Back in the days of Napster (probably about 1999) I was just getting into the Black Crowes & downloaded (via a friend’s computer running AOL ) a ton of stuff including a cover of some song I never heard and assumed was a Crowes original, “Willin.” It was live and featured some other band I also had never heard at the time, Wilco. I listened to this song many, many times from a cd that I burned of Crowes songs that I had downloaded. It got embedded in my brain. Eventually I looked up Wilco and thereby found Uncle Tupelo and a plethora of great music not heard by the masses. I even got into Little Feat some, as Willin’ is their song but to me, no version (and I’ve listened to quite a few) can compare to the Crowes/Wilco versions from the Horde Tour of 1995. Now I don’t know if what I downloaded that day was the exact same version shown here (sounds pretty close, don’t remember a John Popper harp solo), but one could say that on that fateful day I was shown the door to the world of “music they don’t play on the radio.” All of the music I listen to now I have come to, one way or another, from finding this song on Napster.
And who says downloading music has to a bad thing?
Appearing for the first time today is the website www.muxtape.com What is a MuxTape? It’s an online streaming mix-tape that anyone can upload and as it uses java, can’t be downloaded. Seems like a good idea and implemented fairly well. I’m sure the RIAA will close this place down as soon as they can but, as always, they are being short sighted. They see it as people listening to music for free, not free advertising for their product. What better way to discover new music then streaming some tunes online posted by a friend or some random internet blogger? MuxTape does have a few rules, 1. You can’t upload more then one song per artist, 12 songs total. 2. No songs larger than 10mb. 3. You’re not to post songs you do not have permission to let Muxtape use, however looking at the muxtapes of the site’s founder has somewhat mainstream artists on it so it’s unclear what exactly that means.
At any rate, I posted up an 11 song muxtape. Here’s the track listing:
(tone.deaf.rambler: I’ve noticed that the most viewed post on my blog is the one on the Dexateen’s Lost & Found which is likely due to tags denoting the free download of the album. So I’m reposting my review of Glossary’s The Better Angels of Our Nature with hopes that with better tags (this was posted at my old blog and reposted here before I knew how to properly tag posts) more people might have the opportunity to hear this great album & get into the band. I’ve also added some youtube videos to the post.)
Glossary’s fifth album, The Better Angels of Our Nature, may not be much of a departure from their previous work but it may be their best. Following up on 2006’s For What I Don’t Become, Angels takes the heartfelt lyrics and the guitar rock Americana they do best and infuses it in 10 new tracks. Whether it be the rockin’ “Shout It From The Rooftop” to the lamentfull “Almsgiver” to the “we’re still standing” anthem of the set’s closer, “Blood On The Knobs.” This is American music, music of the heartland, full of tales of regret, lost love and rebel spirit. Music reminiscent of The Band and Anodyne era Uncle Tupelo.
Music this good needs to be heard. Glossary knows this, which is why it needs to be mentioned how the band distributed this album. A full three weeks prior to the album’s release Glossary offered it up for free download on their website, in fact it’s still available there (see link below). Yeah, yeah, you say Radiohead did that too, what’s the big deal? Well, first Glossary didn’t ask for anything in return for the download, they would like your email to keep you up to date on the band’s doings, but it isn’t necessary to download. Second, unlike Radiohead, Glossary offered a near cd quality rip of the album (up to 320kbps vs Radiohead’s 160kbps). For a band with no name recognition to give away an album, especially one of this quality, tells you one thing, they know they have something good that people will pay for even after hearing it for free. And for those that do pay for the album, they’ve hand printed the album art and are going to offer them in limited numbers. When the limited number of the art is up, they’ll print out another limited run of the album with different album art.
I don’t know about you, but I almost always hesitate to say that I listen to country music when discussing music with others. It’s not the I’m ashamed of it, it’s just I always feel the need to qualify exactly what country music I listen to. When you say that you listen to country music, one’s mind typically goes to Garth Brooks, Allen Jackson, Kenn Chesney, and one can’t forget Big & Rich and others. [Just to clarify, all of those I listed and pretty much everything played on country radio & CMT I don't think very highly of (to say the least). Why? Well that's a rant for another day.] I then feel the need to tell about the country bands I do like, most of which are unknown to the general population. Which then tends to lead to a much longer, detailed discussion then the other person is likely interested in having. One of the names I do mention is Hayes Carll.
Hayes Carll plays country music as it should be played, with heart, soul, and without the intervening of Nashville. Hayes is a Texas singer/songwriter in the tradition of Ray Wylie Hubbard, Steve Earl and Townes Van Zant. Trouble In Mind (out April 8 ) will be Hayes’ third album and first for Lost Highway Records and will be available on 180 gram vinyl as well as cd. Five songs from Trouble In Mind can be heard on Hayes’ Myspace page.
The track listing is as follows:
1. Drunken Poet’s Dream
2. It’s A Shame
3. Girl Downtown
4. Bad Liver And A Broken Heart
5. Beaumont
6. I Got A Gig
7. Faulkner Street
8. Wild As A Turkey
9. Don’t Let Me Fall
10. A Lover Like You
11. I Don’t Wanna Grow Up
12. Knockin’ Over Whiskeys
13. Willing To Love Again
14. She Left Me For Jesus
Hayes also has numerous live shows worth checking out on the Live Music Archive I can highly recommend his show from the Cheatham Street Warehouse on November 30, 2006 with His Imaginary Band (in other words, it’s a solo show).
So a week from now one of my favorite bands, The Black Crowes, will drop on the public their first album in seven years, Warpaint. No, I won’t be posting a review of the album right now as I haven’t heard more then the first song thats posted on their homepage. I’m not a writer for Maxim. I plan on going to Best Buy to purchase the album on cd during my lunch and I have a vinyl copy pre-ordered that comes with a 7″with two bonus songs. Warpaint is also offered in iTunes as many albums these days are. I never understood the point in buying mp3s of an album without getting an actual copy that you hold and look at and read the liner notes while listening to the album. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing that, it’s just not my style. I do have an issue with offering bonus songs as an iTunes pre-order and not making them available to those who buy the actual cd seems wrong. The last Son Volt album had an additional 8 tracks for iTuners. 8 songs, that’s almost an extra album.
Another thing on a similar subject is “Special” or “Deluxe” Editions of albums. Especially albums that are less than say 10 years old. I’m tired of an album coming out and them six months later a “special edition” is put out with additional tracks making the fans of the band who bought the album early to have to choose to buy the album again. The people who would buy the album again are probably the big fans who support said artist by seeing shows and buying other merch from said artist. It seems like the fans are being bilked, likely by the label, for their fandom. And it’s not right. Gotta say that bands such as Wilco do the right thing by putting the bonus tracks/features on their website and require the cd to be loaded in one’s computer to access the bonus features.
music off the radar of most people, but shouldn't be. album reviews, concert reviews, music dvd reviews, other music related info & any other thing I find interesting.
