// Category Archive for: MP3s

Music Review: Bad Reed, Bad Reed

By Tyler Hodg

The first effort from Ontario, Canada-based Bad Reed is a three-song self-titled EP. Just enough to taste what the band is about, the ensemble exhibits their genre-fluent music within the short compilation.

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Stream “A Note To Self” By Parenthetical Girls: Upcoming Album, Spring Tour

By Less Lee Moore

The eclectic, engaging Parenthetical Girls released a series of EPs over the last few years entitled Privilege. These were limited edition and only available via mail order. Oh, and each one was hand-numbered n the blood of one of the band’s members.

Now they’ve condensed the 21 songs that make up the five-part series into 12 tracks, all of which have been remixed and remastered. The Privilege album will be released by Marriage Records and the band’s own Slender Means Society Label on February 19.

To support the release, Parenthetical Girls are embarking on a Spring tour, beginning March 6 in San Francisco.

Obviously, none of us have the patience to wait for either of these momentous occasions, so the band has thoughtfully provided a streaming track, “A Note To Self.”

Additionally, they’ll be producing a series of video commercials for Privilege, beginning with the one below (a clever homage to Brooke Shields’s infamous Calvin Klein jeans ads from the 1980s).

For more on Parenthetical Girls, check out their website.

Tour Dates:
03/06 Portland, OR – Holocene
03/07 Berkeley, CA – Starry Plough
03/08 Los Angeles, CA – The Smell
03/09 Phoenix, AZ – Trunk Space
03/10 Albuquerque, NM – Low Spirits
03/12 San Antonio, TX – Korova
03/13 – 03/16 Austin, TX – SXSW
03/17 Dallas, TX – Spillover Music Festival
03/19 Birmingham AL – Bottletree
03/20 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
03/21 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
03/22 Washington, DC – TBA
03/23 Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
03/24 Hamden, CT – Outer Space
03/25 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands
03/26 NYC – Bowery Electric
03/27 Montreal, QB – Divan Orange
03/28 Toronto, ON – Double Double Land
03/29 Ann Arbor, MI – Arbor Vitae
03/30 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
03/31 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
04/02 Denver, CO – Hi Dive
04/03 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
04/04 Boise, ID – Flying M
04/07 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey

Suede Releases Free Song From Upcoming Album: “Barriers”

By Less Lee Moore

Suede fans who haven’t had the fortune of seeing the band’s recent live shows—including those of us who live in North American and didn’t see them at Coachella—have something to be excited about. The band has put out a free MP3 for a song called “Barriers.” The track is one from their upcoming album of all-new material called Bloodsports.

This isn’t even the official single. That song, “It Starts And Ends With You,” will be released in February, in anticipation of Bloodsports‘ March 18 release. Something else to get excited about!

As Suede hasn’t released any new albums since 2002’s best-left-unmentioned A New Morning (and no, Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler’s 2005 Here Come The Tears album doesn’t count), it’s totally natural to be hesitant.

But hey, the song’s actually good! It’s all soaring guitars, pounding drums, and Anderson’s elfin yelping, or as Drowned In Sound put it, “Springsteen-on-holiday-in-Cornwall.” No, Butler isn’t back in the band, but that’s okay. Bloodsports was produced by Ed Buller who produced the band’s first three albums, so that’s another promising sign.

You can pre-order Bloodsports from Amazon.co.uk in CD and vinyl formats.

The band will be playing at Alexandra Palace in London on March 30. For more information, check out the band’s website and Facebook page.

New Band: Sad Baby Wolf

By Kai Shuart

Sad Baby Wolf is the Albuquerque-based result of the collaborative efforts of Marty Crandall and Neal Langford, formerly of The Shins, Marty’s brother Maury Crandall, and their friends Jason Ward and Sean McCullough. To test the waters, the newly formed band has decided to take their show on the road. They played the Noise Pop festival in February, and are slated to play several music festivals this summer. To whet everyone’s appetite, the band has released their version of the Neutral Milk Hotel tune “Everything Is” to the public.
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Welcome To The Iceage

By Less Lee Moore

Photo © Alberte Karrebæk

This is Iceage. Although there’s a better press photo that proves these four Swedish guys are, in fact, still in high school, I picked this blurry one because it looks more akin to what they sound like. And that’s something I’m not yet fully able to describe.

Based on the song, “White Rune,” I’ve got high hopes for Iceage’s debut album New Brigade, which will be released via What’s Your Rupture? on June 21. It’s got that exciting, on-the-verge-of-collapsing, post-punk sound of which I will never grow tired.

Yet unlike a lot of revisionist-sounding post-punk bands, I can’t immediately name another band Iceage seems to be imitating. And “White Rune” features saxophone. You know the kind. Not sax of the Yacht Rock or Kenny G. flavor, but the bad ass kind.

New Brigade is a mere 24 minutes long but based on “White Rune” it looks to be an exhilarating 24 minutes. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, check out the band’s website. They’re playing lots of UK dates in May so go see them if you can.

Girl Talk, All Day

By Janet Brusselbach

It feels really good to be listening to free music that’s not only intended to be free, but that’s also really good.
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Mind Your Manners & Your MNDR: New Single, Free Download, and Tour Dates

By Less Lee Moore

“Cut Me Out,” MNDR‘s first single of 2011 is up now on Green Label Sound. Download it, share it, enjoy it!

Says MNDR, “We shot the music video yesterday with Tim Saccenti and it will be hitting your screens soon.”

Today marks the start of the Risky Business Tour with Chromeo, MNDR and The Suzan 2011.
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Whatever This Is, It’s Free: Ruby Coast’s New Album Download

By Less Lee Moore

If you haven’t yet heard Ruby Coast, now is your chance! I caught them last November (at the Meligrove Band‘s Shimmering Lights release party) and their live set is exuberant indeed.

Their new album Whatever This Is, is now available as a free download on their Bandcamp site.

Check out their tour dates while you’re at it. They play at The Brass Taps in Guelph on March 3 so you’ve got plenty of time to memorize the lyrics before the show.

You can follow Ruby Coast on Facebook to keep up with all the latest news.

Getting Up Early In The Morning With James Vincent McMorrow

By Less Lee Moore

Early in the Morning, the debut album from singer/songwriter James Vincent McMorrow, was self-released in Ireland in 2010 and hailed as “one of the first truly great albums of the decade” by The Dubliner. The album will be available for the first time in the US on January 25 from Vagrant.

But you don’t have to wait to hear it. My Old Kentucky Blog is streaming the album in its entirety.

You can also download “If I Had a Boat,” the album’s first single.

Introducing James Vincent McMorrow (EPK) from Vagrant Records on Vimeo.

Dragon King Remix Of La Roux’s Grammy-Nominated “In For The Kill”

Click for larger image.

By Less Lee Moore

There’s a new Dragon King remix of La Roux’s Grammy-nominated “In For The Kill.”

La Roux’s Elly Jackson also called into Cherrytree Radio’s Morning Orchard last week and chatted a bit about her reaction to hearing the news about her two Grammy nominations.

“We’re very, very happy. The news broke . . . in the middle of the night here, so I woke up to like four text messages just saying ‘congratulations, you’ve got two Grammy nominations.’ I was like, ‘What?’ It was literally the first thing I read when I woke up. It was a nice way to wake up.”

As far as whether she thinks they’ll take home any awards, Elly says, “I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll get it. I’m not going to prepare a speech. I’m not really a speech person; I’ll probably just stammer, and say thank you, and then run away.”

The Grammy Awards will take place February 13 at the Los Angeles Staples Center. For more on La Roux, check out the band’s website.