Music Links

Resources, Bands, etc.

As my few hundred CDs and tapes will show, I'm fairly well into music. This page has links to various instructional resources and some of my favorite acts.

Music Resources:

• MP3 - information, programs and more: Information for encoding your own MPEG3 files, on a Mac or PC. Also some programs with which to listen to them...
• MPEG Audio Layer 3 Directory!: More MPEG3 resources.
• Music101: Guitar instructional lessons...also has a nice Shockwave tuner and chord display.
• Various sources of Tabs and Chords:
  • OLGA: One of the original and biggest sources of tabs and chords.
  • Harmony Central
  • World Wide Guitar
• The Chris Nelson Remix Home Page: Interesting remixes and the creator and keeper of such LoveLine classics as the Dr. Drew Shuffle and more...

Favorite Bands/Artists:

• Low Pop Suicide/Rick Boston: Probably one of my favorite bands/artists of all times. LPS went through various stylistic changes and experiments over the years before Rick dissolved the band to pursue other musical interests, from Techno/Rock to nearly perfect Post-Industrial guitar-driven "rawk", to experimental and far-reaching and ambitious, to acoustic, and all points in between. This link goes to "Somewhere Nice to Fall", the page I maintain about them.
• The Shriekback Index Page: Okay, I'm not a Shriekback fan, but this page is an attempt to keep track of all of the projects that the former members of that group have gotten themselves into. The reason this link is here is because Rick Boston first formed Low Pop Suicide with Dave Allen who was, yep, in Shriekback. They've also worked together as "The Crash Baptists".
• Too Much Joy: Excellent power-pop-punk-etc. group. They've been around for about 10 years now, and keep adjusting their exact sound, while still being ahead of their time. Witty, intelligent, and just plain great.
  Also check out Joybuzzer, the website for the official TMJ fanzine for lots of great information.
• Therapy?: A rock band from Ireland. Always excellent, and the first rock band to make a cellist part of their regular line-up. This link goes to the American T? page, but via the links section, you can get to any of the other of more than a dozen world-wide Therapy? pages. Each has their own take on things.
• Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine: An English band that has been around for a long time and as recently been expanding, from a two-piece, to a three-piece, to a six-piece. Punky, political, rocking, electric, and energetic. Current news has them "on hiatus" for now...
• "Weird Al": The Bermuda Files: "Weird Al" Yankovich...one the artists I've loved for a long time. This link goes to a page maintained by one of the guys in Al's band, and has the most up-to-date information available.
• Black 47: An Irish band by way of New York. The music combines various rock elements plus Irish influence, and the lyrics are often stories from either history of the singer's life in Ireland and New York. Always interesting, political, and never afraid to make their views known.
• Violent Femmes: Hey, c'mon, ya gotta love the Femmes! Even the stuff from last decade still sounds fresh and new. Now that's talent.
• They Might Be Giants: Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love...always interesting, TMBG experiment to push the boundaries of popular music while still trying to have a good time. Yes, they've done much more than "Particle Man"...
• Soul Coughing: A combination of rock, jazz, strange samples, and whatever else happens to come along. The songs are intelligent, reaching, and sometimes just "tasty". Excellent live performers as well.
• the eels: L.A. songster E's latest project, the eels. This goes to the official Dreamworks site.
  Also check out this psychotically obsessive fan page.
  • E: Before the eels, E put out a couple of solo records in the early to mid 1990's. The always dour E working with the ever cheerful Parthenon Huxley resulted in some interesting songs...
• Course of Empire: High-quality songcraft from these Texas fellows. They have two drummers which makes for some interesting beats...not confined to just one style of playing, either.
• Cop Shoot Cop: An interesting New York outfit that, alas, is no more. They always tried to break from convention in their form of grinding hard-edge rock, with great results.
• Supergrass: A terrific rock band out of England.
• Nine Inch Nails: This link leads to the NIN Internet Yellow Pages, links to all sorts of NIN-related material.
• King Missile: The folks who brought you "Detachable Penis"...the band was formed to serve as a backing to John Hall's poetry, so the "songs" are often the poetry with interesting improvised music behind it. As the years went by, though, more real songs were created.
• Possum Dixon: 'Cause I gotta give some notice to the local boys...there is a definite L.A. style of music, and these guys are good at it. Plus, they sing about the area in which I live...
• The Odds: Canadian popsters...always well-crafted tunes, and, hey, they're friends of The Kids in the Hall...

Sites That Want Your Money:

• Ticketmaster Online: Yes, I really hate Ticketmaster, too, with their reaming "service charges" and so on, but they do have good concert and venue information available, sometimes.
• CD Now: One of the oldest and best established music ordering sites. I remember telnetting to this place before they ever had a webpage...ah...memories. Anyway, they're reliable and helpful.
• CD Connection: Another longtime music ordering site.
• CD Europe: Yep, you guessed it, a CD ordering site, but this one focuses more on European imports. Because of this, prices may be a bit higher than from other sources, but they have a good selection