Dumbest tip ever + music post

I brought 2 dead fourth-generation iPods back to life this week using this method, and taught another person to do the same with theirs. I feel like a genius for getting them to work, and at the same time I feel like quite the dope for letting these things sit on a shelf for months without trying anything. Three iPods that were as good as trash yesterday are now working just fine.

APPARENTLY, if you have an iPod with a clicking hard drive that gives you the sad face icon, the best course of action is to slam the shit out of it on a flat surface until it either breaks completely or it magically starts working again. If you kill it the rest of the way - oh well, it was garbage anyway, right? BUT, if you are successful, it will actually un-stick some of the moving parts in the hard disk and get it to stop clicking. No update yet on how effective this is in the long-term, but my plans are to repeat the fix as many times as necessary until I either kill it for good or help it achieve immorality.

A few other items that can be filed under the "music" category: my station, Y-Rock on XPN, is having their annual Modern Rock Madness (March Madness rip-off) this week. This one they've been doing since they were Y-100, and I remember it fondly - the only difference now is that bands like Weezer and Nirvana are killing other bands like Bloc Party and Rilo Kiley instead of Linkin Park and Creed. It's a lot of fun, and if you correctly fill in the blanks on one of our brackets, you have a chance to win a Wii. Wiis are fun - Wiis are part of the reason I only post in this blog once a month now. So you should listen and play along, I think. You can also vote, which makes it interactive. Round 2 matchups later today include: Nine Inch Nails vs. David Bowie, Flaming Lips vs. Smashing Pumpkins, Joy Division vs. RHCP, and Muse vs. Beck.

Also, I've resolved to burn some vacation time to visit one of these giant music festivals next year. It makes sense, when you think about it - I loved going to CMJ and MacRock while I was a member in good standing of WCUR. They're a great way to soak in a shitload of music in just a few short days, and some of my favorite all-time performances were seen while bumming around with my good college radio buddies.

However, I've decided that I want to up the ante next year, and go see one of these HUGE festivals - the kind that all the blogs go crazy over for a week. Lauren was surprised by this, as it seems that I've never expressed a genuine desire to travel before. But yeah - next year, I'd like to fly to Austin for SXSW, or maybe Austin City Limits. Perhaps we'll go to Coachella? We might go alone, or we might get a group together. Who knows? Anyway, if you've been to one of these big festivals, let me know. Do you have a preference between those three, or is there another big one that I should go to that I'm missing? Consider this post a solicitation of your sage advice here. I want to leave this area for a week to explore another city and see dozens of bands all at once.