Hooked On Audioblogs

Man, there are entire worlds out there that I've been completely clueless about.

Like the world of mp3 audioblogs, which I recently discovered through stories in Newsweek and Rolling Stone.

After living in the audioblogosphere for a few days, please allow me to lay on you a short list of personal faves:

• Oliver Wang's Soul Sides, which favors soul and hip-hop.
  Recommended: pretty much everything here is a winner, e.g., the hilarious and rasta-toasted "AK's Groove" by the Mental Giants.

• John Seroff's Tofu Hut, to which I tipped my chapeau a couple of days back, specializes in reggae, funk, soul and jazz.
  Recommended: close your eyes and click. e.g., rocksteady/reggae singer Ken Boothe's "Is It Because I'm Black?"

• Cocaine Blunts & Hip-Hop Tapes. Keeper of hip-hop's hidden and unjustly obscure treasures.
  Recommended: "Represent" by Kaotic Style (irresistible chorus: "Leave your nines at home/and bring your rhymes to the battle").

• The Naugahyde Life. Eclectic and tasty.
  Recommended: June Christy's classic "Something Cool" or Teddy Pendergrass's sweet-smooth title ballad from Alan Rudolph's 1984 movie Choose Me.

• Silence Is A Rhythm Two. Superb taste and enlightening commentary.
  Recommended: Bomb the Bass' acid house/breakbeats cover of Burt Bacharach's "Say A Little Prayer" had me grinning like a little kid.

• The formidable West African music audioblog, Benn Loxo Du Taccu.
  Recommended: Alpha Yaya Diallo, singer-guitarist from Guinea.

• The elegant French site La Blogotheque, which can help you brush up on your French-language skills, but provides English-language text if you don't want to.
  Recommended: an obscure gem--a delicate, waifish cover of Lee Hazlewood's "By The Way (I Still Love You)" by Cagney & Lacee, a side-project of Luna's Dean Wareham.

• Copy, Right?, featuring a delicious menu of covers.
  Recommended: Innocence Mission's poignant version of the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer jazz-pop standard "Moon River", from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Tunes typically remain available for a limited time, usually a week or two.

A good-sized directory of audioblogs can be found at Blogorrhea.