Two new bands join the ranks of eMusic Selects today, and we could not be more thrilled. Both of them are striking and unique — the work of true vision and individuality, just the kind of records we love to get behind at eMusic. And now for a word about both:

Man/Miracle, The Shape of Things: [...]

We could not possibly be more excited about our two newest Selects acts! From Brooklyn, NY (by way of Boston, MA), Hooray for Earth and from sunny Los Angeles, Best Coast. Both bands do what we love best: put their own singular spin on irresistible pop hooks, spanning pop history, condensing it, and turning it [...]

An exciting announcement today from our good friends and eMusic Selects alumni the Rural Alberta Advantage. They’ve partnered with the fantastic T-Shirt company Threadless (who I was spending large chunks of my paycheck supporting for a while there!) to give fans the opportunity to name a heretofore untitled song.
You can find out all about it [...]

Can I talk about Glasser for a sec and about how she was on the eMusic Selects compilation and she played this awesome/awkward show at SXSW that I loved and how her new Apply EP is really really great? Can I please? The EP starts with “Apply,” the song that made the compilation, and then [...]

Dear Dark Energy,
I love you. I know. It probably seems too soon. It did to me at first, too, but I can’t get you out of my head. Last night I told myself: “No more. There’s more to life.” But then just this morning there I was on the treadmill, lagging on my run, searching [...]

So obviously we are all pretty obsessed with the Altair and Julianna Barwick records we put out via eMusic Selects today. Yancey posted his great Q and A with Julianna earlier today, and here’s a look at the record itself.
Julianna Barwick – Florine – Really, this is the sort of record you fall backwards into [...]

Today we unveiled two new records on eMusic Selects, our DIY record label. Dark Energy from Altair Nouveau and Florine from Julianna Barwick. Both records are exceptional. Altair is sci-fi disco, these shimmering soundtracks to weird hovercraft races and love gone technological. Julianna is towering stacks of vocal loops twisted and pulled every which way, [...]

Tomorrow will bring two new releases from eMusic Selects, our in-house, personally run record label. This month’s artists are Altair Nouveau — sci-fi disco, was on the Selects compilation — and Julianna Barwick — dreamy vocal loops, otherworldly sounds, previous record beloved by everyone. Both releases are EPs (five tracks for Altair, six for Julianna), [...]

We’ve always been fans of Daytrotter here at eMusic HQ. They sit Seriously Big Names next to some zero-profile up and comers and let us, the dutiful listeners, sort ‘em out. I’m just waiting for Breathe Owl Breathe to get in on this party; they were born for this format — bands playing intimate, homespun [...]

Our favorite Icelanders Sprengjuhollin continued their US tour with a three-song stop at the eMusic offices, which I filmed and will be posting later tonight. Hi-ya! NOW WITH VIDEO:

The pic that inspired this Twitter post
A reminder: Our favorite Icelanders Sprengjuhöllin, who killed us with a pair of performances at SXSW, will be playing NYC twice this week: tonight at Santos’ Party House, and tomorrow at Fontana’s. We will be at one or both shows. And so should you. The band is an insane [...]

It’s become tradition that we post full eMusic Selects Q&A’s here on 17 Dots, and so along with Jayson’s excellent chat with Victoire, I have Joe Keyes’ conversation with Luke Winslow King below. But before that, a quick word on how we came to both records.
Luke Winslow King’s album was recorded by a guy named [...]

In case you didn’t see, Pitchfork today gave Selected + Collected a very respectable 7.8! We’re beyond excited, and just feel like bragging a bit. And in case yr curious, the comp has been selling well — we’ve very pleased with the response, and all of the bands will be getting a nice, deserved check, [...]

We wanted to make sure this compilation was special, and so we decided to go the extra 100 miles and create a really nice set of liner notes that would make a case for each band, give you a chance to get to know them and also just have a cool memento of this record. [...]

And here it is. Here’s your tracklisting:
1. Girls, “Hellhole Ratrace”
2. Obits, “Light Sweet Crude”
3. Glasser, “Apply”
4. My Teenage Stride, “Weirder Nightmare”
5. Eagle Boston, “Satan Highway”
6. Salem, “Redlights”
7. Homeboy Sandman, “Buttermilk”
8. Altair Nouveau, “Cosmos”
9. Rademacher, “If U Got Some Magic”
10. She Keeps Bees, “Bow”
11. Bow Ribbons, “Peace Sundress”
12. Victoire, “A Door into the Dark”
13. Man/Miracle, “Pushing and Shoving”
14. Deastro, “Kurgan Wave Number One”
15. Pains of Being Pure at Heart, “Kurt Cobain’s [...]

Tomorrow is the big day! Selected + Collected: An eMusic Selects Compilation will go live. To get you excited (hopefully!) I thought I’d share the cover, which was made by Jess Larrabee of She Keeps Bees (click on the image to see the whole thing). This sets the tone for the whole release. And just [...]

I dunno how I have forgotten to post this all week long, but the Rural Alberta Advantage are playing two shows in NYC this weekend! Tonight they’ll be at Union Hall in Park Slope (they go on at 9:30), and tomorrow they’ll be at 92Y in Tribeca. Both shows are gonna be hot!
How do I [...]

Photo by Fred Wilson
Last night the Rural Alberta Advantage made their US debut at Pianos in New York, and it was tremendous. The room was packed, everyone knew every word to every song, the energy was perfect, the band was completely overwhelmed. They couldn’t imagine it ever working out the way that it did.
The band [...]

Photo by Allison from the awesome Austin band Peel
Last week I asked for help in naming our upcoming eMusic Selects compilation (due February 10th!), a collection of songs from 16 different artists who we firmly believe are amazing and should become famous and rich and fabulously happy. Anyway, we have come upon a winning name, [...]

You know we will gladly follow our eMusic Selects bands to the end of the earth, and so when they happen to pop into our backdoor, we are quintupletty excited. And so it is with the Rural Alberta Advantage’s first-ever US performance next Tuesday, January 27th, at Piano’s in NYC. I mean, the RAA? Live? [...]