I was just at the shrink telling him that content was irrelevant, it was all about STYLE, the way I wrote something that counted.

And now I’m about to break my rule.

This Internet is so exciting.  Because of the ability to COMMUNICATE!  Not only the frequent e-mail from such far-flung places as Brazil, Sweden, Hungary and Australia, but the ability to immediately inform you of cool things I come across.  Without all the social interference.  The necessity of bridging the societal gaps, the worry about being cool.  Hell, Felice always asks me who these people are who’ve written the e-mails I forward to her, and I say I’VE GOT NO FUCKING IDEA!  But they pour out their heart and soul.  And true, it’s not like real life,  but it’s a fucking good substitute, and a start.

So my brain is popping with so much right now.   And to write it all in an entrancing style, I’d have to write four or five missives.  And they’d decrease in quality as I pounded them out, and I do have a life besides writing, even if you don’t think so!

I don’t want this to be one of those impersonal lists you see in magazines.  Like DOWNLOAD THIS!  WHY?  You’ve got to personalize something.  Let me know you’re on my page to get my attention.  Hopefully, I’ve got yours, based on history.  And I’ll try to personalize the squibs below.

1. Google Mac Blog 

Read the mission statement.  THIS is why we love Google, even though we might believe it’s one step away from turning into the evil empire.

UNIVERSALLY AVAILABLE!

Who are you working for?  You or me?  If you’re working for you, FUCK YOU!  If you just want to get rich, I’ve got no time for you.  But if you CARE about me, I’ll give you all my money.

Apple is the classic example here.  Sure, they charge a lot, but their products have ENHANCED my life.  I’ve never regretted a single Apple purchase.  Like Steve Jobs used to say, Apple purveys tools.  So we can be our best selves, live our lives to the fullest.  If it weren’t for the Mac Plus and the LaserWriter Plus, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.  That printer might have cost six grand, but without it, I never could have printed my original newsletter.

Google gets it right.  It’s run by techies, not boasting pricks from the old world like Terry Semel and Yahoo.  Yahoo Music doesn’t do Mac.  Maybe because of the record companies’ reluctance.  But by leaving me out of the loop, by not being cool, and believe me, Apple/Mac is COOL, I’ve got no time for them.  Yahoo is trying to be all things to all people.  Google is about search.  The add-ons don’t interfere with the main mission.  They’re there if you want them.  Whereas Yahoo’s homepage is baffling, and so many of its pages run so SLOW!

So download Google Earth.  Better yet, Google Notifier, making Web Mail as good as app based mail.  As for the Widgets, do you have to search within a specific page to get the list in your widget, or can you jus use the space atop Safari?  Use it, tell me.  But at least Google is EMPLOYING widgets.  Utilizing Tiger to the fullest.  Whereas Microsoft hasn’t even optimized Office to be Intel-savvy.

2.  The Hype Machine

This will blow your fucking mind.  This deserves a missive unto itself.  But I haven’t found the right occasion.

You can’t count on straight media, trying to make a buck.  Their idea of service is always one step behind the curve, and they’re pandering to complete idiots anyway.  No, you’ve got to find out stuff from your friends.  Hell, you’ve got to DEPEND on your friends.  They’re the only filters you’ve got.  If you haven’t got friends, you’re fucked.  If you’ve got social anxiety, start on the Web, that’s what it’s for, play in Yahoo Groups, on MySpace, Facebook.  Everybody else is lonely too.  On the Net there’s little posing.  How you look isn’t the main criterion.  Only that you be honest.  Yes, despite the mainstream media bullshit, there’s very little dishonesty on the Web, and those who play can spot a phony INSTANTLY!

Anyway, on this site, you can instantly search music blogs.  And then instantly hear just about any new song you can think of.  (Click on the "listen" link and the player pops up.)

The Hype Machine will become your best friend.

And you wonder why terrestrial radio is dying…  You no longer have to be playing by the old rules to be plugged in.  Take the tips of your aforementioned friends, discover GREAT new music.

3. "Danielle"
Leigh Goldstein

Check my song Danielle out Bob..I’m old and I’m broke, and I’m disabled.. But I’ve got the music.

If you send me a link to your music without a story, FUCK YOU!

It’s not my job to listen to your crap, and it’s almost ALWAYS crap.  The Net is a vast wasteland of mediocre music purveyed by assholes who think they can win through intimidation.  Yup, one day I’m gonna post the names and links of all the idiots who want me to listen to their music.  It will be just payback for taking up my time.  As legendary attorney Johanan Vigoda once told me, he’s not a railroad train.  He doesn’t pick people up at one station and deposit them at another, advancing them down the line.  AND NEITHER AM I!  I’m not your link to success.  Leave me out of your scattershot sales approach.  Unless you believe you’re enhancing my life based on what I’ve written, keep it to yourself.

Having said all that, this guy has been reasonable in e-mail, and I guess the disabled part got to me, so I listened to his track.
Hang in till forty five seconds.  From there on "Danielle" has got this soft (in a good way) lyrical quality that is akin to wrapping yourself up in a blanket and sitting in front of a fire sipping hot cider.

Think of Henry Gross’ "Shannon".  Think of latter-day Beach Boys, when Carl was a main influence.

There’s no place for this music in the mainstream world.  But there are people who want to hear it.  And that’s what the Web’s for.

I don’t expect this blurb to change Leigh Goldstein’s life.  Hell, before the Beatles, most people weren’t in it to become rich and famous, but because they needed to make music and they wanted people to hear it.  The fame and fortune were EXTRAS!  Not integral, not necessary to the process.

This is not perfect, but neither are you.  It’s our imperfections that make us lovable.  It’s the homemade quality that endears one to "Danielle".  For the first time in seemingly forever, I wanted to play one of these e-mailed/MySpace tracks again.  And then again.  And again.

Will you like it?

Probably not if your idea of music is standing in front of some twentysomething guitarist making screechy noise.  Nor if you like to go to the club.  But if your life is more complicated, if you believe you’ve got more questions than answers, you could find this if not exactly compelling, soothing.

4. "One Man Day"
Ben Taylor

Heard on Sirius.  And then again.  And again.

The sound is pleasurable.  His voice approximates his dad’s, but unlike his father, he’s got nothing to say.  That’s why we loved the troubadours of yore, not only the sound, but the MEANING!

Still, there’s an interlude in this number that’s PURE MAGIC!  With angelic voices that touch my heart.

And, of course, the title hearkens back to JT’s sorely overlooked "One Man Dog", which I plan to do a podcast on one day.

Where you can hear it?  Took me three days to find it P2P.  You can hear a sample at the iTunes Store, but it doesn’t include the magic part!  Who CHOOSES these samples?

And, unfortunately, this is one thing you can’t find on the Hype Machine site.

5. "High On A Mountain"
Ollabelle

Some stuff sounds better on the radio than it does at home.  I was enraptured by Kasey Chambers’ "Out The Door" when I heard it on XM, but on her site…  Didn’t quite touch me.

But this, this works at home.

Last night on XM I heard the Doobie Brothers’ "Dark Eyed Cajun Woman". One of the most underrated acts of all time.  Oh, they got traction, but the average person just knows the hits.  They don’t know the album tracks, the VIBE!  There’s a vibe to this Ollabelle track, not dissimilar to that Doobies song, even though I wouldn’t put these acts in the same category.  It’s just that both can radiate such WARMTH, such HUMANITY!

Even better, Mike Marrone followed this with Little Feat’s spectacular "Easy To Slip".  And a Thea Gilmore remake of Creedence’s "Bad Moon Rising".

And that’s why I’m addicted to XM.  Because on the adult station we don’t only get the serviceable, the inoffensive Ben Taylor track above, but deeper stuff, that seems to be made only for us.