Jose Perez // Music

Why I Hate Android

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:56:54 -0600

Why do I hate Android? It’s definitely one of the questions I get asked most often these days. And most of those that don’t ask probably assume it’s because I’m an iPhone guy. People see negative take after negative take about the operating system and label me as “unreasonable” or “biased” or worse.

I should probably explain.

Believe it or not, I actually don’t hate Android. That is to say, I don’t hate the concept of Android — in fact, at one point, I loved it. What I hate is what Android has become. And more specifically, what Google has done with Android.

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Best Albums of 2011

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:25:00 -0600

Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
tUnE-yArDs - W H O K I L L
Radiohead - King of Limbs
Destroyer - Kaputt
Battles - Gloss Drop
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Beirut - The Riptide
The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
The Antlers - Burst Apart

Notable Mentions

Fucked Up - David Comes to Life
Little Dragon - Ritual Union
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
The Decemberists - The King is Dead

Los Angeles (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:03:00 -0500

Los Angeles (Taken with instagram)

Airplane pictures are the coolest. (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:38:00 -0500

Airplane pictures are the coolest. (Taken with instagram)

My desktop as of February 28th, 2011.

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:33:21 -0600

My desktop as of February 28th, 2011.

Best Albums of 2010

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:35:00 -0600

Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Beach House - Teen Dream
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People
of Montreal - False Priest
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Yeasayer - Oddblood
Owen Pallet - Heartland
Grinderman - Grinderman 2
Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer
Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
The National - High Violet
MGMT - Congratulations

Notable Mentions

Jaga Jazzist - One Armed Bandit
Foals - Total Life Forever
The Black Keys - Brothers
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Caribou - Swim

How to Really Cancel a LA Fitness Membership

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:57:00 -0500

It is very, very, very difficult to cancel a LA Fitness membership. If you go into your gym location to cancel, they will give you a piece of paper to physically mail to their company headquarters and tell you that is the only way to cancel. You can’t call to cancel over the phone, email or fax the form, or just cancel online.

About 2 years ago I was a member of LA Fitness and wanted to go to a gym that opened up closer to me, so I went to the gym and they told me I had to mail that form. Instead, I just called their customer service line and they canceled me over the phone. Fast forward a couple years, that gym closes and I join LA Fitness again. Which brings me to now, I moved out of state and they don’t have any locations here. I call their corporate headquarters and the woman who answered told me they no longer have a customer service line and it was not possible to cancel over the phone anymore.

So after lots of headache, I canceled without having to mail anything. I first tried to annoy them on Twitter:

No response. So then I found COO of LA Fitness, Dion Gentile’s email on Jigsaw and proceeded to send an email:

Today, I get a call from someone at the LA Fitness I was trying to cancel at. The woman who talked to me canceled me right there on the phone. If you ever need to cancel your membership and they tell you they can’t do it right there in the gym, talk to a manager or something because they most definitely have the power to do it in the gym. Here is my confirmation email sent to me seconds after I got off the phone:

I’ll stay fat before I ever give this company money ever again.

Update #1:

Just noticed I got a response earlier today on Twitter from them asking me to email them, probably from the stuff I put on Twitter.

Update #2:

Dion Gentile is not the COO of LA Fitness (which is what Jigsaw told me) but rather the District VP of Georgia. If you are going to email a corporate person, try looking for the person in your state.

Now, what was the theme song from Team America: World...

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:05:00 -0500

Now, what was the theme song from Team America: World Police?

spiriteddrive:

Ford GT40 427 MKII

My new business cards from Moo.

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:48:55 -0500

My new business cards from Moo.

My Email To Steve Jobs

Fri, 28 May 2010 21:17:00 -0500

I recently read your “Thoughts on Flash” article and was wondering since you talk about open standards, will iTunes ever have FLAC support? I ask this because the ALAC is a proprietary format and is not very friendly with certain applications, like Subsonic.

Sincerely,
Jose Perez

The only reason I still use iTunes is because of my iPod and I’m sure my car’s stereo won’t play nicely with Rockbox.

He never responded.

Some Of Montreal pictures I found on my phone from when I saw...

Mon, 17 May 2010 01:37:00 -0500

Some Of Montreal pictures I found on my phone from when I saw them in Miami last month.

Value

Thu, 13 May 2010 20:06:00 -0500

I’ve spent a lot of time and money collecting vinyl. I like having a physical copy, giant album art, liner notes, infinite audio quality, and the extras they sometimes come with (posters, stickers, etc). Also, 80% of the time they come with a coupon code that allows for a download of 320kbp/s MP3s of the same album (sometimes an extra digital EP along with it). I listen, look, download, and enjoy. $10 for that experience to me feels like a deal. People like me do not pirate because we just don’t want to spend money, it’s because that CD or iTunes purchase just isn’t worth it.

I’m not trying to suggest that we abandon CDs and MP3s in favor of vinyl. I am suggesting that to make money, a record company (or independent artist) must deliver an irreplaceable experience in addition to their content. Value can be added with more than just physical objects included into your purchase. An example of this is the viral marketing for Nine Inch Nail’s album Year Zero, which through an alternate reality game created a community of fans involved in puzzles, staged events that coincided with the narrative of the album, and leaking songs by leaving them on USB drives in concert bathrooms. Before the album is released, fans invested time and effort into unravelling the world the concept album. This in turn adds a massive amount of value to its participants who inevitably went and bought the album. When that album came out in my senior year of high school, music became exciting.

Seth Godin at TED said that, “the riskiest thing you can do now is be safe” and “the safe thing to do now is to be at the fringes, be remarkable.” This is a critical concept that an artist and label must embrace to be successful. They have to understand that music is no longer just for listening, you have to sell an experience.

(Written for class.)

Prefuse 73 - The End of Biters-International

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:51:26 -0500

Prefuse 73 - The End of Biters-International

Feathered by Of Montreal.

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 09:34:49 -0500

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Feathered by Of Montreal.

Fine Collections of Curious Sound Objects

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:51:19 -0500

Fine Collections of Curious Sound Objects

Yeasayer - ONE

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:36:54 -0500

Yeasayer - ONE

"How much Axe Body Spray does your band wear each day?"

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:34:16 -0500

“How much Axe Body Spray does your band wear each day?”

- One of the many amazing questions posed to Daughtry on the upcoming Digg Dialogg.

Sebastien Tellier - Look

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:28:08 -0500

Sebastien Tellier - Look

Of Montreal on Yo Gabba Gabba

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:44:23 -0500

Of Montreal on Yo Gabba Gabba

Time lapse of the HBO’s Boardwalk Empire set. Trailer...

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:22:50 -0500

Time lapse of the HBO’s Boardwalk Empire set. Trailer here.