Have you heard of Lala.com? It’s sort of a one-stop online music shopping/listening site. You can buy legal MP3s and the like. You can make playlists. I believe you can load your home MP3 library virtually, so you can listen to it on another computer without having to actually transfer all those gigabytes from one machine to another. Most enticingly for me, you can stream entire albums completely free, one time. It’s a great way to sample an album you’re thinking of buying. You can avoid a lot of unnecessary purchases this way.
Unfortunately, Apple bought Lala, and they’re shutting it down. The site will cease to be on May 31, 2010. So I’ve been streaming a lot of music on there while I can, trying to plug in some of the gaps in my rock knowledge and just generally having some fun. Some of the things I’ve played:
- X‘s See How We Are and The Dream Syndicate‘s Medicine Show. These albums made me sad, and made me think about Bruce Springsteen‘s pernicious influence on rock ‘n’ roll over the years.
- The Mekons‘ Heaven and Hell. Good-to-great stuff.
- Unrest’s Imperial f.f.r.r.. I actually went out and bought this after playing it.
- That Fall best-of from a few years ago. OK, I get it. This is the kind of thing I can get into, when I’m in the mood. But I don’t see myself buying much Fall right now. I gotta be fiscally responsible these days.
- I think I also listened to some Embarassment and didn’t like it as much as I thought it would.
Also, earlier in the year, I was listening to as much ’80s Neil Young as I could find on the site: Re-ac-tor, Everybody’s Rockin’, Life, This Note’s For You, etc. I want to pick up this project at some point this month and listen to a few more “weird Neil” albums, like the all-feedback Arc and that one about his electric car.
So suggest other albums/artists I should listen to on this site, Townsfolks. If it’s any help, lately my tastes have veered towards dirty, noisy, smart indie rock with guitars. Have at it.
Wow, I can’t even sign up as a new user to pick over the dying site! I was hoping to get a glance at what they offer. Some older stuff I’d suggest checking out, based on what you’ve been listening to:
Bruce Springsteen, NebraskaBruce Springsteen, Lucky Town…
That ’80s Chicago band sammymaudlin digs, Eleventh Dream Day
The Celibate Rifles (I’ve been meaning to revisit these guys)
The Move’s Looking On
Come on, Townspeeps, help a brother with an expiring subscription service!
Bummer. I just “discovered” Lala recently. Not sure I have any recommendations, since my tastes have veered away from “dirty, noisy, smart indie rock with guitars.” It probably won’t help to suggest hearing as much Hank Mobley as they have but I will suggest it anyway.
Apple screws up something else that was good? I honestly don’t understand why people like that company.
I doubt there’s many bands I listen to that you haven’t heard of, but I like the new Deadstring Brothers album, and I think Radio Moscow has some nice, wailing guitars. Have you checked out Trainwreck Riders? I think they’re cool. Kind of twangy, but man, they’re one of those bands I never can seem to get enough of. Archie Bronson Outfit is cool, too. At least Derdang Derdang was. I haven’t heard the new one yet.
All the kids seem to think Avi Buffalo is super awesome, but the one song I heard underwhelmed me.
Belated thanks for the recommendations, guys! I’ll be checking these bands out.
Mr. Mod, Eleventh Dream Day are exactly the kind of thing I’m into now. I checked them out yesterday and now they are happily rocking out on my iPod. A perfect suggestion. Thanks so much. I’m so happy I know this band exists now. I don’t care what E. Pluribus says, you are a-ok in my book.