4 Songs You Should Download Now
I don’t really know anything about these bands or who they are. All I know is that these are some damn fine tunes and you should check them out now.
DOWNLOAD:
MP3:Best Coast: Sun Was High (So Was I)
A Band to Check Out: Crocodiles
Sorry for the lack of posts over the last month yall, for I have moved to a new city and have been in the process of getting things together. Regular updates should resume from now on.
Anyways, some of you have probably already come across Crocodiles but I just got this album and as conrad would say, “it is a winner.”
Here is one of my favorite tracks from the Crocodiles album Summer of Hate.
DOWNLOAD:
MP3: Crocodiles: Soft Skull (In-My-Room)
Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip Present Neon Neon
To follow up on yesterdays post about Super Furry Animals, I thought I would talk a little bit about Neon Neon, Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals electro-pop side project with Boom Bip. Their album, Stainless Style which was released last year, is seriously REALLY REALLY GOOD. Effortlessly catchy with a bit of 80’s-esque cheese thrown in, Stainless Steel is about as pleasant of a listen you are going to find.
DOWNLOAD:
MP3: Neon Neon: I Told Her On Alderaan
A Band To Check Out: Cymbals Eat Guitars
I had 9 songs left to download for the month on Emusic and was looking for something to get. While browsing through the current 10 most downloaded albums, I checked out Cymbals Eat Guitars and realized their album Why There Are Mountains was exactly 9 songs. I gave one of the songs a sample listen and it sounded good. I went ahead and downloaded. It turns out the album is pretty good. They sound a little bit like The Wrens at times.
DOWNLOAD:
MP3: Cymbals Eat Guitars: And The Hazy Sea
A Band to Check Out: Here We Go Magic
I have been having trouble discovering new bands that I want to listen to lately. Thankfully I came across the band Here We Go Magic the other day. From start to finish, their self-titled album is solid.
We like the way the name sounds so we set it to music. Our own Luke made a beautiful record and we joined him to make something together. We are creating songs from melodies that can turn from gorgeous to challenging to a little scary and back again. Sounds are driven and shaped by, but hopefully never grounded by, rhythms that entrance before performing a somersault. It all seems silly on paper, but there are no dirty words: groovy, psychedelic, pretty etc… are all fair game. It is our hope that we generate something generous and surprising, crafted but instinctive, even as it coalesces. So far it is a lovely ruckus.
- Here We Go Magic
Give em a listen below.
DOWNLOAD:
Flake Music
Before The Shins were “The Shins,” they put out an album in 1997 entitled “Where You Land Here, It’s Time to Return” under the band name “Flake Music.” Sounding like a cross between Built to Spill and Pinkerton era Weezer, Flake Music showed signs of a great band in the making. More lo-fi and rough around the edges compared to The Shins, Flake Music still displays songwriter Jame Mercer’s uncanny ability to write the perfect pop song.
Buy When You Land Here It’s Time to Return on Amazon
Download:
The Electric Soft Parade
Ahhh, The Electric Soft Parade. After listening to That Ghost and thinking about how it is always great to hear a quality album put out by an 18 year old, I thought of the Electric Soft Parade. We got pretty into these guys back around 2002 but they then quietly fell under our radar. They have put out a couple more albums since then, but I am not sure they stand up to their debut, Holes In The Wall. The project of two brothers from England, Alan White and Thomas White, Holes In The Wall came out when they were 18 and 19 years old.
Brit Pop at its finest.
Download:
That Ghost
From twosyllablerecords:
Imagine a room decorated with only the essentials: five guitars (two electric, three acoustic), various unidentified instruments, and a recording box, surrounded by a maze of tangled cords. Welcome to the studio of That Ghost, eighteen year-old Ryan Schmale of Sonoma County, California. The lo-fi quality of his songs is intriguing. The arrangements are distorted, unexpected. Listen to one or two songs and one might think it is the sound of three or four musicians. This is not the case. What the listener hears is one extremely passionate person who has something to say. By the age of seventeen, That Ghost had already self-released three full-length CDs.
DOWNLOAD:
MP3: That Ghost: Friends in Quotations
MP3: That Ghost: A Song About a Bird I Know
Buy the album here. You can also find it on emusic and itunes.
Elliott Smith
I have Jeff Samardzija to thank for this one. Being the big Cubs fan that I am, I check out Jeff Samardzija’s blog from time to time. He actually listens to good music and had this video of Elliott Smith up on his site. It is a performance on David Letterman. I have heard stories that Smith was really erratic on stage and that his shows were hit or miss.
He sounds pretty good here:
Hot Damn, what a great songwriter. I haven’t listened to him in a while, but this video might make me go on a little Elliott Smith binge…..
P.S. I hope everyone enjoyed the first installment of “Spud Nation.” I see great things to come from Spud. Look out for Spud Nation weekly.
Frank Fairfield
We saw Frank Fairfield open for Fleet Foxes at the Metro a couple weeks ago. Not knowing who he was, it was a pleasant surprise. Fairfield is a street musician who plays American folk and mountain music using the fiddle, guitar and the banjo. Most enjoyable is his clawhammer style banjo playing.
DOWNLOAD:
MP3: Frank Fairfield: Darling Corey from I’ve Always Been A Rambler
