Spending money - Thomas Bartlett's article* on mp3 blogs at Salon (one of the few Web magazines that I can actually read), sent me off to listen to the truly awfully named, "Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr" group's "You Can't Blame Me", a song as beautiful as the group's name isn't. Everything Bartlett says is true, it's the sort of song that makes you stop whatever you're doing, and just listen.

The best of those songs give you that feeling forever. I can only think of a handful that affect me that way: Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", and Sophie Zelmani's chilling cover of his "Most of the Time", Rod Stewart's "Every Picture Tells a Story", The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" Joplin's "Piece of My Heart." Sinead O'Connor's "I Am Stretched On Your Grave."

Anyway, the song and a link from the article sent me off to the "Numero Group's" site (you'll need Flash, if you're one of the two people left who haven't installed it), and a look at the compilation "Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label". Listened to the other excerpts, and decided it was an album I needed to have.

Numero only has two CDs available, "Eccentric Soul" and "Camino Del Soul" from a group called Antena, who have a weird lounge lizard, psychedelic-Samba sound which kind of reminded me of the group Mello, who did the "CQ" soundtrack What the hell, only an extra 13 bucks, he sez, and buys it, too.

Didn't think all that much of the mp3 blogs the article listed, nor the other free downloads... probably just as well for my pocketbook.

*You'll need to sign up for a "free day pass" and watch a short commercial to gain access to Salon. It's worth it. If you don't regularly read Salon, btw, check out Patrick Smith's "Ask the Pilot" column in the "Tech & Business" section. It's worth the hassle alone. And hell, people have to earn a living somehow.