By Leah
Whenever we have people over in the evening to play grown-ups (you know, dinner, drinks, sitting in chairs with our legs crossed demurely, like mature people do), I never know what to put on for background music. My iPod simply can't be trusted on shuffle (read: too many showtunes and songs that are hopelessly lame by anyone's standards), and most of the albums I know well enough to trust I also know well enough that to play them would risk my singing along when I should be enjoying the cheese plate and my company. I don't know about you, but I'm a pretty bad conversationalist with "Jessie's Girl" blaring from the stereo, so for these types of get-togethers, I try to put on songs that won't be too distracting.
Enter Jamendo, a site full of free and legal music downloads. That's right: free, free, free!
Most of the content is uploaded by the musicians themselves, and most of them are European (with France most heavily represented), meaning most of the music will be new to you and your guests, which, in this age of everyone trying to out-indie everyone else, also means you'll get major coolness points--bonus if the lyrics are in a foreign language.
Be warned, however: Because a lot of the music is by amateurs, the quality (both music-related and production-related) can be a little iffy. Surf around, though, because there are some real gems out there that you'll never find on iTunes or even in your best uber-indie record store.
The site's a little hard to navigate at first, so for starters, use the "tags" page to select artists by genre/instrumentation, and the Top 100 Tracks page to see the week's most popular clicks. Then download, donate (if you can), and create the ultimate dinner party playlist.
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