MP3’s you don’t sell your soul for

Even though national Talk Like a Pirate Day has come and gone, I’d still like to talk to you about pirating music from the Internet.

Of course if the music is put there for you to download, it’s not very piratey, so I guess it’s OK.

Ookla the Mok is a group that shows the true potential of music on the Web. Their music, while high quality, is obscure enough that without the Internet few outside their group of friends would have heard of them.

Fortunatly the Net exists. While I don’t know who Ookla is of how he became a Mok I love the music.

Their lyrics are often both emotional and funny at the same time. They touch on deeply human topics from longing for childhood joys (“Viewmaster”) to wanting to say something of genuine worth only to discover it’s all been said before (“Just Another Cliché”) to waking up in the morning to look in the mirror and not like what we see because our reflection has been replaced by a “big fat balding Jewish man” (“Stranger in the Mirror”).

The Web site is a little sparse; no biography is available of the band. However, they do supply links to MP3s for whole songs from five of their albums as well as their entire first album.

This adds up to 29 songs you can drop into your I-pod with a reassurance that the recording industry will not be jumping out from behind some bushes to beat you up.

The music can be found at www.otmfan.com.

Steve Shinney is a junior majoring in computer science. Comments or Web sites can be sent to him at

steveshinney@cc.usu.