use Perl

I've been a fan of free, online music for a few years now. I'm bored to death by public radio, 90% of everything they play I can name by performer and title, and I don't feel any need to listen to it even some more. My latest fling is The Faint, a band that sounds a lot like yesteryear, reminding me of stuff like Magazine, Blondie, The Fixx, ... (thus, the early post-punk stuff) but with a low-fi quality, a lot of drive, and a harsh edge to it. It's not often that I have an instant liking for 5 out of 8 available songs; my favourite is "Glass Danse", in case you want to take a quick listen yourself.

They have a website too, not suprisingly, with these, and even more tracks. Those remixes are interesting. What I found remarkable was that the original studio tracks are 64kbit/s on their site, 192kbit/s on music.download.com, and that the difference in audio quality is minimal. That shows, in a way, how low-fi their sound really is... those 64kbit tracks are in mono, that might have helped some, limiting the loss in quality, at least a little.

Anyway, they're touring now, they will be in Europe Real Soon Now (!), and I'd love to go to see them live on the 4th of December in Bruges; unfortunately, I do have familiy obligations those of you with small children and living in or near Belgium or Holland, may be able to guess why.

Thank goodness they'll be back in Brussels on the 17th. I hope I'll be able to make it then.

If I do, I might be able to pick up one or a few of their CDs. Yup, their music being available on Internet for free doesn't imply I'm not willing to spend money on them, I love having a copy of what I like. On the contrary, this is an excellent way to discover good, alternative music (= not the stuff the media is trying force down your throat) at your own tempo, for free, and with no obligations.