Music Groups
Quickly...
• "It's Just Cruel" (MP3) is from the National Trust's new Thrill Jockey album, Kings and Queens. I thinkthe term is white funk.
• At AOL Music, stream Heather Headley's new RCA album In My Mind. It was released today.
• Check out the MP3 of Matt Costa's "Cold December." His album will be out on March 28th.
• The Editors (pictured), in you haven't heard, are officially the next big thing. This month. But enthusiasm is to be expected in certain circles when you take the athemic Brit pop of Coldplay and the upbeat of Franz Ferdinand and replace the singer with Interpol's Paul Banks. Listen for yourself. Here's a stream of the single "Munich" (RA, WMA).
• And in the next phase of The Great A&R Search For The Next Killers we have Rock Kills Kid. Warner Bros will release their album in spring or summer. In the meantime, an EP will be at iTunes on February 7th and you can hear their song "Hide Away" on "The OC" this Thursday the 2nd of February. Here are some links to audio (Quicktime, WMA low) and video (Quicktime, WMA high, WMA low) for the song "Paralyzed," and audio for the song "Hideaway" (Quicktime, WMA low). More songs can be heard at their MySpace page, and New Yorkers, they're coming to town next month with Electric Six and She Wants Revenge.
• Wal-Mart's new online feature, called Soundcheck, has a five-song acoustic performance by Yellowcard. It was recorded in-studio and is very well done. The entire experience -- clicking from the Wal-Mart home page to streaming the performance -- is completely seamless and requires no external players.
• Listen to the new Vines' single, "Don't Listen to the Radio" (WMA) Good advice, and a good song. "Don't listen to the radio / here's something that you already know / I've got no radio." If that's not perfect for an iPod commercial, nothing is.
• Click here for a Dilated Peoples sampler with audio streams, photos, wallpapers and buddy icons. The legendary hip hop group has an album, 20/20, coming out via Capitol on February 21st.
• Lady Sovereign is slowly but surely building her audience after the initial buzz has gone from deafening to loud. CNET's music download section has a free download of her song "Random" (yeah, I know it's been on every MP3 blog for about a year) and a stream of the video as well.
• One of the highlights of last year's CMJ was an early morning performance by the soulful Alice Smith at Nublu (pictured). "Dream" (MP3) shows where she's coming from -- classic soul, new school funk, rock and pop. Alice's upcoming album, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me, will be released by BBE in May. New Yorkers can -- and should -- see her at Southpaw this Saturday.
• Rock Insider, one of the few LA music blogs, has two good tracks from Foreign Born: "Into Your Dreams" and "Holy Splinter." The band has a release on StarTime International and is working on its debut full length.
• As the old saying goes, the road to sales passes through Katie Couric. (Just ask Jimmy Buffet.) Download a free video from iTunes of KT Tunstall 's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" performed live on the Today Show on January 20th. Her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, was produced by Steve Osbourne. It will be out in the States on February 7th.
• You've heard Lou Reed's influence througout rock and roll, but how often do you hear the sounds of The Bells and Sally Can't Dance rather than the Velvet Underground and Nico? Not only is Seedy Gonzales' "Page 28" (MP3) a great tune, but its reference point is refreshing. The band has a new EP, Bird That Sings, now at online music stores via Gigantic Music.
• Neko Case, she of New Pornographers fame but an established solo artist in her own right, will have an album out on March 7th. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood will be released by Anti, a label that knows a thing or two about putting out challenging, quality albums aimed at an older-than-emo crowd. Download "Star Witness" (MP3).
• Free is good. Hard-Fi (no 'the' as far as I know) have a free download available at iTunes. Get "Cash Machine" in anticipation of the March 14th release of the full length, Stars of CCTV (approaching double platinum in the UK).
• Vice Recordings' music blog has another track: Panthers' cover of Pink Floyd's "The Nile Song" (MP3). The song comes from the band's third album, the soundtrack to the 1969 French movie "More." Abosutely rawkin'.
• I ran across this video (pictured) while browsing Google Video. It's a performance by an Eritrian group that may be of interest to fans of world music and/or some of the Ethiopiques albums (the more traditional and less funk titles).
• VH1.com is streaming Train's new album For Me It's You.
• Reminds me of the melody in Bobby McFarrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy": Mike Wexler's "Sound The Mirror" (MP3). What a happy little folk song. (Via Largehearted Boy)
