The Black Rider

A few years ago, Tom Waits came out with "The Black Rider", a spooky, dark album with a greasy black soul. Waits' music is an acquired taste to be sure. And if you thought Waits was strange before, hearing The Black Rider leaves no doubt.

The macabre themes in the album are made more eery with the use of strange instruments including bassoons and saws, along with Waits' low, seething voice- conjuring up images of devil's workshops, dark attics and deserted forests.

This record remains a favorite of mine around this time of year. Sure to quickly put you in the spirit and have you looking over your shoulder at imagined shadows and sudden movements.

Check out "Crossroads" from the album...

Crossroads

Sting Gets Stung

Blender Magazine recenty published it's Top 40 Worst Lyricists. While I don't agree with all the choices, they are intriguing. And Sting, responding to placing #1 on the list, responds by demonstrating that he is not too pompous or overblown to laugh at himself.

Blender's Top 10 Worst Lyricists

10 • Jim Morrison
Why would a guy who looked this good shirtless want to be smart, anyway?

09 • Donovan
LSD may be a lot fun—But not if we have to listen to entire albums made on it.

08 • Diane Warren
Love stinks.

The famously reclusive songwriter has never been married and doesn’t like dating. This estrangement from actual relationships may help explain her astonishing longevity as the world’s most successful author of creepily idealized cheesy love songs—from Michael Bolton’s “How Can We Be Lovers” to Brandy’s “Have You Ever?” and LeAnn Rimes’s “Can’t Fight the Moonlight.” She has enjoyed more than 100 Billboard chart hits. Unless you’re a big Cher fan, you haven’t enjoyed any of them.

07 • Paul Stanley (KISS)
This is what’s wrong with being sexy.

06 • Tom Marshall
The poet laureate of jam-band America—and a big fan of unicorns.

05 • Dan Fogelberg
John Denver, you’ve met your match.

04 • Noel Gallagher (Oasis)
Too busy being better than the Beatles to edit for clarity.

03 • Scott Stapp (Creed)
Just good friends with the Lord.

02 • Neil Peart (Rush)
An ace on the rototoms, a train wreck on the typewriter.

01 • STING

Mountainous pomposity, cloying spirituality, ham-handed metaphors: He can do it all.

According to Foxnews, Sting gets the last laugh. He sent this column a message by e-mail to relay to Blender.

"I am deeply honoured and proud to receive this tremendous accolade for my past efforts, especially when one considers all of the competition out there. Well, I guess somebody has to be top of the heap, so it may as well be me. I can only try and live up to this extravagant and unexpected honour in my future work. So once again, thank you, thank you and thank you."

$222,000.00 for 24 Songs!

On Oct. 4, 2007, a federal court jury ordered a Minnesota woman to pay $222,000.00 for copyright infringement stemming from sharing music files over the internet.

Jammie Thomas was been sued by six record companies including Capitol, Sony and Warner Brothers, who were awarded cumulative damages of $9,250.00 for each of the 24 songs the defendant illegally shared.

Thomas testified during the trial that she had never had an account with online file sharing service Kazaa, and had not shared the songs in question.

The RIAA hopes that this and 20,000 other pending cases serve as a deterrent to would-be file-sharers. However, the music industry may create such hostility and bad press with its campaign that it outweighs any short-term benefits.

It is not clear how many people may have downloaded copies of these songs from Thomas. The total cost of these songs, were they downloaded legally, is about 24 dollars.

New Releases- The Sadies, The Last Goodnight

"New Seasons" is the latest album from The Sadies. These melodic and haunting, introspective songs draw the listener in to a world of sadness and beauty. Drawing comparisons to John Doe, Gin Blossoms, The Smithereens and The Outlaws, The Sadies switch gears from straight ahead Country to Southern Fried Rock to Dears' inspired Next Wave.

Check out "My Heart of Wood"




Also recommended:

"Pictures of You" by The Last Goodnight




This is the current Free Single Of The Week on iTunes. Oh and did I mention that it's FREE?

Amazon Cuts Into Apple's Pie

Amazon now offers mp3 downloads that are compatible with PC or Mac and are unprotected files that can be shared with your choice of player or application- including iTunes and the iPod!

The copyright free downloads are 99 cents or less and are automatically downloaded to the application of your choice (iTunes, etc.). Apple charges $1.29 for copyright free song files and doesn't even offer DRM free songs in many cases.

Being a Mac user, I've been waiting for this day to come. First attempt to download went off without a hitch.

Even though Apple has something like 6 million songs, there's still a lot they don't have. Thanks, Amazon!

Download the Amazon MP3 Downloader software and your first download is free.

Go To: Amazon MP3 Store