Any recommendations for good tunes on eMusic?

If you are looking for really good bands that need support:

The New Ruins
Surround
Califone (look for their 2006 release and think Binaural - Of The Girl)
Minus The Bear
Pelican

There are tons more but these spring immediately to mind as outstanding.

If you like Classical, I found an outstanding performances of Beethoven and Mozart. Let me know if you want a list.

.

FYI for those thinking about starting a Free Trial - I was browsing pitchforkmedia.com last night when I noticed a banner offering 35 songs with a free trial (vs. the usual 25). You may want to go to pitchfork and refresh a few times to see if you can get those extra ten tracks. It finally swayed me to go ahead and give e-music a try.

I've downloaded 2 albums:

The Sadies - New Seasons
Deadstring Brothers - Deadstring Brothers

Eleven songs left to go. I'd love to keep my account when the free songs are used up, but I don't know if I can justify spending another $10-$20 a month on music right now. We'll see.

JaneNY wrote:

One thing that I noticed though, is some stuff will be visible in peoples' playlists but if you click on it, it may tell you its 'unavailable for download in your country', which kind of sucks - I'd just clicked on a Combichrist album and it said that - I don't know how many more it would happen on.

that is rather annoying. I haven't encountered it too often. Celtic Frost comes to mind. of course this may be more of an issue for those outside the US, don't know.

what drives me batty are the albums where 'more than one track is unavailable for download'. being a completist, I skip out on the whole CD until I can get all the tracks.

I just picked up Les Claypool's double live Frog Brigade set. That Animals disc 2 cover is just awesome. Long been a favorite, just never purchased it.

Check the charts. If you like a composer or a piece of music and you see it is a "pick", it's worth trying.

Mozart and Beethoven on emusic - there is a lot!!

If you are very familiar with Beethoven's symphonies, check out Vanska's recording of the 9th symphony. It's very different. I really love it but I can see that others might not feel the same. I don't want to rave and have a newbie download it and get this version stamped as definitive for them, so I won't say why I like it but if you know the work, you might enjoy it.

If you aren't yet familiar with Beethoven's symphonies, try Bernard Haitink's version before Vanska. Also Haitink's rendition of Beethoven's 3rd is awesome.

There isn't a bad Beethoven symphony, but it's with the 3rd that he changes everything. He started a revolution with that Opus. His first 2 symphonies are very much in the "classical" style, but maybe it was Mozart's 40th which he studied and copied out, or Mozart's 24th piano concerto that sparked it, because with Beethoven's 3rd symphony, he just took off and stretched the form.

There's a fabulous Mozart's 40th. Searching classical music on emusic is a bitch but Select Classical album and type Mozart K 550 into the search field. You'll get 1 hit and it's a goodie. The Philharmonia Hungarian. They kicked ass on this.

Don't make the mistake of not getting all 4 movements of 550. You're really missing something if you do. There's a fierce movement with slashing violins. He sounds... angry? Pissed off? Amazingly, this is a trio which back then was supposed to be a DANCE. The second movement rips your heart out as he cycles through keys with this slow, leaping motif. The first and 4th movements are a given as to being kick ass. Mozart excelled at what we think of in rock music as the "bridge".

You can also download the 41st with that one. I'm still searching for my favorite version of this symphony. But this one is very well done. A lot of people just get the first movement ::sobs:: but that's really bad idea here. Yeah, that's an intense movement with a brilliant "break down" in the middle as Mozart develops his ideas but this is the Jupiter Symphony. It's called that for a reason. In the last movement, the composer builds to a fucking 5 part fugue. It reaches a head at the last repeat and it's amazing. A 5 part fugue? Who does that? It's only a few bars but my god, that's insane.

I just snagged this one - Ivan Moravec playing Mozart's 24th piano concerto. It's a pick and might be really good. About the 24th, this overwhelmed Beethoven and he tried to compose in the same key but hated the results. He never felt he lived up to this work. I don't bother comparing the two men, but it's interesting to know what Beethoven thought.

emusic is awesome for classical. A couple bucks for Mahler? The pricing is nuts. 1 movement = 1 song.

.

Only free stuff on emusic I've seen is for the free daily download. Maybe that's what was meant by 'free stuff'. Here's some stuff I got from there that I've listened to a lot lately...

Boris - Akuma No Uta
Mogwai - Ten Rapid
Caspian - The Four Trees
Minus the Bear - Menos Del Oso, Planet of Ice, Highly Refined Pirates
Lucero - s/t, Tennessee, That Much Further West
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation

Will definitely by checking out some of the classical stuff soon. I really had no idea where to start before, but I think found some steps in the right direction.

Alessiana wrote:

There's a fabulous Mozart's 40th. Searching classical music on emusic is a bitch but Select Classical album and type Mozart K 550 into the search field. You'll get 1 hit and it's a goodie. The Philharmonia Hungarian. They kicked ass on this.

Don't make the mistake of not getting all 4 movements of 550. You're really missing something if you do. There's a fierce movement with slashing violins. He sounds... angry? Pissed off? Amazingly, this is a trio which back then was supposed to be a DANCE. The second movement rips your heart out as he cycles through keys with this slow, leaping motif. The first and 4th movements are a given as to being kick ass. Mozart excelled at what we think of in rock music as the "bridge".

Ok, I picked up all 4 movements of 550. I am familiar (now that I am listening to it) to the first movement. I guess all that Classical I was 'forced' to listen to as a kid sunk in somewhere. Maybe it is on my Dummies cd

I couldn't find anything other than a Finnish Christmas CD for Vanska. I am a sucker for good Xmas selections however didn't think this is what you had in mind.

transplant wrote:

Ok, I picked up all 4 movements of 550. I am familiar (now that I am listening to it) to the first movement. I guess all that Classical I was 'forced' to listen to as a kid sunk in somewhere. Maybe it is on my Dummies cd

Let us know what you think after you've had some time with the whole piece.

.

soclose wrote:

Anyone have some new favorites?

I decided to go ahead and continue with a paid account. I'm going to experiment this month - see if I can live with 50 downloads and no physical CD's. I certainly wont have any problem finding 50 songs I must have - I'm obsessed with this web site!

My latest downloads:

Centro-matic - Flashes and Cables (EP)
Arcade Fire - "Surf City Eastern Bloc" and "Broken Window"
Son Volt - "Sometimes"
The Jayhawks - "Last to Know"

You won't have any trouble at all. I end up buying booster packs. :P

.