Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2012

As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2012 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there. 

• When I Was 12 – Explicit Content This Stephanie-friendly, lite-pop album Dear Eskimo came out in 2009. How did I miss it then?! Fortunately, Amy came to the rescue & shared it with me in 2012 ... and three of their songs made the cut.
• Stars – The North (Breakglass Version)
• Lana Del Rey – Diet Mountain Dew So many great songs on her two-volume set Born to Die, the Paradise Edition, but I limited myself to this one.
• Chairlift – Cool As A Fire Haunting lyrics: "now that I found you, I don't have a choice ... with or without you, I don't have a choice." There are a lot of great songs on their album Something. 
• Carolina Chocolate Drops – Country Girl
• Norah Jones – If the Law Don't Want You ... neither do I. This is one of two songs I selected from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell. They're all a little country (or Americana), and they're all just like a Mary Karr novel. 
• The Little Willies – Jolene I heard -- and loved! -- this version before I heard Coach Beiste sing it on Glee. Coach's version makes the song even more heartbreaking, tho' I prefer listening to the Little Willies. 
• Lisa Marie Presley – Heartless Storm & Grace is my favorite Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis) album ... and this is the best song. 
• Lee Ann Womack – Momma's On a Roll The second of two songs from KIN: Songs by Mary Karr & Rodney Crowell.
• Steve Forbert – Can't We Get Together? This is second of Steve's songs that mentions being in another time zone from his girlfriend; it also mentions the Raleigh airport.
• Josh Ritter – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home This whole album is amazing, even tho' it's an EP. Josh Ritter could make a great song out of a phone book.
• Citizen Cope – One Lovely Day 
• Leonard Cohen – Come Healing The entire album Old Ideas is terrific, but this song, with Dana Glover is especially haunting. 
• Josh Ritter – Why 
• Glen Hansard – Talking With the Wolves
• Sea Wolf – Old Friend
• The Mavericks – Back In Your Arms Again Not nearly enough Mavericks on the Suited Up & Ready EP, but what's there is great fun.
• When I Was 12 – Kitten I'm Smitten Really, who doesn't like a song with that title?  Of course, mittens are also mentioned. 
• Calexico – Puerto
• Allen Stone – Sleep This turned into a huge earworm for me ... mostly when I can't sleep, and this song comes to mind when I "feel it [sleep] on the ends of my fingers / Taste it on the tips of my teeth" ... You've been warned about the earworm!

Stephanie's Favorite Songs, 2011

As always, it was a good year for music! I've completed my favorite song list of 2011 and posted it on Spotify.

The full list, in song order, is below, with a few annotations here & there.

Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks A great song to kick off the collection, it also kicks off a short gun-themed set. Note that the collection ends with a gun-themed song too.
Imelda May – Johnny Got A Boom Boom
Danger Mouse – Two Against One (feat. Jack White) Danger Mouse's Rome CD was amazing - I chose 2 songs for this collection, but there are many more great songs too.
Chris Difford – Like I Did Good for all the rock-loving parents out there, and quite a lovely tune too.
Diego Garcia – Under This Spell I'm guessing Amy's Leo will like this one.
Gomez – Options
Imelda May – I'm Alive Sounds quite a bit like Nick Lowe; and each of the 3 Imelda May songs here sound different from each other.
Nick Lowe – Shame on the Rain Yeah, I should have included his song "I Read A Lot" but this fit better.
The Steep Canyon Rangers – Atheists Don't Have No Songs Steve Martin is amusing here. This song kicks off a short (and hopefully not-too-offensive) religion set.
The Dirt Daubers – Wake Up, Sinners
Eliza Gilkyson – 2153
Eleanor Friedberger – Heaven
Emmylou Harris – Big Black Dog A great sing-along song, whether you have a dog or not. It's fun for cat lovers too.
Iron & Wine – Tree By The River How can you not love a song with this lyric: "I mean the world to a potty-mouth girl, with a pretty pair of blue-eyed birds." ?!
Danger Mouse – Black (feat. Norah Jones)
Sarah Jarosz – Annabelle Lee
Robbers On High Street – Second Chance Thanks to Amy for alerting me to Robbers on High Street; this isn't the song she first recommended, but it's quite a fun song anyway.
Garland Jeffreys – Rock On The first of two covers; I want to pair this one with Spiders & Snakes.
Imelda May – Tainted Love The start of this song makes me think of the Waitresses, which surely was intentional.
Noah And The Whale – Just Me Before We Met My favorite line: "don't be shy; be brave little champion."
Peter Bjorn And John – Tomorrow Has To Wait
Angus and Julia Stone – Big Jet Plane Lolhusband doesn't like that there is only one lyric here, but I love how it sounds.
Thomas Dolby – Road To Reno It's been a long time since he's had a new album, and this was worth waiting for.

If CDs were more than 80 minutes, we'd have more songs here ... but these are the cream of the 2011 crop.

Favorite Songs of 2010

Here's a list of my favorite songs for this year. I added all but the Belle & Sebastian to a myspace playlist. Enjoy & support the artist whose songs you like!

Song	Band	Album
Be My Thrill	The Weepies	Be My Thrill
Telegrams to Mars	Little & Ashley	Stole My Heart EP
Somethin’ Stupid	The Secret Sisters	The Secret Sisters
The Curse	Josh Ritter	So Runs The World Away
Hormones	Tracey Thorn	Love and Its Opposite
Beauty in the World	Macy Gray	The Sellout
Better Off In Texas	Raul Malo	Sinners & Saints
Tennessee Me	The Secret Sisters	The Secret Sisters
Cornbread and Butterbeans	Carolina Chocolate Drops	Genuine Negro Jig
Nothing but the Whole Wide World	Jakob Dylan	Women And Country
Ridin’ In My Car	She & Him	Volume Two
Still Missing You	Little & Ashley	Stole My Heart EP
Long Hard Road	Sade	Soldier Of Love
Pickle	Chumbawamba	Abcdefg
I Didn’t See It Coming *	Belle and Sebastian	Write About Love
Bad Romance	Lady Gaga	The Fame Monster
Why Does The Wind?	Tracey Thorn	Love and Its Opposite
Anytime You Need Me	Michael Franti	The Sound Of Sunshine
I Want The World To Stop *	Belle and Sebastian	Write About Love
San Antonio Baby	Raul Malo	Sinners & Saints
Hey Hey Hey	Michael Franti	The Sound Of Sunshine

(* not on myspace)

And in the shameless family promotion department, please check out my niece Rachel Austin on myspace; she has quite a lovely voice!

A Musical Interlude

NPR.org/music has some terrific musical material! They have interviews with musical acts of all stripes: rock/pop/folk; classical; jazz & blues; world; and urban. I've mostly explored the first category, which has featured:

• Moby -- All Things Considered interview *and* they stream his new album Wait for Me, in its entirety
  
• Regina Spektor -- Bob Boilen's review of her new album Far, along with a link to stream of the entire album.
  
• the 100 best folk songs, as selected by Folk Alley listeners -- all 100! streamed in random order
• An amazing concert archive, from various public radio shows across the country, including WXPN's Friday Concert series and Mountain Stage.
  

You can add these and other musical material to a playlist, and hear albums and songs of all sorts play continuously. This is a highly-recommended summer diversion!

Favorite Songs 2008

One of my usual end-of-year projects is to create a CD of my favorite songs which came out in the past year.  This year, thanks to cool technology, I was able to upload mp3s of the songs to 8tracks.com and I can share them with you all!

Here's the full song list, in order on the CD:

1. Post It 4:02 The Aluminum Group Little Happyness
   
2. Horizon 4:23 Ashby The Best of Marina Records
   
3. Birthday 3:30 The Bird And The Bee One Too Many Hearts
   
4. The Motorbike Song 4:23 Justin Jude 
   
5. Beautiful Eyes 3:54 The Aluminum Group Little Happyness
   
6. El Fusilado 2:32 Chumbawamba The Boy Bands Have Won
   
7. Far Away 3:50 The Hampdens The Last Party
   
8. Librarian 4:16 My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
   
9. Je Suis Un Parisien 3:41 Jean-paul Elysee Pourtant
   
10. Oxford Comma 3:16 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
    
11. Quotidien 2:57 Sandrine Kiberlain Putumayo Presents Acoustic France
    
12. Walcott 3:42 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
    
13. Unstoppable 3:33 Santogold Santogold
    
14. This Is The Life 3:05 Amy Macdonald This Is The Life
    
15. How Am I To Be 3:05 The Watson Twins Fire Songs
    
16. All This Beauty 3:20 The Weepies Hideaway
    
17. You Don’t Love Me Yet 3:52 Winterpills Central Chambers
    
18. Add Me 3:28 Chumbawamba The Boy Bands Have Won
    
19. Secret Blue Thread 4:23 Winterpills Central Chambers
    
20. One Fine Day 4:55 David Byrne & Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
    
21. Lovely Day 3:26 The Aluminum Group Little Happyness
    

Notes 

• Due to licensing restrictions, I could only include 2 songs by each artist.  I'd only chosen 2 Winterpills songs, so they were safe, but I had to deselect something from the Aluminum Group; you can see their Beautiful Eyes video below.
  
• I can only listen to 30-second clips from each song in my mix -- hope they sound ok to you!
• If you like any of these songs or artists, please consider buying their CD!

The Aluminum Group - Beautiful Eyes from epb21 on Vimeo.

Favorite Albums by Year

Finally, a meme I can (want to) write about! Liam, over at Panorama of the Mountains, lists his Favorite Albums by Year, starting with the soundtrack to Wattstax, back in 1973. I don't think I can go back that far (if I did, it would include things like Carly Simon's Hotcakes, Al Stewart’s Past, Present, and Future, and ELO's Out of the Blue) with my musical favorites. Instead, I'll start my list when I started making my "Favorite Songs of the Year" CD. I can't limit myself to one CD, so I'll list the best and the runner up.

• 2001: Kirsty MacCall ... Tropical Brainstorm (RIP)
  
• Runner up: Eliza Carthy ... Angels & Cigarettes
• 2002: Mark Knopfler ... Ragpicker's Dream
• Runner up: Raul Malo ... Today
• 2003: Belle & Sebastian ... Dear Catastrophe Waitress
• Runner up: Fountains of Wayne ... Welcome Interstate Managers
• 2004: Chumbawamba ... Un
• Runner up: Michael Franti & Spearhead ... Everyone Deserves Music
• 2005: Winterpills ... Winterpills
• Runner up: Dido ... Life for Rent
  
• 2006: Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins ... Rabbit Fur Coat
• Runner up: The Guggenheim Grotto ... Waltzing Alone
  
• 2007: Camera Obscura ... Let’s Get out of this Country
  
• Runner up: Steve Forbert ... Strange Names and New Sensations
  

Note that these are my favorite albums during that year, which doesn't mean that the album was released in that year. For instance, Today was released in 2001, but heard and fell in love with it in 2002.

If you're into this kind of list-making, consider yourself tagged for this blog meme.

A Little Light Music

Time for a rare musical recommendation: the Aluminum Group. They cite the Carpenters, Sergio Mendes, and Brasil 66 as musical influences, and their "lushly orchestrated pop" is simply divine. They've been around since the mid-1990s, but I only just heard them. Where HAVE I been?!

Anyway, here are some favorites:
Lovely Day will make you happy.



The song "Post It", about a lost post-it note, will make you want to rummage in your purse. Hear it and other songs from their 2008 release Little Happyness at MintyFresh, their "record" label (sound quality isn't great, but you get the idea). You can also read a review of Little Happyness at Pitchfork Media.

Oliver Sacks Now

["... Now" is a short post of cog sci topics in the news]

Oliver Sacks is plugging his new book, Musicophilia : Tales of Music and the Brain (New York : Knopf, 2007), and you can follow along:

* He had an article in the Sept. 24 issue of The New Yorker A Neurologist’s Notebook: The Abyss (subtitle: music & amnesia).

* He was briefly interviewed in the October issue of Wired, with expanded coverage online: Oliver Sacks on Earworms, Stevie Wonder and the View From Mescaline Mountain.

* And while this isn’t recent, Jaime Diskin blogs about an interview in which Oliver Sacks talks about musicophilia. Diskin says: "In January, 2006, everyone's favourite Brain doctor, Oliver Sacks spoke with the New Yorker staff writer Larissa MacFarquhar in a series hosted by the Columbia University Arts Initiative. One of the subjects he talked about was the brain's reaction to music and in particular, the strange phenomenon of musicphilia." (and check out the rest of Jaime Diskin’s blog as there is some cool multimedia / neuroscience stuff).

edited to add
* On Nov. 1, Oliver Sacks was interviewed on WHYY's Radio Times: "In his new book, Musicophilia, neurologist OLIVER SACKS examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people." Listen to the show via RealAudio or download in iTunes (usually available only for a limited time)

A New Kind of Concept Map?

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Using Math to Predict Musical Hits. Turns out that before Mike McCready was on ScienceFriday, he was interviewed by Malcolm Gladwell at the 2007 New Yorker Conference.

He was a bit more technical with Gladwell than he was on ScienceFriday, and if you watch the video, you can see his PowerPoint slides showing how hit songs cluster together.

The most interesting part was when McCready demonstrated the ability of his software to recommend music based on stuff you already like. He took a few of Gladwell's favorite songs (which was accompanied by a charming warning that it's socially nerve-wracking to announce one's favorite songs to strangers).

Gladwell first offered Billy Bragg's "A New England." McCready plugged in both social & musical variables and came up with recommendations such as Pete Seeger, the Clash, Woody Guthrie, Morrissey, and Phranc. "Nothing potentially embarrassing in that list," Gladwell commented.

McCready was careful not to indicate whether or not "A New England" would be a commercial hit; instead, in this instance, "A New England" is at the center of its own cluster and other songs are swirling around it. McCready's software is using both social context and musical composition to generate these recommendations.

It's an interesting idea, and it's fascinating to see it in play in this interview.

Using Math to Predict Musical Hits

Last week's Science Friday asks Can a song's success be predicted?

Ira Flatow speaks with Mike McCready, co-founder and CEO of Platinum Blue; "McCready says he and his colleagues have come up with an algorithm that will predict whether a song will be a hit." I was very skeptical when I heard the topic of the show, but I was also intrigued.

McCready starts by explaining how record labels decide whether or not they'll release a song as a single: "The first criteria is: does the song sound and feel like a hit? They have A and R professionals - artist and repertoire professionals - people with golden ears who - at the labels who listen to music and decide that.

"The second criteria they use is, are we able to promote the song effectively? That ... covers does the artist have an appropriate appeal to the - audience or the target demographic that they're looking for? ... [Does] the song have somewhere to fit in? Is it written within the zeitgeist of the culture?"

McCready is trying to position his services as a third step -- not to replace the first two steps of human intervention on whether or not a song has the potential to be a hit, but to help them improve the odds. Currently, of every 10 songs they promote, only 1 will be a hit, leaving 9 songs (and $1 million worth of promotion each) in the dust. This is the cool part:

"... [W]e have a computer program that can analyze a fully produced CD and isolate things like melody, harmony, beat, tempo, rhythm, octave, pitch, chord progression, fullness of sound, cadence, sonic variances - about 30 to 35 of these variables that we look at, and we look at how they fit together in the different kinds of patterns that they make up as they come together." McCready claims the company's success rate is 80-100%, including the terrific Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy."

One reason McCready's software isn't more widely used is that, according to McCready, "... [T]he music industry, in a race to adopt new technology, finishes just ahead of the Amish" -- although he adds that there are many music executives who do appreciate his technology.

McCready is also thinking about new markets for his technology, including offering a reduced version of it to musicians to help them create something "sellable", and also "... a music recommendation system in partnership with other technology companies where someone, you know, can go to a retailer and say, '... I like these two songs; what else am I going to like?' "


Notes
* Science Friday show, May 25, 2007, Hour Two; mp3 of Ira's interview
* Transcript available on LexisNexis: "The Math Behind Hit Music," National Public Radio Show: Talk of the Nation: Science Friday 3:00 PM EST , May 25, 2007.
* McCready's software is at Music Xray (tm), and his song-seeker software is described at Platinum Song Seeker™.

Save Internet Radio

Lots of chatter on the online radio waves about dramatically increased royalty rates for webcasters, due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!)

Of course, this would mean certain closure for many Internet radio web sites. The good news is that "the Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House (H.R. 2060) and Senate (S. 1353) to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your senators and your representative to ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act..." (from Savenetradio)

Below is a letter that the founder of Pandora sent out recently:

Hi, it's Tim again,

I wanted to thank you again for your extraordinary support in the fight to save Internet radio and Pandora. Thanks to the overwhelming number of calls you made, letters you faxed, and emails you sent, the Internet Radio Equality Act is fast gaining momentum in the House of Representatives (74 sponsors and growing). It's nothing short of remarkable for this to happen in such a brief period of time - almost unprecedented.

On Friday, May 11th, a Senate version of the bill was introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) (pdf version). This is a promising development, but we need your help again. I know we're asking a lot, but the stakes couldn't be higher and the fight is not over.

Please call the offices of your Senators and ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, S. 1353. ...

Visit Savenetradio to keep up on our fight to save Internet radio. There are some powerful testimonials there from musicians who have found their audience through Internet radio.

We are deeply moved by your support. Thank you.
-Tim Westergren, (Pandora founder)

Note that these price hikes will also affect public radio broadcasting over the Internet; see what Jon Gordon from APM's Future Tense says on his Wavelength blog post NPR goes public in fight to save Internet broadcasting.


********** What can I do?? you ask ...
Send an email to your congresspeople; the folks at NPR have made this incredibly easy at Tell Them Public Matters. Enter your name & full address and they'll send a supportive email to YOUR two senators & one representative. Couldn't be easier -- unless you want to add a personal note about the public radio stations you listen to online.

Radio for ME

Have you seen slacker.com? It's another online music radio source (like Pandora or last.fm) -- but it's more in the radio mode than the other two.

The home page shows various types of radio stations / genres, broken out by TOP Stations, ALL stations, and Custom stations. The default is TOP stations, which includes the usual stuff you hear on the radio: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and any combination of those, plus Adult Alternative (playing Elvis Costello from My Aim is True right now, and including Aimee Mann, Bob Marley, and more), Country, Oldies, etc.

For me, the ALL stations link is more interesting. I like the Folk / Folk tab, which includes Lucinda Williams, America, Bob Dylan, and Ben Harper. Some nice Joan Baez is playing now; seems that Love is Just a Four-Letter Word. Sadly, "International" seems to mean UK -- I'd like to see some French, Indian, Caribbean, and African. Maybe that's coming.

Looks like Slacker can also send music to your portable player, and the Times article says a version is coming for your car. Right now it's free (maybe with ads?) and you can get an ad-free version for $$.

One thing I really like about this? The web page title shows the name of the song, artist, & album so you can quickly tell what the song is & who's singing it. It also tells you what's coming next. You can add & delete artists from "your" radio station.

Found from this New York Times article: Technology: Now, a Radio Station for (Your Name Here)
By J. D. BIERSDORFER, March 15, 2007.
"Aimed at the music lover who does not want to fritter away hours creating playlists, Slacker offers millions of songs grouped into radio stations by genre or artist."

Warning: this looks like it could eat up a lot of time ... but provide much musical entertainment along the way.

np: Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk, by Rufus Wainwright from Poses.

MyMusic on myspace

Ok, I'll out myself on myspace. Want to be my friend? Ha!

Anyway, I've decided to use my myspace to list the musical groups I like, plus a few librarians / libraries. :-)

So if you want to know what I'm listening to, head on over to http://myspace.com/cogscilibrarian and look at my "friends". You'll see some of my favorite groups, and if you click on one, you'll get to hear some of that band's songs.

Current favorites include Camera Obscura and The Bird and the Bee. Both are delightful, quirky, female vocalist, indie pop bands. You will hear "Again & Again" from The Bird and the Bee if you go to myspace.

Other myspace favorites include Jim Noir and my niece Rachel Austin.

Enjoy!

DRM & Music

Some great interviews about music, DRM (Digital Rights Management), and eMusic on FutureTense radio, from American Public Media.

eMusic CEO says music industry should begin killing off digital copy protection schemes, January 17, 2007
Description from the Future Tense web site: "eMusic, the number two digital download service behind Apple's iTunes, recently sold its 100 millionth song.
"eMusic sells songs from smaller labels and independent artists, and unlike iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody, the songs are MP3 files with no copy restrictions. You can play them anywhere and make as many copies as you like.
"eMusic President and CEO David Pakman says the lack of "digital rights management" is a big reason for eMusic's success." (there's also a longer mp3 interview with Mr. Pakman at the web site, which is worth a listen if you like eMusic or iTunes, or care about DRM issues ...)

and

Is digital music copy protection on the way out?, January 19, 2007
Description from the Future Tense web site: "Ever since major record labels started selling downloadable music, they've built restrictions into the songs. This is called, perhaps euphemistically, digital rights management, or DRM. These restrictions prevent customers from making backup copies or playing them on different devices. A song from Apple's iTunes, for example, won't play on any portable device but an Apple iPod.
"Digital music journalist and blogger Eliot Van Buskirk sees signs record labels are beginning to see the downside of customer-unfriendly DRM, and may soon begin selling more music in the unprotected MP3 format.
"Van Buskirk, who writes for Wired News, says Amazon.com's expected entry into MP3 music is one sign of the changes to come."

and

Neighborhood record store invades iTunes' turf, January 23, 2007
Description from the Future Tense web site: "When a record store called Other Music hit the scene 11 years ago in New York's East Village, it chose as its location a little spot across the street from then-powerhouse Tower Records. The Tower chain of stores is gone, a victim of the downturn in the music industry. Now, Other Music plans to open a digital music store where it will sell songs in the MP3 format, without copy restrictions.
"Other Music co-owner Josh Madell says iTunes dominates the digital music space, but there's room for other players.
"Other Music's digital songs will sell for 10 to 15 percent more than iTunes, according to Madell." See the OtherMusic web site for info. about their digital download program...

More from Daniel Levitin

Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist at McGill University and professional musician, has been in the (science) news a lot lately. He just published This is your brain on music : the science of a human obsession, the New York Times wrote about him a few weeks ago (cogsci blogged; abridged article at the Toronto Star), a colleague just commented about his book on this blog ...

... and I've just heard him on two different podcasts.

WNYC's Soundcheck interviewed him on Dec. 27, 2006 in a show called Music on the Brain, and the News Hour reported on him on Feb. 5, 2007 in Music Illuminates Brain Function. Since we're talking about musical cognition, it's nice to hear these shows, as you can better understand what Levitin is talking about.

Both podcasts and the New York Times article talk about Levitin's ongoing research into our emotional responses to music. Quoting from the Times: "In April (2006) he took participants in a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert -- the conductor Keith Lockhart, five of the musicians and 15 audience members -- and wired them with sensors to measure their state of arousal, including heart rate, body movements and muscle tension." Levitin argues that we have a "music instinct", that "... music is an evolutionary adaptation: something that men developed as a way to demonstrate reproductive fitness. ... 'Music has got to be useful for survival, or we would have gotten rid of it years ago,' he said" (in the Times). Steven Pinker disagrees.

Either way, this is interesting research. Hear about it or read about it, but if you like music and / or the brain, pay attention.

World Music

Last week, Future Tense had an episode about National Geographic's World Music site.

From the Future Tense web site: "National Geographic is known for bringing the world alive through its magazine and television documentaries. Now it's aiming to educate the world about diverse cultures through music. National Geographic World Music is a music store, and includes videos, photos, maps and features from National Geographic Magazine."

Songs are 99c each, and you can listen to them in a nice streaming audio format. I liked a woman named Souad Massi, whom they say "writes some of the most gorgeous Algerian pop to be found on either side of the Mediterranean." You can hear 1 minute snippets of each song from her album Mesk Eli, so you get a real flavor of the CD.
Incidentally, eMusic has the album, translated to Honeysuckle .

Nice way to hear new music!

Off-topic: new favorite band

Heard these guys a few times on XM's fabulous music channel the Loft (which, frankly, is why I'm listening to fewer podcasts ...), and I want to promote them my own self 'cause they're so great:

The Guggenheim Grotto are *terrific*. You can hear / download a few songs from their web site, and their CD "Waltzing Alone" is on iTunes & eMusic. You can't buy their CD in stores, yet, as they only just signed with a record label.

If you like Winterpills and/or Kings of Convience, you'll like these guys too.

Near to my heart ... but not technically cog sci or librarian

... is Entertainment Weekly's list of the 25 Best Music Websites. The CogSci Librarian likes music quite a bit, and this list includes some old favorites and possibly some new ones.

To wit:

iTunes Music Store quoting EW "well, duh."
EMusic $9.99 a month for 40 iPoddable downloads from independent bands such as Hem, Apollo Nove, and Josh Rouse. 2006 Emusic favorite is Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins.
Pandora (blogged here earlier as the Music Genome Project)

and

Radio David Byrne
Smithsonian Global Sound
BBC Radio

Happy long weekend (in the US)!