Musical b(l)og roll

I thought long and hard about what to write for my first post of May. On the shortlist was the terrible news of the cyclone in Burma, but that story is still unravelling and besides, what can I add? The BBC already tells you all you need to know about that. So I thought about writing something to raise awareness of the dangers of trans fats (they're slowly killing us all, so read more about them in this old but excellent Guardian article). And since it was my Mum's birthday yesterday, I thought about writing a piece on how great mums are. But, though true, how twee would that be?

Then, having spent most of today avoiding work by catching up on a few of my favourite music blogs, it suddenly occurred to me that I could share them with you... so here they are.

• Chromewaves - massive, Toronto-based music blog with especially good "MP3 of the week" page
• MP3 Hugger - not just a smart name - demonstrates good taste too
• Pop Will Eat My Blog - early days for my readership of this blog, but the signs are good
• Pops and Scratches - especially good for early 90s indie
• The Undertow - collates whole albums (and bootlegs too)
• To Die By Your Side - a Smiths-referencing name and a decent blog to boot
• Too Much Apple Pie - absolutely my favourite music blog, great tracks and amusingly written
• Who Killed the Mixtape? - who indeed?
• Your Moment of Zen - good songs, well written posts... you get the idea by now...

Just about all of these blogs include copyright disclaimers to the effect that any tracks posted thereon are for trial purposes, and that if you like what you hear you should head straight out and buy the record. They also tend to offer to take any mp3s down should the band (or, more likely, record label) be offended by their redistribution. So what I'm saying is, try to be legal - though at the same time, how you use these blogs is up to you. And if anyone questions your downloading habits... you ain't seen me, right?