Has anybody noticed that most music videos suck out loud now? If you flip to MTV, you’ve only got a 1 in 5,000 chance of actually seeing a video instead of some kind of bizarre faux-reality show. If you win the cable lottery and catch a video, it’s probably just strobe lights or a 4 minute close-up of spinners (maybe with a few strobe lights for good measure.) Where are the great music videos of our time? Where are our Thrillers? Our Virtual Insanities?

Well I just caught the full version of Feist’s video for “1 2 3 4″ off her new album The Reminder and it’s one-shot glory gave me new hope in music videos. Check it:

Cheap and quick - it’s how all of us expect to get our music delivered nowadays. Internet megasite Amazon.com has released their new service, AmazonMP3 to meet our expectations. Rivaling other services like iTunes, Rhapsody, and Napster, AmazonMP3 aims to provide a plethora of music downloads for relatively low prices. With currently over 2 million songs, there is surely something to please everyone.

What’s the difference between this and iTunes? Not everybody has an iPod, and therefore not everybody uses iTunes. The great thing about AmazonMP3 is that it provides DRM-free files that can be played in any media player and on any media device. Also, like other services, AmazonMP3 provides all the necessities - 30 second samples for each song, embedded album art, and high quality sounds. The best part, however, is the difference in price. Here is a chart comparing it to iTunes and Napster:

What’s the catch? There isn’t really a catch per se, but the service does require you to download the Amazon MP3 Downloader software onto your computer. Fortunately, this is a quick and painless process. You simply choose your artist and song, pay for it using your Amazon account, and the download automatically begins in the MP3 Downloader. High download speeds will get you your music before you know it.

Happy downloading!
Link: AmazonMP3.com

	Atreyu
	Our Sick Story

This summer I found myself asking anyone I knew if they had heard anything about British Sea Power lately. After two stunning releases they seemed to have slipped off the radar. Well, today I was granted a present while scouring the music message boards: “New British Sea Power Track: Free download” HELL YEAH! So I’ve listened to the song a handful of times already and it really does deserve multiple listens. I’m not going to flesh out a review because it’s only one song. All I can say is don’t be fooled by the Strokes-y guitar and bass… BSP offer much more. So download it already:

British Sea Power - Atom
(Right/Control click and select “Save to disk” to download the 6.5MB MP3 file)

As a place known for its crabs (yum), murder rate (1 every 29 hours), and football (we don’t talk about the O’s when they suck), BALTIMORE sure has a weird music scene. Imagine a city sprawled out on a harbor full of east coast history and urban decay.

The ingredients:

2 cups Prep
3 pints Gangster
1 tbs. Suburbia
4 oz. Business
1/2 cup Homeless
1 Dash of Old Bay
2 Pinches of Art

It kind of makes you wonder how such a city spawned bands and artists that are so far removed from the norm (or maybe it’s exactly the kind of place you’d expect anything but the norm). Oddness aside, growing up in the suburbs, I wasn’t even aware a music scene existed in Bal’mor. I mean, we had maybe four music venues, a couple of rock fests, and that Orchestra my parents raised me on (not to mention the Peabody Choir I sang in… I got beat up a lot…). Who knew there was a quirky collection of artists hiding amongst the ghettoed victorian row houses and towering concrete business structures. It wasn’t until I moved to such a vibrantly musical city like Los Angeles that I started to notice how a lot of the music I was getting into out here was actually coming from my good ol’ hometown of Baltimore… and it was the oddest of the odd. Dan Deacon (video below), Animal Collective (all over KSCR airwaves), Spank Rock (nasty lyrics indeed), Cex (mp3), Frank Zappa (duh, he’s a freak), and Beach House (tamest of them all), just to name a few Bmore artists that have been receiving more and more attention, both from me and the rest of the music universe. Even Tupac kind of got started in Baltimore (do some research). With the exception of Pac and Beach House, you have yourself some of the weirdest (or most brilliantly unique?) people making music ever.

Maybe L.A. isn’t the place for you, Mr. Hipster. That is to say, even Pitchfork did a special on Whartscape. If it’s the one of a kind you want blasting through your stereo, scaring all those mainstream listeners away, then head to Baltimore and pick up a demo off the street. It seems like it might be weirder than anything you’ll hear here… Unless you go to the Neighboorhood Fest.

Here’s Dan Deacon performing without a crazy crowd fucking up the video (youtube some more vids of this guy and you’ll know what i mean).

If you’re into “indie”/”college rock” (or whatever unassuming genre you place the music you listen to into in order to avoid seeming pretentious), you’re keenly aware of the music juggernaut that is Pitchforkmedia.com

Love it or hate it, we know you’ve got an opinion on the site. The fact of the matter is that Pitchfork is downright ubiquitous. The site has made careers (the Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!) and has blacklisted a number of bands from the “will one day receive credibility for their efforts list”. The most obvious example of a group falling into this genre is the Australian garage/60’s revival/absolutely terrible Jet. Pitchfork’s review of their first album, “Get Born”, is innocent enough. The site’s review of their second album, “Shine On”, is an absolute gem. And, in case you weren’t aware, the site’s review of Belle and Sebastian’s “Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant” was used by the writers of the film High Fidelity during a discussion about the band in Cusack’s “Championship Vinyl”. The site has since changed the review displayed to part of the script from the film.

Alright, alright, you say–we’re well aware of the site. I don’t know how far along in your path to fining musical enlightenment without the ‘Fork you are, but I’m here to help (the first step? Join some message boards–the one on Radiohead fan site At Ease is pretty good).

The second step is to find other credible, legitimate and well-written websites. There are quite a few, of course–and the one I suggest most is Stylus Magazine. Stylus is rarely caught in the hyperbole quagmire that Pitchfork finds itself in–there are rarely perfect album ratings given out on Stylus, but there are never 0.0s either. Instead, Stylus uses level-headed writing and hardly ever causes bands to be called “the next big thing”–which is a gift and a curse in itself.

I also enjoy the site’s features. It’s “On Second Thought” page looks at older records that Stylus writers feel have been “unfairly lauded, or misunderstood in some fundamental way”. One of the latest columns in the series, about college rock stalwarts Sonic Youth’s “NYC Ghosts & Flowers” is a particularly fresh and revealing read.

There are a plethora of sites out there to help you discover new music–Stylus and Pitchfork are only two of them. Another great bet would be to tune into KSCR as often as possible in order to keep your ears happy and music hunger satiated, but that, of course, is up to you.

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Now playing: Jens Lekman - It Was A Strange Time In My Life

I’ll tell you what, I’ve had my doubts about growing old. But after seeing Hall & Oates at the Hollywood Bowl in the $7-nose-bleed section, I am officially ready to turn 50. Granted, I don’t have the golden vocal chords that Darryl Hall does, but seeing college-aged girls drool over a man who could be their father has given me some hope about old age. Here’s a video:

Not only did their songs sound great after 30 years, they actually added a 4-piece stings section and a wizardly-looking utility musician on stage for some quality break-downs and solos that didn’t come off superfluous. If you missed them, sorry. If this is the first time you’ve heard of them, it is time to jump on the bandwagon. I would recommend buying/downloading The Essential Daryl Hall & John Oates (2 Discs).

Hello, reader. Many of the old bandwidth team is gone and it’s taken us a little while to get a new staff ready to go, but now we are officially up and blogging again. Please leave us comments of what you like and what you don’t. We love feedback.

Enjoy.