Rolling eMusic Thread 2009

I proposed this on an old eMusic thread today and there was some interest: EMusic - C/D

I just started using the site late last year and have pretty quickly become a raving obsessive fan of it (after years of liking the idea but not being impressed with its selection until recently). Hopefully we can use this thread for something more substantial than just listing off stuff but just to get the ball rolling, here's a list of what I've gotten off the site so far, roughly ordered from favorite to least favorite:

Nels Cline - Coward
Parts & Labor - Receivers
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Bad Reputation
Superchunk - Come Pick Me Up
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
The Nels Cline Trio - Ground
Portastatic - Bright Ideas
Eleni Mandell - Artificial Fire
Two Tongues - Two Tongues
8Ball - Memphis All Stars
The National - Boxer
Alex Cline - Continuation
Prodigy - Product Of The 80s
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs In Static Couture
Dinosaur Jr. - Dinosaur
The Gaslight Anthem - Sink Or Swim
Asobi Seksu - Hush
Witch - Witch
The Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
Arbouretum/Pontiak - Kale
Statik Selektah - Stick 2 The Script
Thank You - Terrible Two
Ani DiFranco - Not A Pretty Girl
Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty
Witch - Paralyzed
Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyles
Nels Cline and Devin Sarno - Rise Pumpkin Rise
Termanology - Politics As Usual
Wilderness - (k)no(w)here
Firewater - The Man On The Burning Tightrope

yeah i am an unabashed emusic stan.

i've completely cleaned up on emusic, i adore it.

recent dl's of note:
beach house - devotion
still flyin' - never gonna touch the ground
the new asobi record
sviib album + singles
hussy's - super pro
the recently added huge bunch of dfa and related labels stuff
heaps of top hole post punk reissues on ltm and acute

other big recommendations:
charmparticles - alive in the hot spell
all the for against albums they have (which is most of them)
all the section 25 albums (get these NOW)
heaps of stuff on modular (presets et al - though i don't know if these are avail worldwide)
big chunks of the damaged goods catalogue
all the recent wire stuff

etc etc

it's fair to say that 90% of my new music comes from eM downloads

anyone know how financially beneficial eMusic is to participating labels? I'm sure they wouldn't do it if it wasn't good for them, but I almost feel guilty sometimes getting all this music that I'd otherwise be paying way more for on CD, especially in light of recent events w/r/t labels that had Touch & Go distro.

i can't remember the numbers offhand, but i know at least one label (drag city) didn't think it was worth their while

A few labels felt that way. OTOH, a bunch of v. good labels -- e.g., Kompakt, Domino, DFA and Warp -- joined since Drag City left.

I shouldn't like this, I guess, but I totally dig two songs off the new Horace Andy/Ashley Beetle disc: Rasta Don't and Angie (cover of the Rolling Stones song).

Can we embed the :30 eMusic samples? I'll try: Rasta Don't and Angie.

anyone have any recommendations for the black saint label? only thing I've gotten is the old dreams new dreams album and it is pretty sweet.

do i want to hear this 2006 live album by Tears For Fears that eMusic has? I'm tempted but it seems like it should be a bad idea.

This year I've been very happy with:

Colin Lloyd Tucker "Remarkable" and his other emusic album
Robyn Hitchcock "Goodnight Oslo"
Tim Rose "Snowed In"
Pylon "Gyrate Plus"
Air Miami - both demo tapes collections
Judas Priest "Sad Wings of Destiny"
A lot of the LTM stuff
Bunch of Flipper stuff
Bunch of Wire stuff

I wanted to sign up to eMusic for awhile and then Tzadik pulled out (which was my #1 reason for wanting to join).

I've had it for a year now, but the most recent version of Gavin Bryars' Sinking Of The Titanic -- done with Philip Jeck and Alter Ego -- is stunning. Very comparable, I think, to the tone of (and sense of loss and decay in) William Basinski's Disintegration Loops (which are also available on eMusic).

Bonus: It's only one track!

do i want to hear this 2006 live album by Tears For Fears that eMusic has? I'm tempted but it seems like it should be a bad idea.

I hate almost all the re-recordings or live discs or cover albums available on eMusic. So many of them seem like bad karaoke, self-parody, or poor-quality bootlegs.

Daniel Esq, thanks for the Basinski link - hadn't come across him before.

Will work my way through his other stuff, any recommendments?

So far this month:

Gucci Mane - Trap House
Marnie Stern - This Is It....
Harvey Milk - My Love Is Higher...

Sandy: All I know are the DL series, and they're all good (No. 1 is my favorite, FWIW; there was a poll about the series some time ago on ILX).

BTW, a batch of titles from Rounder Records just appeared in the US market. More are expected, but details are vague beyond that. Still, a nice addition.

anyone have any recommendations for the black saint label? only thing I've gotten is the old dreams new dreams album and it is pretty sweet.

Hamiet Bluiett's The Clarinet Family is quite nice. I'm kinda surprised I've heard so few of these myself.

i didn't know disintegration loops were up, i need to get them. (last time i checked basinski they weren't.) and ditto the harvey milk, which i had been meaning to check for.

Harvey Milk = urgent and key.

I don't think Harvey Milk is available in the U.S. market, FWIW.

oh yeah it is, or at least it was

Oh! You're right. Apologies. I thought you were talking about the new one, which isn't on eMusic (I just double-checked the artist page for HM in the US).

Favorite things I've downloaded from eMusic over the last year or so ...

Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
Baroness - Red Album
Boris - Akuma no Uta
Caina - Mourner
Cocteau Twins - Head Over Heels
Cynic - Traced in Air
Dalek - Gutter Tactics
Dif Juz - Extractions
Dream Death - Journey Into Mystery
Duke Ellington - The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Entombed - Left Hand Path
Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale
Free Form Funky Freqs - Urban Mythology
Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men
Gil Evans Orchestra - Live at Umbria
Katatonia - The Discouraged Ones
Lull - Cold Summer
Mastodon - Remission
Miles Davis Quintet - The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions
Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick
Neu! - Neu!
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Painkiller - Execution Ground
Producto - 2
The Mermen - At the Haunted House
Theolonius Monk - Brilliant Corners
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters

let's see, some random stuff i like from my mountain of downloads...

nels cline coward (like i keep saying, everybody everybody should have this)
alex cline continuation
alela diane the pirate's gospel
andrew hill dusk
barbara dane and the chambers brothers
black milk popular demand and tronic
chris mcgregor's brotherhood of breath brotherhood and self-titled
cuong vu pure
dr. alimantado best dressed chicken in town
fotheringay two
glass candy (and the rest of the idib stuff)
karen dalton in my own time
katatonia brave murder day
koo nimo vintage palmwine
nina nastasia (um, everything.)
ooioo gold and green
patty waters patty waters sings
polvo today's active lifestyles
revolutionary ensemble vietnam
scott amendola band believe
skull disco soundboy punishments
sonny sharrock band seize the rainbow
sprengjuhollin (both albums)
taylor swift taylor swift
the aislers set how i learned to write backwards
no-neck blues band qvaris
thee headcoatees punk girls
times new viking (everything)
urinals negative capability

...and a whole lot more. wow they have a lot of good music.

oh definitely meant to mention

vijay iyer tragicomic

which i just got last week and is really good.

nels cline coward (like i keep saying, everybody everybody should have this)
dr. alimantado best dressed chicken in town
glass candy (and the rest of the idib stuff)
skull disco soundboy punishments

Total winners (not dissing the other stuff, just generally unfamiliar with it). I got the Nels Cline on your suggestion, I think, so thanks for that. "(W)ow they have a lot of good music" is right. It's the best (legal) music download service around, for my money.

any recommendations for metal on emusic?

i'm a metal dilettante (and of course it depends on which metal you mean) but i've grabbed stuff by katatonia, torche, high on fire, entombed and pig destroyer.

tipsy i love almost every record on yr list. well done, sir.

Some stuff I've liked in the last year (trying to leave out the most obvious stuff -- CCR, Judas Priest, etc.):

A.K.C. Natarajan - Carnatic Classical
Afrika Bambaataa - Death Mix Live
Aksak Maboul - Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migraine
Andrew Pekler - Strings + Feedback
Bert Jansch - Best of Bert Jansch
Betty Davis - s/t
Black Moon - Total Eclipse
Bobby Timmons - This Here
Booker Ervin - The Trance
Cast King - Saw Mill Man
Daniel Owino Misiani and Shirati Band - Benga Blast ! ( <3 <3 <3 )
David Tudor - Three Works for Live Electronics
Delarosa and Asora - Agony Part 1
Faraquet - The Whole Thing Over/Call it Sane
Flora Purim - Butterfly Dreams
Francis and the Lights - Striking (but then realized it's available free on his site)
Frank Kimbrough - Play
Fred Hersch - Live at the Village Vanguard
Golden - s/t
Gong - Best of
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
Gravitar - You Must First Learn to Draw the Real
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
Jean Ritchie - British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains
Joe Henderson - Power to the People
Justice - Cross
Kill the Vultures - The Careless Flame
Vintage Palmwine (listed under Koo Nimo but actually various)
Larry Polansky - Theory of Impossible Melody
Lee Konitz - Subconscious-Lee
Lee Scratch Perry - Produced and Directed by the Upsetter
Liquid Liquid - S/t
Masta Killa - Made in Brooklyn
Matmos - Supreme Balloon
Mike Wexler - Sun Wheel
Miles Davis - Conception
Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company - Music by David Borden
Nana Vasconcelos - Africadeus
Paul Bley Trio - Closer
Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall - First Place Again
Paul Jacons - The Legendary Busoni Recordings
Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground
Phil Kline - Zippo Songs
Silver Apples - The Garden
Sly and Robbie - Hits 1978-1990
Steeleye Span - Please to See the King
Steve Spacek - Space Shift
Suicide - s/t
Tarentel - Ghetto Beats on the Surface of the Sun
Terry Riley - Descending Moonshine Dervishes
The Alps - III
The Shipping News - Very Soon and in Pleasant Company
Tony Malaby - Tamarindo
Trinity - Shantytown Determination
The Roots of Chicha
Nigeria 70 - Lagos Jump
Disco Not Disco 1974-1986
Ethiopiques 4 & 5
From Dakar to Cuba: Swinging to the Rumba
Capoeira Angola from Salvador Brazil
Music of Indonesia Vol 20: Indonesian Guitars
William Parker - O'Neal's Porch
various Shostakovich stuff

whew

The Lagos Jump and Ethiopiques comps are stunning. There's a song on the Lagos Jump disc with this rising, billowing organ every time the song hits the chorus (I think it's the last or second-to-last song). It's kind of breathtaking.

Is Sly and Robbie -- Hits 1978-1990 good?

ZOMES! I say again, Zomes. Asa from Lungfish solo. Z-O-M-E-S.

Is Sly and Robbie -- Hits 1978-1990 good?

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Hell yeah. I mean, if you like dancehall-type reggae, it's got a bunch of essential tracks.

Random Good stuff from my emusic downloads:

808 State - Ninety
A Mountain of One - Collection
Loads of madlib/beat conducta/YMQ/DJ Rels stuff
Beppe Lods
Betty Davis (both albums)
Bob Becker - Music for 18 musicians
Chaz Jankel - My occupation
D. Lissvik - 7 trx
Dolle Jolle - Balearic Incarnation (Todd Terje Mix)
El Guincho
Endless Boogie
Fontan - Early One Morning (Studio / Mountain of one remixes)
Holger Czukay - Movies
Varius Idjuts/Rong Music/Bearfunk stuff
Klaus Schulze - variousthings
Lindstrom - loadsa stuff
Michael Shrieve - Transfer Station Blue
millie Jackson - caught up
Moodymann
Morgan Geist
Various Patrick Adams/P&P compilations
The Alps III
TTA - various
Wendy & Bonnie - Genesis
Weekend - La Variete

They have loads of stuff - shames is it is such an arse to navigate. And you cant set up saved searches (and RSS feed that told me everytime a new Prins Thomas remix had been added would be nice).

Lindstrom's "Where You Go I Go Too" showed up today.

tyler, try this "hub" on Black Saint:
http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/blacksaint/index.html

do they not do ridiculous "150 free mp3" things anymore?

I was pretty overjoyed yesterday to find that eMusic has all the 70s albums by Funkadelic and the Stylistics...I'm probably gonna work through both catalogs eventually, but right now am starting with the self-titled debuts by both. I keep forgetting to look for stuff like classic soul, definitely want to hear some more reccomendations in that vein.

there's tons, but one thing to look out for: on 3/31 we'll be putting up all the early '70s al green records. insane!

SWEET

Just got that Holger Czukay album - good stuff.

Also I could probably use all my downloads every month just on good reggae and dancehall.

wow, Al Green! Great news, I've been considering canceling but I'll hold out for this.

matinee records are now on emusic, get in there and get some indiepop up ya

Al Green now up too, all good

Meanderthals on Smalltown Supersound is there now

just found Krallice and Coffins on there last night for metal dudez wanting to fill their allotment for the month. oh, and MSTRKRFT fist of god is there too.

i used up a bunch of my quota this month filling in the holes in my Burzum collection - first time that ive been actively hoping that the emusic royalty payouts are terrible for the artist.

"when it comes to burzum, jjusten recommends piracy"

some recent dl's:

theusaisamonster - space programs (about them a buddy of mine said "it never occurred to me that Lightning Bolt's music required a dab of Butthole Surfers")
http://www.emusic.com/album/The-USA-Is-A-Monster-Space-Programs-MP3-Download/11317577.html

larkin grimm - parplar (controversial SXSW attendee, freakfolk superstar)
http://www.emusic.com/album/Larkin-Grimm-Parplar-MP3-Download/11313106.html

veronica lipgloss & the evil eyes (terrible band name, great band, heir to 8 eyed spy's skronky whine)
http://www.emusic.com/album/Veronica-Lipgloss-And-The-Evil-Eyes-The-Witch-s-Dagger-MP3-Download/11290881.html

look, dog faced hermans! now's yr chance to hear hum of life...
http://www.emusic.com/artist/The-Dog-Faced-Hermans-MP3-Download/11489025.html

I was kinda excited to see Motley Crue's whole back catalog is now on eMusic, I read The Dirt a while back but had never gotten around to actually hearing any of their albums. Did they score some great deal where they retain the rights of their old major label albums or something? I've only downloaded about half of Dr. Feelgood so far, though, it's kind of a pain in the ass to DL an album one song at a time when you don't wanna bother with reissue bonus tracks.

1287681547157153 In Baltimore

Anyone know if these Dylan albums are the remastered versions? I've been putting off buying the remasters of many of these, though the old CDs don't have the best sound, but if I can get them here cheaper I'd do that instead.

http://www.emusic.com/album/Debashish-Bhattacharya-Pt-Brij-Bhushan-Kabra-Till-Death-Do-Us-Part-MP3-Download/10836429.html

12 credits for a single 11 minute track? Fuck you, fuckers.

wau -- you should complain and see if they change it, has to be a mistake

well I found this: http://www.emusic.com/album/Pt-Brijbhushan-Kabra-Call-of-the-Desert-MP3-Download/10859682.html

which has that track plus 4 others which likewise are also sold as seperate albums, on emusic and on itunes and amazon, as well. so must be the label's fault. still though, wouldn't be an issue if emusic didn't institute the album pricing policy.

Great new releases on eMusic today:

• Sally Shapiro, My Guilty Pleasure
• Tinariwen, Imidiwan: Companions
• Husker Du

thanks for reccomendations, more new stuff would be good to suggest since i have a bunch of credits to burn up in the next few days!

The Sony CLASSICAL labels are a great addition too. Psyched to get The Guarneri recordings of the Bartok String Quartets once my downloads refresh -- the one I previously had from emusic was kind of mediocre.

What else is good in the Sony Classical catalogue?

And Some Dude, there's a ton of good releases coming next month (set forth in more detail over at eMusic's "17 Dots" blog). Looks like a solid fall/winter calendar.

Can anyone recommend any eMusic bargains along the lines of the Basinski and Bryars albums upthread?

I'd suggest Rhys Chatham's 'A Crimson Grail (For 400 Electric Guitars)' which is wonderful and can be purchased for three credits.

I'm also enjoying William Basinski's 'El Camino Real' as much as any of the Disintegration Loops.

http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Bollywood-Box-Set-MP3-Download/11116328.html

^great deal!

So it seems like Husker Du doesn't want to sell their albums a la carte. The SST stuff isn't on iTunes, and it's album-only on Amazon, too.

on the upside, can't complain about album pricing for zen arcade!

Why would anyone want to buy individual tracks anyway? They weren't exactly a singles band.

Thanks for the tip on Tinariwen! I'm stocking up on power pop.

yeah that tinariwen album is pretty hot. a little less gutbucket than the last one, but some gorgeous guitar and nice tunes.

this is clearly the most important release on emusic this year:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Fart-Sounds-For-All-Got-Farts-MP3-Download/11601386.html

Can anyone recommend any eMusic bargains along the lines of the Basinski and Bryars albums upthread?

This list might be useful: 1-Track Ambient Albums and EPs

Haven't heard ANY of them, but for 1 credit each, who cares?

so do i blame firefox or emusic for the fact that every time i try to download stuff now my browser crashes?

emusic

Just had the same happen to me but no problems with Safari.

there's a bunch of severed heads albums up today, both recent and classic eras

I'm now wondering the same thing as o. nate upthread-- are these the remastered Dylans? Anyone?

Also, I've been a Notorious Byrd Brothers stan for years-- should I follow up with 5D or Younger Than Yesterday?

I assume that the Dylans with the release date in 2003 are all remasters. Not sure about the others.

Also, I've been a Notorious Byrd Brothers stan for years-- should I follow up with 5D or Younger Than Yesterday?

Younger than Yesterday is excellent and well worth the download. I find 5d to be hit and miss--some of their best stuff and some of their worst stuff.

I'd also recommend Ballad of Easy Rider if you like the country elements of the Byrds. I kinda rejiggered the track list of that album, subbing in the superior alt versions of a couple tracks, including some of the other outtakes, and subtracting one of the album cuts--after that surgery, Ballad has become one of my favorite Byrds albums.

Anyone getting this message when you try to d/l MP3s?

eMusic Temporarily Unavailable

We're very sorry but eMusic is unavailable at the moment. Our engineering team is working to correct the problem as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and apologize for this inconvenience.

Been like this since yesterday afternoon. I'm in the UK.

It's nice to see they now have pretty much everything by A Tribe Called Quest and Hall & Oates.

top uk shoegaze label clubac30 have a bunch of their catalogue up now

new Evangelista album is out today, and it's actually 7 credits for 7 songs (for a 40-something minute album)! don't see too many deals like that anymore.

out yesterday, i should say, etc.

didn't know a ton of r kelly shit is on emusic! has that been available for a while?

downloaded a ton of good shit yesterday - 'chocolate factory', outkast's aquemini, usher 'confessions', stylistics' first two albums, plus some classic kompakt stuff

R Kelly came with the Sony labels. So many great new titles over the past few days:

• The Mountain Goats -- The Life Of The World To Come
• Califone -- All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
• The Clientele -- Bonfires On The Heath
• The Raveonettes -- In And Out Of Control
• Destroyer -- Bay Of Pigs
• Lou Barlow -- Goodnight Unknown
• Daniel Johnston -- Is And Always Was
• Various Artists -- 5: Five Years of Hyperdub
• Mission Of Burma -- The Sound The Speed The Lights
• Various Artists -- Tumbele! Biguine Afro & Latin Sounds (new from Soundways!)

FUCK

23 CREDITS DOWN THE DRAIN

I KNOW IT'S MY FAULT AND THERE'S NO POINT IN POSTING ABOUT IT BUT I'M VENTING

WHY CAN'T THEY SEND A FUCKING NOTIFICATION E-MAIL A COUPLE DAYS BEFORE THE END OF A PAY PERIOD OR SOMETHING DAMMIT

i hate that shit. a courtesy email would definitely be a good move.

word.

tons of cool Sun Ra stuff is up, btw; i've been binging on that shit lately.

Now that credits are so expensive there needs to be rollover, not even fucking kidding.

Are those Sun Ra priced as 12-track albums or 1 cred=1 track?

1 credit per track.

They also need to do more to list albums by # of credits - I have three credits left that I have no idea what to do with.

All of Broadcast's records on the Warp label arrived today, BTW.

(In the U.S. market, at least)

Ooh, that's exciting. I haven't kept up with them past Ha Ha Sound but have always meant to.

hurting, i think you can download three songs of an album you know you want and it will reduce the album's remaining dl cost accordingly?

and yeah, credits should rollover, and email reminders. i mean they keep sending me shit to ask me to review stuff easy enough.

^^^yeah, i did that with My War (lol) last month: ie, used up 2 credits for 2 tracks then and got the rest of the album later on when i had more credits.

Dude there is nothing lol about that.

*exposes 'My War Side 2' back tattoo*

They also need to do more to list albums by # of credits - I have three credits left that I have no idea what to do with.

just noticed that they've added refining by number of tracks

most popular 3-track albums:
http://www.emusic.com/browse/0/b/-dbm/a/0-0/881/0.html

just noticed that they've added refining by number of tracks

At LAST. Fantastic.

Shake A Tail Feather! The Best Of James And Bobby Purify
man, this comp

63 durutti column tracks for 24 credits:

http://www.emusic.com/album/The-Durutti-Column-2001-2009-MP3-Download/11728925.html

LOTS of great tracks in this collection.. essential if you don't have the separate albums imo

Anyone catch eMusic's best-of-decade list? Kinda dug a lot of it.