iTunes JOY. Bleh.

Well, this is fun.

The “iTunes Music Library” XML file — the data file that keeps all the playlists and categories and such — got corrupted. I still have all of my music (on the original drive, and on my iPod), but iTunes doesn’t know what to do with it.

Over 12,000 songs — organized via playlists into albums and categories. Now that organization needs to be re-done.

FUCK.

What I need to do is copy the playlist data from my iPod (where it’s still intact) to iTunes. I’ve downloaded iPodRip, in the hopes that I can just import the playlist data from my iPod, but I don’t have high hopes — I think the program is actually more concerned with copying the actual music files.

If anybody has any ideas, I’d be glad to hear ’em.

Friday Music

Here we go:

First up — M.I.A. is nominated for an Oscar! She’s nominated (under her full name, Maya Arulpragasam) for a collaboration with A.R. Rahman on the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. I’d love if this track won, but the statuette will probably go to the song from “WALL-E” (then again, I could be surprised — “Hard Out Here For a Pimp” won in 2005). A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam – “O Saya.”

Here’s a new Lily Allen track, introduced to me by . Love the lyrics on this (a bit of NSFW language, by the way). Not many folks do satire in song these days. Lily Allen – “The Fear.”

Forgive me — this song has been worming its way through my brain over the past week. It’s the psychedelic theme tune to an early-70s UK kid’s show, “Ace of Wands”, about a stage magician who uses genuine supernatural powers in his strange adventures. In finest UK kid-show tradition, the program was genuinely creepy at times. Check this youtube video of the opening credits, with a prominently-featured pentacle (yet another reason why you’d never have seen this show in the US). Here’s the full-length version of the very trippy (and extremely catchy) theme: Andrew Bown – “Tarot (theme from ‘Ace of Wands’)”

Lookbook is an unsigned Minneapolis duo — Grant Cutler (instrumentation) and Maggie Morrison (vocals). The vibe (especially on this particular track) is very Twin Peaks-y Julee Cruise. The band releases their own music, which you can get via the band’s myspace page, or via iTunes Music Store. Lookbook – “Believe The Hype.”

Lastly, U2 has released the first single from their forthcoming album No Line On The Horizon. I still wait (in vain, I know) for a return to the raw emotive power of their 80s output, but this is still pretty good. U2 – “Get On Your Boots.”

Enjoy.