I happened to be listening to the World Cafe with David Dye on WXPN (in Philadelphia, PA) today in the car and heard the featured interview with the New York City band, Phonograph ( a repeat I hadn’t heard,actually recorded in August 2007). So, I’m thinking: Wilco…Uncle Tupelo…(very) early R.E.M.—but with these little electronic things happening.

Turns out the band has opened for Wilco, whose bassist, John Stirratt, is a big supporter. What I heard in the interview was something unique: a band which took a long established genre (alt-country) and added its own vibe and aesthetic to it to produce something very unique which needs to be heard, not described—so listen to the MP3, then go buy the new EP, Hiawatha Talking Machine from the website.
Phonograph Website | Phonograph MySpace |Phonograph on the The World Cafe

A Music Player for MP3 Surfers

Tags:mxplay, mp3 sites, music blogs

In the nearly two years we have been inundated with “Web 2.0″ everything (if you don’t know, think MySpace, LastFM, Pandora, etc.) dozens of music websites have launched with various takes on presenting a listening experience tied to ‘community’ (whatever that means)—I’ve tried them but most require more interaction than I care to provide.
Today I stumbled onto MXPlay, which also features a music sharing community aspect and a web browser plugin/player, BUT, with two not inconsiderable differences: the first being that the signup was very simple, requiring only first and last names, username, and password—voila! you’re in! The second was the real difference for me:
the player (which uses a plugin for IE and Firefox and also doubles as a handy,slim stand-alone player) allows you to click a “Play This Page” button on the MXPlay browser toolbar at any webpage with media files and load a play list with all the files on that page!

If you regularly visit music blogs and mp3 sites like I do, this player rules! Get it here. The site also has a page devoted to mp3 sites with some great places to visit such as Chrome Waves,Sound Roots, and Who Needs Radio? |Get MXPlay