We apologize for the interruption and now return to our regularly scheduled blog. We’ve been busy here at MusicStrands working on new music discovery stuff that we will be announcing very soon.

What they will let me talk about is what I hear when people talk about “Music Discovery” around here. When I boil it all down, I hear people describing a number of different personal experiences with music:

• The Oracle experience - Go online and search for info, and now the opportunity to buy, music of interest.
• The Record Store experience - Surrounded by a music environment talking about, listening to, and buying CDs you didn’t even know you wanted when you walked in.
• The Radio (live DJ!) experience - Someone who knows a lot more about music and new releases taking me on a musical excursion.
• The Living Room experience - Friends not letting friends listen to bad music.

Enhancing all of these experiences and providing you with a new music discovery experience that you’ll wonder how you ever lived without, that’s the vision.

Eavesdropping on the record store/living room teams as they were “working” on the things I can’t talk about (couches and recliners, killer entertainment center, stocked ‘fridge - guys, how do I get that gig to do the punk music?):

The Gregory Morris Group … Cincinnati, Ohio band … unsigned … playing locally in southern Ohio … unusual Cuban folk derivative … amazing guitar work … never heard anyone like the lead singer on “Baylight Lullaby” … lyrics are troubled but hilarious … CD at CDBaby .

This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.

Wideband Network … two guys in Toledo, Ohio … wrote and recorded their entire debut album through a solely online collaboration!! … been to Toledo … no decent dance clubs … where did these two get their inspiration?! … (Depeche Mode, Savage Garden?) … “The Silence” begs to be remixed and blared across a dancefloor … Apple iTunes .

This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.

St. Somewhere … quartet from Knoxville, Tennessee … heritage is mainstream American Rock and Blues … peculiar international twist … … impressive guitar work of the Stray Cats … akin to Calypso … what would happen if Brian Setzer played steel drums? … describe “Fool”? Groove! … gotta Google these guys to find them on a bunch of websites.

This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.

Kevin Mark … classic-style, toe-tapping blues … Canadian … BB King … Memphis Blues guitar picking … 7-piece band backing band?! …“Big Blue Cadillac” - cars and women, but not serious enough to become cliched … horns give a great dance-hall feel recorded live in Chicago … Apple iTunes .

This music free to share under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License.

One of my pivotal musical memories is from 7th-grade study hall when Michael Jackson’s Rockin’ Robin came on the radio. (Yes, for some reason we were allowed to listen to the radio in study hall.) We were psyched but the teacher, Mr. Bracken, just laughed and said bemusedly, “Oh my, this old song?” I was confused. From where I was sitting it didn’t get much fresher than the Jackson Five wonderkind busting out with a new solo effort. I had no idea and didn’t really care that it was an old Bobby Day hit.

Of course over the years I came to understand that new artists, for better or worse, routinely remake, or cover, previous hits. (My education in this regard came full circle some years later when Bananarama covered Venus, of which I was particularly fond of the 1970 original by Shocking Blue. In a room full of teens singing along with the radio all I could think was, “Oh my, this old song?”)

Nowhere can you better immerse yourself in the art of the cover than Brian Ibbott’s thrice weekly podcast, Coverville. Each 30-45 minute episode features a variety of covers ranging from Seu Jorge’s version of David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel (a revelation) to Paul Anka regaling us with Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel (no comment).

If you like your covers fast, loud, and punked-up, check out the all-cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Any of the 30-second clips from their album Blow in the Wind will tell you all you need to know about this band. Their version of San Francisco (uh-huh, as in “be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”), in particular, is impressively bent.

There’s no end to the lists of best covers, worst covers, favorite covers, on the ‘net. But taking it to another level is the Covers Project, a site devoted to creating a searchable database of cover songs. They also propose to use this knowledge to create “cover chains”, which are lists of songs in which each artist covered a song by the previous artist. For example, Counting Crows covered Friend of the Devil by The Grateful Dead; The Grateful Dead covered Hey Jude by the Beatles; The Beatles covered Roll over Beethoven by Chuck Berry. It’s actually quite challenging to come up with a list of more than three or four songs (without cheating) — try it!

And what of today’s 7th graders? If you’re looking for just the right words to explain to an 11-year old why you know all the words to Jessica Simpson’s latest can’t-miss hit, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, it’s all explained here at KidzWorld.

The Byrds covered Dylan somewhat obsessively throughout their career