For any of you samplers out there, here's something potentially interesting: a recording I made (3.1 MB flac format, 49 sec) of the sound of a chunk of silica aerogel clattering and bouncing on a hard surface after being dropped from a few inches' height, repeatedly. Weird, eh? Feel free to use it according to the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. I'd love to hear about any uses you make of it.

Crap! Tonight's Presets show has been canceled! My night is going to be a lot quieter than anticipated.

Many people wonder where the idea behind my domain name, hoteldetective.org, comes from. The answer: a couple of songs by They Might Be Giants with nearly identical titles:

• (She Was a) Hotel Detective
  
• She Was a Hotel Detective

My favorite is the second version—the one with the falsetto.

Depeche Mode rocked last night. Having made it down here from NYC the day after a snowstorm, they brought a light show the likes of which I'd never seen—god forbid there were any epileptics in the audience. Dave Gahan was looking good. They played several songs from their new album along with the expected crowd favorites. Unexpectedly, they ended with a single I'd never heard, Goodnight Lovers, which while lyrically appropriate was pretty low energy for a finale. No matter. It was awesome.

As an aside, thank goodness for smoke-free venues.

I was spurred by saintrandall to take a look at the genre labels on my music collection. They're unhelpful in browsing for music I'm in the mood for; I've got alternative, alternative & punk, books & spoken, classical, electronic, electronica/dance, folk, game, other, podcast, pop, rock, soundtrack, speech, techno, unclassifiable, and world.

This is where I enlist the help of you, my reader, in choosing better labels; feel free to be creative. How would you describe Dead Can Dance, besides Alternative? Is Moby Electronic or Techno? Is 'Pop' too light a term for Depeche Mode? Why does iTunes think Imogen Heap's latest album is Electronic? If you put The Cardigans and The Shins in the same category, what would you call it? Is TMBG too weird to be simply Rock? Can I call Gogol Bordello 'Slavopunk'?

Imogen Heap's new album comes out tomorrow in the U.S.! (She's half of Frou Frou.)