Opsvik & Jennings: "Windswept" [mp3] from A Dream I Used to Remember
Opsvik & Jennings: "Anchor Lane Parade" [mp3] from A Dream I Used to Remember

Vandaveer: "Turpentine" [mp3] from Divide & Conquer (out August 25th)
other Vandaveer posts at Largehearted Boy

The Years: "Lose My Number" [mp3] from The Years
The Years: "You Are the Reason" [mp3] from The Years
other Years posts at Largehearted Boy

Youth Group: "Two Sides" [mp3] from The Night Is Ours
other Youth Group posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Agent Ribbons: 2009-06-15, Los Angeles [mp3,flac]
other Agent Ribbons posts at Largehearted Boy

Daniel Martin Moore: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Daniel Martin Moore posts at Largehearted Boy

John Fernandes: 2009-05-13, Athens [mp3]
other John Fernandes posts at Largehearted Boy

Lissy Trulie: WOXY Lounge Act session
other Lissy Trulie posts at Largehearted Boy

Wooden Birds: Luxury Wafers session [mp3,video]
other Wooden Birds posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Lollapalooza downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

June 25, 2009

Book Notes - Ron Currie, Jr. ("Everything Matters!")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

In his own words, here is Ron Currie, Jr.'s Book Notes music playlist for his novel, Everything Matters!:

Everything Matters! is the story of Junior Thibodeau, who's born knowing that the world and everyone on it will be done in by a comet thirty-six years after he shuffles onto this mortal coil. Naturally, this knowledge has a considerable effect on how Junior apprehends his life and the people in it, and usually that effect is not a positive one. As a child he is quiet and bookish, a loner, refusing to establish connections with other people (even his family) in order to avoid the inevitable pain of losing them. That is, until he sees Amy, a transfer from the Catholic school across town, in junior high gifted and talented class. It's love, instantaneous and absolute, but their meeting is set against the backdrop of the Challenger explosion, which turns out to be an evil harbinger. What follows, in part, are baseball, booze and drugs, domestic terrorism, government agents stretching the boundaries of the Patriot Act, interstellar emigration, and finally a conclusion that I won't ruin except to say that it completely reconfigures everything that Junior thought he knew about the Universe and his place in it.

The story unfolds in alternating points of view, and everyone gets a turn to tell things as they see them: Junior, his mother and father, his brother Rodney, Amy, and the voice Junior hears in his head, the same mysterious entity that informed him of the looming end of all things.  That in mind, I've put together a playlist of songs that reflect the character's personalities and place in the story, as well as a couple of tunes that are evocative of certain prominent points in the plot.  

In the Morning of the Magicians--The Flaming Lips
 
The book opens with a line from this song that encapsulates the simple yet enormous dilemma that Junior's knowledge presents:  "What is love, and what is hate/ and why does it matter?"  In the Morning is a gorgeous exploration of the frailty of human endeavors in the face of the Universe's enormity and indifference.  

John Sr.: We Used to Vacation—Cold War Kids

Junior's father, John Sr., is among the last of a dying breed—taciturn American men on the wrong side of the economic divide who work their asses off and open their mouths rarely (usually when they do open them it's to pull their own teeth with a pair of pliers to spare the expense of seeing a dentist). Men who love their families and devote their lives to providing for those families, but for whom the idea of expressing their love verbally is as anathema as the notion of not showing up for a shift. Of course these men do have interior lives, despite their silence, and We Used to Vacation by Cold War Kids perfectly captures John Sr.'s. He's been to war and struggled with booze ("I promised to my wife and children/ I'd never touch another drink as long as I live") and now is a rock-solid family man, but he still has plenty of demons to struggle with—he just chooses to do it quietly. There's the strange, creeping discomfort that often accompanies domesticity ("I'm just an honest man/ provide for me and mine/ I give a check to tax-deductible charity organizations/ two weeks' paid vacation/ won't heal the damage done") and the fury he seems to have been born with, checked at all times, but just barely ("Punched the Nichols boy/ for taking his seat/ he gets all that anger from me"). In some essential way his stiff upper lip is just a put-on—he's human, and thus flawed, subject to the same fatigue and frustrations that plague us all, but he convinces himself to carry on eternally, always trudging forward into life's headwind ("Still things could be much worse/ natural disasters/ on the evening news/ still things could be much worse/ we've still got our health/ my paycheck in the mail").
 
Debbie: Sullen Girl--Fiona Apple

She's neither sullen nor a girl, but Debbie, Junior's mother, shares a lot in common with the narrator of Apple's song.  She's anxious and sad much of the time ("Days like this I don't know what to do with myself/ all day, and all night") and spends most of her time in the home she shares with her family, owing just as much to her fear of the world outside as to her devotion to her boys ("I wander the halls along the walls").  She has a two-pronged system for dealing with her bad head:  first, faith in and devotion to the God of her Catholic upbringing; and second, her burgeoning use of alchohol, which she hides, but not very well.  Eventually her drinking and fear produce in her a state not unlike catatonia ("It's calm under the waves/ in the blue of my oblivion").  Her problems can in large part be traced back to the mistreatment she suffered at the hands of her father, an abusive drunk who, as Debbie herself recounts, once tossed her into a river to teach her to swim, and later, when she was a teenager, would threaten her with a hunting knife for no reason other than that it amused him. 
 
Amy: Precious Things--Tori Amos

Amy's father beat it a while back, when she was very young, and her mother, who suffers from a slew of undiagnosed neuroses and personality disorders, has been knocking the crap out of her ever since.  But rather than making her cowed and insecure, the abuse has forged a tough girl on the verge of becoming a tough woman ("I wanna smash the faces/ of those beautiful boys/ those Christian boys/ so you can make me come/ that doesn't make you Jesus").  She refuses to abide by nonsense of any kind but still has managed to retain both her innate tenderness and her innate sense of humor.  Her toughness and smarts make her disdainful of the usual girl politics ("Where those pretty girls are/ those demigods/ with their nine inch nails and little fascist panties/ tucked inside the heart of every nice girl").  She loves Junior, of course, but as they move through high school and approach graduation it becomes clear that something is wrong with him, and she fears that he, like her mother, has some bad wiring in his brain.  Love notwithstanding, Amy won't welcome another crazy person into her life.  She's been planning to blow town and start over pretty much the moment circumstances allow, and Junior becomes just one more thing to leave behind as she crosses the country to attend Stanford University ("These precious things/ let them bleed/ let them wash away").  

Junior: Everything Means Nothing to Me—Elliott Smith
About halfway through the story Junior's living with his brother in Chicago, where Rodney has become the Cub's star shortstop. Junior, for his part, isn't doing quite as well. He's still mourning the loss of Amy and doing so in that most clichéd and unsavory of ways—drinking and drugging himself into a pre-verbal state every night. Having lost the only thing he cared about, and lodged firmly within the context of his terrible knowledge of the end of the world, he becomes the definition of apathetic, and as such could easily have written the lyrics to Elliott Smith's brief music-box composition, Everything Means Nothing to Me. The song isn't really about the words, though—the last third is just Smith repeating "everything means nothing to me" over and over as the simple piano line is joined by a rush of drums and strings, a sonic haunting that elevates what could otherwise be maudlin sentiment and transforms it into genuine heartache.
 
Reggie Fox: Burn Hollywood Burn—Public Enemy

Reggie Fox is Junior's best and only friend in Chicago, a mason from the South Side who lost his arms and legs to flesh eating bacteria and now harbors a king-sized grudge against life. Reggie was once proud and self-reliant, but since losing his limbs he's dropped into the same chemically-induced sinkhole that Junior's splashing around in. He's got a plan to get back at the world, though ("The joke is over/ smell the smoke from all around").  Of course Burn Hollywood Burn is a vicious rant about the way Blacks were portrayed in movies for decades ("Many intelligent Black men seem/ to look uncivilized when on the screen") and so doesn't really share much in common, thematically, with Reggie's situation, but what the two do share are a powerful sense of having been wronged, and a furious intent to settle those accounts. 

Love, Redux: Crazy on You--Heart

Okay, this one's sort of a joke, but in this chapter Junior and Amy have been reunited after many years and much trauma ("With bombs and the devil, and the kids keep coming/ no way to breathe easy, no time to be young").  And like the narrator of the song, they're looking to take comfort in each other's bodies ("But I tell myself that I was doing alright/ there's nothing left to do at night/ but go crazy on you").  Owing to recent events both their bodies are battered--Junior just got worked over by a couple of soldiers in a bar fight, and Amy was kidnapped and tortured by a government agent who believed she still had dealings with an old college boyfriend, a Lebanese citizen who eventually became a low-level officer in Hezbollah--and so their lovemaking, desperate as it is, also has a sort of wincing reluctance to it.  The important thing, though, especially to Junior, is that the two of them are finally together again, and because of things that have come to light in the interim, Amy no longer believes he's crazy when he talks about how the world will be destroyed, and when.  

The Multiverse: Another Place—Jeff Beck

This is the final chapter, and at its opening pretty much everything that can go wrong for Junior has gone wrong.  As a result he's more than ready for the Destroyer of Worlds, and at this point he doesn't have long to wait.  But through a strange celestial intervention--as well as Junior's belated understanding of how he is largely responsible for his own sadness--things are dramatically altered, and when the world does come to an end Junior and his family greet that end with a calm acceptance that comforts them right up to their last breaths.  Another Place is a brief instrumental, just two minutes of Beck leisurely picking and strumming, but the slow chords and mild, echoing harmonics capture the peace (and yes, the tinge of resigned sadness) with which the Thibodeaus "huddle together, silent and relaxed and fully awake, a warm package of humanity."

Ron Currie, Jr. and Everything Matters! links:

the author's website
excerpt from the book (the first chapter)

Bookmarks Magazine review
Louisville Courier-Journal review
New York Times review
Three Guys One Book review
Village Voice review
Washington Post review

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature fiction

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Shorties (Haruki Murakami, Amanda Palmer, and more)

The Yomiuri Shimbun interviews author Haruki Murakami. (part 2 of the interview)

How indie musician Amanda Palmer made $19,000 on Twitter in 10 hours.

Yesterday's updates to the 2009 Bonnaroo music festival live show downloads page include mp3s of performances by moe., Citizen Cope and Toubab Krewe, and lossless bittorrent downloads of the Bruce Springsteen show.

The A.V. Club interviews Amadou Bagakoyo of Amadou & Mariam.

The Tennessean profiles Those Darlins.

Philadelphia Weekly aggregates tributes to its departed writer, Steven Wells.

Time Out Chicago and Paste interview Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.

The Detroit Free Press interviews the band's drummer, Steve Shelley.

Marvel Comics shares an mp3 of the theme song for its Runaways comic.

NPR's Morning Edition talks to author Petina Gappah, and excerpts from her stunning debut short story collection, An Elegy for Easterly.

On Sale at Amazon MP3 for $1.99: Grag Laswell's 12-track album, Three Flights from Alto NIdo.

NPR's All Things Considered profiles singer-songwriter Todd Snider.

Decider Austin interviews the members of Double Dagger about the intersection of post-punk and graphic design.

D: Post-punk and spare design aesthetics have a long mutual history. Any idea why?

NS: I think that as a whole, post-punk is historically a little more stripped down and austere, which is a reaction against this great piling on of everything that you get in punk.

At Drowned in Sound, Andy Falkous of Future of the Left dissects the band's new album, Travels With Myself And Another, track-by-track.

"Why New Novelists Are Kinda Old."

NPR recommends nonfiction books for summer reading, and Oprah shares her summer reading suggestions.

Win 50 CDs and 50 books in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie news literature

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Daily Downloads (Noah and the Whale, Wheat, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Delfields: "Fawn Fight" [mp3] from Ogres (out August 18th)
Delfields: "Ogres" [mp3] from Ogres (out August 18th)
other Delfields posts at Largehearted Boy

Eat Sugar: "Pop Singer" [mp3] from It’s Not Our Responsibility! (out September 1st)
other Eat Sugar posts at Largehearted Boy

Flashguns: "I Don't Not Love You" [mp3]
other Flashguns posts at Largehearted Boy

Joe Pug: free and legal In the Meantime EP download [mp3]
other Joe Pug posts at Largehearted Boy

Lights: "Heavy Drops" [mp3] from Rites (out July 21st)
other Lights posts at Largehearted Boy

Noah and the Whale: "The First Days of Spring" [mp3] from The First Days of Spring (out August 31st)
other Noah and the Whale posts at Largehearted Boy

Tall Pines: "Beach House" [mp3] from Campfire Songs
other Tall Pines< posts at Largehearted Boy

Wheat: "H.O.T.T." [mp3] from White Ink, Black Ink (out July 21st)
other Wheat posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Love Is All: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Love Is All posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Lollapalooza downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

June 24, 2009

Book Notes - Zachary Mexico ("China Underground")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

In his own words, here is Zachary Mexico' Book Notes music playlist for his book, China Underground:

I did all of the research and interviews for China Underground over a four-month period in the summer of 2006. I brought two iPods with me on the trip - one was a newer model that I used in conjunction with Belkin's iTalk to record all the interviews, and one was a clunky iPod Photo that I bought from a guy on Craigslist. I filled the iPod Photo with a bunch of music.

There was a lot of traveling involved, and many hours spent on buses, trains, and airplanes, so I had a lot of downtime to listen to tunes. 

"Learning to Fly" -- Tom Petty

When I bought the iPod on Craigslist, I didn't erase the music that the previous owner had on there. He was a huge Tom Petty fan. As a teenager, I was super into Petty, but I hadn't really listened to his stuff in years - except when it came on in a bar or a restaurant or whatever. So I took advantage of these Tom Petty records being on this iPod to really revisit his music. 

"Learning to Fly" is a great track. I love Jeff Lynne's production -- that snare drum sound is one of the best I've ever heard. I also like how the chords are the same for the entire song. Also the guitar solo really rips. Great traveling music that really gives you a sense of optimism and the potential for discovery. 

"Gabrielle" -- Ween

For some reason a lot of my friends in China are huge Ween fans. Now they can just download the records like everyone else -- but I used to bring every new Ween album when it came out to my friends at the Bird Bar in Dali, this great little town in Yunnan. Back then the band had just put out this odds-and-ends collection Shinola -- it was the first release on Chocodog Records, their own little label. 

"Gabrielle" is the standout track to me. I remember blasting the song in this weird yacht club in the town of Qingdao, on a hot summer afternoon, drinking a cold beer and looking out at the ocean. We were hanging out with this Chinese businessman named Sunny, who was wearing a Sergio Tacchini-style jumpsuit. I guess that’s what he thought you were supposed to wear to the yacht club. He slipped on his shades when the song came on and bobbed his head up and down to the beat.

"Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar" (and the entire album Yes Boss) -- Graham Smith (Kleenex Girl Wonder)

Graham and I are good friends -- in fact, we play in a band together, this electronic group called Gates of Heaven. (Check it out at gatesof.info) 

Back in ‘06 I had known Graham for a few years -- his record Ponyoak was a life-changer when I was in high school, in the mid nineties. He moved to New York and we started hanging out a bunch, and he had just finished the demos for what would become Yes, Boss and gave them to me to check out on my trip. I think I listened to the record at least once a day that whole summer. 

The entire album is unreal, both the melodies and the lyrical content -- if I made the rules, Graham would be running the biggest operation in the galaxy. He’s one of the best lyricists alive.

There's a line in "Dil Pe" that I really love, and I remember bellowing it out, walking alone down a Shanghai street: 

"Bullshit is an art...the truth is an allegory/So don't take it to heart, if you get a stab at glory" 

Yes Boss is available for free download at kgw.me, and I highly recommend that everyone listen to this masterpiece.  (I kind of like the demos better than the actual record, but that's just because I stewed on them for so long before hearing the final product.)


SMZB – “Scream for Life”

One of the chapters in China Underground is a profile of the punk rock scene in Wuhan. SMZB are kind of the leaders of the scene, the band that kind of started the whole Wuhan punk thing. Wu Wei, the bandleader, is a really cool guy and super-dedicated to his music – it’s inspirational.

I attended the release party for their record “Scream For Life” in summer 2006. For some reason – maybe they heard a Dropkick Murphys record? – they added a flute player to the band prior to the show. I guess they’re the only Celtic punk band in China.

The title track has a sweet flute line, and awesome lyrics:

“Don't stop! when you start screaming for the life is keeping on; 

Don't stop! when you start screaming for the silent masses! 

Scream for the life, scream for the right ,scream for the truth and faith,
We never stop what we are fighting for,we never stop singing!”

The Minutemen – “History Lesson Part II”

The punk scene in Wuhan kind of reminds me of the San Pedro mythologized in the Minutemen songs. It’s isolated from Beijing, as the Minutemen were isolated from the “cool scene” in Hollywood.

Double Nickels on the Dime has always been a big inspirational record. There’s something about this track that makes my heart swell up, from the very first note. Mike Watt’s narration, and D.Boon’s beautiful guitar riff: youthful hope and energy distilled into two minutes.

Zachary Mexico and China Underground links:

the author's website
The Octagon, the author's band
excerpt from the book
excerpt from the book
excerpt from the book

Beyond Race review
The China Beat review
Chinayouren review
Columbia Spectator review
KQED review
Philadelphia City Paper review
Publishers Weekly review
San Francisco Chronicle review
Time Out Hong Kong review

China Calling profile of the author
ChinaTravel.net interview with the author
Jacket Copy interview with the author
Shanghaiist interview with the author
Urbanatomy interview with the author
zaiShanghai profile of the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature nonfiction china

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Shorties (Patrick Wolf, Clancy Martin, and more)

Decider New York interviews Patrick Wolf about his new album, The Bachelor.

D: The Bachelor was funded through donations from fans on Bandstocks.com. What was that experience like?

PW: The thing that I was most confused and happy about was that I thought people had given up on paying for albums or putting money into the music industry. So when the BandStocks thing came, I was really quite scared over the first couple of months, and it’s only now that I can really see how actually quite amazing it was. Especially when you think that it was up to £60,000 or £70,000, which might be obscene depending on the exchange rate right now. I think major labels sever the ties between you and your audience because they are taking all the data, all the information, and all the money from your audience, which means you’re losing touch in this ivory tower of your record. So I think things are right back to normal again. I am strong with my audience. We’ve got a strong bond, and I feel a lot happier, a lot more empowered.

The Globe and Mail profiles author Clancy Martin.

'I wrote an inventory of my moral failings." That's how Canadian Clancy Martin describes his first book How To Sell: A Novel, an autobiographical work about his shady dealings in the Texas jewellery business.

Evidently his was a very extensive inventory, which included selling counterfeits and lying to customers. But it's one that's resonating with literary celebrity fans such as Zadie Smith, Jonathan Franzen and Gary Shteyngart (the latter called the 42-year-old writer the "bastard child of John Updike and Mordecai Richler").

Yesterday's updates to the 2009 Bonnaroo music festival live show downloads page include mp3s of performances by Alejandro Escovedo, Animal Collective, Grace Potter, Toubab Krewe, and moe.

Rocks Off asks Houston musicians to share a song they associate with a past of present lover.

Doves are the bookies' favorites for the UK's Mercury Music Prize.

Eye Weekly profiles Chunklet editor and publisher Henry Owings.

If indie-rock is Owings religion, he’s a man in devout service, even though he acknowledges that people wonder if a publication filled with such disdain could ever express genuine love for new music. Owings is the sort of guy who doesn’t understand why people cross their arms at Mission of Burma shows, describes disposable blog-buzz band Passion Pit as “musical stryofoam — I just don’t get it,” and debates with Brutal Knights frontman Nick Flanagan about which underrated hardcore band at the Chunklet NXNE showcase will receive a more enthusiastic reception — Easy Action or Youth Brigade. In response to rampant hipsterism, Owings increasingly finds inspiration in Americana. “If you go to a monster truck rally that costs $10, you’ll see how excited and crazy the crowd gets. There’s an energy there that people don’t experience at concerts they even spend $200 at.”

Austin360 interviews singer-songwriter Scott Miller about fan-financing his latest record.

In the Guardian, novelist Ewan Morrison lists the top 10 literary menage a trois.

PopMatters reviews Augusten Burroughs' latest memoir, A Wolf at the Table.

I am not sure if Augusten Burroughs has been crushed by his own past, but it clearly weighs very heavily on him. This, I think, is one of the qualities that distinguishes the contemporary memoir from what used to be called memoirs, plural, as in the antique phrase “he’s writing his memoirs”. The latter being an activity that the public asks for, as an account of an accomplished, future-focused person at the center of great historical events; the former being something that no one in particular has asked for, written by someone whose focus is on the past, and generally by a writer whom no one has ever heard of.

Read Burroughs' Largehearted Boy Book Notes music playlist for the book.

NPR's Monkey See blog lists the best books you've never read.

NPR is streaming a March performance by the Antlers.

Phoenix visits The Current studios for a streaming live performance and interview.

MakeUseOf.com lists the best book review sites.

Win 50 CDs and 50 books in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie news literature

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Daily Downloads (Those Darlins, Broken Records, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Broken Records: "If The News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It" [mp3] from Until The Earth Begins To Part (out July 7th)
other Broken Records posts at Largehearted Boy

Darlings: "If This Is Love" [mp3] from Yeah I Know (out August 11th)
Darlings: "Teenage Girl" [mp3] from Yeah I Know (out August 11th)
other Darlings posts at Largehearted Boy

Fool's Gold: "Surprise Hotel" [mp3] from Fool's Gold (out September 29th)
other Fool's Gold posts at Largehearted Boy

Jack Penate: "Tonight's Today" [mp3] from Everything Is New (out August 18th)
other Jack Penate posts at Largehearted Boy

Kestrels: "Our Velocity" [mp3] from Primary Colours (out July 14th)
other Kestrels posts at Largehearted Boy

Night Horse: "Good Bye Gone" [mp3]
other Night Horse posts at Largehearted Boy

Sun Airway>: free and legal Oh, Naoko EP [mp3]
"Oh, Naoko" [mp3]
other Sun Airway posts at Largehearted Boy

Those Darlins: "Red Light Love" [mp3] from Those Darlins (out July 7th)
other Those Darlins posts at Largehearted Boy

The World Blanket: two free and legal album downloads [mp3]
"This Old West" [mp3]
other World Blanket posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

White Lies: Daytrotter SXSW session [mp3]
other White Lies posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous mp3 and bittorrent downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Lollapalooza downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

June 23, 2009

Try It Before You Buy It (June 3rd, 2009 Music Releases)

Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal mp3 downloads and full album streams from this week's music releases:

Alexisonfire: Old Crows/Young Cardinals
full album stream

The Bats: The Guilty Office
"Castle Light" [mp3]
"Countersign" [mp3]

Continue reading "Try It Before You Buy It (June 3rd, 2009 Music Releases)"

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Shorties (Bjork, Stephen Elliott, and more)

NPR is streaming Bjork's new album, Voltaic, in its entirety.

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Author Stephen Elliott is sharing his new book, The Adderall Diaries, with anyone who e-mails him. The catch: you must forward the book to the next reader within a week of receiving it.

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The Quietus interviews the members of Sonic Youth.

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Salon recommends urban fantasy fiction featuring young heroines.

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PopMatters poses its 20 questions to author Aleksandar Hemon.

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Paste interviews Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood about his new solo album, Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs).

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In the Observer, Dave Eggers lists films he "wanted to live within."

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Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes interviews author Robert Goolrick about his search for Thomas Pynchon.

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Drowned in Sound interviews J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.

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At NPR Music, the Avett Brothers play an intimate "tiny desk concert."

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Yesterday's updates to the 2009 Bonnaroo music festival live show downloads page include bittorrent lossless downloads of performances by Wilco, Snoop Dogg, and Phish.

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Win 50 CDs and 50 books in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

---

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

---

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie news literature

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

Daily Downloads (Loch Lomond, Obits, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Brian Glaze: "Bad News" [mp3] from Green Living (out July 28th)
Brian Glaze: "Leader of the Band" [mp3] from Green Living (out July 28th)
other Brian Glaze posts at Largehearted Boy

Cale Parks: "One at a Time" [mp3] from To Swift Mars EP (out August 4th)
other Cale Parks posts at Largehearted Boy

Graveyard: "Thin Line" [mp3] from Graveyard
other Graveyard posts at Largehearted Boy

The Jesse Minute: "Do or Die" [mp3] from Do or Die
other Jesse Minute posts at Largehearted Boy

Loch Lomond: free (donation appreciated) and legal Trumpets for Paper Children EP [mp3]
other Loch Lomond posts at Largehearted Boy

Melissa McLelland: "Seasoned Lovers (with Ron Sexsmith)" [mp3] from Victoria Day (out June 30th)
other Melissa McLelland posts at Largehearted Boy

Obits: "Two-Headed Coin" [mp3] from I Blame You
other Obits posts at Largehearted Boy

Shayna and the Bulldog: "Expatriate" [mp3] from States (out August 25th)
other Shayna and the Bulldog posts at Largehearted Boy

Silversun Pickups: "Panic Switch (Bobby Evans remix)" [mp3]
other Silversun Pickups posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Anni Rossi: LaundroMatinee session [mp3,video]
other Anni Rossi posts at Largehearted Boy

Barbara Cue: 2002-05-03, Athens [mp3]
other Barbara Cue posts at Largehearted Boy

Deer Tick: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Deer Tick posts at Largehearted Boy

The Rest: 2009-06-19, New York [mp3,flac]
other Rest posts at Largehearted Boy

Sharon Van Etten: 2009-01-11, New York [mp3,flac]
other Sharon Van Etten posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous mp3 and bittorrent downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Lollapalooza downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

June 22, 2009

This Week's Interesting Music Releases (June 23rd, 2009)

Regina Spektor's new album Far pushes the singer-songwriter even closer to pop superstardom without sacrificing any of the melodic or lyrical wit that is so endearing.

Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood's second solo album, Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs), is in stores tomorrow.

God Help The Girl features songs written by Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian) for female singers.

Other albums I have heard and can strongly recommend include Foreign Born's Person To Person, A Hawk and a Hacksaw's Delivrance, Tift Merritt's live album Buckingham Solo, and Sunset Rubdown's Dragonslayer.

A remastered edition of R.E.M.s Reckoning (complete with bonus disc) is the reissue highlight of the week, along with a vinyl remaster of the band's Murmur album.

The Pavement Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. 4-LP box set is tempting (if a little pricey). The CD version was incredibly well put together, so I'm anxious to see what's in the vinyl edition.

What new music can you recommend this week? What's on your shopping list?

This week's interesting CD releases:

Acid Mothers Temple: Dark Side of the Black Moon: What Planet Are We On? (vinyl)
The Aggrolites: IV (vinyl)
Al Green: Greatest Hits (vinyl reissue)
Al Green: I'm Still in Love with You (vinyl reissue)
Al Green: Let's Stay Together (vinyl reissue)
The Albertans: Legends of Sam Marco
Alexisonfire: Old Crows/Young Cardinals
Amazing Baby: Rewild
Astra: The Weirding
Au Revoir Simone: Still Night, Still Light (vinyl)
Bats: The Guilty Office
Bert Jansch: L.A. Turnaround (remastered with bonus tracks)
Bert Jansch: A Rare Conundrum (remastered with bonus tracks)
Bert Jansch: Santa Barbara Honeymoon (remastered with bonus tracks)
Bibio: Ambivalence Avenue (vinyl)
Birds of Avalon: Uncanny Valley
Black Meteoric Star: Dominatron/Anthem (vinyl)
Blind Pilot: 3 Rounds and a Sound (reissue)
Blue Cheer: Rocks Europe (dvd)
Bob Marley: B Is For Bob
Brian Olive: Brian Olive (vinyl)
Busdriver: Jhelli Beam (vinyl)
Cheap Trick: The Latest
The Church: Untitled #23 (vinyl)
The Cliks: Dirty King
Creedence Clearwater Revival: 40th Anniversary Edition Box Set (7-CD box set)
Darkest Hour: Eternal Return
The Dear Hunter: Act III: Life And Death
Death Cab for Cutie: Something About Airplanes (remastered vinyl)
Deer Tick: Born On Flag Day (vinyl)
Deerhunter: Rainwater Cassette Exchange (vinyl)
Dinosaur Jr.: Farm (deluxe edition) (vinyl)
Donny Hue and the Colors: A Letter to New Virginia
Dream Theater: Black Clouds & Silver Linings (3-CD edition) (2-LP vinyl)
Eprhyme: Shomer Salaam b/w My Mouth Is A House Of Prayer (vinyl)
Eugene McGuinness: Eugene McGuinness
Florence & the Machine: Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Foreign Born: Person To Person (vinyl)
Future of the Left: Travels With Myself And Another (vinyl)
George Jones: A Good Year For The Roses - The Complete Musicor Recordings 1965-1971 Part 2 (4-CD box set)
God Help The Girl: God Help The Girl (vinyl)
Gossip: Music for Men
Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown (vinyl)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw: Delivrance (vinyl)
Hermit Thrushes: Slight Fountain
The Higher: It's Only Natural
Jay Brannan: In Living Cover
Jedi Mind Tricks: Greatest Features
Jets Overhead: No Nations
John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band: Live in Toronto '69 (dvd)
John Mellencamp: Life Death Live & Freedom (2-CD & DVD edition)
Judy Garland: Live at the Palladium (reissue)
Kendel Carson: Alright Dynamite
La Roux: Bulletproof
Landy: Eros and Omissions
Larry Jon Wilson: Larry Jon Wilson (vinyl)
Laura Nyro: Mother's Spiritual (reissue)
Leon Russell: Best Of Hank Wilson
Lemonheads: Varshons
Lissy Trullie: Self-Taught Learner
Loop: A Gilded Eternity (remastered)
Loop: The World in Your Eyes (remastered)
Lord Cut-Glass: Lord Cut-Glass
Love Is All: Last Choice EP
The Mars Volta: Octahedron
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster: 3
Merzbow: 13 Japanese Birds, Vol. 6
Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' (reissue)
Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin' (reissue)
Mount Eerie: Dawn
Neko Case: Middle Cyclone (vinyl)
Neil Young: Rock At The Beach - Live 1989 (dvd)
Nurse with Wound: Spiral Insana (reissue)
Nurse with Wound: Alice the Goon (reissue with bonus track)
of Montreal: For Our Elegante Caste (vinyl)
Patterson Hood: Murdering Oscar (and Other Love Songs)
Pavement: Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. (remastered 4-LP vinyl box set)
Pete Yorn: Back and Fourth
Phenomenal Handclap Band: Phenomenal Handclap Band
Regina Spektor: Far (CD & DVD)
R.E.M.: Murmur (remastered vinyl)
R.E.M.: Reckoning (remastered with bonus disc) (vinyl)
Royal City: Royal City (vinyl)
Shawn Colvin: Live
Sons of Bill: One Town Away
Spinnerette: Spinnerette (vinyl)
Sunset Rubdown: Dragonslayer (vinyl)
Therefore I Am: The Sound of Human Lives
Tift Merritt: Buckingham Solo
Tom Brosseau: Posthumous Success
Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones (vinyl reissue)
Tortoise: Beacons of Ancestorship (vinyl)
Various Artists: Away We Go (soundtrack)
Various Artists: The Hangover: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Various Artists: I Love You, Beth Cooper (soundtrack)
Various Artists: My Sister's Keeper: Music From The Motion Picture
Various Artists: Summer's Kiss: A Tribute to the Afghan Whigs
Various Artists: Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen -The Album (soundtrack)
Venetian Snares: Horsey Noises EP (vinyl)
Voivod: Infini
Wolves in the Throne Room: Black Cascade (vinyl)
Wooden Shjips: Contact EP (vinyl)
Ya Ho Wha 13: Magnificence in the Memory (vinyl)
Young Widows / Pelican: Young Widows Split Series Vol. 3 (vinyl)

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous CD & DVD release lists
Try It Before You Buy It (music from this week's CD releases)

tags: music cd list indie album releases

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

This Week's Interesting DVD Releases (June 23rd, 2009)

Waltz with Bashir, the animated documentary about israel's 1982 war with Lebanon, is easily my most anticipated release this week. Friends' and critics' raves about the film have pushed it to the top of my shopping list.

Two other documentaries that deserve a special mention are FEMA City and Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine, which profiles the noted feminist and artist.

With the Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 a constant soundtrack to my month already, I am looking forward to the concert film, Neil Young: Rock At The Beach - Live 1989. John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band: Live in Toronto '69 is another live concert film out this week that piques my interest.

The big name theatrical releases this week include Inkheart and Confessions of a Shopaholic, but I am most looking forward to the DVD debut of one of my favorite films, My Dinner with Andre, and the Criterion Collection release of Last Year at Marienbad.

What can you recommend buying or adding to the Netflix queue from this week's DVD releases?

This week's interesting DVD releases:

At the Death House Door
Backwoods
The Bible Unearthed
Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Collection Three
Blue Cheer: Rocks Europe
Bob Funk
Catlow
Choke Canyon
The Code
Confessions of a Shopaholic
D. Gray-Man: Season One, Part Two
Darker Than Black: Volume Five
Death Note: Re-Light, Vol. 1 - Visions of a God
Diary of a Suicide
Dragon Hunters
FEMA City
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa
The Girls Next Door: Season 5
Hallowed Grounds
High Hopes
Hobgoblins
Hobgoblins 2
Home
Inkheart
Inside the Koran
Jackie Mason: the Ultimate Jew
John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band: Live in Toronto '69
Karl May
Kyo Kara Maoh!: Season 1 Box Set
Last Year at Marienbad (Criterion Collection)
Legend of the Bog
Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine
Mancora
Moeyo Ken: The Complete Series
The Monster Squad: The Complete Collection
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit Volumes 3 & 4
Mr. Troop Mom
My Dinner with Andre
My Dinner with Jimi
Neil Young: Rock At The Beach - Live 1989
Never on Tuesday
The Old Fairy Tale: When the Sun Was God
Origin: Spirits of the Past (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]
Our City Dreams
Phoebe in Wonderland
The Pianist [Blu-ray]
Pick Up The Mic
Pink Panther 2
Punk in England
Punk in London
Reba: Season 6
Reba: Seasons 1-6
Reggae in Babylon
Romeo x Juliet: Romeo Collection, Part 1
Simon Says
Table for Three
Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection
Trapped
Waltz With Bashir
War Wolves
Zombie High

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous CD & DVD release lists
Soundtracked (directors and composers discuss their film's soundtrack)

tags: movies dvd list indie film

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us