mp3 infusion!

Remember Paste? That magazine that used to be about music, until it was about a bunch of other things, too, and then it wasn’t in print anymore?

I discovered countless wonderful artists through them and still have stacks of those sampler CDs sitting somewhere in my childhood bedroom. And a Preservation Hall “quiet — recording in progress” back-cover ad than ran in 2004 is still framed in my living room as “art,” because it’s just that cool.

The new Paste is a digital player/magazine/download tool. No more glossy pages or CDs or ads to rip out and frame, but it’s nice to see their feature content organized in a sorta magazine-like form again. Even better, it was all free for a while (yet I somehow forgot to keep checking it out). Just before they closed the doors to paying customers only, I grabbed all their archived mp3s, which were rich with all those names I see all over the internet sites where the cool music kids play.

Plus, older and/or rootsier types I already know and love. More than 100 songs. It’s a mega-sampler! The perfect cure for my current “just listening to favorites over and over and over” syndrome.

I hope to report back with some new favorites. And yes, Paste, if you are reading, I will probably subscribe to your newfangled digital magazine-ish thing-y, too.