I’m thinking about quitting eMusic. I’m tired of having to find music each month to download and I’m tired of having to keep track of which day my month’s songs will expire so they don’t go to waste. They’re definitely still the best deal in town but the selection isn’t fantastic and, with the launch of Amazon’s new MP3 download store, I can get reasonably priced, high quality, DRM-free tracks elsewhere without a subscription.
Right now I have 50 downloads to use on eMusic. I’m thinking that after I use those up I’m going to quit and use the money I would have paid to eMusic to pay for the online backup service Mozy.
Anyway, this is where you come in. How should I use my final 50 downloads?
[Insert Witty Title Here] 
Here’s some stuff I’ve gotten recently.
Night Falls Over Kortedala, the new Jens Lekman album. It’s over-the-top swedish pop. Quite a lot of fun.
The Flying Cup by Beirut is melancholy so you may not like it. But otherwise it’s French and Eastern-european-influenced indie pop.
Invitation Songs by the Cave Singers–nasally-voiced acoustic indie folky stuff. Pretty good if you don’t mind the voice.
Present Platypus by the Flobots — live band, socially conscious hip hop. A friend of mine produced one of their previous albums but this EP has a whole different musical set up. I’m not entirely sold on the music but the lyrics are really good.
One of my favorite albums of the year so far is Light Poles and Pines by Or, the Whale. Indie country rock from San Francisco. I’ve listend to this album a ton. I think I recommended it last time you asked for recommendations too.
I’m not sure what else to recommend.
Oh, also, I noticed the Morning Benders have one of their EPs up there. I’d recommend that pretty highly. They’re really good.
Thanks for your recommendations – I’ll look into them.
I have the new Beirut already – it’s pretty good.
As far as the type of stuff I’m looking for, maybe I can be more specific. I’m looking for stuff that I can listen to at work that won’t a) distract me or b) depress me. A lot of stuff with lyrics I find distracting. However, most of my instrumental stuff is post-rock, a lot of which (Mono, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, etc.) is at least somewhat depressing. Can you recommend any non-depressing, non-distracting instrumental stuff?
I don’t know if Emusic has it but the Faithful Anchor record by Unwed Sailor is great for that. Also, I listened to a lot of Irish and Cape Breton fiddle music when I needed no lyrics and not-depressing in college.
I have Faithful Anchor. It’s good. I’ve listened to it a lot, though, so I’m looking for something else. I’m sure I’ll find something.
I’m thinking about leaving eMusic after my subscription ends too. Do you know if eMusic dropped the Drag City label? All my albums from that label were dropped out of my history and I cant find any of their bands anymore.
PS Chelsea and I will be home for Christmas, so hopefully we’ll be able to see you and Heather at some point.
I’m not sure about Drag City. That’s likely what happened, though. I have also downloaded some stuff that subsequently stopped being available.
I’m glad that you and Chelsea will be in Pittsburgh at Christmas. I’m looking forward to hanging out with you and meeting her, of course! We’ll be there for awhile, so I’m sure we’ll overlap.
Probably too late, but the Ms John Soda stuff is all up there. I’d recommend the two albums, especially no p or d. It’s a related project to the Notwist.
Pat, yeah drag city pulled their catalog.