Steve Albini

Steve Albini, engineer/ching guitarist extraordinaire, has a few words for aspiring bands. Known as an engineer who drowns vocals in the mix, Albini has produced some of my favorite recordings... Surfer Rosa and In Utero (among others). While I must admit that I doubt he will every do anything better than Big Black (interview re: Big Black here), Albini is still producing music of his own with Shellac.

Listen to some Shellac here.

Belle And Sebastian

The blog Music For Robots has totally groovy track from the upcoming Belle And Sebastian release. The track is entitled "We Are The Sleepyheads".

Dig it!

Or get some Radio Sessions from Turquoise Days.

The Secret To Canadian Indie Rock

Is the secret to Canadian indie rock that they get government funding??

NPR has a story about the "Montreal Sound" here.

Sufjan Stevens

The mellow-ness continues with Sufjan Stevens...

The blog Bows + Arrows has some b-sides for you.

Get them here.

Filter Mag has a new Sufjan track here.

Fruit Bats

On a mellower note...

3hive has got some lovely tracks from the Fruit Bats.

Get them here.

The Fruit Bats Sub Pop page is here.

Mp3 Blogs Galore

Sidebar Expansion Explosion:
gorilla vs. bear
kill all artists
my old KY home
you ain't no picasso
so much silence
fluxblog
music for robots
said the gramophone
music for kids who can't read good
veritas lux mea
to here knows when
cocaineblunts & hip hop tapes
the tofu hut
copy, right?
fun time ok

Hüsker Dü

Hüsker Dü, one of my favorite punk bands of all time, broke up in the late 1980s. The blog jefitoblog has posted some bootleg tracks from their last tour in 1987.

Dig it.

Babyshambles

The folks at ANABlog have posted six tracks from Babyshambles.

Get the six crack smokin' tracks here.

DEV2.0

Oh ma gawd...

This is soooo wrong.

Kelley Deal

You know I'm a sucker for metal covers... the blog Copy, Right? has posted Kelley Deal's cover of Pantera's "Fucking Hostile".

Awesome!

Supplement: The Kelley Deal 6000 website

Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins

Click here for two tracks from Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins. (Thanks to the blog An Aquarium Drunk).

Get some more Jenny here.

Rilo Kiley is here.

The Go! Team

The blog Between Thought And Expression has a live Go! Team track.

Dig it.

Spoon

So the blog Six Eyes put up some free Spoon mp3s.

Get 'em here.

(Oh yeah, there's also some mp3s from The National, The Walkmen, Ted Leo, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tapes N' Tapes, and the Vanderslice approved The Standard)

Jeez, what are you waiting for?

The Magic Numbers

The Magic Numbers have were recently on KEXP (Seattle's most awesome radio station). The blog So Much Silence has the mp3s.

Dig it.

Pretty Girls Make Graves

Pretty Girls Make Graves are back.

The blog I Guess I'm Floating has two tracks from their upcoming album "Élan Vital".

Also... be sure to check out The Matador Records Pretty Girls Make Graves Page

Spinto Band

The Blog Six Eyes has got six... count 'em... six Spinto Band tracks for download. Three of the tracks are from the damn good "Nice And Nicely Done" album... three are NOT.

What are you waiting for?

Ayano Tsuji

Just heard a story on NPR about Ayano Tsuji, a Japanese artist who is bucking J-Pop trends and playing the uke.

Check it out.

The Beastie Boys

Filter Mag has a live performance of "Brass Monkey".

Dig it.

The Sunshine Underground

This Big Stereo has posted a nice chunk of The Sunshine Underground. Totally worth checking out.

Find it here.

Filter Magazine

Side Bar Expansion Fun:

Well according to Filter Magazine, "Good Music Will Prevail".

NOTE: They also have a podcast.

Bulk Buttons? 10,000 Cities?

Can someone explain this to me? Because it's really good.

Arcade Fire

The blog Mocking Music has got page O' covers up. One of those covers is truly sublime... it's The Arcade Fire covering The Magnetic Fields' "Born On A Train".

Also check out:

The Arcade Fire official site (Requires Flash)

A Directory With Some Arcade Fire Mp3s

SST Records

The most kick-ass punk/indie label of 80s... SST Records finally hits emusic dot com. Friggin Awesome!! I loves me some SST.

Check it out.

More on SST here.

Portastatic

My girlfriend heard this song in the GAP the other day, and now it shows up on 3hive. Coincidence?? Only Mac knows for sure.

Portastaic's website

Merge Record's Portastatic page

Test Icicles

Test Icicles, Yes... Test Icicles.

They have a new single "Circle Square Triangle" (insound mp3) from their upcoming album "For Screening Purposes Only".

Jeez look at that picture, what are they? like 12??

Anyway, they rock.

UPDATE: This Big Stereo has got some tracks for download too.

70 Percent Of American Music Recorded Before 1965 Is Not Legally Available In The U.S.

A Library of Congress study has found that 70 percent of American music recorded before 1965 is not legally available in the United States. Sounds to me like there needs to be an out-of-print exception to copyright law.

Listen to the NPR story here.

The White Stripes

The blog Mocking Music has posted a kick ass live version of "Astro" by The White Stripes.

Get it here.

50 Foot Wave

Krisitn Hersh Rocks! There's a new 50 Foot Wave EP entitled "Free Music" and guess what... it's free!

Get it here.

The Earlies

Is everyone good, Secretly Canadian???

Maybe The Earlies and their song "Morning Wonder" (insound mp3) have the answer.

More The Earlies here.

The Liars

The folks over at moistworks have a new track from The Liars:

"Let's Not Wrestle Mr. Heart Attack"

This new one is doomy (as in doomsday) but in a good way.

Ryan Adams

While I was able to resist posting "best of 05" crap in 05, now that it's 06... Here's the best of mucho prolifico Ryan Adams' 05 releases (at least according to Scenestars).