A couple posts ago I alluded to my obsession with garnering new music, as long as I didn't have to pay for it. This involved burning CDs from a variety of sources -- the computer here at LT, where I burned about 30 CDs from the 4,000 or so songs that were left behind on the iTunes Library from the previous proofreader whose workspace I inherited; my friend John's laptop, also home to some 4,000 songs; as well as my friend Holly, who also has around, you guessed it, 4,000 songs. What is it with that number that lends itself so readily to a computer's total song accumulation? My other avenue for new music has been your good-old-fashioned New York Public Library, where for a mere library card you can "rent" up to 30 CDs at a time and keep them for a week in the Queens system and up to three weeks in Manhattan.
Before I got a functioning computer at my home base last week, I would take out six or eight CDs from the library, burn them onto the hard drive here at work, and then fit the best songs from those albums onto recordable 80-minute blank discs. In this way I was able to exponentially expand my record collection, and you would be surprised at the choices that a good library had to offer, especially the Donnell Media Center library on 53rd street. I'll just list some of the groups/albums I was able to find: a 2-volume Iggy Pop anthology, two early Band albums, the Feelies first album, the first three Cramps albums, both Television albums from the late '70s, the Clash's London Calling and Give 'Em Enough Rope, a Pere Ubu collection, the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, the first Arctic Monkeys joint, two Joy Division records, including the first album, Unknown Pleasures, and the 17-track Substance compilation, whose fucking brilliance just cannot be overrated or overstated, the deluxe 2-CD bonus-track-laden edition of the Cure's first album Three Imaginary Boys, Alice Cooper's greatest hits, Devo's Freedom of Choice, the Buzzcocks' 1976 Time's Up album, with Howard DeVoto on lead vocals, both fucking New York Dolls albums, a new Neko Case record, and then stuff by Pavement, the Silver Jews, New Pornographers, the Kinks, Sex Pistols, Bottle Rockets, Los Lobos, Lords of the New Church, Mission of Burma ... and on and on. All this for the price of a 50-pack of blank discs, which should run you 10 bucks tops these days or you're shopping at the wrong place my friends, you'd better leave...
Well, cut off my legs and call me shorty, because I just found a new way to add new music absolutely gratis and legal: going on bands' official Websites and downloading MP3 clips of entire songs. Now, it's tricky, because almost every band will let you sample a 30-second or so clip of one of their tunes, but only about one in four or five seems to have whole tracks for the taking. Some bands are so insecure/greedy that they're unlikely to give their fans anything for free, whereas others seem okay with giving stuff away.
I just stumbled upon this. Almost every major band, even those that don't exist anymore, have official Websites usually run by their record label. For instance, one of my favorite bands, the Old 97's-- perhaps the last great major alt-country band left standing after the demise of the Jayhawks, the Bottle Rockets not the same, Uncle Tupelo long gone, Son Volt disbanded and then regrouped with a different cast surrounding Jay Farrar, Wilco mutating into whatever it is they do these days, but it damn sure is a long way from the heart-on-a-sleeve directness of A.M. and Being There -- for better or worse. Anywho, you want to find a favorite band's Website and then look for a link to something like Downloads, Audio, Rare Music or Discography. On the Old 97's Website you're able to download two songs each from almost every album, including Too Far To Care, Satellite Rides, Fight Songs. Rancid has the same deal: two full mp3 tracks per album; here's the song Junkie Man, which features Jim Carroll of People Who Died and Basketball Diaries fame. Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) has a terrific Rare Music & Video Archive section that includes eight full songs from their 1968 Peel Sessions, as well as clips (video & audio) from their 1980 Saturday Night Live appearance. Rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon also has a nice Rare Audio page with a ton of good live stuff, including concerts from CBGBs (1976 with the Tuff Darts), Max's Kansas City (1977), the Lone Star Cafe (1985), as well as live versions of Fire and Heartbreak Hotel recorded with some guy named Bruce Springsteen at New Jersey's Paramount Theater in 1979. (Too bad there's nothing from the blistering show I attended in 1979 at My Father's Place featuring Chris Spedding on lead guitar, but there is some other Spedding material featured.) Pavement also offers some good live and unreleased tracks on their Website, as does Luna.
My favorite new band at the moment is International Noise Conspiracy. Now, as you might expect from a band whose music is infused with heartfelt left-wing politics and sincere denunciations of this horribly exploitative greed-driven economic system, designed to appeal to mankind's basest instincts, they currently provide mp3's for seven songs, most of which I hadn't heard. Compare this "laissez-faire" approach to the one taken by greedy has-beens like Metallica. I downloaded Capitalism Stole My Virginity, Up For Sale, Only Lovers Left Alive, etc., burned them onto a bleedin' disc and now they reside quite comfortably on me bleedin' iPod...
I'm not gonna provide each & every link here for you. As if. But I will tell you about some other bands whose Websites offer substantial mp3 downloads for the taking include Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks, Bad Religion and John Cooper Clarke. Steve Earle's audio page is particularly generous: you can download almost half the superb Transcendental Blues album, which to me is by far his best overall album, as well as rare tracks, Webcasts, concerts. Remember to right click your mouse on the file and use Save Link As; then wait for it to finish downloading and it's yours.
Now, I'm not saying that this is like Napster in its prime, but at least for me, it appears the days of paying 14 or 15 bucks for a new CD are all but over. Pass it on...
