Electric President – The Violent Blue (2010)

Over the years, I’ve written quite a bit about Ben Cooper’s projects Electric President (w/Alex Kane), Radical Face, and Patients. He’s one of the most genuine musicians making music today, representing a DIY culture where, you know, artists actually connect with their fans.

Last year his Patients project consisted of him personally producing 100 CDs and decorating it and its package with spray paint and markers. To receive one of the CDs, you had to trade something, anything, with Cooper, as long as it wasn’t money. Now he is talking about touring the U.S., playing house shows, barns, anywhere that isn’t a typical club. And he wants to start another project where people submit stories and he writes songs based on them. He seems to get in over his head at times with all these projects, but this is one musician who really understands what music is all about.

The Violent Blue is Electric Presidents new album releasing February 23, 2010 on Fake Four records.  I’ve had a chance to listen to the album and am really digging it–especially the first half. “Safe and Sound” is likely going to be one of favorite tracks of the year.

Pre-order hasn’t started yet, but I will update here when you can purchase. There are going to be some extra goodies that come with Pre-orders personalized by Cooper himself. Don’t miss out! (UPDATE: As of 2/1 you can pre-order. Only $20 for  a package including vinyl, cd, t-shirt, and stickers. Limited to 300 orders.)

The Violent Blue (2010):

(mp3) Electric President – Safe and Sound

(mp3) Electric President – Circles

Radical Face (Cooper’s main solo project):

Radical Face- Welcome Home, Son

site | iTunes | Myspace

Eels – End Times (2010)

The Eels just released their eighth studio album, End Times,  and it is a lot better than Pitchfork’s arbitrary 3.9 rating (seriously Pitchfork you really couldn’t just round up to 4.0?).

The album was written about Eels frontman Mark  Everett’s divorce. It’s definitely not my favorite Eels album, but it’s one of  his most genuine to date. His lo-fi recordings keeps things simple and to the point. It may be a depressing point, but it does a good job of capturing the feelings of a broken heart.

It’s tempting to dismiss this as a self-pity album, but I think that there’s more to it than that. Everett knows that love is in many ways an irrational feeling that makes people do a lot of stupid things that they don’t want to do (maybe even write an album about it). But love is so powerful that most people have no immunity, regardless of past experiences and knowing that things will get better. It’s tragic, yet humbling at the same time.

End Times (2010):

(mp3) Eels – Mansions of Los Feliz

(mp3) Eels – Little Bird

Site | iTunes | Amazon | Myspace (stream full album)

Donate to Haiti and receive free music!

All of us at IndieMuse highly encourage you to donate to the Haiti relief effort if you haven’t done so already.  Even $10 makes a huge difference. Our preferred organization is Doctors Without Borders, however Red Cross is great, as well. You can easily donate $10 to The Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to 90999.

Also, Paste magazine has put together music from over 200 artists that is available for free to those who have donated to Haiti relief efforts. If you haven’t donated yet, and would like to,  just donate through their link at songsforhaiti.org or directly to one of the above organizations. 100% of the money from Songs for Haiti  is split up between Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Learn more at Songs for Haiti here.

One of many available tracks:

She & Him – Lotta Love (Why Do You Let Me Stay Here 7″ single)