The better side of public access television

Howdy,

OK, I can't say that I really have anything overly interesting to write about at the moment, but hey, writing something is better than nothing, I guess.  I ended up buying the MGMT album (Oracular Spectacular) and it's pretty much all I've been listening to the last couple of days.  Every now and then I'll check out another recent purchase - Ghostland Observatory's "Paparazzi Lightning" which is hard to categorize, but iTunes labels it as "Rock."  It's funkier than a rock label would indicate.  I've read online that they are great live and they say (according to their myspace page) that they are influenced by Daft Punk, James Brown, The Beatles, Prince and "ANYONE WITH BALLS."  I'd say that's pretty accurate considering the keyboardist likes to wear a cape.  There's no cape in the video below, but there is a Tone Loc t-shirt and a pretty cool piano solo.  

I'm Hooked (part 2)

Hey,

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Radiohead.  While they aren't obscure I still want to take this moment to remind you of how kickass they really are.  I just found a bunch of videos on-line for their recent album "In Rainbows" and they are posted below.  A few of my favorites are Reckoner, Jigsaw, and Weird Fishes.  Check 'em out!

I'm hooked

Hey!  

Just a quick note.  I've been totally hooked on this band and I can't stop playing their tunes.  I'm sure I'd play them even more if I could get a DRM-free download from Amazon, but they don't seem to be down with that.  I guess I'll have to go to the store or something.  Anyway, check out their video for "Time To Pretend."

Creeper Lagoon Where Are You?!

Yo yo yo,

I've been hunting for new good tunes lately, and I started to think back about groups that I used to dig that I haven't heard anything from recently (Toadies, For Squirrels, Helium, anyone?).  This thinking led me to look up Creeper Lagoon, a band that I accidently "discovered" ten or so years ago by winning a radio contest.  I don't remember what the contest was, probably something to do with being the 10th caller or something along those lines, and while I don't remember what I won (a Green Day CD?) I do remember that a Creeper Lagoon EP was part of the deal.  The five or so tracks didn't have a lot of production value however I was hooked and ended up buying later albums.  I remember thinking that these guys would hit it big.  Sometimes quirky but always catchy, what more could you want.  

Anyway, they don't appear to be up to much these days and last put out an album (Long Dry Cold) in 2006 according to their myspace page.  The samples on the page are worth checking out, and you can buy the entire album for a whopping $1.19.  According to Creeper Lagoon, this pricing is meant to show "...solidarity with Jammie Thomas who was charged $9250 per song by the RIAA..."  If you don't know, Jammie Thomas was the only person to fight the recording industry in court because of their questionable tactics of suing file-sharing people, even when the person is only identified by their IP address.  She lost her suit and ended up owing the recording industry more than $200,000.  While I don't know how selling an album for 9 cents a track helps anything, I do know that I enjoy great music (and not paying a lot for it).  Anyway, check them out on myspace or at their label site, www.neglectra.com  (By the way, I really like the Sly Doc material that can be found at the neglectra site.  Good background/soundtrack music!)

If you want to read a somewhat depressing interview (I'm guessing from 2002?) with the main guy of Creeper Lagoon, you can find one at inmusicwetrust.com/articles/57h01.html

A write-up of Long Dry Cold is linked below.

Party On     

Check it out!

Long time, no write,

Hey there, I don't have anyone I want to write about specifically at the moment, but I thought that I'd mention a fairly cool resource for checking out new tunes.  I'm not (yet) getting a kick back or anything, but I have to recommend checking out rhapsody.com for new tunes.  There's some player thing that you have to download, but it looks like you get to hear 25 songs for free and I have found it to be a good way to determine what to buy and what to avoid when it comes to albums.  They appear to have a pretty extensive selection, and I've been able to check out Ingrid Michaelson, They Might Be Giants, MGMT, and The Cool Kids to name a few.  Besides the selection, I also dig that rhapsody has Apple support, which is nice compared to a few of the other places that continue to ignore the die hard (and growing) Apple-user population.  Anyway, I have no idea if it would be worth upgrading to the pay version of the rhapsody service, and if any of you have it, please chime in.

By the way, Radiohead is on the lastest Rolling Stone, woo hoo!

Later!   

Have a cigarette?

(Insert dirty joke here)

Yo!

OK, I suck at the whole posting daily thing.  Blah.  I'll work on that.

So, I don't have a whole lot to say about new tunes at the moment.  Picked up a few CDs today (Drive-By Truckers, Magnetic Fields, and Matt Costa) and haven't listened to much of them yet.  Anyway, here's a singer (Laura Veirs, above) who puts on a pretty good show and you can still catch her for less than $15 (at least the times I've seen her).  Caught her in Tucson and in Phoenix and discovered other great bands (Great Lake Swimmers in Tucson, and Young Galaxy in Phoenix) in the process.  Woo hoo.  You should check out her myspace page for more tunes and see her live (only in Europe at the moment) if you get the chance.  (Recommended albums: Year of Meteors, Saltbreakers)

I knew him when...

Hey Kiddies...

Someone who has attended a wine party at my house, now has music for sale via iTunes.  How fucking cool is that?!  Congrats Aaron!  OK, so, be the first on your block to have the groovy sounds of Ill Castle blasting through your head phones, or dare I say.....earbuds.  In addition to the songs for sale, Ill Castle has a music video.  Check it out below (unless you're a fan of mice)!  I'm sure in no time there will be a book deal and illegitimate children and an appearance on The Apprentice (Celebrity Edition).  Until then, click some links, buy some music, and chill to the sounds if Ill Castle.

Mr. Pitiful. (No, not me.)

Hey there,

I saw this guy, Matt Costa, on TV the other day and I realized that I should have probably known about him long ago.  He has a new album coming out soon and is currently on tour (hey Phoenix, what are you doing on the 30th!?), and if he were coming here, I'd be sure to check him out.  I haven't done any research on the guy and I'm wondering if his sister is Nikka Costa, who has been missing in action for quite a while now.  Anyway, check out his video and run to the music store on Jan. 22.

Ingrid, wanna meet for coffee, or catch a movie or something?

Howdy Buds,

OK, here's a hot tip for ya...  Check out Ingrid Michaelson ASAP.  I'd have to say that she's bordering on easy listening, but sometimes that's a good thing.  Plus, she's a total babe (if you're into that sorta thing) and you can check out some of her songs via her myspace page at: http://wwww.myspace.com/ingridmichaelson   She's also on tour (hey Phoenix people, go see her on the 11th of March) and will be playing the SXSW festival (if you're lucky enough to go, I'm super jealous, you lucky bastard/bastardette).  

By the way, SXSW doesn't appear to have a music schedule yet, but a couple of the bigger confirmed acts this year are R.E.M. and The Black Crowes.  Not too shabby!

Later       

Site update and Black Keys tour dates

Hey there everyone,

As you may have noticed, I've been experimenting with a few different things on the blog (such as the amazon.com links) and setting up feeds and junk like that.  A lot of this is fairly new to me, so it will be interesting to see if anyone finds it to be useful.  

I don't expect to have a whole lot going on the site until it gets a bit closer to Feb.  I have a whole bunch of albums that I need to write about.  I'd really like to find a way to include some audio of the songs so that people can have immediate gratification  Woo hoo.  I've looked into doing an internet radio show and while it shouldn't be overly expensive to do, it probably won't be worth it until I get people coming to the site regularly.  I think that I'm going to set up a poll to try to determine if anyone would even listen to an internet radio show.  

Oh, by the way, if you're into bluesy-rock, you should check out The Black Keys.  They have a tour coming up and I highly recommend catching a show, if you're lucky enough to have them come to your town.  Check out the tour dates here:   http://theblackkeys.com/category/tour/ 

Rock on!

Beginnings

Howdy!

OK, I don't know if I have a whole lot of new stuff to write, but I want to get in the habit of writing.  

Today I sent out a mass invite to people from my former music-loving group.  If you're one of those people, welcome!  I got pretty burned out on the whole music thing for a while, but I'm realizing again that I really love finding new tunes, and radio sucks more than ever, so here I am.  

This is going to be a rambly post, but yeah, I'm in the mood to ramble..

I'm trying to figure out what the true value and niche this blog will have.  Like my former song of the day thing, I figured that it would mainly focus on getting little known or under appreciated artists heard by more people.  With myspace and other networking sites I think a lot of bands are probably reaching more ears, however there is still a lot of crap bands to wade through and if you aren't on myspace you aren't left with many options.  So, I think that the main goal can still be related to lesser known bands getting more exposure.

One of the things I didn't like that my former music deal (sorry if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about), was that the people on the list were only getting my opinion and my choices of music for the most part.  I'd sometimes hear from people who agreed or didn't agree with my assessment, but that was fairly rare, and it didn't have the "community" feel that I really wanted.  The nice thing about the blog thing will be that people can comment and see the comments of others.  Ideally this will lead to discussions about the music and maybe give the whole thing a more connected feel.  Maybe that's lame, we'll see.  :-)

Besides reviewing the albums of lesser known bands, I'm hoping that eventually the blog will get enough eyeballs that bands will want to have their stuff listened to and written about.  10 or so years ago I remember using a site that was chock full o' free mp3s but the catch was, the bands were unknowns and you had to listen to a lot of crap before you found anything worth saving.  I don't know if that site is still around, but I think that it would be cool if this thing could get big enough that we end up giving a band (unsigned, independent, etc.) their big break.  I know that might be a stretch, but I have to believe that there are plenty of bands who would be willing to give a song away if it helped them get known.  So, I guess besides reviewing signed, lesser known bands, I'm thinking that really underground stuff will have a place at the table as well.  

As I've probably mentioned before, I think it would be really cool if we had multiple people reviewing the stuff discussed on the site.  Obviously sites like amazon.com have multiple reviews and that's one way to get opinions, but the main problem I find with that is, how do you know the person knows what they are talking about?  With this site, hopefully the same reviewers will be reviewing each day/week, and that will help the general readers find a person that they usually agree with and will then lead to more satisfying music purchases.  Heh.  

OK, here's a problem.  Sometimes things that are mainstream rock as well.  Do we forget about them?  Do we need rules?!  (I think for a more consistent site/experience, maybe a few.)

Anyway, I think that I'm going to call it a night.  If you have any suggestions, questions, problems, etc. let me know.  Also, if you want to invite people to read these ramblings, feel free to invite them to join in the fun.  Also, if you have a particular genre you'd like to review or want to just review things in general, please let me know.  I can't guarantee that any of this will fly, but I think that it could be kind of fun.  I hope you agree!  I hope that things get rolling a bit more starting in Feb.  But you never know, it could be sooner.  (by the way, there's nothing on the sites at this point in time, but I've snagged the sites, yourearbuds.com and your-ear-buds.com.  If you're into website building and like to work for free, let me know.)

Rock on!

Welcome!

All right, there are probably a million music blogs floating around the internet so you might ask yourself, why the hell should I read this one? Well, at this point, I don't know! However, the aim of this blog is to review new and old music and get people listening to things that they might not otherwise discover.

Here are my goals for the site!

1. Personally review at least two albums per week
2. Get people listening to things that aren't on the radio or are otherwise difficult to discover
3. Give new bands a chance to be reviewed and listened to (I know this sounds a lot like #2), but what I mean is, if you are in a band or know of a band who might be local, unsigned, or just way under-appreciated, send me a sample of the work and I'll review it and dispense it (or let people know where they can purchase it).
4. Have enough daily readers that it keeps me motivated to provide better and more interesting content!
5. Post Monday through Friday.
6. Recruit people who are in the know/familiar with genres that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about (i.e. Country, Rap, R&B - if you know any of these areas well, let me know!) so that they can provide reviews and insight about that area of music. 

Any other ideas, let me know, and welcome to yourearbuds!