(Tinariwen; photo by Dennis Stempler)
We’re more than halfway done with our Best of the Decade countdown now, and starting to hit the big names. Here’s where the rubber meets the road, where we move past minor personal faves and into the game-changers (which leads me to the following confession: I’m responsible for the R. Kelly [...]

So I have to be honest: assembling our Best of the Decade list was incredibly intimidating.
Best of each year? No problem. The scope is smaller, we all have a fair idea of which records should be included, and the squabbles about placement are more fun, more relaxed.
But Best of the Decade? Man oh man. [...]

Via beneffervescent
At long last — New Arrivals! With the issues with yesterday’s roll resolved, we have a modest batch of records to pore over and talk about today. Let’s skip the preamble and just go for it:
The Dodos, Time To Die – I never took much notice when The Dodos’ last album was blowing up [...]

Hi everybody.
So, I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve stepped down as eMusic’s Editor in Chief. This was not an easy decision. For the past five years I’ve had the privilege to be part of eMusic’s editorial team, and it’s been the best job imaginable — I got paid to listen to albums, sign [...]

Via beneffervescent
As I mentioned last week, sorting through Freshly Ripped is starting to become more and more of a “help, I’m being drowned in gold!” sort of situation. So much music, so little time. Combing back through the last week’s worth of stuff, I found enough, big and small, to do another New Arrivals [...]

Doug basking in the glorious rays of his indie guitar jammery
I have seen Built To Spill live somewhere between five and seven thousand times. When I was 17, I listened to Perfect From Now On the way I used to listen to, like, Led Zeppelin IV or Paul’s Boutique. That is, endlessly, with Talmudic [...]

So tomorrow AM, Joe and I are leaving for Chicago for the three-day incredible-live-music binge that is the Pitchfork Festival. It’s my first time there, and I am pretty amped. We put together a nice little primer hub on this year’s festival, which you should check out here, to get a flavor of these year’s [...]

I’m pretty sure this entire post stems from a single wisecrack Maris made last week. We’ve all been nerding out to White Denim for weeks now over here in editorial, and when a Pissed Jeans demo landed on Joe’s desk, the (highly unfortunate) mental connection between the two was just too hard for us to [...]

As we come to the close of another week, we wanted to shine the light on a few records that may have fallen through the cracks — lovely, small albums that deserve a bit of spotlighting. They pretty much range across all genres, and the only thing they really share is that we like [...]

Orca, please
So the biggest news in today’s new arrivals is undoubtedly the Dirty Projectors’ latest. Message board nerds have been hailing it as a major achievement ever since it leaked (two months ago). Of course, said message board nerds are now retreating on their claims, just in time for the other 98 percent of the [...]

A deeply weird and haunting clusterfuck of an avant-garde record came into eMusic on Friday. It is filed under Jazz, but the only distant relation it bears to Jazz is the fact that it is completely improvised. Otherwise, it lays about thirty miles safely outside of any genre borders. It is called The Songs, [...]

Rabbit fencing
I had the somewhat disconcerting realization, when entering in my playlist for this week’s show, that basically all of my shows are the same, at least in shape. Start punky, get broody, dip into rap but segue away before I panic about losing anybody, than expand into utterly incomprehensible, “eh-whatever-let’s-play-this” randomness in the last [...]

eMusic’s customers are rabid, smart and adventurous consumers of music. For 10 years, we’ve been proud to help you explore the best music from independent labels throughout the world and present it with the curatorial excellence that you value. We’ve worked hard to create a corner music store experience where you can get [...]

Lots and lots and lots and lots of records today. I am going the lazy route — there’s just too much ground to cover — and putting all of them together. Let’s talk about them together, shall we? Jump in in the Comments section and leave your thoughts, which will undoubtedly be more insightful than [...]

eMusic fashions itself as the Internet’s corner music store. We take great pride in the discovery, passion, and value of the eMusic experience. Most of all, we are proud of the community of eMusic members, and I read 17 Dots daily to learn what is on everyone’s mind.
My name is Danny Stein, and I’ve been [...]

A wild and woolly day in New Arrivals today. Grizzly Bear back catalog is a biggie (and tidily answers the question, “Will Warp on eMusic just be obscure Autechre side projects?”) and I think we’re all curious what kind of public interest there will be in this new Prodigy record (first in seven years!).
Grizz, [...]

Nothing super big name today, but a bunch of little nuggets. Here’s a rundown of some of the notables and nice surprises new to the site this week.
Awesome Wells, The Highs and Lows of De Witt a Stanton: Surprise #1 and probably the most exciting one of today’s lot. “Hard to classify” gets thrown around [...]

As should be obvious to any longtime eMusic user, a big part of our energy this year has been directed towards improving our website. And it’s all been under the umbrella of one, very basic goal: We want the eMusic product to be an awesome way to find music. That’s as plain as we can [...]

As a total, unabashed music enthusiast (read: nerd), my favorite thing about eMusic is probably the myriad ways I end up discovering (and LOVING) songs, albums, bands that I’ve not so much as sniffed at before. Among the various forms of editorial floating throughout the site — dozens, spotlights, interviews, daily reviews — there is [...]

Be very careful Google Image searching the term “Kinky” on your work computer
Wow, New Music Tuesdays are a beautiful and bizarre thing to behold: baby-making music from around the world, ambient electronic, Mexican dance rock, rap classics, and James Taylor and Creedence Clearwater Revival. It’s 10:34 am, and I’ve already heard about five amazing new [...]