Fire On Fire – The Orchard (2008)

Fire On Fire are a Maine based band that have similar vibes to Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes and

Akron/Family. Their sound is a combination of American folk genres ranging from bluegrass to Appalachian folk. It doesn't seem like they would have any problem encouraging you to sing along and stop your feet. Here's a little biography from their record label Young God Records:

They used to be the art-punk-prog-chaos collective Cerberus Shoal, but they ditched their electric instruments, went into hiding for a while, and now play all acoustic—stand up bass, mandolin, banjo, harmonium, accordion, acoustic guitar, dobro etc etc, and they all sing and harmonize on the songs. Live, they do it “old school” and just use two mics placed in front of them on the

stage, like a bluegrass band. They all live in the same house up in https://www.acheterviagrafr24.com/generic-viagra/ Maine, across from rusting green oil tanks, apparently. To me they sound like a backwoods, fierce, psychedelic Mamas And The Papas or a crazed and joyously vengeful gospel string band.

Their album The Orchard was just released yesterday. Go check it out. Go listen to the MP3s posted below.

MP3: Fire On Fire – Flight Song

MP3: Fire On Fire -Grin

MySpace | Young God Records

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Hauschka – Ferndorf (2008)

Prepared piano is a piano which has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers (Wikipedia). German experimental musician Volker Bertelman uses this prepared piano technique to create his original and intersting compositions. John Cage coined the term and pioneered the technique, but Volker expands on the idea and creates a blend of classical and indie pop sensibility. Along with prepared piano, Hauschka incorporates strings, horns, and synthesizers to create music that sounds like a cross between Múm and Philip Glass. He has released several albums over the past few years, and his newest album Ferndorf was released a couple months ago. I haven’t had much time to listen to his older stuff, but I can tell you that his most recent album is a great collection of music.

To learn more about how Volker uses the prepared piano, take a look at this Wired interview from earlier this month.

So I had the idea to invent some stuff on the strings, to get a kind of electronic sound on top of the piano sound, and that’s actually http://www.cialispharmaciefr24.com/prix-cialis-en-france/ where the whole thing started. I found out that paper sounds like a high

hat, and then I used beer bottle caps, three of them, on one rope, and they sounded suddenly like a tambourine. So I levitra normal dose had on certain tones a tambourine, and then I had some high hats, so I was thinking in a kind of band arrangement, you know?

Two MP3s can be found in that interview, but I will post them here in case you never get around the reading the article.

MP3: Hauschka – Blue Bicycle

MP3: Hauschka – Freibad

Hauschka | MySpace

Karl Blau – Nature’s Got Away (2008)

 

Karl Blau is one of those lo-fi, folky musicians from the Pacific

Northwest similar to Phil Elvrum, Mirah, Woelv, and Calvin Johnson.  The https://www.viagrasansordonnancefr.com/viagra-en-ligne/ All Music Guide has this to say about Blau: “working out of the small town of Anacortes in northern Washington state, Karl Blau has released several cassettes, as well as a CD, Shell Collection, on the small Knw-Yr-Own label. Shell Collection, from 1997, is comprised of four-track recordings that are among the more intriguing and versatile sounds to have come out of the lo-fi indie underground. With a vibe that is both down-home and whimsical, Blau grafts parts of winsome folk-rock onto lazy jamming blues, vintage rocksteady reggae, high ’70s soul harmonies, and ceremonial-sounding flutes in his unpredictable and shifting mixture of elements.”

Here’s what Blau has to say about his new album:

Invoking the fates and listening deeply into the forces present– the room, the instruments, the players, listening to the microphones, listening to the wood grain– the director of a musical piece may find that the less heavy handed one can be, the more one can approach hands free and even getting out of the way of a ‘happening.’ And if you use your hands to guide you in the forest on a clouded night you will not forget this experience.

If that description was a little unclear and esoteric, then it’s best that you just listen to the music and find out for yourself. Below are two new tracks from Nature’s Got Away. There’s some nice guitar work in here: nice tone and nice solos. It almost sounds like the slowed down the recording just a little bit so the whole album is a couple pitches then what it was actually recorded out. This gives his voices a very unique and haunting quality that it difficult to describe.

I hope you enjoy prix cialis en france them.

MP3: Karl Blau – Mockingbird

Diet

MP3: Karl Blau -  Before Telling the Dragons

Karl Blau | MySpace

Ben Kweller – Hurtin’ You

Ben Kweller was one of the first musicians that got me into the indie music scene. I listened to Sha Sha on my Sony Walkman over and over again (I actually have Sha Sha in my car stereo right now). The first concert I saw in NYC was Death Cab for Cutie with BK opening. His collaboration with Ben Folds and Ben Lee blew my high school mind as Ben Folds was God to me. Kweller’s music has always held a special place in my iTunes library. Sometimes I forget about him, but when I stumble across him again it’s like reuniting with an old friend.

His new album reuinites Kweller with his Texas roots with a country/western influenced album called Changing Horses as you will hear on this new track “Hurtin’ You”. On Ben Kweller (his last album) he played all of the instruemnts, but this time he has gotten a band together including Kitt Kitterman on pedal steel guitar (which really adds a lot to this song). I’m pretty interested in seeing how the rest of the album will sound and where Kweller will be heading towards in the future. I have a feeling it will be a pretty mature album from a guy who’s only 27.

MP3: Ben Kweller – Hurtin’ https://www.viagrasansordonnancefr.com/viagra-en-ligne/ You

Bonus

MP3: Ben Kweller – Sundress

MP3: Ben Kweller – Commerce, TX

MP3: The Bens – Stop!

Ben Kweller | MySpace 

Christmas On Mars Game

 

The Flaming Lips have a new game that you can play on their Christmas on Mars website right HERE. You get to throw some strange looking things at Wayne’s alien head floating in a bubble. It’s not the most exciting game in the world, but there is some cool footage of the movie spliced in between levels and that’s enough for me to play it. The DVD and soundtrack have already been released. I haven’t seen it yet, but if you have, let us know in the comments. I will watch/listen to anything that the Flaming Lips create, so I’m pretty psyched.

 

CHONMARS

 

MP3: The Flaming Lips – Once Beyond Hopelessness

MP3: The Flaming Lips – In Excelsior Vaginalistic

 

 

 

Vote

Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday November 4th (that’s tomorrow).

In order to make this relevant to music, here are the candidates favorite music (from an article on Blender.com)

Barack Obama

Fugees – “Ready or Not”

Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On”

Bruce Springsteen – “I’m on Fire”

The Rolling Stones – “Gimme Shelter”

Nina Simone – “Sinnerman”

Kanye West – “Touch the Sky”

Frank Sinatra – “You’d Be So Easy to Love”

Aretha Franklin – “Think”

U2 – “City of Blinding Lights”

will.i.am – “Yes I Can”

John McCain

ABBA – “Dancing Queen”

Roy Orbison – “Blue Bayou”

ABBA – “Take a Chance on Me”

Merle Haggard – “If We Make it Through December”

Dooley Wilson – “As Time Goes By”

The Beach Boys – “Good Vibrations”

Louis Armstrong – “What a Wonderful World”

Frank Sinatra – “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”

Neil Diamond – “Sweet Caroline”

The Platters – “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”

MTV Going Back To Its Roots

MTV has finally gone back to playing music videos, but only on their new website mtvmusic.com (which seems kind of redundant, Music Television Music). Regardless, they have tons of videos from the entire span of MTV’s existence. Pitchfork.tv has a good amount of more indie videos, but if you’re looking for vintage videos to popular videos of today, then MTV Music is the place to go.To get you started, here’s some music videos by some of our favorite artists:

Wilco

The Flaming Lips (there’s a great selection here)

Elliott Smith

Pavement

Animal Collective

Built to Spill

Modest Mouse

Rogue Wave

Radiohead

Islands

The Flaming Lips Record NBC Jingle

 

The Flaming Lips will never “sell out”. No matter how many shitty movies they provide songs to or any TV shows they appear on they always maintain their musical philosophy. Because of this, I will listen to anything that The Lips do; I respect them too much to ignore anything they produce. NBC is getting a bunch of musicians to record the famous NBC jingle. Other artists include the B-52’s, T.I., B.B. King, and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. The Flaming Lips version will be the best for one big reason: Wayne Coyne’s double-necked guitar with Guitar Hero Kaoss pad controller. Wayne is able to criticize music games like Guitar Hero and make a really cool electronic instrument at the same time. No matter how good you are at Guitar Hero, you won’t ever be able to match the creative ingenuity of Wayne Coyne. 

Watch the behind the scenes video here.

MP3: The Flaming Lips – Halloween on the Barbary Coast (just because it’s seasonally appropriate)

Animal Collective’s Trippy New Album Art

Here’s the new album art for Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion which should be coming at us January 12th, 2009.

 

If your eyes are moving around, so do the little green footballs, but if you focus on one they stop! Shit’s crazy.

MP3: Animal Collective – Fireworks

MP3: Animal Collective – Grass

MP3: Animal Collective -  College
MySpace | MyAnimalHome