Band of Horses

I mentioned the Band of Horses a few months back as they opened up for Iron & Wine at a recent show here. I really enjoyed their set and picked up their demo cd which is brief and unrefined, yet still very enjoyable. Well, they now have some mp3s up on their website for the masses to enjoy. While the band is remnants of Carissa's Wierd, I would best describe their new sound as a more mellow version of My Morning Jacket, with a heavy country influence (including some sweet lap steel guitar).

The band also recently appeared on the No Love For Ned radio show, and you can stream the show to listen to some live tracks they performed in the studio. And for those of you fortunate enough to live in Seattle, the band is playing the annual Capitol Hill Block Party (which I was fortunate enough to attend a few years back) alongside another favorite of mine, Built to Spill.

The Record Robot

I ran across The Record Robot blog today, which has a very interesting premise. It's yet another mp3 blog, but instead of focusing on the new, "hot" bands, it features impossible to find tracks from very obscure & out of print vinyl. Sure, it might not be the greatest music ever made, but some of this stuff is pretty classic. Very cool idea. Hope it stays around a long time.

Elliot Smith demos and b-sides

I ran across the Elliot Smith B-Sides & Other Songs website, which is pretty much exactly as the title says. It has close to 100 mp3s of b-sides, demos, and live unreleased tracks which you can listen to and download. The tracks span Elliot's entire career and are very well organized. I'm a big fan and thought I had a rather comprehensive collection, but this site had a ton of stuff that I never even knew about. Worth checking out if you're a serious fan.

link it up!

Here's a couple interesting things I've stumbled across this week for your browsing enjoyment:

- The Torontoist site has an archive of it's "mixtapes" which compiles some free and legal mp3s every few weeks.

- The State newspaper has a feature on Iron & Wine.

- The band Cerberus Shoal has posted some mp3s of songs performed on a Chicago radio station last year. (they seem to have gotten stranger than I remembered).

- CommonTunes, a beta website which is "a community directory of freely available music".

Flaming Lips take to the high seas

In what has to be one of the most unusual concert events I've ever heard of, the Flaming Lips are headlining the inaugural Xingolati - Groove Cruise of the Pacific. This is basically a big concert festival aboard a Carnival cruise ship that will be traveling between Los Angeles and Ensenada, Mexico over the course of 3 days. Most of the other artists fall into the hippie/jam band category. Besides the Lips performing a show, there will also be a "Zaireeka Party" (a playing of their 4-disc set that was designed to have all 4-discs played simultaneously), as well as a screening of their new documentary "Fearless Freaks". So if you have $1000 and a few days off, you can board ship October 14th.

Ted Leo no more

This past Thursday, I drove up to the Grog Shop to check out Ted Leo / Pharmacists for the 7th time (over the course of the past 3 years between Cleveland & Akron). But I was quite shocked to find out when I got there that the show was sold out. Ted Leo? Sold out? On a weeknight in Cleveland? It was too much to comprehend. I've been to a couple of his shows where there were maybe 50 people. Last time I saw him, right after the new record came out, it was a good sized crowd at the same venue, but nowhere near sell out level. And who buys tickets in advance anyways to go to a club show? I'm sorry, but I have serious issues with paying $6 or $8 in Ticketbastard charges for a $10 ticket. Of course I spotted a group of mall-worshipping jarheads with their polo shirts and dirty white hats in line (complete with flip-flops...who wears flip flops to a show??) and wondered how they can be Ted Leo fans? I don't know, I'm just bitter. I talked with a number of other real fans who suffered the same fate as us that evening. It's good for Ted, raking in some well-deserved cash for all his hard work. But I fear the message in his music is getting lost on the apparent legions of new "fans".

Best Band You've Never Heard

The other day I stumbled across the best band that you've never heard, a five-piece from NYC called Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. They just self-released their debut album and are getting some good press in the NYC area, with one reviewer calling the singer's vocals "among the best in New York". Their music is chock full of 80s pop influences, most notably the Talking Heads as the singer sounds damn close to David Byrne on their song Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood. There are also two other mp3s available for free download on their website.

So far the band has only played shows around NYC, but hopefully they will get some national attention and venture around the country in the near future. So spread the word!

another reason to stay alive one more year

You can now add the new Built to Spill record to your list of things to look forward to in the year 2006. I ran across the story on Tiny Mix Tapes that the untitled record, originally slated for a fall release, will not be a part of the Year of the Rooster. So by the time it comes out, it will be 5 years between releases. Heck, most bands don't even last that long anymore. Two big changes are in store for the new record, as the band has bypassed longtime producer Phil Ek, and the recording will also include, for the first time, their touring guitarist Jim Roth.

The boys have been busy playing some shows across the States and still have some dates planned for the summer. Apparently they are using the shows the determine which songs might make the cut on the new record. So if you're fortunate enough to attend a performance of theirs this summer, do us all a favor and cheer more loudly for the best songs instead of just polite applause after each. If people go crazy for the classics, does that mean we will get a 'Greatest Hits'?

Single of the Week!

I like to start things like this ('Single of the Week') which are a first and likely last of a potentially good repeatable post routine. But here goes anyways...

My favorite track of this week, For Guys' Eyes Only, comes from the band Hockey Night hailing from the great twin cities of Minnesota. The song is very reminiscent of early 90s Pavement with a little extra sugar added in. Upbeat, short, catchy, and not serious but not "ironic". Just good pop music. Not your typical Lookout Records release. And did someone order dual guitars?

Sasquatch Festival in your house

You can now experience last weekend's Sasquatch Festival in your own house. Thanks to the wonderful technology of BitTorrent, I was able to snag recordings of 3 sets from this big festival, and you can too, via DimeADozen (registration required):

- Modest Mouse
- Arcade Fire
- Bloc Party

You can also check out this photoset on Flickr to see some pictures from some of the aforementioned artists as well as others such as Wilco, Kanye West, and Jem.

quiet is the new loud

As the years have gone by and I've gotten a little bit older, I've grown to appreciate that isn't quite as loud. In particular, I've become a big fan of our generations folk revival. A new (to me, at least) artist that I just came across is Denison Witmer. This 27-year-old musician from Philly has put out a number of records already, and is poised to garner even more attention with the release of his new record in late July by The Militia Group, which will feature a guest appearence from Sufjan Stevens.

There are a number of places to check out his music:
'The Gift of Grace' (a new internet exclusive recorded this past December)
Discography (the discography page on his site has an mp3 for most of his albums)
My Space (this site has 4 songs, the best is the last ('Stations') and the first ('Steven'))