Stream entire Sufjan Stevens Christmas Boxset

[from Ashmatic Kitty website]


Celebrate Christmas on Halloween!? Who ever heard of such a thing? Of course we haven't forgotten Halloween either.

In the same way that brisk, Northern wind whipped by you last week with its chilly reminder that the holiday season is closer than you think, here it is: Sufjan's 5 CD Songs for Christmas in all its free, streamy goodness, available for enjoyment right now. These computer bytes of joy broadcast over the Internet feature albums recorded by Sufjan over the course of 5 yuletides (from 2001 to 2006), each employing different friends, instruments, and moods to tease and swizzle the Christmas spirit in all of us, even as early as October. Say, maybe it is time to cook a little shortbread and toss a little tinsel.

Of course, you can't gift-wrap an internet stream. For those who prefer their Christmas with lovingly reused golden bows and Santa-in-pajama wrapping paper, we will be taking preorders for Songs for Christmas on October 31st, the Christmas of October to ship November 14th. This wonderful set weighs at least 15 pieces of coal, with 5 individually wrapped CDs, stickers, short stories, an essay, a video, a comic strip, songbooks, and an Official Original Christmas Family Portrait of Santa Sufjan! Check those off your list! If we could have placed the CDs in snowman adorned cookie tins and delivered them to you by hand at your Christmas office party, we would have. But we just don’t have enough helper elves.

Stream the tracks right here.

There's so much music on myspace. From bands with 60,000 friends and great reviews in the mainstream media to kids with songs they recorded yesterday and 17 views on their profiles - everything is there. It's a mess.

But it's a good mess, you know. A good problem. No such thing as too-much-information when this information is music. This is where bestmyspaceband steps in.

Bestmyspaceband.com is a community site solely devoted to the art of finding good shit on myspace. Launched only a few months ago, it means to be a place to explore and vote on new stuff that music addicts came across, and where anyone can promote their favourite acts they find on their own myspace journeys.

You can think of it as a human filter that plucks out the good stuff from this huge universe of almost unlimited music. And as it'll attract the music-obsessed to post the gems they discover (and vote on what others had promoted), it could eventually help us in getting deeper into the groove.

Some good unsigned acts on BMB in the last week:

The Morning Benders
It won't take too long for this band from Berkeley, California to get signed. Their songs sound like a mix of the Shins and the Strokes, and it works like magic.

One Trick Pony
The guy who promoted them on BMB wrote: "Music, stolen from around the world and mashed together in the Fens. Designed to get you dancing around your kitchen". It does sound organic, lively and healthy.

Jd Allbass
Described as "Stanley Kubrick and Bruce Lee driving Miss Daisy", this eclectic instrument-backed cut&paste effort by Madrid based Taylor Holidays (who also leads a Spanish band called Holidays in the Sun) is a real cutie.

Laila's Lounge
This group of psychedelic indie-rockers from Malaysia has some good sounds and the right attitude.

AIDS
Submitted to BMB when it had only 25 profile views, this band of New Zealand teenagers uses exactly the right amount of stupidity to make their music brilliant.

The Oohlas - Best Stop Pop

Three minute blasts of power pop with more hooks than you can shake a stick at and great shared vocals from all three band members; ex-Everclear drummer (don't let that put you off) Greg Eklund, his brother Mark and Olivia (Ollie) Stone. Whats not to like?

First and foremost, lets get this straight. By no means is this debut album perfect, in fact part of me feels it would be better as an EP or mini-album. You see, the twelve tracks here offer the listener nothing new in terms of orginality, in fact it helps that the tracks alternate between Eklund and Olivia as the whole thing otherwise would end up being quite samey. From the leading single "TV Dinner" and onwards through "Cahuenga Shuffle" and "Octopus," you start to feel that the formula has reached a point where Stone's breathy drone (a cross between Metrics' Emily Haines and a punkier Jenny Lewis) begins to sink under the weight of samey-ness and the songs start to sound quite forgettable.

But underneath it all there are moments of real greatness here, in particular "Small Parts" which on the surface sounds like a summery-pop gem but underneath tells the tale of a relationship breaking down, with the lyrics "The decay of a former stone heart / Distributed into small parts / Now I cease to glow I cannot function anymore" isn't as happy go lucky as the rhythm section would suggest. You can't help but hum the chorus either with its "ahhhhh ahhhhh Dont go out the backdoor / ahhhhh ahhhh Thats what the fronts for / Chew me up & spit me out / I can't take anymore - Hardly what you'd expect from a summer anthem but it works perfectly. Other highlights include the opening tracks "Gone" & "Tripped", the latter featuring a melody again sung by the real star of the record Ollie, with her instantly likable vocal that wouldnt sound out of place on a Rilo Kiley record.

All in all this is an impressive debut which (with no fault to the band) really should have been released several months ago, to cash in on the heat of the summer.

Visit the bands myspace page here.

Second Coming Rehearsal Sessions (1993/1994)

Download this fascinating insight of The Stone Roses' rehearsal sessions for The Second Coming. All the tracks here are completely unmixed and are direct from the studio tapes.

1. Ian & Reni Recording Water For Breaking Into Heaven Intro
2. Producer Giving Instructions/John In Background
3. Alternate Ten Storey Love Song Intro
4. John/Reni: The Tribal Jam 1
5. Good Times
6. Love Spreads
7. Love Spreads 2
8. Begging You
9. John/Reni: Jam 2
10. Daybreak (JB Groove)
11. Reni Solo 1
12. Tightrope
13. John/Reni: The Funky Jam
14. Breaking Into Heaven
15. Driving South
16. John/Reni: The Crazy Jam
17. How Do You Sleep
18. Reni Solo 2

Download [click here]

Tracklisting for new Charlatans Best-Of

As reported a couple of months ago, The Charlatans are releasing a greatest hits package - Forever. The Singles - Is set for release on 6th November as a 2 x CD deluxe set, with a DVD following a week later on the 13th. The tracklisting is as follows:



CD1
Indian Rope
The Only One I Know
Weirdo
Can't Get Out Of Bed
Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over
One To Another
North Country Boy
How High
Tellin' Stories
Forever
My Beautiful Friend
Impossible
Love Is The Key
A Man Needs To Be Told
Up At The Lake
Try Again Today
Blackened Blue Eyes
You're So Pretty, We're So Pretty (Version '06)

CD2
The Charlatans Live at the BBC
Always In Mind - John Peel Show 20.3.90
Polar Bear - John Peel Show 20.3.90
Between 10th & 11th - John Peel Show 22.1.91
(No One) Not Even The Rain - Mark Goodier Show 5.10.91
Autograph - Mark Radcliffe Show 7.7.94
Up To Our Hips - Steve LaMacq show 14.3.94
Another Rider Up In Flames - Steve Lamacq Show 14.3.94
Crashin' In - Mark Radcliffe Show - 31.7.95
A Man Needs To Be Told - Live Lounge, Jo Whiley 18.11.01

Up At The Lake Demos
Feel The Pressure
Wave The World Goodbye
See How Clear It Is
Try Again Today

Im pretty dissapointed with the tracklisting for the main disc to be honest, I can't believe they have only included one track each off Up To Our Hips & The Charlatans. Surely their best period? Looking forward to the second disc though - lets hope the Demo's for Up At The Lake are better than the actual album. Maybe thats why they've included them?

Review: Wondernaut - The Youth Is Wasted

Currently signed on the up and coming indie label American Laundromat Records is Billy Gro, or Wondernaut as he's most commonly known hails from Oklahoma City. He's been making a splash on American college radio stations for some time, and, after limited copies of his debut self-titled EP sold out he's back with a 12 track debut album "The Youth Is Wasted". Recorded over a period of 10 months by Billy and an 8 track, the album certainly has some moments of lo-fi beauty.

Kicking off with a 3 minute waltz of layered fuzzed out guitars and an infectious melody "Chemical Attraction Ecstasy" its obvious that Billy wears his influences on his sleeve. Not thats neccesarily a bad thing. The vocals on the opening track especially remind me of fellow Oklahoma resident Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips.

"U Think Yer Cool" is a stab at the uber cool underground scene with its playground-ish jibes of "U think yer cool and I am not, u think yer cool but your'e not" - its not going to win any awards for lyrical genius - but maybe thats the point. It does get your foot tapping though.

One of the oldest songs here, "Whisper" has a simple heart wrenching melody, the only downside to it, as with a lot of these songs is the over use of effects on the tracks, especially the vocals. I'd love to hear this song in particular broken down with just an acoustic guitar and vocals. The continuous flanging effects on the instruments and vocals are ultimately a distraction to what could be one of the strongest songs here.

Things pick up though with the buzz saw pop of "Valerie", "Such Sweet Melancholy" and "Out Of Friction", if you close your eyes for long enough you almost feel like you're listening to a band from the C86 era or maybe even Teengage Fanclub'isms circa Bandwagonesque / Thirteen - particulary the bands main songwriter Norman Blake, I think it might be the vocal delivery, I don't know.

What I do know is that if lo-fi college indie pop is youre thing you should certainly check this guy out.

myspace links:

Record Label - http://www.myspace.com/americanlaundromat
Artists Page - http://www.myspace.com/wondernautmusic

Ryan Adams tells all about new Punk direction

Tuned into Ryan Adams' website recently? Well, if you have you will have found Mr Adams brand new punk rock album streaming on his "Cardinals Radio" section.

Ryan has been streaming an album titled “You Are The Audience”. Adams has said today that these recordings will only ever be available streamed through Cardinal Radio online, they will never be commercially released.

Adams says of the material “Its just stuff I do in my spare time, under the name “The Shit,” it’s been an ongoing project since I can remember to record some punk stuff when I get bored, ‘cause I like to play music when I’m not busy playing music.”

He also revealed details of another metal side project. He says, “My other metal project is called “Werewolph” but it’s too scary to release as it is so metal and scary that people actually turn to ice when I play it for them. Those few unlucky souls now haunt the offices of the NME instructed by my witchmaster.”

Explaining the history of "The Shit" - He said the band is “me on everything except drums which is sometimes Brad sometimes JT.” He says they have made five albums, named as follows “Is This Shit", “Hits The Fans,” "General Ulysses S Hospitol," "HillybillyJoel" (with The Cardinals and called “CardinalShits” and "slef-protrait."

Adams says he is also working on a whole other new project, he calls it the ‘garageband wars’. He concludes “I have an alternative death metal country band called “Wilcoven”. Its pretty sick.”

Stay tuned to Cardinals Radio at ryan-adams.com

Dunedin To Nashvillle

A new alt-country documentary has screened at the Raindance Film Festival.

“Far Off Town - Dunedin to Nashville” documents underground rock legend David Kilgour’s journey from his small New Zealand town of Dunedin to Nashville, Tennessee to record his album “Frozen Orange” with his friends who just happen to be alt.country kings Lambchop.

The film features unique footage of Lambchop’s world as Kilgour travels from Kurt Wagner’s basement, to the recording studio of maverick producer Mark Nevers, via the underworld haunts of the Nashville music scene.

Culminating with a journey through the Blue Ridge Mountains to the home of Kilgour’s indie label - Merge Records in Chapel Hill - Kilgour is joined by Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley as well as members of Lambchop for a concert at the historic Carolina Theatre, celebrating Merge’s 15 years as an independent label.

Others appearing among the stellar musical cast include Will ‘Bonnie Prince Billy’ Oldham, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Silver Jews’ David Berman, Jason and the Scorchers, Billy Joe Shaver, Allison Moorer, and Sebadoh’s Jason Loewenstein.

The release date of “Far Off Town – Dunedin To Nashvillle” is likely to be in early 2007.

Lambchop play London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire next Monday (October 23).

Jeff Tweedy Hits Fan

From Pitchfork:

Still in disbelief that the kind, mild-mannered Jeff Tweedy could have punched a dude in the face at last Monday's Springfield, MO Wilco show? We were too...until a Pitchfork reader sent links to YouTube videos of both the incident and Tweedy's apology.

At roughly a minute into the Woody Guthrie-penned favorite "Airline to Heaven," a crazed fan flies out of the audience and onto the stage, raising his arms above his head and, you know, rocking out. Tweedy plays it cool until said fan goes in for a smooch. Tweedy is rightfully taken aback and swats the dude's face before going in for the choke (a light one, admittedly). Totally justified, in our humble opinion.

He then gives a short speech, and Wilco picks up "Airline to Heaven" from where they left off earlier.

In the second clip, Tweedy apologizes to the crowd, saying, "I feel terrible. I don't like to fuckin' punch somebody in the face. Why would I? It sucks. It sucks, man." At this point, someone from the audience calls out ("The Thanks I Get" lyric) "we can make it better." Tweedy responds, "We can make it better than that!"

"I was having a really good time, but now I feel like going and sitting down somewhere. But I know we can't do that. We're not going to do that. We're not going to let the bastards win!"

On their official website, Wilco have issued a statement about the incident. It reads, "It was clear fairly early on that security was a bit lax at the Shrine Mosque. We had decided in advance to not have a barricade in front of the stage (a mistake?) so the band and crowd could be as close together as possible. The band prefer it that way...

"During the first encore a young man jumped onto the stage and did the requisite salute to his pals. While we certainly do not encourage that kind of behavior, we were prepared to let it go, as he was, it seemed, heading back into the crowd. Just when it appeared he was walking off the stage he turned around and moved towards Tweedy from behind. Jeff did not see him approaching, but felt the guy's hands on his head. To this, Jeff reacted. As Jeff put it... 'I really regret what happened last night. I wish it had gone another way... and i suspect had i felt safer on that stage, had security been doing a better job all night long, well things would have gone differently. He approached me from behind... and I reacted in defense to get him away. I didn't know what his intentions were... and I had to get him off of me. I'm sad that it happened at all.'"

We Are Scientists set to release rarities CD & DVD

We Are Scientists, fresh from their With Love And Squalor debut, are to release Crap Attack, a compilation of videos, rarities, remixes and b-sides to be released on november 6th.

The CD features, amongst other things, covers of Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros and Art Brut's Bang Bang Rock & Roll. The DVD included in Crap Attack, features videos for all 12 album tracks and the full version of their gig earlier this year at Shepherds Bush with band commentary.

The track listings are:

CD
1. Ram It Home
2. Surprise
3. The Great Escape (The Silence Remix)
4. Mucho Mas
5. Call Backs Under The Sea
6. Hoppipolla
7. Bang Bang Rock & Roll
8. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt Under The Sea
9. Sie Hat Was Vermisst
10. Be My Baby
11. This Scene Is Dead (Pete Predictable Remix)
12. History Repeats

DVD
1. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
2. This Scene Is Dead
3. Inaction
4. Can’t Lose
5. Call Backs
6. Cash Cow
7. It’s A Hit
8. The Great Escape
9.Textbook
10. Lousy Reputation
11. Worth The Wait
12. What’s the Word
13. Live at Shepherds Bush Empire
14. Commentary from the band

The release will be supported by the band's sold out UK tour, which sees them play 2 nights in Brixton.

Download Complete Jenny Lewis Show

The Jenny Lewis show mentioned yesterday was so so good I decided to split up the mp3 in seperate tracks, and, as i'm the nice i've uploaded it here.

The setlist is:

Long Black Dress
The Big Guns
You are What You Love
Melt Your Heart
The Charging Sky
Happy
Fernando
Rise Up With Fists!!
Carpet Baggers
Sunday
When Jack Killed Mom
Born Secular
Rabbit Fur Coat
Acid Tongue
Handle Me With Care

In Anticipation of the new Jeff Tweedy DVD....

Here are two clips from Sunken Treasure the live DVD of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Released through Nonesuch on October 24th. Its available to pre-order from all good stockists.

Jeff Tweedy "Sunken Treasure" Trailer


Jeff Tweedy - Is That The Thanks I Get

Stream and Download Exclusive Live Shows

The US public radio station NPR is currently streaming a handful of live shows including a full set by Jenny Lewis.

Also its worth noting that on 19th October they will be streaming Wilco at the famous 9:30 club in Washington DC. The show will be archived for a year after the transmission date. Hopefully it will be available as a download like the Jenny Lewis show.

Visit the archive here.

The Shins new album tracklisting revealed.

The Shins have revealed the tracklisting for their hugely anticipated third album Wincing The Night Away set for release on January 23rd of next year. The lead single from the album, Phantom Limb will be available as a download exclusively through itunes on November 14th and gets its CD release a week later on the 21st. The single will contain two unreleased tracks from the albums sessions, one being an alernate version of album track Split Needles.

Tracklisting as follows....
Phantom Limb
01 Phantom Limb (album version)
02 Nothing at All
03 Spilt Needles (alternate version)

Wincing the Night Away
01 Sleeping Lessons
02 Australia
03 Pam Berry
04 Phantom Limb
05 Sea Legs
06 Red Rabbits
07 Turn on Me
08 Black Wave
09 Spilt Needles
10 Girl Sailor
11 A Comet Appears

Death Cab's Chris Walla Goes Solo

Death Cab cutie and philandering producer Chris Walla, having planted his infamous seeds of production pretty much everywhere by now, is about to get busy in the studio with, um, himself. Walla has announced on his website that former DCFC home Barsuk Records will release his latest solo offering, tentatively titled It's Unsustainable, in March 2007. First critic to dismiss Walla's efforts as "masturbatory" gets a hearty smack on the wrist.

Walla's yet to decide on a moniker, but after flinging with the idea of billing himself "The Convincer", he's now close to settling on his given name. Smart move, Chris. It also seems this won't be a Martin Youth Auxiliary thang, the solo tag under which Walla released a self-titled cassette way back in 1999.

Walla, who's presently putting together a brand new studio called the Alberta Court, has already written the songs that will appear on It's Unsustainable, which he says bear a "pretty dark political stripe." Neocons, watch your backs!! He's also posted a Clinic cover on his website, revealed plans to tour, and beseeched his fans to help him make some damn decisions already.

Pitchfork

Brakes Are Back!

Brakes return next month with a brand new 11-track studio album entitled Beatific Visions. The follow up to last years Give Blood will be released on November 8th through Rough Trade. I've just heard a copy of it and have to say it doesnt dissapoint. Its certainly a step up from their debut - with more focused, rounded songs. A highlight for me is Spring Chicken. Great stuff.

A statement from the band follows....

Brakes are the rollin', bowlin', tumblin', toilin', boilin', wheelin', bleedin', blood givin' buddies that have been throwing eyes into the valleys of the blind and sending mp3s to the moon or further for over three years now YEAH!!! Roll over cold dog' cause a hot dog's movin' in!! HELL YEAH!!!

So far this year, Brakes backed Belle and Sebastian and Editors in the UK & Europe before seeing in the spring with trips to warmer climbs; March saw the band head to Texas for a string of successful shows at the South by South West festival in Austin, a return to NYC and a debut tour of Italy.

Come April and Brakes' super-duper smash hit 'All Night Disco Party' received a repeat release disguised in Graham Sutton, Matthew Herbert and FC Kahuna remix formats. The band then toured from Aberdeen all the way down to the city of London where they did a good job of filling the popular Mean Fiddler venue.

It was high time for Brakes II by now, so, on an invitation from Seth Riddle (husband of Cerys Mathews) they flew to Nashville, Tennessee to record with Stuart Sikes (Cat Power: The Greatest, White Stripes: Red Blood Cells...) After a few days acclimatisation; catching fireflys; drinking 45 ounce margheritas; swapping guitar licks and rocking on rocking chairs on various porches, they got to work at The House of David studio, where records have been made by the likes of JJ Cale, Yo La Tengo and Elvis Presley.

The band stuck to their old habits by recording fast and live to tape. They recruited a few extra pairs of hands in the shape of local axe hombre Kevin Teel (lapsteel) and the man of 'The House' himself, Mr David Briggs (piano) David was an original Muscle Shoals band member and went on to play piano with Elvis between '68 and '77. Brakes asked him to lay down some 'ragtime' piano on 'If I Should Die Tonight' offering him $10. "Well, that was worth 50c." he said. They squeezed in gigs at the legendary record shop 'Grimeys' and its sister venue The Basement in between sessions, and were greeted by Nashville with hollers, whoops and screams.

Between festivals around the UK and Europe, Brakes mixed their new album 'Beatific Visions' at Radiohead's studio, Courtyard, in Oxfordshire. They paid their dues at the grave of Eric Blair (George Orwell), drank too much at the local mind bending pub 'The Plough', recorded a string section and mixed a fine record, which was later mastered by Neil Young's mastering engineer in Nashville.

The band played festivals until the end of the summer, and will be out on tour somewhere near you soon.

'The Beatific Visions' Tracklisting:

Hold Me In The River
Margarita
If I Should Die Tonight
Mobile Communication
Spring Chicken
Isabel
Beatific Vision
Porcupine or Pineapple
Cease and Desist
On Your Side
No Return

The band are touring the album in December with the following dates. Tickets are available at usual outlets.

Oct 16	White Heat @ Luminaire - more info
Oct 23	Trash @ The End (10pm-3am)
Oct 26	Adventures In The Beetroot Field @ Fabric
Nov 9	Another Music = Another Kitchen @ Proud Galleries
Nov 28	The Point
Nov 29	Crawdaddy
Nov 30	Radar Club @ Speakeasy
Dec 1	King Tuts
Dec 2	Cockpit
Dec 3	Roadhouse
Dec 4	Bar Academy
Dec 5	Kings College
Dec 8	Pavilion Theatre