Tom Bennett

I saw the Mooney Suzuki play at the Carling Academy in Islington last night. I think they’ve rocketed to the top of my ‘all-time favourite live bands’ list. They’re were amazing. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a front man work the crowd as effortlessly as Sammy James Jr. If you get the chance to see them, do it, you won’t regret it.

They’re new album, Have Mercy is out now. It’s good, but not as good as their 2004 album, Alive and Amplified

I’ve been umming and ahhing for nigh on a year about whether to buy a Squeezebox, all because of the price tag. £190 is a hefty sum to shell out for something that does almost exactly what my laptop already does well.

Two days ago I caved in, and ordered it online. It arrived yesterday, and was up and running within 15 minutes of getting home (actually that’s not strictly true – it was more like 45 minutes, but that was entirely down to me being a muppet with my wireless key). Actually, on that note, it’s worth pointing out that the Squeezebox supports both WEP and WPA, but if you do use WEP (which you shouldn’t be) then it will only recognise hex keys, and not ascii ones.

With little more than a few hours worth of use, I think I confidently say that it’s one of the best / coolest / amazing items that I’ve bought. It’s slick, easy to use, and best of all, it’s really quick. Your entire music library is available to you quickly, and the audio quality it great.

Best of all – you can download a plugin for Slim Server called Alien BBC which allows you to listen to all of the BBC’s streams, including podcasts and their ‘listen again’ library. It’s so slick, I love it.

5 stars. Buy one – you won’t regret it!

Don’t ask me how I found this… It’s amazing.

Plus, for those that are interested, this chap Daniel Brown has put together a rather large collection of NES themed piano mp3’s, including the Super Mario Brothers theme song.