*This Just In* I still love Candy Claws

Candy Claws has two new songs available for download on their myspace page. They are two more helpings of fresh programming and liquid smooth coalescence of male and female vocals. Do not miss it.

[Mp3] Candy Claws - "Island Grows" REMOVED

Nigeria isn't trying to scam me

If you are a fan of the Ethiopiques Series, a collection of Ethiopian Jazz, Funk, and pop from the 60s and 70s, then you might also enjoy Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-76.

Here is a selection:
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I love Celestine Ukwu's use of slide guitar on this afro-funk jam. It sways back and forth like a swing: waves over which a pert trumpet and then bright guitar improvise.

As a bonus here is one of my favorite songs from the Ethiopique Series: [Mp3]REMOVED. The organ emotes a quick-fingered lament in the intervals of Mahmound Ahmed's soulful verse.

Speaking of Ethiopia . . .

The Last Dinosaur

Out of the many unsolicited myspace band friend requests, it is the exception to find something I really like, probably compounded by the fact that I rarely take these solicitations up and listen to their music. There was something about The Last Dinosaur's profile picture of a child's drawing of a dinosaur that made me want to check them out (A child's wonder that the world we inhabit is the very same world those prehistoric monsters in the dirt roamed awakens my own dormant Dinosaur awe--as if to say, "F'n Giant Lizard/Bird Carnivores were here, man! Wake up!"). And so I did, and it is safe to say that The Last Dinosaur is one of these exceptions.



[ogg] The Last Dinosaur - "Home"
This is some smooth.

Check out their myspace for a fantastic cover of "Beat it"

Unbunny - "X"

In 2004 Neil Young sound-a-like Jarid del Deo acquainted me with American trailer park romanticism. His song "Casserole" and its corresponding single-shot slow-motion music video transforms the dull mundane oppression of the "motor-court" into something magical.

Unbunny has a new song, "X," posted on their myspace and available for free download. The opening "Brian Eno" line alone makes it worth it for me.



Get their Snow Tires album at emusic.

MP3.com Resurrection III -- The Beginning of Lotus (TBOL)

About two months ago I started a mini-post-series highlighting good music from the old MP3.com site, which hosted songs from thousands of independent artists. The site has long since gone under, but some of the music survives on aging hard drives, like my ten year old 40GB hard drive, which I have finally salvaged out of a dusty and broken AMD AnthlonXP 2400+ build that sits in my closet.

Finding The Beginning of Lotus for the first time for me was more than finding a few good songs; It was an experience. I was experiencing sounds and arrangements I had never heard before. I had never heard anything this rhythmically inventive. TBOL labeled it "Drum and Bass" or "IDM" (Intelligent Dance Music) but nothing I heard from these genres in the late 1990s interested me as TBOL did.

My favorite from song from TBOL was easily "autogun." Winamp milkdrop visualizations were made for songs like this, but I think I still prefer playing this one with my eyes closed, following every tick, whir, and snare.
[mp3] TBOL - "autogun"

TBOL is still around. At his myspace profile you can listen to some of his more current work.

The Postmarks mellow Marley

I didn't know it was possible, but The Postmarks have managed to cover Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" and make it even more mellow than the original. This is their third installment of their monthly free song giveaway "By the Numbers." February's song was a cover of the James Bond spy song "You Only Live Twice," and January was the super cool "One Note Samba."

Three months into this project and I am really digging their work. Looking forward to April!

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Free Album Bonanza

Half of eMusic's top fourteen albums today are completely free, even if you are not a subscriber.

At the top is eMusic's SXSW Birthday Bash Free Sampler.



Bon Iver's "Skinny Love," and Delorean's "As Time Breaks Off" are must downloads.


Next up is another SXSW sampler: "Don't Mess with Texas."



It includes a brand new Dr. Dog song "A Long Time Ago,"[mp3] the oft blogged Dodos, a Hysterics song (whose singer sounds like Jason Faulkner), a hyper punchy pop tune from the Plastic Constellations[mp3], and eleven other singles from bands playing this years SXSW--a perfect Austin, Texas road trip mix CD.


Third is Noise Pop sampler.



This opens with Earlimart!


In fourth place is "A Small Commotion," a full album by Spokane.



Spokane delivers some seriously mellow songs for falling asleep and slow dreaming.


Next is yet another SXSW sampler, this time by IODA.



I have not sampled all of this yet, but Sean Hayes' "Flowering Spade" and Oliver Future's "Stranger than the Stranger" are the best of the ones I listened to.


In penultimate position is Smithsonian Folkways Sampler: A Sound Legacy.



Download "Go Tell It On the Mountain" and sing along.


Finally, there is a short free album from The War On Drugs, Barrel of Batteries.



"Arms Like Boulders" is worth a listen.

Audiosurf Music from Asthmatic Kitty

While it is true I suffer serious tunnel-kitty-vision and should probably stop talking about Asthmatic Kitty, it doesn't help any that it is such a damn cool label. Those sick kitties have released another free various artist album; this time fifteen songs--seven previously unreleased--specifically chosen to be suitable for Audiosurf, a distinctive, bizarre 3D video game that takes mp3s and integrates them into a vertical-scrolling "music-adapting puzzle racer." It is the psychotechnic spaceship kin of Guitar Hero and Tetris.
Mp3: Dosh - "Naoise"
Mp3: Rafter - "Sassy"

Check it.


And Download a short but fun Free Demo. It lets you play four songs of your choosing before it locks down. Any game that begins by warning you of possible "photosensitive epileptic seizure" inducing spectacle, which affects "a very small percentage of people," has got to be good, right?

Best of FAWM 2008?

I know I said Evin Wolverton destroyed FAWM for everyone, but that was a bit of hyperbole. There were other songwriters that filled my February with new, delightful music. And while I don't pretend to have listened to all 3,000 demos from this year's February Album Writing Month nor selected the very best, of the ones I listened to, I do have some favorites. Here they are:

Matt DiVito - "Micropolis" Here DiVito busts out a short little They-Might-Be-Giants-like groove. It's fun and about a computer game.

Josh Woodward - "History Repeats" The harmony on "I'm finding a new road home" is gorgeous. Also check out "Go." He rhymes "arms" with "charms," and I don't even mind--that's how good it is. Oh and you might as well get "On Brevity" as well. He has too many good tunes to choose just one! Yikes.

Isaac Quatorze - "defiantly" This bizarre Valentine's Day love song is a kick. Weird is good.

Joe Kennedy - "Run Don't Walk" Quality pop music. Reminds me of Travis.

Old Lost John - "Regina's Bar" There is a ghost in it! Get haunted. Highly recommended.

Timothy Bracken - "You Saw Me In the Light" Bracken is a gifted songwriter. His voice uniquely delivers his verse, and he backs it up with beautiful programming and production. [MP3] Via his Myspace page. Also highly recommended.

Oddbod - "A Letter From Nigeria" Though this song would have been so much more appropriate five or six years ago, it still hits its mark and makes me smile. In unrelated news, 60% of Nigerians suffer under debilitating poverty. Also, Don't miss Oddbod's "You Improve."

Don DiLego - "Left Turn" If you have been listening to the superconscience in February, you'd have picked up on the "We are One" theme. Love your other, love yourself. It is a lot more actionable than "Save the cheerleader, save the world."

Lars Eriksson - "The Death of Marriage" See title.

Steve Apple Head - "Sunday's Work has Just Been Done (Delmar beneath The Water)" You can watch Steve write this song on the youtubes.

Evin Wolvertin - "Take a Little Home" A folk song for poor lovers, and there is none better.

Oh my legion of readers, hit me up with your favorite songs from this year's FAWM.

Bless you!

Asthmatic Kitty is sneezing some pretty quality germs with its second various artist sampler, "Achoo! Volume 2." Now, not all these are contagious. You'll have to sift through some innocuous tunes, but since they are free its hard to complain. At least grab the stuff by Sufjan, My Brightest Diamond, the Castanets, and Half-handed Cloud.

Bonus track from the Kitty:
Cryptacize - Cosmic Sing-a-long [I love sing-a-longs and space]

Evin Wolverton spoils Feburary Album Writing Month

Evin Wolverton is destroying everyone's muse at FAWM.org by posting songs of unmatchable caliber--Why even bother writing songs anymore? Evin encouraged me to take the fawm challenge, but I think now I'll just burn all of my instruments and microphones.

He makes his superiority clear in the first two lines of "Elephant Bones"(MP3): "My Shit: intelligent / Your shit: irrelevant. / Things get malevolent / When you upset the bones of an elephant."

And to rub it all in our inferior faces, he is posting intentionally bad-song novelties like "This Song Sucks." In the words of fellow fawmer Tom DeSimone, "Man, your deliberately crappy song is way better than any of mine."

Silly self-effacing adulation aside, Evin really does have some of the best music on the site.
Go watch him wrap up the month with another seven songs yet to come. I know I'll be checking in everyday.

Hot Cold Treatment

I'm drinking an experimental cold cure: hot water, lime juice, cayenne pepper, slices of garlic, and a bit of honey. It tastes like burning. To cool me off I am turning to the clarion vocals of Victoria Bergsman (of The Concretes), rain-sticks, and the programming skills of The Though Alliance. Deepforest meets the female vocals of Peter, Bjorn & John's "Young Folks."

I need more tonic.

Mp3: REMOVED

Hey you internet addicts!

Rafter thinks you are just waiting to die.
[MP3]REMOVED

From the looks of the torrid 8-track tape orgy pictured above, he is clearly in love with a machine just like the rest of us.
Let's hug it out.

New Devotchka album drops March 18

And thanks to Stereogum.com's gumdrop email list, you can download the sneak preview track "Transliterator" from Devotchka's upcoming album "A Mad and Faithful Telling"--I dig the dialectic title. My parents love these guys and so does my East Coast art school sculptor cousin, who was flummoxed by my parents' recognition of the Devotchka posters on his wall. As talented and fusion-forward as these guys are, it is no wonder they appeal to such a wide swath of humanity. Nick Urata makes playing the theremin look like eating a piece of cake at a picnic while taking candy from imbecile baby turtles, when it truth it is more like licking your own elbow--it seems attainable but unless you are some double-jointed monster, it is in actuality impossible. He sings in at least three languages (Spanish, French, and English), and the rest of the band, like Nick, are all multi-instrumentalists, which I must admit was more impressive before I saw Jon Brion perform live at the largo. But still, it is always a thrill when drummers bust out trumpets and violinists switch to accordions. To hear the new song follow the stereogum link; you'll find one of my favorite songs below from these troubadours of Eastern Eurpoean, Spanish, Colorado country, rock fusion. The accordion on this track is off the harpoon!

Mp3:REMOVED

MP3.com Resurrection II - Work of Saws

For the second installment of MP3.com Resurrection, I've decided to dust off Work of Saws. I don't know much about them except that they are masters of short pop songs and their catchy hippie sing-along "Tangerines and Blue Cheese" was a monument in the soundtrack of my underweight, undergraduate, and undeveloped life of the late 90s/early 00s. If you haven't already noticed, I like some rasp in my folk-pop.

Mp3s: Work of Saws - "Tangerines and Blue Cheese"
Work of Saws - Moth Swarm

If you'd like hear more you can download mp3s at their website, or you can buy one of their albums at eMusic.

Of Montreal get their T Mobile on.

Looking good and glam as usual. Get that cheddar! You deserve it.

Deal of the Month -- $3 for a 1GB stick of Ram

Various lesser known retailers have been selling HP PC2-5300 Ram for peanuts. There is a $20 rebate on these sticks and the rebate check comes back fast--I bought four sticks and I got an $80 check in less than a month. The rebate is good till the end of this month, so if you are building a system or just want a very cheap upgrade, jump on these guys. As if $3 for 1GB of ram wasn't enough, according to many of the reviwers at PCSuperstore, these are overclockable to 800Mhz with the right mobo! Free shipping at the moment too! You could buy five of them for $15 and use the ones you don't need as ninja stars!!!!111

Scary Mansion startles me with good tunes.

The Daily Download from eMusic yesterday was choice. Scary Mansion is vocalist Leah Hayes and her band Braadly Banks and Ben Shapiro. Emusic's Yancey Strickler says she "channels early Cat Power," and while the similarity is quite clear, I'd still give the Cat Power mew the edge closer to absolute beauty. Even so, approaching Cat-Power-like beauty is more than good enough for me.

MP3:REMOVED

Leah Hayes is also pretty handy with the pen.

MP3.com Resurrection

Back in the late 90's mp3.com was an ocean of frothing goodness; it was a site where thousands upon thousands of independent bands posted DRM-free mp3s for anyone to download and enjoy. Sure, Napster was around for those who wanted songs they knew or have heard of, but for those who loved a more legitimate thrill of discovery, mp3.com was a waking dream. I spent countless hours following the link web, sampling music, and occasionally gett'n my dopamine fix from something completely new and mind-shaking. Some of the bands I heard there for the first time have now "made it" like Rilo Kiley, and others have have faded into the oblivion of long untouched bits of 10 and 20 gigabyte hard drives. This will be the first post of a few where I'll try (as best and if I can) to resurrect a few of these songs for you.

The first comes from Oldominion. This Seattle rap crew had a dozen or so excellent songs on the old mp3.com. Many members from Oldominion are still making good music (Grayskul, for example), but nothing will affect me like the first time I heard Azrael's "Beloved," the most original, sense-busting, bible-thumping, horror-core rap song I have ever heard.

This in 1998 was unlike anything I had ever heard. Today there is still not much that compares.

Mp3: "Oldominion - Beloved"
Zombies, Christ, Dungeons and Dragons! This song has it all.

Frontier Ruckus

Frontier Ruckus are as awesome as their name. Matthew Milia's voice is a wilderness moan, but much more musical than most prophets. He sounds like Raymond Raposa (from the Castanets) but brighter, resonating at a higher timber. Whether or not the warble of either vocalists is in part an affectation to fit the sound of the genre is really irrelevant to me. I dig it because it is damn beautiful. Milia loves to rhyme, and despite my expectation that its aggressive use would wear on me, it usually works. He concludes "Dark Autumn Hour":

Tearing moons, these moons are tearing
Swearing terror inside their daring,
Crumbling prayers, dark autumns faring,
Straight out of our hands

At first look it seems like he just threw together a bunch of rhyming euphony without much attention to making sense or telling a narrative, but in the context of the rest of the song these lines do outline the ghost of an image-experience, which for me illustrates the dark autumn of a love lost. Of course this kind of ambiguity elicits the fetishizing tendency in all of us; and to be honest I still have no idea why the songwriter means by "swearing terror inside their daring." In any case, Milia's lyrics can be and often are as vivid as poetry and certainly as sonically interesting.

"The Blood(demo)": the wilderness prophet-lover heralds us all the dove.
"Dark Autumn Hour": The dark autumn of a love lost?
"Christmas Eve, Driving Home": Christmas is over, but I'm still playing this (Another tune selected by those Asthmatic Kitty elves).



1.God bless the man who starts on the saw, moves to melodica, and ends with the trumpet.
2. Melodicas and harmonicas make a great team.
3. Beards!

Visit their myspace and website for additional downloads.

Oh and since I made the comparison, here is a glory-bound Castanets song available for free at last.fm: "This Early in the Game"

Text Adventure -- A Gem from Archive.org

"If It Could Talk It Wouldn't Say Anything" is a lovely electro-pop song, and as an excellent bedroom production it is great inspiration for all you DIYers out there. If you like acoustic guitars, bleeps, bells and Casio keyboards (and who doesn't), you will dig this song.

Download the complete album, Fantastic Disaster, for free at archive.org

Text Adventure - If It Could Talk It Wouldn't Say Anything

The Postmarks -- By The Numbers

Over at Emusic, The Postmarks are giving away a free single each month for the next 12 months. Their first is a cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba." Female vocalist Tim Yehezkely is well suited for this classic samba; her silky voice drips over lush synths and hushed male backup vocals. Sealing the deal for me are the song's final thirty-seconds where Tim is joined by tasteful Air-like vocoder harmony. Vocoder harmonies, even understated ones, always get my vote.

Keep it smooth!

Worst Deal(s) of the Day

Those who are buying $25 off $25 Dell coupons being sold on Ebay for three to five dollars a piece will be sorely disappointed. Every single one of those codes is dead.
Some poor guy just bought 100 of them for $127.50.

25 off 25 Dell Code Madness

I do not know where these codes are coming from, but ebay is flooded with them, and this slickdeals.net thread is frothing with beggars and benefactors. I got in on the 8 dollar 4gb usb drive yesterday from the aforementioned thread--I am very surprised that these coupons are still alive and not being killed by Dell, especially in the light of their seemingly endless supply.

EDIT: Apparently this site is the source of all these codes. And according to this post, once you find a working purchase ID you can generate codes with different email addresses each time. The small print of course reads, "One coupon per customer," and while none seem to be heeding the small print, I am not one to transgress reasonable laws or defy a sensible request. Here is a code I got when testing the method above.
5N23L7C59335LG
Oh the frenzied capitalist grabtacular! We build up giants to destroy them.

Falsetto Pop Jam

I confess, I have always had a not-so-secret love affair with falsetto harmonies (Imagine my disappointment when Weezer split with Matt Sharp's falsetto on the Green Album). This song delivers big-time--my favorite falsetto jam discovery of this year. It comes form Hal's self-titled 05' album, which is quality, but none of its songs got as many plays from me as this one.

Hal - Play The Hits


Official Website

Candy Claws and Candy Clouds

At the time of this posting, Candy Claws have only 220 friends on myspace. If you download this song, you can feel truly distinct and falsely superior with your early adoption of Candy Claw fan-hood. True, you will be riding the coattails of the refined taste and hard work (who knew abstract ideas wore coats?) of the Asthmatic Kitty Xmas Xchange elves who selected Candy Claws' excellent song "Snowdrift Wish" as one of their favorites, but we can pretend that you and I found this treasure all on our own.

Speaking of pretending, I see myself sailing on billowing luminous candy clouds in a catamaran when I listen to this song.
And I've been listening to it a lot! No cavities yet!

Candy Claws - Catamaran