FREE EP DOWNLOAD + Spesh Pep and Yes Bear House(?)/Park Show, August 8

Hey, doggies! A great band called Yes Bear is playing with Spesh Pep on August 8 at Slocan Park. How much is it? All I can tell you is that it'll probably be worth it (update: it's by donation). Indie math-pop. Yes, it's possible! Event page at Field House Noise Field w-SPESH PEP/ YES BEAR/ DRUIZ.



Also, download Yes Bear's 2011 EP We're Alive, Let's High-Five for FREE here.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Pizza Sub - "Pizza Sub"

Record Store Day was this past Saturday. I had to cut my day short and skip psych-surf-punks Crystal Swells' and the garage-y Nervous Talk's free sets because Neptoon Records got WAY too hot, crowded and smelly, but I got to see Pizza Sub at Red Cat Records. And they played "Pizza Sub" - twice! If only Pizza Sub existed during the edibles edition of my radio show. "Pepperoni! Salami! Marinara sauce! AND EXTRA CHEESE!!"


Download Pizza Sub's self-titled demo from their Bandcamp page.

FRREE DOWNLOAD: Samantha Glass Discography

Via White Poppy:

"word on the street is that everything on the Samantha Glass bandcamp page is FREE for a couple days...
http://samanthaglass.bandcamp.com/"

Favourite Releases of 2012: Half Chinese - We Were Pretending To Be (Sad Game)

Don't forget about Half Chinese.

That's a note more to myself than anyone else. In the heaps of local bands I discovered in 2012, Half Chinese, one of the first local bands I liked, almost got lost in the shuffle.

Half Chinese's debut full-length We Were Pretending To Be opens in pretty standard indie rock fashion with "Horse Did Whinny," a catchy song that bounces along with the added sheen of plinky mandolin. But it's the following track "Hatchi" that better reflects the album's overall direction, tightly mixing melody with ripping guitar lines over propulsive drumming. Half Chinese also dissolve into more free-form explorations with songs such as the lyricless, essentially instrumental "China Creek" which creeps with subtle, lingering, slowcore guitars, creating a dim undertone before erupting in scorching, uncapped, discordant squalls.

In circular fashion, We Were Pretending To Be returns to pure pop with songs like the clarinet-backed "Boomerang" and the zippy "Little Moon Beam" which cruises along a singular synth-line and wraps up with another catchy, noise-infused rocker ("Goodbye Farewell") and finally bids adieu with another subdued ambler-with-a-big-chorus "Ever Crowley."

Perhaps my perception has been knocked awry by the force with which even the most free-form songs on We Were Pretending To Be hit, but even such songs can't help but feel concise - deliberate - like there's a palpable temperance to the album. Although Half Chinese pretty much bee-line to their point with full focus and seem to know exactly how to get there, they still sound very patient and unrushed. It's impossible to know how well thought out the songs on We Were Pretending To Be were, but with such rocking fun, it's best to just sit back, enjoy the feel-good ride and not think about it.

Download We Were Pretending To Be in full and entirely for FREE on Half Chinese's Bandcamp page.

KMVP - "Nobody's Down with Sexist Movies"

Why do all the girls in The Warriors
Have to entice the boys upstairs
Have to entice the boys upstairs
Before, before, before, before they pull the knife?
If I was a girl in The Warriors
I would have cut them in the streets
I would have cut them in the street
And watched and watched and watched
And watched the bastards bleed

And of course, you don't even notice
Because you grew up watching The Warriors
And this thing is so deep inside of us
That it takes some very bizarre form

Why are all the girls in Thrasher
Either virginal or sluts?
And they all hate each others guts
And watch and watch and watch
And watch the boys have fun
If I was a girl in Thrasher
I'd start a radical girl-gang
And we'd stop feathering our bangs
And skate and skate and skate
And build a wicked half-pipe

And of course, you don't even notice
But it's poisoning your brains
You deny what's totally obvious
Then rewind and watch that shit again

And who says Ally Sheedy
Needed a makeover
To get herself a lover?
Who needs those anyway?
When I was Ally Sheedy
And I got myself a boyfriend
Well, all the time I spent with him
Was time I threw away

And of course, you don't even notice
But I see it everywhere
And my heart curls up and grows cold
As the snowflakes that fell from her hair

FREE DOWNLOAD: Azealia Banks - Fantasea Mix-Tape

Available as of two days ago is Fantasea, Azealia Banks' nautically themed mix-tape and her longest official release to date. It contains several of her previously released tracks including "Jumanji," "L8R," "Fuck Up the Fun" and my favourite Azealia track "Us." Finally, a high quality version of "Us"! Download Fantasea by clicking the link at the top of Azealia's Twitter page.

Joy Division Unknown Pleasures Tattoo

Wow. What a God-damned tattoo. It is, of course, the cover image of their 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures.

Embedded below is a remix of JD's "Atmosphere" by iamxl, a DJ I'd never heard of before stumbling upon this post but who happens to be based in Vancouver. Click here to download the track for free.

Skrillex with the Remaining Members of the Doors - "Breakin' a Sweat"

This song makes me want to soak up all of the music in the world - whatever the fuck that means. Watch the trailer for the documentary it's from, and download the entire soundtrack at http://regenerationmusicproject.com/. It's a cool concept that shows what happens when past and present musical styles/thought processes in music-making collide. The documentary also features Pretty Lights, the Crystal Method, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, LeAnn Rimes, the Dap Kings, the Funk Brothers and more.

Free Download: New Dandy Warhols Song: "Well They're Gone"

From their upcoming seventh full-length album This Machine, due April 24 via the End Records (the same day Jack White's debut solo album Blunderbuss comes out. DAMN, that is going to be a good day!). Just click the top left of the Dandies' website to download.

One word: Wow. For the first time since Welcome To the Monkey House (Capital, 2003), the Dandy Warhols sound like they're trying something new - and pulling it off. Moreover, they sound like they actually give a crap about what they're doing; "Well They're Gone" is deliberate - meticulous - a clear change of pace from the Dandies' recent habit of of banging out mediocre pop-rock or cobbling together failed aimless, droning, ambient experiments.

"Well They're Gone" falls somewhere between the farmer's tan complexion of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (Capital, 2000) and the light, dreamy electronic swirls of Welcome To the Monkey House, specifically "Insincere Because I" blended with the melody and rhythm of "I Am Sound" sedated by horse pills. "Well They're Gone" also exudes a bit of a haunting Gorillaz gloam as well, perfectly conjuring an image of a dead Western town - tumbleweeds and saloon doors gently blowing open and closed at sunset. Even This Machine's cover art and promo shots imply an earthy, pastoral, slightly deathly mood.

Considering folky, whimsical songs like "Big Indian" and "The Gospel" from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia rank as some of the Dandy Warhols' finest work (their finest examples of song-writing for sure, excluding "Genius"), if "Well They're Gone" faithfully represents the album to come, This Machine will definitely be the Dandies' best album in nearly a decade. And long-time Dandies fans won't have to breathe yet another sigh of disappointment.

Oh, and there's this. BOOYAH!!! Dandy Warhols round 2! Happy Almost-Birthday to myself:

The New Old Best Coast

For reference (and because it's great and free), download Best Coast's new song "The Only Place" by clicking here.

When Best Coast frontperson Bethany Cosentino discussed the band's upcoming sophomore album The Only Place a few months ago, she described it as country-influenced, "grown up" and more personal than their first album Crazy For You. Songs they've played live from the new album so far, including "Why I Cry," have certainly delivered introspective maturity but not a trace of country. The latest track from The Only Place to hit the 'Net, however, the new album's title-track, fills that gap.

Right away, opening with lightly strummed, shaker-backed guitars, "The Only Place" sounds like no other Best Coast song I can immediately think of. Also atypical of Best Coast is the fact that "The Only Place" is based on note-picked guitars rather than full chords (any musicians want to throw me a proper term here?). And the production is so clean and tight - unlike the hollow and muddled but punchy Crazy For You - that one can hear a little twang in the guitars. The cleaner, looser production also gives Bethany's vocals and every instrument equal weight, relaxing the drumming (which takes center stage on Crazy For You), giving the song space to breathe and mellowing it out.

Bethany has also stated during the making of The Only Place that she really wants to develop as a singer. Best Coast's seemingly endless touring behind Crazy For You has long served as her opportunity to do exactly that; hear their iTunes Session EP, specifically their cover of Loretta Lynn's "Fist City," where Bethany's voice really shines as the songs' centerpiece. On "The Only Place," she sounds relaxed, no longer belting out lyrics to keep up with the song's poppy pace. And the clean production does nothing but favours in allowing listeners to actually hear her confident new voice.

No question, "The Only Place" signifies both emotional and musical growth in Best Coast. But as "grown up" and musically intricate as the song is for the band, "The Only Place" is still unmistakably Best Coast. The song still boasts most of their typical lyrical fare: sunshine, sitting around, "fun," beaches and West Coast-trumpeting; the only things missing are Bethany's cat Snacks and weed. With one simple question, though, Bethany puts a personal spin on "The Only Place" that shows she takes all of those subjects to heart: "Why would you live anywhere else?" After all, "[w]e've got the ocean, got the babes, got the sun; we've got the waves. This is the only place for me," she declares. So, "[l]eave your cold behind. We're gonna make it to the beach on time."

Neverminding the obvious fact that "The Only Place" is the new album's title-track, one can consider this song the record's thesis statement. Bethany has discussed her West Coast pride before, bolstered by her travels abroad (particularly in touring in support of Crazy For You), and "The Only Place" seems to sum up her previously expressed feelings. And not only does "The Only Place" sum up who Bethany Cosentino currently is as a person, but it sums up who Best Coast currently are as a band as well: a band that is growing but remaining true to who they are. If "The Only Place" is any indication of the rest of the album to come, Best Coast fans are in for a real treat, and the band is bound to make some new ones along the way.

How much of this am I going to regurgitate when I inevitably review the new album?

Well, I Know What I'm Doing Tonight.

Sludge-pop by Van band Weed? For $5? I'm there. Listen to both tracks from Weed's "With Drug"/"Eighty" 7" on their Bandcamp page, and note the free download of Aaron Read's four-track Bubble Skulls EP on his Bandcamp page. Links to both can be found by clicking the website for the show here.

Dubstep Nation Army

I've rarely heard a White Stripes cover or remix I like, and I'm not a big dubstep fan, but the Glitch Mob's remix of "Seven Nation Army" is the best White Stripes remix I've heard by far. It's so damned ominous and dense, like how I imagine a Jack White/Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) collaboration would sound. I love the vocal effects, Jack's voice dropping and rising where it doesn't in the original.

They say you can download this track at the Glitch Mob's website, but I've yet to find it - or try very hard either.

Fuck Yeah Nova Scotia!

If there was ever a reason why I wished I was back in Halifax, it was because Halifax spawned COLD WARPS. They're exactly the kind of scrappy power-punk I've been digging more than almost anything else for the last year.

If you like Cold Warps, you might like San Francisco's similar but far poppier, nerdier/more charming Nodzzz, a band I've been meaning to blog about for the past year. Or maybe 1985 English indie rockers the McTells, another band I've been planning to blog about for a while ...

Listen to and download full Cold Warp releases at their Band Camp page:

Violet Age

As I've said in my Sharon Van Etten- and War on Drugs-related posts, my concert well's been dry since Andrew W.K. at the end of November. I've been, for the first time, reduced to looking up cheap local shows, and so far, I've been pleasantly surprised. One band I've come across is local group Violet Age. The first couple of tracks from their three-song Prescriptions EP (which one can download for free at the band's Band Camp page) sounds like the Brian Jonestown Massacre playing Methodrone with less intoxicated minds. For only $6 at the Media Club (on Feb. 22), it will be worth skipping the post-rock/prog-metal/prog-jazz/whatever groups Ludvico Treatment and Seven Nines & Tens to see Violet Age alone.

Free Download: Wugazi - 13 Chambers (Doomtree, 2011)

After three tracks of teasing, the Fugazi-Wu-Tang Clan mash-up album 13 Chambers is finally available for free download in full. Moreover, 13 Chambers is available for free download in 320 kbps, the highest quality mp3 I ever need. Just visit wugazi.com. Unfortunately, I won't have time to listen to this until tonight, but you may, so do it - for us and yourself.

Free Download: Male Bonding - "Bones" (Sub Pop Records, 2011)

British punk-rock band Male Bonding, who made their full-length debut last year with Nothing Hurts on Sub Pop Records, are returning with their new album Endless Now on August 30. A couple of weeks ago, they released for free download their first new song from Endless Now called "Bones." To download that track, just plug in your e-mail at Male Bonding's Sub Pop Records page.

Male Bonding promised a sleeker, more expansive sound on their new album. I don't know about sleeker, but "Bones" is more expansive for sure. The band is in no rush here, taking its time over six-and-a-half minutes to create mood rather than quick bursts of buzzsaw punk (the longest song on their first album is 2:45). Based on "Bones" alone, I'm going to be optimistically presumptuous and say we probably won't have to worry about Male Bonding's new album being a flop.

And just because I don't write about Male Bonding very often, here's a smattering of my favourite tracks from Nothing Hurts:

"Weird Feelings"

"Year's Not Long"

"All Things This Way"

"T.U.F.F."

Free Download: Best Coast - "So Gone" (Mexican Summer, 2011)

Between releasing one of the best albums of 2010, collaborating with Weezer, Wavves, Kid Cudi, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij and the Go! Team and releasing a split-7" single with JEFF the Brotherhood and, most recently, releasing an iTunes session EP, California surf-poppers Best Coast is quickly becoming one of the most prolific bands today. Last week, via Adult Swim's "2011 Singles Program," Best Coast released yet another new song into the world.

Beginning last week with Ford & Lopatin's "Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me)," Adult Swim is releasing ten free songs a week for ten weeks straight on the network's website. This week's download is a brand new track by Best Coast called "Gone Again"; up until yesterday, the song was only available for streaming.

"Gone Again" is typical Best Coast fare in every imaginable way: simple, chill, catchy-as-all-hell riff; lyrics about feeling low, getting high, her guy being gone, her missing her guy and her being "insane"; the lyric "gone"; and of course, a shout-out to her cat. That is to say, I fucking LOVE and can't get enough of "Gone Again."

Best Coast is one of those bands that can be repetitive as HELL both musically and lyrically, and I'll still love them more than ninety-five percent of everything I've heard or ever will hear. Yes, there are a million fuzzy, poppy, lo-fi-turned-hi-fi bands that sing vapid songs about puppy-love, sunshine and getting high, but only Best Coast puts all of those elements together the way they do, and how Best Coast puts all of those elements together is the x-factor - the intangible - that sets apart Best Coast from every other band in which you can find the same aforementioned elements.

*The pie-face is a screencap from the official video for "Gone Again."

Free Downloads: FAROFF Mash-Up Madness

I love mash-ups, and in my opinion, no one does them better than FAROFF. The greatest thing about his mash-ups is that he doesn't rely on generic, indistinguishable club songs; instead, he builds his songs out of classics by the likes of the Beatles, the Doors and the Ramones, danceable contemporary artists such as LCD Soundsystem, Gwen Stefani and Fatboy Slim and old-school hip-hop artists and one-hit wonders like Elastica and Dee-Lite.

All of FAROFF's mash-ups are available for high-quality download (between 256 and 320 kbps) on his official website djfaroff.com. Linked below is a smattering of my favourite FAROFF mixes:

The Beatles vs. LCD Soundsystem vs. The Kinks - "The Brits Are Playing at My House"

B-52s vs. Lipps, Inc. vs. Patrick Hernandez vs. Yello vs. Soulwax - "Funky Shack!"

Franz Ferdinand vs. Stealers Wheel vs. Nirvana vs. Michael Jackson vs. Def Cut vs. C.S.S. - "Franz Tranz"

Britney Spears vs. Metallica - "Enter Toxman" (for Smashlie, if she reads this)

Nirvana vs. Dead Or Alive - "Spins Like Teen Spirit"

Free Download: The National Trust - "The National Trust: The Album (The National Trust, 2010)

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-events-sounds/

This year, the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty collaborated with former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker to produce an album of sounds recorded at eleven of Britain's historically significant sites.

I don't know if The National Trust: The Album can be considered field recordings - my basic understanding of field recordings is that they strictly capture non-human-made sounds - but many of The National Trust's tracks feature sounds such as human footsteps, a music box, billiards being shot and doors opening, all of which were likely coordinated. But The National Trust features enough natural sounds such as birds chirping and waves gently undulating that I personally consider it to be an album of field recordings.

The tracks are short, ranging from thirty-three seconds to three minutes, sixteen seconds (the whole album is just shy of twenty-six minutes) and diverse enough to keep listeners' interest. So, if you want a short, relaxing and, above all, interesting listen, The National Trust: The Album might just be for you.

Like Nine Inch Nails?

Like free stuff in general? If you answered yes to either question, download How to Destroy Angels' free self-titled EP straight from the band's website.

How to Destroy Angels is Nine Inch Nails-founder/front man Trent Reznor, his wife Mariqueen Maandig and British composer and producer Atticus Ross. How to Destroy Angels (The Null Corporation, 2010) is the band's first official release.

Imagine a less ferocious Nine Inch Nails with lo-fi female vocals. Those are about the extents of the differences between How to Destroy Angels and Nine Inch Nails. The bands' similarities include the sounds of industrial grinding on "Parasite," the glitchy electronic effects on "BBB" and "The Believer" and the very precise drumming best demonstrated on "Parasite" and "Fur Lined." How to Destroy Angels also exudes a dark ambience, such as with the sparse piano line of "A Drowning" which sounds almost identical to the one that forms the backbone of With Teeth closer "Right Where it Belongs." Maandig even sings like Trent Reznor, most notably on "The Believers," with her disturbed, hushed vocals and equally despairing lyrics.

Given the myriad similarities between How to Destroy Angels' debut EP and Nine Inch Nails' overall discography, How to Destroy Angels is sure to please most Nine Inch Nails fans or at least satiate them until Trent Reznor formally releases new music under his Nine Inch Nails moniker.