Digital backwater, thy name is Canada. Also tried spotify earlier today when I saw the announcement about their US launch. Who do I blame for this? The CRTC? The federal government for not passing digital rights legislation? Or Stuart?

I thought this looked good as an answer to our cd club woes but alas they are very sorry and don't like our type round here.

While the rest of the planet moves forward our beloved backwater status remains intact.

Call me a cynic but I'm beginning to think that axing the CD club might be a more prudent move than nixing the blog. Perhaps Kyle you can follow-up on a method for us to get together virtually and share our music. I know some of us have done this through Rdio but without the beer and cheetos it's just not the same.

Win Wilco Tickets.

Something shimmering and white/

(the link in the last post may have been too subtle)

And it's something quite peculiar.

I think about/the loveless fascination/...

Got it. Will leave as is. Am also on the path to quitting emusic. Hit cancel and accepted the free month. Enough fence sitting. Am also going to buy a bike and slowly drive it down Jarvis for the next 4 years. But that's another topic for another day.

As Brian has already stated it would be unfortunate if we were to let Metabeats die off. I don't post as often as I should but I still check in on a regular basis and find the discussions, recommendations etc useful and enlightening. I figure that the slowdown of late has as much to do with the arrival of summer than any lack of interest in the blog.

On another note I signed off on e-music 3 months ago and haven't found that I've really missed it. I always seemed to be downloading 50 or 60 tracks in the last 24 hours before my downloads expired. Not really the best way to purchase music.

Less concerned about the one-hand-clapping aspect, though that is a small factor in the considerations. Am thinking that there may be other ways to recommend some music, link to something interesting, or ask a question without requiring someone to string together a few paragraphs or devote a half hour or longer to putting together. I can well understand not being able to find the time or mental energy to do this, while also needing to devote same to actual paid profession. At any rate, exploring options and no need to blow things up or shut things down at this point. Just thinking about more effective ways to collaborate.

One such possible way is through the new social media site,google+ , which allows one to define certain groups of friends by interest and then feed info and posts into a stream that all can see. If you wanna try it, I can invite you to join, test.

Hey Kyle, I can see it's been a lonely ride for you on the blog recently, but I for one am in no hurry to see it wind down. My contributions or lack thereof to Metabeats are a microcosm of sorts for my life as a whole - having trouble getting untracked and doing anything of interest on all fronts (damn it). Included in this would be finding music that I'm excited about.....frankly, doing anything I'm excited about. I'm attributing it for now to the hangover of having finished my studying, and not knowing what to do with myself (plus giving too much attention to work). SO, psycho-therapy session notwithstanding, I'd be bloody disappointed if Metabeats went down in flames. Having said that, if I start contributing more regularly - which I would like to do - not sure that "saves" the blog anyway. It's your baby.

Had wondered why R.E.M.'s Life's Rich Pageant was a new release on Rdio. Apparently this month is the 25th anniversary of it's release. If I didn't already feel pretty damn old, this fact certainly does the trick.

Bri, thanks for the Hello Echo recommendation. Not sure if it's any good but it's $4.90 price tag on emusic aligned nicely with that very same amount I had on my monthly balance, which refreshes in a few days. Think this may be the end of the road for me and emusic, though. It's been a nice ride but really, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find enough interesting music to download.

Also thinking it may be time to start folding up this here blog, at least in its current incarnation. There are some other ways that we can collaborate in an online space that may make more sense and be less time consuming, which I suspect may be a problem for some.

Anyhow, appreciate thoughts, suggestions on either!

Here's your challenge for the week:

Come up with a band or artist who haven't recorded an album in years and whose pending new release you could actually care less about than this?

Shorthand reference: Denmark = bicycles, Kierkegaard. Iceland = bankrupty, Bjork. You're welcome.

Ah right, Denmark.

re: Braids The first track, "Lemonade" introduces a very specific vocal range/style that seems to endlessly repeat throughout every subsequent song on the record, with quick, soft yippy little shouts leading to slow, slightly drawn out words quickly rising to sharp yelps. lather, rinse, repeat. musical arrangements lead me back somewhat but not to the point where i'm actually liking it all that much. I dunno. Mike? Marc? Stu? Guy Stu met in England?

Sorry to be persnickety but Iceage are actually from Denmark and would probably be pissed if you called them an Icelandic band. I've listened to it a few times on Rdio and as much as some of the sounds excite me it could rather use a bit more meat on them their bones. Not bad for a first album though.

Sorry Kyle but until you posted that Polaris list I'd never even heard of Galaxie. Must be good if it knocked off two of my faves from last year (PS I Love You and Women) off the shortlist. I keep trying with Destroyer's "Kaputt" and as much as I've grown to appreciate it's more meandering style I can't ever see myself loving it. As for Braids I think I'm liking them a bit more than the two of you.

Kyle, great news abut record sales, made even more exciting by the news that it's on the backs of Lady Gaga's $0.99 special!

Hey thanks for the prompt posting of recent favourites and disappointments. That will help. I have a couple of those - Antlers, Yuck, and Low - but will check out the others - particularly the Papercuts and UNKLE, which you mentioned the other night and I tried to find unsuccessfully.

I'm also enjoying a few others which you may well know, but just to share the love: the cave singers which is a mix of pleasant chanted folk music and slightly rawer electric stuff, the mellow indy pop sounds of Iceland's Sin Fang, the hard punk sounds of the latest under-20 phenom band, Iceland's (yet again) Iceage, some atmospheric guitar-forward pop from Hello Echo, soft Cali-rock-meets-Pavement from The Donkeys, and finally, though it's early on in the listening cycle, liking the recent follow up records from Army Navy and Pete and the Pirates. Three other records that I've spun a fair bit are the 20-years-in-the-making Feelies release, the J Mascis record, and Yellow Ostrich's exercise in stimulating pop weirdness.

Somewhere in that amalgam lie my faves of the first half of 2011. (Fleet Foxes is nice too....damn, so is Matt Pond's EP, and oh yeah, the Sloan record is pretty dang good). Anyone else care to sound in?

Re disappointments, the Braids are unduly lauded to my ear as well. And I'm quite unhappy with the Bon Iver album - he's suddenly sounding like Grizzly Bear, which I thought was a great band until Veckatemist's excesses (I know many differ with my opinion). I'll give it another few listens but it lacks the immediacy and the huge angsty soulfulness of For Emma, replacing with busy, grandiose, and annoying arrangements.