7.08.2006

Mojo Magazine: 2003 (18 Tracks From The Year's Best Album)

A Mojo compilation, obviously.

No Trust The Black Keys (album: Thickfreakness)
Plan B Dexys Midnight Runners (album: Let's Make This Precious: Best Of...)
Coma Girl Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros (album: Streetcore)
Before I Break Uncle Tupelo (album: No Depression)
It's Gonna Be A Long Night Ween (album: Quebec)
Mahgeetah My Morning Jacket (album: It Still Moves)
Inside Looking Out The Animals (album: Absolute Animals 1964-1968)
The Dark End Of The Street The Flying Burrito Brothers (album: Sin City: Very Best Of.... Actually released in the UK and US in July 2002; first version appears on 1969's The Gilded Palace of Sin)
Life Turned Her That Way James Carr (album: A Man Needs A Woman)
Old Friends, New Lovers The Thrills (album: So Much For The City)
One Piece At A Time Johnny Cash (album: The Essential Johnny Cash)
Won't Get Fooled Again The Who (album: Who's Next (Deluxe Edition))
Still In Love Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (album: Nocturama)
Bonnie And Clyde Serge Gainsbourg with Brigitte Bardot (album: Bonnie & Clyde, remastered)
Quattro (World Drifts In) Calexico (album: Feast of Wire)
Buribalal Afel Bocoum (album: Festival In The Desert, Various Artists. Originally appeared on 1999's Alkibar)
War Carla Whitney (album: Choker Campbell & The Super Sounds)
I'm Coming Out (Chic Mix) Diana Ross (album: Diana (Deluxe Edition)

7.07.2006

Freebie Of The Year: 2006 Pitchfork Festival Music Sampler.

By now everyone knows the badasssssss Pitchfork is putting out what promises to be the biggest indie music jam of the year, and that it's all gonna break on the last two days of this July. What you may not know unless you are a Pitchfork regular is that these guys, in conjunction with the magnificent eMusic, have put out a FREE compilation of songs to herald this event. If you are an indie buff like me, the selection of tracks will impress you and your grandmother. This amazing freebie is available for download at eMusic, and you don't even have to be a paying suscriber to get it. Here are your options.

1) For those of you who never buy music, never!: Go to eMusic to sign up for eMusic's trial membership. You get 25 free songs, plus the Pitchfork compilation, and if you chose not to change your ways and continue with a paid subscription after the trial period, you just cancel and keep all the free music you got without obligations. Those of you in this category we'll call the FREELOADERS EXTRAORDINAIRE. Also, by signing up through this eMusic link or any eMusic link/banner on this blog, you help pay my ezarchive fees and feed my family in Africa. My lawyer job don't pay so well.
2) If you are already a paid subscriber, just login and search for Pitchfork. Then reap the fruits you have sown.
3) For those of you who like free music but never having to sign up for anything, enjoy staring at the playlist I have posted below. Just cause I care for you poor souls, I have provided four of the songs for your listening pleasure. Just find and click on the blue links.

La Blessure Ghislain Poirier
Just Drums Tapes 'n Tapes
Woke Up New The Mountain Goats
European Oils Destroyer
Collide the Tide Chin Up Chin Up
Brothaz Mr. Lif
Skip to the End The Futureheads
Spider's Web Mission of Burma
Black Cab Jens Lekman
Beanbag Chair Yo La Tengo
Public Sex For Boyd McDonald Matmos
Bloodbook on the Half Shell Danielson
Abel The National
Fast Cars Aesop Rock
Dog Days Matthew Dear
Red Gradations Chicago Underground Duo
The Beast and Dragon, Adored Spoon
Little Dawn Ted Leo / Pharmacists
Long Haired Child Devendra Banhart
Spider Wisdom Nels Cline
Good Weekend Art Brut
We've Been Had The Walkmen
Good Morning Cage
Odyssey 8 Bold Souls

Info on the Pitchfork Music Fest is available here.

7.06.2006

Jeremy: The Boy Behind The Song

Kristy has a powerful piece on the song "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam over at Vintage Rock. Here's a preview:
Today I decided to feature "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam because I remember being profoundly effected by the video when I first saw it as a young child. I was too naive when I first heard the song to really understand its meaning, but I knew there was something evil and sinister that happened to this Jeremy boy. It made me, for the first time in my short life, doubt the saftey of my own home and community. I no longer thought my daddy could protect me from everything, especially evil more real and more invisible than the boogeyman who hid in my closet. Click here to continue reading.

Watch a video of the song.



Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris: Live at the Ahoy, Rotterdam, Pt. 2.

Completely forgot to post the other part of this set. Thanks for the reminder, dear anonymous guy.

Boulder To Birmingham (Emmylou solo)
All The Roadrunning
Speedway At Nazareth
If This Is Goodbye
So Far Away
Our Shangri-La
Why Worry

To cap off of series of excellent gigs I've seen this year, I saw the vivacious and super-talented Neko Case last night at the Myer Horowitz here in the City of Champions. By God, the pipes on that lady! So much so that my Buddhist friend hanging out with me at the show declared she "would sell her organs for a voice like that!" Amazing stuff. And to top it up, Neko brought along Ms. Kelly Hogan, who I will proceed to obsess about by collecting everything she ever set her voice to from henceforth, the said voice being the best thing you probably never heard. Think Emmylou Harris. But this show was not just "the exposition of solid pipes"-Neko's supposedly difficult alt-country songs really come alive live, and the music is sweet in part, complex in part, and earth shattering in all. Expect photos, and soon as I rescue my audience recording from the recesses of hell (my pc only digital recorder), I will have it up here for samplers.

7.05.2006

Radiohead: Early Versions Of Tracks From Ok Computer, Kid A, The Bends, & Amnesiac

Raw versions of your favorite Radiohead tracks, from the "Towering Above The Rest" bootlegs.

Airbag (early)
Paranoid Android (early)
Subterranean Homesick Alien (acoustic)
Exit Music For A Film (early)
Karma Police (early)
Electioneering (early)
Climbing Up The Walls (early)
No Surprises Please (early)
Lucky (early)
How To Disappear Completely And Never be Found (early)
Motion Picture Soundtrack (early)
Life In A Glass House (early)
True Love Waits (live, appears on I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings)
Let Down (early)
High and Dry (early)
Just (early)
Fake Plastic Trees (early)

7.04.2006

Sebadoh III Finally Coming

So Domino Records is finally kicking out the much-awaited Sebadoh classic, III, on July 10th in Europa and August 8th in North America. The last time we talked about the reissue on this lowly blog, we heard via the usual channels it was due out April 3rd. Then I had posted some tracks from the original Homestead release, but as fate and an email inbox would have it, I have two tracks from the forthcoming Domino reissue to post today. III is going to be as big as the Pavement reissues, and I hear it comes with an 18-track bonus cd. Oh, the joy.

The Freed Pig
Gimme Indie Rock

Meanwhile, I thought you'll enjoy the reissue proclamation as delivered in some twisted keyfoolery (my word, since I couldn't find a word for "record company typo" in the dictionary) in my inbox. Here.

"While it may seem hard to call Sebadoh III the shot heard Ê»round the world, this ambitious album, along with Slanted And, Enchanted, were the one-two punch that opened up a way forward creatively by ransacking the vestiges of the '80s American underground. After the acoustic lo-fidelity intimacy of their two earlier releases, Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney left the bedroom, added Jason Lowenstein and went “electric” (somewhat). The original album is a schizophrenic adventure, from Louʼs plaintive songwriting to, Ericʼs noisier psychedelically-minded études. As if the pot needed sweetening, the deluxe re-issue includes a bonus disc of rare tracks from singles remixes and demos, including the seminal "Gimme Indie Rock" 7" and the infamous & hilarious "Showtape '91." Â

More introspection than you can shake a stick at..."

Next Up: Early Demos from Ok Computer and Kid A.