largehearted boy

Just a quick post to tell you to get over to the largehearted boy blog.

Check out the 24th August post - Daily Downloads - If you have the same tastes as my goodself then get The Mooney Suzuki track for starters.

Other downloads - Rilo Kiley, The Libertines and Pinback tracks are all good.

Also, TTIKTDA has a new Green Day track which is a return to their roots.

Proper post soon I promise :)

Communiqué - Cross Your Heart

I have to admit to not knowing a lot about Communiqué apart from they're from San Francisco, CA. In fact I couldn't really glean much more from their website. This first track is from their first EP A Crescent Honeymoon which is due to be released in the UK in the not too distant future.

The following two tracks are from the Poison Arrows LP, which was released on 15th June 2004 in the US:
Communiqué - Perfect Weapon

Apparently they've grown out of a punk background, though this is pure and simple rock if you ask me....

Communiqué - Evaporate

Both the EP and the LP are available here.

Rolling Stone seem to think quite highly of them, what about you?

Brendan Benson - Good To Me

Brendan Benson, cruising out of Detroit with a glint in his eye and his best mate Jack White singing his praises,
is here to let a little sunshine into your life. There’s this simple paean to his trusty second hand car and the freedom of being a humble singer-songwriter. Sublime.

Brendan Benson - Jet Lag
His album Lapalco is a McCartney-worshipping treat with its eye on Elliott Smith’s mighty XO.

Brendan makes his first live appearances in the UK for over a year with a handful of intimate acoustic shows in September. He will be joined at the
gigs by Dean Fertitia from Detroit band The Waxwings, who will be accompanying Benson on guitar and keyboards.

The dates are as follows:
Bristol, Louisiana (September 23)
Wolverhampton, Little Civic (24)
Nottingham, Rescue Rooms (25)
Glasgow, 13th Note (26)
London, Borderline (27)
Liverpool, Zanzibar (29)

Ballboy - Olympic Cyclist (Live)

Topical, eh? This band hail from my home country - Scotland, but they don't seem to like it very much. It must be because they're from Edinburgh.

Ballboy - I Hate Scotland

Ballboy formed in January 1999. They are three boys and one girl. The boys are: Gordon McIntyre who sings and plays guitar, Nick Reynolds who plays bass guitar and sings too, Gary Morgan who plays the drums, and the girl is: Alexa Morrison who plays keyboards, who took over from Katie Griffiths at the end of January 2004.

Ballboy - Donald In The Bushes With A Bag Of Glue
This track comes from their first release, the EP Silver Suits For Astronauts in November of 1999.


I Hate Scotland was released in June 2000 and Girls Are Better Than Boys came out in March 2001. The three EP's have since been compiled on Club Anthems 2001 (UK release Oct01) and Club Anthems (US release Mar02) which you can get here.

Ballboy - A Day In Space

Ballboy - Dumper Truck Racing

The next release was the 4-track EP All The Records On The Radio Are Shite which had some great reviews and one really bad one from the NME. Ballboy learned a lesson from this - never let the man from the NME know that you are smarter than him - it upsets him no end.

Ballboy - Avant Garde Music
In November of 2002, Ballboy released their first proper album A Guide For The Daylight Hours complete with accompanying artwork by the fantastic Scottish-based artist David Shrigley. You can get it here.

To date the band have recorded two sessions for John Peel (Dec 2000 and April 2002 - live from Maida Vale) and numerous sessions for the Evening Session in Scotland on Radio 1 and various other shows. Sometimes this is Gordon with an acoustic guitar, sometimes it is the whole band. They have also had 3 entries in 2 separate Festive 50 charts, but none in the UK charts. No-one knows why this is...

Martin Sexton - Glory Bound (Acoustic)

I like acoustic singer/songwriter stuff a lot, unfortunately I know nothing about this chap at all, so all I can do is borrow form his own site: "A native of Syracuse, New York, Martin Sexton grew up on the timeless sounds of Seventies radio, from Stevie Wonder to Led Zeppelin (who led him toward blues legends like Howlin Wolf and Willie Dixon)."

Martin Sexton - Black Sheep
Apparently he has a 'bounty' of Boston Music Awards, as well as a National Academy of Songwriters "Artist of the Year" award. Did I miss this guy or has there been no UK exposure?

Anyway enjoy the tracks and buy stuff here.

If you cannot download then it's possible that the server limit has been reached - try again tomorrow.


2 posts today! - I guess I'm reinvigorated because I got some reader comments.
Take note - commenting = more mp3s :)

Charlotte Martin - Cloudbusting

Thanks to those who posted yesterday, proving to me that I'm not just talking to myself :)

Charlotte Martin is being touted as the 'next big thing' - it's not my cup of tea, but some of you may enjoy. If you like Kate Bush (I don't) then this is definitely for you. Her album On Your Shore is out now, and is available from 101CD.

You can get her first EP In Parenthesis here.

If you like these tunes then you can here more in the See/Hear section of CharlotteMartin.com, there are also lots of live shows (in .shn format) here.

Liz Phair - Why can't I?

An exceedingly poppy offering from Liz Phair, in fact it may as well be an Avril Lavigne song apart from the explicit lyrics that Liz is so fond of. Thing is though - it's catchy and I can't help myself... I like it.

Liz Phair - Extraordinary
This has a very heavy intro which pleases me a lot, unfortunatley it then descends into another, albeit acceptable, pop song.

Liz Phair - Stuck On An Island
This is more what we expect from Liz in this shelved demo.

Liz Phair - Flower
Finally my favourite, and likely the most explicit, Liz Phair song - the various speeds and styles that she plays this song live amaze me - I love every version I get my hands on.

You can get the imaginitively titled current album Liz Phair here. Plus you can get most, if not all, of the Liz Phair back catalogue cheaply here.


If no-one's reading this then there's not much point in continuing, so if you've read this far I'd appreciate a comment...

Metric - Combat Baby

Click the title above for the MP3. Hook-filled, utterly infectious spiky pop songs, with a heavy dose of new wave sass, courtesy of front woman Emily Haines's synth stylings and tight, funky rhythms hammered out by drummer Joules Scott-Key and bassist Josh Winstead.

If you like this track then I strongly suggest you go out and buy the album Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

Their first EP, Static Anonymity, only appears to be available through their own merchandising here.

Halfday

It has to be said that I'm quite a fan of Aussie bands, so here's another - Halfday from Brisbane. The band are currently swanning about Europe until the end of the month - the shows in Horten (Norway), London & Dublin are still to come.

Tracks for your listening pleasure are Downstairs King and their latest single Turn Me on.

Powderfinger

How lazy am I? I just started this mp3 blog thing and then I post nowt for a week! So as an apology I'm going to give you links to one of my favourite bands - Powderfinger.

From slow ballad with the track These Days to all out rock on Like A Dog these guys kick ass.

More mp3s (seems to be 2 albums+ worth) are available here. On this page there are links to Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Gypsy Kings, Asiaminor and other assorted mp3s - enjoy!

For buying I advise going for Odyssey #5 for starters, you can get it 2nd hand from Djangos very cheaply. But the current album Vulture Street is my favourite, but is a lot more rock than Odyssey #5.

Vulture Street snippets can be heard on the official website.

The cheapest place to buy Vulture Street is likely to be CD-WOW Au who do free worldwide delivery - currently the price is Au$22.95 which is about £8.95 / US$16.40 which is pretty good.

Vervein

Now for something a little different - if you like that dreamy indie type of sound, with some excellent strings in it, then listen to Vervein.

From their website:
"Vervein begins with the story of two girls - one from the East Coast, one from the West Coast. Both were classically trained in music until their teens when they escaped the shackles of stern music teachers and sold their souls to rock and roll."

My Disposition is the most upbeat, and Unarmed is the softest - depending on what mood you're in.

Other 'samples' are available here - happily their idea of a sample is the whole track :)

You can buy their album Vast Low Cities new from CD-Baby or used from Djangos.