IT'S OFFICIAL GO-BUY-MUSIC MONTH

Look, it's not any of our faults that the music industry decided to stifle the growth of music by not releasing anything of merit for the first three months of the year but instead tried and failed miserably by releasing a DEFINITIVE 200 around the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame which is far from definitive. For definitive music, just keep checking back to The Root Down. Those things are not our fault, but luckily for us, music as an artform cannot be contained for long and, wouldn't you know it, the releases are finally starting to flow.

Thank God.

I know anything that you might have done habitually for years can become a broken habit after not doing it for three months so I'm asking everyone to wake up and support some of these incredible artists releasing projects today and in the following weeks.

Some recommendations:
El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead
J-Dilla's Ruff Draft
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists's Living With the Living
Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Stephen Marley's Mind Control
Devin the Dude's Waitin to Inhale

Other 3/20 releases include projects from:
Baby Boy Da Prince
Insane Clown Posse
Joss Stone
Crime Mob
The Ponys
Otep
Marques Houston
Elliott Yamin (nah mean?)

Within the month, projects from these artists will release or have released:
Arcade Fire
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Ry Cooder
Air
Korn
Son Volt
Amy Winehouse
Neil Young
Fratellis
Lloyd
Rich Boy
Musiq
Kaiser Chiefs
Clutch
Good Charlotte
Jennifer Lopez
Machinehead
Mims
Macy Gray
Redman
Lil Flip
Kings of Leon
Timbaland
Chevelle
Paul Wall
Static X
Ozomatli
Sia
Shadows Fall
Avril Lavigne
Porcupine Tree
Rodney Carrington
Poison the Well
Academy Is

It's upto the buying public to wake up and dictate to the labels what to do. Otherwise, they won't listen and the industry will be impose their continued "subject to change" tactics in pricing, pushed street dates, dropped releases, artist roster consolidations and the dangerous pursuit towards new media which will ultimately condense your favorite artist into a space no larger than the end of a ballpoint pen. If you think your favorite artist deserves more space in this world, then speak up with your pocket book. I'm not asking you to buy more than one, however, if you feel so compelled, please do. If you don't find what you're looking for, tell someone in the store and make them feel really bad for not stocking the product. Even retailers are now scared to stock too deep on new releases and it's up to you all to take the power back.

And if you can't find anything worth buying from above, just default to the El-P because it's going to dominate the year-end lists without a doubt and you're going to end up owning it anyway.