BNL and eMusic.com
A few months ago, I posted a nifty way to get 27 out of 29 Barenaked Ladies tunes – plus recent live tracks – for $10, by singing up at eMusic. I was skeptical about eMusic, but I’m now hooked.
I still owe you a post that whittles down Barenaked Ladies Are Me to the essential tracks. I’ve started working on it.
But since eMusic has sent me numerous e-mails about this, I thought I’d pass it on: the eMusic subscription plans are changing effective this Tuesday (tomorrow), unfortunately for the worse. (Read their lame explanation here.) Whereas you used to pay $10 for 40 downloads a month, effective the 21st, it’ll only be 30. $15 used to get you 65, now you’ll get 50. And whereas $20 got ya 90, it’ll soon only get ya 75.
It sucks, but those of us who already have subscriptions get the old number of downloads locked in, as do any of you who sign up before Tuesday. So if you’ve been thinking about giving eMusic a trial, now’s the time. You get 25 free, DRM-free songs and can actually cancel afterwards, without any bullshit. And yes, as opposed to the coupon codes, I do get extra downloads for referrals, so there’s my disclaimer.
Their selection is not mainstream, so give up on getting any Michael McDonald right now, okay? However, if you want the "our label dropped us" works of Stephen Bishop, Hall & Oates, Little River Band, Andrew Gold, and Air Supply, look no further. (Seriously, they’ve also got BNL, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, TMBG, Aimee Mann, Cat Power, Sufjan Stevens, and this awesome gospel music album that I’ve had on my Amazon wishlist for months.)
Anyway, click below if you’re interested. Or don’t. Oh, did I mention you can get the Peter Cetera Christmas album there as well? Somebody I know purchased it on eMusic, but for the life of me, I can’t remember who…
November 21st, 2006 at 11:25 pm
I like the long version of BNL Are Me (I got my folks to grab it for me when they were on vaca in Canada last month), and the second disc is definitely stronger (Stephen Page even admitted as much on their podcasts), but I agree that there’s an even better single album in there. Here’s mine:
Adrift, Sound of Your Voice, Easy, Take It Back, Vanishing, Wind It Up, Something You’ll Never Find, Angry People, Beautiful, Running Out of Ink, Half a Heart, I Can I Will I Do, The New Sad
Also, did you ever check out Page’s solo album "The Vanity Project" that came out in ’05?
November 21st, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Nice choices. I agree with most of them, although I think "I Can, I Will, I Do" is just about the worst BNL song I’ve ever heard. I keep waiting for it to grow on me but it’s just not happening.
I do have The Vanity Project, but truth be told, I just never really got into it. What are your fave tracks? I did like "That’s All," "Wilted Rose" and "So Young So Wrong So Long" but I don’t recall any of the other tracks making much of an impression on me.
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:25 am
Been awhile since I heard The Vanity Project album and I don’t have it in front of me or loaded into my iTunes anymore, but I really like the song that has the blatant rewrite of the "Things We Said Today" intro. Steve was very honest about it and even introduced it as such when he did his record store tour (including the Tower I worked at). Real nice guy, like that’s a surprise or something.
The worst BNL songs will always be the ones by Jim Creegan. Sorry dude, you’re a great musician, but a writer you’re not. Born on a Pirate Ship would easily be my favorite BNL album if it weren’t for "Spider in My Room" and "In the Drink". Yuck. But Kevin Hearn is now officially the George Harrison of BNL… he only gets a song or two per album but they’re invariably among the best. (and he was smart enough to hand the vocal off to Steve on "Sound of Your Voice", imo the best song on disc 1)
November 22nd, 2006 at 8:49 am
I was really surprised to find that I dug "Peterborough And The Kawarthas" because I’m usually in the same boat as you (although I don’t mind either of the songs on BOAPS, I’ve heard some of his other outtakes, like "Inline Bowline" and cringed all the way).
As for Kevin’s stuff, love his writing, can’t STAND his singing. On everything. I have yet to hear a song where he sounds like he can hold a note. Maybe "Vanishing." I think "Adrift" (which I believe was originally his) and "Sound Of Your Voice" are fantastic. As I’ll probably mention in my comments on the album, "Sound" is BNL’s "Somebody To Love." (Queen, not Jefferson Airplane.)
I met all of the guys about 10 years ago after my first BNL show in Rochester. They were all incredibly nice. Steve was extremely shy.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Abilify and ritalin….
Abilify….