Some fine selections from the 17 Dots staff.

Smithsonian Folkways isn’t a record label, it’s a museum. Once upon a time — primarily the ’50s through the late ’60s — Folkways was a living label, an imprint that still discovered artists, sought out new recordings and truly trafficked in its founding mission: Moses Asch’s goal to document “people’s music,” and, later, all aspects [...]

This month we launched a new feature at eMusic called ‘Ask the Artist.’ It’s pretty self-explanatory — we asked any user who’d downloaded a Ted Leo record to submit a question for Ted, which we then passed along to him. The answers are back, and are up on the site for you to read.

Wednesday night, I was honored to be invited to the NYC screening of the film Kurt Cobain: About a Son (also, a link to its myspace page). I’ve been a big Nirvana fan for, jeez, 15-16 years now, but it is only now that I can say I have an understanding of Cobain as a [...]

Here’s a somewhat arbitrary list of the ten best records to arrive at eMusic this week. Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake top the list.

The craziest wedding album I have ever heard, a hotly anticipated disco record and some recommended odds and ends.

 
Renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich passed away today, at the age of 80. The New York Times has a thorough obituary, remembering him as an “outspoken champion of artistic freedom in Russia”, and as one of the finest cellist and musicians of this century. Slava’s (his nickname) catalog on eMusic is limited, but represents [...]

As Yancey hinted at earlier today, I kinda got schoolgirl-ish today at the office when I first saw the name Cobblestone Jazz on the new arrivals page. C-C-C-Could it be today is the day we get Wagon Repair?
It is.

So just so you know, there’s a mixtape at the end of all this. It’s like dessert.
My first deep dalliances with indiepop dovetailed perfectly with the early days of the internet. I spent insane amounts of money on magazines like Option and Alternative Press (which was really, really good in the early 90s) and tried [...]

A classic American Music Club record, more from the Blow and a few more indie names.

I think we need something other than new releases posted today. How bout some lederhosen with a built-in MP3 player? You can see the transport controls built into the side of the garment. Now we just need some traditional German music to crank. Here is a fairly useless translation of the linked [...]

The two major Stars releases, and an indie up-and-comer finally approach their potential with an exclusive live album.

In the final part of today’s new arrivals wrap-up, we highlight the three-starred selections, several of them wonderful.

We’re breaking up today’s new arrivals into three sections: five-star records, four-star records and three-star records. The meaning of these designations is pretty obvious, but let me to say that even though they’re ranked lowest, the three-star records are still very recommended. Now come those tagged with four stars.

We’re breaking up today’s new arrivals into three sections: five-star records, four-star records and three-star records. The meaning of these designations is pretty obvious, but let me to say that even though they’re ranked lowest, the three-star records are still very recommended. We’re kicking things off with the five-starrers. Let’s start digging in.

photo taken by matthew j
There is more than one superstar remixer running around on eMusic without a full-length to his name. But unlike Yancey’s favorite Superpitcher, Prins Thomas doesn’t suffer from exclusion simply because eMusic doesn’t have what he’s put out: he’s never made an album (by himself, at least).

Today I happened to re-read what might be my favorite Dozen — eMusic’s essential guides — that we have ever run: Singing Movie Stars by Premiere movie critic Glenn Kenny. There’s lots of hilarity as well as a couple of genuine recommendations. Guess which artist Kenny is referring to in this wonderful deconstruction: “No sooner [...]

A ’90s hip-hop classic, a French disco record and a country chanteuse.

The new Colleen record, Les Ondes Silencieuses (The Silent Waves), is magnificent. It’s not out for quite a while — June 19, on the Leaf Label — but I am so stunned by its beauty and perfection that I had to make note of it immediately.

Andrew Hill, one of the true giants of jazz music, passed away early this morning. I definitely plan on listening to some of his music this weekend, and am thankful he left us so much. We have his fantastic “comeback” album, Dusk , on our site. His Blue Note sides are all great as well. [...]