I downloaded around 20, so I am still early on, but I would say Dramarama is the best one so far.

Its most definitly mood music, not meant to listen to on a bright sunny day or under fluorescent lighting.

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Daniel Lanois - dig his production as I'm a fan of "atmosphere", but his solo stuff is maybe a tad dad-rock after a couple of listens. I should own Teatro by Willie Nelson since Lanois produced.

Johnny Dowd - The one and only. I wish this guy had more notoriety. Great addition to my mix collection. I'm trying to help get his music on True Blood.

Fu Manchu - Great for when you just feel like listening to some big, dumb rock with heavy guitars. Great for meatheads, stoners and drunks. Not everyday listening by any means. Personally, I like the debut by Fu Manchu's former guitarist, Eddie Glass' band, Nebula.

Richard Hawley - Really like this guy. Had only heard a few tracks from Coles Corner and I own Lady's Bridge. If I had made the tenner, it would have more prominently featured the more upbeat rockabilly/Carl Perkins side of his tunes. I don't have a problem with this being mellow, it's just that mine would sound different.

Mark Lanegan -

Saints - Good tenner, but doesn't make me want to seek out anything else. Will be a good mix to have in my collection.

Phish - Personally, I've always hated "Bouncing Around the Room." Regardless, this one's giving me a severe case of nostalgia. Thanks for the inclusion of "Brian and Robert". Always one of my favorites from Story of the Ghost. Thought more songs from Billy Breathes would've done a better job of showing off their studio work, but the tenner is enjoyable nonetheless.

Gil Scott-Heron - Liked tracks 1-7. Don't care for his spoken word stuff. Enjoyable, but not anything I'll pursue any further. I couldn't help but feeling really White while listening to this, picturing this somewhat romanticized version of black and ghetto life in the 70s like something out of a Scorsese movie or from documentaries. In that way, I think GS-H served his original purpose (meaning he used gritty imagery and I perceived it through my Middle-Class White conditioned lens).

John Hiatt - Once again... yes, it's quality music/songwriting, but this is music made to be enjoyed by middle-aged men. I'll let him keep his fanbase intact.

Dream Syndicate - Decent enough. Don't see myself pursuing any of their music beyond this tenner. I sense Richard Hell/Television as an influence on this crew (who were influenced by VU). For some reason they make me think of Pixies as well, but with less-catchy and much longer songs.

Flipper - the kind of band I would never by a record from, but would love to get piss drunk and go see play at a bar and watch the disgusted looks on people's faces.

Blue Mountain - Decent enough. A few songs sound like DBT with the female backing vox. A few songs sound like every other alt-country band since Uncle Tupelo. "Black Dog" is nice and dirty.

Bobby Bare Jr. - reaffirmed my fandom for this fella. The music and tone and subject matter of the lyrics always keep me interested. I'm sure I'll eventually buy his first two albums with Young Criminal Starvation League (from which this tenner is culled).

David Olney - BORING. I didn't hold my attention long enough to want to delve deeper into lyrical content.

Link Wray - I guess I was expecting a harder version of Dick Dale or something. I wasn't familiar with this side of his output. I guess he was such an influence on other people that I've heard all of their stuff so it sounds repetitive. Oh well.

Tony Joe White - Good for what it is, but not scratching any musical itch for me.

Taj Mahal - Whew, thank gawd that first track doesn't remain as the theme for the rest of the tenner. I'm familiar with Taj Mahal's genre-jumping ability and respect him for it, but again, it's enjoyable, but not something I will pursue any further.

Nick Cave -

Butthole Surfers - I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I like this. I do and so far, besides Bobby Bare Jr., the only tenner I've heard that has made me want to sort of consider buying an album if I found it in a used bin.

Faust - I'd rather listen to Zappa and Can. Interesting enough, and I'm glad I've heard them, but nothing I'm going to look any further into. I especially liked "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl". The drum is annoying at first, but the repetition starts gettin' trippy.

Calexico - I dig this. I hadn't heard a whole lot of their stuff up to this point. Really like "All Systems Red". One of those bands whose stuff I would pick up if I found it cheap in a used bin.

Grateful Dead - liked it. Am familiar enough with them that this "tenner" doesn't make me want to go out an buy any of their stuff, but it'll be good to have in my arsenal.

Allman Bros. -

Gillian Welch -

The Sadies -

Andrew Bird -

They didn't completely lose it, they just became a whole different kind of beast. Instead of punk, they became closer to folk rock. They're still pretty excellent, and they kept the horns (for the most part), and Chris Bailey's voice is unmistakably the Saints - but he really should've just released the albums under his own name.

Sample a latterday Saints tenner at the bottom of this page.


Yeah, if you can only take 3 songs of Rod Stewart, it's totally understandable that a tenner from a Rod soundalike isn't gonna do it for you.

Rads' Dramarama mix, I liked but not actually not as much as I anticipated I would based on the music. Maybe it was residual Jim White craving. Anyway still some solid tunes on there. 'Right on Baby, Baby' is going on a mix of something. rparis' Go-Bewtweens was not my thing at all. I made it about halfway through and figured that qualitatively it was gonna be the same through 5-10 so I went to billyg's Auteurs mix. I'm not certain what it reminds me of, but it's really good. Never heard the band before.

Next up: Jerry Jerry

While it's familiar territory, Bloor's MMJ tenner is really spot-on. It hit the highlights I was looking for, and pulled a few I wasn't as familair with as well. Good song order choices.

I totally forgot about the Lanois tenner from Seafoam. That hits the spot for late night melancholy and tired listening. Sort of a reverb and delay heavy slowcore monger vibe.

latterday saints - ok, so this was really great as well. definitely a different beast, as you said.... vocals reminded me a bit of dude from midnight oil in spots. this will be going on the ipod tonight, thanks rads.

the chameleons - this is one of those bands that i've always heard about but never got around to checking out. well hot damn, better late than never...this is some good shit right here. if this tenner was released as the new interpol record, everyone would be shitting themselves over it. i think i've heard "up the down escalator" before somewhere...something very familiar. "second skin" is awesome as well. i actually like the tunes from script of the bridge a lot more than the others...and looking at amazon, they've just released a remastered expanded script of the bridge, and my trigger finger is getting itchy....thanks a lot duckyboy!

the dream syndicate - well fuck me, i have a new favorite tenner. how have i not heard this band before? reminds me a little bit of lloyd cole but with some really great fucking guitar. days of wine and roses is going in my amazon cart as we speak.

i'm seeing the band rain parade being mentioned a lot along with these guys...are they worth checking out?

Rain Parade are okay, but they really lack hooks of any kind and whole albums sorta meld into one long boring soundscape. They don't have much in common with the Dream Syndicate other than they were part of the Paisley Underground scene.

for me so far, Days of Wine and Roses is the only dream syndicate you really need.

and rain parade are pretty damn boring. but a lot of the so called "paisley underground" bands of this genre are pretty damn good.

Totally awesome. It went straight on the ipod. The other tenner I played was The Saints, after hearing everyone raving about it. I can understand why. Really fantastic.

I was introduced to these guys from someone here (or CMJ) 4 or 5 years ago, and they have become one of my favorites. I prefer Strange Times to Script, but both are fantastic.

Man there's so much good stuff. I am trying to DL as much as I can and load up as well since I'll be out of town for a week this Friday. When I get back the Family will be with me so I'll be back to pussyfootin' around here again. Aaargh!

Ya know, I think if you downloaded everything in that thread, you'd have a better music collection than at least 75% of the general population without getting anything else.

Oh....James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Angry Samoans coming sometime today.

Wimple Winch:
BritPop Merseybeat with the occasional fuzzed-out guitar. It's really right the hell up my alley. Although not all of the songs are terribly strong, there is a pervading sense of fun that makes this irresistible for me. Total and complete Nuggets fodder. (They may have already been a part of one of those collections, anyway.)

Still haven't listened to any of these but I added:

Seafoam's Buffett
Tentoze's Hiatt
& Radcliffe's Sparklehorse

to the pile last night

I have these, plus your Cosmic Rough Riders on deck today.

betty davis - after i got over the initial shock of how scratchy her voice was, i fell for this...some serious, nasty funk. love it!

edwyn collins - kinda meh on this one. nothing really stands out for me, even though none of it was really bad.

close lobsters - thanks for this one rod, i've been wanting to hear these guys. i was a little distracted when i first listened this morning, but what i did hear sounded great.

desmond dekker - i coulda sworn that i had some dd on my ipod already, so i skipped this one initally. looking over my itunes last night, there is no dd to be found, so i snagged this. currently np, and loving it...thanks nobody.

looking forward to checking out the gil scott-heron and stevie tenners later!

and again, thanks a million to all those putting these up!

I didn't do the Dekker one. Was gonna do one, but was beaten to it. But, I agree it is good.

ooops. damn it's getting hard to keep track.

well thank you for the stevie then!

Bloor's Butthole Surfers mix was great. I managed to play it at an excessive volume before too many people got to work. Best surprise, and one of my favourite tenners was billyg's Cosmic Rough Riders. Fucking great cali-pop by way of Scotland. That was an excellent intro. Also played tentoze's John Hiatt, which was pretty good as well. Heard a lot about Hiatt, but this was my first real intro. I'm hanging onto that one.

Considering the mixes are averaging 45 minutes each, it's like gettting 130 or so albums in just a couple days. And counting.

Cool. I'm a little surprised that you like it that much. I almost posted that i didn't think you'd like it that much when I saw you say you'd downloaded it but remembered you liking the Mamas and Papas and decided not to.