I don't blog about music as much as I would like.  I used to do it a lot.

I listen to music all day, just about every day.  I subscribe to *a lot* of music blogs.  So much that I decided to create my own blog aggregator to help me keep track of things (Tagfriendly.com, for those of you who haven't been there yet.  You can create music-related RSS feeds based on your own search criteria.).

So the problem is not that I have little to say about new music, or the music scene in general, but that I have *so much* to say.  If I didn't have to make a living doing Other Things, I could write about music (not that anybody would care to read it) all day, every day.  Watching the indie scene blossom over the last five or six years with the help of the Internet has been a special thing for me.  I listen to more music now than I ever have.  And hey, record executives: I buy more music than I ever did too (my wife will attest).  Even so, I know that I am just moving slowly across one facet of a very large musical stone.  And that is a good thing--I won't be getting bored any time soon.

To that end, I have decided to carve out a few minutes each day and devote them to writing about music.  Some of it will end up on this here blog, hopefully as entries about new music, or music that is at least new to me.

Let's get started...

Some good music that you're probably not listening to

"Oh My God" by Ida Maria
I thought it was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at first, but it wasn't.  This is an honest song sung urgently almost desperately, and right on the verge of losing it.  "oh you think I'm in control... oh you think it's all for fun".  Moving and tender ("find a cure for my life... put a price on my soul"), but dishing it out at the same time.  This is the kind of song that makes it hard to stay in my chair.  (wikipedia link)   

"In the Night" by Basia Bulat
That is the sound of an autoharp, if you're wondering.  Organic and edgy, pop-folk for the aughts (what will we call this decade?).  I've been saying for several years now that the best new music is coming out of Scotland and Canada.  Bulat represents the latter, hailing from Ontario.  I like this song because it makes me feel good.  It carries a message about rising up above struggles ("Storm and shadows fall to pieces / to my heart like a comet / carry so that I can / soar like an eagle").  And while it's still possible for struggles to keep us down ("sometimes it takes the night to fall"), it doesn't have to be that way all the time.  (wikipedia link)

"New Moon" by Sambassadeur
When it comes to twee, you can't beat Tweeden.  Er... Sweden.  Sambassadeur are utterly forgettable, but still very pleasant (think: "spring time").  Proof that good music doesn't have to captivate or mesmerize; it just has to not make me throw up in my mouth.  I really don't know much about this band.  I suppose they are few Swedish twenty-somethings who will be around for a few years before moving on to meatier projects.  (wikipedia link)