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Thanks to a post by Brett and some other stars aligning I finally sank my teeth into emusic. If you have netflix you've probably seen a ton of ads on the disposable part of that majestic red envelope, or if you're into Paste you seen it for sure. I've been avoiding it for over six months after finding out that you have to give them your credit card in order to get the "35 free songs" they boast. If you haven't heard of it, it's iTunes for indie music, except all the files are DRM free. It's kinda like the old mail order BMG service that gave away 11 CDs for 1 penny but screwed you with shipping and handling. Well, with the offer up to 50 free songs for a trial run finally convinced me to fork over the digits to my Costco American Express card in hopes of remembering to cancel before the 14 days are up and I start to pay for a monthly subscription.
So last night I spend two hours in total music discovery bliss. It was fantastic. I have huge hopes for an afternoon with a good friend listening to the songs I downloaded and discussing all the things we love. I do realize I'm quite late getting into the indie scene, but here I come anyway, watch out. Check this stuff out.
Top downloads for me so far:
A cover of Rocket Man by My Morning Jacket
The Modern Leper by Frightened Rabbit
Baby's Lost in Tracks by Maybe It's Reno
Re: Stacks by Bon Iver
I Wish That I Was Beautiful For You by Darren Hanlon
The King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1 by Neutral Milk Hotel
Leviathan, Bound by ShearwaterSpace Travel Is Boring by Sun Kil Moon (Thanks Bret)
Cedar Trees by Taken By Trees
Happy Finds that I already knew of:
Woven Hand
Ingrid Michaelson
Ampersand EP - Derek Webb and Sandra McCraken
Today we an amazing church day. You heard me right. I know those words have probably not come from my lips (fingers in this case) in over 2 years. At our RiverLakes church (you can download the sermon if you want), home to countless white middle-to-upper class peeps (like myself) the service was ended with the worship band singing "I Repent" by Derek Webb. Holy crap!! Let me just take a minute to sit in silence and praise Jesus. The message was on humility and service. How can we say we are Christians, people who are following Jesus, when all our efforts seem to be to climb the latter of success (wealth, comfort, pleasure) when Jesus is going the opposite direction? This was basically the thesis of the message today. I was shocked, what's next? Promoting social justice? Keep it coming.
Next, we have what I've been listening to the last couple of days. This band is incredible. I really like every single song that they play on this album. Thanks to PasteMusic.com for this one. From Like Castanets
"The city silver in the moon.
The mountains heaped with sugar spoons.
The click and clatter of my feet along the crooked, cobbled street like castanets."
The first song on the album is the story of the Monitor versus the Merrimac. Excellent. Come on.
Also, notice the Apple Reflection style image on the above? That's all GIMP baby. I've been learning more and more how to use GIMP and am seriously loving it. Look out Photoshop, there's another Image Manipulation Program (GNU I.M.P => GIMP) in town and what's that...it's free? Brilliant. The latest release of 2.4 is very awesome and after a few hours you can get acclimated from the Photoshop environment. Previous versions have been decent, but this last update is fantastic.
Finally, I wish to point out an update to the box.net widget on the right side of the blog. There are two mp3's that I added of this guy Conrad Gempf. It's amazing storytelling that I heard about a year ago but just recently located in download-able format. Check it out! You can listen directly from the box widget, or you can visit the Emergent UK website and download them for yourself.
Have I mentioned that I love the library? If you haven't noticed the new sidebar on the right that's keeping track of the CDs I currently have checked out...uh...take notice.
Today was a big one. Eight CDs, 1 (5th) season of Scrubs, and a Thousand Splendid Suns (the book, sheesh, get to a Barnes and Noble...)
Anyway, in order of my excitement-
1. Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequences (uh, Jose Gonzalez meets Jack Johnson, yeah)
2. Something Corporate - North (heard one song on Pandora or iTunes, lets check the rest out.)
3. Daniel Powter - (self titled) (Pandora or iTunes?)
4. The Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart (Thank you Ryan Miller)
5. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Like Bad News (after ...Before the Ship Sank, I was hooked)
6. Fairfield Four - I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray (O Brother Where Art Thou, anyone?)
7. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head (thanks Craig Weber)
8. Coldplay - X&Y (well, they had it too)
Still waiting for:
1. Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics
2. Wilco - Kicking Television
3. Shins - Oh Inverted World
4. Coldplay - Parachutes
5. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
5. Wilco - Summerteeth
6. Amber Pacific - Truth in Sincerity
7. Bayside - The Walking Wounded
8. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Any suggestions? (I await the sarcasm...)
Tonight I was reminiscing with one of my friends about all the old Christian music that we used to listen to; I'm talking about way back in junior high. I thought I'd try to find some samples for him online and in the process came across this treasure: the Havalina Rail Co. The summer after my freshman year in college I lost about 72 CDs that made up my entire musical collection that I had built since about 7th grade. That collection started with, wait for it, seriously you can't possibly believe me but it's true, Shaggy - Boombastic. For real, and I'm totally prepared to stand behind that purchase, but I digress.
During that time in life, the time when I started to actually listen to music, I began to collect a random selection of little known Christian artists, some of which made it big, like Jars of Clay or Switchfoot, and some which didn't, like Chaos is the Poetry or the aforementioned Havalina Rail Co. I think Havalina Rail Co was the first CD I bought that opened me up to more non-traditional, well, non-mainstream music. There are some haunting songs in Russian Lullabies that make me think of the Decemberists. I think of that album as the beginning that has led to an appreciation for folk artists like 16 Horsepower and other (non-folk) artists like Bright Eyes and Dispatch.
Anyway, the point of this post was to get everybody, all four of you, to download the music of Havalina Rail Co. cause it's free and I like it.
A last comment: The first solo I learned on the guitar was the intro for Twilight Time.
I love this sound. Good harmony, good music, simple sound. Sometimes I wish I was a millionaire just so I could buy all the music that I wanted. I make myself feel justified by how appreciative I am of the creative spirit. Maybe I just want to surround myself with things I like that will in turn justify my own existence and validate my value. That's what I was thinking of the other day. I mean I was thinking about the internet and how there has to be a blog or fan site or club for just about everything. No longer is anyone alone. If you think Harrison Ford should be president, or you always misuse quotation marks, or you're obsessed about when you might die, you can find other people on the web to validate you.
The down side is that the more everything gets documented and broadcast, the more things get labeled, the easier it is to label me and stick me a group with about fifty other people "that are" exactly the same. Which reveals the dilemma I have of wanting to be validated by a particular group, yet not wanting to be defined by all of what gets attached to that group.
My theory is that it is this type of thinking that is one of the primary causes of division in the church. It is also this thinking that causes people to attend church but not get too involved. Our culture perpetuates this thinking and instead of the church sticking to the gospel and portraying the unity of believers, it fragments. Instead of offering a haven to those who are looking to be valued as individuals, it becomes another factory of similarity, a group from which you will be defined in order to be accepted.
