Okay, so here’s a rant that I’ve had boil up in my head for the better part of a year or two, and finally, well, I’m here.

If I made a band’s Web site, I would have, at a minimum:

1. Lyrics to the songs. This is so unbelievably important, and it’s so unfuckinglybelieveably frustrating that more bands don’t do it. Let me give you a hint, bands: hiding your lyrics from the Web will just have some fanboy put them out there for the world to see, and the people who will get the traffic [and the ad revenue] are the shady jerks with the “Congratulations, you have won a free Nintendo Wii!” ad that screams at you the moment the page loads. You want that traffic. Why? You want them to know who you are.
2. Tour date listings. Essential. It’s a pain to update them, I know. There’s many apps out there for that, but I would choose Yahoo!’s Upcoming if I were you. Upcoming is searchable, scriptable, extensible, and also pretty darn easy to update. Then there are folks like me who use All Crazy Style to mash up Upcoming data with Last.FM plays to find out when bands I like are playing near me. Real simple: you load the data in Upcoming, and you can spit it out on your site. You can update Upcoming from anywhere.
3. Links to listen to your stuff. Don’t fire music at me when I load your site. I know you’re a musician, but the Web is largely about text. Let me choose to listen, and give me that option, but that auto-load bullshit is for MySpace. [And don't get me wrong, MySpace has value.]
4. Links to buy your stuff. These need to be everywhere: main site, discography pages, album pages, individual song pages. If you create a page per song, that individual song page should have a link of a place to buy that song—iTunes, eMusic, what have you. You want to cater to the fan coming in to Google some obscure lyric they heard on a commercial or in a Zach Braff vehicle—they’re gonna buy that shit if you give them half a chance.

The way to think about it is this: most people aren’t going to load up your main Web site and have that be their entry point. They just aren’t. Google is going to send them to you. So, think about a song you really love, Mr. Band Guy, and Google that. So, if you love Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, you get Last.FM’s page for the song … which has … BINGO … iTunes link. Last has done the heavy lifting for you here. But they’re gonna do that for Page and Plant … chances are they won’t for your garage band.

Some thoughts: if you get a song picked up for Grey’s Anatomy or Kyle XY or whatever, you want to 1) have that fact listed on a page about that song, and not just in a news feed/blog 2) lyrics of the song on that page, so the Googlers who are bad with names but good with ears for mumbled lyrics can find it and 3) a quick, fast way for them to buy that song and 4) relevant links on that page to find out more about you. The scenario is this: “I heard this killer song on Scrubs last night. Let me find it on Google … ooooh, there it is. 99 cents? Sure, I love that song. Hmm … who is this guy? Let me read more about him …”

It’s hell getting found in the music business. It’s hell getting found in the blogging world, too—which is why this entry is named like it is. Chances are that, if you’re not one of my regular readers, you got here from the Goog, too … so you should be nodding your head.

Okay, okay, okay, examples.

Bad: M. Ward: LOUD MUSIC, can’t find shit. Damn shame, because I love M. Ward.

Poor: Shearwater, which has a lyrics page for their stuff, but … in PDF. I know, you want art. I want to cut and paste the lyrics into iTunes. Don’t make me work, dammit.

Okay: The Mountain Goats, who have lyrics for The Sunset Tree available, but that page does not get you anywhere on that site. There isn’t a link to be found—not to the rest of the site, not to a place to buy the song you Googled, nothing. Kudos for posting the links, though.

Good: Andy Osenga, and not just because he uses some of my photos on the site. But he’s still not to great, because lyrics … Andy Osenga lyrics on Google don’t get you anywhere near him. [Or, for that matter, near andrewosenga.net, which is a problem Chris Hubbs and I should fix...]

Great: well, hell, no one really comes to mind. Leave suggestions for good band sites in the comments.

Folks, I know … this shit is hard. But it makes you money, so you better work at it.

Lately, I have become a fan of Rogue Amoeba’s products. This should surprise exactly no one: they write software focused around audio for OS X, and I’m an audio nerd who loves OS X. When I saw that NPR was streaming M. Ward’s Hold Time, I decided to put Audio Hijack Pro and Fission through their paces.

I’m just scratching the surface of what AHP can do, I know. I’m using Quick Record to do this because, well, I’m lame. But in my case, AHP is taking the audio output of Firefox and recording it as an Internet stream, 128kbps stereo AAC. It does everything in one big chunk, which I then feed to …

… Fission, which claims to be “Fast, Lossless Audio Editing”. And for what I used it for, it’s quite, quite true. Now, as a note, I’m okay with the lossiness here because 1) this is a transport medium and 2) I’ve already pre-ordered the CD. I am also that person who, when coming in contact with, shall we say, illicitly-gained audio, listens and makes a quick buy/trash decision. If I don’t like it, I trash it. Very simple. Again, I’m gonna want [and buy, and cherish, and let you pry from my cold, dead fingers] the lossless version, so what’s happening here is a net win. [Looking at you, RIAA.]

Suffice it to say that I’m a happy dude.

This will seem obvious to anyone who thinks about it for more than a minute or two, but:

JPG : RAW :: MP3 : FLAC

JPGs [and GIFs, and PNGs, and the like] are great for transport, as are MP3s [and M4A/AAC, WMA, etc.]: both trade fidelity for filesize. Good is the enemy of great, though. I’m sometimes asked why I don’t buy many digital downloads of music, or why I hoard hard disks like they’re gonna stop making them. The answer is pretty simple: I want all the bits. I believe in a future where our compressed copies are gonna be like the 8-track—we’ll remember them fondly for their portability, but we won’t have anything to play on them.

I am, also, the same person whose first act on opening a physical CD is to make a copy of it; after ripping, that CD goes back into its case and is rarely seen again.

Don’t make me cut you.

Update: Hunter smacked me later, noting that PNG is indeed lossless. I will now light myself on fire.

Let me be clear: I’m cheating and using iTunes here. Specifically …

• Date is in the range: 01 Jan 2008 – 31 Dec 2008
• Kind does not contain AIFF [to filter out unprocessed bootlegs and demos].
• Grouping does not contain Extant [to filter out where I migrated my library off of my old Mac to my new one]; I then did a manual check of the Extants with a similar list and my Musiclogging archives.
• Album Rating is greater than three stars.
• Genre does not contain Concert Bootleg. If desired, I’ll cover the best of the best concert bootlegs in a separate post, probably no earlier than Friday because I’m still adding bootlegs. [I am not adding any more studio releases at this point.]

This list is unoptimized; it’s actually done in alphabetical order by artist. At the end, I’ll give a best-of list, countdown style. Because I like embracing constraints, I’ll give a one-sentence statement about each album as to why it’s just so darn good. If you’ve ever talked to me for longer than 90 seconds, you know that one sentence is an unreal constraint.

• Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha, grabbed in January. Intelligent, charming folk/pop … with whistling.
• Blind Faith, Blind Faith, grabbed in August. It’s too bad that these guys couldn’t keep it together, but I’ve come to the conclusion that one-off groupings for albums can be a killer thing.
• Tom Brosseau, Late Night at Largo, grabbed in February. Recorded after everyone left the bar that night, it’s a live record without an audience that showcases Brosseau’s brilliance as a songwriter.
• City and Colour, Bring Me Your Love, grabbed in May. Dallas Green’s writing is enough for me to forgive him for using his Canadian ou.
• Matt Costa, Songs We Sing, grabbed in December. Just when you think that you’re done with singer/songwriters, someone like Matt Costa comes along.
• Matt Costa, Unfamiliar Faces, grabbed in December. Oh Miss Magnolia … oh Mr. Pit, oh Mr. Pitiful.
• Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs, grabbed in May. I would lock Ben Gibbard up in Dick Cheney’s “undisclosed location” if he’d make another killer record like this one.
• Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism, grabbed in July. It’s a good thing that emo bands like this weren’t big when I was 15.
• Deb Talan, A Bird Flies Out, grabbed in April. I would ask Deb Talan to marry me if Steve Tannen hadn’t done so first.
• Deb Talan, Sincerely, grabbed in May. Even if her voice is a bit … unique.
• Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal, grabbed in September. I had read No Depression rave about Escovedo for some time, and dammit, they were right.
• Five O’Clock People, Temper Temper, grabbed in March. Now if they can only go less than half-a-decade before putting out another disc.
• Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple, grabbed in August. I’m still picking up pieces of my mind blown apart by this record.
• Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere, grabbed in August. Gnarls Barkley makes me want to buy a bunch of old soul records, which I’d argue is a good thing for my musical self-education.
• Randall Goodgame, Bluebird, grabbed in November. If you ever wanted Randall Goodgame to stop playing the guitar all the time, these tracks are for you.
• Andy Gullahorn, Reinventing the Wheel, grabbed in November. Gully’s ability to have you laughing in one verse and hating yourself in the next is still with it; it feels like he’s got a Greg Maddux-like songwriting career ahead of him.
• Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog, grabbed in August. I used to sorta like Sam Beam, and this record made me love him.
• Jackopierce, Promise of Summer, grabbed in September. This is a NoiseTrade success story, and it turns out my friend David manages them, too, which is fun.
• Matthew Perryman Jones, Swallow the Sea, grabbed in August. There is a reason that MPJ started getting his songs played on TV, and it’s because the man cuts deep into his soul and bleeds all over your ears … in a good way.
• Carole King, Tapestry, grabbed in April. Thank you, Gilmore Girls, for making me feel like a natural woman … I think.
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin, grabbed in January. I am of the opinion that great blues/rock bands have a shelf life, but man, these guys hit it hard early, eh?
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, grabbed in January. And then they followed it up with a record at least as good as the first one.
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III, grabbed in January. Hats Off (to Led Zeppelin) for making another killer record.
• Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV, grabbed in February. Been a long time since rock and roll sounded like this, but hey, paying homage to this would sound weaksauce.
• Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti, grabbed in February. For “Kashmir” alone, but the rest of the record is really fucking good.
• Nathan Lee, Down at the Rutledge, grabbed in February. If you stuffed the soul of The Boss and The Piano Man into a muscled, keyboard-banging dude who lights up Nashville, you’d get Nathan Lee.
• Sandra McCracken, Red Balloon, which I had in August, long before it came out, neener neener neener! I still feel like Sandra’s best record is yet to come, which is both a compliment and not, if you think about it.
• Nirvana, Nevermind, grabbed in August. I can’t believe I didn’t have a copy in the 1990s; I had the plaid shirt jackets from Eddie Bauer, dammit.
• Over the Rhine, Live From Nowhere, Volume Three, grabbed in August. I don’t care that there are great tapers for Over the Rhine: I will buy every damn one of these yearly records if only to support Karin and Linford as they continue to make beautiful music.
• Andrew Osenga, Letters to the Editor: Volume Two, which I helped distribute in September. I am admittedly quite biased, but hey, he didn’t play my guitar on this one, so back off.
• Andrew Peterson, Resurrection Letters, Volume Two, which, um, I never blogged, apparently. Looks like I got it in mid-August according to iTunes metadata. Not as good as previous AP albums, but still very good.
• Portishead, Third, grabbed in December. From everything I read, it’s like Portishead and Trent Reznor had a baby, but it’s one beautiful, industrial baby.
• Radiohead, The Bends, grabbed in December. It’s good enough that I’m overcoming my “don’t put the shiny new bauble on the year-end list” sentiment.
• Radiohead, Hail to the Thief, grabbed in December. Wacky song titles, impenetrable lyrics, and a shitload of rock and roll.
• Radiohead, In Rainbows, grabbed in July. You could have had this for free, and you don’t still have it?
• Alli Rogers, The Silent Stars EP, grabbed in December. Iowan singer/songwriter makes a homespun Christmas record.
• Alli Rogers, You and the Evening Sky, grabbed in March. I really feel like Alli gets lost in the sea of Midwestern-bred female songstresses, which is a damn shame.
• She & Him, Volume One, grabbed in March. I don’t like this as much as Paste does [really, #1, guys? REALLY!?], but it’s a fun listen.
• The Soft Drugs, Get Back – Side A, which I never blogged because I downloaded this one on the recommendation of one of the music blogs I read. And, of course, now I can’t find it. Who cares where I got it, it’s four tracks of fun pop/rock.
• Steven Delopoulos, As If Love Was a Sword, which I also appear to have never blogged, nor have any URLs for. Sad. You either love Delopoulos’s ethnic-tinged songwriting and fingerpicking, or you don’t; I do.
• Waterdeep, Heart Attack Time Machine, which is a NoiseTrade download, and as such, is something I can’t link to here something I have now linked to since Derek was the bus driver and drove me to school. John Wilson, you were right to pimp these guys to me all these years.
• Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken, Ampersand EP, grabbed in February. I think I’m contractually bound to put them on there for making a record I’d wanted them to make for at least 18 months.
• The Weepies, iTunes EP, which I never blogged but love. And before you fuss, that’s an iTunes Plus link. These exclusive EPs are fun ways to get into a band’s history, as this does in bringing songs from both Deb and Steve’s solo careers into The Weepies’ sphere of influence.
• The Weepies, Happiness, grabbed in February. This is not the record to start with, but it’s good.
• The Weepies, Hideaway, grabbed in April. I would call this a bit of a major-label sophomore slump, but it’s still good; shame they didn’t tour it.
• The Weepies, Say I Am You, grabbed in January. This record makes me want to be in love, which is the best compliment I can think of to give it.
• Wilco, Kicking Television, grabbed in April. I’ve got bootlegs that are better than this, but it’s pretty damn solid, and I’m a completionist.

That’s 47 albums. Yowza! About one a week … that’s a very, very good year.

Now, I’m gonna take it to 11 … and be a bit more verbose.

1. Radiohead, In Rainbows. There is nothing that I can add to all that has been said about this album, from the distribution to the music itself. I didn’t buy this until it came out on a physical disc [I'm a curmudgeon and have this problem, which I'm hoping to lick in 2009], but this is the album that made me a Radiohead fan, much as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot made me a Wilco fan. Favorite Tracks: “Nude”, “Reckoner”, “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”.
   
2. The Weepies, Say I Am You. 2008 was a weird year for me; I spent a lot of it pursuing a relationship that didn’t ultimately work out, and a lot of this album was my soundtrack. This is right in my wheelhouse, to be sure—singer/songwriter-y, acoustic guitar-driven, solid melody and harmony. In a world where In Rainbows doesn’t exist, it’s my best album of the year. Favorite Tracks: “Painting By Chagall”, “Riga Girls”.
   
3. Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha. I bought this album on a lark, because it was well-regarded. Some of my best musical purchases are done that way, and this is definitely one of them. I think what gets me about Andrew Bird is that he’s a self-comfortable artist who is willing to experiment and do big things with his sound. The analog to an artist I’m friends with is the amazingness of Jeremy Casella’s Recovery [and if Jerry ever sees this, he's gonna hit me for putting him and Bird in the same sentence]. This is one of those albums I find myself singing often, and there is no greater tribute to me than that. Favorite Tracks: “Darkmatter”, “Plasticities”, and “Scythian Empires”. I never will forget whistling the last as I was walking through the Nashville airport on my way back from Philly after a whirlwind, 20-hour trip to see Caedmon’s Call play.
   
4. Five O’Clock People, Temper Temper. I was a big fan of 5OCP when they were making music in the 1990s, and so I grabbed this as soon as I heard it came out. It was … nothing like their old sound, in a lot of ways, but man, it frickin’ rocks. Favorite Tracks: “Gold Rush”, “Aftermath”, and “February”.
   
5. Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple. I had heard all this buzz about Gnarls Barkley, but just … dismissed it for whatever reason. I do that; I’m dumb. But then one day “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” was highlighted on NPR, and I almost had to pull over to the side of the road, I was so blown away. Favorite Tracks: “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”, “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)”.
   
6. Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs. Like with Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, a lot has been made about this record coming out of Ben Gibbard taking residence where Jack Kerouac did at Big Sur. I’m of the mind that creative pursuits are often terribly lonely affairs, so I think this was a good idea. This record brought the lyrical brilliance and nose for melody that Death Cab’s always had, but they also exhibited their musical chops on it, too. For whatever weird reason, I want to draw parallels to this and Elliott Smith’s Figure 8. Favorite Tracks: “I Will Possess Your Heart”, “Cath…”, and “Long Division”.
   
7. Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog. I simply did not think that Sam Beam had this much awesome within him. I am very glad to be wrong. Very, very glad. Favorite Tracks: “House of the Sea”, “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog”, “Peace Beneath the City”.
   
8. Tom Brosseau, Late Night at Largo. At this point, you have to mail a check to Tom Brosseau’s management to get a copy. It is worth your time in doing so. I’ve written about Brosseau before, but here he is in a nutshell: North Dakota boy moved to LA that writes about home because he both misses it and hates it, in a way. If you grew up in a cold climate and have moved to warmer latitudes, you know where he’s coming from. His music has a sense of ironic detachment, but it’s also just plain good. Also, he sings so high that he makes Thom Yorke in falsetto sound like Barry White. Favorite Tracks: “Rose”, “Broken Ukulele”, and “Young and Free”.
   
9. Matt Costa, Unfamiliar Faces. Okay, I’ve got a thing for young guys who write songs about not getting the girl, or getting the girl and losing the girl, but … dude, this guy can rock it up. Favorite Tracks: “Emergency Call”, “Heart of Stone”, and “Miss Magnolia”.
   
10. Matthew Perryman Jones, Swallow the Sea. Unlike most years, this is the only time when an artist I personally know appears on the list. I think that most of that is because I’m becoming harder on my friends’ more recent albums, honestly. But MPJ made a killer, killer record here, a worthy followup to Throwing Punches in the Dark, which I was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to top. He topped it, though. Favorite Tracks: “Save You”, “Motherless Child”, and “Feels Like Letting Go”.
    
11. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV. There is nothing I can add to this that hasn’t been said, eh? This is my favorite Zep album, even if it doesn’t have all of my favorite songs. Favorite Tracks: “Black Dog”, “Rock and Roll”, “Stairway to Heaven”. I mean, duh.
    

What about you? Do you have some of these records and violently disagree? Did I overlook something to the point that you’re ready to shake me for not listening to it? I wanna know.

Earlier today, Will commented:

It’s the Solstice. It’s the foundation of Christmas. It predates it. Have a good one.

He’s exactly right. I have tried to spend the solstice in the same way the last couple of years: listening to Over the Rhine’s The Darkest Night of the Year:

Don’t buy it from Amazon, though; go grab it at overtherhine.com, or buy it through iTunes.

At the moment this entry goes live, it’s sunset on the winter solstice in 2008 in my city. From my house to yours, have a Merry Christmas.

If I have a musical failing that my friends would rip me for, it’s “Not owning enough Sixpence.” So when I saw they had a Christmas album, I grabbed it … and have held it until now. Since August. See, Mike, holding out? IT’S JUST NOT THAT HARD.

[You're welcome, Kari.]

Leah | Day #020

Originally uploaded by Geof F. Morris

First, let me provide you a musical setting, friends. This track runs about ten minutes, which is far more time than it will take you to read these meager words, but maybe you’ll get to thinking during the guitar solo.

Cindy was 34.

Barry was 29.

Leah was 28.

All of them left us far, far too soon. All of them left us in much the same way—their brains conspiring with their bodies to take them from us long before any of us were ready to see them go. Cindy was my sister-in-law; Noah’s Barry would have been a good friend, I’m sure, had I ever had the chance to make his acquaintance. Leah was an acquaintance, and her husband Jamie is definitely a friend. All three of these men now share the same grief—a lifetime that was to be lived together now suddenly lived apart.

If you aren’t familiar with Over the Rhine, well, I’m sorry for you. The music that should be playing through your computer is, I think, wholly apt for this setting. The lyrics are reprinted, below, in their entirety, with my emphasis:

it makes a difference
when you walk through a room
with that worrisome smile
road weary perfume

but this isn’t the place
and it isn’t the time
for this beautiful delusion
that is robbing me blind

I want to know
I want to know
will it make a difference
when I go

it makes a difference
that I’m feeling this way
with plenty to think about
and so little to say

except for this confession
that is poised on my lips
I’m not letting go of God
I’m just losing my grip

I want to know
I want to know
will it keep you guessing
when I go

what is a love
if the love’s not my own
this is not my home
this is lonely
but never alone

I just want to hold you
in my gaze for awhile
so I can remember
every line around your smile

then I want to know
I want to know
will it make a difference
when I go

For those left behind, picking up the pieces, let me answer the question: YES.

Admittedly, Andy Osenga is a friend of mine. The acoustic EP he did last summer? He played one of my guitars on it. This summer’s EP, also distributed over the ‘net for free, has him playing electric guitars, so … nothing of mine is in there.

That said, he did take some things he and I have talked about and wrote a song out of it. The photo that accompanies it is of a friend of mine, and I hope she won’t kill me if she ever sees it in there. Thankfully, her name doesn’t appear in there … I sent it to Andy for inspiration, not thinking that he’d include it. [Or credit me with it.]

If you like it, send some coin his way:

Andy, thanks. I love you, brother.

I do believe that iTunes 8 has completely changed how I listen to music at work. Now I just come to work, think of a really great song in my catalog, and then hit the Genius button. Let it select 100 songs, and BOOM! Playlist for the entire day. No twiddling needed.

BRILLIANT!

Completely blind, I had Derek throw me a list of winners for my giveaway. I had 28 comments, four of which were ineligible from my reading, so I had Derek pick ten numbers from 1-24 inclusive. I then shifted past the ineligible comment numbers so he couldn’t be accused of cherry-picking [and besides, he had no idea what this was for ... right now, he's sending me his wife's new record in the background, heh].

So, they are:

1 Jason Windsor
3 brandi
7 kieren
10 Jill
23 Hunter
24 ella
19 mikaela
6 Maria Arteaga
13 muruch
18 stephen cavness

All in all, I think that’s fairly well-distributed: four folks I know, six I don’t. I’ll email everyone tomorrow…

This one’s real simple, folks: Elliott Smith would’ve turned 39 today. XO, which I consider his masterpiece, will celebrate it’s tenth anniversary in a little under three weeks. Here’s what I’m gonna do:

If you’ve never owned any of Elliott’s albums and want to give him a try, leave a comment below. If more than ten people chime in, I’ll randomly pick ten names from the comment list. Please leave your real email in the comment form, as that’s the only good way I’ll have to contact you. When August 25th rolls around, I’ll pick my ten names, get the addresses, and get you a copy of XO from Amazon shipped to your location. If you don’t want to give me your address, then put it on your Wishlist and I’ll buy it for you.

Simple enough for you? I’ve often heard it said that if you love something, you’ll give it away for free. I’d love to do that for you, dear reader.

[If you're an Elliott fan and want to link this on your Weblog to help spread the love, that'd be cool. Thanks.]

Update, 7 Aug: Thanks to Chad’s publicity help, I’m definitely now past 10 people. So yeah, keep on commenting … everyone who comments will get an equal chance [so, in other words, commenting a dozen times won't help, and will probably just irritate me]. And for those of you who’ve just jumped in to say that this is cool, thanks. Tell people that you know about it, eh?

It’s been two years since I launched IndieRiver as a bootleg-trading community tracker using BitTorrent. That seems just a little crazy to me. I didn’t think we’d be to 85 shows by now, but we are!

I don’t think I’ve ever told the story, but IndieRiver was a domain that Bryan picked up in early 2006. Around the same time, Ron picked up Indiemand.com, and Casella was pushing what ended up becoming the Square Peg idea. [To be fair, I think this is something that all the Pegs were considering, but I distinctly remember having more discussions about it with Jerry than anyone else.] As you might expect, we decided that it made sense to combine forces; as such, IndieRiver sorta sat on the sidelines, unused, and then when I fell in love with BitTorrent for distribution of allowable concert bootlegs, well … torrent, river, you got it.

It takes a village, people.

As a proponent of NoiseTrade and Matthew Perryman Jones’s Throwing Punches in the Dark, I’d like to offer you the opportunity to get it for FREE.

I am so thankful for hard drives that work.

Three weeks ago tonight, my 500GB miniStack V3 started screeching something awful—clearly beginning its death throes. I ran a quick Time Machine backup, said a prayer, and hoped it would hold together until the backup finished. It did, and as soon as it was done, I pulled the drive out of service and filed an RMA request with Other World Computing, the vendor I’d bought the drive from. I got them the drive off via UPS that Saturday [it was a crazy, crazy week], and I had the replacement drive last Monday.

Except, 111GB into a 305GB file transfer, the replacement drive woke me out of a dead sleep [it had been an even longer week prior, running almost 70 hours in seven days' time]. The new drive was, too, dead. I returned it the next day, and the drive got there on Friday. Monday, my replacement shipped. It arrived today.

Anyhow, I saw that it was at the house a little before three this afternoon, so I took my “lunch” break [one of those days; I was up at 0400, so I'm fading fast now], came home, and put it into service. I was a bit surprised when the drive mounted … already labeled like I wanted, with my data on the drive. “THOSE BASTARDS!” was my first mental thought, but then I read the packing slip. Bad fan in the casing. Ahh. Makes sense, especially for a new-out-of-the-box drive, y’know?

Anyhow, seven hours later, with 305GB moved, I’ve now got tunes again. Wilco’s “Impossible Germany” has never sounded so sweet.

Predictably, this HDD failure came less than ten days after I finished getting all the music off of my old machine. The only backup I had was the Time Machine backup. I’d never really tried TM before this event, and I must say … I’m reasonably impressed. The UI is still a little non-intuitive for me, but that might be because I spend half my day on a PC and sometimes think like a PC guy even on a Mac. Either way, it works. That said, you can imagine that I’m going to get another 500GB HDD ASAP and use SuperDuper! on it. Not having my tunes has been like lopping an arm off, especially with all that’s happened in the last three weeks.

Found via Amy, who also points to where to get your own.