Your agenda today:
1. Listen to ‘Break My Heart In 2′ by Ancient Astronauts below, fall in love with it, then go here and trade your email for an mp3 of it.
2. Put said mp3 ‘Break My Heart In 2′ on whatever device you carry around to listen to music.
3. Turn the volume up on said device and set it up to repeat the song.
4. Press play.
5. Take a leisurely stroll about town.
Enjoy.
As the below video of Wake Owl covering ‘Children In The River’ by Arn Rhys in the back of their tour bus shows, friends covering friends is always a good idea. It’s that much better when it’s a) a great song and b) done for a great cause. The goodness starts at about the 1:10 mark. Enjoy.
I’ll keep this short: this new tune from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is a jam. A weird summer jam that’s somehow rumbling, soaring and soulful all at once, to be exact. Enjoy.
‘If you do not love it, I will be shocked,’ said my friend Megan when she sent me ‘Salty And Sweet’ by John Smith this afternoon.
And now I say to you: If you do not love this here tune, I will be shocked. Everything (softly picked guitar, harmonies, banjo… all of the things) about this is absolutely lovely, guys and girls. Goodness.
John Smith released Great Lakes last month- it is, as you would expect, absolutely lovely. Enjoy.
There’s this thing that happens at the 1:49 mark every time I’m listening to ‘Dead Man’s Dance’ by Bradford Loomis: I smile. Uncontrollably. And tap my toe. And then stomp. And then smile some more. And then hit play again. I’m guessing you’ll have about same reaction(s).
Bradford Loomis released his wonderful new album, Into The Great Unknown, over the weekend. Enjoy.
(Thanks, Matt!)
Pretty incredible, right? Would you like to see that live and in person? Sweet, cause I’d really love to send you (and a friend) to do just that when Caroline Smith & The Good Night Sleeps (with Summer Girlfriends and Peekaboos) play at The Hideout next Thursday, May 30th.
Here’s how you win those tickets: To enter all you need to do is leave a comment on this here post by noon on May 24th (Friday). Pretty simple. At that point I’ll throw everyone’s name in a hat/mixing bowl/large cavernous object and pick a winner.
Need more convincing that NEED to be at this show? Here. Watch this.
On Twitter (and Facebook) I share links each day to various stuff that I think is great and/or worth people’s time. But not everyone that comes here is on Twitter or Facebook, so I gather up the best of those links each Monday and post them here so everyone can get in on the fun. If you’ve missed any of the past Monday Links (or just want to waste some time), check the archive of posts here.
NPR is streaming the new album from Laura Marling. Grab some coffee and give that a spin (or 5). Oh, and you can still stream new albums from The National and Radiation City, both of which come out tomorrow and are absolutely fantastic.
Speaking of The National, there were two great pieces of writing about the band and their new album that went up last week: one from Heather at Fuel/Friends, the other from Steven Hyden at Grantland. You’d do well to read them both.
The gentlemen over at Wake The Deaf posted their latest covers mix. Make it a point to go download that thing- it’s full of goodness.
Fort Frances played in NYC over the weekend and to celebrate they went ahead and released an absolutely beautiful cover of Ryan Adams’ ‘New York, New York.’
Remember Kodaline’s infectious ‘Love Like This’ from a few weeks ago? Well, the boys released a piano-based take on the track last week and it is heartbreaking. It’s great, make no mistake about it, but holy sadness, Batman.
This cover of ‘Dancing In The Dark’ that Eddie Berman and Laura Marling did is lovely. Absolutely lovely.
Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide recently launched Eldorado, a personal subscription service that is one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in a good long while. Here’s to hoping more artists do stuff like this- as a fan it’s an insanely exciting thing. Read about it here.
Caught an altogether fantastic set from Lady Lamb the Beekeeper here in Chicago last week. If she/they roll through your town you should most certainly make it a point to go. Here’s Aly Spaltro playing ‘The Nothing Part II,’ one of my favorite songs to be released this year, in her apartment.
Another one of my favorite songs released so far this year, ‘Heart Beats’ by Hey Marseilles, now has snazzy official video.
Things I love: cursing and cooking. What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner? is my new favorite place on the internet.
Field Report recorded a Folkadelphia Session when they passed through Philadelphia back in March. Go here to grab the session for free- it includes two new songs, one of which, ‘Matter of Degree,’ is below.
Shakey Graves released his first official music video last week for ‘Unlucky Skin.’ It is weird, wonderful and completely terrific. Enjoy.
