Gist

A quick search for Gist on the Hype Machine comes up empty. What a shame. Or maybe not. Maybe it's better that Gist isn't one of those indie pop bands du jour from the indie label du jour, whose album shows up almost completely on Hype. Maybe it's better that these mp3s are going to show up on the Great Aggregator, and will be ignored, because they're not from forthcoming new Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Part of me wants Gist to be huge like that. But another part of me wants to enjoy the post-punk, post-harDCore of their Diesel City, for myself, along with other frequenters of Revolution Records, Black Cat regulars, and such. Yes, we'll be perfectly happy to keep the searing, thrashing guitars, driving bass, throbbing drums, vocals reminiscent of TVOTR, and wrenching, tormented lyrics, to our damn selves.

Gist mp3s, from Diesel City:

Eclipse (mp3)
Things Will Work Out (mp3)

Do You Realize (Postal Service Mix)

The Postal Service Mix of the beloved Flaming Lips song is at Muzak for Cybernetics. There's other good stuff there, too, like a Polysics remix of Kaiser Chiefs. Browse around.

The Bonapartes Came, Saw...

...and so the revolution begins.

The Bonapartes have a Napoleonic urge to stir and conquer the civilized world. After listening to the D.C. quintet's self-titled EP, I think they might succeed, by rocking the hell out of every primitive soul, one at a time.

In the EP's centerpiece, Concentric (mp3), guitarist Eamonn recreates the high-pitched Y-Control Yeah Yeah Yeah's sound and plays it with the Edge's staccato. The effect is a guitar imitating hard synth, but in a pointillist kind of way, rather than a literal sound-alike, like the Strokes do, for instance. Concentric pulses and soars.

Boy (mp3), a live track not on their EP, is enough of a rush to quicken the dead, and shoegazers, and even atmospheric electro-folkers. There's urgency in all the elements - the aggressive vocals & punishing drums, the bass, and the guitar that pushes you around throughout. If this is a representative sample, their live shows are kick-ass.

I'm already conquered, underfoot, and ready for a full-length, hopeful that these guys can keep up the intensity. Who's next?

Download more Bonapartes mp3s here.

Let's Make a King Britt Sister Gertrude Morgan Blog Post!

Let's Make A Record, the sole record by Sister Gertrude Morgan, a painter and gospel singer from New Orleans, needs no embellishment. Her enthusiasm and spirit are carried in her voice alone. In King Britt's interpretation of her music, it's the embellishment that needs Sister Gertrude. That's a good thing. It means that the two elements work together to move your feet along with your spirit.

Mp3s from King Britt Presents: Sister Gertrude Morgan (2005)

Let's Make a Record (mp3)
Precious Lord Lead Me On (mp3)

Caution: Popular Singer-Songwriter Post

With singer-songwriters, what it all comes down to is this: how well do the songs translate heartache or heartbreak, or some burning social issue into music, and is the singer someone who makes you want to listen?

23-year old Brandi Carlile is a strong songwriter with a strong voice. But there are a lot of those. The question is, does she have that other something that draws people into her songs? Variety.com called her "stunning, vulnerable, and affecting," and compared her to Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, and Thom Yorke. Yeah, I don't think you can really do that either, but if you haven't already, you should listen. She's good.

She's playing at Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis tonight.

Brandi Carlile mp3s:

From Brandi Carlile:

Fall Apart Again (mp3) (watch video)
What More Can I Say (mp3)

From Brandi Carlile Acoustic:
Throw It All Away (mp3)

Numbers Live

The Magic Numbers have been called accessible, and they are; just about anyone can easily "get" their catchy little pop stimulants. Here are a couple of songs from their live in-studio set, broadcast on Sounds Eclectic this weekend.

The Magic Numbers - I See You, You See Me (Live KCRW) (mp3)
The Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You (Live KCRW) (mp3) (watch video)

And while you're at KCRW, become a member. It's good for you.

The End of Violence

Hey Seahawks fans, at least you still have mp3 blogs to take your mind off the game last night. Here's a song for you to sing along with.

Vic Chesnutt with Michael Stipe - Injured Bird (mp3) (from the The End of Violence OST)

And here's another Stipe collaboration, just because:

Kristen Hersch with Michael Stipe - Your Ghost (mp3)

Farewell, Black Cat

The Lilys, French Toast, and Sounds of Kaleidoscope are playing at the Black Cat tonight. This will be a sort of farewell trip for me, since the occupation is taking me to Delaware later this month. See you at the show. I'll be the one with a tear in the corner of my eye.

French Toast - Pattern (mp3) (from In a Cave)
also download Float Away here.

The Lilys - The Night Sun Over San Juan (mp3) (from Everything Wrong is Imaginary)

One Hundred Fifty or Less

75 or Less, the preferred music review site of the attention-deficient, has spawned a record label, 75 or Less Records. They are currently offering two EPs of guitar rock, both urgent in the Dischord sense.

My hunch is that the good people at 75 or less would appreciate a concise, unpretentious capsules, so here goes: my 75 words or less on songs from each of their EPs.

The first two tracks from A Passing Feeling's self-titled EP are made for standing up on a sticky floor, drinking beer, and screaming along. It's music for rowdy people in the era of tweeness. In the manic Book of Matches (mp3), they show a knack for melody, energy, and vocal delivery. The rousing Probably (mp3), begins "You're probably wasted/I'm probably wasting my every word/We're not going anywhere..." My guess is that they are going somewhere.

Pixelated Ones & Zeroes (mp3), from Staggering Statistics' EP with the same title, is scruffy and unshaven. It brings to mind Here's When The Strings Come In-Era Superchunk, especially lead singer Austin Brown's unrefined voice. I'm not complaining. Like Superchunk or Pavement, repeated listens offer increasing rewards, in this case bringing you into the rhythm section, and its complex relationship with the guitar. It's not for everybody, and that, I think, is the whole point.

The Great American Songbook

If you missed last month's issue of MOJO, or if you only picked up Volume 2 of their Born in the USA: The Great American Songbook, you missed out on something special. Volume 1 was a 15-track compilation of traditional American classics, from Hank Williams' You Win Again to Woody Guthrie's Washington Talkin' Blues to The Stanley Brothers' Man of Constant Sorrow. It also has the Jelly Roll Morton track posted below, in which Jelly Roll plays piano and tells the story of I'm Alabama Bound before breaking into song. The Story of I'm Alabama Bound is from his recently released Complete Library of Congress Recordings.

The Ian & Sylvia track goes out to The Keoki (one of our contributors), Karen & Gabe, who left a big fat hole in our lives this week when they moved to San Antonio. It's good to hear you're all doing well and eating thick juicy Texas steaks, brother. I doubt you'll ever run into Freegans in Texas, and that's a good thing, right? Anyway, I think I speak for all of us when I say that You Were On My Mind pretty much nails how we feel.

mp3s from Born in the USA: The Great American Songbook, Vol. 1:

Ian and Sylvia - You Were On My Mind
Jelly Roll Morton - The Story Of I'm Alabama Bound
Leadbelly - Midnight Special
The Doc Watson Family - I Heard My Mother Weeping

Mastercuts

Short post today. I had some technical difficulties to deal with yesterday. Sorry if anyone had problems downloading.

Here are a couple of goodies from the vault.

Wilbert Longmire - Black is the Colour (mp3)

War - World is a Ghetto (mp3)

From Mastercuts: Classic Jazz Funk, Vol. 7

Pornographers Live

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "The Rip."

Here are mp3s of the The New Pornographers' live Sounds Eclectic set, which aired Sunday on KCRW. They played it with all the passion and enthusiasm that you'd expect. Neko Case sounds magnificent on The Bones of an Idol, and the music on that track is a refreshing update. And the "listening too long to one song" harmonization in Spanish Techno is bliss. And then there's the irresistable melody in the Streets of Fire intro. The entire broadcast is here (real player required).

Twin Cinema
Use It
The Bleeding Heart Show
Jackie Dressed In Cobras
The Bones of an Idol
Spanish Techno
Streets of Fire

By the way, a helpful hint: don't listen to these at work, because network security might not take too friendly to the word "pornographers."

Own Twin Cinema. (Or you can get it from Best Buy for 7.99. But should you? Sheesh!)

Subscribe to KCRW and get rare goodies.

Note: My server was down the day I posted these. They should work now. Please let me know if they don't.

I'm not scared. I'm outta here.

These are from the complete unedited 2001 MTV R.E.M. Unplugged concert. Unless you were fortunate enough to catch their early gigs at places like the 40-Watt Club or the old 9:30 Club (the one with the beam in the middle of the floor), this might be as intimate as you'll get with them.

Electrolite [2nd take] (mp3)
At My Most Beautiful [2nd take] (mp3)

Foot Long Friday

It's lazy Friday, and a lazy post to go along. But there's nothing lazy about this couple of 12" treats:

Duran Duran - Rio (12" Dance Version) (mp3)

De la Soul - Jenifa (Taught Me) (12" Version) (mp3)

Another Brilliant Broadcast

This has been a golden week for live in-studio performances on internet radio. In addition to yesterday's post (which I'll be taking down today to preserve bandwidth), and the one the day before, KCRW aired a confident set from Broadcast on MBE yesterday.

Broadcast mp3s (Live on KCRW, aired 01-25-06):

Michael A Grammar
Black Cat
Goodbye Girls
Corporeal
America's Boy
I Found The F
Ominous Cloud

Buy the brilliant Tender Buttons CD.

Performances by Go! Team! Rocky Votolato! The Elected!

There was an orgy of interesting in-studio performances at KEXP and KCRW yesterday. KEXP hosted Rocky Votolato and The Elected, and KCRW had a recording of the Go! Team.

Since it took a long time to save, convert, and upload these mp3s, all I'll say is you won't be disappointed.

The Go! Team - Live MBE performance at KCRW (mp3s)

Huddle Formation
Junior Kickstart
Bottle Rocket
The Power Is On
We Just Won't Be Defeated
The Icestorm
Ladyflash
Hold Yr Terror


Rocky Votolato - Live@KEXP (mp3s)

White Daisy Passing
Portland is Leaving
She Was Only In It For The Rain
The Night's Disguise


The Elected - Live@KEXP (mp3s)

Fireflies
Would You Come With Me
Sun Sun Sun
Bank and Trust

Live Tortoise

Tortoise played a live set at KCRW in November of last year. It aired yesterday. Listen to the set in its entirety, including the illuminating interview with Nic Harcourt, here.

Tortoise mp3s (recorded 11.18.05):

Magnet Pulls Through/eden 2/eden 1
Five Too Many
Crest
Unknown/dot/eyes (medley)
Omnichord

Buy Tortoise CDs.

M. Ward, The Entertainer

M. Ward on "Bean Vine Blues .2"

Choosing a song was not easy - he has a million incredible songs that i would love to take the time, sit down and try to learn someday - maybe I chose bean vine blues #2 cuz it stands out so much...in my opinion its probably the only song of faheys that ive ever heard with a blatant sense of humor -- maybe at the time of choosing I was in need of some levity?

-M. Ward

-from the MySpace johnfaheytribute blog

You get the feeling that M. Ward wishes he could play this one in a wild west saloon, and banter afterward with the whiskey-soaked cowboy gunslingers.

Bean Vine Blues (mp3), from the I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey compilation.


Hear more from the tribute album to the Takoma Park, MD native here.

Climate Change Blues

There go the ice caps, and here come violent storms! Hello, pestilence & famine! There goes civilization, and the plants will take over! Can you get used to this lifestyle? Sing along with me.

David Byrne - (Nothing but) Flowers (live acoustic) (mp3)

Who wants revenge?

She Wants Revenge reminds me of a best-of 120 Minutes feature that Anthony Kiedis and Flea hosted back in the 90's. The part where they introduce a Green Day video goes something like this:

Kiedis: This next band, Green Day is from...
Flea: They think they're from England but I think they're from California.

Live, from last week's KCRW in-studio set in California, it's She Wants Revenge, a.k.a. They Sound Bloody English. They do play a tight set, though.

She Wants Revenge - 01 Red Flags (Live KCRW) (mp3)
She Wants Revenge - 02 Sister (Live KCRW) (mp3)
She Wants Revenge - 03 These Things (Live KCRW) (mp3)