Defined A Decade?

Being a music geek means being comfortable with thinking up themes like "The Bands That Defined A Decade." I'm talking rock bands here. This is something I've been toying with for quite some time, and I'm always tweaking. For now, I'm settled on these picks.

The 50's - I'd love to just say Elvis and get it over with, but he's not a band, even though he was almost as big as one by the time he died. No, I'd have to pick Buddy Holly & The Crickets as the rock and roll band that defined 50's. No, they weren't first on the scene, but Buddy's sound as well as his songwriting took rock and roll to the next level.

The 60's - The Beatles - These guys were the 60's, hands down.

The 70's - Led Zeppelin - Possibly the rockingest band that has ever existed. Their legendary excesses even helped spawn the punk movement.

The 80's - Here's where it gets a little tougher to pick, but I have to go with U2.

The 90's - Another tough decade to wade through. I want to say Pearl Jam, but they only rode in on the coattails of Nirvana. Nirvana brought grunge front and center, and every band tried to be them.

The 00's - I cannot even pick a band who might define the first 8 years of this century. My first inclination is to pick The White Stripes, though, since their garage rock revival has spawned scores of imitators, and hoards of rock snobs continue to cry out, "If it ain't indie, its' shit."

Thoughts?? Contributions?

Nat's Musical ABC's

No, I wasn't tagged, but I'm playing along, and I'm using all alt-country/Americana/roots artists. (don't quibble with me about the categorization, some of the picks fall loosely within the range, or have at some point in the career.)

1. Ryan Adams
2. The Byrds
3. Calexico
4. Drive-By Truckers
5. The Eagles
6. Five Chinese Brothers
7. Gillian Welch
8. Heartless Bastards
9. Indigo Girls (whew, "I" could have been tricky!)
10. The Jayhawks
11. The Knitters
12. Leftover Salmon
13. Mary Gauthier
14. Neko Case
15. Ollabelle
16. Patty Griffin
17. Quicksilver
18. Robinella
19. Son Volt
20.Tim Easton
21. Uncle Tupelo
22. Varnaline
23. Wilco
24. Texas Tornadoes (ok, so I stretched it)
25. Yonder Mountain String Band
26. Dan Zanes

Contrast Podcast Needs YOUR Vote!

As you may or may not know, I participate in a weekly podcast, Contrast Podcast, produced by the fab Tim Young. Each week, he assembles a themed podcast featuring songs introduced by the participants. This week, the theme was Random Shuffle, so each participant shuffled a player and submitted the first song that came up, with a short intro. My song this week was Summer's Coming by Sean Watkins. Next week, the theme is 1986, so I've chosen a song, recorded an intro, and emailed it off to Tim to be part of the podcast next week.

For year's end, Tim's doing a Contrast Podcast Festive 50, and asking folks to submit their favorite 5 songs of 2007. I would love it if any of you would join in the fun. Here's what to do:

1. Decide on your 5 favourite tracks of 2007 and put them in order from 1 (your favourite) to 5 (your fifth favourite). (Note: he's a Brit, so favourite=favorite. Yes, I'm a smartass.)
2. Send this list to me at tim.young@rhul.ac.uk with ‘Contrast Podcast Festive 50’ in the message title by the 27th November.
3. This is open to all contributors and listeners to the podcast .. so spread the word. The more votes we get the better it will work.
4. Three lucky list-makers (pulled out of the hat randomly) will win a copy of the ‘The Trucks – Titties ep’ including my remix!!
5. I will then put the lists together to make a chart and invite contributors to introduce songs that they have liked.
6. The podcast will go out from 18th December to 1st January with a countdown of the top 50 .. hopefully!

If you are shy about recording an intro when/if your song makes the cut, I can do one for you. So, come on, help us out!

What did I submit? It was tough, since there are many songs I couldn't get enough of this year, but my list is:

1.You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb - Spoon
2. Right Moves - Josh Ritter
3.Boy With A Coin - Iron & Wine
4.Down In The Valley - The Broken West
5.Head Like A Hole - Giant Bear (NIN cover)

Why I Have A Love/Hate Relationship with emusic.com

When the free-wheeling version of Napster bit the dust after the RIAA went full-bore against it, I was weary of downloading music. My son continued to use Kazaa and Limewire, but after all the horror stories of grannies getting sued for a few grand due to their grubby little grandkids' nasty download habits, when they themselves didn't even know how to turn their computers on, I laid down the law. There would be NO illegal downloading in my house. I found plenty of songs to download from the labels' own sites and artists' sites to keep me in new music for awhile.

Then I wanted more. I downloaded iTunes, even though I didn't own an iPod. I wasn't happy with the DRM situation or the 99-cent per song cost, so I checked other services and settled on emusic. For 15 bucks a month, I can download 65 songs, plus an additional free song every day. That works out to about 16 cents per song. My kind of deal. There's no DRM to deal with and the songs are fairly good quality (The average bit rate used for VBR on eMusic is 192k.) I can play the songs with any music player, and now that I have an iPod, I can load them in playlists with ease. (I do have a quibble with the iTunes organization, since it creates iTunes music folders, thereby creating two copies of every song file and filling up my drive. I hate Apple sometimes.) Emusic is loaded with music from indie bands or music from artists on small labels, so I love to sift through it all. That's what I love about it.

What do I hate? Well, let's say I'm browsing through the lists of artists and I spot "Chuck Berry." Cool! I can find some good old rock and roll! DING! Then I click his name and see what's available. At first glance it seems like a huge catalog. That's exciting. BUT. BIG BUT HERE. But the offerings, upon investigation, are often crappy-quality live recordings, and sometimes they are not the original artist at all. You really have to listen to clips before you download! I hate having to be wary of the music offered by such a big name in the download business.

So, I do love emusic most of the time. No, I can't download U2 or any other big-name bands. I can grab that stuff, if I want to, at iTunes or some other spot. But I do love finding little gems like The Pipettes, Chris Pureka, Bow Thayer & The Euphorians, or Moonbabies and feeling like I got them for a steal.