FULL MP3 ALBUM: VICE GIVES YOU THE GIFT OF GOOD MUSIC
Vice Gives You The Gift Of Good Music It's not a holiday album. It's a compilation of tracks (downloadable via Amazon.com) from artists on the Vice Records roster, including Chromeo, Japanese Motors, King Khan & The Shrines, and The Streets. A couple of these had already been available for free download on the label's mp3 blog, but I believe most of these are first time freebies.
And, if you happen to be in search for some actually holiday music. Vice is offering up "Come On, Santa" for the taking. The track is from The Raveonettes new Christmas EP.
Last.fm Best of 2008 If you've been poking around through music blogs lately, you've surely already experienced the glut of year-end lists touting the best of the year. (And yes, I'll be adding to the mess soon enough.) One year-in-review I was particularly fascinated by was the one at Last.fm, which ranks the year's top tracks, albums, and new artists by total number of listeners on the site. The countdown of tracks is dominated by Coldplay and MGMT, but the other two lists include interesting jumbles that just cry for analysis. Katy Perry wedged between Foals and Fleet Foxes? The Kooks have the sixth most listened to album of the year? Statistics hounds, let your reasoning begin.
It might not be a typical holiday album, but Low's 1999 holiday record Christmas was actually quite hauntingly beautiful. This year, they cross the line from haunting to just plain creepy on their new yuletide single "Santa's Coming Over". And check out those kids in the video. Truly frightening.
"There are Maybe Ten or Twelve" (ACNewman.net) This track from A.C. Newman's upcoming album Get Guilty is a simple and pretty pop song. It feels very much like some of the ballads from Challengers, but I think we'll have to wait until we hear the album before we can judge how much of a departure it is from his previous work with and without The New Pornographers.
I'm not sure I would have guessed that MGMT would make "The Youth" a single, but I suppose the most obvious dance-floor-ready tracks from Oracular Spectacular have already been released. Whether you love the track or not, you'll at least be amused by the video, which was directed by Eric Wareheim of Tim & Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!.
"Enemy Within" (Secretly Canadian) Swedish songstress Frida Hyvonen has a voice that's both haunting and tender, And it's hard to ignore its power on "Enemy Within", which will appear on her upcoming sophomore album Silence is Wild. Musically, Hyvonen appeals to lovers of traditional singer-songwriters, yet she constintent dares to move boldy out of the girl-at-a-piano comfort zone.
"Snowblind" (Absolutely Kosher) A new track from search engine stumpers +/-, who'll be releasing their latest album entitled Xs on Your Eyes on Oct. 21.
"Acid Tongue" (Toolshed) I'm not sure anyone succeeds at freshening up a traditional storytelling country-folk song quite like Jenny Lewis. The Rilo Kiley singer releases her new solo album Acid Tongue on Sept. 23 -- this time without the Watson Twins but with help from collaborators like Elvis Costello, Zooey Deschanel, and Chris Robinson. Just one listen to this title track and I'm yearning to hear all those harmonies.
"Hologram Buffalo" "Oppressions Each" (Matador) With these two spacey selections, psychedelic folk band Brightblack Morning Light blaze the trail toward their forthcoming release Motion to Rejoin, which may make even the most straight-laced of fellows want to dress like a hippie and pop some pills.
"Curs in the Weed" (Kill Rock Stars) Frontman Justin Ringle styles his voice after Nick Drake on this new track. Despite a roster of multi-instrument-playing band members, the Oregon-based outfit finds beauty in the simple and sparse. Horse Feathers' new album House with No Name is available on Sept. 9.
I certainly don't disagree with the lukewarm reviews critics gave CSS' sophomore album Donkey. It's pretty lackluster compared to their debut album, which made the Brazilian group dancefloor regulars a couple years back. However, the CD does have one glowingly good moment. Their new single "Move" was the lone track I really thought could be a hit when I first listened to Donkey. Doused in '80s electro-pop, the song even features a brief and adorable Debbie Harry-esque rap.
"Bird" (Team Clermont) Two-man Boulder band Pattern is Movement's new album All Together was released on Tuesday. Fans know them from their high energy eclecticism. If you need proof, throw on this track. It sounds like it belongs in a Japanese pop musical.
Like many, I was a big fan of the driving, angular pop of The Futureheads' 2004 self-titled debut. But their follow-up album 2006's News and Tributes was a bit of a disappointment -- more of the same, but much less fun. Their newest single "The Beginning of the Twist" is a good sign that the English band found their mojo again and that their next album just may something to look forward to.
"Violence, Diamonds" "Puerto Rican Jukebox" (Kill Rock Stars) The former one-man Portland act Panther recently doubled in size. Charlie Salas-Humara has made a Joe Kelly (previously of 31 Knots) an official member of the multi-instrumental experimental funk rock band and they'll both appear on the upcoming release 14 Kt. God. The LP is available on Feb. 19, but you can sample these two tracks for a taste of the duo's jumbled up jam band sound.
"Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" (Merge) M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel first met each other when they recorded a song for a movie soundtrack together (a Richard and Linda Thompson cover for some little known indie flick called The Go Getter). Apparently, they seemed to like each other's talents because after the collaboration the pair got together to record a full album of original songs Deschanel had been hiding at home. Deschanel's cutesy and rootsy voice complements M. Ward's sound very well. Nice to see a big time actress dip into recording music and actually impress me. She and Him's debut album Volume One is out on March 18.
The old Listening Room was kind of silly. We at The LARRY Page have concluded the kids will like this better.
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