Hearing “What You Won’t Do For Love” on the overhead speakers in the deli across the street today absolutely made my morning. Then finding out that we have a significant chunk, if not all, of Bobby Caldwell’s entire discography made my week. And THEN finding these youtube clips pretty much made my whole [...]

The speed at which The Hold Steady can turn around an album is certainly impressive - ‘Stay Positive’ is their third release since 2005 and covers familiar Hold Steady territory - from raucous party chants to introspective meaning-of-it-all cuts. And the really good news? If you’re in the UK you can pick it up at [...]

Hang around in the more underground sections of London’s music/art/ whatever scene for long enough and two things are almost guaranteed. Firstly, you’ll know at least one person who played a zombie in ‘Shaun Of The Dead.’ Secondly you’ll know at least one person who is in/ was in/ slept with/ fell out with They [...]

There’s a cover version I’ve been loving recently, but from none of the usual sources. BBC4 have been running a series of documentaries, cookery programmes, dramas etc all of which attempt to “get inside the Medieval mind.” Most of them have been excellent, but it’s the idents created to advertise it that I’ve been loving. [...]

In these days of digital downloads and industry turmoil it is so easy to feel disconnected emotionally from the hype and release of any body of recorded music. So imagine my surprise and delight when I was sent into a fanatic FURY upon noticing what had been tagged in two normally unexciting fields of [...]

Sad songs don’t need to be about romantic love. Glasvegas’ ‘Daddy’s Gone’ squeezes the throat, pricks your eyes and gives a small downwards tug to your heart, but it hymns an absent father rather than a lost girlfriend. This single from the Scottish four-piece arrived on eMusic yesterday and, if you can, you should really [...]

I’ve been a little harsh towards Tangerine Dream in the past: “stupid hippy nonesense” would be one the politer phrases I’ve used to describe them. However, in conversation today with my Secret Krautrock Source I was informed that not only had two hard-to-find krautrock classics arrived on eMusic, but they were by Tangerine Dream and [...]

It isn’t often a major band and their record company decide not to tell anybody about a forthcoming album until a week before it’s due to be released, so I was surprised to say the least when one of eMusic’s bigger labels informed me that was exactly what they’d done. Have I heard it? No, [...]

I first attended the Plug Independent Music Awards in 2005, shortly after I had moved to New York and joined the ranks at eMusic. I couldn’t think of a better event to mark the beginning of my employment at a company that is so focused on the passionate spirit of music.

I’ve always been a fan of location listening. Standing on a bridge over the railway at Macclesfield station, the sound of Joy Division just seemed right, it matched the rise and fall of the hills, the left-over Victorian industrial buildings and repeated rows of suburban houses. Driving up the motorway to Birmingham with Black Sabbath [...]

And legal even! Amplive and Radiohead have mutually agreed to allow people to download this remix album. It sounds a little choppy at times, but that is understandable considering they likely only had the stereo mixes as source material. Plus Del the Funky Homeosapien!
From the Amplive site:
“Rainydayz Remixes is composed exclusively of [...]

Electric Turn To Me are not a band for everyday listening. They are difficult and inclined to witchy hysteria and fracture the spectrum into 356 shades of black and grey. Pitchfork hate them. I’m happy, if happy is the correct word, to have found them.

In today’s additions, do not overlook Coptic Light, whose 2005 self-titled record is a modern math-rock classic, and at a bargain price of three tracks (in 45 minutes) to boot. Coptic Light were — they are no more — members of Storm & Stress (a Don Cab offshoot), Antioch Arrow (such a great goddamn band) [...]

Constellation, one of Canada’s most respected independent labels hit the site today, and per usual I’m hugely excited. A sampling of the highlights below…

Rick Froberg formed Pitchfork and Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes and, as a result, is the kinda dude who can stand in the middle of a crazily packed basement filled with drunks, ne’er-do-wells and rock fans and command complete silence. As Froberg and his three cohorts began tuning up before the first-ever show of [...]

I just realized something today, and maybe I am wrong. It seems like the only Robert Smith appearances I can recall over the past half a decade (nearly) have been guest appearances on electronic tracks. Has Robert gone Robot? Or have I just overlooked other collaborations in different genres? Are there additional [...]

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 [...]

Yesterday, when I saw three Voice Of The Beehive albums hit the site I gave an audible yelp of joy, (the rest of eMusic Europe thought I was choking on my tea.) I used to adore Voice of the Beehive. I loved that their accessible pop was crunched up with big guitars. I played my [...]

Just before Christmas I came across a news story that made me laugh, so forgive me for a brief foray into British politics. Nick Clegg, the new-ish leader of the Liberal Democrat party* appointed an advisor to help him connect with the needs of everyday people. And who did he choose as his commonplace person, [...]

 
A morbid day on 17dots, looks like every post mentions death in some fashion.  Not to break the trend, Paul Raven - bassist for such bands as Ministry, Prong, Killing Joke, Godflesh, Murder Inc. and others was found dead of an apparent heart attack on Saturday in Geneva, Switzerland.  I listened to this music a [...]