check out some good music

so despite the fact that I review hundreds of CDs every couple of weeks I rarely post on here about music in general...I found a nice blog that lists some good mp3's that you can download...very nice indie pop-rock stuff mostly...shmat records reviews and releases a lot of really great indie music...this blog reviews mostly pop stuff and much of it is bland and boring but still worthy of a quick mention at least more than one that was for sale...certainly as much as a crazy cop stopping a pick-up...he obviously wasn't wearing his foil attire...so what other music is good you ask?

well if you're looking for some great sludgy swampy doom metal, than look no farther than Parabellum...

but what about good old fashioned power violence or something similar? then check out So I Had to Shoot Him off of one of my favorite metal labels, Crucial Blast Records...

speaking of good metal labels, one needs to mention Southern Lord (Earth, Sunn 0))), Thrones, Saint Vitus, Goatsnake, Khanate, and Twilight, among others) and Candlelight Records (home to Khold, 1349, Destruction, Novembers Doom, CrowBar, and many more)...the first one really specializes in doom metal and loud clangy heavy shit with twists of experimental and stoner rock mixed in whereas Candlelight more typifies death metal, black metal, gore-grind, and other great heavy slabs of metal.

everyone should love bands on Saddle Creek Records which is Conor Oberst's label so it obviously is home to the likes of Bright Eyes, but also features other great bands like The Faint, Cursive, Maria Taylor, Azure Ray, and many others.

if you like your pop crossover punk rock music more internationally flavored than I'd highly recommend South Korea's Pia which is the latest project backed by brainchild and South Korean rock superstar Seo Taiji and I'd also have to give big mega propers to the wonderful folks at Escondida Music for releasing their "Cuban Essentials" collections, some dozen or so releases of great Cuban music featuring the traditions of sones, folk rock, Cuban funk, jazz, guarachas, trova, and guajiras, etc. Then of course there's always Asphalt Tango Records in Germany releasing the amazing album by Ion Petre Stoican. Neat story behind that one. Basically Mr. Stoican caught and turned in a spy in his home country of Romania and when the secret police offered him a reward, he replied that he wanted their help to record an album. The result is incredible traditional violin-centric Romanian traditional dance music that will drop your jaw with its sophistical nature.

For great indie rock turn to The Ike Reilly Assassination which boasts some amazingly clever lyrics and witty songwriting somewhat to the left of the traditional singer/songwriter format...Team Sleep features Chino Moreno of Deftones fame and it's experimental rock with electronica mixed in, very druggy and intriguing...you can also take a turn towards the more arcane and bizarre and make a stop to listen to the enigmatic Time of Orchids or any Jesse Krakow project (especially his "Oceans In the Sun" released on Public Eye Sore) and who could deny the weird Jewish flute punk rock of Steve Lieberman or the lo-fi weird rock band Bill fronted by a kid with Down Syndrome...and I didn't even go into The South Jersey Seashore Lifeguard Convention Band with their Zorn-esque weirdness.

if you're more in the mood for something with beats, than I'd head over to the premier electronic label Metropolis Records who boast a roster of industrial, EBM, and electronica comprised of the likes of Pig, Funker Vogt, :wumpscut:, Frontline Assembly, Apoptygma Berzerk, Front 242, KMFDM, and Snog among many others...Acumen Nation also recently released a commendium of their commanding cold wave music from the past decade that's a must-have...another great label is Beta-Lactum Records who have recently released some great stuff in Edward Ka-Spel (Download, the Legendary Pink Dots, etc.), Mingo, george&caplin, and The Silverman for your eclectic electronic and noise needs. and if you just want to dance, get your Euro-Dance fix with a needle juiced up with Groove Coverage...

Alone Records is pretty awesome and this New York based hard music label have recently put out the Racebannon singles, b-sides, and 7" collection called "Inevitable" (the label also released crust-grind kids, Jeromes Dream compilation of all of their back catalog)...that alone should make you hurry over to Alone but if you need more convincing, check out Bravo Fucking Bravo for some blistering hardcore screams and Daniel Striped Tiger for twisted post-punk/hardcore as well as some of my personal favorites like The Funeral Diner (their "The Underdark" is perhaps one of the most gut-wrenching albums of all time), The Saddest Landscape, and Index for Potential Suicide, among many others on that strong roster.

I also recommend highly The Magic Numbers, indie anti-folkster Dan Fishback (and his wonderful anti-folk band Cheese On Bread), Gregory Paul (he of Autumndivers fame), and Castle Oldchair off of Standard Recording who is also the label for indie rock geniuses Calibretto