scenestars

[thisisexploding]

I stumbled across this 'MP3-blog' the other day. It posts up a couple of MP3s each from a bizarre variety of artistes, all available for free download. It only holds the MP3s for 10 days, then they disappear back from whence they came. Admittedly you take pot-luck with what's on there, but that's half the fun. Why, only the other day they had the new New Order single on there.. which was nice..

[Gigmeister General]

There are a lot of good MP3 blogs out there, hosting the odd tracks by loads of bands you've never heard of. Mostly I stick with Scenestars (which is currently streaming the new Sigur Ros album, Takk) though lately I've been furtling across the tinternet and found Baskerville's Syndrome (it's a newie, so there's not much there at the moment.. cool name though), Said The Gramophone (full of weird stuff I've never heard of) and Welcome To The M!dwest! (which has a trove of Harry and The Potters tracks.. no, really I'm not making this up).

Even better, blogs link to other blogs.. hence this site with a Swedish bands only rule. Crack open the starkol and have a listen.

;D

[thisisexploding]

Once you make a start looking through MP3 blogs it's hard to stop. For one thing they all seem to link to each other, so all you have to decide is what link to click on next. A bit of mousework yesterday found me at Stereogum; tucked away down the page (for the time being) was a pretty good, if a bit pub, cover of Squeeze's Up The Junction by The Decemberists. Following that I scoured the archives at 3Hive and found a selection of Black Keys and Bloc Party goodies.

Also, as noted previously, MP3 blogs can be themed (the swedish site for example); the excellent Copy, Right site holds only cover versions. It currently has a big selection of Magnetic Fields covers by assorted artists as well as lots of other goodies (the Paul Anka version of The Cure's Love Cats has to be heard to be believed).