WHY DID I START THIS THING? (Part 1)
I get the occasional email from readers, and a couple of times recently I've been asked, in passing, why I started this blog.
There were loads of reasons at the time, but in the main it boiled down to the fact that having installed broadband in the house (around three years ago this week) I could now browse the world wide web seeking out songs of old, and I decided on a whim that this was something I wanted to do myself. So Mrs Villain bought me a USB turntable one day and told me to stop just talking about it...
There's thousands of music blogs out there, and on the right hand side of this page you'll find a list of some of my particular favourites. There's one or two other new blogs that have started up in recent times that are also proving to be royally entertaining, and they're likely to be added to the list in the weeks ahead.
But there's also been a number of blogs that have come and gone. For a while I kept a list of the 'dead' blogs, but ended up deleting this during one of the periodical clean-ups. I've actually lost count of the number of songs I've downloaded from blogs over the years. Some of them I've kept....
But when I do that, I will usually make an effort to track down some product and purchase something, even if it is just a legitimate mp3 download - and I hope that's what most of you will do of and when you download something from my wee place. So, depsite some folk claiming that bloggers are killing the music industry, I find I'm spending more on music now in 2009 than at any other point in my life, and am running out of space in the cupboard that holds the vinyl and on the shelves where the CDs are stacked.
But enough rambling. The idea of today's post is to bring you some of the more obscure and wonderful things I've downloaded over the past three years. I keep a copious note of those whose blogs I've lifted songs from, so a big thank you to Liz, Coxon, Agnes, Colin, Matthew and Phil Spector for all the wonderful things you've done over the years.
mp3 : Coin Op - Hey Uri
mp3 : Arab Strap - Here We Go (live acoustic session)
mp3 : Jens Lekman - You Can Call Me Al
mp3 : Elle S'Appelle - Little Flame
mp3 : Paris Motel - Mr Splitfoot
mp3 : Blur - Close
More things like this tomorrow. And more thanks.
Happy Listening.
11 comments:
Thank you, JC, for overseeing one of the most consistently great music blogs out there.
That 'You Can Call Me Al' cover is quite literally one of my favorite covers ever.
Quite unrlelated, but Blogger have updated the way they deal with DMCAs, hopefully no more vanishing posts. http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/08/let-music-play.html
wonderful stuff. I too spend more on music now than I did in the dark ages before the music blogs because I am exposed to so many more great artists and I'm happy to support them for all the joy they bring me.
And so much of what I like comes from here. Thanks for everything JC. Still grinning over Just Like Gold!
i'm still spending loads on music, anyone who blogs about music and writes about it well is keeping it alive!
Hope you're well,
Ed
Wha hey! This very handy, as some of us who live in dead blog land occasionally lose and/or break our laptops and forget the songs that once made us smile.
Here's to the next three years, and beyond. I will attest to your readers that you are every bit as lovely and good humoured in person, and as much of an anorak too.
Right back at ya JC! Love that Jens coverage too, was definitely a good find.
Cracking post this one - only knew the Elle S'Appelle track and it was a great one to hear again.
Do you reckon Paris Motel have heard Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand' though?
TSC....that's exactly what it is. And not a bad thing either.
I think it's quite the opposite, music blogs keep music alive (and actually help the music industry) it's sad that some people don't understand that
One blogger, in particular, is the master of obscure 60's and 70's psych, prog.,Hard rock, etc... and though this isn't meant to be a commercial it's through that blog that I found out about a ridiculous amount of shockingly unknown bands. Most which I've sought out and purchased- to the chagrin of my wife. Considering the near extinction of the "mom-and-pops" record stores we need the blogs to inform and suggest, and, yes, prompt sales through samples.
Nuff said.
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