Mar. 16th, 2015

starlady: headphones on top of colorful buttons (music (makes the people))
I've seen a lot of people talking about music lately, and how to find new music. This is not the post I am writing about that, but it is a post of three wildly different recs for music with, I think, broad potential appeal.

The NPR Music Austin 100, 2015: 100 songs from SXSW artists, available to download en masse or listen to individually until 2 April 2015. There is, quite literally, something for everyone in here--and since these bands are still at the "playing the cheap SXSW shows" level, their shows will still be relatively affordable. I've already downloaded some albums from this list, and I only shouted "What the fuck is this shit?!" at the computer twice. 

Echo's Children is on Bandcamp! I first heard the music of this classic filk group--they're amazing, seriously--via a Star Trek fanmix from, I believe, [personal profile] melannen. "Acts of Creation" makes me cry ~50% of the time, and their entire catalog is available on Bandcamp, including the albums that have been OOP for years. Jed Hartman has an older post with some more detailed pointers for intros to their music.

Purity Ring, Another Eternity - This one is more specialized; if you're not into indie/electronic-ish music, I can't say whether you'll like it. (True confession: the music scene is so diverse and fragmented these days, it's been eons since I've been able to keep up with the continuing advance of micro genre labels.) What I can say is that I caught The New Hot Show on The Current last week and was writing some emails while listening to it (they played the new Mumford & Sons song. 89.3 HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THIS) and the song "Begin Again" made me sit up, look up the band, and download the album within about five minutes. It's shockingly good.

# Bonus: Musicians You'll Tell Your Friends About in 2015, from NPR - I think a lot of people out there who like Caro Emerald and/or Marina & the Diamonds and/or Kate Tempest would really like The Anchoress.