Here’s the second installment of our Mega Download, featuring some of our favorite songs from 2007 you may have missed. As yesterday, there's something for everyone, and a couple of golden oldies to get you in the mood for some good jams. Download links below!
Download: Dinosaur Jr. - Almost Ready: What can be said about Dinosaur Jr that hasn’t been said before? “Almost Ready” is a fervent slab of fuzzy alt. rock from these legendary dudes.
Download: Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene: Big ups to the old school! If you miss the late ‘80s/early ‘90s as much as we do, refresh your memory with this one.
Download: Mirah and the Spectratone International - Community: This sparse ballad is from Share This Place, a concept album for children about insects and humans joining forces and living in harmony. It’s eerie and weird but also kind of brilliant.
Download: Born Ruffians - Hummingbird: These Toronto indie kids know a good riff when they see one, and this song is catchy and happy enough to remind you that spring is on its way.
Download: Dirty On Purpose - Leaving: The world needed a good indie ballad this year, and luckily the dudes in NYC’s Dirty On Purpose were there to pick up the slack.
Download: Oakley Hall - No Dreams: Merge artists Oakley Hall write subtle alt. country ballads, and “No Dreams” sounds like the traveling ramblings of a seasoned journeyman.
Download: Scritti Politti - Throw: Post-punk legends Scritti Politti have had a career as diverse as it’s been influential, from the primal white funk of their early records to songs like this, that sound like some sort of futuristic blue-eyed soul.
Download: Fanfarlo - Sand and Ice: Like the Arcade Fire minus the mope factor, Fanfarlo write chugging, epic pop songs worthy of David Bowie’s fandom (for real). “Sand and Ice” will have you hearing xylophones for months.
Download: The Presets - My People (DIM remix): The Presets are finally back with a new song, “My People”, and this bumpin’ remix. It’s dirty, distorted and hard: just the way we like our dance music.
Neil Burke and Sam McPheeter, the dudes who used to be in both legendary hardcore band Born Against and the experimental '90s collective Men’s Recover Project, have embarked on a new project entitled Human Hair, an art exhibit at the Cinders Gallery in Brooklyn. All those years in the music and art scene have given them tons of silk-screened posters, artwork and zines, a lot of which will be on display in the show. This is by far the best idea for an art opening we’ve heard all year, so go over to the Cinders site for more info.
Danish trio Who Made Who are releasing a new album this year, much to the excitement of hardcore fans salivating for their progressive dance rock. While their Munich-based label Gomma deliberate on a street date, Big Stereo has posted a seven-and-a-half-minute-long teaser for Who Made Who’s as-yet-titled sophomore release. It’s full of stomping grooves and just a little spot of glam, the sounds that have made Who Made Who so popular to begin with.
My Teenage Stride resides in Brooklyn and are bearing the indie torch well into the new year with new NY dates (listed on their MySpace) and, perchance, the promise new material. The band’s new full-length Ears Like Golden Bats was just released on Darla Records (home of Robin Guthrie and Mahogany) and is a scintillating slice of summery rock pop. Song by Toad just featured their ode to jet lag “To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge”. Check it out at the link below…
Sam Champion are about to drop a new RCRD LBL single this week called “So Good To Me”. Its heavy rock grooves will kill everything upon its arrival (which is later this week), but in the meantime, check out the band’s RCD LBL blog, where they posted a little New Year’s blurb about their “stunt doubles” (spoiler: Malibu from American Gladiators makes a cameo appearance). Check it out below:
Meanest Man Contest are back with "The Tenderloin", the newest RCRD LBL release off their EP Partially Smart and their second song for us to date. The song draws on so many influences it’s kind of crazy: there’s traditional hip hop, but also Human League-style vocals during the chorus and IDM bleeps and bloops. It's pretty deep.
We’ve professed our love of the Magnetic fields before, and their new album Distortion is already poised to be a highlight of 2008. The guys over at the DiS RCRD LBL blog are as into it as we are, and have posted “Too Drunk To Dream”, a deliciously depressing ode to drinking away one’s sorrows. Few people mope as well as Magnetic’s front man Stephin Merritt, and it shows on this track.
Since we’re not really into making a year-end list (we’d rather you make up your own mind about what you liked over the past 12 months) we’ve put together a quick post featuring a batch of songs from 2007 we think you should download, if only for posterity’s sake. We'll have another Mega Download later this week, so be sure to check back. Thanks for supporting us in 2007, and here’s to rocking it in 2008!
Download: Apes & Androids - Creepy Girls: One part Queen, one part Misfits and one part Elvira, Apes & Androids are bringing back theatrics to rock ‘n’ roll. Enjoy their futuristic prog jam.
Download: Flying Lotus - Dance Floor Stalker: Instrumental hip hop sounds like a stretch, but few things are better than FlyLo’s blissed-out break beats and samples when you’re coming down after a hard night at 6am.
Download: The Prayers - Clandestino: Instead of fading into obscurity, Brandon Welchez from The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower created The Prayers, who could possibly be the American Libertines (without the drama).
Download: Ghostwood - Red Version: Not just another Australian retro-rock band, Ghostwood’s Cure-like aesthetic will entice you to dance like it’s 1986.
Download: The Field - Over the Ice: Kompakt’s The Field might be the biggest crossover electro indie artist of the past year, as the cool waves of “Over the Ice” will demonstrate.
Download: Bat For Lashes - Horse and I: The ethereal sounds of Natasha Khan, a.k.a. Bat For Lashes, will take you to a musical journey similar to that of Kate Bush or Cat Power.
Download: Caribou - Melody Day: Everyone loves Caribou, and it’s easy to see why as the soaring, updated‘60s psych-pop of “Melody Day” whisks away your worries.
Download: CocoRosie - Rainbowarriors: The sisters of CocoRosie have taken their experimental pop to a new level with this track. Enjoy the Bjork meets hip-hop vibe.
There are few things more delectable as a good indie pop band, and as our iTunes just randomly shuffled to “Geoffrey Ingram” by Television Personalities (not joking), like-minded music blog Skatterbrain posted about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, the newest group of fresh-faced tweecore kids coming out of NYC. Take a gander at their track “A Teenager in Love” at the link below.
With In Rainbows, Radiohead have completely reinvented themselves: now no longer a semi-interesting rock band, they’ve become one big experimental think tank of musical interaction. This is the newest installment of a series of Webcasts posted to the band’s official Web site, Dead Air Space. Explosions, ghosts and such, who knows what the band will bring next?
