Monday, April 19, 2010

p.s. The Tallest Man On Earth’s new album of the same name is definitely my favorite of the the year so far.  You can download two of the songs from it at that link. Highly recommended.

Posted by Kevin K. on 04/19/10 at 06:14 AM
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I told you a couple of months ago that the xx‘s song “VCR” was one of my favorite earwigs ever and that their self-titled debut album was one of the best of last year.  A San Fran-based DJ who goes by the moniker of Wait What has released a tremendous mashup album (the best since The Grey Album) of the xx’s first effort in its entirety and the vocals of the Notorious B.I.G.. Below you’ll find the video for Wait What’s melding of “VCR” and Biggie’s “Juicy.”  You can download the whole shebang for free and read more about the project at Wait What’s site here. Enjoy. [via FREEwilly]

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Posted by Kevin K. on 03/31/10 at 12:38 PM
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Saturday, March 06, 2010

I stumbled across two different opportunities to download some rare Jonathan Richman recordings (see below) and got locked into a massive Richman listening session, including revisiting one of my favorite albums of all-time, The Modern Lovers, which I had ignored for way too long. Here’s what I think is an unofficial video for the song “I’m Straight” from that album and three rare live music video that perfectly capture what makes the childlike Richman (and his shows) so special.  Enjoy.

The Modern Lovers—“I’m Straight”

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Posted by Kevin K. on 03/06/10 at 07:46 AM
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

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Posted by Kevin K. on 02/16/10 at 06:41 AM
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I found out yesterday via the awesome roio audio archive (bookmark it! bookmark it!) that Beck has started hosting a “Record Club” at his official web site where he gets together with friends like Wilco, Devendra Banhart, MGMT and Feist to cover some of their favorite albums in their entirety. The first album he tackled with his pals (including actor Giovanni Ribisi on glockenspiel on this track) was the classic The Velvet Underground & Nico album. You can download the entire effort for free here via roio. It’s definitely worth owning if you’re a fan of VU, Beck or both.

p.s. If you’re interested, roio has also uploaded Beck’s take on Songs Of Leonard Cohen.

Posted by Kevin K. on 12/29/09 at 08:07 AM
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

This is the Mahotella Queens first single from ‘64 on the Motella label and it has never been released in digital format. Now you can grab it and 29 other rare South African jive tracks for free, courtesy of collector Nick Lotay, via the phenomenal music blog matsuli music. About 3/4 of this amazing collection of hard-to-find recordings titled “Mavuthela - The Sound of the Sixties” has never been released on CD and some of them were lovingly culled from original 78 shellac discs. If you are a fan of any of the Soweto comps (notably The Indestructible Beat of Soweto) like I am or Paul Simon’s Graceland, you need to grab this now (matsuli expires downloads after an undisclosed period of time). Make sure you check out Nick’s extensive “liner notes” while you’re there. Enjoy.

Posted by Kevin K. on 10/14/09 at 08:26 AM
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tom Waits’ new album Glitter and Doom Live, including “Trampled Rose” and a bonus disc of nothing but Tom’s spectacular stage patter, is coming out on November 24th and to promo the release they’re giving away the first eight songs from it for free here. Go get ‘em.

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Posted by Kevin K. on 10/13/09 at 06:18 AM
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Saturday, June 06, 2009

More Micachu & the Shapes here.  Still one of my favorite albums of the year…

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/06/09 at 11:13 AM
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Friday, April 17, 2009

Okay, I lied.  It’s Micachu and the Shapes. Their new album Jewellery saved me after an interminable subway commute (fuck you G train, you horrible, horrible thing!) from Queens to Brooklyn last night.  I lost count of how many times I listened to the mangled semi-acoustic stomp-ditty “Eat Your Heart.” Hands down my favorite song so far this year. You can check it out and download it (and two other songs) here.

p.s. BTW, if you were bummed that this really wasn’t a Susan Boyle video, here’s a discovered recording of her singing “Cry Me a River” for a charity CD in ‘99. Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.

Posted by Kevin K. on 04/17/09 at 09:02 AM
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Thursday, April 02, 2009

One of my favorite pop bands of all time is New Zealand’s Verlaines and this is one of my favorite songs by them.  Enjoy.

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Posted by Kevin K. on 04/02/09 at 07:11 AM
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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Haven’t done a Sunday Selector in a good, long time….

Chad VanGaalen—“Molten Light”
(warning: somewhat disturbing imagery)

• John McCain Released From a California Psychiatric Hospital: It’s true because I read it on the internets (or saw it in a McCain ad).
  
• Fish & Roses EP—Organ-fueled, long-out-of-print underground art skronk from ‘87 ripped from vinyl for your enjoyment. “Booth” is just plain beautiful, “Screwed’s Crude, Screwed” is a blazing jazzbo stomp, and off-kilter oddities like “Have A Nice Day And Fried Rice” are as smile-inducing as they are aurally lopsided. Bonus points: One of the best live songs I’ve ever seen in my life occurred when Fish & Roses joined Yo La Tengo on stage in a strip mall bar in Naugatuck, CT (home of Naugahyde) and utterly blew the Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On” through the roof and up into the stars. I wish you all could have been there.
  
• Get Your War On—“Sarah Palin and the Rape Kits”  ... biting satire done right.
  
• The BigO’s Bootlegs—The navigation’s a little screwy on this site from Singapore, but check out the left sidebar for some great free bootleg downloads of everyone from Bob Dylan to Elvis Costello to Neil Young to underrated sax master David Murray to Pink Floyd.
  
• Sarah Palin’s Debates Made Easy 101—“At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.”
  

If anything else is floating your boat this Sunday, drop a link in the comments.  Now excuse me while I go convince my lovely wife Chris what a colossally bad idea it would be to go to Ikea this afternoon.  Pray for me.

Posted by Kevin K. on 09/21/08 at 09:48 AM
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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Just found out about this at TBogg’s joint. I’ve been on a pretty huge Replacements run since Rhino re-released and remastered their Twin-Tone stuff, so this is pretty great news (and, from the sounds of it, a pretty wise business move on Westerberg’s part). You can only get it here (I looked), but I’m listening to it now and it’s worth it (yeah, I know, 49 cents, but you have to install Amazon’s ridiculous MP3 downloader and time is money, yo).

UPDATE: 49:00 is a jumbled, cross-hatched mess (which I really like) and for that reason I’m going to label this my favorite Westerberg solo album yet.  Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash is my favorite Replacements album, so your mileage may vary.

Posted by Kevin K. on 07/31/08 at 02:01 PM
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Gorgeously-rendered esoteric comps like these are hard enough to track down for top dollar, so you’d damn well better go download them for free from the always excellent Egg City Radio:

[T]his three-disc Italian exploitation film soundtrack collection [Nate Thompson] made especially for his blog is too good to let fade away into the ether. Nate sez:

“Given the huge amount of great film music never commerically released in any format, I decided to cut together a series of suites of some outstanding titles that deserved some notice; here the spotlight turns on some of the great (well, in most cases) Italian composers whose work has often never gotten the credit it deserves. Taken from a variety of sources (video, M&E tracks, or whatever’s handy), these have been tweaked to sound as good as I can make ‘em; hopefully you’ll discover a few new gems in this three-part collection, entitled ‘Italian Blend’.

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/25/08 at 10:22 AM
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Sunday, June 22, 2008

It’s baaaaaaack...

The Dixie Hummingbirds—“Christian Automobile”—playing 6/26 at Celebrate Brooklyn

HARRY NILSSON DOES POPEYE— I don’t know what’s weirder, the fact that I really like the Popeye soundtrack (probably never making it to CD) or that there are actually demos available ( and they’re even better than the final versions). Drink your spinach.

FISA HOLD ‘EM—I’m pretty much in the same camp with John Cole.  Steve M. has it right, too.

THE BEATLES’ GET BACK—I’ve always had a soft spot for the Beatles’ Let It Be, which I’ve enjoyed a lot more than, say,  the bloated ‘n’ silly Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (there, I said it) and this Glyn Johns mix, appropriately titled Get Back and replete with studio chatter,  makes it even sweeter.

MATT TIABBI’S “FULL METAL MCCAIN”—“McCain is perhaps the first candidate in history to stump against two bills bearing his own name.”

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/22/08 at 08:29 AM
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Thursday, June 19, 2008

I’m going to check out Medeski, Martin & Wood and Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park tonight, so I got a hold of MM&W’s latest release Let’s Go Everywhere and was surprised to find out that it was children’s album.  I’m a selfish, childless bastard, so that wasn’t what I wanted or needed, but the good news is that it’s a damn fine children’s album and something every parent of youngish thingees who reads this blog should look into snatching up.  You can listen to four of the tracks at their MySpace page and I highly recommend you start with the FUNky “Where’s the Music?”, which just may be the best kids song ever (I can’t stop listening to it) and will surely worm its way onto my next mix CD.

MORE: You can download two MP3’s from the album, including “Where’s the Music?”, from here.

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/19/08 at 02:37 PM
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