Brad Barrish

I got to work this morning and started the new year off in an awesome way. I received my first platinum album for KT Tunstall’s album “Eye To The Telescope.” Almost a year ago to the day (January 24th to be exact) I produced a show with her at Schubas in Chicago. It was the first show with Network LIVE (now Control Room) on which I worked quite a bit. I was a huge fan of KT’s before she released her album in the U.S., so I am really psyched about having a plaque for doing a little to help her sell some albums.

(In no particular order) Radiohead @ Greek Theatre - I’ll let my previous review speak for how I felt.

Secret Machines @ El Rey - Could care less about their albums, but they put on an incredible live show.

Justin Timberlake @ House of Blues - Don’t hate on JT. The dude can dance and sing like a motherfucker, not to mention he’s a stellar entertainer.

The Wrens @ Troubadour - Wow, I dunno where I was when these guys started

The Sounds @ Fonda Theatre - Mark captured them amazingly. I don’t know what else to say. They know how to rock.

Editors @ SXSW - I walked away from this show thinking, ’now I can go home from Austin.’ Of course I didn’t leave at that point. The Duke Spirit @ SXSW - I never heard of them until someone recommended I check them out. Liela Moss is hot.

Wolfmother @ Cinespace - I believe this was the first show in the U.S. Anyway, it was the first show a co-worker and I saw together and I was a little drunk, which made it all better.

The Rapture @ Fonda Theatre - I didn’t want to have a good time, but I danced at the show it was so good. That’s right. I danced.

Pearl Jam @ Bridge School Benefit - Bridge is always emotional. It’s the vibe, the cause, friends and of course, the music. It was just perfect.

As 2006 comes to pass there are a lot of predictions that are floating around about what will happen in 2007. One of the predictions that I’m most looking forward to coming true is the one about blogging reaching a plateau. I can’t wait. First and foremost, I have a problem with information overload. Yeah, I could fix it on my own, but if a bunch of people just decide to stop saying interesting things, then it would make things a lot easier. The other reason I can’t wait is because there’s way too many people saying uninteresting things. Of course I’m being selfish when I say that, but I don’t care about your cat (not you, Josh), so STFU.

I now present to you my own list of 9 things that I predict will happen in 2007.

1. Menomena will explode. I've mentioned them a little, but I really love this band.
2. MySpace will fragment. It's already starting a little, but more niche sites are going to start popping up and I think people will start using them with more frequency while their MySpace profiles get a little stale.
3. You'll finally break down and see what all the Second Life hype is about.
4. Apple iPhone. This is all but confirmed. I believe Apple will enter the mobile business. I'll stick with the Blackjack until the BlackBerry 8800 comes out.
5. Global Warming will become a major issue, and not just for environmentalists.
6. Apple will gain at least 3% more market share.
7. All three of Audrey's stores will become profitable.
8. Mobile music and television will start to take off as manufacturers keep trying to cram too many bells and whistles into a phone.
9. Remote storage costs will continue to decline and people will start storing a lot more of their stuff online.

I’m speechless. [via a.whole]

I did a show with Nada Surf last year and had a really nice experience with the fine folks at Barsuk. They really are some of the best people I’ve ever worked with. They also put out some great music. The next big one on Barsuk is the Menomena album. Van just sent some advances and I’ve been playing it at least a couple of times a day. The first time I put it on I had at least 5 people ask me what I was listening to. That almost never happens. People either tell me to turn it down or turn it off. ‘Friend and Foe,’ their third album, and first for Barsuk, will be coming out on January 23. I haven’t heard their previous albums, but if the new one is any indication, then I might have to go out and get them. The greatest thing about the album is it’s super accessible. And I don’t mean that in some sort of silly music industry talk kind of way. We have a pretty diverse office, so when those 5 people asked me about it, I felt somewhat validated. It’s not a conventional album. The instrumentation isn’t what you might be used to hearing, but you’ll still be tapping along to it.

For fans of: Bloc Party, Mercury Rev, TV On The Radio

Download: Wet and Rustling

I was talking to Michael earlier today and urged him to give gmail a try. His reaction was something to the extent of Google being a sign of the apocalypse. Hey, at least I’ll go down very organized and informed. I recently started using Google Apps for Your Domain for whatevernevermind.com and a then today switched from the beloved NetNewsWire to Google Reader upon reading a post on Johnny’s Brain. It’s already changed my RSS habits big time.

I’ve not only had the same Blackberry for well over a year, I’ve had the same RAZR for just over a year as well. That’s a record. I rarely keep gadgets for over 6 months on account of a severe case of gadget envy. I’ve been wanting to go back to a single device and as of Friday I will be the proud owner of a Samsung i607 (a.k.a. BlackJack). I’m really excited and it’s cheap enough that I won’t feel guilty when I switch to the Blackberry 8800 when it comes out next spring. Cingular was the last provider I wanted to go to, but that’s who we have a deal with at work. I love Verizon, but they’re expensive and T-Mobile is just great. I’ve never had a complaint. People complain about Cingular a lot, but hopefully being a business customer will help out if I ever need to call customer service.

[youtube]C7Z_08o108E[/youtube]

Without checking, I’m pretty sure I point people to William’s Thanksgiving prayer every year. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Take a moment to reflect on what you’re thankful for.

I’m a huge fan of Start Mobile and have spent quite a few dollars on their awesome mobile wallpapers. I’m more than happy to cough up a little cash to make my phone look cool. Start Mobile has some gorgeous wallpapers from the folks at Imaginary Foundation. The best part… They’re free through 2007. [via Josh Spear]

I’ve been an eFax customer for a number of years and I’m sick and tired of them raising their rates. When I went to the site to try and cancel my service, there wasn’t an option. You really can tell a lot about a company that makes it difficult to cancel your account. When I went to search their help section, the article on ‘canceling your service’ couldn’t be found, so I contacted customer service via their online chat utility. Here’s how the conversation went:

Welcome to chat. The session has been accepted. {Dan B.}    Hello. Welcome to j2 Global online support. I am Dan, your online Live Support Representative. How may I assist you today? {me}    i would like to cancel my account please {Dan B.}    I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel. Could you please provide me with your Fax number and PIN for verification purpose? {me}    xxx-xxx-xxxx / xxxx {Dan B.}    Thank you for providing your information. Please give me a moment while I go through your records. In the meantime, please type the number corresponding to your reason for cancellation: 1) Moving to another provider 2) Bought a Fax machine 3) Business or role changed 4) Short term project completed 5) Financial reasons 6) Problems with Faxing or Billing 7) Dissatisfied with Quality of service 8) Too Costly {me}    8 {Dan B.}    As per records you have paid for our annual subscription till 5th December '2006. I suggest you to make use of our service for sometime more so that you can receive and send any pending faxes that need to be done and you can also inform your friends and contacts them about the decision. Thereafter you can get back to us again. We are available 24 x 7. {Dan B.}    After the completion of annual period, if you feel that the fax number does not serve your purpose, you can get back to us immediately without any further obligation to stay back. We are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Please feel free to contact us at any time. {me}    Can't you do something so that it cancels at the end of my term? {Dan B.}    We have provided you the date to contact us so that you can make a note in your monthly calendar and get back to us. {Dan B.}    Will that be fine with you? {me}    You've got to be kidding me. Cancel it now please. {Dan B.}    As a good will gesture I would also provide you with an additional gift usage balance of $10.00 with which you can send up to 100 pages of faxes per page per minute within US and Canada for free along with the monthly credit. {Dan B.}    After the completion of annual period, if you feel that the fax number does not serve your purpose, you can get back to us immediately without any further obligation to stay back. We are available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Please feel free to contact us at any time. {Dan B.}    If however, you still feel that you do not have any use for our services by the end of annual period, then you can always contact us back anytime. {me}    I'm about out of patience and I'm going to stop being polite if you don't stop trying to get me to keep my account. CANCEL MY SERVICE NOW, PLEASE. That's all. I'm not interested in anything else you have to say. {Dan B.}    Okay, I will set your account for auto close at the wend of the annual period on 12/3/2006. {me}    Oh, so you CAN do that? You just finished telling me you couldn't. {Dan B.}    Is there anything else you would like to have assistance with? {me}    You guys are nearly as bad as AOL. Trying to trap customers into staying with you. I can't wait to publish the transcript of this on the web for people to read.

What a shitty customer service experience. Seems I'm not alone. Doing a search in google brings up a lot of unhappy customers.