A set of halloween pictures taken after the New Order gig http://www.flickr.com/photos/timbearcub/sets/72157594348472746/

A heartwarming tale of a domesticated witch and the visit from Which Witch? and some Jason-stylee scary shots...

I'll be in SF from the 7th of November - 16th to DJ at Bootie:

So come along at the DNA Lounge on the 11th November and come and support us - contact me if you're in the area - be cool to meet up with a few people, and as of course you are a loyal Radio Clash listener/reader I'll see what I can do regarding guestlist, so contact me for that

A musical trip in 2 parts back to the city of my fathers (and mothers!), and I did my degree and still have family links.

Covering from the 60's to the 00's, I play the tracks and bands that made Sheffield a vibrant musical scene over the years, and talk about how the city, the sound of machinery and steel mills affected the Sound of Sheffield just as it did Detroit.

And no fucking Arctic Monkeys...

Sound of Sheffield Pt 1 (42Mb, 69mins) http://www.mutantpop.net/go.php?url=178

• David Cain - Radio Sheffield ident
• Human league - Black Hit of Space
• Pulp - Styloroc (Nights of Suburbia)
• Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing
• ABC - How To Be A Millionaire (AudioDile's Bankrupt Mix)
• Sweet Exorcist - Testone
• Human League - Rock n' Roll / NightClubbing
• Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag
• Fat Truckers - Fix it
• FakeID - PartyAnimal
• Milburn - Showroom
• Long Blondes - Lust in the Movies
• Jilted John - Jilted John
• Pulp - Sheffield Sex City

Sound of Sheffield pt 2 (20Mb, 35Mins) http://www.mutantpop.net/go.php?url=179

• Relaxed Muscle - Tuff it Out
• Tuff Little Unit - Join the Future
• Heaven 17 - Let Me Go (US extended)
• Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
• Pulp - Wickerman
• Bonus: Jarvis Cocker & Kid Loco - I Just Came To Tell You That I'm Going

Are you using variable bitrate (VBR) MP3s? Finding that iTunes and iPods cut off long shows if you skip to the end cos unlike WinAmp their internal timing system is well, a bit crap?

Well I've found this program vbrfix that seems to solve the problem - using the VB one atm (not tried the beta version). This was one of the reasons I never used VBR before, but the sound is so much better using VBR with LAME than constant bitrate with the FhG codec, but you do need to know what you are doing with those preset/switch settings.

As I'm giving away all my secrets try here for the best settings for RazorLAME or EAC or whatever you're using with LAME. LAME encoder is far better at low bitrates using the -vbrnew presets than others...only the iTunes MP3 or the FhG seems close, but they only sound good at higher rates not sub 96kbits.

Price for this info? Well someone please write a decent LAME plugin for Audition / CoolEdit that you can put your own command line LAME switches into? PLEASE? I can direct you to an exisiting old LAME plugin (that only lets you use its' own presets) with the C source code...

Zombie! Zombie!,
originally uploaded by timbearcub.

A totally horrid time was had by all

Mutant was very much a success, loads of people all everyone got to play despite a few tech hitches with the equipment/PA.

And here's a pic of me in my costume, with Jim Pilchard and the Bunnygirl he was obsessed with (thanks to Joseph for the pic - more Mutant pics here) and fettdog/Rose (Cowgirl)'s pictures here (I'm not drunk, just tired! That's my excuse, bit early anyway to be drunk by then!)