In the next Circle This recording, we're going to be spending the entire half-hour (yes, half-hour, not 6 days) discussing the MVP program and the role that MVPs play in the community. If you have any questions about the program, feel free to drop a comment here (or catch us on twitter or our facebook page) and we'll try to address them during the recording.

Thanks.

If you want to read up about the MVP Program, here's the official website.

Show Notes:

• Hosts: Marques Lyons & Neville Williams
• Recorded: Sunday, July 26, 2009
• Running Time: 72 minutes, 43 seconds
  
• Intro and outro music by Shohei Urata
• "Answering Machine" messages by Clarissa Cupero and Travis Pope (ZuneSpring)
• Some of the topics covered:
• ZuneTune
• Expectations of the forthcoming software and Zune HD
• Social Circle Community Gaming
• Song Recommendations
• Artists with Zune Social pages
• Plenty of shoutouts

Song Recommendations from Podcast:

• "Bounce" by Manafest [ zune.net artist page | zunetune ]
• "Like the Sun" by DJ Colette [ zune.net artist page | zunetune ]
• "To All My Friends" by Josh Joplin [ zune.net artist page | zunetune ]
• "Hit Me on Twitter (Street)" by Mr. F.A.B. [ zune.net artist page | zunetune ]

We welcome all feedback. Thanks for listening.

Don't ask me what Kylie Minogue has to do with the following post. I just think she's hot.

In any event, I was talking to one of my co-workers about retirement plans (meaning what we wanted to do when the days of the 8-5 grind was over). I thought I'd share my retirement plan with you guys because A) I think it's interesting and B) having it on record somewhere will remind me in later years what the plan was in case I forget. :-)

The plan is essentially this: When I retire I want to take my money and travel the world. In the course of that travel I want to hear music in its native locales, take photographs of those performances, place them in a written journal. After the traveling is done, I wanted to collect all of these photographs and writings and turn it into a book. So for example, if I were in Japan I'd like to watch Kabuki theatre and listen to a concert that uses native Japanese instruments. You get the idea.

This is actually a goal I had since I started undergraduate college. I always thought it would be fun to travel the world and journal what it's like to hear native music in native locations. Someone in my sophmore year suggested that when I got to grad school I should request funding and make it my graduate project -- of course that would mean not being at school for at least a year, plus I didn't think I was mentally ready for such an undertaking. I think by the time I got into my twilight years I would know exactly what I wanted to do and I'd be able to do it without the restrictions of a job or college or anything like that.

My co-worker had suggested that I create a blog when I start this and then take the blog posts and modify them into a book. It's a great idea except when I retire who knows what the new social mediums will be. Will we even have books, for example? We'll probably be using the latest Kindles for everything.

So one of the things I've been doing to kind of get in the spirit of this goal was to check out the world music category in Zune Marketplace. I spend at least an hour there a week just sampling various tracks from China, Japan, Africa, you name it.

Have you guys tried the World Music category in Zune Marketplace? Have you given any thought to what you want to do when you ultimately retire?

Community!

If Inside the Circle had a physical office, I'd go up to the rooftop and shout that word as loud as I could. It's what this blog strives for, works for and connects with. It's the reason why it started one-year ago and it's the reason why we've made it to our first birthday.

Now, even I'll admit that everything about Inside the Circle hasn't been peaches and cream (or even cookies and cream). There have been features that came and gone, writers who have passed through, one name change (we used to be called Social Circle) and other such interesting steps. However, through all of that four writers have emerged who click on the (new post) button with the intent of bringing about discussion and debate about the worlds of Zune, Music and Microsoft.

And on that front I think we've done very well for ourselves.

When I look back to last year, I remember that I originally wanted -- then Social Circle -- to be this open blog. I was going to have a community login so people could just come in and post whatever was on their mind about Zune and Music. After much careful thinking, I came to the conclusion that keeping up with such an endeavor could prove to be the downfall of my sanity, so I went with the backup plan: to start a blog that wouldn't be a re-hash of news, but more so would be the on page version of hanging out at your favorite restaurant (or bar or poker room) to just sit and shoot the breeze about stuff (in this case, Music, Zune and Microsoft).

In the past year, we've managed to grow, learn and develop. I have high hopes for Inside the Circle going into its second year because we're introducing some new and awesome stuff: #zunetune, the podcast, the social circle gaming community events, the impending Zune HD launch coverage and more. There's still some things brewing in my head that I want to do here but obviously I won't mention them until I have some of the key components in place. One thing I have done is create a fan/reader page for Inside the Circle over at Facebook. If you're a Facebook user and want to keep up with us that way, feel free to connect to us. Over time, I'd like to run exclusive contests there and post things that might be exclusive for just the Facebook page.

While we're on the subject of you guys let me say that you, our reader, was the key ingredient in our success. It never really mattered to me if you left a comment on a post or not. Just the fact that you took the time to visit and read was worth it enough for me. Of course a good deal of our posts invite conversation, but even if they got you thinking and talking amongst people outside of the blog that's what it's all about.

I, also, feel very fortunate that I have three talented individuals by my side. Each of them brings a distinct personality to the table and you can see that in their posts. They are also able to find the time to interact with the readers and their comments. To each of the writers: Alfa, Julio and Neville you won't be able to know how much in high regard I put your efforts and contributions. 

Community... it's at the core of what Inside the Circle has been and will continue to be about. With each post we strive to be interesting, entertaining and relevant. It's a hope that whenever you visit our corner of the world you find at least one thing that strikes you. We welcome all of the comments, thoughts, concerns, gripes, anger management exercises, music recommendations -- pretty much whatever you want to throw at us. I think all of the writers will agree with me when I thank all of you for your continued readership and support!

Here's to a great first year... Kanpai!

Artist	RUN-DMC
Song	King of Rock
Album	King of Rock
#zunetune	Click here to download

Ready for another round of XBOX Live Mayhem? Inside the Circle is teaming with those hipsters over at SFX-360 to bring you a Saturday night full of chainsaws, Locusts and all sorts of debauchery. Join us on August 15th as we spend the evening playing Gears of War 2. We'll be playing from 6:00pm - 9:00pm (Pacific Time), although I think if the rounds are just getting that good, we'll play a bit longer. 

I had the pleasure of meeting the SFX-360 crew at E3 and they are a lively, awesome bunch. Their site prides itself on the tagline of "Bringing Gamers Face-to-Face". Now granted, we're doing this thing over XBOX Live and not necessarily all in one living room, but trust me when you hang with these guys you're in for a good time. And be careful of the girl who calls herself SFX-LadyJ... she has this penchant of Shamwowing people!

I'm honored that they're taking part in the next Club Social event. Let's get ready to rock!

Blah free blah music blah.

• Coke is bad, kids.
• Follow the White Rabbits.
• Have some Pulp for breakfast.
• Three Seeds for you.

No more Your.Music.Weekly until September. Enjoy the rest of your summer, kiddies.

Vox Circle is taking a break until September, guys and gals. Try not to break anything while I'm gone.

A few weeks ago I cleaned out all of my Zune Pass music and decided to start over. It's given me a chance to re-discover some of the CDs that I actually have and find out what music I truly like to listen to. It was also during this time that I started to get back to my enjoyment of hip-hop.

It was in this little journey that this thought sorta popped up: Gee, is my Zune Card profane or what?

Now, some hip hop songs use pretty crass words in their titles and those titles pop up on my Zune card. I personally have no problem with it, but I know that there can be some that would see these titles fly by and have to cover their virgin eyes. I even remember a guest on a Zune Insider podcast who was unable to say an artist's group on the air because it had profanity in its name. The group he could've been referring to was Shitdisco, but I could be wrong.

Anyhow, what's your take on this? Should Zune implement something to automatically edit song titles so no one gets offended if they see it on your profile page? Do you honestly not care what titles appear on your page (especially when they're from a group you like or it's the title of a song you really dig)?

Editor's Note: Good Lawd, there's a lot of you who entered this contest. Well right now we have to shut it down (we've reached the deadline). Please be sure to check here for a follow up blog post for the winners (or check your email over the course of the next few days).

I headed back into the Rcrd Lbl underground this morning and came out with a nice little diddy for you guys. It's Kid Sister (who by the looks of things seems to be a bit grown up). Anyhow, they're offering "Right Hand Hi" which was produced by the Swedish House Mafia (Sebastian Ingrosso & Steve Angello). Give a listen to the track and then download it (free of charge) for you and your Zune device.

I’ve received the P1 Pico Projector from AAXA Technologies a few days ago. This is a portable projector that you can use to display your favorite pictures and video on a large wall. Recently, they’ve added a cord that allows you to use your Zune device. While I commend the device for putting up a great picture on the wall (up to a 60” screen with the right conditions), it was the sound that sort of took me back. Getting past that I think that this is a great low-budget item for the casual user.

I think that the P1 does a great job at being lightweight and small while still maintaining all of the inputs and functions that you’ll need in a projector. It’s also nice that it comes with a Li-ion battery that can be charged up. This is good when you don’t want to lug around the AC Adapter around (the AC Adapter isn’t what you would call big, but let’s face it – in today’s society we seem to lug around a lot of tech so having one less thing to worry about can be a welcomed thing).

What you get out of the box is the projector, AC Adapter, RCA connector and instruction manual. The cord to connect your Zune device is sold separately.

One of the beautiful things about this projector is that it comes with 1GB of onboard memory and a Micro SD card slot. So you don’t even need a Zune at all (or any device). Just place your favorite media into the onboard memory or the memory card and use the projector’s on-site controls to display it.

When I attached the projector to my Zune 30 (my guinea pig for this test), I was greeted with a nice image on the wall of my dining room. It managed to get most of the front end menu (stopping at radio). The focus dial on the projector helped me to get a nice crisp look on my wall. When I began playing my videos they came out pretty clear, regardless of how large I made the screen. Just a simple adjustment of the focus control and things were looking stellar. My only issue – and something I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out – was the speaker. I couldn’t seem to figure out how to make the speaker louder. The instructions seemed clear enough (hit the volume button and then the up or down buttons on the control pad) but even with the Zune cranked and the speakers (supposedly) cranked I couldn’t get much sound out of the device. The headphone jack worked fine and that was nice, but I don’t want to have to use those if I don’t really need to and if this thing is going to have a speaker on the side, I shouldn’t have to.

Now here’s the interesting thing: So obviously if I wanted to show you how this looks against a wall, I should be able to. After all that’s one of the major selling points of this projector. However, the energy it emits for this is so low that the room has to be quite dark in order for the screen to be projected properly. Unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared for this and my camera can only do so much in low-light. I’m going to include a picture anyway, so you get some idea of what it looks like against the wall, but I apologize for the low quality of it. What you’re seeing on the screen is a snip from the Hikaru Utada video “Come Back To Me”.

The other thing, I found interesting was that you can’t play your Zune games through the projector. Whenever I started up a game, the connection to the projector was instantly broken and I was taken back to the Zune’s screen. There could be reasons behind that, but I still would’ve liked to try out the Texas Hold Em or Hexic (hell, Space Battle) on a large screen on my wall. That would’ve been nice. I should point out that the connectors that come with the projector allow you to be able to connect your XBOX 360 to this device, so that’s a considerable consolation prize. Matter of fact the P1 can connect to a lot of things (your iPod, PSP, Media Player, anything that can connect to the RCA connection cables or as in the case of the Zune has a TV OUT setting). Of course, I really didn’t put that through too much because my focus was on how this worked alongside my Zune.

Now if the thought of having this when the Zune HD comes around has you salivating, put the drool away. This device only outputs in 640x480 resolutions. So it’s great for standard definition video but that high definition material will have to find its way onto your wall by other means.

So what’s my bottom line impressions:

Pluses: Lightweight, nice onboard memory size, quiet motor, good wall display, easy installation and use.

Minuses: The Zune adapter cord is way too short, the on-device speaker is nothing to write home about, doesn’t really project well unless the room is Wesley Snipes dark, it does take a bit of situating to get the projector to be at the right angle and distance you want.

Key Tech Specs:

• Measures 4” in length, 1” thick and 2.25” in width
• Headphone jack for use with headphones or external speakers
• Comes with RCA Connectors. Zune connector is sold separately
• Projects up to a 60” image onto a wall
• Rechargeable battery offers 1 hour of cordless operation
• Accepts input from a wide range of devices including Zune, iPod, PSP, XBOX 360
• 1GB of internal memory and accepts Micro SD cards
• Uses a 12 Lumen LCos Optical engine
• Projects using 640x480 resolution
• 30,000 hour bulb life

Overall, the P1 Projector is a good, small device with a few shortcomings. It’ll fit the bill if you want something on the low-end of your budget.  It’s available for $240 at AAXA’s website.

Artist	Simply Red
Song	Holding Back The Years
Album	Picture Book
#zunetune	Click here to download

If you don't know what Comic-Con is, here is their mission statement:

As icing on the cake for the inaugural Club Social event, I'm giving away the complete Halo soundtrack box set, which covers Halo 1, 2 and 3. I actually own this set myself and I think it's some of the best music I've heard. It's just so interesting that it doesn't include Halo 2, Disc 1 -- so I'm going to include the separately sold CD as part of this prize.

Let me add an additional caveat to this: In the box set is a special Halo Wars DVD that includes: 1) Four preview tracks from the Halo Wars soundtrack presented in 5.1 surround sound, 2) A behind the scenes look at the recording sessions and 3) The "Five Long Years" opening cinematic of the Halo Wars campaign.

Winning this prize is quite simple: Since we're talking about soundtracks, leave a comment describing one of your favorite soundtracks. It could be a game, a movie, a show, etc. Tell us why you like that soundtrack. One winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 and notified. If notified, you'll have 24 hours to respond, after which time another winner will be selected.

Writers for Inside the Circle aren't eligible. This is a US contest only (sorry). Entries will be recieved until Monday, July 20, 2009 at 12pm. Prize consists of the Halo Trilogy Soundtrack plus Disc I of the Halo 2 soundtrack (since it's not included the Trilogy box set).

Update: The submission period is now over. A winner will be contacted shortly. Thanks to everyone for entering.

Friday -> Free Music -> Download.

• New Kurt Vile.
• Punk Death.
• Noah, a Whale, and 3 tracks.
• Bad Veins.
• "I'm Turning into You"
• Yo La Tengo Wilco.
• new.indie.songs

Hv gd wknd.

First off, I think Shane (DeSeranno of the Zune team) and I will agree that you guys have been awesome with the participation in #zunetune. I've made a conscious effort to at least listen to the playlist with every other update and you are submitting some great music. I've already found a lot of songs that have ended up in my own personal collection. It helps that these songs are available through Zune Pass so I can just download them. Matter of fact, I have a couple of songs marked for my 10 credits shopping list. Yeap, you guys have been that good.

One of the current questions from folks is how they can obtain the latest list. Shane has been great about keeping up with the list and he's put up a page where you can always find the latest #zunetune playlist. To reach that page click here. You'll find the date/time stamp of the 'latest release' of the playlist.

I also wanted to quickly address those who enjoy the #zunetune playlist and everything it has to offer, but wish that they could take it with them on their device (which would be nice, cause then you can mark songs with a heart, add it to your collection, etc) and not be tied to listening to it only while sitting in front of the computer. Believe me, Shane and I hear ya on that one. Unfortunately right now the way it works is that if you were to drag the playlist to your device, it will only sync those songs that you already have downloaded. The rest of the music is being streamed from the Marketplace. I don't know if anything will happen beyond the current format but I agree that #zunetune could be a great community-driven outlet for music discovery, considering every song submitted was offered up by one of your own peers.

But, in the meantime, go to the link provided and download the newest playlist as its released. Thanks again to everyone for their participation. This is awesome!

As the summer marches towards its inevitable conclusion and the release date of the Zune HD inches ever closer (rumored to be in early September), one item of business that Microsoft has been awfully mum about is the status of firmware upgrades for the current crop of Zunes. Microsoft has been really good to its Zune users (imagine that) with regards to upgrades; in fact, early adopters have been downright spoiled, receiving free firmware updates through the current 3.x series. That is all, of course, a good thing.

But the problem now becomes: what is the expectation on the upcoming 4.0 firmware release? The Zune HD is an entirely different beast, its UI obviously optimized for the touch experience. How difficult would it be to transfer this UI to the current batch of Zunes? In theory, given the buttons and Zune Pad, the interface should be able to be navigated without too much tweaking under the hood. But the HD is also running Tegra at its core; what kind of performance difference are we going to see if the UI is translated to run on current Zunes?

Aside from performance, how about features? Can users really expect the web browser to be added to current Zunes? Would you even want that experience given the control scheme? Or any new Marketplace features? Video features?

Then this brings us to a hard question: do the Zune 30's receive this upgrade? Would it be reasonable to expect Microsoft to continue to support the Zune 30 into the 4.x firmware range? At what point do they draw the line and cut off the first generation?

A lot of questions, and still some time before they need to be answered. But the important thing you, as a Zune user, needs to start doing is managing your expectations. I would be surprised if Microsoft was able to please everyone in this go-around. Maybe they'll pull off yet another surprise. But I think that well has been visited one too many times.

So, at about 3pm on Sunday, July 12, 2009, roughly 16-18 people gathered, via XBOX Live for some Halo 3 fragging action. The event was hosted by reps from Inside the Circle (myself and Neville) and members of the 360 Junkies community. I have to say that the event far exceeded what I was expecting. Not only did we manage to run games with a full 16 person roster but we also managed to play several games using color-coded groups and talk large amounts of smack over the headsets.

And I think I convinced someone to try Zune in the process. Score!

For those that don't have any earthly idea what I'm talking about, Inside the Circle has launched a new series (that, for now, will be monthly) called Club Social. These will be cross-community events designed for people to meet, greet, talk smack and have fun. For the inaugural event it was 360 Junkies and Halo 3.

I'll admit going into this, I didn't practice much on Halo 3. I did some of the single-player campaign just so I could get used to the controls. It also helped that I had once owned Unreal Tournament, so engaging in a free-for-all frag fest was nothing new to me. What was new to me was playing such a setup within the Halo universe.

The one thing I didn't like was that in certain game modes, you had to hit a button on your controller in order to speak to everyone. I kind of like it (ala Gears 2) where you can just talk in open communication with everyone. Having to hit a button to talk kind of took away from the flow you'll be in when you're going around smacking people in the back of the head (oh, I'm sorry I mean when people are going around smacking ME in the back of the head -- thanks Seeson!)

One of my favorite modes coming out of the event was playing with missile launchers. I never thought that having 10 people run around with a missile launcher firing it at each other could be such a literal and figurative blast. Some of my coolest kills was when I was able to fire at someone from a distance and land on target sending their carcas flying across the screen somewhere. It made for good times -- but don't try that in real life, kids. This is a public service announcement from Tromboneforhire.

So what about Zune? Well towards the end of the event one of the participants began asking me about Zune. He was considering switching to the player and, upon finding out that I was a Zune MVP decided to ask me about it and why it's worth checking out. I told him what I tell all of my friends when they are considering Zune: First download the software (it's free, no-cost risk to you), from there try the 14-day Zune Pass subscription and then if all of that is working to your satisfaction get a device to take that music on the go with you. I never have people start device first because that's a financial investment only to possibly find out it's not what they're looking for. The software + 14-day trial of Zune Pass is all free to help folks get used to the Zune style of things. He tells me that he plans on checking it out. Party on, good sir!

Overall, I'm quite happy with the initial Club Social event. I got to meet some new and awesome people, reconnect with some folks I've met at E3 and it gave me the confidence to continue this series. To the 360 Junkies, I want to extend a hearty thanks for helping me pull this together and making it as fun as it was. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and we'll definitely schedule another event between us in the future.

As a sidenote, the 360 Junkies also host their own community events. One is called Recess, which involves folks getting together on an XBOX Live Arcade title and the other is Slaughterday (I love that name!) which involves taking a portion of your Saturday to mame and destroy someone. So go to their site and check those out.

Oh, and Neville -- headset...gotta have one! :-)

Look for another Club Social event coming soon.

Artist	Cypress Hill
Song	Rock Superstar
Album	Skull & Bones
#zunetune	Click here to download

It's Friday, it's the weekend, it's Your.Music time.

• There's a free track from Baptist Generals over at Aquarium Drunkard.
• Grab 7 remixes by Carlos Pesina.
• Discover the electronic sounds of JJ.
• Spinner has a free track from the Donnas.
• Stereogum loves you enough to offer up a remix from Animal Collective.
• Craving some shoegazing power pop? Download some Darker My Love.

And that's all for now. Have a great weekend.

Frankly, I'm a huge fan of Deadmau5 music. Both what he does as an artist and what he's done in collaborations with Kaskade and Morgan Page have been awesome. So I'm happy that not only is he announcing a new album (slated for a Sept. 22nd release) but he's going to be doing a North American tour to compliment the release of the album. The disc is called "For Lack of a Better Name" -- Man, I love what he titles his albums (His first one was called "Random Album Title").

The only thing I don't like about his tour schedule is that his apperance in Los Angeles is for the Halloween event in LA. Um, if anyone's ever tried to go to any event on Halloween night, they know that getting to a venue takes at least an extra couple of years to get there. Compound that with the fact that Halloween is on a Saturday night and you have the makings of "Well, honey, let's just drive to the Forum now and just camp in the parking lot for the next few months." Other than that... awesome! :-)

By the way, the video that's being presented above is the full length 10 minute video for "I Remember" one of the collaborative songs that Deadmau5 did with Kaskade. The other video "Move For Me" is also available at Inside the Circle, as well as "The Longest Road" the collabo that Deadmau5 did with Morgan Page.

Listed below is the full "For Lack of a Better Name" North American tour schedule. Is he coming to your area? If you're a fan of good dance music, he's worth checking out. Oh and the guy wears a mousehead during a performance -- gotta give him props for that!


Wed 9/23 Ottawa, ON Ritual
Thu 9/24 Quebec City Dagobert Night Club
Fri 9/25 Montreal, QC Metropolis
Sat 9/26 Toronto, ON The Guvernment
Tue 9/29 Winnipeg, MB Republic Nightclub

Wed 9/30 Calgary, AB Flames Central
Thu 10/1 Edmonton, AB Edmonton Edmonton Events Centre
Sat 10/3 Seattle, WA Showbox at the SODO
Wed 10/28 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
Thu 10/29 San Francisco, CA Grand Ballroom

Sat 10/31 Los Angeles, CA HARD @ The Forum
Sun 11/1 San Diego, CA House of Blues
Mon 11/2 Tempe, AZ Marquee Theatre
Wed 11/4 Denver, CO The Ogden
Fri 11/6 Dallas, TX House of Blues

Sat 11/7 Austin, TX Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheatre
Sun 11/8 Houston, TX House of Blues
Tue 11/10 Little Rock, AR The Village
Wed 11/11 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
Thu 11/12 Orlando, FL House of Blues

Fri 11/13 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Sun 11/15 Tampa, FL The Ritz
Tue 11/17 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade
Wed 11/18 Asheville, NC The Orange Peel
Thu 11/19 Nashville, TN Limelight

Sat 11/21 Detroit, MI The Fillmore
Sun 11/22 Philadelphia, PA TLA
Mon 11/23 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Tue 11/24 Boston, MA Roxy Boston

 








The fine folks at Rcrd Lbl are offering up a free track. It's MSTRKRFT feat/ John Legend. The song is called "Heartbreaker" and it's a (Laidback Luke Remix) -- aren't they all!?. So I suggest that on this fine Thursday you go check out this free download. While you're there, I recommend just traveling through RCRD LBL's website. They have all kinds of gems that are available (free of both cost and DRM!) that you can place on your Zune (or other applicable MP3 player).

OK, my little Zune zombies, William Taft has found new life on the Internets through various pictures and memes. Aside from being the greatest president evah thanks to the close proximity of his name with that other bad mo-fo, Shaft, he also made for a memorable portrait.

So here's your challenge: build a playlist around William Taft. One track each person to describe him and / or his works.

You know want to.

Julio Angel Ortiz has been a writer for Inside the Circle for almost a year now. While not tapping away on his keys for the Editor, he works full time in the field of Information Technology and spends time with his family, as well as writing and working on his photography. He maintains a blog at http://www.voxbomb.net.

Zune has finally launched it's collaboration with MEAN Magazine. Cinemash, a series of episodes that has celebs doing re-interpretations of some of the coolest, greatest and interesting scenes from the movies is now available in the Zune Marketplace.

The one I'm waiting for is McLovin+Common doing Training Day. Imagine what could come out of that.

The trailer and the first episode are now available. Because Cinemash is ad-supported the series will be available for free. There is talk of even making these episodes available through MSN and XBOX Live. If you want more information about Cinemash (including a listing of upcoming episodes), check out this page at zune.net

So, I have a question: Anyone still using mixview? But I mean REALLY use mixview. Like have you discovered new music or new friends recently? I ask because I haven't used it in a while and I thought that over the course of this week, I'd use it once per day. I plan to start on a favorite artist of mine, spend about 2 minutes solidly clicking around and try out the artist(s) that I end up on -- who knows where that could lead.

I'll offer up a report on what I find through strict Mixview use on Saturday, but I wanted you guys to sound off about Mixview: Who (either music or friend) have you discovered through the feature?

Artist	Kaskade & Deadmau5
Song	“Move for Me (Radio Edit)”
Album	Move for Me (Single)
#zunetune	Click here to download

Happy 4th of July to you, your music and your Zune
from the gang at Inside The Circle!

So what music are you listening to this weekend?

Anything with a patriotic theme?

Just in time for the long weekend...

• Since Independence Day is right around the corner, check out this "50 Bands, 50 States" article, featuring links to MP3s to the artists they cover under each state. Also check out the original Spinner.com post with even more free music from various artists and states.
• Download some Black Heart Procession.
• Three words: Communist Hungarian Funk.
• Grab this R.E.M. live track from 1984.
• Discover the latest in French name-inspired bands, Mariage Blanc, with 3 MP3s.
• The Winter Sounds would like to give you a "Trophy Wife."

OK, folks. Have a great (long) weekend!

A recent discussion I had with some friends via Web 2.o involved Top {insert number} Album Lists of {Insert decade / genre / century}. As interesting and addictive as I find these types of articles, I also find them to be utterly useless. Why? Because no matter how many people you get in a room, their consensus will never survive the scrutiny of the rest of the world. Certainly, many people may agree with the general placements of certain albums, but you will inevitably hear someone say, "There's no way X album should be lower than Y album." The list also bears the indignation of inevitably becoming obsolete, given time, perspective, and new music trends. Read a list of the greatest album of the 1990's compiled in 2000, and I can guarantee it will be different from one compiled in 2009. In short, these lists are fun but of no lasting value.

However, what can be of lasting value is a personal Top 5 or 10 list. Since it matters to you, and the only criteria is what you set it out to be, then a Top 5 list would have greater meaning. So, I'd like to open up discussion: what are your top 5 albums that have influenced you? I'll start it off:

1. The Cure, Faith



Faith is one of the most hauntingly beautiful albums the Cure ever produced. Unlike the dense, emotional black hole of its follow-up Pornography, Faith is all about the emotional gray areas in life and relationships. Sometimes I'll lay in bed at night and listen to this album, sinking into the stark bass opening and float through a pensive sea of memory. Faith is an album that is emotionally evocative, and Robert Smith's lyrics had a huge impact on my writing in my later teens and early twenties. The fact that Faith makes me feel the same way it did nearly 20 years ago when I first purchased it is a testament to the deep resonance I feel with the album.

2. Poe, Haunted



Whereas Faith was an album for my teenage years and influenced the formative phase of my life, Haunted is the equivalent for my late twenties / early thirties. Poe's brilliantly constructed album is influenced by her brother Mark Z. Danielewski's novel House of Leaves. The album, written and developed after Poe's father had passed away, echoes the journey of a woman at a crossroads in her life and coming to grips with loss, love, and ghosts of the past. A powerful, mature work, Haunted makes me ache for more from Poe, who has not released anything since Haunted in 2000.

3. Black Eyed Peas, Monkey Business



Go figure, I'm not a huge fan of hip-hop. Growing up, the hype was on acts such as N.W.A, Ice Cube, and other "hardcore" groups. I was never big into these artists; I tended to stick more closely to Wu-Tang Clan and its solo spin-offs. It wasn't until Black Eyed Peas that I really saw that hip-hop could be fun (as opposed to, say, DMX or 50 Cent). It lead me to seek out older acts such as De La Soul and Digable Planets, and be open to some newer acts (such as Kanye West).

4. The Strokes, Is This It?



The latter half of the 90's were not a stellar one for music, at least for me and my tastes. Boy bands, Britney, and P. Diddy were all the rage. The amazing Philly station, 103.9 DRE, went off of the air. Tepid alternative music crowded the rock stations. I became a father, and short of listening to what was on the radio, I just didn't have the same passion for it. I stopped buying CDs, and basically allowed my passion for music to cool.

It was not until the "Garage rock" explosion in the early part of this decade that I found myself listening to music again, and wanting to go out and buy CDs (and later, digital music). First and foremost of this wave was the Strokes, whose album Is This It?, aside from being an amazing debut, is just a flat-out great rock album. But it lead me to explore a new genre and opened the door to other bands such as the Raveonettes, the Hives, and the White Stripes, all of whom I love to this day. When I think back to what reignited my passion for music, this is the album.

5. Lords of Acid, Lust



Ah, what's a 15-year old in the early 90's doing listening to an album called Lust? Falling in love with Techno, that's what. Lust was a mind-blowing album, in an age where Grunge music ruled and where the Generation X wasteland of youth were marching to the tune of fuzzy guitars. Sure, I loved Grunge music, but Techno was an alternative to the alternative; with its minimalist lyrics, pulsating beats, and female vocalist who was not like any of the girls I knew in high school, Lust was like the anti-album for an age. It's lead to a life-long love of the genre (even if I don't listen to this band all that often anymore), and my very first concert was seeing Lords of Acid at the Trocadero in Philadelphia.

So there you have it, my top 5. What's your top 5? What's the story behind the albums? Share with us.


Julio Angel Ortiz has been a writer for Inside the Circle for almost a year now. While not tapping away on his keys for the Editor, he works full time in the field of Information Technology and spends time with his family, as well as writing and working on his photography. He maintains a blog at http://www.voxbomb.net.