Turn the radio up for that sweet sound…
Sorry, but ‘click the little speaker icon’ just doesn’t evoke the same feelings. Am I missing all the odes to computer music services?
Anyway, I have been searching for a simple way to add music to my blog so when I do a review you all can listen to it here. Some players sort of run, some don’t and many are just too much work. A few days ago I found Grooveshark.
Grooveshark is a streaming music service. You can listen to music, upload your favorites and share them with others and create music player widgets for your blog. If you can point, click, copy and paste you can stream music on your blog. The service is free to use and according to the Terms of Service, legal.
(as in they pay the artists for the right to stream the songs and are not violating copyright)
Aside from all that - it is just kinda cool. 
Have a good weekend!
- Kit
I will drink your tumblers and tea…
Scooter takes over the blog today with her latest music favorites.
The first two she has been enjoying for a few months now and the third one we just found in the past few days.
The first makes me bang my head against the wall but she loves both the songs and the videos. Lines, Vines and Trying Times is the latest
release from the Jonas Brothers. Her favorite track is Paranoid. (She dances around the room when it comes on - I seriously don’t get it)
Next up is For Those About to Hop, the soundtrack for the first season of Imagination Movers. She likes all the songs but her favorites seem to be Nina’s Song, Fix it Up and Try Again.
Lastly, I found Lizzie Huffman and her Brother Band over on Suburban Home. Scooter instantly fell in love with the six track EP.
We downloaded the free mp3 and the music player. Her favorite so far is the kind of country Tumblers and Tea. (while I am partial to Heavy Hearts) Huffman has a very unique sound, sort of an old time country mixed with smoky jazz and then blended with a little folk.
Check out each of the band’s myspace pages to hear the music and for Lizzie Huffman you can also check out the sampler/player below.
- Kit and Scooter
Happy 14th Birthday Suburban Home Records…
Okay, I think Virgil and the others over at Suburban Home Records are a little confused. Maybe they had a few too many late nights out listening to the awesome bands in their line-up perform. See, when it is my birthday I usually get presents but Suburban Home is giving cool stuff away to celebrate theirs.
CD’s for five bucks…14% off any order…14 bucks off any order of 50 bucks or more…and my favorite, any CD on the list for free. Yes, ’free’ is not a typo. From the website:
“And by “IT”, we mean a FREE ALBUM. With Suburban Home’s 14th Anniversary, we have made the decision that we would like to give everyone in the world one free album. We are a bit biased, but we think that Suburban Home is one of greatest record labels in the world while also being one of the smallest, least known record labels around. We hope that our offer to give you a free album will entice you to pick a release from one of our artists and hope that it will encourage you to tell others to grab an album, too.”
Coolest label…ever.
Now go, shoo. Grab a free album!
Hey, while you’re there don’t forget to snag the special 14th Anniversary Sampler.
Seriously, the coolest label ever.
- Kit
All we need is ‘E’music…
If you scroll down the blog page you may notice the Emusic graphic in the sidebar. It is essentially an ad for 25 free mp3 downloads from their site. You sign up, get your free downloads and you have 7 days to decide if Emusic is for you.
This is a great (and relatively painless) way to explore an online music site. In fact, this is how I started using Emusic.
Years ago Wired magazine ran a story on Emusic. Along with it came the 25 free songs offer. I signed up, downloaded some blues and some tracks recommended on the message forums. I liked the concept but I had some problems. At the time, the sound quality of mp3 recordings was not the greatest and I didn’t own a mp3 player. It was also a pain to burn the songs to cd so I decided to cancel.
Fast forward over a year and Emusic sent me a note with an offer for some free downloads if I came back to the service. By this time I had a mp3 player and jumped at the chance to find more music for it. I stayed with Emusic until pregnancy complications in the fall of 2007 forced me to bed and I had to cancel because I couldn’t log on the computer at all.
Several months later Emusic again sent me a nice email offering free downloads if I came back to the service. I have been using them ever since. I like Emusic, I think it is a great value and I have no problem recommending them to anyone looking for good music. There is so much energy and creativity coming out of the indie music labels and Emusic lets me immerse myself in all of it. I download nearly all my blues, jazz and world music from Emusic. I also pick up a lot of alt-punk, alt-country and all my metal there.
Okay, enough of my ‘Emusic is a shiny, sparkly unicorn’ musings and on to a few practical tips.
1) Browse is your friend. The music on the ‘browse’ page is sorted by genre, by release date, by artist and several other options. You can also look over the staff picks or ask other members what they recommend.
2) Take advantage of the track preview feature. You can listen to a sample of any song you want to download. Part of the beauty of Emusic is when you don’t want the entire cd you can buy only the tracks you want.
3) Don’t forget to pick up the ‘free mp3 of the day’. This can add from 1 to 31 additional songs to your collection every month.
4) Emusic is and always has been DRM-free.
However, (we all knew there would be a however) Emusic is not for everyone. If you absolutely cannot listen to any music not in the rotation of most commercial radio stations, or If you only listen to major label music and have no intention of ever listening to indie music of any kind - Do not sign up. Seriously, you will only frustrate yourself and come away with a bad impression of the site.
The rest of you - shoo, go check out some music.
- Kit
Kits’ disclaimer of doom
The link to Emusic in the sidebar of the blog is a promotion. Any time you all click thru and sign up for the free downloads, Emusic will send me a couple of bucks. (theoretically that is, I haven’t actually gotten any bucks yet) If this sort of thing bothers you or makes you uncomfortable you can just go directly to the site and sign up there. The music sounds the same either way.
End disclaimer of doom
In your eyes there’s a sadness enough to kill the both of us…
So last week One Day, One Song had a free mp3 download from the new Camera Obscura CD, My Maudlin Career.
And yes, of course I snagged it. I can’t help myself. It is like some weird compulsion.
Anyway, I put the track on my mp3 and listened to it several times over the weekend. First thing this morning I bought the whole cd. I love Tracyanne’s voice. It’s lonely and kind of wistful. I also like that the music is pop without being sugary. My favorites are Honey in the Sun and My Maudlin Career but I really like all the tracks.
You can pick up the free mp3 over on One Day, One Song or you can listen to tracks off the Cd over on the Camera Obscura MySpace page. You can purchase the new cd at Amazon, Itunes and other outlets.
- Kit
I’m black coffee, she’s sweet tea…
The other day I went hunting for free mp3’s and found Summer’s Gone by Jackopierce. I liked it so much I
went back and bought the CD, Promise of Summer.
Aside from the utter coolness of Jack O’Neill as a name, this is just a great band. (I am sure Cary Pierce is cool as well, just not SF geek cool)
Most tracks have kind of a folk/alt-rock sound. The music is mellow but not sleep inducing. My favorites are ‘Everything I’m Not’ and ‘Something Good’ but the album as a whole has a great sound.
I say buy the whole thing -
But if you need a test drive you can listen to several songs over on the Jackopierce myspace page, cnet.com or samples of all the songs on Amazon. You can d/l the mp3 album from Amazon or other online retailers.
- Kit
High Water…
So I walked into my laundry room last Friday and there was water all over the floor but none of it was anywhere near the washer or the sink. This left the water heater which after calling Kahuna to come investigate (hey, it is a big metal tub full of water and wired to 220 - like I am going to touch it) he pronounced it rusted through. Three hundred or so dollars poorer, but with nice hot water I decided slow down my music buying spree and focus on free music for a little while.
I picked up several blues tracks over on Public Domain 4U including a fairly clear copy of Frisco Whistle Blues by Alabama bluesman Ed Bell.
At Free Music Downloads I snagged a nice jazzy blues track by Lana Martino-Smith called Crippled Heart Blues. Loved her voice and the guitar on the song is nice as well.
Finally I picked up several tracks from Amazon.com including Summer’s Gone by Jackopierce. Once the pain of the surprise water heater purchase wears off I am going to buy the entire CD, The Promise of Summer.
- Kit
Add some music to your day…
‘Twas the afternoon before the night before Christmas and Kit found her favorite sort of music, the FREE sampler.
Today it was a 16 track bundle of musical joy from Deep Elm Records called Bonfire of Trust.
I love when record companies do this. I get to listen to a variety of bands for free and they get to hook me as a customer. There is no bad here.
My favorites are ‘Giant Magnets’ by Desoto Jones and ‘We All Have Our Own Shoes’ by Ride Your Bike. You can download all 16 tracks for free on the Deep Elm Records Website or from Emusic.
Oh, and to Deep Elm Records, Suburban Home and the other Indie recording companies that offer me a chance to d/l tracks before buying - you guys rock.
Thanks,
- Kit
Singing other people’s songs…
Picked up a couple of tracks off Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero. Lot of remixes on this CD. That isn’t neccessarily a bad thing. I listen to a lot of blues and covers are fairly common, but I still want the 
individual artist to come through. I want to hear their ‘music’, not just their take on someone else’s.
(This was my problem with Jukebox by Cat Power. I really wanted Cat and felt like the cover album just diluted her.)
And that is my problem here. No matter how much I like his version of ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday‘ I would still love to hear the real Colin Munroe. His own words, his own music.
If anyone has a rec of Colin singing and playing his own stuff please let me know.
You can listen to and pick up free tracks from the album over on RCRD LBL and can purchase it on Colin’s myspace page. If you are near the Atlanta area, you can see Colin Munroe live tonight Dec 18th at Vinyl and Friday night Dec 19th at Stand Back @ Club Cenci.
- Kit
