I <3 emusic.com

the 22nd of every month is a little christmassy for me, because that's when my emusic downloads refresh. i pay 15 smackers and get to download 65 songs. it's a pretty sweet deal, and it helps me keep in new music (which is tough when you don't listen to the radio, go to concerts or watch tv) and get caught up on stuff i've been meaning to pick up for years but for one reason or another couldn't. my dl's refreshed an hour ago, and i'm already half way through. here's what's up this month:

the decemberists- the tain: a whole ep in one track! boo ya!
pavement- (the rest of) terror twilight: pavement's worst record, westing included. still better than seven mary three's best, though.
pavement- haunt you down: amy mariaskin gave me a sixth- or seventh generation copy of stray slay or stuff up the cracks in 1995 that lived in my 1989 mercury sable until it's death in 1998. i hadn't heard this song since then, but still knew all the words.
okkervil river- black sheep boy: i really love this record. reminiscent of poppier palace music from back in the day, great instrumentation.
the extra glenns- martial arts weekend: john darnielle (mountain goats) and franklin bruno (nothing painted blue) basically doing what sounds like a plain old mountain goats record. not that there's anything wrong with that.
arab strap- i work in a saloon and the first big weekend: back in my days as a dj on wrct 88.3 fm, i picked up "the week never starts around here" and fell in love wqith these two songs. it's nice to have them now.
they might be giants- robot parade: i saw the johns do this on late night with conan o'brien, but never picked up a copy of "no!". since emusic charges by the song, i don't think i'll pick it up just yet, but having this one track is already making my morning scream.

there's an affiliate program at emuisc, so if you like music that's a bit obscure and think this sounds dandy, shoot me an email or leave a comment- you get 50 free songs for trying it out, and i get 50 free songs for introducing you two lovers.

i've still got 30 downloads to go, so back to work.