Thanks to Luis Conte (I discovered him on a Phil Collins live DVD!), I’m now discovering the wonderful world of Cuban music, and especially Cuban percussion.

Luis Conte
$0.99 - The Studio Percussionist vol. 1 featuring Luis Conte

Of all the sugary sweet girl groups of the 50s and 60s, The Shirelles have always stood out as being something special to me. Although they weren’t on the soundtrack to Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, they should have been.

The Shirelles
$4.99 - VINTAGE RECORD - I MET HIM ON A SUNDAY - The Shirelles

My favorite song for the week. Not exactly easy to find, but if you can find it, it’s worth buying on CD. They ain’t making any more of them.

Everything But The Girl
$6.95 - EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL**ACOUSTIC**CD

Ride The Lightning was one of the first Metallica albums that I really ‘connected with’ when I was in high school, and along with Master Of Puppets, and …And Justice For All - it easily makes it onto my desert island album list. I’ve only ever owned Ride The Lightning on vinyl (woohoo!), so when a friend of mine let me borrow her copy of Ride The Lightning on CD - I was blown away by how much better it sounded without the skips and crackles. It’s not as dirty and ‘1984′ as listening to it off vinyl, but it’s certainly a lot easier on the ears. Forget vinyl, forget MP3s, this is one to buy on CD.

Ride The Lightning CD
$7.90 - METALLICA RIDE THE LIGHTNING SEALED CD

The 13 new songs on Memory Almost Full are performed entirely by Paul McCartney (excluding strings) and produced by Grammy Award-winner David Kahne (The Strokes, Sublime, Bruce Springsteen and more).

“Artistic freedom made this record possible,” says Jon Bon Jovi. “Musical freedom to explore–and emotional freedom to express what was in our hearts.” The result of that freedom is Lost Highway, an album Jon describes as “a Bon Jovi record influenced by Nashville.” Bon Jovi explains. “Nashville is all about songs and songwriters. If you’re someone like me who loves songs and hanging out with songwriters, Nashville is the place. I thrive on that feeling and I’m inspired by that creative ambience.”