Take This Album, Please

After years of cracking down on free downloads, the music industry still keeps getting upstaged by its artists.

In the same spirit of Prince's Sunday paper album giveaway and Radiohead's name-your-price In Rainbows release, Brooklyn alt. country rockers The Damnwells have released their latest album, One Last Century, as a free download through a promotion with Paste Magazine. 

In return for handing over your email address to Paste and the band, you will receive the latest dozen songs from band frontman and leader Alex Dezen, who has shed the band's original members and is now working with a collective of hipster musicians. 

The album is pleasant enough - pop-oriented, country rock.  Fine fare for the stereo at your local java joint or to throw on a Sunday afternoon, paper-reading, playlist.  The marketing, although nowhere near as bombastic as Radiohead and Prince's efforts, is geared toward generating some excitement for the revamped band.  

Quite literally, the product has become the promotion.  I am guessing that it will create some attention to the group's earlier efforts, but it is surprising that Dezen hasn't come up with a tour for this album to support (instead of the traditional other way around).

The price is right for the album.  Put it on with your morning coffee and wonder at this latest twist of the art becoming the tease for something not quite known. 

Sign up for the free album download here.

“Closer Than We Are” by The Damnwells (mp3)

Felice Brothers To Release Album, Tour

In the midst of touring like mad during the past year, After Hours favorites The Felice Brothers also found time to clean out the old chicken coop and turn it into a recording studio to match their hardscrabble songs.  

The homestead studio was the setting for the Brothers' new album, Yonder is the Clock, which is set for release on April 7th.  The Catskills Mountain boys will also head back to the road this month. 

In addition, the surroundings must have had psychic effect as the track listing, which are definitely poultry-influenced.  The album title is borrowed from Mark Twain.

YONDER IS THE CLOCK TRACKLIST

1. THE BIG SURPRISE
2. PENN STATION
3. BURIED IN ICE
4. CHICKEN WIRE
5. AMBULANCE MAN
6. SAILOR SONG
7. KATIE DEAR
8. RUN CHICKEN RUN 
9. ALL WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
10. BOY FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY
11. MEMPHIS FLU
12. COOPERSTOWN
13. RISE AND SHINE

I heard an early version of "Run Chicken Run" at the Reclaim Festival this past year.  Of course, it was fun and funky.  I am interested in hearing the final version of the song.  Alright, I am a little more than interested - I can't wait to hear these new songs. 

2009 Tour Dates * = w/ Old Crow Medicine Show

FEBRUARY 2009

08 – North Charleston, SC – North Charleston Performing Arts Center*

10 – Gainesville, FL – The Venue*

11 – Tampa, FL – Tampa Theatre*

13 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues* 14  - Oxford, MS – The Lyric Theatre*

15 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood*

MARCH 2009

13 – Rochester, NY – Water Street Music Hall

14 – Buffalo, NY – The Mohawk

15 – Nelsonville, OH – Stuart’s Opera House

16 – Indianapolis, IN – Radio Radio

APRIL 2009

07 – Poughkeepsie, NY – The Bardavan Opera House

09 – Boston, MA – The Paradise

10 – Albany, NY – Valentines

11 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground

15 – Alexandria, VA – Birchmere Bandstand

16 – Philadelphia, PA – The Trocadero Theatre

17 – New York, NY – Webster Hall

18 – Northampton, MA – Pearl Street Nightclub

19 – Ringwood, NJ – New Legacy Concert Series at Ringwood Public Library

22 – Pittsburgh, PA – Mr. Smalls

24 – Louisville, KY – Headliner’s

25 – Nashville, TN – The Mercy Lounge

JULY 2009

17 – Somerset, KY – Master Musicians Festival

25 – Floyd, VA - Floydfest

 

Download: Don’t Wake The Scarecrow by The Felice Brothers (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Langerado Cancelled; Ominous Sign for 2009

Langerado, the South Florida music festival that could, can no longer.  

Today, the festival cancelled its 2009 festival due to poor ticket sales. After six years of steadily growing and adding more adventurous lineups, Langerado had planned for a better and larger show at downtown Miami's Bicentennial Park.  

The lineup was to include Death Cab for Cutie, Snoop Dogg, Public Enemy, Modest Mouse, Broken Social Scene, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Girl Talk, Tortoise, Bad Brains, the Pogues, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, Tokyo Police Club, the Faint, Tricky, King Khan and the Shrines, Cloud Cult, Ra Ra Riot, DeVotchKa, Against Me!, Black Kids, the Gaslight Anthem, Cold War Kids, and Thievery Corporation. 

It was a hell of a lineup.  The local promoters cited poor ticket sales combined with relocating to a new and larger venue as reasons for the cancellation. The loss of Langerado puts a ominous chill on the 2009 concert and festival season.  Although tour receipts were up 7 percent last year over 2007, this year is looking brutal.  

Hopefully, the more-established festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella do not suffer the same economic freefall as the up-and-coming Langerado.  Bonnaroo has recently announced that Bruce Springsteen and the reunited Phish will headline the June 11-14 festival. Coachella is featuring Paul McCartney, The Cure and Amy Winehouse at its April 17-19 festival in southern California.

Here's hoping for better economic news for these festivals.  If not, it will be a very long and not very fun year.

“The Sound of Settling (Acoustic)” by Death Cab for Cutie (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

Oh Happy Day!

Fly your freak flag. Put on your boogie shoes! It is a very happy day.

“Oh Happy Day” by Edwin Hawkins Singers

Beneath the Covers of New Music

In the marketplace of shared music on the millions of music blogs, cover songs are the fastest growing franchise. Former denizens of grainy bootlegs and B-sides, the number of cover songs has exponentially grown in a fracturing music industry.

With a little more time than to record the track, any artist or wannabee can digitally send that cover around the globe. If the artist is big enough, the release becomes an EVENT. If you don't even have that time, just play it live and leave the distribution and buzz-generating efforts to others. Or be a fortunate by-stander when someone (good, hopefully) remixes your song.

Look at the most popular searches at Hype Machine, covers and remixes consistently cast a large shadow over the list. However, that should not be surprising. Technology is catching up with something primitive. The nature of the cover song is to go back to the basics of performance. That's playing in an empty bar with three sets to do with a handful of original songs, and two of those are sketchy.

Right now, there is a torrent of cover songs in the ether from artist-driven albums and EPs to marketing releases and leaks to radio show performances to an evening playing a guitar to your computer. In a net quickly filling with chaff, here are three examples of the good stuff.

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend) by Peter Gabriel & Hot Chip

The "leak" of the cover of the Vampire Weekend hipster tune by Peter Gabriel and electropop group Hot Chip is fun and delicious. Gabriel's take on "singing his own name" is worth the listen itself.

All I Need (Marvin Gaye) by My Morning Jacket (Live at MSG 12/31/08)

My Morning Jacket ended a year of ravingly good shows and a successful album with a rousing New Year's Eve show at New York's Madison Square Garden. Frontman Jim James' duet with Nicole Atkins on this Marvin Gaye classic exemplifies the quality of the concert. The whole show is classic.

Crazy In Love (Beyonce) by The Magic Numbers

In what sounds like a recording of a radio performance, the English sibling duo quarter The Magic Numbers turn out a very enjoyable version of this Beyonce classic.

Music Business Is Eating Its Tail and I Feel Fine

It was a moment of digital revelation.

While listening to a podcast of a NPR radio program through my iPod connected to my car stereo, the Clash's "London Calling" was played. I had to turn off my iPod to ensure that my cell phone wasn't playing its own "London Calling" ringtone.

This circular auditory confusion must make the music business feel like the snake eating its tail. And they're right. However, this is just the noisy debris of a rapidly-expanding music industry.

We are at the precipice of a very noisy revolution. With declining CD sales continuing to swamp rising digital sales, record companies and artist have globbing their music to any medium that will stick. Music within video games, ringtones, commercial jingles and web ads are quickly reaching the upper levels of cacophony.

Many will continue to wring their hands regarding the effects of this explosion of song outlets has on the "business" and the artistry itself. The critics often miss the point that this cacophony is the sound of freedom in a very noisy, ever expanding, financially-challenging way.

The point being lost is that we are listening to more music than ever before. This is at least anecdotally evident through the mass of earbuds hanging from our collective ears. And there is more music being made. Myspace is swamped with bands - for good or ill. The loss of the record companies' control over the distribution of music has globalized the punk ethic of doing it yourself. And bands are and we, the music fans, are the beneficiaries.

As the music business continues to noisily thrash around trying to find a workable means to continue (and they will), we will have to temporarily put up with some auditory confusion. But that is well-worth the ocean of new music now lapping at our feet.

Download: Radio, Radio by Elvis Costello (mp3) (Amazon) (iTunes)

New Year's Eve On The Radio -Updated With Playlist

For a year-end wrap up, After Hours contributors Duncan Strauss, marty and Ian Minor will be appearing live on WMNF Radio on New Year's Eve from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.  Listen to us here.  Or if you are tooling around the Tampa Bay area, check us out at 88.5 on the FM dial. 

Each of us will be playing favorite songs from the past year and years past.  Feel free to call in at 813-239-9663 or email us during the show with your requests.  

As always with WMNF, this will be radio as it was meant to be - eclectic, fun and full of passion. Plus, it will rock your bones. 

Download: Radio Song by R.E.M. (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)

UPDATE

Thank you all for listening to the show.  Here is the playlist of the songs we played during our Sonic Detour stint.  To listen to an archived copy, please listen here.

 Artist Song Album

Bruce Springsteen	My Lucky Day	Working On A Dream
Alejandro Escovedo	Always a Friend	Real Animal
The Felice Brothers	Frankie's Gun!	The Felice Brothers
Old Crow Medicine Show	Alabama High-Test	Tennessee Pusher
Holly Golightly	Tell Me Now So I Know	Broken Flowers Soundtrack
Jenny Lewis	Acid Tongue	Acid Tongue
Dusty Springfield	Son of a Preacher Man	Dusty In Memphis
Eels	The Good Old Days	Shootenanny!
She & Him	Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?	Volume One
Fleet Foxes	White Winter Hymnal	Fleet Foxes
Blitzen Trapper	Furr	Furr
Ok Go	This Will Be Our Year	Future Soundtrack for America
Francis Dunnery	I Believe I Can Change My World	Tall Blonde Helicopter
The Wombats	Let's Dance To Joy Division	A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
Joy Division	Love Will Tear Us Apart	Complete BBC Recordings
The Byrds	My Back pages	Back Pages
The Pretenders	Don't Lose Faith In Me	Break Up The Concrete
John Hiatt	Everybody Went Low	The Tiki Bar Is Open
Conor Oberst	Moab	Conor Oberst
Kings of Leon	Sex On Fire	Only By The Night
Freddie Hubbard	Delphia	Delphia
The Preston School of Industry	Caught In The Rain	Monsoon
The Silver Seas	The Country Life	High Society