{"id":2423,"date":"2009-11-12T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-12T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-11-13T17:08:42","modified_gmt":"2009-11-13T17:08:42","slug":"postscript-41-bonus-downloads-and-nothin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/postscript-41-bonus-downloads-and-nothin\/","title":{"rendered":"Postscript: 41 Bonus Downloads and Nothing to Spend Them On"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You may recall my unexpected gift of 50 bonus downloads from eMusic a couple of weeks ago<\/a>. I was 9 selections into my bonus downloads when I realized that I couldn’t figure out what to download next. <\/p>\n

I’m constantly unimpressed with the indie rock selections eMusic suggests that I try, like all those bands with album covers featuring a folk-art painting of a sparrow perched on a branch. Man, that thumb-sucking, hushed-tones crap really needs to be banished to the same eternal $1 bins alongside discarded copies of Asylum Choir II<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks for your suggestions. A couple of Townsmen suggested I add to my scant Sun Ra<\/strong> collection. Geo<\/strong>, I believe, recommended “Disco 3000,” a long, swirling track that he thought would satisfy my late-blooming enjoyment of Krautrock. I downloaded it, and it’s pretty good, but it started to lose me when it got into a ’60s jazz trick that really turns me off: the “A Love Supreme”-style jazz chant! Some of the more concise tracks suggested by Geo and BigSteve<\/strong>, however, are very cool. Here’s a cool Sun Ra track from Jazz In Silhouette<\/em>. It reminds me of the fully arranged yet loose qualities I like in the music of Charles Mingus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sun Ra, “Enlightenment”<\/a><\/p>\n

More goodies…after the jump!<\/em>
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Speaking of Krautrock, I didn’t think there was much more of that Cluster<\/strong>-related stuff for me to download, but there was! Thanks to their work with Brian Eno<\/strong>, Cluster is the only German band I’ve liked a lot since my college days, but I’d never heard of another album Eno did with a related supergroup called Harmonia<\/strong>. Rather than post this suggestion in response to the initial request for recommendations, a Townsman actually called me to testify on the album’s behalf. There’s some sketchy history to this album – it may not have been released until years after it was recorded, or something like that, but most of Tracks and Traces<\/em> is in a mellow vein. As a big fan of Cluster & Eno’s “Broken Head” I naturally gravitated toward this grating number.<\/p>\n

Harmonia & Eno, “Vamos Companeros”<\/a><\/p>\n

It was also recommended that I download the one old Monochrome Set album available through eMusic, Eligible Bachelors<\/em>. This may or may not be the album that an old friend and coworker played me during a highly memorable (and memorably high) lunch break a lifetime ago. The sensory impressions I have of that lunchtime break are much stronger than any specific memories of actual tunes. This stuff is still interesting to me, although the delivery of the singer is a little too “British,” in an early ’80s way, for me to fully embrace. The guitars are cool, though, and it gets me wondering whatever happened to the Jazz Butcher<\/strong> album I used to own.<\/p>\n

The Monochrome Set, “I’ll Scry Instead”<\/a> <\/p>\n

Anyhow, that’s just a smattering of what you recommended, AND I THANK YOU. I’ve still got about a dozen bonus downloads left, if you still want to recommend anything. Meanwhile here are a couple other songs that I mentioned having downloaded and that are wearing well on my iPod<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Generationals, “Nobody Could Change Your Mind”<\/a><\/p>\n

Seth Kauffman, “Now’s Not the Time”<\/a><\/p>\n

Laura Nyro & LaBelle, “Jimmy Mack”<\/a><\/p>\n

This version of “Jimmy Mack” has especially lingered with me. As much as I believe in a firm surrendering to the rhythm, the goosestepping collective rhythm of the hit Martha Reeves & the Vandellas<\/strong> version is too much for even this storm trooping Motown afficionado. Nyro and LaBelle let the song breathe in their arrangement, and for me the song is much sexier as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may recall my unexpected gift of 50 bonus downloads from eMusic a couple of weeks ago. I was 9 selections into my bonus downloads when I realized that I couldn’t figure out what to download next. I’m constantly unimpressed with the indie rock selections eMusic suggests that I try, like all those bands with […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}