use emusic? What are some great albums you got there?

April 12, 2005 7:44 PM

Rediscovering emusic - any mefiers use emusic? What are some stellar tracks or albums you've gotten there?

I used emusic for 3 years or so and downloaded about 25,000 tracks in that time. I then took a year and a bit off and, well, caught up. Now I'm back (just downloaded 22 albums) and am wondering what gems I may be missing. If you're a user: spill, please!

posted by dobbs to media & arts (11 comments total)

Most recently:

Jorane
Amber Asylum
My Favorite
posted by cmonkey at 7:59 PM on April 12, 2005

The Essex Green (delightful psychedelic folk pop)
The Kinks (a huge selection of less celebrated albums that are classic nonetheless)
Tuatara (cinematic jazz)
Shuggie Otis ("Sessions" is a broad mix of his work in blues over several years — really great stuff)
R. L. Burnside (hard core blues)
Vince Guaraldi (the Peanuts pianist does more than Linus and Lucy — this man's a genius)
posted by Typographica at 8:49 PM on April 12, 2005

Oh, and Old Canes, too.
posted by cmonkey at 9:05 PM on April 12, 2005

Stuff I like from eMusic:

Mike Doughty
Mogwai
Shpongle
Ted Leo / Pharmacists
The Velvet Teen

...and I liked several of the songs on "Read: Interpreting Bjork", especially the Ben Gibbard bit.

(You can check my downloads if on eMusic if you want; I'll be checking up on this thread later!)
posted by theFlyingSquirrel at 9:13 PM on April 12, 2005

Butterfly Child
a few Elliott Smith non-album tracks
Nels Cline (and yes, I got it before he played with Wilco).
My Morning Jacket split EP
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Papas Fritas
Kincaid
Fuck
the back catalog of Matt Pond PA, Beulah, Yo La Tengo, Arab Strap, and Tahiti 80
a bunch of Badly Drawn Boy singles
posted by Utilitaritron at 9:15 PM on April 12, 2005

The one group I really loved when I was a member of emusic was Grey Eye Glances. And all the Epitaph stuff.
posted by smackfu at 9:42 PM on April 12, 2005

I've found eMusic to be a great resource for getting all those albums I vaguely intended to buy but never bothered. The last two Mirah CDs, for example. I also discovered that Webb Wilder just put out a new album for the first time in, like, six years. When I was younger, my father and I would listen to his music in the car as a compromise between our different musical tastes, so we were both hugely tickled to randomly find his new CD for download.

!!! And upon looking at the new releases page, they have the new Mountain Goats album available for download, some two weeks before it's officially released in stores! Dude, this just made my week.
posted by brookedel at 12:01 AM on April 13, 2005

I recently picked up some Thelonious Monk - they have a ton there.
Also got a Mates of State album and The Faust Tapes
posted by soplerfo at 9:18 AM on April 13, 2005

Thanks for all the answers, folks.

For me, my fave gems have been:

Bobby Birdman's Born Free Forever (they also recently added Hert Caves which is also good, but BFF is one of my fave albums ever)
The complete Decemberists catalog
Songs: Ohia
Sonny Criss' Sonny's Dream and Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Collossus (two of my fave jazz albums)
Much of the Fat Possum catalog (blues). Notably 20 Miles I'm a Lucky Guy, the Black Keys, RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, etc.
The 17 volumes of the Ehiopiques series (Ethiopian jazz)
The Ass Ponys (sorta alt country/rock. terrific lyrics)
The Star Room Boys' Why Do Lonely Men and Women Try to Break Each Other's Hearts?
Bardo Pond (Dilate thrills me) and other Matador artists (Guided By Voices, Interpol, Pavement, Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Cat Power, Blonde Redhead... )
Blackalicious (positive hip hop)
illy B (Billy Martin of Medeski Martin and Wood; percussionist)
Thalia Zedek's beautiful Been Here and Gone
Electric Birds' Gradations (electronica/glitch)
the stunningly good Cicadidae by Kammerflimmer Kollectief
Explosions in the Sky
Erik Sanko (bass player for the lounge lizards) wonderful cover of I Get Along Fine
Freakwater's catalog (country, beautiful harmonies. Try Old Paint first)
The Thrill Jockey half of Archer Prewitt's catalog (ex-Cocktails; member of Sea and Cake; pop/folk) (Other good Thrill Jockey stuff is Trans Am, Tortoise, Sam Prekop, Sea and Cake, Giant Sand, Califone)
Gas (ambient)
I Am Spoonbender's Sender / Receiver and Velma's Cyclique (two favorite records of mine)
The almost complete catalog of Joel RL Phelps (rock/folk), start with 3 for soft stuff and Blackbird for rockier (Joel is ex-silkworm)
The first track of Juno's first album
Lightning Bolt's entire catalog (terrific, loud controlled chaos)
Mazarin (pop/rock)
Bikeride's Morning Macuba (pure pop)
Monroe Mustang (slowcore-ish rock)
Moondog (experimental/avante garde / jazz)
The complete Yazoo catalog (old 78s/blues - awesome!)
Robert Crumb's compiliations
Ralph's World (kids music - self titled is best)
Sean Na Na's My Majesty (especially I need a Girl)
Super XX Man's Vol IV (beautiful, quiet folky pop)
Sybarite (instrumental)
The Birdwatcher (ambient/electronica/pop)
There's also a ton of great old jazz (armstrong, monk, coltrane, mingus, etc.)
Ugh, I better stop now.

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. Much of it's new to me.
posted by dobbs at 10:28 AM on April 13, 2005

Arrrrgh, that Mountain Goats album is not available now. I guess I will hope to see it again after the official release date.

I'd add a few more artists to look for that hadn't been mentioned yet:

John Vanderslice
Count Basie
Duke Ellington
Ella Fitzgerald
Pizzicato Five
Sugar
The Dismemberment Plan
The Gourds

And a lot of weird things for some christmas compilation CDs I made last year.
posted by babar at 11:01 AM on April 13, 2005

If anyone's checking back to this thread, both of the Architecture in Helsinki albums are quite good.
posted by dobbs at 9:42 PM on May 9, 2005