Where does the good stuff hide?

May 4, 2009 9:12 AM

Help me find more of the good stuff on emusic.

I've only really found a few totally awesome albums/artists on e-music.

Frightened Rabbit
Harlan T. Bobo
Murder by Death
Okkervil River
The Hidden Cameras
Neutral Milk Hotel

That's probably a fair representation of my taste, and the extent of the A-list to date. The B-list of really good but not great includes Spoon, Heartless Bastards, some Kinks, Immaculate Machine, maybe a few more.

Any recommendations?

posted by Number Used Once to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Just downloaded a couple of Giant Sand albums, great. If you like Frightened Rabbit try fellow scotsman Malcolm Middleton.
posted by twistedonion at 9:17 AM on May 4, 2009

Read pitchfork and stereogum for recommendations/samples. You might like Shearwater (members of Okkervil River), The Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, and Grizzly Bear.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:28 AM on May 4, 2009

Bon Iver's album and Woods' "At Rear House."
posted by papayaninja at 9:36 AM on May 4, 2009

The Broken String - Bishop Allen

Omerta - The Belles
posted by nomisxid at 9:52 AM on May 4, 2009

Rural Alberta Advantage
posted by purephase at 9:52 AM on May 4, 2009

I think I have similar music tastes to you and I recommend (in no particular order):

M. Ward
Belle and Sebastian
Andrew Bird
Bloc Party
The National
Jens Lekman
The Decemberists
Mike Doughty
Sufjan Steves
Stars
Vampire Weekend
Yo La Tengo

posted by upplepop at 10:31 AM on May 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Great Northern's newest record (Remind Me Where The Light Is) is superb.

Also, beware of pitchfork and stereogum. They're hype machines for the most part, and I'm convinced that they often don't even listen to the record before reviewing it.
posted by King Bee at 10:38 AM on May 4, 2009

From eMusic I really liked Great Lake Swimmers, The National & Andrew Bird in a somewhat similar vein. I'd second Mountain Goats, and add Decemberists. Arcade Fire is worth checkign out if you don't have it already.

My favorites that may not fall into your musical tastes, but worth listening to the samples perhaps... Anthony and the Johnsons is Dark Cabaret/Chamber pop (per wikipedia, had to look it up b\c not sure how to categorize). Konono #1 is an awsome percussion/drum world music group. And Burial is my favorite electronic music find (I think it's considered dubstep). Flogging Molly & Gogol Bordell people tend to like or hate.

eMusic for me has also be a good chance to check out some old blues (John Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, etc) and modern classical (John Adams, Steve Reich).
posted by ejaned8 at 10:41 AM on May 4, 2009

Take a look at your neighbors on eMusic (go to: Your Profile, then click the Tab "Neighbors")...I've found loads of great music through it!
posted by Zoyashka at 11:03 AM on May 4, 2009

oh, man, nthing The National with hardness. It's like Cake, only with Glen Danzig on lead vocals instead of John McCrea. oh, and everyone's on really copious amounts of lithium. (seriously, doesn't the lead singer of The National sound like Glen Danzig on lithium? anyone? bueller?)
posted by namewithoutwords at 12:24 PM on May 4, 2009

This may be something you've already checked out, but I regularly find great recommendations from the posts and comments at 17 dots, which is a blog by a heap of emusic staffers.
posted by smoke at 5:21 PM on May 4, 2009

Here's the eMusic poll of the 100 best albums on the site. You may find some nuggets there.
posted by joaquim at 7:37 PM on May 9, 2009