Facebook on Android. Officially.

The world of Android blogs has been shitting its pants all day amid rumors, or maybe just one, that Facebook is finally going to put out an official app for Android. I cheered this rumor. Out loud. But is it true?

A couple weeks ago Android and Me noticed a logo, as laid out here. The MyTouch 3G has made people take the potential for Android more seriously, which is why a sweet App Pack wasn't available for faithful early adopters such as myself.

This morning TechCrunch posted that pigs would fly and Facebook would call some sort truce in its war with Google. (If you've not heard of this war, check it.)

Gizmodo then took it a step farther with its echo of that story.

And then a few of the Android blogs picked up on the rumor...

The Android Site
Android Community
Google Android Blog
Phandroid
Talk Android
Android Guys
Android Central

The Facebook blog Inside Facebook picked it up, as did InformationWeek. My favorite is that it made the Web site of the Washington Post, though it's kind of disappointing that they don't have the sources to confirm it themselves.

You'll notice they all cite the same source. So, if you believe Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch then it's for real.

(No, it's not lost on me that I'm doing the same thing those other blogs did. At least Planet Android allows me to read the same thing over and over on one aggregated blog instead of having to see it on a bunch of different ones. Not that I didn't do that anyway.)

Inaccurate and sometimes completely wrong reporting seems to be the hallmark of the tech age. Between secretive companies and facts that move faster than reporters confirming and reporting them, it's no shock and makes the constant updates essential.

Consider that everybody is a reporter, and stuff about Apple, Dell, Microsoft, etc is put out there every day. How many times has Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter or any other been bought and then not bought a couple days later.

We won't know for sure until the end of the week. But the fact that there still isn't a denial of this makes me think I'll be adding a third Facebook app to my G1 by the weekend.

You know, unless I don't.

That's Bosstastic!

I've always been a fan of the free compilation. Before the Internet became the only thing that mattered, the best way for most labels to introduce their not so well known bands was by giving tracks away for free. Hey, maybe the time before the Internet and after really aren't that different after all!

So I downloaded Pretend Record, the lastest check-us-out comp from the always stellar Gainesville, FL-based No Idea Records. While they've got their legion of followers, I’m sure this still attracts attention to some of the bands people would never otherwise hear.

Friday afternoon, I'm driving around, listening to some random and pretty good tracks from their stable of punk, hardcore, and just out there bands when a couple acoustic guitars strike up somewhere around the 12th track. And the two voices start screaming, with excitement and passion and revelry, the words of "Thunder Road." If you've never heard music before, that would be the crucial Bruce Springsteen classic "Thunder Road," the first song on the also crucial Born To run.

It turns out that Paul Baribaeu and Ginger Alford have been touring the country doing this for a few years as the "Darkness on the Edge of Your Town Tour." And all the performances are as good as "Born to Run." Just about blew my mind.

I think I'm about to spend the next few days in a stupor of Springsteen. I wonder if he's a fan, or if he even knows they exist...

Paul Baribeau & Ginger Alford "Thunder Road"



Bruce Springsteen "Thunder Road"

Not clever.

It's been two days since the last post. I contemplated waiting until tomorrow so I could quote something from Jane's Addiction's "Three Days," but I have no idea what that quote would have been or why I would do it.

Check out the two new Flaming Lips tracks on this post over at Covert Curiosity.

Based on "Silver Trembling Hands" and "Convinced of the Hex," it sounds like the Lips have shifted their sound again. These two sound a bit like psychedelic film theme songs. Not sure where the film part came from, it just popped into my head and hasn't left; though I'm sure the psychedelic part can't be debated. And while the tracks aren't great, they are good. Which certainly bodes well for the rest of the album.

Oh, and the Modest Mouse ep leaked. Go find it. I already have.

(Jane's via Visions and Revisions.)

Monday = 99 Problems?

It may be halfway through the day but it's never too late to for a little hip hop to help close it out. Get these pounding out of your desk speakers - they'll either clear the crowd from in front of you or at least get them distracted enough for you to run. Even better, they're remixes - it's not like you don't know these songs already.

SHAM SHAM "99 Hearts (Jay-Z vs. Architecture In Helsinki)"

There's been a lot of remixes of "99 Problems" but this is one of the best. The bouncy beat doesn't take away from how pointed Jigga's rhymes are on here.
(via Music Like Dirt)

3OH!3 "Don't Trust Me (Remix feat. Kid Cudi)"

Any two douches can make music now, and any of those douches - 3OH!3 included - probably don't even get 15 minutes in the limelight. But even with mostly mediocre beats, the rhymes are more than clever and these guys do some true entertaining. Kid Cudi is good as usual on this remix, but I just keep saying the same thing I said the first time I heard the song - it's got one of the best repeating breakdowns ever:

Shush girl
Shut your lips
Do the Hellen Keller
And talk with your hips

Brilliant. Vulgarity wins every time. (via RCRD LBL)

Spotify is nearly perfect.

Spotify is the greatest thing ever. Give me 50 downloads a month, and a phone app that does the same thing as the desktop one - including a sync of my playlists - and I'll give you $25 a month for the rest of my life. Give me 100 downloads and I'll give you $50.

They need to offer downloads because I need to have something that doesn't require an Internet connection, otherwise I'm just renting music I could own for free anyway. They are not the reason I'm willing to pay though. That has everything to do with the desktop and phone applications, which sync, and offer a nearly perfect library of, um, everything.

There's no Zeppelin, no Beatles, no Floyd, no Pussy Galore. In a lot of cases there aren't entire albums, so you get a selection of tracks for most of an artist's albums, which can be weirdly disappointing. But for the most part, it comes up with everything you throw at it. All kinds of music, and virtually every artist, right there. This may not be a necessity for everyone on the planet. But it could be.

As far as I'm concerned, this is essential right this second. I am no longer limited by how much I can carry. No more gigs - just search and it plays. Utopia.

I am sold. Do you hear me RIAA? WHERE DO I SEND MY CREDIT CARD NUMBER?!?

And I bet I'm not the only one.

Downloads, a day late.

24 hours ago I downloaded five albums. I knew before I loaded them onto the iPod there was no way I'd listen to all of them yesterday. And I was right. I'm gathering thoughts, but here's the quick lowdown...

First things first, I didn't even get near new albums from The Horrors or Major Lazer.

The Dead Weather "Horehound" - The bluesiest Jack White has been for an entire album. Alison Mosshart sounds great. The album is a good balance of heavy blues and shit-kicking barnstormers. Will listen to it a lot more, and will have a lot more to say about it.

Clutch "Strange Cousins From The West" - Thought I remembered their sound being heavier, and maybe a little hardcore but this has some blues and some funk in the mix with the heavy and the hardcore. Sounds accessible. And really good.

Marcy Playground "Leaving Wonderland ...in a fit of rage" - I didn't know they had anything beyond the album with "Sex and Candy." Kind of surprised me when the first half of this album was good in a sometimes folky but bitter indie rock kind of way. That last line makes me wonder how much of the lyrics and mood on the album I've misunderstood.

All the band's sites have stuff from the new albums streaming - I'll include a specific track or two when I get full(er) reviews up.

Ah, born anew.

So we're going to give something new a shot. I neglected the previous blogging attempts the way someone would neglect a pet they were secretly trying to kill. But...

There's a lot of stuff out there, a lot of it requiring more than 140 characters to get it out there. (I can be kind of wordy) And I don't want to cram up my Facebook with lots of bloviating and pontificating. Plus, linking to everything on there is way too much for any newsfeed.

This is now the receptacle for all of that. I see it as similar to the kind of receptacle Jarvis Cocker refers to on "I Never Said I Was Deep," only not gross. Well, it might be - you never know.

Jarvis Cocker - "I Never Said I Was Deep" (Click the play button all the way on the bottom right.)