Blogs - Music / Personal / Whatever Grabs You

mommio

In response to thom's request to start a thread for blogs. Here is the start, in no particular order. Go at it!


Free Albums Galore - a full-album “mp3 blog” for listeners of eclectic music by Marvin, AKA blues_hound

Jazz Note SDP - devoted largely to hard bop

HipRadio - lists the music played on the Night Train show on 103.2 DublinCityFM, with link for live streaming (I use the lists to explore artists I haven't heard. Yes, it's that Night Train.)

Ionarts - primary focus is classical music

My Old Kentucky Blog - mp3s for sampling, plus tons of links to other mp3 blogs!

xtrev

Some more of the 'mp3' variety...

http://www.saidthegramophone.com/

http://www.scissorkick.com/

...and, despite its strangely broken appearance ( I usually 'select all' to read all the text properly!), one of my all-time faves:
http://reallyrather.blogspot.com/

jackedUPjazz

Thanks mommio for starting this thread.

It seems like we bordering on full blown hijack mode in the Amie Street thread

Of course no listing of blogs would be complete without a mention of the sooth sayings and all around general wisdom of the jacked UP jazz blog

mommio

JUJ, I luuuuvvv the way you talk. In posts here and in your blog. I bookmarked it at the first mention.

jackedUPjazz

Well hell, now I'm starting to feel the pressure now that I have an audience of two (you and eclectricity).

At this rate the paparazzi can't be far behind.

thomnottom

As always, I'll pimp my personal blog (which I plan to include more talk regarding music in the future):
THOMnottom.com

As well as my friend and his pop culture blog which regularly touches on music:
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

I'll go through my blogroll later and post some more.

mommio

Not blogs, but links for free music. Debated on this thread or the stickie at the top, but this feels like the right place.

NPR: All Songs Considered Podcast

NPR Music - archived performances, Folk at Newport 2009; links to concerts and other music podcasts

NankerP

Well I suppose I will plug my own Haven't got back into posting much since my vacation but I have a heap of new music so the inspiration will strike shortly.

I also like
Sound Opinions podcast
Waxing Deep podcast (on hiatus but the back editions are great)

Red Neckerson for great old country LPs (as a rule I dont download illegally, but these are rips from old LPs which are out of print and unfindable)

rastamon

Y'all check out the Adios Lounge - http://www.adioslounge.com/ - for some great critques, commentary, and margharitas relative to Doug Sahm, Clarence White and the Birds, and much, much more....

And I promise to learn hypertext here...soon...

mommio

Now how did it happen that Nereffid's blog isn't listed here? Perhaps he didn't tell us about it until this thread had slipped down a few pages. Since it has been mentioned here more than once, it's time it landed on this thread.

Les Introuvables de Nereffid

Kenny

If you want to know the best of what's happening in the Seattle music scene, you have to check out Sound on the Sound.

http://www.soundonthesound.com/

Bad Thoughts

Here's a great mp3 blog--Honey, Where You Been So Long? It offers an incredible collection of early blues and jazz recordings. Here's one of the coolest posts: over 100 version of St. James Infirmary.

I'm also a fan of the obscure English and French Folk Music because it offers wonderful transcriptions of early dance music. My favorite: the 9/8 jig "Drink the Worts and Spill the Beer".

denver

A Denver music blog that generally posts one track every day, but more on weekends. They have some usual suspects, but tend more to find obscure and unexpected artists.

One Track Mind

jonahpwll

Here's one I should've shared with this site a long time ago. An AAJ forum member writes this one...

http://theanthologyofamericanfolkmusic.blogspot.com/

It's called "Where Dead Voices Gather: The Anthology of American Folk Music Project - An in-depth, track-by-track examination of Harry Smith's "Anthology Of American Folk Music"."

It's a pretty cool dealio.

Bad Thoughts

One blog that deserves parents' eternal praise and loyalty is Zooglobble, which tirelessly writes on children's music, offering excellent reviews of albums. It also is a great source for developments on the genre.

kargatron

I wonder if parents that buy childrens music for their kids just care about their kids more, or are less selfish than I. My kids hear nothing but my music collection, and a lot of it.

Bad Thoughts

I don't know if that is entirely fair. My son appreciates music that I listen to. The first tune he responded to was Art Blakey's Moanin'. As a newborn he loved to lay on my chest as we watched "We Jam Econo", the Minutemen doc. He likes Victor Uwaifo, the Palenque Palenque comp, Josh White, and now LCD Soundsystem and some Baroque opera. However, I know how beneficial it is that he hears music made for him when he picks up his toy guitar (or my mando) and starts singing "the sun is a mass of incandescent gas ..." or some other nerdy song about science or nature.

kargatron

I agree that kids music is probably fairly optimal for developing their basic musical ear - simple, clear melodies and harmonic relationships. I'm just unwilling to put up with it by and large (TMBG an exception), so they suffer in that sense. But actually, my 6 year old complains that they don't do "real music" in music class, and asks for Duke Ellington at bedtime. They do complain when my "spooky" music comes up - free jazz is no problem, but the dark electronica or droney noise they nix.

Bad Thoughts

Well, check out what is reviewed on the site. I generally agree with the writer's assessment that there is now a wealth of clever, literate and even challenging music for families (not just kids). I don't know how any of it compares to what they play for elementary school kids, but I think that you'll find something better than the dreck s/he is rejecting.

My own experience is that my four-year old responds best to whatever we can play and sing together. That places some limitations on how complicated the music can get, and would leave out some genres (no participatory dimension to ambient noise). However, that doesn't mean the music must be simple. I have my own string-band version of Salt Peanuts that gets my son dancing, stopping to sing "Salt Peanuts, Salt Peanuts!" Sometimes I'll hear him singing "Corrine, Corinna" or "Blue Skies" as he plays with his toys. He doesn't always get the lyrics right. And sometimes, he makes me perform "Abeyoyo" in its entirety.

cafreema

With Mac just reaching the 3 month mark today, I don't have the participatory aspect from him yet, but I am getting to the point where I'm not listening to stuff like N.W.A. when he's around (we probably also won't be able to watch the second season of The Walking Dead together, that's a bummer). Won't be long though and he'll be participating, so thanks for pointing out the reviews! It will be good to supplement stuff like that for him.

Craig

kargatron

cafreema, curbing music choices at 3 months old? Why, exactly? That's very very pre-verbal, I'm not sure what concerns you have in mind. I read my son random NAKED LUNCH excerpts aloud when he was a baby (probably up to a year or so), it's such a wonderful book to say out loud, just the rhythms and sounds of it. I don't see why language in unemotional situations need be constrained for that age.

elwoodicious

I'm with kargatron, it'd be brilliant to see little Mac swaggering down the hall in a diaper with a blanket in one hand and a sippy cup in the other rapping:

Fuck tha police
Comin straight from the underground
Young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown
And not the other color so police think
They have the authority to kill a minority

cafreema

The reason is basically in response to elwood's post. My wife would kill me if that ever happened, so I'm more or less adjusting myself already.

Craig

Bad Thoughts

If not NWA, how about Merle Haggard:

The jury found the verdict first degree
They swore I planned her death to be
I prayed they sentence me to die
But they wanted me to live and I know why

jonahpwll

With Mac just reaching the 3 month mark today,

Has it been three months already? Man, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. I can't remember one night where I was woken up by crying at three in the morning. This online parenting thing is simple!

kargatron

Well, I've never heard Thor reciting Naked Lunch despite how much fun it is to say aloud stuff like:

The Buyer spreads terror throughout the industry. Junkies and agents disappear. Like a vampire bat he gives off a narcotic effluvium, a dank green mist that anesthizes his victioms and renders them helpless in his enveloping presence. And once he has scored he holes up for several days like a gorged boa constrictor. Finally he is caught in the act of digesting the Narcotics Commissioner and destroyed with a flame thrower

Germanprof

Some blogs focused on ambient:

Ambient Music Blog (Surprising name, that).

Not to be confused with Ambient Blog.

Sitting in More than one Chair - this is worth bookmarking - it's simply a list of good albums legally (as far as I can tell - that always seems to have been a parameter) available for free elsewhere. Have found a few things here. (I see he/she has been finding some of the same things as we have lately - could this be run by someone here? Or is this not the only group of brilliant people in the web?) [Edit - just checked on a couple of entries and at least one - GWFAA - is on sale for money on Bandcamp. Don't know whether this blogger is getting less careful or changing philosophy. I suspect s/he is simply linking to stuff offered free on other blogs and not always checking is that's legit. Still a good place to find recs, but you might want to double check the provenance if the link is to mediafire]

I'll Read You a Story Have not spent much time at this one, but looks interesting.

Germanprof

Just found this via Brighternow's Bad Thoughts' post about Bubbles. Reviews of free netlabel albums.

Catching The Waves

Brighternow

Just found this via Brighternow's post about Bubbles. Reviews of free netlabel albums.

- That was Bad Thoughts, not me.

Germanprof

Oops. Edited. Thanks, Bad Thoughts.

Bad Thoughts

OK. BT