Charles Mingus was clearly a man for whom feline cleanliness was important. I respect the dedication to cat training shown here - it’s kind of wonderful and all true – this is from his official website (and I do love that his cat was called Nightlife.)

The music policy in the eMusic Europe office is usually dictated by whoever gets to the stereo first (and it’s right by my chair, so I have a natural advantage here) but when we can’t agree on anything we listen to FIP.
FIP is a French radio station, based in Paris (the initials stand for [...]

Today’s new arrivals heading out of London, rather than New York, today but I promise to be fair and cover all the sites. So what have we got? Read on.

I’m a music person because of my father, a musician, and I’m an indie-minded guy because of a dude named Butch Lazorchak. I grew up outside of Blacksburg, Virginia (home to Virginia Tech), which had an amazing — and now out-of-business — indie record store called the Record Exchange. It was there that I bought [...]

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?

Sometimes lost in the constant electronic and indie rock talk on 17 Dots is the awesome jazz collection that eMusic has. This week, our catalogue got a nice little injection with the arrival of the Monterey Jazz Festival imprint.

A great day for new releases, with fantastic new material from Akron/Family, Shout Out Louds, Besnard Lakes, Dirty Projectors and a host of others.

Lots and lots of great stuff came in over the weekend. Here are just some of the highlights…

Yesterday, Yancey mentioned the arrival of Supersilent’s 6 – one of the most excellent modern “jazz” albums I’ve ever heard. Why is that jazz in quotes? Well, there’s no other good way to describe what Supersilent and many other artists on Rune Grammofon do (except for a couple of notable exceptions).
We were lucky enough to [...]

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

Sixteen SEVENTEEN songs, all of them great, and all of them totally free. That’s right, it’s time for the second annual Pitchfork Music Festival Sampler. Tracks by Dan Deacon, Professor Murder, Of Montreal, Menomena, William Parker, Grizzly Bear and on and on. All songs were chosen by Pitchfork and were subsequently sequenced by us (which [...]

Todd already tackled Smalltown Supersound, so allow me to discuss the decimating genius that is Smalltown Superjazzz, an incredible free-jazz/noise-rock label straight outta Norway.

A handful of decent records for your perusal.

A strong Wednesday, 17 Dotters, with albums from a South American electronic artist, a new Beggars girl group, an avant-garde master and some odds and ends.

One stone-cold instant classic (to these ears) from Apparat, and a few others that we’re happy to rep.

A light Tuesday, but a big release for classical fans in the form of Joan Tower’s Made in America.

Today is National the National Day, and we couldn’t be prouder to host it. It’s an essential for the indie rock set. But there’s lots more to recommend today, including a great compilation of New Zealand rock, Tim Armstrong, Parts & Labor, Wheat and the Gourds discography.

Today on site is an advance of the new record by the German group Kammerflimmer Kollektief, who I’ve been semi-obsessed with since they released the odd, ethereal Hysteria in 2004. Jinx finds the group again maximizing their strengths, writing songs full of strange shadows and shrieks.

A relatively light Tuesday, but still six notables worth checking out.

A British jazz staple, Captain Kangaroo and a debut single from a promising UK band top today’s new arrivals.