eclectic sound, Death of the Alphabet suggests that Schatzi has a lot more to offer“

I was using Music Buddha religiously (pun intended) until leaving for my summer holiday, When I got back a few weeks later the website had disappeared. Apparently the company ran out of finances just a few years before Apple would revolutionise how we listen and buy our music.

As for Schatzi? Their website has not been updated since 2004 though their MySpace strangely proclaims they will be back very soon. Though they seemingly managed to tour with every up-and-coming band in The States and recieved positive reviews all round they only ever released one other album (which reprised many of the best songs from their EP) and just didn’t manage to raise their status to the next level. Tracks like ‘Death Of The Alphabet‘ (featuring the lovely voice of Adrianne Verhoeven from The Anniversary) and ‘The Spider Smells Disaster‘ will guarantee they are gone but not forgotten.