May 22, 2004

• Well, I posted this a while back. I think it's pretty much a visual representation of Amazon's whole "other people liked this" suggestions. It's worth a shot. And despite their one-hit wonder status, I think you might enjoy Marcy Playground's "Shapeshifter" album. Or anything by Rammstein.
• We-ell, I can tell you a few ways to start listening to new music... One way is to check out sites like Epitonic and Better Propaganda. They're essentially huge repositories of free mp3 downloads of alternative bands. It's great fun to spend an day or so there drifting among the new music, listening to stuff. If you don't like what you hear; hey! It's free! They also have an Amazon-style "If you like this, you'll like this" which is more often than not entirely correct and absolutely invaluable. The second way is through shiny new mp3 blogs. Basically, fans of music talk about the music they love, and then post an mp3 or two for you to make up their own mind. Some of the best ones have got a really eclectic selection in all kinds of styles and languages, so you'll probably find something you like. Two of the bigger ones are ran by Monkeys: Tofu Hut, ran by Forksclovetofu, and Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again, by Captain Psyko. And then there's mine as well.
• i grew up on cream, led zep, who, etal. and you think you're out of the loop?
• MP3 blogs. Yupp. BBF has plugged mine and Forksies and his own, so I'll point you to the two biggest of the big boys that aren't monkeys. Said The Gramophone and Fluxblog yupyup.
• hey quonset, those are some of my favorites - unfortunately i grew up later than you. got to see the page/plant reunion tour, caught the stones a couple of times, but that's as close as i'll come to having "grown up" with them. thanks to my parents i grew up hearing dylan, the beatles, etc. though, for which i thank them. rolypolyman - related to the above, and to get back on thread - got caught in classic rock limbo for years, going into college. only good station in the area happened to be what was (according to them) the first station in the US to go to a classic rock format. i was a listener for years until recently, when i finally got sick of how their morning DJ had become a little rush limbaugh clone. he used to be funny, now he's just screaming about how the liberals are ruining the country. prick. anyway i switched to the college station - was amazed at what i'd been missing. if you have a good college radio station in range, tune in and see what you can find. i'm lucky enough to have a very good station (commercial free even!) that plays a wide selection during the day, with different formats on different nights... jazz, progressive country, blues, local music, retro, techno, hip hop, reggae... if you don't have a station nearby they've got a live feed.
• I also grew up listening to the old greats that quonset mentions. I miss that indescribable moment when I hear a special guitar lick, drum solo, lyric or all of it in toto and for a few minutes my heart is bursting with joy and I'm in heaven. When it's all been done before and there's nothing new under the sun but rehashed sounds and styles, the excitement simply disappears. Anyway, as well as the above-mentioned ideas, I also troll the record labels themselves, who often have free mp3 downloads of their new material. See Matador, for one, and Rainbow Quartz for another. Pitchfork, love 'em or hate 'em, has a decent selection of good stuff that includes a link to the band's label. Insound has a vast selection of mp3's for the taking. Both Pitchfork and Insound offer reviews, as does Epitonic, which I have found fairly accurate and most helpful. Lastly, may I introduce you to a group that rescued me from the despair brought on by the fear of never feeling that special wow-this-is-fantastic-I'm-happy-again-feeling that I used to have when I was young? Carbon Leaf has free downloads that I feel you should take advantage of. Thanks guys for the links to mp3 blogs. I've never really explored that area but I think I should start.
• And then there's mine as well. SELF LINK CALLOUT SELF LINNNKK!!! Hey. Nice. Thanks Blaise Bailey Finnegan. All of'em look purty good. So, for the computer drooler who's a virgin at music downloads, what's the best way to set this up with a dial-up* connection? Or can it even be done well? *primitive, yes, but I live in Mtn. Hole, ID
• Do you mean to download or to create your own? Downloading ain't hard, creating your own requires a bit of knowhow, but both are possible with dial-up. 'S just a bit slower.
• Just right click on the MP3 links and "Save File As..." Each MP3 will take about 20 minutes or so, on average on dialup, which isn't so bad really, if you spend that time wandering off to play a flashgame or some such. of course, some, like the MP3's I posted at the beginning of the week from the Fiery Furnaces will take faaar longer because they are loooooong songs.
• You wanna know how ancient my musical tastes are? When my kid brother came home clutching a 45 of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," all excited, I sneered at it as the kind of stuff kids like. To me, "Please Mister Postman" is a Marvelettes song, and 1963 was probably the all-time high of pop music. Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, Inez Foxx, Sam Cooke, the Miracles, the Crystals, James Brown, "Surfin' Bird," and perhaps the two greatest pop songs ever sung: "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Be My Baby." Get outta here with your Barenaked Ladies and your mp3s! Kids today... *shuffles off muttering*
• Hey Hat! Nuttin' wrong with "Be My Baby!" I Saw Ronnie Spector at Joey Ramones 52nd Birthday The woman still has one helluva set of pipes.
• There are lots of good "alternative" radio stations online, which don't play the playlisted crap. Try listening to London's XFM, the BBC's 6 Music, KEXP, or KCRW. They're the ones I listen to most, and they're always playing new bands that make me go "hmm, must check them out". Great stuff. Another things I find useful is All Music Guide which allows you to search for bands you like and find similar artists from the past and present.
• Rolypoly - If you like Bare Naked Ladies*, try They Might be Giants. Also on the rocking side are are Bob Schneider (warning: great music but big flash site that would be painful on dial-up), and Jason Mraz - I've just recently become fans of both. On the more folky side, you might find you like the Canadian band Great Big Sea (Warning: good music will start). I've seen both TMBG and GBS in concert - both are just amazing. MP3 blogs are invaluable for finding new bands, but I also have the habit of searching for music through Altavista's audio search. That's how I found out about Jason Mraz - I had been searching for Bob Schneider, and found someone's webpage with MP3s from both. It's just like Amazon's customers who like X also like Y, only you can listen to a track or two right away. I also found Virginia Coalition. It's great for finding new music of all kinds (a few months ago I was searching "minimalism" just to see what came up, and found great stuff). *I have to say though that my sense of Bare Naked Ladies may be a bit off, as the album I still know best is the 1992 Gordon Album. That was the year I was in Grade Nine, and they were banned from New City Hall because their name "objectified women". *Sigh* early 90s nostalgia is so much fun.
• Hatsy, you strike me as a man who'd like Prince.
• I Saw Ronnie Spector at Joey Ramones 52nd Birthday OK, you definitely win the coolness prize. I saw Joey on the street once, but that's it. Hatsy, you strike me as a man who'd like Prince Actually, yes. I just wish I had a copy of the Black Album -- I was pissed off by the whole limited-edition thing, so I skipped it. And now I regret it.
• And now I regret it. One of his best. *rubs it in* I bet there's a guy in NYC with a copy, though. His name has something to do with eating implements, spice, and soy-based protein.
• Wait! Wait! You're talking about... Aww, shit, lost it.
• - CautionLiveFrogs - YES -- the Classic Rock Limbo. I was stuck in that after 80s music died, around 1986ish. The Seattle sound may be overrated but I think it kicked enough life into things to get me outta the rut in the early 90s. - RhesusPieces - Eloquent words... enjoyed them and it's especially interesting considering I can identify with them but we yet are looking at different eras. - jb - They Might Be Giants are awesome... after 1992 they started sounded kinda pedestrian to me.. wasn't happy about the new band. But some of the new tunes from "Bed Bed Bed" remind me a lot of their old stuff. On another tangent, I think there is some sort of amorphous link to how "good" music sounds and what is going on in one's life. I think it's kind of complex. Nearly all music I like I enjoyed during an apex in my life or during a curiously depressing or challenging period that I haven't fully resolved yet. It's the music I heard during definite-depressing or dull periods that hasn't stuck with me. Overall I don't know if awesome music (in one's own mind) can exist outside set and setting. And yeah, I'm probably sounding like Dr. Leary and all.
• armaghetto - banana tree ) ) ) for that musicplasma link -- that rocks. It would be cool to see all that mapped out with "territories" showing what genre it sits in. Not that I care, but it would be educational knowing what all the genres are.
• I do indeed have the black album and could be easily plied into passing it along. Give me a ring at the email attached to my profile. And although I'm far too modest to self link to the plethora of mp3 blogs in my sidebar, perhaps someone would be kind enough to show you the way to my hit counter, where many mp3blogs show up in my "Recent hits" section.
• here. i visited the virgin (megastore) today. this is what i bought: canuck: ron sexsmith britpop future: clinic noise perfection: yo la tengo drumsynth fem pop: le tigre the great australian hope: the lucksmiths enjoy.
• Franz Ferdinand easily the best thing to have come out of Scotland for a long time. Indie meets cool 80's meets dance ... I love 'em
• Ok, my taste may be a little esoteric, (or maybe not, the people that got my monkey CDs are probably cursing me right now for sending them crappy tuneage) but here's some stuff from the last few years I really dig. Abandoned Pools Tommy Walter, the former Eels bass player's solo project. One of my favorite discs of the past five years. The Get Up Kids Punk/Emo-ish with some great lyrics and decent harmonies. They do a great cover of the Cure's "Close To Me" on their Eudora disc. (Look out for the Pixies cover on that disc too...) Guster I picked up "Lost and Gone Forever" a couple of years back on a whim, (I do that a lot) and was really pleasantly surprised. Stephin Merrit The driving force behind, among other things, Future Bible Heroes and the Magnetic Fields. Lots of clever lyrics, and good arrangements. The Eels "Fresh Feeling" off their "Souljacker" album is one of my favorite cute love songs ever.
• For fans of lesser-known and independent bands, I also like Splendid, Drowned In Sound, Tiny Mix Tapes, and Magnet. My best recommendations still come from friends, or from visiting message boards of bands I like and seeing what else the people there are listening to.
• well dang languagehat - i thought quonset was the only old-timer here - i call geezerfilter! (seriously, just joking. but i do find it odd when i know someone primarily due to a user name, and quite often the image i have in my head doesn't exactly match the reality - so when i get a hint of the real person, i'm often sorta taken aback at my own assumptions - like that for some reason i keep figuring most people here are around my own age, and i'm surprised when i find that they're much older or younger than i pictured. or, more buff... seriously forky, you can get like that on tofu alone?)
• I would also suggest hitting up your local indie record store. Depends on where you live, but most places have at least one. Hopefully, you can talk to the staff there and they can recommend you something good - even local artists or bands that might be up your alley. I find it's easy to be intimidated by snooty staff, but most of the time they can be really helpful if you just ask.
• To add to Caution Live Frogs comment KUOI is one of the few things that make my hometown alright. It's the free-format college radio station and most of the time they have a live feed.