I finally managed to get a good rip of "Don't Tell a Soul" by The Replacements. I had this on CD and played the hell out of it, but when I went to rip all my old music it was damaged or something, so the songs had a lot of speaker breaking, ear splitting, white noise.

I know that music fans who care about this stuff think that "Don't Tell a Soul" is one of the weaker Replacements albums, but I always loved it -- proving yet again that my musical taste pretty much sucks. It's finally on my iPod now though. So Happy!!!!

You have to hear this guy who imitates various artists like the Beach Boys or Frank Sinatra covering Pixies tracks the way those artists might have done them.

So much potential for horror, and yet, they are surprisingly good and compelling versions of the songs.

Boy, somebody is stuck in an early 90s alt-chick loop. Yesterday, I got in the car. The radio came on, and they were playing "Cannonball" by the Breeders. I remember thinking to myself wow, I haven't heard that in a while. Cool.

Today, I got in the car. The radio came on and they were playing "Feed the Tree" by Belly. I hadn't heard that in a while either, so that's kind of cool too I guess. Still, the pattern is becoming clear to me. I fully expect to get in the car tomorrow and either hear Four Non Blondes "What's Up?" (which I would have sworn was called "What's Going On?" or maybe "Seether" by Veruca Salt.

Also, what does it say about me that while I recognize the songs and the era, I had to look up all of those bands. I would have sworn that it was the Breeders who sang Feed the Tree, and I had no idea who did Cannonball.

Audiri looks like a pretty good resource for finding new artists. I'm assuming that these are all unsigned artists. I'll have to explore a bit more and maybe buy a few CDs.

Wow! The Beatles Songs page on Wikipedia is a tremendous resource. Lots of interesting background about nearly 200 Beatles songs.

The "No Good" Video (embedded QT) by Plan B is a stop motion work of genius.

There is an awful lot of nudity in the video (QT) for Koufax's song "Isabelle". Now, normally, I wouldn't find that to be too big a deal really except that they've gone in and stripped away everybody's genitals and nipples. I suppose they thought it would be less offensive or something, but it gives everybody this Ken doll type of look that I find to be equal parts mesmerizing and horrifying. It's like that scene in Silance of the Lambs where the killer is dancing around in his woman suit. Very creepy.

I've heard 2 1/2 songs that Pandora has recommended for me, and so far, I'm digging what I'm hearing. This may be worth subscribing to.

So, I'm watching Subterranean on MTV2. And, they're interviewing Death Cab For Cutie. And, Wow! That lead singer doesn't look anything at all like I expected he would. This must be a little like how people felt when they heard some of those silent film stars speak for the first time.

You know, I usually pay very close attention to the lyrics in songs (at least when I can make them out). For some reason though, I never really noticed the lyrics to Maxwell's Silver Hammer. At least I didn't until I saw This Maxwell's Silver Hammer Cartoon

It's kind of dark in a happy kind of way.

Rubber Johnny -- Dude, seriously... W! T! F!!!?

Oh...My...God! The scary thing is that they practiced this. You know they did. Holy Cats! OK Go's Video, A Million Ways To Be Cruel (QuickTime).

I was driving in my car this afternoon listening to the radio, which is already unusual as I usually listen to my iPod while driving. Anyway, the DJ has an in-studio guest who I hear doing a swing version of Van Halen's song "Jump".

It was awesome because it works on the comedic/ironic level of "Oh my god. Is that? It is. That's 'Jump'!", and it also worked as a really well done song (actually, I greatly prefer the swing version of that since I never did like the original very much).

I tried to figure out who the guest was, and they never did really say. I later came to learn that it was Paul Anka who has a new album out called Rock Swings. He also did an in-studio version of a swing version of "Black Hole Sun" which I thought kind of sucked.

Anyway, it might be worth a listen at least as a lark. Also, I love all the one star ratings on Amazon from old-school grunge kids who are deeply offended that Anka would dare to mess with a classic song like "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I mean, I liked Nirvana well enough at the time, but come on. Let's have a little perspective here.

Some guy has always wanted to be in his own music video, so he creates his own, totally radical version of Working for the Weekend (Embedded QuickTime). Pure adrenaline baby! Whatever happened to Loverboy anyway?

Now, somebody get a camera and do Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).

I'm pretty sure that Everything I Need To Know I've Learned From Iron Maiden is a complete put-on, but I don't care. When I get in my car today, I'm totally going to cue up Alexander the Great. His name struck fear into hearts of men you know. When I was listening to that song as a 17-year-old nere-do-well, I thought that at the age of 19 he became a wrestling king. Macedon probably makes more sense though.

You know, I was blown away the first time I saw the "Games Without Frontiers" video. There was something so strange about seeing little kids dressed up like adults at a dinner party.

I just saw the video for "Y Control" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That video is MESSED UP. Little kids dragging a dead dog around and cutting off their hands with axes and crap. Very creepy and disturbing. This page claims to have a link to it (Real). I didn't test it, and I don't know how long it will be a valid link.

I was just thinking tonight that it didn't feel like we were getting close to Halloween, but maybe now... I don't know. It was a really creepy video.

For the longest time, I haven't come across any music that seemed very interesting to me. And, the truth is that I don't really go out looking for it too much anymore. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

I just saw the video for Girl Anachronism by The Dresden Dolls. Wow! There's this tense kind of urgency to the music. It just builds and builds with a kind of seething undercurrent of anger to it. This is the sound of frustrated longing. Maybe it's my mood, but I find it incredibly appealing. I want to check it out again tomorrow to see if I have the same reaction.

Drop me a comment if you know of anybody who has this same kind of sound going on. It sounds really fresh and interesting to me.

Man, that new Counting Crows song from the Shrek 2 Soundtrack is trying so hard to be an Elvis Costello song it borders on painful. I actually like a bunch of the Counting Crows stuff, and I love love LOVE Elvis Costello. Those two just do not go well together though.

As long as I'm spouting off about music, for the record (you know 'cause I'm sure everybody cares about what I'm listening to these days) I do really like that Franz Ferdinand song, "Take Me Out". So much so in fact that I went out and well let's say sampled the rest of the album on a Usenet Binary group, and I'm sorry to say that I'm not as onboard with a lot of the rest of record.

Monkey was an old Japanese show that spawned the infinitely remixable Monkey Magic.

Reminds me a little of Queens "Flash Gordon" only you know with monkeys and stuff. How can you not love a song with a throw away line like "You're not a god, you're a birthday cake!"?

If anybody has a video to go along with one of these mixes, let me know --it could only be spectacular. Thanks Beth. You're my hero.

A few weeks ago, somebody turned me on to the music of Bob Schneider. He was playing at the Roxy, so tonight I headed up to check him out. Now, even though it was only like 8 PM, I have to confess I was feeling a bit tired as I got in my car, got on the freeway and motored my way up to Hollywood. I gave serious consideration to just baling on the whole thing. But, you only live once, and I don't want to live it as a decrepit old man, so I grabbed my cane and my geritol and threw on the Pixies. "Whoo Hoo! Rock and Roll!" (please note that of those 3, only the last one was true, and at no time did I actually shout whoo hoo, rock and roll -- that's just the feeling I was trying to work up to)

I got up to Sunset, paid for parking, walked a few blocks to the Roxy, ignored the fact that I felt completely out of place compared to all the hipster kids who were walking past me, got to the box office, and realized with stark horror that the show had sold out. At no point had it even occurred to me to suspect that the show might sell out. This was a Wednesday night show with some dude I'd only ever even heard of a few weeks ago. I guess the Hollywood hipsters must have their ears closer to the ground than I did.

So, back in my car, and back on the freeway, and this time listening to Lucinda Williams (so, not rock 'n roll*). I got home in time to watch the West Wing and do some laundry. Clearly, I need to stay in the South Bay like a good little three one oher. I am just so completely not two one three (or whatever the hell the area code is in Hollywood these days.

*actually, I think that Lucinda Williams probably is rock 'n roll in an unrequited alt-country kind of way, but go with me here. It's a freaking metaphor or something.

I'd never heard of Bob Schneider until somebody linked his site off of MeFi. I'm really liking it though. I'm not sure if it's the music (although that sounds great in a Pete Yorn, Rocker Singer Songwriter kind of way) or the sense of humor/interesting interface that the site seems to have.

It's all flash and bandwidth intensive, but it creates a great way to experience the music. He's in West Hollywood at The Roxy on May 19th. I may just need to go check him out live.

So, if you're like me, you've been seeing Songs to Wear Pants To linked from every site on the internet, but you didn't click through to check it out. Fool! Click through. Do it now. Do it right now!

Somebody took Billy Joel's history lesson, "We Didn't Start the Fire", and made an annotated version of the lyrics. Now if only I could find somebody to do the same thing with the theme song from "Cheers".

Seriously though, I'd never heard of George Santayana before reading this annotation, and I'm genuinely amazed that I hadn't. He sounds like a profound and influential figure in American thought. My education blew. via

There was a time when I absolutely loved Jonatha Brooke's music. I listen to those songs now, and I just don't hear them the same anymore for some reason.

And the new album, Back in the Circus ..... Well, yeah. That's too bad. Although "Better After All" does kind of grab me. I think it's just a few oddly specific phrases more than anything. "Less Than Love" is kind of cool too, but it feels like it could have been so much more.

She's coming to concert in Southern California in April. I saw her once before, and she's great live. Good crowd interaction, it could be fun. I'm tempted to check it out, but I don't know. I may have changed too much. It's sad.

Where's the new music that's going to grab my soul? I'm so ready for something to grab me (as I listen to the same songs over and over again on my iPod because radio is so... well, just so)

Muted Tones is cool in concept and in execution (at least based on the first song I've heard so far):

Seven curators, seven months, seventy minutes of music. Each month is assigned to a curator, whose job it is to fill ten minutes with the sounds of their choosing. They are invited to keep a log of their work, as they create it. Each month, their ten minute piece of music is made available for streaming or download.

You know, This Video (Quicktime 9 MB) of the Peanuts Gang lip synching the Outcast song "Hey Yeah" is the best thing that has happened to me in the entire month of January.

Whether that says more about the video or this crappy month is left as an exercise for the reader.

Now that is truly disturbing. (Quicktime - Herve Villechaize singing "Why Do People Fight")

The food network has a new show called Dweezil and Lisa. Dweezil Zappa and Lisa Loeb are married or dating or something like that, and I guess they're trying to cash in on the whole celebrity relationship reality TV craze by doing a show where they cook and go to restaurants.

As you might expect, it's a very forced premise for a show. Still, Zappa always seemed like a cool enough guy, and I've always been a fan of Loeb's music. The first show has her performing in Atlanta, and it looks like such a fun show, I hit the internet to see when she might be coming through LA.

How said am I then to find that there are no scheduled shows. Ah well, maybe I can remember to keep checking back.

I seem to be running out of morning. Staying up super late will do that to you I suppose. Anyway, I don't have time to listen to these Dakota Smith MP3s right now. Maybe later. via

I want to like Radiohead. I really do. I want to like them in much the same way I want to NOT like Avril Lavigne. Most of the time, objectively, I can even manage it (or manage to NOT do it as the case may be). It isn't all that hard really. It's just that sometimes at a visceral level, I suspect that maybe the emperor has no clothes (or is dressed in a ravishingly lovely pseudo-gown as the case may be). This Review pretty much nails it on the head for me.

I shouldn't enjoy these songs as much as I do.

I'm not generally one to rail against musicians selling out to advertisers. I have to say though, there is just something so wrong about hearing a Cure song in a TV ad. I'm not even an exceptionally huge cure fan. It took "Friday I'm in Love" to even be able to develop an appreciation for Robert Smith's vocals. Still, it just seems wrong.

Magnatune: Open, unencumbered MP3s let you try before you buy. Buy and you get the MP3 and a high quality wav file. Even better, buy and 50 percent goes straight to the artist.

I hope you're paying attention RIAA member labels because these guys will get my money while you guys won't. I just wish Magnatune had a better roster of artists. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

To The United States Congress:

We are the customers and former customers of the member labels of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). We love music and will gladly pay a fair price for it, but we are outraged by the RIAA's tactics in suing ordinary Americans for filesharing.

We condemn the RIAA's choice to force the family of a 12 year-old girl to forfeit $2,000 - money that could have gone to feed, clothe and educate this honor student. We stand with the retirees, parents, children and others who have been caught in the RIAA's line of fire.

We oppose the recording industry's decision to attack the public, bankrupt its customers and offer false amnesty to those who would impugn themselves. We call instead for a real amnesty: the development of a legal alternative that preserves file-sharing technology while ensuring that artists are fairly compensated.

So, I'm working out. You know, because what else are you going to do on Friday night (I'm so lame). I have the computer pumping out some groovy workout tunes. At least, I thought I did until Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" came on. I guess I just had my iTunes library on total shuffle play. I was getting into it for a second because it's kind of fast and aggressive, and I thought hey, maybe I should add this to my workout play list.

That feeling didn't last long. As I listened to it more, I started getting into the feeling of being back in high school, and I wanted to go drive around really fast or sit in my friend's basement playing pool while all of them got high. I never got high (I'm so lame).

That song totally sucked the motivation right out of me. Man, if I wake up tomorrow with a body like Eddie, I'm going to be so pissed. "I now posses your body and I'll make you burn" indeed.

Who the hell is Dan Bern, and why does he sound EXACTLY like Elvis Costello? Man, there must be so much great music out there that I've never even heard.

Rare 1980s MP3 of the Week:

This is the reason why I have put up this page. I've seen other people do similar things, particularly the excellent Blake's Rare Recording of the Week. However, the other pages never seem to post the music that I would have myself selected. Couple this with the fact that I own well in excess of 2,000 records and CD's, much of which is extremely rare and hard to find. It's a real shame that this music ends up sitting on my shelves, not being played. This is my solution.

Once a week on Mondays, I will post a rare track of my choosing in MP3 format, as well as a track that was posted two years ago.

Would you take a look at that? It seems the Bare Naked Ladies are keeping a blog. I'm not sure why I think that's so cool, but it is. Isn't it?

More bands should do stuff like this. It seems like a good way to keep the "feel" of a personal relationship with the fans.

Thanks Biz.

That video I mentioned a couple of posts down made its way onto the Sonic 360 site. Go Check it Out (Mirando De Lado).

WAY! TOO! FUNNY!

Kinky's video for "Mirando De Lado" is outstanding!

I'd link you to it, but a brief search didn't turn it up. Now here's what I don't get. They must have spent some cash producing the video -- as long as they're going to do that, shouldn't their label host it on their web site? I mean why just hope that MTV2 is going to play it once or twice on 120 minutes? What good is that?

Anyway, here's a link to their "media" page which only has some crappy 30 second Real Player sound clips.

Update: I guess they are on a split label or something, and Sonic 360 does have some videos, but based on the first one, they aren't as good as the one for "Mirando De Lado". Maybe that one will show up there eventually though.

Or, maybe it's just that I want to go to Disney World. Either way, thanks MeFi for pointing me to this Charming French Music Video.

Here's an experiment that you can try at home:

Take one afternoon, just as dusk is falling. It helps if it's a little cold, and ominus looking dark storm clouds are rolling in. Get in your car, and put on some heavy metal act from when you were a kid. I'd recommend Dio, Holy Diver, but really anything like that would probably do. Turn it up VERY, VERY loud, and sing along VERY, VERY badly. It helps if you can laugh with giddy glee as you're singing. Now, drive someplace really, really fast. Throw an occasional devil sign, or bang your head a bit as the spirit moves you.

If you've done all of this correctly, then for anywhere from about 7 1/2 to 12 minutes*, you will feel exactly like you're 16 again.

It's like broken glass
You get cut before you see it
So open up your eeeeyyyyyeeeeesssssss!

*Be sure not to exceed the recommended dossage as shortly after that period, you may experience feelings of being just a little pathetic and lame.

OK - I know it's a little weird that this is going to be the third entry in as many days mentioning Chris Butler. I swear I'm not cyber stalking the guy or anything, but here's the thing. He just sent me an e-mail to thank me for buying his CD.

Of course it was a template, and it might have even been automated. It was personalized though, so if it was automated, that's a pretty slick little ap that strips my first name out of whatever notification e-mail CD Baby sends to artists whose music you buy.

Either way, it shows a nice commitment to the fans. I think that's just unspeakably cool. None of the other artist I've purchased music from have ever sent me a thank you note. Now, I want to go buy everything else the guy has put out.

Update: Amanda Thorpe just sent me a thank you e-mail as well.

Picked up a bunch of new CDs tonight including: Bishop Allen, Charm School (really outstanding judging by the preview tracks); Deb Talan, Sincerely (all that listening to "Tell Your Story Walking" had me wanting to hear more); Chris Butler, I Feel a Bit Normal Today (natch - see post below this one); Tracy Spuehler, Six Three One (seems a little thin, but she's local, and I wanted to round out six to get free shipping); Elgin Park; Elgin Park and Amanda Thorpe, Mass.

Problem is that after ripping these, I think I'm going to go below 500 Megs on my PowerBook's Drive. I may be to the point where I'm not going to be able to keep my entire collection on my PowerBook. That sucks. It's almost enough to make me want to pick up one of those new PowerBooks with the 60 gig drives - almost.

It seems the sum total of my internal dialog is being scripted by Chris Butler today. Sure, it's all out of context, but still - I don't think I'm quite ready to "X" my "BFD-ing", so I'd like it all to stop please:

Stop! Damn!
Reverse the wires
Switch the ground!
Something's crazy here
We're twisted around...
What got into us anyway'?
Who threw the rules away?

.......

I've got a zillion facts
That can help you out
But they just make you nervous
I'm not so sure
The decisions you're making
Are really in my best interest

.......

I don't want to talk about that now. Why do you keep asking me?

.......

I'm sorry you'll never
Risk living such a pretty lie

Would you have tried that?
Think you could've pulled it off?
OK start with something simple like...

Go make the weather
Go pull the stars closer in
Go make the weather
Go race light
Go build the wind

.......

Are you really going to listen to the song, "Tell Your Story Walking", by Deb Talan again for the 873rd time today?

Yes. Yes I am. Do you have a problem with that?

Ooh, now that's lovely. More like Venus Hum please. But, you know not on MCA or one of the other major labels so I could actually buy and enjoy it. OK?

Holy crap - somebody else listens to Jonatha Brooke (I'd link directly to the entry in question but her archive pages turn into HTML source code in mozilla for some reason).

I could have sworn I was the only one that listened to Jonatha Brooke. Actually, that's not true except that it sort of is. I wasn't familiar with her when she was singing with The Story, but I was fortunate to hear her interviewed when she was promoting Plumb on this local triple A radio station (Adult Album Alternative - sort of light rock, college alternative music for the after college crowd).

That station has since gone to a spanish format - because you know LA doesn't have enough spanish format stations. I'm sure they probably make more money with that format, but I hate that in a market the size of LA we basically have horrible corporate rock/rap/alternative in the form of KROQ on one end and a few hours of eclectic music on KCRW on the other. One of the things that attracted me to LA was the chance to finally hear some decent radio, and as soon as I got here it all went to pot. It was one of the really, really small things that attracted me to LA, but still.

It's always kind of weird when you think you know an artist that is kind of obscure and it turns out they really aren't. A lot of times I'll hear a Brooke song on a restaurant's musak station, and it always seems out of place for some reason.

Anyway, as long as I'm signaling out Beth's site, if you aren't reading her, you totally should. I'm always amazed at how charming and unselfconscious her entries are. I'll never be that personal here. I write an innocuous entry about feeling light headed after taking antihistamines and letting my blood sugar drop too low, and before I post it I picture my mother going to talk to some nurse and calling concerned about some imaginary illness she's given me (don't laugh, this has happened). In that case i figured screw it, "Spin, Spin, Spin ... Wheeee!" is a funny headline. Other times though, I certainly censor myself in a big way, and I'm sure my writing suffers for it.

Sometimes when I'm watching TV, I'll just bounce around from one random site to another. After doing that for a couple of months now, I can safely say that most journal type writing on the web is pure crap. My site of course is no exception, but hers is in a big way, so go read it before she realizes how brave she's being and stops.

This:

Others said the explosion of new music -- partly driven by digital music production technology and the Internet -- has made it easy for bad music to proliferate throughout cyberspace.

"There's an incredible amount of mediocrity," said musician/songwriter Eric Bazilian, formerly of the rock group The Hooters.

At least some of the artists quoted seem to get it. Now if we could just get the labels to die and get out of the way of the artists and their fans all would be right in the world.

I need the Internet with me where ever I go.

This afternoon I had a song in my head, but I couldn't for the life of me remember which song. All I could hear over and over again was just the line "Punk Rock Red White and Blue" repeating itself in an endless loop - demanding that I find and play that song.

So, I'm trying to think of what female fronted band sings this song. I can almost hear her, and I'm thinking what it's Liz Phair right? It has to be on whitechocolatespaceegg because I haven't been listening to Whip-Smart lately, and I never really liked Exile in Guyville all that much to begin with. So, I fire up the iPod, and track through all of my Liz Phair, but I know almost right away that isn't it.

So then who? ... Who? ... Concrete Blonde? It doesn't sound like Concrete Blonde in my head, but maybe on one of their compilation records like Free. Well, back to the iPod and I realize right away that it can't possibly be Concrete Blonde. At about this point, I convinced myself that it was The Pretenders. Which sucked because I didn't have any Pretenders on my iPod, and I was pretty sure I didn't even own the record I was thinking of anyway.

So, I'm driving along, bummed as all get out, wanting to hear this song so I can exorcise my musical demons. All the while, I'm thinking that I really just need to have the Internet right there always on in the palm of my hand. I knew that the Internet would know what song I was thinking of, and that if I could just access it, I could stop driving myself crazy.

I was almost home when I realized the song was Cake "You Turn the Screws". No wonder I couldn't think of the girl that sang the song - it was a guy singer. So, finally I was able to hear the song and get it out of my head, and tragedy was averted. Still, I could have saved myself about 45 minutes of pure driven crazy if I could have just gotten to the Internet.

The end.

It was explore new music night at the Raleigh homestead.

Take a look at: Lygia Ferra, Fez Dispenser, The Alice Project, Bird York and a final special call out to The SIBL Project - Songs Inspired By Literature. Proceeds from The SIBL Project go towards promoting adult literacy.

Important Note: All independant artists, so I can feel good about supporting music without funding the RIAA's attempts to steal and erode our rights.

How cool is Matt?

1. Cooler than a Cucumber
2. Cooler than an Ice Cream Cone
3. Cooler than the Fonz
4. Cooler than a Team Knight Rider Reunion
5. Oh heck, cooler than there are cool things in the world

Ahhh..., just when I was really needing a morale boost, bam! Hours and hours (6.6 in fact) of dreamy Japanese pop music. Which I didn't even realize I liked, but how can you not?

Pizzicato Five is fun. I mean really, really, insanely fun -- like the Partridge Family on Acid. I've only scratched the surface, but I think I may have even heard a few sophisticated sample heavy remix tracks too which suggests there may be some real depth to this band like if the ocean was filled with sugar instead of salt.

Thank you, thank you, thank you your Eyeballedness.

Ever get a song in your head, so you have to hear it? I haven't heard Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell in like forever, but I couldn't get it out of my head tonight. I finally had to drag myself out of bed so I could listen to it.

There's this one part:

They'll tell you black is really white
The moon is just the sun at night
And when you walk in golden halls
You get to keep the gold that falls

By the way, you know that really hard part to figure out in Rush's Temples of Syrinx:
It's one for all and all for one. We work together, common sons. I never got that one either.

And as long as I should be sleeping anyway, Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting: We've had it with your discipline. Discipline - yeah, that makes sense I guess. It certainly makes a lot more sense that we've had it with your a;lfkjsld;ajflsdj;.

Thank God for the Internet!!!! I would quite literally go insane without it.

Last.fm is very cool. It's basically a streaming web-based radio station with Tivo style I like it, I don't like it voting. As you indicate liking or disliking songs, it attempts to find other users with similar taste so that it can get better at anticipating what music you will enjoy.

This could be interesting.

Mmmmmm..... Is there anything better than a 2 hour nap on a lazy Saturday?

Yes. When it's catching you up on a 1 1/2 week sleep deficit, that's better. And, when it's the kind of sleep you can only get when flirting with the edges of an antihistamine induced coma, that's even better still.

But, could the music directors at the DirectTV Progressive music channel (or really just the universe in general since it's not just confined to that channel), please cool it with the Neil Young? Once a month is a fine and interesting. I really don't need him as one of the core artists in the soundtrack of my life. How 'bout some more Jonatha Brooke or Liz Phair OK?

Update: I went to CPK for dinner, and they were playing Jonatha Brooke's song, "Where Were You?". Thank you Universe. Now, how about a million dollars?

So, I'm watching MTV2. OK, I wasn't really watching it. It was just kind of making noise in the background. Anway this band, Ok Go, comes on, and they have this song, "Get Over It". This song completely rocks.

And, I have to say, I was getting really tired of rock there. I know everybody's on about how wonderful The Hives and The Vines are, but everybody is just plain wrong. They're wrong about The Hives anyway with their annoying little Mick Jaggoff wanna be of a front man. I guess The Vines are actually kinda OK. They're OK, but they aren't OK Go.

By the way, I also saw the video for Puddle of Mudd, "She Hates Me". Yeah, has anything ever blown harder than that song blows?

Freeze this moment a little bit longerMake each sensation a little bit strongerExperience slips awayTime Stands Still -- Rush

[more...]

Based on the information that some of my favorite bands or artists include: Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann and Jonatha Brooke, GNOD think that I would enjoy listening to Emiliana Torrini. Judging from the sound clips on Amazon, I think Gnod may be right. Can't buy it though. She's on Virgin which is part of the brotherhood of evil.

I completely adore Aimee Mann. She is streaming her entire upcoming record, Lost in Space up until it's released on 8/27. [Listen Here]

Now here's my problem. After hearing the songs, I totally want to buy this CD, but I'm not buying CDs anymore out of protest to the way the RIAA treats their customers. But, Aimee publishes her stuff independently, so she's not a member of the RIAA, and they don't get any of this money right? Or do they, they have their hands in so much of everything, how can you tell? What to do, what to do...

I'm not ready to try this yet, but I just had call to search it out for somebody, and I could barely remember where it was. Just in case, now I'll remember. In My Experience... | Compiling, installing and using mod_mp3 on Mac OSX (Part 2 of 2)

So, I'm bouncing around to random blogs. And, I come across NerdWoman. Hey, with a name like NerdWoman it has to be good right. Well, she links to a song, Hey Mister, by Candye Kane. (Actually, she's hosting the song, so if you're going to give it a listen, you should swing by NerdWoman's site and give her a read).

I'd never heard of Candye Kane, but what a fun song. It's this bawdy kind of horns and swing music. There were a couple of years there where swing sort of made a come back. Then, for some reason grungey, angry rock/rap came rushing back in -- on commercial radio anyway. I want more fun music! Was it just kitsch? Give me more ska or swing or ... I don't know, just more horns.

There is a Very Interesting Timeline of the CARP rulings over on linuxjournal. CARP sets royalty rates for web sites that are streaming radio stations. The royalty rates are so high that pretty much every web radio station will be driven out of business. I had assumed that was the RIAA's plans, and I still sort of think it was. But, the linked story says that it was broadcast.com who wanted to stifle competitors while being able to take advantage of some loopholes in the deal.

Why can't we get people who understand this stuff to regulate this stuff? It can't be that hard. I don't expect the powerbrokers to be clued into every nuance, but their aides should understand this stuff shouldn't they?

Strange Sandwich Music looks to be a blog of new music. It seems to be the artists that post new songs as they become available on mp3.com. It seems to be made up of a small group of a