Apr 7, 2007

I'm a bit curious...

Where do ya'll get your music from?

I get mine from all over the place. It goes a little something like this...

itunes. A very good library with a few stunning omissions (Radiohead, Sex Pistols) I like the option of listening to a clip before you buy, and they have some really good deals sometimes. (Thelonious Monk's "Live at the It Club" for $9.99!)

emusic. I like this site a lot, the price is right ($19.99 for 75 songs per month) but if I download less than 75 I lose the remainder, and if I download 75 as far as I can tell there's no way to download more. Even though I'm paying less than $0.27 per song, I always feel a bit taken.

various magazines. I still subscribe to CMJ and I pick up Paste every month. Occasionally I get Uncut or somesuch.

Music stores. I got a part time job (like 9 hours a week) at a Hastings Entertainment store. I cruise the used bins and spend more than I earned there pretty much every week.

Anyhoo, I was just wondering if this is normal, or if I'm old fashioned, or ...what.

Seacrest out.

15 comments:

Grifter said...

You just listed most of my sources. I used to rely heavily on CMJ for my newest favorites, but they haven't been coming through lately. This site: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ has been a good source for a few years, but posting is a precarious issue. The snarkiest of elitists haunt these pages. It is interesting to see who is generally loved and hated on there.

I hope that the guild proves to be the best source for new stuff.

Oh, a word. One problem I have run up against is how to burn multiple copies of a song if the song is iTunes encoded. One way to circumvent this is to download Hymn software (free..just google it). You have to be running an older version of iTunes, but it will strip all restrictions and convert to mp3 with nearly no loss. The other obvious way around this problem is just to grab the mp3 off of aMule or BitTorrent or etc. Also, if you need to find a non-restricted version of a song, using www.g2p.org can sometimes be of service..it just might take some digging.

isopraxis said...

Yeah, so I .tor most stuff from those servers in sweden who for april fools day said they were striking a deal with Kim Jong Il. But now I have a lot of crap to listen to and then to rate, and then to trash the ones with 1 star.

In the last month I've dumped something like 15 gigs of music like the kind that sticks to the bottom of your shoe when you walk through the dog-park.

Sometimes I peruse ask.metafilter.com and look for music questions / answers. Once in a while I check www.pitchforkmedia.com (www.pitchfork.com is a sweet, but totally non-music-related website.) Sometimes I listen to the university of calgary radio-station www.cjsw.com, check their top muxics. And then I gouge away with the torrents.

Mostly I listen to the pod to winnow out the chaff. It becomes a practice in negation and I become fixated on stuff I don't like, rather than an excercise of exploring gems that illuminate the 7th chakra.

Perhaps it is just a fact of development that most things seem to suck way more after 35 years of exposure to Trooper, Bob Seger and ass-hatted morning-zoo-crew-troglodites who's target demographic seems to be microcephalic goobs born to serve idiocy. I miss the days when my head would catch fire with a lovely choon. So I'm hopeful that many things good will come from this group therapy.

Anonymous said...

Here's my secrety secrets.

I go to Insound.com and listen to the radio they have there when I'm doing dishes or working on some homework. Most stuff on there has a free mp3 on the site you can grab. Sometimes I just go through their free mp3's and just download random stuff for listening later.

Pitchforkmedia.com is one like, too. I read their reviews and I used to download a bunch of songs from there but I'm not sure how to get to that feature now or if it still exists.

My buddy Tyson sends me whole CDs that he uploads. If anyone would like to get in on that deal I can forward those emails to you guys and you can download them yourself. Of course, this might be taking away one of secret weapons. But sharing is first and foremost for me.

SECRET WEAPON OF CHOICE: Music blogs all the way. I swear by them. I have about three that I trust almost completely because the blogger's musical taste so completely matches my own. There's about five others that I cycle through and find some gems.

Grifter said...

ISoPruxxins:

What became of the KDX? Furthermore, what became of the KLF (is gonna rock ya!)?

Jone

Enigma-Machinist said...

"KLF is gonna rock you." What a great song.

I read Under the Radar - quartley magazine. Its not bad, it has a long list of reviews in the back of the zine that help me pick and choose. Barnes and Noble only keeps about 4 on hand which makes it hard to get sometimes. I would subscribe, but I have move 7 times in the past 2 years.

I use emusic to get some of that rare stuff that I have always wanted but have picked up at a music store and put back again thinking, "not this time, maybe next time."

I use to work in a music store for like.. hm... 3 years. It was an eye opening experience. I was free to test drive a bunch of bands. A lot of them that I didn't like back then, I totally love now. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I think I was still a kid and I wasn't ready for real talent. Punk was all I wanted and I made a lot of wrong opinions about some really great bands. IE: My Morning Jacket and Blonde Redhead (two of my favorites to date). So now I am older and wiser, I am giving things a second chance.

Recently, I like to use the wikipedia. I will research a genre of music and see what bands are listed. For example, I had no idea there was a type of music called "Twee." I looked it up on the Wiki and found out Twee is stuff like Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, Architechure in Helsinki, The Vaselines, and Mates of State. So if there are other bands I haven't heard of, I will check their links to their sites. The Wiki is a wonderful thing.

I also have friends who are all on the same quests to listen for new music. Some use www.pandora.com some listen to the internet radio shows; Seattle's WXJM - John in the Morning show.

Sadly, sometimes, I will hear about bands from myspace. I don't know about you guys, but I get band invites even more than I get girls with webcam invites. I check them out, if I like them I might see what else they have to offer to download or stuff.

Then lastly, and only sometimes I ask the artists themselves. If there is a band that I feel confident about contacting, I will ask them what their influences are. I have gotten some really interesting responses to this question. The answers are not always what you think. I asked one touring punk band guy and said, "Norah Jones." hmm... interesting.
Hope that helps.


=============================
Also... I hope some of you don't mind if you get your cd from me a little late. I am in the process of moving, then I will also be out of town till the 15th...then I will restart school. I am gonna try and get them done ASAP, but I can't promise anything right away.

isopraxis said...

The kdx is currently in the back pocket, alls I'd have to do is kick it on 'go'.

Nonmusically, I pullded downs the Brothers Quay Collection and have that in my back pocket next to the KDX. I fall asleep to The Comb almost every night.

And have you ever seen the Bicycle Thieves, Guiseppi? Oh what a beaut! I've got that one tucked away as well, Man is Not A Bird is in the queue alongside Herzog's Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz, Godard's Band of Outsiders, and Bob Le Flambeur. That and more early MST3K's that I care to count.

Anonymous said...

Enigma (since I don't know your real name),

Blonde Redhead is playing a free show on tuesday in Manhattan and I have no emoticon strong enough to show my pleasure. Didn't mean to rub it in, just pleased someone digs them as much as me. New York is a Willy Wonka's for concerts.

James

Grifter said...

iso:

I have always wanted to see The Bicycle Thieves! I caught part of it late one night on IPT. And I am still a virgin concerning Herzog (save Grizzly Man).

We may have to talk KDX soon. I think that would be excelsior.

And the Quays, how great. I think my favorite might be Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies..the objects bouncing, the pearls suspended in air, I don't know how they pulled off some of their shots, but it is incredible.

perhaps we should swap, although I don't have a lot to offer, film wise, on my end.

Emily G said...

Yeah...my music-digging comes in waves. Pandora.com has been nice to me and I've found some cool bands from my Radiohead Radio and my Spoon Radio in particular, but you get a lot of crap, too. Makes great background music in the office, though, for sure.

My friend Bradley and I throw cds at each other every once in a while...he showed me xiu xiu and beirut most recently.
Seriously, James, you love everybody I have on the mix I'm experimenting with for May. I love blonde redhead, too. If all my songs are repeats for you, you're just going to have to find new inspiration in the order I place the songs you already have. Deal?

The Brothers Quay: Joe, I still haven't forgiven you for leaving Serena and me in Sharon's haunted house in haunted Rigby after watching two hours of Quay at night. But I admit I occasionally pull out Tool's Sober video when I'm alone and looking for a different state-o-being. I hate dolls and nails and twitching fingers. I also can't look away.

isopraxis said...

Anytime,
You say when, I flip the switch.

I'll say what is the i.p. login & pass (I don't have a domain name server currently, so isopraxis.net wont werk. It has been obviated.)

rrowwwwrrr

rice said...

label samplers are usually cheap if not free (some are only available through mail order). you can usually find like-minded and/or like-sounding artists.

Enigma-Machinist said...

Shamus (James) I am entirely jealous!
Don't you just love the new album?

Enigma = Troy

Grifter said...

I am no huge Blonde Redhead fan, but Futurism vs. Passeism Pt II. is entirely amazing...

ej said...

pandora and pitchfork help me speak good music.

My culturally exclusive side likes to fall asleep to a steady stream of cbcradio3.ca. I long for the days of zine page click-a-lickin... but alas, archives are a good daily sidetracksion. Daily? Overstated, not to be abused like an over experienced glass of milk (every wonder if we'd whirl/sniff and roll it over out tongue if it didn't cost $5 gallon, at it was leap year seasonal?), it's a once a monther for me.

I seek out very little of my own music. My database is unreliable as my computer finds a new way to isolate itself from me every two months (Apr.17th - par example), I let it come to me. I have pushers that feed the blood veins of my eardrums. I never have to lift a finger.

And so Sh-lamus (sounds like a campy shaquille o'neal riverdance)... I just might have to take you up on that offer.

Anonymous said...

Wajok,

Sorry, I didn't read your comment till today. I'll forward you those emails. Glean what you like from them. It's sweet enough just being sent full albums. Send me your email address. Mine is jamesbestiv@gmail.com.

Troy,

Yeah, I freakin love Blonde Redhead. I cannot get over her voice. It was awesome. Next concert this sunday--Modest Mouse and Man Man. Two double M's can't be wrong.