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[the_pied_piper]

Debut album from fun. The new band of Nate Ruess from The Format.

Fun - Aim and Ignite

It is impossible for anyone to remain in a bad mood after listening to Aim & Ingite in full. It is one of the most fulfilling albums I’ve heard in a while. The brain trust of fun. - Ruess, Dost, and Antonoff - have something to be extremely proud of; an album that is and will be well received from critics and fans alike. Aim & Ignite is what a pop album should sound like. Hell, Aim & Ignite could even cheer up Rob Gordon. So turn those frowns upside down, as fun. has released the most essential pop album of 2009.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?yyzmytiknzn

[variable_star]

These are definitely desert island records. Anyone remember that film State of Grace? I think that was the first time I heard The Pogues. HBO's The Wire featured "Body of an American" in some very memorable scenes. I can't imagine...how many films have Pogues songs in them?

Who cares...it's Saturday night. Have a pint with me lads!

THE POGUES - RED ROSES FOR ME (1984)

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THE POGUES - RUM, SODOMY, AND THE LASH (1985)

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THE POGUES - IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD (1987)

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[medicatesleep]

Dinosaur Jr - Farm (2009)

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http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ynmnemmkujy
They still got it!



P.S. thanks for the Blitzen Trapper. That's the first I've heard of them and it's really swell!

[variable_star]

NEW KINGS OF CONVENIENCE!!!

The upcoming record from Kings of Convenience, "Declaration of Dependence", is due 'at the very end of September' (according to their website). Included here is the first single "Mrs. Cold" and "Boat Behind" from the album....hopefully a full leak will emerge in the coming weeks!

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http://www.mediafire.com/?ozkyjwzwzmz

[The Cheesinator]

THE MIDDLE EAST - THE RECORDINGS OF THE MIDDLE EAST (2008)

Everyone should download this because it is the greatest thing ever. The first four tracks are sheer musical bliss. I kid you not. There need to be more bands like this one.

[Down623]

Debut album from fun. The new band of Nate Ruess from The Format.

Fun - Aim and Ignite

It is impossible for anyone to remain in a bad mood after listening to Aim & Ingite in full. It is one of the most fulfilling albums I’ve heard in a while. The brain trust of fun. - Ruess, Dost, and Antonoff - have something to be extremely proud of; an album that is and will be well received from critics and fans alike. Aim & Ignite is what a pop album should sound like. Hell, Aim & Ignite could even cheer up Rob Gordon. So turn those frowns upside down, as fun. has released the most essential pop album of 2009.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?yyzmytiknzn

Oh thank god I've been waiting for this for so long. Thanks a bunch

[variable_star]

FERRABY LIONHEART - CATCH THE BRASS RING (2007)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?yfhljneonck

Wading through the music scene's waters as a singer-songwriter is tough. Women have it hard enough, trying to live up to examples set by Joni Mitchell or Kate Bush. But men have a whole other caliber of legend to be dealing with: that string of gone-too-soon cases including Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, and Elliott Smith. Add to this the sheer number of buskers trying to break out, especially in a city of strivers like Los Angeles, and the odds are stacked against Ferraby Lionheart. He makes music mostly by himself, and he regularly plays L.A. clubs like Hotel Cafe and Tangier, which are thick with aspiring troubadours.

With his debut full-length, Catch the Brass Ring, Lionheart turns in a diamond in a field flush with mediocre talent. Lionheart opens up his sound nicely here in comparison to the simplicity of his self-titled EP from last year, recorded mostly in his own apartment. Catch the Brass Ring features fleshed-out backing, strings, and horns. He tactfully keeps all the new sounds from burying him under a pile of, in the words of fellow Angelenos Silversun Pickups, "well thought out twinkles." The heart of the music is still Lionheart's ace songwriting, with lines delivered by his voice, which is sometimes warbly, sometimes wavering, but always winning. Brass Ring's short intro, "Un Ballo Della Luna," floats on soft strums that seem to come from a thirties transistor radio. In fact, an old-time vibe runs through most of the album, which Lionheart even addresses with the line "I was born a world ago" in "Small Planet." No surprise here, as he cites Cole Porter and Judy Garland as influences and often sounds like present throwbacks M. Ward and Becky Stark. "Vermont Avenue" could be coming from a street-corner musician both musically and lyrically, as Lionheart, again with just spare guitar, moans lyrics seemingly ripped from John Fante novels: "We don't have a dime between us/ We can make a meal of dust/ Mary's in the market mural/ Vendors on the sidewalk circle."

Lionheart is good at switching between guitar- and piano-dominated songs, and the latter dominates on "The Car Maker," a standout among standouts. He again goes with the "L.A. is just too hot and hard to deal with" state of mind, singing, "I'm tired of trying/ Who am I working for?" and, "It's not I don't see, it's that I don't wanna see/ It's not I don't know, it's that I don't wanna know." Catch the Brass Ring's one fault is that it ends on a bad note: "Put Me in Your Play." The song is exactly what its title indicates -- Lionheart singing to a playwright flame of his, telling her that if he can't be in her life, she can at least put him in her new work. That's Counting Crows territory right there. But one strikeout on a debut album of eleven songs still leaves Lionheart with quite a batting average. If he keeps it up, Los Angeles might just have a new poet laureate. - prefixmag.com Review

THE FRAMES - THE COST (2007)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?zjnolyhgmwm

Despite the recent surge of indie-friendly bands aiming for grandiosity, upgrading to a Big Sound is no simple matter. Sure, many artists have lately begun to emulate the stadium-size approaches of luminaries like U2 and Bruce Springsteen, or even more recent large-venue successes like Coldplay or Pearl Jam, but few have successfully pulled off the transition. The fact that many of these bands have yet to achieve any sort of mainstream crossover makes the pursuit even more difficult; it's hard to make arena rock when you're still playing the clubs. The Frames have a bit of an edge in this regard, being massively popular in their home Ireland, a big fish/small pond status best portrayed by the cultish crowd singalongs on their live album Set List. But since the group has emigrated to American label Anti-, the Frames have sought to translate their outsized stage presence into a larger album sound, first on 2004's Burn the Maps and now on The Cost. But while seeing a band cramming XXL songs into an intimate space can be a thrilling experience (it's was one of the Arcade Fire's secret weapons on the way up), in the sterile environment of a record, shooting for majestic can just as easily result in sounding middling and generic.

The Cost draws deep from The Book on Writing Epics, utilizing all the most popular strategies toward the goal of writing large-canvas anthems. There's the song with the slow build ("People Get Ready"), the song with the really simple metaphor ("Falling Slowly"), powerful one-word song titles ("Rise", "True"), and many, many songs with the triumphant violin solo. Pretty much the entire album sticks to the same contemplative tempo, and singer Glen Hansard unfurls his (considerably dampened) brogue-laced falsetto in all the right places, underscoring the real, real emotional parts. If that whole process seems underwhelmingly by-the-numbers, you'd be right...there's very little to The Cost that attempts to surprise. And while there's nothing wrong with a predictable approach when deployed with expertise, it's disappointing from a band like the Frames, whose brash energy is best depicted by the raw, immediate Set List. Behaving themselves enough to conform to Big Sound ideals means sanding away their sense of humor and raucousness; only the meta-aware "Sad Songs" (with its tongue-in-cheek "Born to Run" reference) and the relatively boisterous intro to "Falling Slowly" let the band indulge its playful side.

All these compromises do yield a few strong moments of proper grandeur. "When Your Mind's Made Up" executes the quiet-to-loud ramp-up to perfection, starting with some nicely entwined guitar and piano and reaching a caterwauling, electric-fiddle peak. "The Side You Never Get To See" integrates orchestration without sounding forced, showing it doesn't hurt to have a full-time string-player in the band when you're going the symphonic route. Yet too often, Colm Mac Con Iomaire's violin is the only element preventing the Frames from sinking to the status of just another post-Radiohead purveyor of mass-audience melancholic anthem ballads. That's an injustice to the Frames, but one of their own making, as The Cost reflects the all-too-common misstep of abandoning too much of a band's unique identity in the pursuit of the Big Sound. The enlargement process doesn't have to entail diluting a band's character in order to hit all the epic-song signifiers, as bands like the Twilight Sad and the Hold Steady have recently shown. Unfortunately, that's the path the Frames have chosen to take, and they've paid the cost without reaching the reward. - Rob Mitchum

MARTIN PAGE - IN THE HOUSE OF STONE AND LIGHT (1994)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?jmtzfwmyljz

Genesis. An admiration for that particular progressive rock band is perhaps one of the few commonalities Martin Page and I share. Though, now that I consider it, Page harbors a partiality to the pre-Collins Genesis records and I definitely fall into the post-Gabriel realm of fandom. Apparently the distinction between the two is still fiercely debated, with many fans still referring to Collins as the "new guy."

But I digress.

Aside from a mutal partiality to Genesis, I have an absolute adoration for In the House of Stone and Light, the first LP from Page. Released in 1994, the album gained significant buoyance from the success of its album-titled track and subsequent single "Keeper of the Flame." The video clip for "In the House of Stone and Light" was played endlessly on VH1 (back when they actually rotated music videos) during the summer of '94 and could still be seen deep into 1995 (usually adjacent to the outstanding Annie Lennox clip for "No More I Love Yous"). The track also spun heavily on radio and featured on adult contemporary playlists for years afterward. Despite a default categorization as a "one hit wonder", I find the record an endless source of indulgence I return to at least once a year. This is partly because of the polished, superlative songwriting and partly because of the exceedingly intricate care given to the instrumentation. Prior to recording his debut album, Page had written songs for acts as diverse as Go West, Tom Jones, Earth Wind & Fire, Heart, and Starship. This experience in the music business, combined with Page's involvement in seminal eighties techno band Q-Feel, allowed him to slate such venerable session musicians as Robbie Robertson (of The Band, on guitar) and Phil Collins (of Genesis, on drums) who lent their considerable talents to the harmony of Page's magnum opus.

Spaced throughout In the House of Stone and Light are the ubiquitous love songs ("Light in Your Heart", "I Was Made For You"), yet a variety of disparate topics are addressed on the album, including: domestic violence ("In My Room"), World War II internment camps ("The Door"), and a general condemnation of modern wars and societal ills ("Shape the Invisible"). Curiously, the single version of the marriage ballad "Keeper of the Flame" was coupled with the b-side "Broken Stairway" - which could very well have been written about a divorce. Though this may strike some as a contradictory move to some, I found it a perfect accompaniment to the chugging percussion and amiable tone of the a-side. "Broken Stairway" is a heartachingly beautiful piano ballad clocking in at a scant two minutes forty-nine seconds. In that brief period of time, what unfolds is perhaps one of the saddest songs I've had the pleasure of discovering. "In the House of Stone and Light" is my favorite album from the nineties, and though I've heard every song at least a hundred times....they somehow never get tiring. What higher praise could I give? - Leif Sheppard

JON BON JOVI - DESTINATION ANYWHERE (1997)

PART ONE

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http://www.mediafire.com/?jbzwzrndygw PART TWO

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http://www.mediafire.com/?owgletdmg35

[devomedes]

One of my favorite bands is finding consistent critical validation [especially from Pitchfork], but still hasn't quite caught on with the indie masses yet--Toronto's own Rock Plaza Central.

I was lucky enough to catch these guys in a little rec-room in Toronto for one of the bandmember's wedding anniversary, and I have been hooked ever since. Their 2006 effort, Are We Not Horses?, is a gorgeous folksy stomper chronicling a group of self-aware steel robot horses:

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Here is their newest, "..at the moment of our most needing."



You might get an iTunes name of "The Hot Blind Earth," but that's how it imports straight from the disc's nifty mp3 folder.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?03jjmmnnimi
For fans of:
whinnying indie folk pop [The Decemberists, The Builders and the Butchers, The Mountain Goats, Neutral Milk Hotel, Great Lake Swimmers]

Chris Eaton has a creaky imploring voice, and the arrangements are gorgeous and folky. Are We Not Horses? employs an army of shouting children, for instance. But what is especially impeccable are Eaton's lyrics--stark, gloomy, and earnest.

[variable_star]

I bought Rock Plaza Central's first record in '07 - wholly based off the glowing reviews.

They're, um, definitely an aquired taste.

I gotta admit though, trying it again, I'm kinda digging this stuff. Hmm. . .

[snakes]

Can - Monster Movie

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http://www.mediafire.com/?tenykmyjxtz
If you don't know Can, you should, and while this is not the best place to start (IMO), it is still excellent and deserving of a quality listen. Download Tago Mago, which was posted a while back, and if you like that (I am certain that you will) get this.

Also, here is the first Hold Steady album. I think everything of theirs has been posted besides this, and it was requested, so...go wild.
The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me

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http://www.mediafire.com/?omjzuywz5nk

[variable_star]

PINETOP SEVEN DISCOGRAPHY
GENRES: ALT-COUNTRY, AMERICANA, FOLK

The Night's Bloom is probably their most accessible record, while Rigging the Toplights is almost certainly their best record.

PINETOP SEVEN - PINETOP SEVEN (1997)

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Arriving out of the thriving Chicago music scene, Pinetop Seven did not take the same highway as others. Rather, they chose the alternative country route and the resulting disc Pinetop Seven revels in old-time dance hall piano and weary rhythm tunes that one might imagine came out of the bars back in the wild west days. Here and there, they hop up the tempo a bit as on "Flushed with Sun & Passion," but mostly they stick to their dusty sounds so well highlighted as on "Out on a Broad American Night" and "Money from Home." Pinetop Seven is a fine initial effort from a band that is destined to grow. - Allmusic

PINETOP SEVEN - RIGGING THE TOPLIGHTS (1998)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?zwtjcqtzyzm

Dusty small towns and pickup trucks spring to mind when listening to Pinetop Seven's second full-length, Rigging the Toplights, which is packed with stories of loss, desolation, and hard luck. Although there are clearly country influences at work, the album is much more difficult to categorize than that. Through their unique blend of musical styles, unusual instruments, and intricate lyrics, Pinetop Seven has created a haunting collection of dark, melancholy stories. Vocalist Darrin Richard takes on the role of the storyteller, using his voice as an instrument to convey the achy loneliness of each song. His vocal delivery perfectly complements each song's unique acoustic instrumentation. The band uses all sorts of instruments to create their rich song moods, including accordion, rain stick, toy piano, clarinet, and upright bass. Every song is so carefully composed that each note flows perfectly into the next. The effect is an extremely polished and complex but sincere album. And somehow, through all the sadness, Pinetop Seven manages to communicate a vague feeling of hope. - Allmusic

PINETOP SEVEN - BRINGING HOME THE LAST GREAT STRIKE (2000)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?mi0m3dzlmzg

In the museums of the distant future, America will be reduced to an animatronic Wild West saloon, with the Pinetop Seven's Bringing Home the Last Great Strike stuck on a perpetual loop. We'll be nothing but a kickline, a poker game, and a roomful of hard luck stories. Everything will be dusty. The anachronisms will be lost on our descendents. We'll have been an empire of cowboys. It's not such a bad obituary. Bringing Home the Last Great Strike would definitely not count as insurgent country; there isn't a punk bone in its body. It's an incredible line-up of bruised and tired music where folk, bluegrass, Louisville post-rock, Eastern music and electronics all drink side by side. As pristine and complex as the arrangements sound, the album's been kicked around and beaten up. Brimming with unglamorous stories of circus freaks, drifters, stranglers, ghosts, and drunks, Pinetop Seven have crafted a rich, melancholy work of music for the unemployable.

The introductory fanfare, "As the Mutiny Sleeps," is a somber homage to the Band's "Theme from the Last Waltz," twittering with bells and glockenspiel while a muted trumpet whimpers and dour clarinet calls the album's plodding approach. "On the Last Ride In" is a lazy, twanging tale of departure. The drifter's regret is a familiar theme, but Richard's evocative lyrics lend color and depth to the sketch: "From under the clouds/ His father's face/ Promising rain, rain, rain/ And all sides came crashing down." One of the more traditionally instrumented tracks on The Last Great Strike, the acoustic strum melds with the soft Fender Rhodes, upright bass and distant violin. "An empty trunk no longer full of all that trust," Darren intones as the music recedes.

"A Black Eye to Be Proud Of" is one of the record's standouts; emerging from electronic loops, fat vaudeville piano stomps out the melody. Darren Richard assumes the first-person narrative of a young man who's fallen in love with a whore: "But Leah, I think that could change/ I've got money for you to teach me." The narrator is a boy compared to the brothel's other clientele: "My own black eye to be proud of never came/ I'm a coward still the same/ Skinny arms and watery eyes." The Pinetop Seven have cited director Jim Jarmusch as an influence, and in "Black Eye," that influence becomes apparent, rewriting the conventions of the unrequited love song with humor and subtle sadness. Bringing Home the Last Great Strike is unique in trafficking so liberally in human misery without ever approaching angst. Richard deftly avoids every inclination to wallow in his characters' misfortunes as a cipher for his own, while also never deriving the kind of morbid thrill in the rustic bizarre like a certain sister-/mountain-fucking Kentuckian whose music is often strikingly parallel. The Last Great Strike is a jukebox anthology of American unhappiness. All its nostalgia seems directed toward a more miserable time. This, in the end, seems to be the West worth remembering. - Pitchfork Review Excerpt

PINETOP SEVEN - LEST WE FORGET (2001) [RARITIES COMPILATION]

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Lest We Forget (a mail order- and tour-only compilation of unreleased Pinetop Seven material) contains five unreleased gems from the songbook of Pinetop leader Darren Richard, a remix of "Mission District" from last year's astounding Bringing Home the Last Great Strike, and over half an hour of excerpts from a live, improvised performance that constituted the soundtrack for the silent film The Wind. It's these improvised pieces that conjure for me images of the very fabric of the universe flying apart and reconstituting in unimaginable ways.

This gives way to the pensive holding pattern of "Horse in the Sky," which is ultimately relieved by the compilation's closing track, "Burial Scene," which is dominated by Richard's spare piano lines conjuring Chopin at his most despondent. This performance sits surprisingly well next to the first six tracks, all of which constitute proper songs ranging from 1998 to 2001 and recorded at the band's Chicago loft space. You know a band is really great when you're totally entranced 15 seconds into the first track on their odds-and-sods, tour-only collection of outtakes and live recordings. The unreleased demo "Mosquitoes" opens with a percussion loop before piling on vibes and guitar. Richard croons through the verses before layering his buoyant tenor in lush harmonies on the chorus. Melissa Bach's cello-- the only instrument not played by Richard on the song-- swoons sonorously on the bridge, lending a dark underpinning to Richard's stunning falsetto harmonies.

Darren Richard is completely alone on the other demo included here, the gorgeous "Cradlesong." It's almost unbelievable that one man recorded this by himself, as all of the instruments are impeccably played, including a deftly interwoven guitar loop. Richard even goes out of his way to vary his tone on the backing vocals in order to make it sound like multiple people singing backup. The structured instrumental, "Some Ritual Business at the Lake," from the sessions for Bringing Home the Last Great Strike, also features Richard solo, throwing down some impressive slide guitar.

Lest We Forget portrays Darren Richard as the central force in a very versatile collective that draws freely from the communal Chicago scene. Richard himself emphasizes that this is a demo-quality release intended for fans only, but it seems as though he's just being modest, as there's only one moment on the entire disc-- the hissy intro to "Cradlesong"-- that sounds underproduced. The fact that something so utterly worth having is unavailable in stores is a shame. Any extra effort needed to obtain this collection is well worth it, as the rewards contained within are enough to repay any expenditure, and ease your nerves about your place in a doomed universe. - Pitchfork Review Excerpt

PINETOP SEVEN - THE NIGHT'S BLOOM (2005)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?u2k4nnfnrje

The title track from Pinetop Seven's fourth album, The Night's Bloom, begins with a murky overture that sounds like it's playing through an old Victrola-- distant, subdued, aged and dusty. At the song's 0:37 mark, though, the strings swell, becoming fuller and more detailed, as if a black-and-white film has suddenly erupted into Technicolor brilliance. This moment, which is the first of many unexpected sonic hooks on the album, not only sets the tone for the dozen songs that follow, but also reintroduces Pinetop Seven after a five-year absence, serving as a tangible transition from 2000's subterranean-dark Bringing Home the Last Great Strike to the more varied sound of The Night's Bloom. In that half-decade interim, the band has grown from being Darren Richard's more-or-less solo project into a collaborative ensemble that has cut its teeth on small tours and ambitious new scores for old silent films like The Wind and Laugh, Clown, Laugh. Those exercises have proved instructive: The Night's Bloom should place the band alongside Iron & Wine and Calexico as the best of bewildering and beautiful Americana.

Still, despite the collaborative dynamic on The Night's Bloom (most of the string and horn arrangements are credited to cellist Bach and/or trumpet player Walcott), Pinetop Seven still feels like Richard's brainchild, with the music scoring soundtracks for the short films in his head. Setting his story-songs in the region Ray Bradbury once described as "the October Country" ("that country where it is always turning late in the year, that country whose people are always autumn people, thinking autumn thoughts"), Richard proves a confident storyteller who fully inhabits his hard-luck characters and knows precisely which details to disclose and which to withhold. His voice soars, but it does so solemnly, resonating with the intensity of a projector's arc light as he relates these black comedies of humiliation that evoke the tragedy of being someone else's fool. "June" (a cousin of "A Black Eye to Be Proud of" from Bringing Home the Last Great Strike) follows a couple on a fateful trek into the woods: I "won't tell you what we did," the narrator says, "don't know the word for it." But he has ominously ulterior motives: "They'll never look at me again that way." Sung in the voice of a love-starved outsider who just wants to show a sympathetic woman "what I'm capable of," "A Page From the Desert" is a murder ballad without the murder, and "Witness", with pop-song dee-dee-dee's illuminating its chorus, relates a story of petty revenge that builds to an ending worthy of Flannery O'Connor.

Distinguishing between the band's music and Richard's lyrics, however, seems largely beside the point. As with any good soundtrack, The Night's Bloom derives its power from the interaction between sound and story-- how the racing-heart conclusion of "His Aging Miss Idaho" embodies the precarious intensity of love; how the quiet strings and unsteady vocals reinforce the intimacy of "Made a Whisper Out of Me"; how the descending guitar triplets on "Fringe" mirror the whistled theme of "A Page from the Desert". All the elements intermingle with one another to put bloom on the night, and the result is perhaps the most evocative and sweeping realization yet of Pinetop Seven's particularly cinematic aesthetic. - Pitchfork Review Excerpt

PINETOP SEVEN - BENEATH CONFEDERATE LAKE (2006) [OUTTAKES & DEMOS FROM TNB SESSIONS]

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zimzkmm5jzv

Beneath Confederate Lake lie the songs that have fallen away over Pinetop Seven's nearly 10-year history, either discarded, forgotten, or saved for the right moment. For this rarities release-- a companion to last year's lushly orchestrated comeback, The Night's Bloom-- the band troll for a handful of tracks, and the results are surprising. Instead of a jumble of waterlogged debris, Beneath Confederate Lake sounds like a proper album, its songs preserved by the deep, dark waters. Most come from the five years of intermittent sessions that produced The Night's Bloom; they are interspersed with old songs newly recorded, a track by Darren Richard's side-project Grand Isle, and two contributions to the soundtrack of the obscure indie flick Numinmata: When Body Hunts Mind.

As that filmic source suggests, a large portion of Beneath Confederate Lake is instrumental, echoing Richard's interest in soundtrack work. Short interstitials like "Lewis & Clark, Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2" as well as lengthier songs like the opener "High on a Summer's Tree" and the tango "Fadograph of a Yestern Scene" conjure a darkly curious atmosphere with a percussive sound that recalls Pinetop Seven's self-titled debut. While the mood and melodies are strong enough to make these songs stand on their own, they also provide a backdrop for the tracks that feature vocals and Richard's literary lyrics. "The Western Ash", "Two Dead Men in a Vermont Graveyard", and the alternate take of "Hurry Home Dark Cloud", which are all from the Night's Bloom sessions, develop the musical and conceptual themes the band introduced on that album. They make full use of the larger lineup to create a lush, textured sound over which Richard's inimitable vocals shimmer like an aurora borealis.

Still, this song and the similarly timely-- and more successful-- title track instructively point out the complexity of Richard's songwriting. He sets his story-songs in a hazy American past that incorporates colonial figures, Old West and Native American imagery, and dustbowl details, which are echoed in the technical complexity and antiquated instrumentation of the music. And yet, no matter how historically rooted the music, Richard's concerns remain current. He's engaging the past to address the present, and by relaxing thematic control over the selection and sequencing of these songs, he may have come up with his most relevant album to date. - Pitchfork Review Excerpt

[wespeakinmidi]

snakes:

you're a mind reader.  someone put the CAN song "thief" on a mix cd for me the other day, and i've been digging on it so hard.  not really all too familiar with much of their stuff, so thanks for the link!

[exy]

PINETOP SEVEN - RIGGING THE TOPLIGHTS (1998)

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zw4ewdyyzmz

Dusty small towns and pickup trucks spring to mind when listening to Pinetop Seven's second full-length, Rigging the Toplights, which is packed with stories of loss, desolation, and hard luck. Although there are clearly country influences at work, the album is much more difficult to categorize than that. Through their unique blend of musical styles, unusual instruments, and intricate lyrics, Pinetop Seven has created a haunting collection of dark, melancholy stories. Vocalist Darrin Richard takes on the role of the storyteller, using his voice as an instrument to convey the achy loneliness of each song. His vocal delivery perfectly complements each song's unique acoustic instrumentation. The band uses all sorts of instruments to create their rich song moods, including accordion, rain stick, toy piano, clarinet, and upright bass. Every song is so carefully composed that each note flows perfectly into the next. The effect is an extremely polished and complex but sincere album. And somehow, through all the sadness, Pinetop Seven manages to communicate a vague feeling of hope. - Allmusic

WinRAR says:

!   C:\....PS-RtT98.rar: CRC failed in Pinetop Seven - Rigging the Toplights (1998)\12 Quit These Hills.mp3. The file is corrupt

[variable_star]

Oops, sorry about that. This is track twelve from Rigging the Toplights:

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?1tiymnnmtho Album link is fixed too.

[stephaniejane]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to rip a song from MySpace? I tried Free Music Zilla and File2HD and neither worked. If anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

[blacksheepboy]

thanks for the pinetop seven

[bedhead138]

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (2009) ~ Mp3 V0

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1. "It Is Nothing" 3:08
2. "In Your Heart" 3:09
3. "Lost Feeling" 5:14
4. "Deadbeat" 3:32
5. "Keep Slipping Away" 4:35
6. "Ego Death" 5:42
7. "Smile When You Smile" 4:51
8. "Everything Always Goes Wrong" 3:40
9. "Exploding Head" 3:33
10. "I Live My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart" 5:38

[Zingoleb]

I just got a flash drive and have started using public library computers to download albums.

Tried downloading Loveless, and the first part of the second disc failed on me. Hm.

Edit: Also, thank you all, and I hate to complain about free music, but this one thing is bugging the EVERLOVING SHIT OUT OF ME:

I've downloaded a few Tom Waits albums from here. Now, most of them are filed under 'T', but Small Change keeps autofiling itself under 'W', and I have no fucking clue why. No matter what I change the name to, it keeps filing itself under W and it is driving me up a wall because I am so anal about my music library. Does anyone have any explanation for why it is doing this?

Edit edit: And if I file them all under "Waits Tom" then it shows two listings for Waits Tom right next to each other. Also, they're organized into the same folder when I look in my iTunes music folder, they're just presented in two different places.

[scarred]

Rules:

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Upload your files in either a .zip or a .rar archive to mediaf!re.com, in multiple parts if the album is over 100mbs. The reason for this is that we know mediaf!re is safe and efficient and allows multiple downloads. The ads on other sites, such as Sendspace, are known to contain viruses on the page. Get yourself checked out.

Post your link using code tags. It's the # icon above the policeman emoticon. This prevents the links from being traced back to the forums, lowering the chance that the wrong people notice the thread, potentially threatening Jeph with legal action.

Also, please do NOT request albums. This includes requests for re-uploads; if you miss it, try looking for it somewhere else.

Repost the rules at the top of each new page.

[pat101]

fuck yes son.

[Zingoleb]

The sorting worked thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

[bedhead138]

Wave Machines - Wave If You're Really There (2009) ~ Mp3 V2

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Influenced by drinks, drugs and gravity, the foursome behind Brit band Wave Machines pump out eclectropop hits packed with psychedelic undertones and catchy beats that make you feel like you’re floating on air. But their debut album, Wave If You’re Really There, isn’t only full of frolicsome tunes. Songs like “Punk Spirit” and “You Say The Stupidest Things” slow it down, showing off their rock ‘n’ roll attitude that keeps to the background of the more dance-inspiring tracks like “I Go I GO I Go” and “Keep The Lights On.” Set to hit stores 15 June 2009, the album is a perfect match for the summer weather and arrives in just enough time to get you hooked before the season’s festival frenzy. Be sure to catch them at this year’s Glastonbury or Bestival festivals or check their website for the entire list of upcoming shows.

1. The Stupidest Things
2. I Go I Go I Go
3. Keep The Lights On
4. Punk Spirit
5. The Greatest Escape We Ever Made
6. Wave If You’re Really There
7. The Line
8. I Joined A Union
9. Carry Me Back To My Home
10. Dead Houses


David Bazan - Curse Your Branches (2009) ~ Mp3 V0

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Revered for his work fronting the influential group Pedro The Lion, Curse Your Branches is David Bazan's first full-length release under his own name. It's a flat-out masterwork by a modern American poet at the height of his powers (Paste Magazine called him a Dostoevsky for our all-at-once world and one of the 100 Best Living Songwriters alongside indie-rock stalwarts like Iron and Wine's Sam Beam, Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst, and legends like Nick Cave, Merle Haggard, Sly Stone, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, and John Prine and that's not even listing any of their Top 20).

Pedro the Lion got started playing to the Christian rock scene, but the narrative arc of Bazan's albums has increasingly traced his crisis of faith and his questioning of the Evangelical world in which he was raised; while retaining the vast majority of his original audience, the strength and subtlety of his work also has built a large secular audience and garnered him mainstream critical acclaim. Curse Your Branches is the deepest and most overtly autobiographical exploration of his theological struggles and resulting battle with alcohol to date, and a meditation on all things passed between the generations belief, doubt, love, addiction that showcases his incredible arrangements and melodic sense, and, of course, the trademark dark humor, incisive lyrical economy, and light touch in dealing with heavy themes that has drawn comparisons to no lesser talents than Prine, Randy Newman, and Leonard Cohen.

01 Hard To Be
02 Bless This Mess
03 Please, Baby, Please
04 Curse Your Branches
05 Harmless Sparks
06 When We Fell
07 Lost My Shape
08 Bearing Witness
09 Heavy Breath
10 In Stitches

[scarred]

That Wave Machines album is neat-o.

[ALoveSupreme]

David Bazan - Curse Your Branches (2009) ~ Mp3 V0

yesyesyesyesyesyesyes thank you!  Can't wait til he does more touring again (heard about his living room tours but was not interested in paying $20 a pop!).

[variable_star]

OVER THE RHINE - OHIO (2003)

DISC ONE

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zgtjmigazyj DISC TWO

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It's mystifying that the recordings that give listeners all the trouble are the albums that offer a lasting impact. Over the Rhine's Ohio is just such an album. It is a sprawling, two-disc sermon on want, need, recalcitrance, and traditional American spiritual matters viewed in an untraditional manner. Produced by OTR and Mahan Kalpa, it is full of contradiction and represents two different sides of the band's sound. Disc one is almost completely devoid of rhythm and has nothing whatsoever to do with rock & roll; its dynamic is fragmented to the point of being absent in places, and its pace is like that of a slow, controlled, forest burn. Disc two is rhythmically more varied and projects the questions on disc one more forcefully. Emotion, physical desire, and spiritual catharsis are not so artfully stated, making them come to the listener more immediately; and ultimately, there is some haunted spirit of rock & roll present in its tracks. As an album, Ohio, with its sense of tight tracking and meticulous overdubbing, carefully positioned silences, lyrical artifice, and an insistence on absolute control, seemingly turns back on itself and stands in opposition to the rest of the band's catalog, and in places, stands against itself. Because of its utter lack of playfulness and self-conscious seriousness, it seems to move against the grain that rock & roll by its inherent nature, revels in. However, none of this is to be discounted. There is great value in the aesthetic view that Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist hold in their collective, velvet-gloved fists. When feeling a record on a gut level as deeply as Ohio demands, it becomes imperative for the listener to observe not only the narrative journeys in the songs themselves, but the one going on in the mirror as well. Ohio is full of OTR's trademark struggle with the fractured beauty, the brokenness, the sacred, the lure to redeem the sensual and the sexual from the tawdriness of popular culture, the revelation in everyday life, the nagging, seemingly eternal doubt that has been discarded as profane or blasphemous by those wishing to discount the human condition, and so forth. In other words, these transcendent themes are also central to the evolution of not only rock & roll, but popular music across the board.

On disc one, songs such as the opener, "B.F.D.," and "What I'll Remember Most," with whinnying pedal steel guitars (courtesy of under-recognized guitarist Tony Paoletta), brushed drums, and acoustic six strings, become accoutrements for Bergquist to explore the deep, hers, Detweiler's, and yours as you twist uncomfortably in the jagged ellipses at the end of her lines. The more itchy the lyrics get, the more pronounced the artifice becomes -- "Jesus in New Orleans," a song that is unbelievable in its haggard gospel setting, becomes shiny new because of that uptight framework. Disc two comes from the heart of the process, immediately in the moment. In the songs that reference something outside the first person, such as "She," "Another Number One," "How Long Have You Been Stoned," and so forth, the power of observation becomes the articulation of archetype and metaphor. It is as if these songs all echo and underscore Bergquist's vocal ache that is as timeworn as it is brazenly insistent: "I wanna do better/I wanna try harder/I wanna believe down to the letter...." As the pedal steel whines into the center of the tune's spine, backed by a lilting piano and a faltering rhythm track, Bergquist's voice embodies the entire struggle; she's pointing the mirror into the face of the listener who "needs the grace to find what can't be found." That pop music can do such a thing is a wonder. That it can cause such visceral reactions, both attractive and repellent, is remarkable; that a band can focus so single-pointedly is a miracle. Ultimately, OTR's Ohio is a work of tattered grace, a deeply moving, maddening, and redemptive work of art, and necessary, ambitious pop. - Allmusic Review

OVER THE RHINE - DRUNKARD'S PRAYER (2005)

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Out from under the sprawling, ambitious Ohio, where sonic and lyric expanses were truly ambitious yet emotionally taut and controlled, Over the Rhine bring things back to the heart on Drunkard's Prayer. Literally recorded in the living room of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, it is the most intimate and personal recording in OTR's catalog. Acoustic guitars, upright bass, and piano are the primary instruments of expression here, though a drum kit, electric guitar, cello, and some sparse horns and organs weave their way through this quietly elegant mix. As a singer, Bergquist is becoming a true stylist. She has always been subtle, but she manages to underscore the maximum emotional intent in a sung line by relying on nuance and an increasingly sophisticated manner of phrasing rather than histrionics. She lets her words drop with full literate articulation, yet she leaves unnecessary weight outside the song's frame. There is no ether on Drunkard's Prayer; songs are relaxed yet fully formed, rooted in a sense of place and time. There is a touch of melancholy even in the most hopeful tomes here, such as on the gorgeous "Born," where Pete Hicks' slippery electric guitar hovers spectrally over the sparse piano and acoustic foundation. Bergquist juxtaposes the seriousness of learning to love and laugh in the midst of living an everyday existence: "Put your elbows on the table/I'll listen as long as I am able/There's nowhere I'd rather be/Secret fears, the supernatural/Thank God for this new laughter/Thank God the joke's on me…." Lines wind together and shimmer in the foreground as voice and instruments become one. On "Spark," amid Detweiler's piano and David Henry's cello, gently yet purposefully strummed six-strings gently urge Bergquist to offer love's manifesto as the only concrete hope in the midst of fear: "You either lose your fear/Or spend your life with one foot in the grave/Is God the last romantic?" Addressing fear is a preoccupation; it is touched on nearly everywhere -- not as a physical force, but as an elemental construct in the heart of Bergquist's protagonists, a place inside the individual that needs to be encountered, entered into a dialogue with, and understood if it is to be dismissed -- give a listen to "Lookin' Forward" and "Little Did I Know." Love in its different incarnations -- from embrace to loss and grief to acceptance -- is the other experiential terrain here. "Hush Now," "I Want You to Be My Love," and "Bluer" are fine and varied illustrations where folk, rock, and American roots musics caress and kiss. The set closes with a an original, arresting arrangement of "My Funny Valentine." It is here that Bergquist's discipline as a vocalist is displayed in spades. Drunkard's Prayer is perhaps the only recording that could have followed Ohio. It is tender, poetic, gracious, and in places deeply moving. As mature and assured as it is, it may also be the best place for the uninitiated to get acquainted with OTR. - Allmusic Review

[Zingoleb]

Thelonious Monk Quartet - Misterioso

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http://www.mediafire.com/?tnjmuy2ywnf

[variable_star]

REVEREND AND THE MAKERS - A FRENCH KISS IN THE CHAOS (2009)

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There's plenty to admire on this follow-up to 2007's The State Of Things, not least Jon McClure's swashbuckling political commentaries, which state much the same things as before, but with added panache. For a while though, it seems as though he and The Makers may be barking up the wrong tree, as the opening "Silence Is Talking" takes War's "Low Rider" riff, swaddles it in electric sitar, and harnesses it to a baggy Madchester groove – a concoction less palatable than it sounds, and not helped by the clumsy chant of "Free will is paramount". Things improve markedly with "Hidden Persuaders", which makes similar points about the advertising industry as the Vance Packard book whose title it borrows, angled to target the band's youth constituency with references to how admen "get you buying the jeans that you don't really need from the fashion dictators". Set to guitar arpeggios studded with twinkly celesta highlights, and featuring a haunted trumpet break, it recalls the retro pop of fellow Sheffielder Richard Hawley and John Barry's thriller themes.

"Manifesto/People Shapers" applies similar criticisms to specifically political matters, McClure's target this time being the faceless people who stuffed racist leaflets through his letterbox. "What democracy's this, when people-shapers bend and twist?" he wonders, finding solace in the anger the leaflets prompt in him, concluding "I'm in love with the notion of giving a fuck". Musically, the track's an oddity, its goth stylings bringing to mind the strange prospect of Bauhaus with a political agenda. Equally odd, however, is "Professor Pickles", a song about some "Dr Feelgood"-style drug supplier, in which the cheap electric organ and tambourine – not to mention the reference to The Electric Prunes' acid anthem "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" – construct a retro-psychedelic ambience, as if it were an outtake from Ogden's Nut Gone Flake or Sgt. Pepper.

The band revert to their more usual Madchester-revivalist mode for the Stone Rose-y "Mermaids" and "The End", in which McClure's disgust at what he calls "emotional economists" comes across like an Ian Brown protest number foretelling doom: "If you're looking for the end, it won't be long". McClure's adept at this kind of flamboyant rhetorical flourish, whatever the subject. "Please don't try and contact me, the river owns the battery from my phone," he tells the former friend brushed off in "Long Long Time", while "No Soap In A Dirty War" concludes with the anthemic chorus "I don't want to die in the same hole I was born", an aspirational attitude one would have imagined was a bit too New Labour for him. - The Independent Review

BROKEN RECORDS - UNTIL THE EARTH BEGINS TO PART (2009)

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True, “subtlety” is not the first word one thinks of in regard to the Arcade Fire. And yet Edinburgh’s Broken Records, whom the murmurs have begun to tout as Scotland’s answer to the Arcade Fire, make it plain that it takes more than accordion and strings and elaborately wrought Weltschmerz to sell a lack of subtlety. Until the Earth Begins to Part is the best foot forward from a band whose every motion swells with great passion, but who are so preoccupied with the adornments of great passion that they often leave the substance to be inferred.

Maybe “substance” is the wrong word. Until the Earth… is a crowded, engaged album, concerned with what singer Jamie Sutherland calls “all the shit things men do” and intent on conveying that concern with seven players’ worth of instruments. There’s nothing damning about that per se – consider the Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, two much better albums that are just as evangelically cheesy. What’s missing here isn’t content, just some of the details that allow albums like those to draw you in even as they beat you over the head with sentiment. Like momentum, which Until the Earth… exhausts faster than it can build. Most of its songs surge and recede too regularly and too fitfully to have much dynamic staying power; the album’s prettiest passage, a sudden outburst of layered insistence toward the end of the slow-building “Wolves,” comes out of nowhere and back in short order. Lead single “If the News Makes You Sad, Don’t Watch It” has a wonderfully tense melodic body, but the bottom keeps dropping out because each moment seems under strict orders to be more urgent than the last.

The vocals are another issue: the considerable depth afforded by the album’s instrumental arrangements is usually offset by Sutherland’s voice, the kind of anguished yowl that hasn’t successfully conveyed emotional depth since the early 1990s. He uses it to superb effect in “Thoughts on a Picture (In A Paper, January 2009),” but the same tricks make a flop of the noncommittal gypsy-fetish “If Eilert Loevborg Wrote A Song It Would Sound Like This” (that being the tormented ex of the heroine in Hedda Gabler, for those keeping score at home). The band ebbs and flows excessively, but the vocals hemorrhage earnestness with every sentence, which belabors the point a lot quicker. You can bet Broken Records’ ambitiousness is their best quality, not their worst; plenty of bands have better poise and still fail to be as interesting. They’re trying too hard for all the right reasons, and every so often the byproduct is great – but they’ve yet to find that thing, that detail, that lets them go for the gut at every single moment without your eventually wishing they’d just give it a rest. - Dusted Magazine Review

FRANKMUSIK - COMPLETE ME (2009)

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If Frankmusik’s pop star dreams don’t go according to plan, it won’t have been for want of trying. The 22-year-old known to his parents as Vincent Frank has tweeted and MySpaced his progress through 2009 with a zeal that makes Stephen Fry seem coy. His first three singles for Universal have been accompanied by a marketing spend more typical of an era in which, at its most profligate, Tears For Fears spent a month of studio time perfecting the drum sound on a single song.

In March, Frank’s televised Live And Lost experiment led him to make sacrifices in the name of promotion that few other artists would consider. He undertook a 20-date tour of Britain, with just £20 and no accommodation. Relying on his own MySpace updates to alert fans to his whereabouts the former beatboxer from Croydon blagged and crashed his way around the UK, singing the Doobie Brothers’ What a Fool Believes at a Newcastle bagel bar in exchange for food. All of which was most entertaining. But what it really needed to produce was a sizeable hit single. When the industrially catchy Better Off As Two stalled at 26, Universal put back the release of Complete Me, hoping to attach the album to a more successful song. For now, a slightly desperate gamble appears to be working. Confusion Girl has been A-listed at Radio 1. That Radio 2 has followed suit suggests that Frank’s career may finally be airborne.

If Complete Me makes a bona fide pop star of him, it will be, in part, down to the same demographic marriage of convenience that has led La Roux to go supernova. As with the La Roux effort, Complete Me pulls off the odd feat of sounding anachronistic and thoroughly modern and, in the process, bagging itself two audiences. It’s the modernity that you notice first: the chopped-up synth samples that slide atop the elastic funk of In Step couldn’t have been made in any other decade. Similarly, the processed bursts of the Stranglers’ Golden Brown on When You’re Around sound respectful and iconoclastic, a balancing act that needs the arrogance of youth to succeed.

Of course, that he’s heard Golden Brown is key to the appeal that these songs hold for the older pop fan. You suspect that Frank would merely greet you with bewilderment if you told him that some people don’t regard the 1980s as a golden era. The fact is, however, that he’s too young to be encumbered by the most hateful excesses of that decade. What he has inherited, however, from the likes of A-ha, Vince Clark and Pet Shop Boys is a devotion to songcraft that doesn’t preclude a desire to sound state-of-the-art. If nothing else, that will explain the guileless exuberance of Gotta Boyfriend?, Better Off As Two and Time Will Tell. Like almost all of Complete Me, these are break-up songs that address the end of a two-year relationship. You can only surmise that there’s real pain in there, the sort of pain that most songwriters underscore with a sincerely strummed acoustic guitar — but the affirmative surge of a Frankmusik song is entirely consistent with someone who has pledged his allegiance to pop over and above that of love. On this evidence, his pain is our gain. - Times Online Review

ARCTIC MONKEYS - HUMBUG (2009)

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http://www.mediafire.com/?mm5eyrmvnmn

[vickster]

The Over the Rhine f*cking blew me away.  Wow.  Thanks

[theoryC]

Mute Math - Armistice

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http://www.med!afire.com/?wzo0mnqvnxd
Easy aoty contender, puts all electronic pop/rock from this year to shame.

[medicatesleep]

[Avec]

So I've been meaning to post both of these albums for quite a while but haven't really had the chance to go through the trouble.

Pirouette - Thinking In Subtitles (2008) [Math Rock/Alternative]



I'll start off with a local band from Philadelphia, at times reminding me of the genius that is Kinsella yet staying subtle and true to it's Math-Rock feel. This is album is incredibly short but as in most cases, good things come in small packages. If you're going to listen to only two of the songs, I'd start with Yellow Car, I Called It and Cj Rough Wreath.

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1. Charmeleons Ghost Skip
2. Yellow Car, I Called It
3. Kiss and Tell
4. Revive
5. Cj Rough Wreath
6. Noahs Shark
7. Clinton wasn't on a bill, He was One
8. Ami Jean

Sample: http://www.myspace.com/pirouettemusic

California Snow Story - Close to the Ocean (2007) [The Camera Obscura/Belle & Sebastian/Math & Physics Club genre]



I recently picked up an older album I've had and was totally reminded of just how beautiful it was. This'll give you the general idea of what you can expect from this piece:

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1. Begin Again
2. My Life Is Only a Daydream
3. Future Perfect
4. Suddenly Everything Happens
5. Consolation Song
6. Brook Lune
7. New Light to Guide
8. Wishing Well
9. You Set the Scene
10. Once and Ocean  

If his new project did not look so promising, David Skirving would most likely be kicking himself for leaving the acclaimed Camera Obscura when he did. Now a fixture in the contemporary indie-pop scene, Camera Obscura has now become a highly accomplished act, releasing three acclaimed albums that have garnered both critical praise and receptive sales with their amiable association of country and general pop influences. Skirving was an original fixture in the band’s lineup when they formed in 1996, playing the part of guitarist before he left the band in 1999 and was replaced by Kenny McKeeve. Most of us know what has become of Camera Obscure by now, so what about Mr. Skirving? He mainly kept up with his musical ambitions in his native Glasgow, forming the oddly titled California Snow Story almost directly after his disbandment from Camera Obscure. The band’s lineup revolved over the years, with Skirving being the consistent driving force with a friendly group of backing musicians. California Snow Story’s first release, One Good Summer, came in 2002 on the Shelflife label with sales that were considered somewhat lackluster, though with musical results that appeared promising. As a result, Skirving went on a slight hitatus, though he abruptly returned in 2005. With his return to the musical world, his songwriting appeared sharper and more concise, leading to the arrival of vocalist Sandra Belda Martinez, best known as the vocalist for Superété. The duo was later joined by keyboardist Madoka Fukushima and drummer Alan Skirving, finally establishing a lineup with enough credentials to record their long-awaited debut full-length album, Close to the Ocean. It is set to be released on May 24th.

Though the name California Snow Story may sound a bit like an oxymoron, the music is fortunately more soothing on the mind. There are no perplexing styles or experimental techniques on Close to the Ocean. Instead, it is a rather straightforward release that would most likely sound best on a brisk Autumn day with its relaxing melodies, soft instrumentation, and lulling vocals. Ironically, I would have most likely compared California Snow Story to Camera Obscure even if I held no knowledge on Skirving’s past with the band. This is mainly attributed to the vocal techniques utilized throughout most of Close to the Ocean. Both David Skirving and Sandra Belda Martinez relay sets of cozy vocal accompaniments, whether it be singing in the form of a duet or through separate verses. In most circumstances, like in the serenely compelling “My Life is Only a Daydream”, the verses hold separate vocal cuts while the chorus is touched by an invigorating duet, sounding quite beautiful over the delicately crafted acoustics, guitars, and slight whirs of synths. The percussion is barely above an inaudible tap, often exchanging shuffles for the usual excitable fervor; a technique that proves to be most effective with consideration toward California Snow Story’s expertly perfected tone. Close to the Ocean is one of those rare rainy-day albums that somehow manages to integrate both a tranquil setting with memorable melodies in order to avoid any tedious or unbearable sensations.

Even though it moves quite indolently like the majority of Close to the Ocean, “Suddenly Everything Happens” maintains to be the most blatantly energetic on the album. With the slight whisper of an organ underlying the constant rhythmic patterns of an electric guitar, Skirving and Martinez both take turns on the vocal front, alternating between each verse before sliding into an anticipated duet toward the conclusion of the song. It turns out to be an admirable effort, showing what California Snow Story is perfectly capable of. One of the only gripes that I have with Close to the Ocean is the lack of vocal variation. Both Skirving and Martinez fit perfectly into their intended objective of creating soothing pop songs, though a slight measure of uplifted emotion or increased melancholy could create potentially devastating hooks, an aspect that some shallow tracks like “A New Light to Guide You” and “Wishing Well” could benefit from. With its ten songs, the first half of Close to the Ocean should be the perfect soundtrack for a breezy day in October. Even while the level of enjoyment will rely on either weather or mood for most individuals, the debut full-length from California Snow Story is enjoyable for the most part. Perhaps Skirving’s departure from Camera Obscura was not such a bad move after all, as California Snow Story seems to fit his restful ambitious quite well.

Enjoy.

[bedhead138]

HEALTH - Get Color (2009) ~ Mp3 192

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Disco punk band HEALTH are prepping the release of their second album Get Color, due September 8th on Lovepump United. According to Pitchfork, "Die Slow sounds like a party where Lightning Bolt's playing at one end of the room and Giorgio Moroder is studiously banging out psych-disco masterpieces at the other..." Can't wait!

1 In Heat
2 Die Slow
3 Nice Girls
4 Death+
5 Before Tiger
6 Severin
7 Eat Flesh
8 We Are Water
9 In Violet


Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong (2009) ~ AAC 256

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jzgoxm4g1nm

Don’t threat people, there’s nothing really going on with the all-ladies Brooklyn trio, apart from releasing a new, juicy album that is. Last year’s incredible, albeit very short self-titled gained the Vivian Girls a lot of praise, especially from behalf of music blogs like the one you’re reading now, but also attracted some criticism because of it’s lyrics. Now, only 12 months after their well received debut, time in which they’ve extensively toured the country, playing all the big indie festivals, alongside huge acts like Sonic Youth, the Vivian Girls are more than ready to release their sophomore LP.

Like most of you may have guessed from the title, the new album is titled “Everything Goes Wrong,” contains 13 tracks and is said to be a lot, lot lengthier than the first one. Not only is it going to be a longer album, though, it’s going to have a slightly different sound, more moodier, influences like Gun Club and Neil Young being cited.

“We recorded 15 songs, but if we put them all on the album, that’ll be an hour’s worth of music, so we’re going to have to cut some of them out,” Ramone goes onto explain. “Our last album was like 22 minutes, so we figure if this album is longer than 44 minutes that’ll just be insane. It would be twice as long.”

Well, yeah, I guess it kinda makes sense. Recordings were held sometime in March and it’s said the band managed to finish it in six days versus the three days it took for the debut album to complete. Does this means we might get a more mature, baked album? Hopefully. Everything Goes Wrong will be out in September 8th via In The Red . Tracklist right bellow - also, for those of you unfamiliar with the band, check out my favorite track of Vivian Girls’ debut, “Tell The World.”

[Avec]

Can we get a critique or some word on Health?

[bedhead138]

Can we get a critique or some word on Health?

sorry. it's not due out til september, so reviews are hard to come by. i posted a little snip-it about it. hope it helps.

[theoryC]

Haven't listened for myself, but everyone seems to really like it.

[variable_star]

BIBIO - AMBIVALENCE AVENUE (2009)

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Boards of Canada's 2005 album, The Campfire Headphase, included a song called "Chromakey Dreamcoat" that sounded like guitar loops playing on a wobbly phonograph. You have to wonder if this was a shout-out to their li'l homey Bibio, who cut three records for Mush from the whole cloth of this idea. Like his idols, he filled his electro-acoustic music with antiquated cultural products and nature sounds-- things that are beautiful because we've less and less use for them. But he lacked range, his wavering loop-collages falling into two categories: those informed by the sprightly forms of British folk, and those that were nearly formless.

Bibio released Vignetting the Compost just five months ago, and it seemed to cement his status as a pleasant one-trick pony. So it's shocking how utterly and successfully he rewrites his playbook on this Warp debut. I actually have to eat a little crow. I wrote of Compost that Bibio had a "thin, modest voice that verges on anonymity," and suggested that he should favor atmosphere over songcraft. This seemed justified: The more the songs approximated pop structures, the less interesting they became. But on Ambivalence Avenue, Bibio proves that he actually can sing and produce memorable arrangements. He used to make FX blurs with traces of pop and folk; now he inverts that formula with bracing clarity.

The results are fantastic and diverse: The title track weaves bouncing vocals through crisp guitar licks and bouncy flutes; "All the Flowers" is a fey folk gem; the dreamy "Haikuesque (When She Laughs)" is better indie-rock than many indie-rockers are making these days. Summery anthem "Lovers' Carvings" coasts on crunchy, gleaming riffs and upbeat woodblocks, and the autumnal "The Palm of Your Wave" is simply haunting. It's hard to believe that these inspired, moving vocal performances are coming from the same guy who recorded moaning ambiguities like "Mr. & Mrs. Compost". Occasionally, you'll hear a little tremble in the strings and go, "Oh right, this is Bibio," but mostly, detuned atmosphere has been replaced by silky drive.

While these songs are a quantum leap for Bibio, they still reasonably project from the foundation he's laid. But there's no accounting for the remainder of the album, which finds him paddling the uncharted waters of hip-hop, techno, and points outlying. "Jealous of Roses" sets lustrous funk riffs dancing between the stereo channels as Bibio belts out a surprisingly effective Sly-Stone-in-falsetto impersonation. "Fire Ant" spikes the loping soul of J Dilla with the stroboscopic vocal morsels of the Field; "Sugarette" wheezes and fumes like a Flying Lotus contraption. The music feels both spontaneous and precise, winding in complex syncopation around the one-beat, with subtle filter and tempo tweaks, and careful juxtapositions of texture (see the arid, throttled voices scraping against the sopping-wet chimes of "S'vive"). Many songs taper off into ambient passages that have actual gravity, gluing the far-flung genres together. It's the kind of seamless variety, heady but visceral, that few electronic musicians who aren't Four Tet have achieved.

While Ambivalence Avenue is an excellent album by any measure, Bibio deserves extra credit for venturing outside of his established comfort zone. He began his musical career trying to emulate Steve Reich and Boards of Canada on no-fi equipment. He was fascinated by the physicality of media-- of degrading tape and malfunctioning recording gear. And he was interested in the natural world, letting the sounds of streams and rainshowers stand in for his own personality. Having depleted these ideas over the course of three solid albums, he's put them aside to do nearly the opposite. Ambivalence Avenue moves the focus from the flaws of media to their capacity for precision, and takes fewer cues from nature than from the urban sounds-- including Dilla and Madlib-- that Bibio admits discovering in recent years. By jettisoning a limiting aesthetic, he reveals his abilities to be startlingly vast, and one of our most predictable electronic musicians becomes a wild card. - Pitchfork Review (Score: 8.3)

[David_Dovey]

The A Place To Bury Strangers album has been yanked from mediafire for content violation

[variable_star]

The A Place To Bury Strangers album has been yanked from mediaf!re for content violation

I have a re-up.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?wmycojrnogm

[KvP]

So I ripped some vinyl I got at Reckless in Chicago, as well as some miscellaneous singles I had been holding onto for a long time.


Boards of Canada - Unreleased Midas Touch / Trapped remixes
Old remixes from Skam day, relatively hard to find before they were released on vinyl in '07. The "Trapped" and "Midas Touch" remixes are edits of minor 80's funk R&B gems, a bit odd in the context of their other work, but sounding reminiscent of BoC's style from 1995, when they were mixed. Altogether more propulsive than their more atmospheric recent work. Also included is "Korona", which uses a sample from "The Color of the Fire" off of Music Has the Right to Children, but overall it's more reminiscent of something off of Geogaddi or BoC Maxima.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?lyywzmehoqy


Andrew Bird / Loney Dear split 7"
A split single that the dudes recorded just before they went on tour together recently. I picked this up on Record Store Day.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zjnoyrkdxmw


Grizzly Bear - Live at KRCW
A few live songs on a 7" sold on Record Store Day. Includes a third "remix" by yours truly - I began recording at 33 RPM not realizing it was the incorrect speed, so instead of doing it all over again I recorded the song while I alternated between normal and slowed speeds.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?5zdmn4mymno
Simian Mobile Disco - It's the Beat
A 12" of remixes featuring Luke Vibert, Graham Massey and Riton. Unavailable for legal download in the US.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?2oyoiggt42z


Simian Mobile Disco - It's Called A+
A 12" of remixes SMD undertook for other artists - The Go! Team and Inner City.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?lmwgeidmjeu


Squarepusher - Venus No.17
A 12" featuring the eponymous single, plus an Acid remix (sounding not unlike Detrimentalist-era Venetian Snares) and a 12-minute epic on the b-side, "Tundra 4". This is straight-up jungle, unlike the more oddball experimental stuff Squarepusher has released in the recent past.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?dnmymymi3wo


Trentemoller - Vamp / Miss You remixes
A 12" featuring remixes by Kasper Bjorke and someone else I don't recognize.

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ylwbdm5azmm

[Elk]

Blackbird Raum - Swidden

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http://www.mediafire.com/?mmgnjjmjjgm

Billing themselves as “emissaries from your local, tightly knit community of anarchists and squatters,” Santa Cruz, Calif.’s Blackbird Raum embodies a distinctly youthful sub-sub-genre of dark protest folk. Borrowing accordion and banjo from the more morbid corners of traditional European and American music, the young group plucks up aggressive acoustic music as they share their none-too-subtle politics.

So, I guess I would describe them as Jug Band Punk, maybe download them if you like Gogol Bordello, Dropkick Murphy, and Old Americana Jug Bands.

[epoch]

I saw that Someone had uploaded Grand, but I did not see Matt And Kim's first album on here. So here y'all go. Enjoy!


Matt And Kim- S/T

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mediaf!re.com/?yylqjmj1dza

[variable_star]

I guess the future of Telefon Tel Aviv is in question at this point, considering one of the two guys died earlier this year. Shame, this is a solid record.

TELEFON TEL AVIV - IMMOLATE YOURSELF (2009)

PART ONE

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PART TWO

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http://www.mediafire.com/?zmrwjihet2m

Hit the right couple of notes and you could convey even the most complex of feelings. Our ears are hyper-attuned to nuance, whether we notice it or not, and certain sounds can telegraph an avalanche of emotion. Enlisting this shorthand sometimes encourages laziness in musicians, but nobody minds when the results work. For example, "The Birds", the lead track from Telefon Tel Aviv's third album Immolate Yourself, isn't much on paper-- some sequenced synths, an insistent snare, some ghostly, hard to make out vocals-- but its six or so minutes set the stage so nicely for greater things to come it doesn't matter that there's not much there. The fact that the rest of the disc only occasionally delivers on that promise shouldn't be held too strongly against its achievements.

Immolate is arranged and produced with almost microscopic attention to detail by the Chicago team of Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper, who was tragically found dead the week of this album's release, and the emotions it evokes are undeniably effective-- and musically similar to Junior Boys or M83, sentimental groups that specialize in electronic music imbued with a certain elusive pop glow. Indeed, one of the pleasures and frustrations of Immolate is how subtly it similarly exploits the nearly invisible barrier separating song from simple synth sketch. Yet unlike the more cohesive albums from those aforementioned acts, Immolate is a one-step forward, one-step back proposition, marching in place to an internal setting somewhere between chilly background mood and something more melodic and engaging. It's impeccably crafted but oddly non-committal, pulling you in and out like a dream. Part of the problem stems from the practical matter of sequencing-- not in programming terms but simply how the album progresses. Following "The Birds", "Your Mouth" pulls off nearly the same sleight-of-hand trick, implying more substance than what's actually there, priming you for something bigger to happen but ultimately leaving you hanging.

The payoff arrives with the next track, "M", which after its slow swoosh of a start develops into an honest-to-goodness song, with vocals, a hypnotic hint of a melody, and herky-jerk drums equally informed by the clubs and contemporary top 40. It's not a Technicolor Wizard of Oz moment, but the effect is largely the same. Something's different, something clicks, or at least clicks and connects in a better way than what came before, even more so on "Helen of Troy", which sounds like a great lost Depeche Mode single-- there's even an actual chorus! With the subdued but still solid "Mostly Translucent", it again sounds like Telefon Tel Aviv found their inner Martin Gore, and the super "Stay Away From Being Maybe" finds the group heeding that advice, the listening experience shifting to a more enthusiastic "definitely." Then, disappointingly, Telefon Tel Aviv retreat back to mood piece on the pretty but ephemeral "Made a Tree on the World", which once again relies too much on a few well-placed chords and the easy sentiments they suggest. "Your Every Idol" doesn't justify its five minutes of echoing drums, droning synths, and disembodied voices and the record closes with the relatively perfunctory title track and like riding a Mobius strip, we feel back at the beginning again. For all the pleasant stops along the way, the album hasn't come full-circle so much as spun its wheels in place. - Pitchfork Review

Eluvium's other works have already been posted, so here's one more - which just happens to be the only to feature piano alone (as opposed to the primarily ambient content of the others).

ELUVIUM - AN ACCIDENTAL MEMORY IN CASE OF DEATH (2004)
 

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http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qmukoemctmd

Summary: Cooper recorded this EP in two hours, simply putting a microphone up to his piano and playing. It is bare and simplistic, but that has its profound qualities and also makes the album relaxing. Score: 3 out of 5 I’ve always enjoyed Matthew Cooper of Eluvium fame for his subtleties. From everything I’ve heard from him, he took extreme precision to his music and seemingly at the last second, added subtle swells and voices that no one can hear, but its obviously there because it added a density and complexity to his sound. An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death sounds like just that, an accident. It seems as if Cooper sat in a studio with a piano and laid down a few basic ideas for an upcoming album, and these takes leaked. Cooper apparently recorded it in two hours with one microphone on his piano. It is unlike anything he has ever done. It stands stripped bare of his beautiful nuances. I’ve never heard any release quite as simple as An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death. Every song features one main piano melody that Cooper builds upon throughout the generally short tracks. With everything occurring on one instrument,

Cooper now possesses the ability to do whatever he wants, putting in any ritardandos and any rubato that he wishes. His piano skill shows itself, as this is truly a live performance set in a studio. He meant for the EP’s bareness and simplicity. While Cooper never breaks out into any ferocious classical-styled piano runs, his chordal comping and perfect balance between left and right hand exude brilliance. Even in this live performance of one-off takes, Cooper makes no noticeable mistakes. There are some slight piano tuning issues, with some of the notes from before messing the tuning of the current chord. Cooper has a typical method to his piano songwriting. In most songs, his left hand lines out the chord progression with a sort of walking arpeggio. This helps him keep time and holds the song together.

However, he doesn’t limit himself to that, sometimes using the left hand for chords to invoke some sort of power into the song. His melodies are often relentless, never using much space and getting notes in at all times. Still, the melodies are simple and accessible, memorable. He uses dynamics well, about as well as he can with his delicate compositions and bareness. That bareness, what makes the EP, is also what hurts the EP. An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death fails only in its lacking variety and sameness throughout. Really, every song on this release flows together like one big, slow, piano concerto. The tempos hardly vary and Cooper plays with one, convicted emotion. On a timid, quiet release such as this, it adds to the style but it has more cons than pros. The Well-Meaning Professor, the centerpiece, offers the only slight variety on the EP in style and feel. The song takes seven minutes to build up and expand, and by the song’s full expansion Cooper is showing his full piano chops.

He plays frantically and slightly chaotically. The Well-Meaning Professor is a great piano track and the only song on the EP that reached its true and full potential. An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death shows that Cooper is not a one-trick pony. Sure, he can sit in a studio for months and pour every sound he can produce into each song and make the most intricate and dense song possible, but sometimes that’s not how he is inspired. Cooper finds the beauty in simplicity, even if he might enjoy it a bit too much on this release. He manages to create a relaxing and enjoyable EP, but it does nothing more for the listener than it will on the first listen. Its replay value is low. He could have at least taken the time to do some production work instead of just sitting down, playing, and releasing it. If he didn’t have the time then he shouldn’t have made the EP. Still, it has its moments and is certainly worth at least one listen for fans of Matthew Cooper and his work. - Sputnik Music Review

[A Shoggoth on the Roof]

I just got a flash drive and have started using public library computers to download albums.

I would just like to point out that using a public computer to download music illegally is not the best idea. see, on a personal computer, with a private internet connection, you can get away with it because of that whole right to privacy thing, but on a public network like a library computer or maybe a college's wireless network, it's a lot easier for you to get caught.

but whatever if you're sure nobody could prove it was you, go for it.

[Zingoleb]

Well, I don't really have a choice - at home I'm on the shittiest dial up connection (24k). I'm not sure how you mean by them catching me - do you mean the library staff or the IP being traced back to me somehow?

It's not like I have an account on the computer that I use, I just sign up and use the computer when it is free.

[A Shoggoth on the Roof]

the people that get fines are the ones that do it somewhere where the internet connection isn't private. I mean, chances are you still won't get fined, because lot of people probably do it, but you could still be that one unlucky person the RIAA decides to make an example of.

although after checking some news thingies it looks like they mostly go for people who upload songs so whatever.

[Zingoleb]

So should I not upload? I'll take my chances on that.

Does anyone want an Emmylou Harris/Mark Knopfler album?

[onewheelwizzard]

Here's some music!

Kukan Dub Lagan - New Life New Vision

Showcasing a dozen tracks which hail from a rainbow of eclectic musical genres from both the traditional and experimental spectrum's of sound, yet belonging to none. The most important aspect, and well worth emphasizing at that, of this release that truly moves it onto its own level is its utter lack of sterility and banality. 'Kukan', despite its subtle electronic nature, feels alive, generated directly in your immediate environment or between your ears. It is this aspect which elevates music, and specifically this stellar release, into true artwork masterpiece status. After you have listened, you will understand to the fullest just what that means.

This is some funky dubbed-out shit that I was just given by a friend.  I REALLY like it.  Some of the songs are really hard not to dance around in your seat to.  Seriously funky hooks, a fair amount of 8-bittiness, freakin' excellent percussion throughout, and just the right amount of that trippy dub echo.  I'm going to be really enjoying this for a while, I think.

If you liked the Disrupt album I posted a good while back (Foundation Bit), you'll love the shit out of this.

Also, if you smoke pot.  If you like to get high you will probably enjoy it.

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http://www.mediafire.com/?nyzzzgneyon
More coming, perhaps.

[bedhead138]

Kings of Leon - Notion EP (2009) ~ Mp3 320

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jmmewjlgmmm
1. Notion
2. Beneath the Surface
3. Sex on Fire (live from Cologne)
4. Notion (live from Amsterdam)
5. The Bucket (CSS Remix)

[gospel]

Jeff Zentner - Dying Days of Summer (2009)

http://www.myspace.com/jeffzentner

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http://www.mediafire.com/?jqimz52mdbi

“i write songs for those who see the face of god in dirt and rust and broken things. for those who love desolation and who make of it ceremony and song. for those who bear memory’s weight and who count the days of their youth in the blinking lights of distant radio towers and deserted intersections. who read in the crumbling names of towns on water towers the dispatches of passing seasons and forgotten heartbeats. for those who in dreams find great and unknowable mystery. who love words that sound upon their lips like secrets and sighs.”

    This album definitely has a melancholy tone about it, but it’s not meant to be sad or somber. It’s a celebration of the hurt of nostalgia and the ending of things. The dying of seasons. Passings.

    This album differs from my first album, Hymns to the Darkness, in several ways. First of all, it sounds better. I recorded it all myself in my living room. But I’m better at recording now. It features the pedal steel guitar, which I taught myself to play for this album.

    It features some very talented guest musicians, which is different from “Hymns.” It features KatieJane Garside (Daisy Chainsaw, Queen Adreena, Ruby Throat) on vocals on “Where we fall we’ll lie”, which is a track she co-wrote. Andria Degens of Pantaleimon is on “Lights on the Hills,” on vocals, harmonium, and bass. Matt Bauer is on banjo and harmony vocals and Jay Foote is on bowed bass on “Night Jasmine.” Josie Little is on harmony vocals on every other track where you can hear a female vocalist. Sara Zentner, my wife, is on piano on “I’ll be Here When You Wake.”

    I’m really proud of this album. I think it’s the best one I’m capable of doing.

The new album is a deeper journey into the music than his previous work on “Hymns to the Darkness”.  There is more experimenting with duets, more ambient texture mixed in with his acoustic leanings.  Take one listen to “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” and you will know of what I speak.  Zentner is bringing in a new facet of his performance – almost a fringe folk edge.  Another aspect of note is production – there definitely seems to be more emphasis on making the album a beautifully dark and raw recording.  When I say “raw” I mean something that just might take something out of you, this isn’t simply a sit down and sing your songs while we record them experience.  I especially enjoy the inclusion of the mandolin, echoing banjo and increased overall atmosphere oozing from this recording .  It is an album that needs all it’s parts though, every limb and piece of Zentner together in order to be appreciated.  Sure there are stand alone tracks that are great (the title track for one), but each one lends to the entire package.

There is much more inclusion of the fairer sex this time around as well, including Katiejane Garside (from the above mentioned “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” of which she co-wrote) and the great Josie Little who performs on at least 4 other tracks.  You even get Matt Bauer and Jay Foote on the lamenting “Night Jasmine” – one of my favourites.  Overall, maybe it is the collaborative effort of this album that gives it a larger scope, or maybe I just really like dark Americana artists.

[bedhead138]

James Yorkston - Folk Songs (2009) ~ Mp3 320

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Part 1 - http://www.mediaf!re.com/?mlykv2rymuj
Part 2 - http://www.mediaf!re.com/?t52ozxfzmqz

The very idea of folk music has recently become distorted: we no longer think fiddles and pipes, and we might not even look to artists such as Joni Mitchell and Simon and Garfunkel as pioneers, as acts like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver reinvent the genre for modern times. Yet folk remains more than simply a vehicle for acoustic guitars; it is a means of storytelling.

James Yorkston has never quite fitted in with the new guard of folk artists, the likes of Justin Vernon et al. Not quite radio friendly, not especially advert ready, the Scot has long produced folk music in a traditional style, albeit with some rock music leanings. So it is only appropriate that he should now choose to interpret the songs that have so inspired him, with the help of the Big Eyes Family Players in lieu of his Athletes.

‘Folk Songs’ features an array of songs which are interpretations of traditional Anglo-Irish folk tunes, passed down through generations, and increasingly delivered as modern renditions. Most of them Yorkston himself learned from performers of the ‘60s - Anne Briggs is mentioned a few times - and had evolved into something new by the time they reached his ears.

The tracks that stand out the most are, surprisingly, those that feel the least traditional. ‘Mary Connaught and James O’Donnell’ is the closest to a rock song - featuring the same frantic rumbling Yorkston previously applied to Lal Waterson’s ‘Midnight Feast’ - and comprises a highlight for its sinister harmonies and maritime atmosphere. At the opposite end of the blurred spectrum is ‘Just As The Tide Was Flowing,‘ which - being brief and jaunty in nature - may be the closest thing to a pop song on the record. But even the most traditional of the lot, ‘Thorneymoor Woods,’ is far from predictable: the tale of a poacher, it is told through a musical evocation of mist.

‘Folk Songs’ serves as fine introduction to both Yorkston and traditional folk. Many are bound to recognise a tune familiar if ever caught on their grandparents’ radio as a child, while those who are au fait with the newer age of folk can embrace the opportunity to learn from the old guard. Hopefully it will be a jumping off point for further exploration.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Through the Devil Softly (2009) ~ Mp3 V2

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http://www.mediaf!re.com/?dcmnqnzzzmt

I listened first to Mazzy Star only a few years back, and at once was enveloped in the dreamy blanket that the band weaved with their music. Songs like Fade Into You and Rhymes of an Hour were made for a lazy day on the bed. Sandoval’s smooth and intimate voice fit well with the guitar thrums of David Roback to create the “aural equivalent of longing” as one reviewer put it.

After 1996, Hope began working with other bands and Mazzy Star was lost, much to the disappointment of fans. Sandoval formed The Warm Inventions in 2001 and came out with the debut album Bavarian Fruit Bread the same year. The Warm Inventions are Hope and Colm Ó Cíosóig (the drummer from My Bloody Valentine). Bavarian came and went without much news. The Warm Inventions since then also came out with two EPs both of which got little airplay. However, now the band is coming out with their second album, Through the Devil Softly on September 15; and it seems its time to play the music once again.

The band has released one song off the album – Blanchard, and it has the same drowsy plaintive soul that makes Hope special. Blanchard is a bluesy dreamy affair with Hope holding center-stage with her breathy caressing vocals tumbling through a cloud of lush guitar. As usual, the lyrics are almost impossible to decipher, yet the music does a good job of guiding the listener along a whirl of emotions. “I play death in the space of my life. That’s how I feel, and I never think it twice.” In concerts, Hope and the band usually envelop in a blanket of darkness punctuated by flickering lights here and there, ensconced in their own space. They expect the listener to do the same, cocooned in their music, a thoroughly private affair.

In other news, Hope has confirmed that she and Roback haven’t called it quits and they are still working on their fourth album. So Mazzy Star will be back, hopefully soon. One guy termed Mazzy as “country music as imagined by Tim Burton”. Nothing could be truer.

01. Blanchard
02. Wild Roses
03. For The Rest Of Your Life
04. Lady Jessica And Sam
05. Sets The Blaze
06. Thinking Like That
07. There's A Willow
08. Trouble
09. Fall Aside
10. Blue Bird
11. Satellite