I’ve been told that Grooveshark‘s selection of music is just as good as Spotify’s and it’s also supposed to be free. Perhaps when Spotify starts enforcing its 20 hours per month limit for free, I’ll open up a Grooveshark account. The social aspects of Spotify are one of the things that make it so amazing. Just drag tracks to someone’s Facebook avatar and then it shows up in their inbox to listen to.

So far I’ve listened to the entire Mercury Prize shortlist for 2011 with the exception of Adele, which I’ve already heard multiple times before anyway.

Do I think it will stop me from buying what I want? Absolutely not. I still like to own actual .mp3s of the stuff I like the most. But it will certainly help me appreciate more music than I have in the past, and without having to search to hear it.

Pogue did a great review of the service on the NY Times.

Online Music, Unshackled
By DAVID POGUE

Published: July 27, 2011
This month, via Spotify, the music world took a great step forward toward the holy grail of a free, legal, song-specific and convenient service.

Related articles

• Spotify slapped with patent suit following US entry (geek.com)
• Spotify rolls out Artist Radio feature: It’s nice, but it’s no Pandora (geek.com)

Related posts:

1. Friendly Fires’ Kiss of Life vs. Boney M’s Gotta Go Home
2. Album Previews—Good or Bad? And Do You Have Any Sources?

the xx at united palace theater

When I watched these 3 meek Brit-hipsters open for The School of Seven Bells at Southstreet Seaport in 2009, I never imagined they’d make it as far as they have. They were awkward, shy, and had zero stage presence. But there was something incredibly unique about their sound that I remembered and there was a huge buzz about them everywhere in Britain.

Their debut album ‘x’, released a few months later, made it on my top ten list for 2009. The buzz continued stateside. I personally heard Jay-Z listening to them in a souped-up convertible jeep. Crystalized, I believe.

When I decided to see them at the United Palace Theater on October 2, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew they’d sound great but would they deliver in terms of stage presence? In my opinion, they did and it seemed that the crowd of approximately 3,500 at the old and beautiful mostly agreed. It seems that winning the 2010 Barclay Mercury Prize increased their confidence as well.

It seems that this show marked the end of their U.S. tour and also the first time that all the members were all of 21 years old!

I’m looking forward to see what this band turns out next.

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Friendly Fires

Another great video (and song) that Logo’s New Now Next turned me on to is the latest single “Kiss of Life” by the UK’s Friendly Fires. Their debut album (of the same name) was released in September 1 of 2008 and will be released again almost a year later on the 31st of this month. I suspect that this re-release has something to do with the fact that Friendly Fires has been nominated for a coveted Mercury Prize for their 2008 work. Friendly Fires are an English band from St. Albans, Hertfordshire and can loosely be classified as synth pop.

I remember seeing a video for one of their previous singles and not being overly excited about it but “Kiss of Life” is great. It’s the sort of song, much like the Amadou and Marium albums, that conjures up feelings of joy. At the same time, it’s sonically complex with a lot going rhythmically. There is something oddly attractive and unattractive at the same time about lead singer Ed Macfarlane in this video. I love the dancing, which has a camp/cool quality that makes me think of the way I danced in the 80′s to New Wave.

Boney M

My partner Adi and I both loved this song and video but he’s the one who recognized a song from his childhood that is very similar to Friendly Fires “Kiss of Life”. It’s the German group called Boney M who were Euro favorites mostly in the 80′s but seemed to still be (re)releasing some new music, including Felicidad America (Obama Obama) to celebrate the fact that Obama won the presidency in the U.S.

The Boney M song that Adi recognized as having a similar beat and background vocals to Friendly Fires’ “Kiss of Life” is “Gotta Go Home“, which is a Double A-side single that reached No. 12 on the UK charts and was their final No. 1 single in Germany.

Listen to both of these and see what you think. Similar enough to be a sample or just a vague similarity? I didn’t see anything else in the blogosphere written out this. Could I (or Adi) be the first to discover it?

Friendly Fires “Kiss of Life”

Boney M “Gotta Go Home”

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

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