Links

Links to my primary music pages on the Internet ...


Beta Records is about the best free music page around


MP3.com is back with a fabulous, new, and still free site

SoundClick Now!
SoundClick has the most legal mp3's anywhere on the net


iSound is a fast-growing, hip, slick, and cool music place

... and some secondary ones, too
UBL is the "Ultimate Band List" section of the big ArtistDirect
Aesthetic Refuge is exactly what it says it is, plus fabulous
IAC Music has a whole lot of rockers, but they're friendly
Unsigned Talents is sparse and dated, but kinda cool

Links to friends, colleagues, cool people & neat stuff

Suburban Home Records -- Only those who don't know Erik Jay too well would think it odd that he would feature an outfit that distributes punk rock and such. His friends, though, know how eclectic his tastes are, and more importantly, know and agree with his desire to support any and all independent (indie) music makers. That means the bands and the solo artists and the production companies and the producers and the distributors and ... well, you get the picture. So anyway, Erik got an e-mail recently from Law Of Inertia magazine – a slick and smart and sick and smart-aleck rag if there ever was one, dedicated to alternative music styles and other provocative manias – telling him the tale of an indie record label that needed help to avoid shutting its doors, virtual and otherwise. Essentially, they need people to buy records and t-shirts and doo-dads and such, which is how the heck they keep enough cash-flow to provide the rest of us with an alternative to, oh you know, Britney and Christina and Clay and Kelly and Piffy or Puffy or whoever he is this week, not to mention Kenny G and the other purveyors of the Sleepytime Pseudojazzy Pointyhead Pabulum that Erik provides an escape from. Is that enough of a rant and enticement? Should be! Help these folks, you other folks! Hit that link up there and spend some dough, okay?

Michael Barretto -- The blues is such a special genre, so demanding in a way beyond speed or technique or theory, that Erik Jay usually plays the 'jazzed up' styles if any. In fact, he drafted David Rabiroff to do the solo on the jazzy-bluesy tune Vertical because he didn't think he would handle it as well. Of bluesman Michael Barretto, Erik says, "I respect the heck out of good blues players, and this fellow here from the Hawaiian Islands is the real deal. He also does other genres, but in my opinion (I didn't say 'humble' did I?) he is at his unique best when doing his syncretic and idiosyncratic 'island blues' such as you'll find at his site and on his CD." If you like it real, and real good, go see and hear Michael right away.

Graham Dorsey -- The name should be familiar since he's all over Erik Jay's tunes as a bassist and sax guy. But Mr. Dorsey is a great writer and arranger and band leader in his own right, and he has been gracious enough to let Erik play all over his stuff too! (For you note-takers, Erik does the guitar solos on Cielo and Quem Te Viu on Graham Dorsey's latest CD.)

Politickles -- A major influence in the maturing of Erik Jay's own writing was F.R. Duplantier, the progenitor of this ham-on-wry website of political humor (an oxymoron perhaps?) from the radical God-fearing family-man father-of-six Old (and Cranky) Right.

Pearly Gates Productions -- The website for the studio of Erik Jay's producer, Richard Zeier, is a design-intensive experience crafted by Richard's wife, Bonita; it makes for a nice cruise. The only thing missing is streaming audio, but that's on its way so keeping checking back with these folks.