Excellent Online

Ever been to a great show and wanted to take the gig home in a doggie bag afterwards? Soon, you might just be able to. eMusic is in the process of launching eMusic Live, a service that will allow you to keep hold of your favorite gigs beyond the concert hall. Here's how it works. For $20, you purchase a keychain that contains a small hard drive capable of holding two hours worth of music. As you watch your favorite band play live, a feed goes directly from the soundboard to a machine that encodes the audio into mp3 format. At the end of the gig, you go to a machine in the venue, stick in your keychain and $10, and presto, you've got a legal soundboard-quality recording of the show that you can take home and upload via USB to your computer. Whether both fans and artists will embrace the idea is still up in the air (but we think it's kinda neat.) The first club to have access to eMusic Live will be Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ (who often play host to a variety of stellar bands,) and more are to follow.

SING-SING have issued an internet appeal to their fans. The band (the new project from LUSH's Emma Anderson, in case you've been in a cave for the past couple years) have left their record label and set out on their own to independently record and promote their second album. Trouble is, they don't have enough funds right now to go into the studio and record it!

The band are urging fans to order a copy of their independently-released EP, "Madame Sing-Sing". All proceeds from the sale of the EP will go to fund the studio time required to record the new full-length. Songs are written, producers have been found, now they just need the funding. We won't kid you, the internet appeal issued today sounds a bit dire, with Emma and Lisa saying the future of the band now rests in the hands of its fans. We here at Excellent love Sing-Sing and are huge fans of Emma's, and we strongly encourage you guys to pick up the new EP (it's quite good!) Help save a fantastic band!

One of the nation's most colorful, independently-owned radio stations is in trouble. WOXY (97X) Cincinatti was founded in 1983 and quickly positioned themselves as one of the first modern rock stations in the United States. Last year, WOXY became one of the most vocal stations in the fight to continue broadcasting their feed over the 'net. In January of 2004, however, WOXY announced that the financial backers of the station had sold out to the Dallas-based First Broadcasting Investment Partners, who we'll just call "The Man."

At that time, the managers of the station announced a bold plan - regardless of what format/programming changes were in store for 97X, they planned on continuing WOXY in its original independent format via online streaming ONLY... Sadly, now THOSE plans seem thwarted. A message on WOXY now says that when 97X stops broadcasting in May, the internet stream may now also stop... unless some kind of quick financial resolution comes into play.

The costs of paying internet royalties combined with the cost of maintaining the station's broadband feed will be enough to close the station for good... unless they find a financial backer, and soon. Not that we expect any of you to pony up the dough... but man, if somebody reading this COULD, you could help save and fund one of the only good blips on the radio dial today. In the meantime, go to WOXY and enjoy one of the best stations out there for as long as we continue to have it around.

Former Le Grand Magistery recording artist A GIRL CALLED EDDY, Erin Moran, has signed a record deal with ANTI . The label, which also holds such artists as Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Tricky, will be releasing her debut album on June 21. The record will be self-titled and was produced by former LONGPIGS and PULP guitarist and Richard Hawley in Sheffield.

Moran's voice has been one of the best hidden gems in music for several years now. Her earthy vocal power was shown on her debut EP, "Tears All Over Town," to rival Tracey Thorn, Dusty Springfield or Beth Orton. According to ANTI this record, "eloquently captures the bittersweet-ness of a life seen through a romantic yet crystal-clear lens." Rave reviews have been out for years on Moran's music... "Marrying the smooth tones of soul with the soft flavorings of chamber pop, the debut EP from A Girl Called Eddy is as poignant as it is alluring. [All Music Guide]"

It gets my back up when bands put on a lacklustre performance in the first third of their set, and then yell at the audience for not being engaged. Personally, I think that's cheating. If you have to yell at us to dance, or to come closer to the stage you're cutting corners.

Do you live in New York, Pittsburgh or Columbus? If so, when GOMEZ comes to your town this June you can take buy a "special ticket package" that includes admission to the concert, a copy of the band's new album, "Split The Difference", and an email. An email? Yes... in that email will be a link to three live downloads from the show you saw. Hmm... not a bad idea.

If you don't live in one of those 3 places don't fret yet... this tour could be more extensive than the 3 announced shows and if not the band will be back in July as part of the Lollapalooza tour that will be criss-crossing North America in July and August.

The Village Voice announced today the details for this year's SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL in New York. The Saturday, July 17 show will feature DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, BLONDE REDHEAD, HAR MAR SUPERSTAR, TV ON THE RADIO, Constantines, The Fiery Furnaces, The Fever, The Ponys and MANY more bands and DJs that will be announced shortly. The festival will be taking over Coney Island all day, will welcome pop kids of all ages and be totally free (yes, I did say free). Get your tickets now... oh wait, we don't need any! Want your band to play too? You've got until Friday to get a demo in to the powers that be.

I'm still in awe.

Kraftwerk kicked off their North American tour last night in Toronto, and what a fucking show it was. From the second the lights dropped and the robot introduced the band with the morse code beginning of 'The Man Machine' behind it and the silhouette of the four men at their computers behind the curtain, I was stunned. And for over 2 hours, they never let up.

Since the site started we've been hosting at Digital Odyssey and they've treated us well (for the most part, they disabled my account when we released Intertwined). But now they've decided to dump all their Linux machines and run a full Windows shop so we had to move on. Now we are being hosted by a new startup, Shift Refresh, which is comprised of me and a friend. We're on a much more powerful web server running the latest versions of apache and php. Things that were a little slow before are much faster now. If you notice any weird problems, please drop us a note (eadmin at odc dot net).

NPR asked a couple musicians, a few reviewers and a smattering of plain old radio listeners to play them songs from artists who they think are under-rated. The 'You Play DJ: Artists' Picks' special from All Songs Considered features picks from Ben Gibbard (Death Cab, Postal Service), Ryan Adams, John Vanderslice and more. The whole experiment turned into a rather decent radio show in the process.