I’ve started trying out the sites this weekend, but too bad they both have problems…at least for now. I haven’t been able to upload a single damn album yet. The problems with both are just bugs - they’ll be fixed eventually, so maybe we’ll try this again later.

From what I can tell, Faces has the better embedable widget. Anyone can listen to the playlists and skip tracks (but you can’t rewind). MediaMaster’s widget only let’s you pause and resume, and I haven’t figured out if the song order is always random. It let’s you see someone’s entire album collection, but not listen to it—you can only listen to playlists they’ve created—really confusing.

On the flip side, when you’re looking at your own account, MediaMaster acts as an online music player (looks very similar to iTunes). You can see and listen to all your albums plus easily create playlists. Faces is really a social-networking site and the music is just part of it. Music is stored in a “locker”—you can only listen to one song at a time from the locker. The only way to listen to an album in Face is is to explicitly create playlists and listen through the widgets (”TuneFeeds”).

The othe problem with Faces is it only takes MP3 files. If you use AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC, or whatever, you have to convert them all to MP3 before upload—sucks.

In case you’re curious, or want to try it yourself and see if you get different results:

• MediaMaster fails to recognize when an upload is complete. When I try to play a song, it tells me it’s still waiting on the upload and can’t play it. Some songs work, some don’t.
• Faces’ bulk uploader just plain doesn’t work. It won’t let me drop any files into it.

12 Silver crosses
11 Black mascaras
10 Pairs of platforms
9 Tattered t-shirts
8 Pentagrams
7 Leather jackets
6 Cans of hairspray
5 Skull earrings
4 Quarts of Jack
3 Studded belts
2 Pairs of spandex pants
And a tattoo of Ozzy

Here’s the video for “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” which fits eerily well over “We’re Not Gonna Take It”:

Love the Japanese…

Someone had way too much time on their hands…

Check out Linerider to draw your own course.

Until Beck played. I wasn’t particularly excited about Beck playing before the show, but his set was ingenious. They had look-alike puppets performing the entire concert on a replica stage. We’re not talking stuffed band members bobbing up and down to the music. These puppets had all the details down. They were moving their mouths in sync to the music. They were strumming their guitars realistically. They were scratching the tiny turntables. The puppet token-dancing-guy was getting his groove on as he shook the tambourine. The puppet drummer was hitting his puppet high hats. And the puppet stage even had a miniature puppet stage on it.

For a couple songs four or five band members sat around a kitchen table and played only cups, plates, utensils, wine glasses, the table, salt shakers, etc. And of course the puppets all sat around a miniature kitchen table and played the dishes too. Mesmerizing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me (shocking, I know). Oh look, here’s a clip on YouTube…how convenient. Though in this clip the music is recorded for most of it and only the puppets are live (they use Loser as their entrance theme).

That first part was the puppet mini-movie before the encore that features the area they’re playing that night. Couldn’t find the Shoreline episode, but here’s another one from Yahoo! the night before.

Then you may be interested to know that Beck is playing at Yahoo! tonight as the entertainment for Yahoo! Hack Day—a massive geek fest, according to the squid who laughs.

Our company’s events: Order catering from Armadillo Willy’s, and if you’re lucky you get a cup of beer.
Yahoo!’s events: A big slumber party, and if you’re lucky Beck plays a private concert.

I should have gone into software and been geekier.

If you’re into “jam bands,” the article talks about a site Dom and Mark had showed me a couple years ago, but that I’d forgotten about recently—Nugs.net. They have a bunch of live recordings for sale, and a selection of free downloads in their free stash section. The free stuff’s good listening when you’re slaving away in the cube.

Death Cab at the Greek.

Enter their competition to dance with them on stage.

Chad, can you get Lexi to get this song on in the gym, and we’ll have our own DDR? Who’s with me?

One of these years I’m gonna make the trip to Austin, Texas for the anual South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW). In the meantime, downloading the music will have to do.