Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal mp3 downloads and full album streams from the week's music releases:
Alcoholic Faith Mission: Let This Be the Last Night We Care
full album stream
Alcoholic Faith Mission: "My Eyes to See" [mp3]
Alpha Rev: New Morning
full album stream
Ane Brun: Spending Time with Morgan (reissue)
Ane Brun: "Humming One of Your Songs" [mp3]
Avi Buffalo: Avi Buffalo
Avi Buffalo: "Remember Last Time" [mp3]
Balkan Beat Box: Blue Eyed Black Boy
full album stream
Big Audio Dynamite: This Is Big Audio Dynamite (2 CD Legacy Edition)
full album stream
Bullet for My Valentine: Fever
full album stream
Ceremony: Rocket Fire
Ceremony: "Someday" [mp3]
Common Prayer: There Is a Mountain
Common Prayer: "Us vs. Them" [mp3]
Discover America: Future Paths
full album stream
Doug Burr: O Ye Devastator
Doug Burr: "Red, Red" [mp3]
Drowning Pool: Drowning Pool
full album stream
Emily Jane White: Victorian America
full album stream
Frog Eyes: Paul's Tomb: A Triumph
Frog Eyes: "Lear in Love" [mp3]
Frog Eyes: "Flower in a Glove" [mp3]
Gogol Bordello: Trans-Continental Hustle
full album stream
Jesse Malin & St. Marks Social: Love It to Life
full album stream
Jonathan Tyler & Northern Lights: Pardon Me
full album stream
Juan Maclean: DJ Kicks
full album stream
The Lights: Failed Graves
The Lights: "Puerto Escondido" [mp3]
Linfinity: Martian's Bloom
Linfinity: "MSG" [mp3]
The Lodger: Flashbacks
The Lodger: "The Back of My Mind" [mp3]
Mary Chapin Carpenter: The Age of Miracles
full album stream
Mynabirds: What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood
Mynabirds: "Numbers Don't Lie" [mp3]
Nathaniel Rateliff: In Memory of Loss
full album stream
No Second Troy: Colors
full album stream
No Second Troy: "This Is the End of Me" [mp3]
No Second Troy: "The Black and White Movie" [mp3]
No Second Troy: "Leap of Faith" [mp3]
The Pack A.D.: We Kill Computers
The Pack A.D.: "Crazy" [mp3]
People of the North: Deep Tissue
People of the North: "Tunnels" [mp3]
The Rifles: Romeo & Julie EP
full album stream
Sugar & Gold: Get Wet
full album stream
Trashcan Sinatras: In the Music
full album stream
Unnatural Helpers: Cracked Love & Other Drugs
Unnatural Helpers: "Sunshine / Pretty Girls" [mp3]
Unnatural Helpers: "Girl in the Window" [mp3]
Various Artists: Punk Goes Classic Rock
full album stream
Walter Schreifels: An Open Letter to the Scene
full album stream
also at Largehearted Boy:
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Some things are worth waiting for, and Seattle band The Lights prove that four years isn’t too long to wait for their third release in a decade. On Failed Graves, recorded once again with producer/engineer extraordinaire Erik Blood, The Lights continue to sound like a punk band writing pop tunes in the only way they know how, with a potent combination of aggression, melody, social consciousness, and unconventional song structures, as if Fugazi, The Minutemen, and The Ventures were all mixed into the same band… so, in other words, like The Lights.
Another excellent hard-hitting Seattle band, Unnatural Helpers, manage to cram 15 songs of buzzing guitar riffs, shouted vocals and razor-sharp hooks into just over 25 minutes. And they just so happen to be performing LIVE on KEXP today at noon to celebrate the release. In other Northwest related releases: Avi Buffalo debut with their self-titled release — okay, they’re from Long Beach, CA, but they’re on the venerable local label Sub Pop — and Courtney Love reforms Hole for their first album in a dozen years, which for many critics seems to hold the same sharp anger that made for their best songs.
Excellent new releases abound from other parts of the world: Leeds indie pop band The Lodger returns with their third album, French/Chilean songwriter Ana Tijoux returns to her rap roots on 1977, Germany electronic experimentalists Lali Puna come back after a six-year hiatus, and fans of gypsy punk can rejoice with two masterful releases from Balkan Beat Box and Gogol Bordello!
And while you’re out picking up all those great releases, don’t forget the latest album of alluring dark folk from Emily Jane White, the shoegazing sonic bliss of Ceremony (friends and former bandmates of A Place to Bury Strangers’ Ollie Akerman), and the insistently idiosyncratic indie folk of Frog Eyes.
Check out all of these, and more from Largehearted Boy’s list, below before heading out to prove that any day is Record Store Day!
Alcoholic Faith Mission - My Eyes to See (MP3)
from Let This Be the Last Night We Care on Paper Garden Records
Avi Buffalo - Remember Last Time (MP3)
from Avi Buffalo on Sub Pop
Balkan Beat Box - War Again
from Blue Eyed Black Boy on National Geographic Records
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Johnny Bertram & The Golden Bicycles - Private Land (MP3)
from Days That Passed on Esperanza Plantation
Ceremony - Someday (MP3)
from Rocket Fire on Killer Pimp
Common Prayer - Us vs. Them (MP3)
from There Is a Mountain on South Cherry Entropy
Frog Eyes - Frog in a Glove (MP3)
from Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph on Dead Oceans
Gogol Bordello - Pala Tute (MP3)
from Trans-Continental Hustle on American Recordings
Jesus Makes The Shotgun Sound - Do Not The Clothes Make The Man!? (MP3)
from Damnant Quod Non Intelligunt EP on Ah Ritualism
Lali Puna - That Day
from Our Inventions on Morr Music
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The Lights - Puerto Escondido (MP3)
from Failed Graves on Wantage USA
Linfinity - MSG (MP3)
from Martian’s Bloom on American Myth
The Lodger - The Back of My Mind (MP3)
from Flashbacks on Slumberland Records
The Mynabirds - Numbers Don’t Lie (MP3)
from What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood on Saddle Creek Records
My Education - Oars (MP3)
from Sunrise on Strange Attractors Audio House
No Second Troy - Black and White Movie (MP3)
from Colors (self-released)
Anders Osborne - Echoes of My Sins (MP3)
from American Patchwork on Alligator Records
The Pack A.D. - Crazy (MP3)
from We Kill Computers on Mint Records
People of the North - Tunnels (MP3)
from Deep Tissue on Jagjaguwar
Brian Posehn - More Metal Than You (MP3)
from Fart and Wiener Jokes on Relapse Records
Sonoi - Sherry Fall (MP3) (courtesy of Magnet)
from Sonoi on Low Transit Industries
Sugar & Gold - Feels Like Fire (MP3)
from Get Wet! on Antenna Farm Records
Ana Tijoux - 1977 (MP3)
from 1977 on Nacional Records
Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work
from Tourist History on Glass Note
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Unnatural Helpers - Sunshine /Pretty Girls (MP3)
from Cracked Love & Other Drugs on Hardly Art
Emily Jane White - Liza (MP3)
from Victorian America on Milan Records
White Fence - The Love Between (MP3)
from White Fence on Woodsist
Wounded Lion - Creatures in the Cave (MP3)
from Wounded Lion on In The Red
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"Someday" - Ceremony Ever since My Bloody Valentine there have been no shortage of bands choosing to wallop our ears with washes of noisy guitars while teasing those same ears with muffled vocals, but not enough of them--either in the original shoegaze era or in its current "neo" phase--have bothered mixing a strong melody into the sonic assault. The duo calling themselves Ceremony, on the other hand, while making themselves inaccessible Googlistically speaking, have decided to put the "pop" back into noise pop. Springing from the same Fredericksburg, Virginia trio--Skywave--that ended up giving birth to NYC's A Place to Bury Strangers, Ceremony are loud, no question. But right away see how they take the noisy, rapid-fire beat and use it to as a framework for a melody both leisurely and tuneful. The first hint we get is the lilting--in fact, rather Cure-like--instrumental theme that emerges from the beat at 0:16. That's an ear-friendly hook before the singing even starts. The vocals, when they arrive, are buzzy but not buried; you can not only understand a good number of words, but the singer--either Paul Baker or John Fedowitz (both are listed with the exact same credits: vocal, guitar, bass, drum machine)--sings like he wants to be heard; he's got a portentous baritone, but he enunciates, while singing a catchy little tune when all is said and done. Rather audacious of him, especially on a song with this straightforward refrain: "Take my heart and my life/'Cause someday you'll be my wife." Borrowing a bit from a recent post by Michael Azzerad, one might argue that in a loud and angry age such as ours, using this particular aural toolbox to deliver an unironic, non-violent message of love and connection is more subversive than any effort to be just noisy. "Someday" was released on a 7-inch single in January, and will appear on Ceremony's debut album, Rocket Fire, to be released next month. Both releases are on Killer Pimp Records, which also hosts the MP3. Thanks yet again to the indefatigable Largehearted Boy for the head's up.
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As a follow-up to last week's list of the 2010 album releases I'm looking forward to, here are a few I forgot, some that were recommended, and a couple that have been announced since. Thanks to readers and friends for the reminders, and to the labels and bands who've gotten in touch. FYI, I'll also be adding these to the original post if you want to take a look there for the full run-down...
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As the story goes, there was once a three-piece band from Virginia called Skywave. One day, a member from Skywave relocated to New York City. He formed a band called A Place to Bury Strangers. They blew out amplifiers. They blew out eardrums. The crowd rejoiced. Then, came the bills for the new amps and new hearing aids and there was a little less rejoicing, but the crowd was still very pleased with the band who rivaled the legendary guitar screech of Jesus and Mary Chain.Fast forward to present day, and the two members of Skywave who didn't move to New York City have a new band and a new single out on Killer Pimp Records: "Someday" by Ceremony. And if you wanted to make the direct comparison to A Place to Bury Strangers, you wouldn't be that far off. Except there aren't any of those gigantic, gut-stabbing, eardrum-popping guitar screeches. Ceremony keeps their screeches to a nice, healthy volume, loud enough to add some grit to the mix, but not so loud to induce aural bleeding. Ceremony are nice guys like that. They'd rather focus their energy on maintaining a consistently dark and detached vibe similar to that of The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen or the Psychedelic Furs.MP3: Ceremony - SomedayCeremonyKiller Pimp Records
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Ich bleibe mal bei den düsteren Klängen und freue mich, das eine Band, die ich bereits von Anbeginn meines Blogs an begleite, wieder zurück ist - Ceremony. Nicht ohne Grund nach einem abgründigen Lied von New Order benannt macht diese Band aus Fredericksburg in Virginia eine angenehm lärmige, aber dennoch melodische Noisepopmusik, nicht unähnlich zu A Place To Bury Strangers. Nun gibt es endlich was Neues, nämlich «Someday», von der gleichnamigen 7". Fast schon ein Gute-Laune-Lärmstück, falls sowas überhaupt möglich ist.Link zur Bandseite bei MyspaceMP3-Download Ceremony «Someday»
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