Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Let’s vote with our money!

Music is good company during long, hard drives. Somehow it maintains your rhythm on the road, and keeps everything else on the backburner of your mind. With a regular AM/FM car radio, you got to have something that could serve as a counterpoint to the radio. Like a tape recorder playing “Sympathy for the Devil” say. That may be nice. But over and over?

Probably you won’t have to do it ala Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke,
and go on a “savage journey to the heart of the American Dream.” It isn’t the 70s anymore. There’s a wide array of satellite radio offerings that may probably catch the fancy of the great Hunter S. Thompson if he were alive.

Satellite technology allows easy access on radio stations that may otherwise turn static over the radio. When driving cross-country, radio stations available in your state vary in frequencies. With a satellite radio you won’t have to waste time flipping on the tuner to find them.

Cars like Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Dodge, Jeep, Volkswagen, Audi, Nissan, or Infiniti are stock-fitted with a satellite radio. If you’re car isn’t on the list and you’re looking for one, check out your local electronics store. As of this writing there are currently two satellite radios competing in the States, XM and Sirius.

More than the usual staple of music and talk shows, these companies offer contents. Programs that push the envelope of radio programming is the end-product of the competition between XM and Sirius.

The latter, for example, just launched early this year an innovative new program called Blog Radio.
Earmarked as a vehicle for indie music and opinion makers, Blog Radio is hosted by authors of some of the most influential music blogs.

With the rate things are going in the satellite radio industry,
we are in a pretty good position to vote with our money.
We have the money! Titillate us!

Posted by Dhagz at 07:27:20 | Permalink | No Comments »

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Highway Star

“When your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in,” the late great Father of Gonzo once said, “the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas… with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.” Throw in GNR’s Welcome to the Jungle and the drive will probably be one strange brew of vicious nightmares and endless fantasies, pretty much like what Hunter S. Thompson had in mind one shitty trip to Middle America at the start of his career.

On the road, hook up with a nice girl (preferably, more and more people are saying, at the less fashionable side of Vegas) and I don’t know what else you are going to need. Maybe a little more zest to the stock audio system of your car. That must be how Highway Stars do it. Now, not many music journo consider Deep Purple a great band (as if their opinion on that subject were of any importance, receiving records and writing, as they do, at the pleasure of record companies), but try playing Highway Star on your auto when you take to the road and you will know how insanely ridiculous the song comes down. These lads never really hit it big time, hounded as the band was of internal schism. But their output, still, was generally decent.

But that is inconsequential. Good music worthy of air time on your car’s audio system is only important in relation to how it comes out of the speakers. From onboard MP3 players to killer speaker system, Mobile Sound seeks to provide an easy-reference archive on the lowdowns and latest trends on souping up your car’s audio system. Of course, you don’t have to acquire a great deal of fear and loathing, nor any pretensions on being a Highway Star (duh), to improve on the stock audio system of your car. It’s hard to imagine who will not take pains to put music into one’s life. As they say, life would be a mistake without music.

Posted by Dhagz at 07:41:01 | Permalink | No Comments »