A good friend of mine told me yesterday that I should post a negative review or two on the site, to show that I’m not a record label lackey. He has a good point, because I don’t want to give the impression of lackeydom.
So, I want to take a few minutes to explain why we don’t post negative reviews (or at least, not very many).
Leah and I run this site because we love the arts. Music, books, movies, plays, essays – you name the genre, we enjoy it (except for opera and Turkish rap). And we want to draw attention to the artists we enjoy and not criticize the ones we don’t. If an established artist puts out a sub-par release, we may say something, but we mostly write about independent artists trying to get on their feet, and we’re not going to knock an up-and-comer. If I get a CD in the mail that I don’t like, I just file it away and move on to something else.
In short, we’re fans and collectors (well, I’m the collector) who like to pass along information about the artists we enjoy. We’re not Lester Bangs wannabes out to shock and awe, and we’re not too-cool-for-school music snobs that lambaste everything in sight. There are plenty of sites that nitpick musicians and authors, so we’ll let them do their thing, and we’ll keep doing ours.
That said, I’ve posted a couple of new, interesting tracks below that I hope you’ll enjoy. If not, that’s okay too.
Downloads:
Early Day Miners | Return of the Native [MP3]
Ani Difranco | 78% H2O [MP3]
Non Sequitur: I picked up the new Camera Obscura album today on vinyl, and I got an unexpected treat. With the purchase of the vinyl edition, you get a serial number that allows you to download the entire album. I have to give a thumbs-up to Merge Records on this one; I think it's a great idea - I can listen to the awesome sound of vinyl and pop the download on my iPod too.
So, I want to take a few minutes to explain why we don’t post negative reviews (or at least, not very many).
Leah and I run this site because we love the arts. Music, books, movies, plays, essays – you name the genre, we enjoy it (except for opera and Turkish rap). And we want to draw attention to the artists we enjoy and not criticize the ones we don’t. If an established artist puts out a sub-par release, we may say something, but we mostly write about independent artists trying to get on their feet, and we’re not going to knock an up-and-comer. If I get a CD in the mail that I don’t like, I just file it away and move on to something else.
In short, we’re fans and collectors (well, I’m the collector) who like to pass along information about the artists we enjoy. We’re not Lester Bangs wannabes out to shock and awe, and we’re not too-cool-for-school music snobs that lambaste everything in sight. There are plenty of sites that nitpick musicians and authors, so we’ll let them do their thing, and we’ll keep doing ours.
That said, I’ve posted a couple of new, interesting tracks below that I hope you’ll enjoy. If not, that’s okay too.
Downloads:
Early Day Miners | Return of the Native [MP3]
Ani Difranco | 78% H2O [MP3]
Non Sequitur: I picked up the new Camera Obscura album today on vinyl, and I got an unexpected treat. With the purchase of the vinyl edition, you get a serial number that allows you to download the entire album. I have to give a thumbs-up to Merge Records on this one; I think it's a great idea - I can listen to the awesome sound of vinyl and pop the download on my iPod too.
