Hi everyone! Just a quick word on a couple of upcoming features at eMusic. Tomorrow, we will begin unveiling the 100 Best Albums Ever on the US site (in the UK, Europe and Canada, these will be Top 50 lists, also beginning tomorrow). The results will be posted bit by bit, with the winners not [...]

Back when I was in high school, perhaps as some kind of tactic to get a bunch of dis uninterested first-generation slackers excited about literature, our English teacher spent several lessons discussing ‘Shakespeare’s Bawdy’ — the dirty jokes Shakespeare built into his plays to coax roars from the lower-classes (and maybe a few of the [...]

At long last, Southern Lord brings their catalog up-to-date on eMusic. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s what:

About three weeks ago, I took a drive down to DC to spend some time with someone I’d been secretly idolizing for about three years now: Mingering Mike. I’ve already talked about this a bit on here already, so I won’t bore you with repetition. Suffice it to say, Mike was a warm, wonderful [...]

Having grown up with musical siblings, I know well the value of parental support, and how much it means to young bands. So when it came time to think about a feature for Mother’s Day, I thought it might be fun to get the moms of beloved indie rockers to tell us which of their [...]

You asked, he answered! This week we’ll be running Dan Bejar’s answers to your questions as our homepage “Ask the Artist” feature. Find out which Dylan records are Bejar’s favorites, learn the true identity of the “wealthy American underground,” and find out which question prompted the response: “Your question makes me think that you’ve [...]

“Tell me what’s on your mind.”
Remember a year or so ago, when we asked you to send in questions for Ted Leo? Well, we’re doing it again. Ladies and gentleman, Dan Bejar is in.

Earlier today I hopped on the phone for a half-hour conversation with Stephen Malkmus, former frontman for Pavement. Malkmus has long been an idol of mine (peep this list for the full, horrifying truth), but I honestly couldn’t think of any music-related questions I wanted to ask him. What is there to say? Dude is [...]

I love Kelley Polar and I want you to do so as well. He’s a tough sell, I know. “Classically trained viola player that makes over-orchestrated electronic pop music punctuated by his own untrained voice.” Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Not at all. What resulted when Polar stepped behind the boards for his [...]

So I’m incredibly excited about our newest editorial piece. John Darnielle has been writing for eMusic for several years now, mostly about extreme metal or, er, other topics, but we’ve never really interviewed him or had him expound on any Mountain Goats-related topics. This always nagged me — The Mountain Goats have been one of [...]

About two weeks ago I spent roughly three hours talking with High Places at a cafe in Brooklyn. You can find the best portions of the chat here at eMusic, but the conversation had such a nice flow to it that I thought I would post the entire thing as well. It starts out abruptly [...]

Over the past few years, eMusic has arguably become the most important retailer for independent music in the world. We sell more indie records than just about anyone, and we have a solid track record of breaking new artists: think Yeasayer and Burial, to cite two recent examples. We delight in the prospect of not [...]

Just wanted to quickly point out a new — and soon-to-be-recurring — feature on eMusic: the Jukebox Jury. This month, eMusic contributor Douglas Wolk sat down with Glass Candy, played them a few songs he thought they might like, and recorded their comments. I always enjoy seeing (or reading) different peoples’ reactions to songs, [...]

This has been a long time in the making, but today we’re happy to feature a piece by National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen on eMusic today. We approached Jonathan with a list of books we thought he might like to write about, but he suggested a different possibility to us: Christina Stead’s semi-obscure [...]

Today’s the last day of our ‘Best of ‘07′ rollout; find out who won the User Poll (UK, your winners are here). Also, in our final Q&A, I talked to the National about the tough time they had making Boxer. Says frontman Matt Berninger: “It was taking me forever to write lyrics for this thing, [...]

Today on eMusic’s Best of 2007: Numbers 20 - 11 in our User Poll (UK Users, yours is here) and an interview with another 2007 Innovator: Apparat. “My dad was in a band,” he tells Andy Battaglia, “which was a funny thing in East Germany because you were being watched and weren’t allowed to [...]

A quick note to point out the start of our Year-End user poll — 30 - 21 in the US is here, and that same batch in the UK is here. And I’d love to see the “should win/will win” picks on this one.
As for interviews: today we have one with Simone Dinnerstein, whose recording [...]

Today, find out which album our critics picked as the best record of 2007 (UK subscribers, your Top 10 is here).
Also, check out the next installment in our series of interviews with ‘2007 Innovators.’ Today’s subject: Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz. Choice quote: “Try to find me another live band that kicks our ass. Try [...]

We’re off and running — today begins our year-end countdown with the bottom half of our staff picks (our UK critics list is here).
Also, this week begins our series of interviews with ‘2007 Innovators’ — artists across genres who had notable years in ‘07. First up: Christian Scott.
So, any predictions for our critics’ #1?

Two more year-end features roll out today: The Year in Reissues by Michaelangelo Matos and Philip Sherburne’s list of the 12 Best Dance Singles of 2007. Both pieces highlight some great records that may have gotten lost in what I’m referring to as “The ‘07 Shuffle.” And with these pieces comes a question for [...]