Whew… I failed in keeping you, my good readers, updated on what I’ve purchased on emusic lately. Two and a half months. Well, lucky for you (or maybe not), I have kept up with everything I’ve downloaded since then. So, here’s the list in all it’s glory (and ordered by date downloaded (earliest to most recent)):

single,Don McLean-American Pie (from Rearview Mirror)

My Teenage Stride-Lesser Demons

The Frames-For the Birds

The Weepies-Hideaway

Colour Revolt-Plunder, Beg, and Curse
Since there are so many I’m not commenting on most of these downloads, but I have to note this one. Avoid it. One song was a free download, and I liked it okay and downloaded the whole album. I haven’t been able to listen through the whole thing yet.

My Brightest Diamond-Inside a Boy EP

My Brightest Diamond-Bring Me the Workhorse

Ben Sollee-If You’re Gonna Lead My Country EP

Caleb Carruth-Darkness Falls

Abigail Washburn-Songs of the Traveling Daughter

A couple singles from P.M. Dawn’s greatest hits… Looking through Patiest Eyes and I’d Die Without You.

A few Joan Jett singles… I Love Rock N’ Roll and Louie, Louie from the I Love Rock N’ Roll album, and Bad Reputation from the album of the same title.
I got these songs for sentimental reasons, and I’m shocked at the content. I was listening to these songs as a kid… and I don’t know if its good or bad that I had no idea what they were about.

Mike Garrigan-The Promise of Summer

Josh Rouse-Country Mouse, City House

The Weepies-Happiness

single, Derek Webb-I Believe from Life Is Precious: A Wes King Tribute

The Billions-Never Felt This Way Before

My Greatest Diamond-A Thousand Shark’s Teeth

Steve Tannen-Stopped at a Green Light

Deb Talon-A Bird Flies Out

single, Liz Phair-Never Said from Exile in Guyville

single, Gillian Welch-Black Star (a Radiohead cover)

Laura Cantrell-Trains and Boats and Planes EP

Steve Tannen-Big Senorita

Dinosaur Jr-Beyond

Check out my ever-growing list of recommendations on emusic, and sign up for 50 free downloads.

Boy, I’ve even gotten behind on my emusic downloads, haven’t I? I can’t even remember exactly what I’ve gotten. But I do know that I have a bonus pack that is nearing it’s end that I need to use (and have been using), and just got another 50 from someone signing up through my referral (Thanks!), and those need to be used by July 12th, I think it was. So there will be no shortage of new music in the coming months.

Here’s what I remember downloading recently…

Stars-Set Yourself On Fire
It’s okay, but I like it less than their more recent release, In Our Bedroom After the War.

Some Rolling Stones singles, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. I’m not a fan of the Stones, but these are songs that I’m familiar with and figure it’d be good to buy ‘em.

Emily Jane White-Dark Undercoat
I got a free song from this album through iTunes, and liked it enough to get the album.

Andrew Bird-Soldier On
I really liked his last album, Armchair Apocrypha, so I knew I’d get this EP at some point. And I did.

Matt Wertz-Somedays
I used to talk with Matt on AIM waaay back in the day, when he was just starting to write his own songs. I always liked several songs that ended up on this record, and never got around to buying it. Emusic made it easy.

Colin Meloy-Colin Meloy Sings Live!
This is the lead singer from The Decemberists, which I also really like. He did a tour a few years ago all by his lonesome, and these songs were recorded then. One of them was on Paste Magazine’s latest sampler. I probably would have got it anyhow, but hearing that song whet my ears.

I also got a choir singing GK Chesterton’s hymn, O God of Earth and Altar. The quality is horrible, but the song is so good I couldn’t resist having a recording of it (for 25 cents).

Sign up for a free emusic trial (50 downloads!)

Jason Collett-Here’s To Being Here
I got a free song from this album on amazon, and liked it enough to get the whole thing. So I didn’t get all the tracks from emusic… why buy a song I already own? But emusic has an exclusive bonus track, so it’s still 12 songs from emusic.

download count: 30

Downloads refreshed, and I’m using them up.

Andrew Osenga - The Morning
I know, I know… I should have had this long ago. For those not familiar, Andrew Osenga is currenlty a member of the band Caedmon’s Call, and was once in the band The Normals. Good stuff.

I also got a few singles from Mr. Osenga. The two bonus tracks on the remastered version of Photographs, The High School Band (acoustic version) and New Mexico (late-night piano version), and also the regular version of High School Band from that album. I already own the original version of the album, but I wanted to see if I could hear the difference on the remaster.
Then, I also got a single from Matthew Perryman Jones called Save You.

Download Count: 18

Matthew Perryman Jones - Throwing Punches in the Dark
MPJ’s music has been on my list to get for some time now, but never high enough priority to buy a cd. Which put him sort of in limbo. I discovered today that he’s on emusic, and so, hey, nothing’s stopping me now. And, this album is ten tracks, which just happens to be my remaining download count. So yay! And downloads refresh on Thursday, and I’ve already got a couple albums pegged to download.

Download Count: 40-that’s a wrap!

Sign up for a free emusic trial (50 downloads!)

Boys Noise: My Moon My Man
Just a single again, this time a remix of a Feist song. I’ve never heard of the band remixing it, and the remix is pretty crazy. For $.25 I thought I’d give it a shot, since Feist has become one of my favorite artists since my introduction to her several years ago. Such that I spent real money for me and Megan to go see her in Charlottesville next month.

Download Count: 30

The Frames-Fitzcarraldo
I’d never heard of this band until I saw Once (what a great movie, btw). I got The Swell Season right after seeing it, but wanted some more and so I started at the beginning.

Download count: 29

I got a few singles today…

All That She Wants and The Sign by Ace of Base. These are from a compilation album called Singles of the 90’s.

Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. It’s from a live album called Let the Movie Begin, so it’s not as clean as the album version - mostly in the vocals. But emusic doesn’t have the album, and it’s still a pretty good recording.

Zombie by The Cranberries. From a compilation of Irish bands called Emerald Rock. Pretty cheesy compilation title.

Download count: 18

Here’s the start of my listing my emusic downloads, complete with a new category. Sign up for a free trial (50 downloads!)

Stars-In Our Bedroom After the War
I’d heard about this when it first released in September, but it wasn’t until now that I downloaded it. I like the mix of male and female vocals, with the touch of electronic in the music. It has a sort of updated 80s vibe here and there. The female voice sounds a bit like Leigh Nash.

Leif Garrett-The Final Countdown (single)
I have no idea who Leif Garrett is, or why he has as single of Europe’s hit song. But there you go… I was reminded of the song by a friend, and images of GOB Bluth in my head made it impossible to not download it.

Download count: 14

I’ve been a subscribe to emusic for several years now, and I really enjoy it. I pay ten bucks a month and get 40 downloads. They’ve cut that down to 30 a month now, but I’m grandfathered in with the old subscription. Even at 30, though, it’s still far less than the other download services. There’s no DRM (never had it, never will!), and the files are all high quality mp3s. The only perceived downside is that there are no major labels signed with emusic. I don’t mind, since I only buy one or two cds a year from major record labels. Indie is the way I roll.

To keep some content on the blog going, I’ve decided I will post the 40 tracks that I download each month. I usually get entire albums, cut occasionally get singles, or get partial albums with remaining downloads. My downloads refresh this month on the 12th. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll wait until they’re all gone before I post the list, or just post as I make decisions throughout the month.

If you’re interested in giving emusic a try, here’s a referral for 50 free songs.

Below is a growing list of albums that I enjoy that are available on emusic. Most of them I’ve downloaded, but some of them I bought on cd long ago, others are artists that I consider CD worthy. But they’re all great music.

The Weepies-Say I Am You
Arcade Fire-Funeral
Arcade Fire-Neon Bible
Andrew Bird-Armchair Apocrypha
The Khrusty Brothers-The Khrusty Brothers
Don Chaffer-What You Don’t Know
Waterdeep-Heart Attack Time Machine
Waterdeep-To Chase Away the Birds
Waterdeep-Live at the New Earth
Moonbabies-Moonbabies at the Ballroom
St. Vincent-Marry me
The New Pornographers-Twin Cinema
The New Pornographers-Challengers
My Teenage Stride-Ears Like Golden Bats
Glen Phillips-Mr. Lemons
Sufjan Stevens-Illinois
Sufjan Stevens-Seven Swans
Sufjan Stevens-Greetings from Michigan
Sufjan Stevens-The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens-Christmas Songs (though, you should buy the cds on this one, because it’s a much better deal)
Rosie Thomas-These Friends of Mine
The Decemberists-Picaresque
The Decemberists-Her Majesty the Decemberists
Love Spit LoveLove Spit Love
Pedro the Lion-Achilles’ Heal
Pedro the Lion-It’s Hard to Find a Friend
Pedro the Lion-Control
Josh Ritter-The Animal Years
Mason Jennings-Birds Flying Away
Jars of Clay-Christmas Songs
Sandra McCracken-Gravity | Love
The Innocence Mission-Befriended
Vince Guaraldi-A Charlie Brown Christmas (w/ bonus tracks)
Steven Delopoulos-Straightjacket
Better Than Ezra-Before the Robots
Cat Power-The Greatest
Danielson-Ships
Devendra Banhart-Rejoicing in the Hands
Gillian Welch-Time (The Revelator)
Vigilantes of Love-Audible Sigh
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova-The Swell Season (this is the album made for the great movie, Once)
The Violet Burning-The Violet Burning
Deadman-Our Eternal Ghosts
Halfhanded Cloud-Thy is a Word and Feet Need Lamps
Pavement-Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Spoon-Gimme Fiction
Loreena McKennitt-The Mask and the Mirror
M. Ward-The Transfiguration of Vincent
M. Ward-Post-War
Eric Peters-More Than Watchmen
Eric Peters-Land of the Living
Eric Peters-Miracle of Forgetting
Eric Peters-Bookmark
Eric Peters-Scarce
Beirut-Gulag Orkestar
Beirut-Lon Gisland EP
Beirut-The Flying Club Cup
Belle and Sebastian-The Life Pursuit
Belle and Sebastian-If You’re Feeling Sinister
Belle and Sebastian-Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Ridgely-The Only Thing
Dog Named David-World Traveler
Enter the Worship Circle-Enter the Worship Circle (they call it ‘First Circle’ now, but that’s only because they went on to make more… that didn’t live up to this first offering)
Mark Williams-Becoming the Moon

Moby-Play
Pierce Pettis-Making Light of It
Pierce Pettis-Everything Matters
Pierce Pettis-State of Grace
Pierce Pettis-Great Big World

Five O’Clock People-The Nothing Venture