Now that the old hecat webserver is in cold storage, I set out to recreate the wget script in a DOS batch file. After being spoiled by the innumerable tools in BASH, I feel like I'm trying to do a tune-up with a screwdriver. Nevertheless, I did manage to collect several dozens of mp3 files, and the 99% rule held true, leaving me with one keeper, "Surprise Hotel" by Fool's Gold.

For future reference, here is the much-simplified and less usable script.

do_wget.bat
set workingdir=C:\wget\
set wgetdate=%DATE:~10,4%%DATE:~4,2%%DATE:~7,2%
set logfile=wget%wgetdate%.log
wget -Q400m -nc -w2 -r -l2 -H -t1 -nv -nd -P 
   %workingdir%shells -np -A.mp3 -i %workingdir%mp3blogs.txt 
   -o %workingdir%logs\%logfile%

copy_empty.bat
FOR %%A IN (DIR /b SHELLS/*.mp3) DO copy empty.txt "SHELLS\%%A"

Antillas
El Guincho

The Pretenders
Almost Perfect

Shadow Dancer
Drivetime

Island
The Whitest Boy Alive

Here's one for the Art of Noise fan(s) in the audience.

The Hours
Can You See The Light
No singing, synthesized melody, driving rhythm, and an insistent cow bell. What more could you ask for?

He shows what can be done with a piano in two minutes with "The Twins."

My laziness in posting left me with quite a few new wgotten tracks, but after link rot just a few leftovers remain:

The Walkmen
Lady Midnight
I thought I was hearing Johnny Cash.

Mr Silla & Mongoose
Raggedypack
A weird, minimalist, noisy number.

Braids
Liver and Tan
Ten minutes of nice wallpaper spoiled by some women whining.

John Cage
Experiences No. 1

This was the first I had heard of John Cage. There are a few more items, but I would steer clear of anything with vocals.

MP3 aggregator Blogotheque released an album of tracks, apparently sequentially compiled by collaborators. There's some good stuff on Side B; I haven't heard Side A.

If that doesn't do it for you, here's one from that perennial crowd pleaser, Tom Waits: Poor Edward

Can Joann, Endure en Vogue
A sweet, petite, amuse oreille to start things off.

Cloud Cult, When Water Comes to Life
Beverage: starts off sounding like symphonic TV ad music, but soon develops into an insistent diatribe on our aquatic origins.

Ratatat, Mirando
This electronic, beepy number will have to serve as an appetizer.

The Retail Sectors, The First Step to End the Life
A light, airy morsel that develops into a full-bodied instrumental with a metallic aftertaste.

Sven Libaek, Inner Space: Dark World
A smooth, chilled, after-dinner drink with notes of the "Hill Street Blues" theme.

Nueva York
The Coast
A straight-ahead rocker that sinks its hooks into you despite some unfortunate choices in shrill background instruments.

Bessie Smith
Emily Jane White
Nice, simple, short, sweet.

Black Mission Goggles
Man Man
A full-on attack of cow bell, sound effects, heavy metal shout-singing, and cheesy la-la-la-lyrics, infused all the same with joie de vivre.

Lonesome New Mexico Nights
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
A new one for the fans.

They've been on Letterman and may be more high-profile than the usual groups that appear in this space, but without listening to FM anymore I can't be sure. Here are two nice samples:

Slow Show
Mansion On The Hill

Run, by Gnarls Barkley, sounds like the soundtrack to a summer action movie.

Young Love by Mystery Jets: rather infectious '80s ear candy.

Hallelujah by Keren Ann, a restful slow piece.

Last year's collection is now available to HOB fans whose mailing address is known to the author.

This year got off to a slow start after the wget script started misbehaving. Somehow one of my favorite bits of code was commented out:

oldIFS="$IFS"; IFS="
";

This causes the list of wgotten mp3 files to be parsed by line, rather than by space. Without it, my working directory was sprayed with dozens of annoying empty file fragments, each one having the name of a single word in an mp3 title.

That's fixed now, and auditing of 250 new tracks began last week. This produced so few picks that I began to doubt the adage that (only) 99% of what's on the internet is crap. The best of the worst:

Jim Noir: Don't You Worry

The Postal Service: Brand New Colony fair warning: contains 8-bit indy pop

There were also inordinately many drunk/drinking songs this time, many of which I tracked down to one generous post. Here's the only one I kept from the lot:

Tom Waits: The Piano Has Been Drinking