It’s supposed to be the most depressing song in the world. It was allegedly banned in Hungary because of its devastating effects. Spurned lovers were found drowned in the Danube, the sheet music clutched in their fingers. Lonely women lay back on their beds and slipped into oblivion as the gramophone needle ground through the [...]

Not all of the best bands tour or even put out records. Some of them don’t even exist. As it’s Friday, take some time out from reality and have a look at a selection of fiction’s finest musicians.
The Good
Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem – The Muppet Show

The best-non human rock band in the [...]

You may or may not have noticed a big flash piece on our homepage today announcing the 80th anniversary of Mississippi John Hurt’s ridiculously amazing OKEH sessions, collected on eMusic here. Those original Hurt recordings have long been precious to me, and I still rate them among the best music I have ever heard. My [...]

We received a number of Loren Connors discs on the site in the past few days. Normally, I would’ve just written it off as avant-guitar sketches that I’m not that interested in. But after reading Marc Masters’ feature on him in The Wire this month, I decided to take a listen to some of these [...]

This afternoon I found my first grey hair. My pessimistic side is thinking ‘oh OH NO GREY HAIR aging process accelerating at speed!’ whilst my cheerier side thinks ‘at least it’s a kind of Meryl-Streep-In-Devil-Wears-Prada-silver.’ I have decided to mark this event in the time-honoured fashion of music bloggers everywhere and have made a playlist.
‘I [...]

While I’m by no means implying that other days around here are merely ho-hum, today is kind of a big deal at eMusic. Not only do we have a whole host of exciting new releases — Beirut! Kevin Drew! Les Savy Fav! — but today also sees the launch of our new audiobooks service. We [...]

So much to talk about. Let’s do this:

Three quick recommendations. Ready. Set. Go.

Jon Spencer, where are you? Thirteen years ago — how could it be so long? — you were on top of the indie scrap-heap, yr Blues Explosion, YEAH!!!! one of the undisputable big boys of indie rock, along with Pavement, Sebadoh and no one else. You were mentioned in the same breadth as Beck as [...]

Hit the Porter Wagoner/Grinderman/White Stripes show at Madison Square Garden last night. During Grinderman’s set the following occurred:
Nick Cave: This song is called “No Pussy Blues.”
Heckler: “Well, you’re UGLY — what ELSE would it be called?”
A little later, I turned around to check out the heckler, who was sitting right behind me. He was [...]

It’s the biggest release date of the summer, with new ones from Spoon, They Might Be Giants, Bad Religion, M. Ward (sorta), Architecture in Helsinki and others.

Lots of excellent stuff today – let’s jump right in.

A few years ago I came across a fascinating, “ripping-yarn” style piece in the New York Times. It was a story about Mingering Mike, history’s most prolific recording artist, a soul singer with hundreds of albums to his name. The albums are the very definition of “rarity,” turning up only in flea markets and junk [...]

Three extremely good new records for everyone to check out today. All highly recommended.

A handful of decent records for your perusal.

01 I generally view the Pickin’ On series as the music industry at its worst: piggybacking with kitschy covers meant to dupe unsuspecting folks into downloading something they don’t really want. I resent the whole concept, and always have. Well, today I eat a slight bit of crow as — surprise of all surprises — [...]

Three extremely strong recommendations for the eMusic community today.

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. We’re kicking things off with the five-starrers. Let’s start digging in.

A wonderful house single, some more electronic stuff and a ton of Bob Wills.