Death To Lala

"Lala is shutting down. What this means for you."

Lala was recently bought by Apple to ideally help boost their iTunes platform (though there have been no new announcements about any incorporations to the iTunes platform). The deal was most certainly made to kill competition and the end result has finally reached me and all end consumers. As of May 31, 2010 I will receive $275 in iTunes credit because of the sheer volume of $1.00 web albums I bought over the past 15 months. I will certainly need it to rebuild my playlists, all of which I had to cut & paste into a spreadsheet like the true anal music collector I am - nothing left behind, no meticulous playlist building efforts lost.

So...moving on! I have decided to put my chips down for Grooveshark now - http://listen.grooveshark.com

Grooveshark is similar to Lala; you can listen to any song for free. It also has elements of Pandora in that you can build your own internet radio station based on artists you like and they will find similar songs to expand your horizons. Also like Lala, you can tap into anyone's collection to discover new music and build a community. It is free to sign up though they have a $25 annual fee for an enhanced platform that gets rid of the ads. I am not yet sure it is worth it because I have had no trouble using the free version so far. Grooveshark seems to be climbing the ranks of sites to find new music, stream music all the time and find fellow music heads around the world. 50 to 60 million songs are downloaded everyday and since last year their audience was growing 2-3% daily (the source: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/musicians-find-fans-at-grooveshark-artists/)

While I continue to figure out how I can build playlists to keep feeding all of you with new songs, I am going to start suggesting and tagging all of the many artists' web sites that stream their new albums before they come out, fellow bloggers that put up free songs and mp3s, RCRD LBL and Pitchfork.com for the newest music and remixes (although the latter also used Lala so we shall see what they offer).

Here is my first find for all of you - Band of Horses is streaming their new album Infinite Arms on their web site now before it officially comes out on May 18th. Visit their web site to listen; they organized the songs into a really cool picture pinwheel that rotate like a slideshow. I saw them at the New Orleans Jazzfest recently and their new songs sounded great live, particularly Compliments. For those in and around NYC, they are playing the Williamsburg Waterfront with Grizzly Bear on Sunday, June 20th and there are actually still tickets available so go get them: http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/h2oshows/

I am about to jump into wedding attendee season but I promise to write soon - maybe even collect my favorite songs to hear at a wedding reception and make a playlist? Comment/e-mail me your favorites for consideration!

FLO - That Girl Can Sing

My biggest band crush and band du jour for awhile now has been - Florence and The Machine. Last Tuesday, October 27, it came to fruition by seeing Flo play to a sold out crowd in New York's famed Bowery Ballroom. I felt privileged not only because the Bowery is one of my favorite music venues ever but also because Florence only played this show and David Letterman. In early 2010 she is headed to Australia; she has no scheduled dates in the U.S. right now. Ya hear that, the crowd was selective and I was there! THIS is why I live in New York to all you hating on the Big Apple and it's rain, crazy prices and the smell of hot trash in the summer. The added perk was that the crowd was mostly crazed POMs (property of the monarchy) that had been fans for awhile since she is massive in Europe. One of my favorite attendees was a Scottish girl was a dead ringer for Jennifer Saunders' Edina Monsoon from Absolutely Fabulous. I sought her out at the after party and made friends, which was conveniently at BEAST, the late night bar around the corner from my Lower East Side abode.

My early favorite song on the album was Dog Days Are Over. It just makes you want to sprint in escape and I discovered it at the perfect time when summer was coming to a close and you could feel the leaves growing restless and preparing to make an exit and sweaters making their way into the popular clique in my closet again.

It was at the concert, however, that I discovered how awesome her song Cosmic Love is; a tour de force that was the perfect encore song. The song as a noun yelled at us in perfect pitch ' You had a good time tonight, go get drunker than you should for a Tuesday and moving forward remember to live with more conviction.' Pretty intense right, well I told you I really REALLY liked her.

I made a lala playlist of Flo's album and stuck it to the right of the page - just be sure to click the grey play/arrow button on the top and you can listen to it for free on my site without visiting lala.com. However, for the last bloody time, go visit lala and get a world of music that falls right smack between Pandora and iTunes, blending the best of both worlds. Then start following me - Katie M. - and you will be privy to all of the playlists I make and what songs I listen to and when - enter my weird little world amigos. (Disclaimer: Yesterday was a weird day, I think I channeled a 15 year old with braces from Omaha, so please disregard me listening to the entire new Carrie Underwood album and then switching it up by listening to the New Moon Soundtrack. I listened to the new Fanfarlo album all today to get back on track, which is sooo good).

Finally, I HAVE to love Flo and her Machine because I made the ginger oath long ago: To defend and champion your fellow red haired beauties. Make eye contact across whatever room, let them be the first person you try to meet at a party, share stories, discuss the genius of Ann Margaret and abhor the connection to Lindsay Lohan, and when applicable compare freckles.

Here is a short little interview and Florence playing a stripped down version of the song Boy Builds Coffins. Her drummer 'plays' the park railings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvMfbfZKVbY

If you are sick of your ipod...

Here are some artists I recommend checking out, downloading and changing up your music a bit. Give Pandora a rest and invest in some exploratory music time. You can listen to most of their songs for free on www.lala.com, a lot are also on www.pitchfork.com, or you can go to itunes - expensive house. Look to the playlist on the right for my favorite songs of these groups/artists.

Artist

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - These guys should make the next Wes Anderson soundtrack

Jack Peñate

Little Joy - side project of Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes

Volcano Choir - side project of the guy from Bon Iver

Santigold

Islands - This whole album is pretty solid

The Temper Trap - so is this album

Wild Beasts - a very well respected music friend says this makes his top 5 albums of 2009

Mew - warm up to them, they are worth it

The Dutchess & The Duke - they sound a lot like The Kinks, so they can't go wrong in my book

Karen O and The Kids - whether you like the movie or not, this soundtrack is pretty sweet

Mayer Hawthorne - this guy is super hot in London right now so says my ex-pat friends