Code monkeyWhile cleaning up the house last weekend, I heard an interview on NPR with programmer-turned-musician Jonathan Coulton. More interesting than quitting the day job is his Ze Frank-like approach to building an online following while giving away lots of great content and trying to crank out a new song every week. After hearing a couple of his tunes performed in the NPR studio, I headed over to his website between dishes and laundry and downloaded a few of the free tracks; I’ll purchase some of the not-so-free ones once I assess my finances. (Yes, I’m down to counting single dollar purchases. Merry Christmas.)

Thinking about independent musicians like Coulton, the recent news about disappointing sales at the iTunes music store, and the online social organization gizmos I’ve been tinkering with have really raised some interesting questions in my mind about a new model of music distribution on the net…but that’s another story for another day.

For now, click on over to Coulton’s music store and give a listen; I highly recommend Re your brains on the Thing a Week II album, and of course, the geek ballad of the everyman, Code Monkey on Thing a Week III. He seems to rotate which handful of tracks are available for free; in today’s selection, Shop Vac is pretty campy but still fun, and who can resist George W. Bush talking about his Duty?



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