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As some of you may or may not know, Penn State University (which I attend) has a deal with Napster -- basically, all students get the service for free (well, not quite free, as there is a charge for making a song able to be burned onto a CD). The selection is decent, although missing some artists for sure, the download speeds are fast and consistant, and there's no worries of a transfer failing or being remotely queued, so downloading entire albums at a time is a fairly quick and easy thing to do. I've decided to take advantage of this and download one album from one artist for every letter of the alphabet. Maybe I'll expand my musical horizons a bit. Anyway, I'll be posting what I downloaded and a quasi-review as well, so that maybe I'll introduce someone here to new music as well.

Now, this may take a while for me to do every letter, so in order to keep this thread alive and interesting until I'm finished, I ask you all to list a band, an album or song, and maybe a brief description for every letter of the alphabet. I'll start:

Apples in Stereo - Strawberry Fire (song)
A very mellow, summertimeish feeling song with some heavy bass.

Ben Taylor Band - Island (song)
Also very mellow. Folksy.

Catherine Wheel - Sparks are Gonna Fly (song)
Cool guitar distortion

Desert Sessions - Making a Cross (song)
Kyuss/QOTSA members -- song is light and acoustic sounding.

Elvis Costello - Pump it Up (song)
I love the bass line.

Flickerstick - Coke (song)
I really wish VH1 would do a show like that again.

Guster - Airport Song (song)
Two acoustic guitars and bongo drums, what more could you ask for?

Howie Day - Stop all the World Now (album)
I can't believe the dept. store I work at plays this on the muzak.

Infected Mushroom - Bust a Move (song)
Techno with acoustic guitars

Jack Johnson - Flake (song)
Acoustic guitar and mellow singing

Kyuss - Catamaran (song)
A very mellow, groovy ass song from the fathers of stoner rock

Living Color - Cult of Personality (song)
You probably remember this song from the 90's

Michael Franti and Spearhead - Everyone Deserves Music (album)
Incredible album. Rock meets hip-hop with acoustic guitars and soulfull
singing from Franti. Many political statements.

Nick Drake - Pink Moon (album)
David Bowie meets Iggy Pop. In a way, at least.

Opeth - Damnation (album)
Very mellow album from a (usually) death metal band. I wish they made music like this all the time.

Porcupine Tree - Prodigal (song)
HEAVY Pink Floyd influence here.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (song)
Only the best sing-a-long song ever.

Rufus Wainwright - Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (song)
Piano and singing. Somewhat similar to Ben Folds.

Stonehenge - Full Moon (song)
Really cool song by this prog-metal group. I especially like the singing in the first minute or so of the song.

Travelling Wilburys - Handle with Care (song)
Group members include: Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison. That should speak for itself.

Unified Theory - California (song)
This band is the remnants of Blind Melon -- a little heavier.

Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun (song)
Very catchy. I'm getting lazy.

W- Nothing comes to mind

X- Same

Y- Yngwi J Malmsteen's Rising Force

Zuam - Merkaba (song)
Danny Carey (Tool) drums in this electonica-ish side project.



Now, for my real list: Nothing as of yet, but I'll be updating soon.

Adam Cohen - Adam Cohen
I like it. Singer-songwriter style that reminds me of artists like Jack Johnson and Howie Day. Acoustic and catchy. So far, all the songs are pretty damn good.

Recommended Song(s): Cry Ophelia, Tell Me Everything

Rating 7/10
(Would be higher if I were more into the genre of music he does)

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