Two tales of Illinois, Sufjan style

Two tracks from the forthcoming Sufjan Stevens "Illinois" album have hit mp3 blogs this week:

- The first is the upbeat "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!", which can be found here on the Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again blog.

- The second, my favorite, is the acoustic number "Casimir Pulaski Day" which sounds like it could have been a leftover from the recent 'Seven Swans' album. It can be found here on the Said the Gramophone blog.

I was just on Soulseek, and it looks like the whole album has leaked. I really like what I have heard so far. Hopefully a tour is soon to come, as his show in Oberlin this past November was the best show of the year. Go here to see some pics from the show.

the hype machine

Today I came across one of the coolest sites I've seen in a while, the hype machine. It compiles a list of mp3s every day from some of the many mp3 blogs out there, and provides them in a downloadable list along with links to each site where they were posted. Also, it has a very nice feature that lets you download a playlist of all the songs and go through them easily via Winamp or whatever mp3 player you use to stream whatever songs you like. Sure, there a lot of tracks unworthy of your time, but you can easily skip over them. I discovered a number of new & unreleased tunes that I would have otherwise missed out on. Definitely worth checking out at least once.

Video of the Week: The Arcade Fire "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)"

I'm a sucker for quirky animation, so the new video from one of the past year's best new acts, The Arcade Fire, is right up my alley. The video (available here) is from the Toronto-based company, Plates Animation. You may have seent their work previously with Mogwai's "Hunted by a Freak" or The Shins "So Says I", both of which are also available for viewing on the site. I was a big fan of the Mogwai video when it came out a few years ago, but this was the first time I had seen The Shins video. Hopefully this is just the beginning of things to come from both The Arcade Fire and Plates Animation.

UPDATE (4/29): Well, it appears the Arcade Fire video was taken down and is now listed as 'Coming Soon'. Not sure why they did this, but hopefully it will be back up soon.

Iron & Wine, 4-23-05, Lawrence KS, The Grenada

Caught Iron and Wine at the sold out Grenada last night. Since Brad already reviewed the show in Cleveland I won't repeat too much. First off, I hadn't seen Iron and Wine before and my fav record so far is Endless Numbered Days (not really feeling the Woman King EP). They did about a 75 minute set, most of which was a 6 piece arrangement, and a lot of the older stuff was reconfigured to fit this. One of those was the reggae version "Cinder and Smoke" that Brad wasn't feelin but I didn't mind it. HOWEVER, almost all of the full band arrangements I thought treaded dangerously close to jam band territory. The only thing dividing them from Phish is one extended solo. Ok Ok, and some awful awful lyrics (but they do have the beards). One of the best show moments in recent memory was during "Bird Stealing Bread" when the house lights did one of those roll-out toward the crowd then up toward the ceiling moves, and Sam literally started laughing and looked at the lights, fucking up the climax of the song. It was hilarious and a totally genuine moment. Otherwise, the songs Sam did with his sister or solo were incredible. There didn't appear to be any room to adjust the setlist despite me yelling for "Dead Man's Will" (a total longshot), but he finished the encore with "The Trapeze Swinger" from the In Good Company Soundtrack. I hadn't heard this 10-minute epic before, but I was totally moved and that song alone was worth the $20 admission. Overall, I'd def see it again, but I'd love it even more if it was just Sam and his sis. Band of HORSES opened and was cool in a similar folky style, I want to hear a recording. Crowd was lukewarm on them but they were sol out of their EP before I could get my hands on it. Eric Johnson from Fruit Bats also played but I missed him.

Video of the Week: RJD2 - '1976'

I ran across a cool new video today that was produced by the Columbus, OH based design firm Leftchannel. The video (view here) is for RJD2's '1976'. The video has a very unusual use of composited still images, using photographs from 1970s-era Cuba to create strangely three-dimensional scenes which move around and revolve. Kind of hard to explain, so just go watch it.

This is not the first video done by Leftchannel, as the previously did a video for Grandaddy, for their song 'Let This One Fly'. You can check it out on their website via the 'Work' link.

Iron & Wine @ Grog Shop - Cleveland Hts, OH, 4.16.05

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Originally uploaded by thespacerace.

This past Saturday I went and saw Iron & Wine at the Grog Shop for the second time. Although it was only a little over a year ago that I last saw him, plenty has changed, some for the good, and some, well, not so much.

As usual with me and concerts these days, the night started off on the wrong foot. While dining at a neighboring restaurant, I noticed a line begin to form to get into the sold out 400-person capacity Grog Shop. So my friends & I waited, and waited, and waited. The tickets had the show listed as 8pm, but doors did not open until 8:45. Once the line had shortened, we waited our turn, and finally entered around 9:45. And to no one's surprise, nothing had gone on yet. Finally around 10:15 (yeah, over 2 hours after the start time), the opener, Band of Horses, finally took the stage. The band features two former members of Carissa's Wierd, who I was a big fan of. Though this new band sounded nothing like their former, I really enjoyed it. It's hard to compare them to anyone since each song kind of crossed genres, but the singer reminded me a lot of My Morning Jacket (interesting to note the singer is one of the ex-CW members, though not the CW singer).

After that, Iron & Wine took the stage. Last time I saw them, it was Sam, his sister, and the banjo/backup guitar player. This time, I was very surprised to see six, yes six people take to the stage. Two percussionists and a bass player, in addition to the original three members. The set was identical to one I saw posted from a show in Atlanta a week ago, starting with 'Jezebel' & 'Woman King' (both off the new 'Woman King EP'). This was followed by a couple songs off 'Our Endless Numbered Days', though they sounded quite different with the additional musicianists. The percussionists played all kinds of instruments from bongos to tambourines, to some drums. And much to my surprise, I'd say 75% of the time there was an electric guitar in the mix, either from Sam Beam (the singer), or the other guitar player. The show definetely reflected the new direciton the band seems to be taking, which was very evident on the title track off the new EP. Most of the "old" songs were lightened up and made more upbeat and sounded a lot different than us fans are used to. I'm kind of split on how I feel about it, because the new versions of the songs were not bad (except for 'Cinder and Smoke' which they turned into a friggin' reggae song!), but I had grown to love the old, stripped down style that was their trademark. Sam did play a stripped down 'Naked As We Came' with just his sister, and it was awesome. But it was the only song played without the band, until the encore when he did two more as a duet.

Overall it was a good show. It was nice to only have to endure one opener for once (and a good one at that). Also, while the crowd was not as polite in terms of keeping quiet during the I&W set as last time, they still did a decent job given the number of 'OC' fans that showed up. I enjoyed the I&W set, but part of me is hoping that they return back to the stripped down style sometime soon.

hot for teacher

One of the coolest radio stations in the country, Minneapolis' 89.3 "The Current", part of the Minnesota Public Radio network, has been getting some heavy play on my computer for the past few months. And as part of being located in such a cool city, a lot of bands go through the town, and 89.3 seems to have no trouble getting any bands to stop by the studio and play. Earlier this week they had The Shins stop by for a chat and play four songs, in addition to a brief rendition of Van Halen's classic "Hot for Teacher". One of the interesting things I learned from their interview was how they had sent their tapes to all the indie labels, with Sub Pop being the only one that bit, though they said they heard Merge had tried to shop them to bigger labels and now greatly regret that they never tried to sign them for themselves.

Other artists that have stopped by recently that you can listen to on their site: Crooked Fingers, The Hold Steady, Bloc Party, Lou Barlow, Ben Lee, Radio 4, & Low. You can see access the complete list here.

frozen through

I ran across one of the coolest musician websites ever. Check out Billy Harvey's site and make sure you have Flash ready to go. Brilliant idea. Music is sort of movie soundtrack ready pop, take a look even if it isn't your thing.

Smells like content

For those of you suffering from Postal Service withdrawl and need something to fill that electronic pop craving, I give you The Books. They're not actually a new band, I first heard of them a couple years back when their released their highly acclaimed 2nd album, 'The Lemon of Pink'. Well, they are back with a new album, 'Lost and Safe' that sounds really good so far. Once again, this is an album that you can stream in it's entirety from the website (though it seemed to stop a lot on me).

I will warn you that it's a lot more intricate and not as listener-friendly as something like the Postal Service right off the bat, but if you give it time, I promise you'll get hooked. I recommend tracks 10, 2 & 5.

Kid you'll move mountains

Best song of the moment: Caribou "Yeti"
When a was out in Seattle a couple years ago, I heard a band called Manitoba on KEXP and instantly became hooked. A couple years later, Manitoba has now been renamed Caribou (thanks to some silly lawsuit from a never-was musician who claimed he had rights to the word Manitoba). But fear not fans, because Caribou is just as fresh as Manitoba. It's really hard to describe other than to say it's a lot of sampling and electronics mixed with some catchy drums and stuff, all on the catchy pop tip. The new album, 'The Milk of Human Kindness' has been on repeat on my mp3 player for the last month. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

The Black Keys @ The Lime Spider - Akron, OH, 4.08.05

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Originally uploaded by thespacerace.

The Black Keys kicked off their latest tour last night with a sold out show in their hometown of Akron, OH, headlining a benefit for a couple of local musicians who have run into some huge medical bills. It was a very long night of some very unmemorable music, until 1am when the Black Keys hit the stage.

They opened the show with "All Hands Against His Own" off their latest record 'Rubber Factory', and sent the crowd into a frenzy, which lasted throughout their entire hour-long set. Over the past couple of years, I have made numerous plans to see them, but this is the first time I've actually gotten to see them. And believe me, after the show, I was kicking myself for missing them all of those other times. Despite being only a duo, the Black Keys bring more energy to the stage than most 4 & 5 piece bands I've seen in the last few years. I do not think it is possible that a single person there last night could have been disappointed in the least. I think we have an early frontrunner for show of the year.

They played almost an equal distribution of songs from their three releases, all of which I have become very familiar with from numerous listenings, which I think most of the crowd shared with me. At one point, they invited local legend Ralph Carney to the stage to jam with them using some sort of bizarre reed instrument. They ended the set with a 3-song encore, which was prefaced by singer Dan Auerbach remarking "we might as well play some more songs since we only have to drive 5 minutes to sleep in our own beds tonight."

Check out their website here for tour dates.

Sufjan Stevens announces next album tracklist & release date

I ran across this story today regarding the 2nd album in the Sufjan Stevens "The 50 States" project. This time around Illinois is the focus. The first album in the series was the rather successful Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State which was released nearly 2 years ago. It was interesting to read the article mentioning that at the current rate, the 50 States project would be completed when Sufjan turns 89. I guess it's time to speed things up (and stop releasing non-state albums, like last year's 'Seven Swans'. I had read previously that it was expected some of the "smaller states" would be relegated to EPs. I just hope he does Ohio before the gimmick runs it's course.

read all of the epilogues

a great time wasting music adventure awaits you here on Lawrence.com's Turnpike archive. They do a few segments of interview and full song live performances. I'd highly recommend the Arcade Fire installment, but pretty much all of them are interesting. Others include Enon, The Shins, Salt the Earth, Minus Story, Yo La Tengo, Spoon, Neko Case...

Nick Cave is in a band?

No, not really. But the band that is oft-compared to the "prince of darkness", The National, has a new release coming out next Tuesday on Beggars Banquet, who have been nice enough to put the entire album up on their site for streaming listen (link). These Cincinnati natives have slowly been climbing their way into the spotlight, and their EP from last summer, Cherry Tree, was a big factor in attaining the new-found attention. The Nick Cave comparisons are widespread, mainly due to the singer's rather monotone delivery. And while the songs are usually not too upbeat, they are far from dark. In fact, some are pretty darn catchy. Take a few minutes and check it out. Recommended tracks: 3, 6, 12, 13.

file-swap pushers

great article on a possible supreme court decision option in the p2p case. They could hypothetically rule to punish companies that "induce" people to trade copyrighted files. Essentially the companies would have to encourage and demonstrate how to infringe the copyrights. No one would be totally happy with this decision, but it would allow p2p to continue to exist for another few years, and would also give the music industry more ground to shut down offending companies. I'd support it.

i'm coming out of my cage

Best song of the moment: The Killers "Mr Brightside"
I'm not a fan of anything else by the Killers but this track. Their previous single was purely annoying with another tired play on "girls and boys" lyrics. But I seriously listened to this track maybe 20 times yesterday. Every once in awhile I hear a song that I love beyond reason, that in a vacuum isn't really that good, but for some reason I'm sucked all the way in. Other one of recent memory was Volcano I'm Still Excited "In Green" from last summer.

a welcome from me

I am the aforementioned Mr.Brad, and I would also like to welcome everyone to our new music blog. I am a 26 year old computer programmer and part-time music fan. My musical talent is pretty limited to a bit of trumpet blowing in middle school. I sold the rest of my skillz to Will for a couple bucks, and he's really done well with it. I occasionally make it out on the town every now and then to see a show in the Cleveland/Akron area, so I might post the occasional concert review, along with other bands I'm listening to at the moment. And just to get it out there upfront, Will is a lyrics guy, but I'm all about the catchy hooks.

welcome to the space race

this is a new music blog that will focus on indie/punk/pop rock and other industry stuff like the p2p case. It will be written by myself (Will) and Mr. Brad who are mid-20s dudes that got into music together in the early 90s. I grew up in Cleveland and moved to Kansas City in 2001, where I go to grad school and play in a band called the Get Wild Five. More on all that as we go. Each week we will be featuring an mp3 of something we're into and to get it started right, here's a classic 90s Lawrence, Kansas emo track, one of my all time favorite songs. Check back soon.

Vitreous Humor - She Eats Her Esses