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This Week's Free Song Downloads
Free song download of "Written in Reverse" off of Spoon's anticipated new album, Transference, out Tuesday, January 19, on Merge. Self-produced by the band, their latest record finds Britt and Co. tapping into the raw sound of their much earlier works, while continuing to branch out in new directions -- from the dirty, taut garage rock of "Trouble Come Running" to the weird, sedated slink of "Who Makes Your Money" -- without eschewing any of the infectious, less-is-more songcraft that the group built their reputation on.
Owen Pallett steps out from behind his Final Fantasy moniker delivering what just may be to 2010 what Dirty Projector's Bitte Orca and Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion were to '09. We know that's high praise, but Heartland is the most fully developed set of avant-pop that we've heard from the singer, songwriter and composer. Pallett utilizes two percussionists for a rhythmic push and pull that anchors the weightless, psychedelic float of his orchestrations with a bit of tension. This free song download of "Lewis Takes Action" is one of the many highlights from an album of nothing but.
This free track comes from Pit Er Pat's new album, The Flexible Entertainer (out Tuesday, January 26, on Thrill Jockey). Paired down to a duo, Butchy Fuego and Fay Davis-Jeffers have streamlined their sound, becoming even more unclassifiable in the process. The raw, esoteric hip-hop of "Water" (think Telepathe meets Snoop) is only scratching the surface and from here the group continues to shape-shift from track to track, moving from the angular and haunting "Godspot" to the exotic "Emperor of Charms," which marries icy, Fever Ray-esque melodies with wiry guitars and clanking percussion befitting of a Sublime Frequencies release. Label Spotlight: Yoga Records
We are extremely pleased to be able to offer a very low-priced, 21-track sampler from one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic reissue labels presently going, Yoga Records. Specializing in digital-only releases of exceedingly obscure and unfairly neglected albums that limn some strange place where intimate loner folk intersects with inscrutable new age art-pop, over their past fifteen releases we've come away with the sense that they've heroically brought to light albums whose mere existence was possibly only known to thirty-five or forty record collectors around the world. Every one of these releases easily deserves to not only be re-released digitally, but physically as well. Which they no doubt will be as the word gets out, but pay close attention now and you can say you heard it here first. The compilation is available for only thirty days so don't miss out on this great opportunity to sample the Yoga Records roster. And for the next week, all of Yoga's releases on Other Music Digital are marked down to $5.99, so dig in! Many of our favorite unearthings are listed below.
A devoted Theosophist and naturalist, singer and guitarist Collie Ryan released three private press LPs in the early 1970s before (mostly) dropping off the grid to spend her days painting hubcaps in the desert. Released with the help of some friends who ran a juice company and sold only at shows and shops in and around Southern California, Takin' Your Turn 'Round the Corner of Day, Indian Harvest, and The Giving Tree were slight in stature, and yet showcased the beautiful depth of Ryan's honey-soaked voice and intuitive, singular finger-picking style. Though those three LPs fell into one of time's many cracks, her inclusion on the Numero Group's great 2006 compilation Ladies from the Canyon brought her sound to a whole new audience. Now, following up on the LP-only best of collection released a while back, comes The Rainbow Records, a three-disc set that presents her albums in their entirety for the first time since original release. A gifted vocalist and passionate lyricist, Ryan's music sits easily with the acid folk set, yet the simplicity and conviction of her work makes for music that sounds surprisingly timeless today. -Michael Crumsho
Do stoned cowboys like this even exist anymore? If they do they're surely an endangered species, as the sort of mellow, easy going and carefree life that rural sage Bill Madison conjures on his superb 1973 country-folk LP just feels so far gone. This music isn't in any kind of a hurry, and lord knows I could luxuriate at this lazy pace all day. Sunday Mornin' Hayride is one of those albums that once you put on you're simply not in the mood for any other kind of music for fear it'd end up harshing your mellow. His vocals are slightly off in that awesome way that Michael Hurley's are, and the arrangements have a pastoral shimmery-ness that is totally spot-on. File this next to your Chris Smither, Bobby Charles, and Paul Siebel records. -Michael Klausman
I once read that the time when there were the most active bands in the US was 1967, right after the release of Sgt. Pepper. Basically, everyone heard that record and started a band. Literally, everyone. If that's a true statistic or an urban legend I'm not sure, but each month there are more reissues of late '60s "Private Press" records. Amazing unearthed artifacts of raw obscurities and dog-eared jams by bands that never made it out of the basement, let alone their hometowns. The RFD's Lead Me Home is a standout example of a truly sick private press record in the ways it both follows the aesthetic of this phenomenon and also befuddles. Okay, under 500 copies originally released on a private label in 1971? Check. Ridiculous non-self conscious band name (RFD stood for "Russ, Fred and Dan", the founding members of the group)? Check. Tripped-out record cover, low-budget home recording, naive lyrics shouldered in astute-yet-understated mellow acid folk songs? All this checks out, but the RFD was also apparently a Christian rock band? Lead track "He Is Coming" fits the mold perfectly for a sub-categorical d.i.y./post-Byrds/stoned at home jam except for the male/female reverb-touched harmonies about Christ "coming in his golden glory." Oh, yeah, a lady named Debbie adds a lot to the record but somehow she and drummer Larry got left out of the acronym. Despite the possible conflict between the heavily hippie/drugged-out underpinnings of the album and the Christian need to walk a straight and narrow path, there also seems to be a conflict in the songs between God's glory and a deep sense of Vietnam-era alienation. Simply stated tunes like "Why Do I Feel Alone?" and "On the Outside Looking In" don't do a lot to obfuscate this theme. Much like the Tony Caro & John record, another stunning private press item that found wider re-release a few years back, the RFD finds textures and ideas that would have been impossible within the confines of record labels, professional equipment and legitimate studios, even in 1971. There's a sense of passion and excitement that's unique to the homespun world of self-edited, self-informed, self-everything songwriting. Contradictions abound and those confounding moments are some of the best parts. -Fred Thomas
A woozy and captivating song cycle from L.A. painter and performance artist Carole Caroompas, originally released in a miniscule edition back in 1981. Over a background of rinky sounding Casios, sound effects and metronomes, Caroompas begins each song with a sort of spoken interlude that morphs into a sweetly affecting yet affect-less vocal melody. These songs are strangely intimate and exposed, full of surprising digressions and compelling narratives that feel fiercely brave. The one full-on pop song, "Bedroom Eyes," is insanely great and proves she probably could have followed a path to stardom had she so chosen. As it is, we're left with something much more interesting that I can see fans of Young Marble Giants, Elodie Lauten, and Robert Ashley absolutely loving. -Michael Klausman
Recorded in '76, this private press LP came to be after Robert Lester Folsom went into a studio in Atlanta to record a demo for one song. The producer was so impressed with Folsom's tune that he encouraged him to come back and record more tracks, which resulted in Music and Dreams. Stylistically, it's straight outta the mellow gold school of '70s folk rock. CS&N, Todd Rundgren and Steve Miller are all good references, but there's also a mysterious vibe to the tunes (a la Merrell Fankhauser) and a healthy dose of yacht rock thrown in as well. Highlights include the lovely title track and the earnest ballad "Please Don't Forget Me." There's a lot of stylistic variety here, including a couple of jazzy instrumentals and a full on blast of Tom Petty-esque power pop ("Blues Stay Away"). All in all, Music and Dreams is a pretty solid and lovely album that'll appeal to fans of the aforementioned. It ain't avant/savant rock by any means, it's simply a great record that is "outside" simply by default...and that's just fine with us. -Duane Harriott
Almost totally unheralded singer-songwriter Scott Seskind gets the Yoga Records reissue treatment, and I couldn't be happier. About a year ago I pulled Seskind's sole vinyl release out of the used bin of a Boulder record store, and with its almost Wallace Berman-esque cover art, could immediately suspect it was something special. The first listen didn't dispel that notion one bit; here was an impressively captivating and moving collection of four-tracked bedroom folk of the highest order, with an out-of-time vibe that didn't really snyc with its 1984 recording date. Definitely on the loner-ish end of the folk spectrum, with some aspects of the album harkening back to Skip Spence's iconic Oar, while other moments revealed the urgency of the '80s lo-fi revolution. But most importantly, the songs were just really, really great and managed to remain haunting long past their leaving. Here, I thought, is an album that needs to be heard by more people, NOW. I asked around amongst some record collecting friends and discovered it was pretty highly rated by a small circle of people in the know, and that it had even managed to garner a mention in the Acid Archives despite its late recording date, and most excitingly that there was talk that the digital reissue label Yoga had managed to track Seskind down and secure the rights to his LP, and an even more obscure cassette-only release that I believe was recorded around the same time. So here we have it, the best songs from Seskind's eponymous LP coupled with choice cuts off of his cassette, the latter of which are also excellent if somewhat sketchier and less desolate than what turned up on record, though I particularly love the seemingly Joe Brainard-inspired track "I Remember," which movingly chronicles the exploits of Seskind and one of his best friends. This made our Top 25 Reissues list of 2009, and I really hope this release continues to garner the listeners that it deserves. As far as I can tell, Seskind isn't involved in music much any longer, having seemingly put his attention towards documentary filmmaking and photography, while also working in the health care industry. -Michael Klausman
Recurring Dreams is a whirling masterpiece of new wave electronic music, Matthew Young manipulating an EMS synthesizer and a reel-to-reel for an entrancing, dreamy and triumphant result. Clearly inspired by the progressive electronic works by Brian Eno and the spacey grandiosity of Tangerine Dream, Recurring Dream was deemed one of the best albums of 1981 by Greg Sandow of Village Voice, and the record ended up on shelves of college radio stations around the country as alternative and experimental music hit the revitalizing boom of the early eighties. After the neglect of over twenty-five years, the Yoga label presents Matthew Young to an entirely new audience who, despite being entrenched in electronic music their whole lives, will be forced to look at it from a new angle after encountering this recording. Recurring Dream is definitely up there with the new wave cinematic re-releases of the B-Music label, as it is a homemade electronic album of delicate construction, layered and constructed in a tactile and expressionistic manner. The outsider eccentricities of the recording and the orientation towards folk music make this a valuable link in the chain between Bruce Haack and Lucky Dragons. Maximalist, churning, echoing, Recurring Dreams is not to be missed.
Five years after his all-instrumental, electronic album Recurring Dreams (1981), Matthew Young released a folk-oriented, hammer dulcimer recording, Traveler's Advisory. The dulcimer work is fantastic, delicate and sensual, seamlessly blending eastern and western traditions while incorporating the recording ingenuity that made Recurring Dreams so remarkable. Easily pinned into a psychedelic-folk category, this album gives so much more than that labeling can offer. Sometimes it conjures British folk and progressive rock of the early seventies (or like Soft Machine magically accompanied by John Fahey), while at other moments Young's work sounds like a precursor to James Blackshaw, Illyas Ahmed, or Jack Rose. Electrifying his traditionally acoustic instruments lends a lazy and provocative energy to the music, and separates it from an entirely acoustic medium. The folk foundation to the recording is vital and affirming, lending credibility to the virtuosity Young displays on the dulcimer. Above all, his cover of Michael Hurley's "Werewolf" was regarded by Hurley himself as one of the finest versions of the song recorded, and I am inclined to agree. Traveler's Advisory almost sounds like it could be a contemporary release off of Time-Lag or Digitalis, and the precision and consideration of each song makes for a spellbinding album. -Brian Cassidy
More polished than much of Yoga Record's folky, homemade rediscoveries, Johnny Blackburn and Mary Lauren's Echoes of Love's Reality is nevertheless instantly pleasing in its warm, lucid beauty. This is folk, but it's also deserving of the "rock" descriptor, especially considering the varied and layered instrumentation. All in all, though, the vocals are what make this record: Blackburn and Lauren's respective tones come together in perfect harmony, song after song. -Jacob Kaplan
A Street Called Straight is the true definition of a "lost album." The sole output of Kansas City native Jeff Eubank, this platter of light-rock AM gold was recorded for the most part in the early '80s after Eubank spent a disheartening stint as an L.A. session guitarist. He managed to take some of the hazy west coast sunshine vibes back home with him, but before the record could see proper release, an unexpected pregnancy and resultant health complications for his wife put a 25-year hold on any rock and roll dreams. Pretty dark back story, but strangely fitting to the naive pop sounds made right before things got kinda bleak. The songs here are leaning less toward isolated basement genius vibes and much more like the smalltown kid too good-natured to actually make it, though he's every bit as talented as anything out there. Glorious saccharine harmonies and lush acoustic arrangements, always one toke under the line for stoner folk but one level of production short of radio schmaltz. An intensely satisfying and intimate listen, swooping from one territory to the next abruptly. The album starts in some Fred Neil via Al Stewart space and by the end is dabbling with melancholic subtly synthy psych-folk that could serve as some weird missing link between David Crosby's solo work and the Bobb Trimble records. -Fred Thomas |
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