When a blog begins a post with a title like “Starting from scratch” one might expect I’m going to announce some big change in the way I live my life, or at the very least, a re-design of the site. But not this life, not this blog. I’m talking about my music collection and the way I maintain it. Specifically, I’m talking about why I never really liked my iPod and why I’m glad I replaced it with an iRiver Clix.

Several years ago, when I heard there were car radios that could play MP3 CDs, I started saving all my music in this format thinking I would one day own such a stereo. Then came portable MP3 players and the iPod. I resisted for a while, but finally bought an iPod when the fifth generation Video iPod was released.

The task before me now was daunting: How do I fill a 60 gig iPod using a 30 gig laptop? It took weeks to offload small batches of music from CDs and CD-ROMs, make sure they were properly tagged, move them to my iPod, delete them from my computer, and start again. I had a major setback when my iPod froze while being “ejected” from the Mac I used at work. This resulted in a corrupted database on the iPod. Many of the songs were simply missing, some songs played at the same time over the top of each other.

Even in the first few days of use, I’d already noticed the ways Apple’s iPod was not a perfect fit for me or my expectations. No FM tuner (radio) was a big annoyance and should have kept me from buying the iPod in the first place. I listen to public radio a lot. I knew from day one with the iPod that if I ever replaced it, I would have to find something that came with a radio. Second, the iPod is not hot-swappable. I have to plug it in, wait for the computer to recognize it, start up iTunes (Oh, no. Can’t use your iPod with anyone else’s software.), transfer the songs, click to eject, wait for the computer and the iPod to say farewell, stand around awkwardly for a bit, each of them not sure what else should be said, give each other one last embrace, and as they separate, the iPod allows his hands to trail down the computers arms and take hold of her hands, then slowly, slowly but finally, let go. And please, please don’t freeze up.

In the end, I gave up when my iPod was a little more than half full. If I got new music, I’d put it on there, but I never attempted to archive my music on the iPod again.

After I moved to California and had the ability to listen to KCRW while driving, I started using my iPod less and less. But two or three months ago I decided the iPod and I needed to reacquaint ourselves … and I just couldn’t find it anywhere. I really did make an honest effort to find it, but in my heart I was glad to have the opportunity to replace it with something better.

I started researching. I found a great resource called Anything But iPod that helped me narrow down my choices with its thorough MP3 player comparisons and reviews. In the end I settled on the iRiver Clix (second generation). Here’s why:

1. FM radio
2. Hot swappable. This is great for several reasons. I can use it like a USB thumb drive: plug it in, transfer files, unplug it, and go. I can view all my music files in non-hidden, properly named folders. I can drag music from the Clix directly to my computer or any computer I want. I can drag music from my computer directly to the Clix. I don’t have to use an iTunes-like media player if I don’t want to.
3. It can play several different audio types, whereas the iPod can only play two. It plays a few different video types, whereas my iPod would only play one, and not a very common one at that.
4. It has a voice recorder, and can record the FM radio. I can even schedule recordings with the timer.

There’s one thing the iPod does right, and that’s the click-wheel. It just doesn’t get simpler or more easy to use than that. While I don’t mind the Clix’s interface, it takes just a little bit more work to do what you want. But the Clix more than makes up for this by doing so much more than the iPod.

So, I knew that I would never make the most of the Clix if my music remained on CDs and CD-ROMs. So I purchased an external hard drive that is now the home of all my music and photos. It’s pretty excellent to have everything right at my fingertips.

Archiving it was still an ordeal because many of the CD-ROMs I made in the early years did not make use of proper tagging, so the artist, title, album and other relevant information was often missing or had been filled in incorrectly. The last time I tried archiving my music, I filled in the missing information by hand, searching Amazon or the Internet for the correct titles. This time, it’s been a much simpler process thanks to a program called Media Monkey, a music jukebox player and organizer. It’s 100 times better than iTunes for many reasons, but one feature alone made me love it forever. I can highlight the songs in an album and look it up on Amazon. Media Monkey will automatically fill in any missing or incorrect data based on Amazon’s database. It even stores the album art in the id3 tag. Seriously an amazing piece of software. Check it out.

I don’t talk about TV much on here, but I just watched the premiere of a television show called Life starring Damien Lewis. Band of Brothers pretty much sealed my favorable opinion of Lewis, so I had high hopes about any show that cast him. I wasn’t disappointed.

The story sounds a little played out, but it’s handled in a way that seems fresh. Lewis plays an LAPD detective (Charlie Crews) who served 12 years in a maximum security prison for a murder he didn’t commit, finally released after he’s found innocent and exonerated. He’s awarded a whole lot of money and pretty much set for life … but he rejoins the police force and is assigned a partner who’s got her own problems (she’s been drug-free for 21 months).

This is probably something other people are saying, but if you’re a fan of House, you’ll probably like Life. If you think you would like House if Hugh Laurie’s character didn’t push sarcasm to the point of meanness or spite, you’ll probably like Life.

The best moment of tonight’s episode, for me at least, was when despite his earlier denials, we discover Detective Crews is looking for the person who set him up and has an entire wall of his home dedicated to this purpose. In the second to last scene, the camera pans back to reveal him poring over the information he’s gathered … all while The Frames’ “Dream Awake” builds to a crescendo. I think it would have been better if this had been the final scene, but whatever.

Had I known that the music supervisor for the show is Liza Richardson, host of KCRW’s The Drop, it wouldn’t have surprised me to hear The Frames. I’ve heard her say on her program that they’re one of her favorite bands, if not her favorite, and that she’s going to keep playing their songs until everyone else falls in love with them too. A DJ after my own heart.

I’m leaving in about ten minutes to go see The Frames at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood. I’m going by myself, which at the moment is a little disappointing, but I know I will probably appreciate it afterward. After all, I am going to see my favorite band for the first time in more than three years. How could the night not end well?

While I’m not looking forward to the 50 mile drive, that’s a lot closer than my commute the last time I saw them, which involved flying from Houston to Chicago and returning 16 hours later.

Wow. What an incredible concert.

So, I just got back from seeing the Swell Season at the El Rey Theatre. You may know the members of the band, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, as the stars of the movie Once. Or you may know Glen Hansard as the singer of my favorite band, The Frames. If you don’t know them at all, take this opportunity to acquaint yourself.

The set list followed their performance for NPR’s Live Concert Series. One of the things I like best about listening to a performance by The Frames, or just Glen Hansard, is that he’s a storyteller and he gives some history (true or not) about what’s behind a particular song. I like making a song my own, but I also like knowing what the song means to the singer.

“Drown Out” comes from a story about a friend of his in Dublin. She and her husband apparently are into exorcism/the paranormal/ghost busting. One night, her husband had something come on him not of himself. His wife, realizing this, asked who was there. “We come from the dark.” She shooed them away, whoever they were. Later, her husband said next time it happened, she should really talk to them and find out how to help them. Sure enough, it happened again and she asked who they were. “We come from the dark.” She asked them to be a little more specific, and Glen said they apparently described themselves as young kids born mentally handicapped back in the dark ages, killed for supposedly being possessed by demons. Ever since, they’ve been walking in darkness and one day they saw two lights way out on the horizon. They walked for years and years until they finally reached the two lights, which turned out to be the inside of her husband’s eyes. Strange, but interesting story.

Glen described “This Low” as a song about days where you know in the end it’s going to be a good day, but you just have to make it through the rough spots first.

“Say It to Me Now” is a song Glen wrote for his grandparents. He always saw them fighting and arguing when he was little, but he knew they must have loved each other. During the performance of this song, Glen knocked something loose on one of his guitar pedals and lost all the volume from his acoustic guitar (the one with the big hole where the pick guard should be). It happened just as the first chorus ended, so he finished the line a capella and gave his guitar a couple strums. He bent down, held up his forefinger to say, “One moment, please,” and tried to get the volume back. The audience didn’t really know what he was doing, so they laughed. He stood back up and said, “If you’ll be really quiet, I’ll finish the song like this.” Then he walked out in front of the mic, strummed the now unplugged guitar and belted out the rest of the song. The audience was so quiet, and Glen sounded so good.

They covered The Pixies’ “Cactus” and played something else I can’t recall before thanking us and walking off stage.

Glen came back out and kicked off the encore with “I Want My Life To Make More Sense” during which he had the audience mimicking the violin part that accompanies the song when performed by The Frames. Quite nice.

So then he says that when they got to L.A., Damien Rice called and said he also happened to be in town and would be at the show. “And if he’s up for it, I’d like to ask Damien to come out and play a song.” Damien Rice came out from back stage with a bit of a swagger, doing a good impression of Keith Richards sans cigarette. There was a time when I would have been more excited about him coming out to play, but now, not so much. He played “Elephant” and swaggered back off stage.

Glen and Marketa did a great cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and then closed with “Star, Star”. No Dylan cover for us.

Now for the more trivial events of the evening: When the show started, I left my friend and his seven-months-pregnant wife to sit in their chairs while I tried to find a closer place to watch. I ended up about twenty or thirty feet from the stage, on top of a step, so I had a clear view of everything. I couldn’t have asked for a better spot. When I got there, I immediately heard someone say my name. I turned to my right and saw my former roommate’s girlfriend. Quite a coincidence, and not the first time I’ve seen a roommate’s girlfriend at a concert.

On my way out, I noticed some people standing around aiming their cameras at someone or something to my left. I looked, but didn’t see anything picture-worthy. There was some girl and a guy, but they didn’t look like anything special. I kept going and found myself walking next to the girl. The digital cameras were following us, but I still couldn’t figure out what was going on. When the guys with the professional cameras ran out in front of us and started snapping away at the girl and the guy, I decided to back off and let them have the spotlight to themselves. Apparently it was Claire Danes. I’ve always wondered if I would recognize a movie star if I ever saw one on the streets. Guess not.

I’ve got six new music selections for you today. Not all of it is exactly “new” though.

1. Act of God - Ding Dong King Kong Sing Song. As today is my brother James’ birthday, I thought it was fitting to start with a song he wrote several years ago for his former band, Act of God. My brother and his friend Warren played guitar with a drum machine providing the beats. Made for interesting concerts. They’ve since switched things up and now call themselves Golden Axe (named after the video game). My brother is on drums and Warren is on guitar. You can check them out at their MySpace.

2. Teddybears (feat. Iggy Pop) - Punkrocker. This song isn’t really anything super special, but the chorus is catchy and it’s been stuck in my head for the last couple weeks.

3. Editors - Smokers Outside The Hospital Door. New song from Editors.

4. Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabate - Monsieur Le Maire De Niafunk&eaccute;. Just to change things up. Plus, I really enjoy it.

5. Cinematic Orchestra - As The Stars Fall.

6. Cut Chemist (feat. Hymnal) - What’s the Altitude?