New Year, New Tunes

I didn't really make any New Year's resolutions. Well, maybe to leave the chat channels when I actually say good-bye, instead of 10 minutes later. And, in my mind, to read more, exercise more, finish what I've started, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.

Well, I came up with one the other day. New tunes. Not for the whole year, but for a while. I've formatted my mp3 player, clearing out the standbys of Jehtro Tull, Phil Keaggy, Stan Kenton, Robert Randolph, Boston, Bill Watrous and others.

I'm only going to try to listen to new music. I'll try it until St. Patrick's day.

So, what is new music, you might ask yourself. I did. Music that I haven't heard before. I'll keep the songs on there for a while. If they're good, they'll stay on for a few weeks, may a month. Then clear out some space and put on other stuff. If it isn't good, I'll listen to it and dump it at the soonest possible moment.

Where are you going to get this new music? Hmmm... From legit new music places. I feel that artists should be compensated for their art. But some of them give it away. That's what I'm looking for. And I found some free and low cost music. And some that I've paid for. Where do I start?

I could do it chronologically, or perhaps what's been squeaking my sneakers, as my friend Phillip said on Sunday.

I'll go with the squeaking bit.

The Aaron Pelsue Band. I saw them at the TCTC this weekend. Went to their vendor table and bought all four of their CDs. Good stuff.

I guess what started this thought process is a player from BattleMaster. Around Christmas time, there was tournament in the realm of my main character. It was hosted, to celebrate the wedding of my character, Willem, to the character of Ilya, played by my friend, Tali. There was much roleplaying and well wishes, both for the in-game wedding, and for the holidays in RL (Real Life). One of the players from another realm, posted an Out Of Character message, inviting everyone to his music website, and giving everyone a $5 coupon. Well, new music, and 5 bucks off. Can't beat that. Well, yes you can.

Before I get bogged down in the details, let me point you to Joar Berntsen's AmieStreet.com site.

There. I feel better. AmieStreet.com is an independent music download site. You pay for what you want. Very reasonable prices. 4 cents a song. 19 cents a song. A dollar an album. The prices are set on some sort of sliding scale based on the amount of downloads or popularity. I haven't really figured that out, yet. And I may never. But, it is classified by genre or artist, or... you know how these things work. Back to Joar. Joar's music is filed under: Ambience, Acoustic, Instrumental, Techno, Industrial Trance. I was a bit skeptical of Industrial Trance. But it works. Modern soundscapes I'd call it. I like it. Don't know that I'd have it on all the time, but I do like it. Another artist that I like from AmieStreet is Showky Sawzawa. Pop rock, but sung in Japanese. It surprised me, at first, but the arrangements are so nice and full that I soon looked past the fact that I couldn't understand the lyrics.

eFolkMusic.org has some nice tunes. You can pick up about a dozen free ones there. I haven't yet listened to them on my player, but it looks interesting.

Greenstar builds a solar powered community center that delivers electricity, pure water, health and education information and a wireless Internet connection to villages in the developing world. They have some world music. Solar powered recordings. I haven't yet downloaded those, but I want to.

Wayne Bledsoe is a local columnist for a few papers in KnoxVegas. The News Sentinel and occasionally the MetroPulse. About a year and a half ago, he wrote an article in the News Sentinel about the regional artists' music being recorded at the St. James Hotel. The recordings have been digitized and can be found at the Lynn Point Records site. I've downloaded quite a few, but not all of them.

Last, but not least, is Coverville. Doug told me about this site to download podcasts of cover music. When an artist re-records another artist's song. Good stuff.

Okay, that wasn't really the last one, because I just remembered archive.org's Live Music Archive. Trade friendly artists allow their live concerts to be housed here, in good quality recordings. You'll go deaf before you listen to all 45,318 concerts.

So, my mp3 player is full and I've got plenty of time at work to listen.

One last thing. I received a BestBuy gift card for Christmas. I used it to get Paul Simon's Graceland and the Best of Warren Zevon. And a pair of SkullCandy's smokin buds. Very nice. Angie got a pair as well. Comfortable and they sound good. BestBuy honored Target's price. Ask at the register.

Well, one more. Bonerama covering Black Sabbath in New Orleans. I am in debt to Steve O. for letting me know about this band. Thanks, Man.