If you didn’t already know (though I imagine most of you do) I’m an MP3 junky. Whenever I buy or receive a CD, the first thing I do is rip it and then stuff it on my iPod(s). Then I listen to it. Mostly, I just buy MP3s from Amazon.com (which I backup onto CD. Heh.) I have a MusicServer just for holding (a copy of) my MP3s and for serving up to my two Roku Soundbridges in the house. (The one in the living room doesn’t get much love, but my Library Soundbridge works hard – is working now, in fact.)

Back on October 28th, I mentioned that it was Buy Music Weekend for me. And I blamed poor gregmce for it. I’ve added quite a few MP3s to my collection as of that weekend, and not all of it Greg’s fault.

It started when he posted about the group Visqueen. He mentioned that they’d played at a show with Shonen Knife (good kitchen cleaning music) and my curiosity was piqued when he claimed he enjoyed Visqueen even more. So I listened to samples of their new album, and some of their older albums, and decided I liked the sound too. Being the completist that I am, I bought all of their albums.

I checked back on his comments later to find someone suggesting The Slants as well. I, once again, gave a listen and decided I liked. So I was up to 4 albums (so far, just downloads) for the weekend.

While searching, I decided to check on a couple of local groups that I’d wanted more music from. The Hammered Music Duo was a group I’d seen at the Piqua Heritage Festival and they play hammered dulcimers (among other instruments). Their Christmas album is one of my favorites, and some searching on Amazon located some non-Christmas CDs which they’d made (and were now out of print, but sold by used sellers). I ordered all of the ones I could locate, so was up to 7 albums purchased by now.

I also checked out Jim’s Red Pants for any recent releases. (They are a local folk group that loves to play unusual instruments whenever possible.) And found out they now had a Christmas album out (from last year – OK, so I don’t check online often enough). I e-mailed the group requesting prices for the Xmas CD and the compilation CD of their first two albums. Alas, no response there (yet), so I didn’t wind up with 8 & 9 yet.

That weekend was also one of the weekends that Rick Fannin was performing at O’Brians. I’d wanted to buy his CD the previous time I was there, but didn’t have the cash. So this time I made sure to bring enough moolah. And that night I got his CD (which he also autographed for me). There we go, album #8. Impressive music weekend, eh?

Unfortunately, that weekend wasn’t the end of my music buying. Thanks to VValtmouse‘s Lady Gaga obsession, I’d been hearing about her for awhile. And decided to listen to the samples from Amazon.com on the day of her album release. I decided that I liked it too. (Good, more kitchen cleaning music!) Unfortunately, I was only able to give the album one thorough listening to because it was now time for Christmas Music to dominate my music listening. Oh, and while I was buying that, I also bought a compilation album by the Steve Miller Band for $5. And Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree” song (which later wound up being free for the holidays – bummer, a buck wasted. Heh.)

Although I hadn’t been successful with Jim’s Red Pants at the time, I eventually got in touch with them thanks to the pastor at the UU church we sometimes attend. (He’s friends with the couple who are Jim’s Red Pants.) Although they were sold out of the compilation CD, they still had copies of the first album, so that and Snowbound, their Xmas CD, are now in my collection.

I figured that would be my only holiday album purchase this year. Ha ha, silly me. No, I listened to some of David Archuleta’s new Christmas album and liked his voice. So I bought it. Then later found out that iTunes had a free album of Christmas songs. So that was my first iTunes music purchase. (Burned ’em onto a CD then ripped them to MP3s so I could listen to ’em properly. iTunes sucks, you know.) And THEN found out that Straight No Chaser had not one, but two Christmas albums available online. (Visit my favorite YouTube video of theirs.)

I’ve decided I’m not going to bore you with the decision to rip my old DW audios (Docs 1 & 2) and other BBC Radio Dramas to MP3. Oh wait, I just did. Sorry! Thanks to that and my prior Big Finish audios and audiobooks, I’ve now got 30 DAYS worth of simply spoken word stories as MP3s.

So, like, I’ve got a ton of new music. Impulse buying of music has gotten WAY to easy with Amazon.com. Especially since I got the software to work just fine on my 64-bit Linux installation. Damn you Amazon.com! And your evil henchmen like Greg & Waltmouse! (Heh.)