We just got this e-mail from Jared and Stacey Schwartz, and they’re doing this neat thing with a new website, AudioExposure. For every song that visitors add — preferably with a free & legal link — the Schwartz crew is donating a dollar ($1.00) to Critical Exposure, “a DC-based non-profit which teaches students to use the power of documentary
photography to advocate for school reform and social change.” How cool is that?
In looking through the 70+ songs that have already been added, I noticed that Jen from Chicago had posted “The Funeral” by Band of Horses, which leads me to today’s B of H update. When last posted, band of Horses was a recent addition to Sub Pop, with a few demo tracks available for download. Today, I can offer “Is There A Ghost,” the opening track for their latest album, Cease to Begin, as well as “The Great Salt Lake,” and the other links are live and well. The band is touring the US and Europe over the next few months, and that’s about it. Check out AudioExposure and have a nice day!
Is There A Ghost [MP3, 2.7MB, 128kbps]
The Great Salt lake [MP3, 5.4MB, 160kbps]
Original post: 09/01/05
These demo tracks from Horses — or is it Band of Horses? Even after digging around on their website, I’m not sure… — are pleasant and pleasantly genre-defying, hence the Pop/Rock catch-all designation. Try “Funeral” and “Bass Song” for an idea of the cross-section of their ’70s and ’80s influences. Led Zepplin? New Order? Maybe I just need more sleep… Anyway, hopefully the Horses found much audience love on their recent tour with Iron and Wine, and will complete their Sub Pop debut soon.
Truth be told, I don’t know any more about The Mammals than what I read on their website. (It tells us that they’re a folk-rock quintet, a string band offering up traditional music sometimes, political rants at other times, and generally having fun traveling around in a van.) There are other downloads available on their website, too, but there’s something in their cover of Richard Thompson’s song about the Vincent that just works for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to a lot of Woody Guthrie over the last few days, using “Pretty Boy Floyd” to teach about the Great Depression in my U.S. History class, and letting the disc run on with “Jesus Christ,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and “Blowin’ Down the Road.” This take on “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” (Google says Thompson’s version is the most-requested song on NPR) fits perfectly in this series — the overwhelming narrative strength, the focus on the human condition, the crooning and the picking… Maybe later on this week I’ll plug in again, but for now I’m adjusting my audio-carbon footprint and going straight acoustic.
Michael Brook fits my mood to a T these days. Melancholic, introspective, thoughtful, and downright chill. I first discovered Brook via his work with 
Mikrofisch is our first entry from the Hamburg net-label, Komakino. Their album, Masters of the Universe, represents the label’s first full-length release (the band’s second) and you can download it, in its entirety, 
For 90 days starting Tuesday, November 27th, the Causes 1 charity album will be available on iTunes. Three relief organizations — Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam America — will receive 100% of the proceeds, earmarked for relief in Darfur, Sudan. The album is the inaugural edition in a Causes series offered by Waxploitation; the brief window of avilability, according to the label’s founder Jeff Antebi, is designed “to create a sense of urgency – to mirror what is a dire situation in Darfur.” Participating artists: Animal Collective, The Black Keys, Bloc Party, Bright Eyes, Cornelius, The Cure, David Sylvian, Death Cab for Cutie, (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Shins remixed by Clint Mansell, Spoon, Teargas & Plateglass, Thievery Corporation and Travis. A limited edition CD can also be pre-ordered at the Waxploitation website, listed below. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Nothing says Thanksgiving to me more than Dujeous. Full disclosure: I’ve know these guys since before I was of legal drinking age, they are old friends and I am 100% totally, completely biased in their favor. Back in the good old days, there was always a Dujeous show to look forward to. You would see the family, put on your cute clothes and head out to whatever downtown venue the Duj happened to be playing at. You would have crushes on various Dujeous members. You would think you were really cool when you could sing all the words to “Spilt Milk”. But mostly, you would bliss out all night to the sweet sounds of good old-fashioned hip-hop, the kind that involves a drummer, a bass player, a trumpet and all manner of wonderful instruments. You may have heard the sounds of Dave Guy (trumpet) before, as he is super busy sidelining as a Dap-King, playing with Sharon Jones, a member of the Budos Band, appearing as a cartoon in the New Yorker and showing up on my television in Lily Allen’s band. The six other bandmembers, die-hard New Yorkers all, have been doing it up — producing, providing music for soundtracks of oscar winning films (see: Half Nelson), being MCs, touring what seems like ALL of Asia, popping up as staffers at my place of work, and just being Dujeous in general. (I’m told the name may serve as a noun, a verb or an adjective, depending on your mood.) I love them. Dujeous makes me highly nostalgic. More people should know about Dujeous. Hip-hop, instruments, big love for what they do — enough said.
The Harlem Experiment isn’t a band, but a collective of music (specifically jazz, funk, and hip hop) fiends rustled together by Aaron Levinson to pay homage to the variety of sounds eminating over the years from, yes, Harlem. This is the third in Ropeadope’s “Experiment” series. They experimented with Philly and Detroit first. “It’s Just Begun” begins with a classic funk track by Jimmy Castor and The Castor Bunch, which DJ Arkive dismantled, re-cut, re-worked and scratched up a bit. From there, Eddy Martinez (keys for Tito Puente and Run D.M.C.) stepped in and laid down a screaming keyboard track. Their goal was to maintain the timeless quality of the original track. Do you think they hit the mark? The ears of this novice funkateer say, “we likey, a lot-y.”