free for all

You gotta like a major label act giving the music directly to the fans. The money is clearly in the touring and merch these days so why not give the tunes directly to the peeps (they'll end up with them anyway in all likely hood through some P2P or other). Enter Coldplay and the LeftRightLeftRightLeft live release that is now available for all to download for free over here. It's a fun and free wheeling live recording that keeps the audience in the mix on tracks from their recent releases and the big hit "Clocks". Personally, I love hearing the crowd sing along and clap with the band in lieu of the hollow sound that most board mixed live records take on.

Tracklisting:
1 Glass of Water
2 42
3 Clocks
4 Strawberry Swing
5 The Hardest Part / Postcards From Far Away
6 Viva La Vida
7 Death Will Never Conquer
8 Fix You
9 Death And All His Friends

beauty for a beautiful day

Double Bubble

Thanks to Amrit at Stereogum for pointing us to a new Shins track from the recent flurry of shows. James Mercer is sporting a new line-up and developing new tunes for a potential new record for release in 2010 on his own label Aural Apothacary. For now , we'll have to be happy with fanshots from the front rows. Works for me!

Animals!

Regina Returns

We posted previously about the impending new slab o' tunes from sexy, trickster songstress Regina Spektor. Well, the first tune from the new album, Far, is now available through her myspace. Happily, she is remaining true to her strangest tendencies and the lead single, "Laughing With", is not the pop track you might expect after the hits she so easily tossed off on Begin to Hope. There's also an endearing and silly blog post that is well worth the read off to the right under the music player - it's called Far(t).

Fleeting Moments

An animated video for Fleet Foxes 'Mykonos' created by Sean Pecknold (brother of lead Fox Robin):

Mykonos from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

VidVid: New Matt & Kim

Lessons Learned

Video History: Pixies & Throwing Muses

I remember my first time seeing both of these bands at a club called Axis on Lansdowne Street in Boston back in the Fall of 1987 (I think, it's all a little blurry). It was a double bill and there were about 50 to 75 fans there. Surfer Rosa was being pushed hard by Newbury Comics and WFNX had both bands on the radio constantly. The show was a revelation. I was already into the Muses green self-titled record (the song Green Eyes was a personal fave) and their set did not disappoint at all with its manic electrified take on folk music. Audience members were reaching onto the stage writing their own requests onto the band's set list (I still have one somewhere!). Kristen Hersch is an enchanting front person with her eyes locked on the back of the room she seems to be looking straight through you when she channels her songs. Tawnya plays the cute coy young thing next to her intellectual older 'sister'. I was in heaven after there set. The Pixies came on and proceeded to frighten me out of my hazy happiness with a jarring and aggressive set that sounded like nothing I'd ever heard before. My musical world would never be the same after that night. This video is a little after that time frame but it brought me back and I thought it would be fun to share. Enjoy. Frank Black is an arrogant hoot throughout!

Wild Clover

Prince returns with a triple album set only available at Target. Typical for the Purple One but a strange move indeed for anyone else on the planet given the state of the music industry. Where most artists are turning to one song at a time delivery systems via youtube and twitter, Prince packs a punch with a dense set of new material. Whether any of it will hold up to his greatest work (which for me hits right around Sign Of the Times) only time will tell. Chances are given his last several releases nothing will rank so high. I can't remember anything off Musicology though I did like Old Guitar off that last record (what was it called again?). Anyhoo, he's got a nice take on Crimson & Clover the classic Tommy James and the Shondells number that is also available in a psychedelic 007 meets Barry White vidvid that's worth a passing glance. Why he slips into a bit of Wild Thing is beyond me but it works just fine.

Public Enemy

It's never a bad time for Built to Spill. Something about Doug Martsch's delivery, his poetry, and his sound just puts me at ease and hits my bliss. I hit the day in need of some of that goodness and so wen ton a little search for tunes. In the process I stumbled across a little tidbit of news that put a big grin on this dour gray New England day: Built to Spill is working on a record for release this fall called There is No Enemy! Doug revealed the great news in a little interview over here at Rotoworld. How Rotoworld (#$%&!??) got the scoop, we'll probably never really know. They also clued us into another little gem we'd had no idea about: Boise Cover Band's Unoriginal Artists cd featuring covers by Bowie, Beefheart, and The Delusions as well as an instrumental take on The Pretenders Chain Gang. BCD of course features Sir Martsch himself as ringleader. My copy is on order! In the meantime, here's a great impromptu bit of Doug playing Liar for some fans who couldn't get tickets to a sold out show.

Vampire Riot

The secret has been out for a while (at least if you've been anywhere near the Oasis Pub or Sean Murray anytime in the recent past) but there's a fancy new project/supergroup featuring Rostam Batmanglij and Wes Miles (of those certain little acts who could: Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot!) called Discovery. Their tunes offer up a more spritely version of Postal Service and are chock full of yummy happy beatness. Neon Gold has a download for your tasting pleasures.

Singing Saws

Julian Koster of the Music Tapes (and Neutral Milk Hotel) sat down and answered some questions for David Glickman (who has kindly posted it on his blog The Creative Intersection). A must read for sure, so check it when you can!

Silversun Pickups: Panic Switch (video)

Halleluja

Leonard Cohen sings his classic track. Enough said:

Take Away Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Wake Up!

The Spike Jonze theatrical reenvisoning of the Maurice Sendak classic children's book Where The Wild Things Are is finally on its way to us (though not until October 16th!). The new trailer features a slightly stripped down and cool new take on the classic Arcade Fire track Wake Up. According to I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, a certain Ms. Karen O is also listed as a musical director for the project. Methinks we are in for a yummy soundtrack indeed. Here's the trailer:

Feeling Called J.A.R.V.I.S.

I'm off to the Dutch but had to post the good news: a new collection of Jarvis Cocker tunes produced by studio guru Steve Albini is on its way to audiophiles everywhere. The record, Further Complications, is out 5/28 on Rough Trade. Stereogum has a first taste in the lead single "Angela" - grab it while you can.

Holy Windfall, Batman!

There's almost not much you can say except for "Wow", "Blam", "Pow"!!! Independent minded and free-form forged radio titans WFMU are putting the music where their love is and have launched the Free Music Archive. the bi-line for the site says it all: "It's not just free music; it's good music." Teaming with guest curators including KEXP, the ISSUE Project Room, and dublab, the station is building a Library of Congress like collection of the music that makes are heart's swoon....and rock, and roll, and scream, and grow. There's a treasure trove of goods from all genres including the experimental bits you'd expect from FMU as well as jazz, folk, rap, spoken word and more. Rainy day hobbiests rejoice, let your downloads begin!

Got This Crazy Feeling

M. Ward's dreamy take of Buddy Holly's "Rave On" from his excellent Hold Time collection gets an appropriately puppet blessed animation treatment. The song features Cotton Queen Zooey Deschanel on back-up vox. So good.

Industrial Symphony

Connecticut native Moby returns on june 30 with a new record, Wait for Me. The kick-off starts now with a special treat in the form of a video directed by legendary film auteur David Lynch (strangely his only previous foray into music video creation was a typically blurred-reality take on Chris Isaac's Wicked Game). Moby was apparently inspired by a talk that Lynch had given on the role of art and commerce. From moby's site:

david was talking about creativity, and to paraphrase, about how creativity in and of itself, and without market pressures, is fine. it seems that too often creative output is judged by how well it accommodates the marketplace, how much market share it commands and how much money it generates.

In making this record i wanted to focus on making something that i loved, without really being concerned about how it might be received by the marketplace. as a result it’s a quieter, more melodic, more mournful and more personal record than some of the records i’ve made in the past.