Monday, January 25, 2010

Digital Deliveries - with some for you, too

It’s been a frenzy of downloading here at the CPF HQ – some sent to me via zip, some purchased, some that I can share with you. So let’s have at it!

I paid for the full album of songs HOPE FOR HAITI NOW – Various Artists (iTunes) that was made available the day after the big telethon. You’ll get all 20 tracks (the Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge and Rihanna collaboration comes in both live and studio versions) for just $7.99 – a steal of a deal. But if you want for some reason to get only one song, the Justin Timberlake version of “Hallelujah” is as good as I remembered.

There’s another way to get lots of fine music at low cost and fee good, too. My pal Mark (check out his local news/political satire blog) turned me on the fact that the wonderboys of Wilco are pitching in to help raise money for Haitian earthquake relief. The band has posted recordings of two live shows (including one from last July that included live collaborations with Feist, Yo La Tengo, and Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste) at its web site.
WILCO - Live at Keyspan Park, Brooklyn 7-13-09
WILCO - 11-04-2009, HMV Forum, London
You can download the shows for free, but Wilco is asking that you donate at least $15 to Oxfam or Doctors Without Borders in return.
Bless ‘em. And catch ‘em doing a tune on Craig Ferguson’s show on January 28 (that means Thursday night, right? Even if it’s technically Friday morning the 29?).

Every month, I have 30 downloads to enjoy care of my emusic.com account, working out to about 50 cents a track (take that, iTunes!) so I decided to catch up with these:
ATLAS SOUND – Logos (emusic.com)
The FLAMING LIPS – Embryonic (emusic.com)

Zip a dee doo da; these were sent to me via zip file:
BENJY DAVIS PROJECT – Lost Souls Like Us
Really enjoyed this band’s album from last year and like this album cover, so it’s all a good start.

SEASICK STEVE – Man from Another Time
VIA AUDIO – Animalore
NOUVELLE VOGUE – NV3
NORAH JONES – Chasing Pirates Remix EP (Blue Note)
Love the single so much I named it one of my Top Ten of the year in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, but I can’t say that the remixes are adding much to my enjoyment.
CLOUD CULT – Lost Songs from the Lost Years
Put this band’s name in the groovy new search feature above and you’ll get to my rave review of last year's DVD documentary release that traced its history and offered lots of live music. Now the band is releasing a special collection of previously unreleased songs from the past 15 years in hand-numbered CDs that are available only on the group web site (unless the publicist is nice enough to send it digitally). Also from the vaults:
CLOUD CULT - Aurora Borealis/They Live On the Sun
The former was originally released in 2004; the latter in
2003, but now they’re being reissued in a two-fer.
I truly love this outfit; looking forward to diving in.

It’s always a joy to discover good new music and, while casually scanning (is there a audio equivalent of that visually-oriented word?) new material that came in through the promo zips I found two new acts that make me smile:
RADAR BROS. – Auditorium
GOLDSPOT – And the Elephant is Dancing
The Goldspot CD came out last year, but is on its way to becoming one of my faves of this new year. It’s the sophomore release from frontman Siddhartha Khosla who plays under the band name, much like Owl City is really Adam Young and whoever joins him on tour. And, like Owl City, Goldspot has a joyous, sunny pop sound, influenced by Bollywood, the Beach Boys, R.E.M. and the Beatles (especially George). The album title comes up in the delightful love song to a faraway voice, “Call Center Girl,” which is in heavy rotation on my ipod.
OK GO – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
I’m going to do an examiner.com story on these guys soon, so I won’t get into it now. But here’s a little oddity – I wanted to include the label name but I don’t have the disc in front on me. And yet, even after a quick scan of emails from the publicist and a visit to the band’s own web site and myspace page (it only says “label: major,” as if embarrassed to go into detail) I didn't see it. So much for how important labels are these days.

Let’s end with a pair of freebies from a Brooklyn-based band that’s on the edge, I think, of big things. They will play DC on February 21 at the 930 Club with the Editors – a show I’m gunning to see – and made a sweet, sad album last year, called “Hospice,” that came thisclose to getting on my aforementioned Top Ten. A visit to the Antlers' site myspace gets you two free EPs (look to the right and scroll down a bit to find them):
The ANTLERS – New York Hospitals
A 2008 release,
The ANTLERS - Cold War
From 2007.

Year-to-date O/CD Tally: 37

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Goldspot's "and The elephant is dancing" is def. one of my all-time favs already! Heard them on How I met Your Mother, then checked out their new album. Under-rated and super super cool.