Friday, September 22, 2006

What's on the iPod? - A Real Mix

iSkin gave me free downloads on emusic as a thank you for buying skins for the SidPod from them a while back, so I've been perusing the MP3 offerings and trying to put together a quality playlist or, failing that, a pile of guilty pleasures.

The selection doesn't rival iTunes, but I've found a reasonable mixture of indie and classic, kind of across the board.

Favorite Discoveries via emusic
Alexi Murdoch is my favorite "new to me" indie artist from emusic. Apparently "Orange Sky" caused a bit of a stir that I missed out on when his EP was released, but now I'm board. Cool song.

Mediaeval Baebes - OK, I'm a little naive about the Classical charts but I've been to a Renaissance Festival or two. I love tunes in the middle ages tradition, and I found several tunes from their Mirabilis album including their take on "Scarborough Fayre. "

Favorite filling in the gaps in my collection
I love the music of the late Warren Zevon, and I found several tunes I didn't have including ironically his recording of "My Ride's Here," one of my favorites.

It's sad and cynical and I really like Bruce Springsteen's version on the Warren Zevon tribute album, "Enjoy Every Sandwich," but it's nice to have the original to carry with me. (Usually--aforementioned excepted--I hate tribute albums , and that's one thing you have to watch out for on emusic. They have lots o' songs recorded by someone other than the original artist.)

Another great Zevon tune I found was "I Was in the House When the House Burned Down," also featuring his dark, cynical humor.

Guilty pleasure of the lot
The Archices - "Sugar, Sugar" that's really all I have to say about that isn't it?

Favorite PBS star recordings
Picked up a couple of Roger McGuinn tunes from "Roger McGuinn Live at the XM Studios" album including "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Rounding things out
I've never owned enough Jazz or been Jazz literate enough so I also grabbed several classics from John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.

Songs I'm pissed off I downloaded
"Rocket Man" and "A Word in Spanish" speaking of tunes not recorded by the original artist. I'm sure there were ASCAP payments involved but I really thought I was getting the Elton John versions. You start listening to a cover, and you just get that feeling something ain't right.

All in all though, I've a good emusic experience, and you've probably read the benefits - you buy you own, you're not just renting tunes until the next device sync.

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4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Man, you have much borader tastes than I do in music. These days I'm listening to the latest CDs by Danzig and Ministry.

Anonymous said...

I just discovered John Mayer last night, after watching a TVo'ed (or however you want to spell it) CSI premiere. He's great. He's doing a concert in the Phoenix area on 10/4, opening for Tom Petty, and I'm SULKING BECAUSE WE CAN'T GO!!!

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Can we talk? I love guilty pleasures. I knew that I was in love when I whispered to the woman I was seeing that I had a secret passion for....."Barry Manilow". She shivered and said: "Me too."

I feel able to confess this now because of your disclosure regarding the Archies and "Sugar Sugar". Of course, I'm usually listening to raucus rock and roll. Currently, I'm enjoying Tragically Hip, Dylan's new cd Modern Times, and I'll be sampling Bob Seger's new stuff.

But late at night, when the house is still, and the computer speakers are down low...and I am sure no one can hear me. I put it speakers on a whisper and let Barry sing about Mandy.

Sidney said...

I'm sampling some John Mayer from his website now. Interesting stuff. May have to add him to the 'pod.

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