Welcome to the pond

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Live365. What is that, you ask? It's a website offering online radio stations! There's a subscriber version, but basic accounts are free and most of the stations are free to listen to as well. I think there's a built-in player with the site, but what I do is stream the stations through Winamp. When you listen to any station, there will be a window popping up with options and a playlist! That's convenient because you can then see what song is playing and who sings or performs it. I've used that feature lately to discover a lot of new-to-me artists and songs. For my non-meme posts, one of the things I'll be talking about are the songs and artist I've heard on Live365 and other places.

One of the more impressive artists I've heard lately is Missy Higgins. She's from Australia and does piano-based female pop. Think Chantal Kreviazuk (whom I compare to just about everyone these days), Tori Amos, people like that. Missy has a very gorgeous voice with a neat Aussie accent that makes her stand out a bit from the rest of the pack. The songs from Missy's album that I like a lot are "Nightminds" and "Scar." "Nightminds" is the song I heard on Live365. I enjoyed it a lot and took note of who sang it.

If you'd like to listen to Missy's music, there's an embedded player on her website at www.missyhiggins.com. It will let you listen to her entire LP The Sound Of White. I hope Missy gets big in the U.S. because she's a really fresh, exciting voice in the world of piano pop.

Another song I love lately is "Walking On Fire (Ambient Mix)" by Evolution featuring Jayn Hanna. It's a chillout, electronica track with absolutely chilling vocals by Jayn Hanna. If you're into that sort of thing, they you'll love this track.