I'm seriously considering getting some web server space so I can post an MP3 on here every now and then. Any recommendations? Does anybody want to let me piggyback - with financial compensation - onto their space? At most, we're talking five available mp3s each week and probably much less than that. I'm not actually looking to start an MP3 blog per se. There are plenty of those in existence. It's just that there are songs I love that I want to be OUT THERE. Songs where if I reach just one person blah blah it would all be worth it blah blah. The only rhyme or reason to my choices would be that, in my head, these are all #1 hits (which isn't the same as saying the song should be a #1 hit on Billboard, mind you). It makes sense to share songs with maximum personal appeal on a blog that's all about my take on things. If you've got advice and/or the hook-up, e-mail me.

While I'd probably try to avoid actual pop chart smashes, they might crop up now and then depending on how strongly I feel about them. A lot of net folk don't actually listen to the radio or watch MTV, so its possible they've never really latched onto a song despite the increased possibility of exposure. Two songs on the radio that give me the shivers every time I hear them are the Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love?" and Eminem's "Like Toy Soldiers." I held off on engaging with the BEP track for a LONG time, ignoring the sentiments and wryly noting I liked the distorted keyb solo (I'm fond of using those myself) and how the chorus rips off Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn." The video is such a fuckin' Sprite ad that it took me months to even notice that much about the song. Following the election and the horseshit from both sides of the political spectrum that followed, the verse lyrics now turn me into such a sobbing baby that I forget to catch that overdriven casio. While it says something about how wack these guys used to be that they benefited from the addition of a former member of Kids Incorporated, I'm hoping their next album will be the inclusive mini-Thriller this country needs. They should to do a single with Big & Rich.

The Eminem track is easy to dismiss (multi-platinum artists should not be acknowledging the existence of Benzino), but unlike most extended journal entries I've seen about warmongers, Eminem comes from the perspective of someone who's aware of his own power. Macho hawks aren't some "other" that he can lash at from the sidelines; he acknowledges how his own aggression and desire for vengeance can affect the lives of others. While he's emotionally bolstered by the "save the children" Martika sample and I'm worried I'm engaging in unwarranted white-on-white lionization (does Eminem have to be the only white guy in the video and the only person who finds fault in the escalation of rap violence?), hearing such naked acceptance of personal responsibility is rather affecting.

You can hear the Black Eyed Peas track on their ugly-ass site and both videos are on Launch. I'll do my best to make sure that my eventual mp3s aren't all such sappies.

[update: my once and future drinking buddy Dave gave me the heads-up on a good server. Public display of gratitude to Dave!]