Having nothing much to do this morning, I decided to load up the Russians with 50 bucks (from a $100 credit card I got for finding my apartment via rent.com) and see how many MP3s it could get me. I found some nice stuff:

Albert King: Born Under a Bad Sign - Really super good blues.

Beck: Guero - His newest. Some good songs, and it was only like a buck-oh-five. Or maybe a buck-fiddy. I forget.

Billie Holiday: All Or Nothing At All - We already have a lot, but one can never have too much Billie.

The Blue Hawaiians: Live At The Lava Lounge - Hello, my name is Bill and I am a tikiholic.

Bo Diddley: His Best - The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection - I've always dug on Bo, but until now never managed to get one of his records. Nobody does slide guitar like him.

Cake: Pressure Chief - This was an automatic choice. I'll listen to anything by Cake. I have all their albums, and every song on every one of them is listenable.

Calexico: In the Black Light - A coworker turned me on to these guys. They're from Tucson, too, but I think they formed after I had already left there for San Diego. They sound pretty much like you'd expect: a kind of tex-mex/rock & roll combo.

Cheap Trick: The Essential Cheap Trick - I actually owned "Live at Budokan" on cassette, and of course it's long gone now. Kind of a guilty pleasure, I've always liked Cheap Trick and I have no idea why.

The Chemical Brothers: Singles 93-03 - I'm pretty sure that Tracy won't like this one but I found it strangely compelling.

Deadly Avenger: Deep Red - I found these guys in the "Funky Breaks" section. And, um, I like bongos.

Duke Ellington: Take the "A" Train - Reminds me of being on liberty, and the USO on a Saturday night. Oh all right, I'll fess up: it has "Caravan" on it.

Echo & the Bunnymen: Ocean Rain - Retro emo. They were one of my favorite bands in high school. They're one of those 80s bands you never hear about on those "I love the 80s" shows or in movies with 80s soundtracks, for some odd reason. I sure listened to the heck out of them, but I guess nobody else did. Still good, though...

ELO: The Very Best Of Electric Light Orchestra (CDs 1 & 2) - The disco compilation down below got me started down this track. Why not download a couple hours of ELO?

Frank Sinatra: On The Sunny Side Of The Street - "I got chunks of guys like you in my stool..."

Foo Fighters: In Your Honor - I've never owned one of their albums, and only ever heard them on the radio. Thought I'd pick some up...

Funkadelic: The Electric Spanking Of War Babies - Not too bad. I think I remember them from way back when. Some of the songs sound oddly familiar.

Goldfrapp: Supernature - A band I'd never even heard of before today. But after a quick listen, this is a decent album with a mesmerizing kind of beat.

Joe Walsh: But Seriously Folks - I heard a Joe Walsh song on the jukebox in this shitty dive bar a bunch of us went to after work last night. So I figured I'd load up. You never know when Mike The Mullet will come over for a Pabst...

Junior Brown: 12 Shade of Brown - I was amazed that I had not one single Junior Brown album anywhere. So I had to rectify that situation.

Kasabian: Kasabian - One of my new favorite bands I think. I've been listening to the album while everythign else downloads, and have yet to hear a song I dislike. I wish this album had more songs on it.

KC & the Sunshine Band: Best of KC & the Sunshine Band - Because you have to. Really.

Kool and the Gang: Collection - Where goes KC, so goes Kool.

Kula Shakur: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts - They remind me of The Verve. Some mellowish eletronica stuff, some faster stuff, some world beat sounding stuff. Good background music. And there's the odd bagpipe in there, too.

Miles Davis: Essential Miles Davis - Miles Davis' music is sitting in a chair by the window, reading a book, on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine - Somehow I never got this when it came out back in 1989. Heard it enough. Same thing happen to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anyhow, I got it for a dollar, so it was like going back in time and telling myself to save $14.

Planet Funk: Non Zero Sumness - Spacey electronica music. I got it for work listening. Might grab another one of the albums as well.

Rage Against the Machine: Renegades - Another odd, guilty pleasure. I always dug RAtM. I think it's that beat thing. This was the only album from them I didn't have.

Red Elvises: Surfing in Siberia - These guys are hilarious. Everything they do is great. Russian Elvis rockabilly surf music. Love it!

The Stranglers: Rattus Norvegicus - Old punk kinda-sorta, and still a good listen.

T-Bone Walker: T-Bone Blues - The Essential Recordings - Man, that's some great stuff there...

Ursula 1000: Ursadelica - I found this album by accident, and it's great! It's hard to describe (it's a remix compilation), but it has elctronica/bossa nova/lounge/tiki sort of music on it. I especially liked "gaijin a go go" by Temura Mental and "Chick A Boom" by Joe Bataan. Can't spend two bucks any better than this.

Ursula 1000: Kinda Kinky - After I found the compilation above, I went looking for more. The genre for this one was listed as "Club/Dance, Funky Breaks" so I had to give it a try. Reminds me of Propellerheads.

Various: Pure Disco, CDs 1996 & 1997 - Sometimes, and not very often, this movement overcomes you. And then you have to listen to Alicia Bridges.

The Verve: A Northern Soul - I found them from a compilation I got a while ago, and for some odd reason recalled their name today. Very atmospheric music, good for doing concentration work.

Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes - I think I must have owned five copies of this back in high school, and got a kick out of listening to it again.

Wild Sammy: Speed Crazy - These guys are hard to describe (being from Japan makes that axiomatic) but they have an infectous beat (to which I am always the sucker).

Not bad for 48 dollars and change, eh?