Panic in Streaming Music Park

Tonight is a sad, soundless night 'round these parts. It seems that the Rhapsody site is down. Do you know the last time I actually put one of those silvery round flat objects (I believe you Earthlings call them "Cds") in a player? I have four CD stack holders covered in literally millimeters of dust. Tree rings of dust. Carbon-14 date-able levels of dust.

Most anybody who is geeky enough to go blog-hunting already knows about Rhapsody, and I absolutely hate any fawning that approaches shill status, but it surprises me the service doesn't get more subscribers. Yes, it doesn't have everything, but it has so, so much. Enough that you can go through the typical ADHD music jag without missing a beat. One night it might be Flaming Lips begats Polyphonic Spree begats Granddaddy begats Codeine begats Galaxie 500 begats Mazzy Star and then you realize that you really been subconsciously depressed for days in a post-Thanksgiving let-down funk, and it took this little music jag to figure that out.

Or maybe you've got about 7 hours of housecleaning to do because you've been in this post-Thanksgiving funk holding onto comfort pillows in the fetal position for three days and nights while cats and dogs shed and keep shedding. So you crawl up from that fetal position, put on one of those box sets you've never been able to afford, say Ornette Coleman's "Beauty is a Rare Thing" and crank up all that wacky free jazz goodness while manically de-shedding.

And all for $9.95 a month. So, while others get the new IPod with the ever improving special features (like its spectacular battery replacement program!) and mp3 players for all the tunes we stole during the good ole' Wild-West days of Napster, I'm Jonesing for my Rhapsody tonight...because it's down. My music's down, man. It's down.

Meanwhile, many of you old-skool music nerds have long wondered "where can I find a live complete rendition of They Might Be Giants' seminal hook medley 'Fingertips'"? Well here it is. (Real Audio) And here are some more tunes recorded recently at KEXP. Relive all the early 90's goodness with John and John singing in voices only slightly less cracked than mine in the shower after three cups of coffee and a night of screaming over the music in a smoke-filled bar.

Oh Wait! Glory of Glories! The Rhapsody is back up! Yeah! Bring on the Mountain Goats, pronto! There's a post-Thanksgiving funk to listen our way through and John Darnielle is just the guy for the job. I wonder what we'll listen to after that....