Boy, do I have a gold mine for you all this week! I’m a little giddy if you can’t tell.
Firstly, one of our favorites, Peter Bradley Adams, has one, “For You,” for download right now. You don’t even have to add yourself to one of his email lists or anything. And yes, I know that if you’ve used Pandora for more than two hours you’ve heard of him before, but you probably didn’t know about this, so here it is!
Second-of-ly, Urban Outfitters has its own nice little 25 song download on their site right now. There’s some pretty cool stuff on their like Surfer Blood and The Morning Benders.
I’d go for it if I were you (and I’m talking about the song mind you).
Single of the Week: “Cool my Heels” – Nikki Yanofsky (2.7) This is a nice poppy jazz song with some bright vocals.
Discovery Download: “Change of Time” – Josh Ritter (4.3) This is where it gets “awesome,” in the words of Tracy Jordan. Josh Ritter is one of the best song writers of our day. “The Temptation of Adam” might be my favorite song of all time. He keeps it up here even busting out Leviathan. If you like finger picking, lyrics, and a good vibe, you like Josh Ritter. Also, his new album is on sale at Starbucks right now.
Video of the Week: “Take Everything” – Greg Laswell (4.0) It keeps rolling here. A pretty cool, “in reverse” video to a very likable song. I really love Greg (@Justin does too! He interviewed him a while back), especially his voice. He’s a little like a cross of Mat Kearney and Andrew Bird and somewhere in between how good those two artist are as well. Definitely a find!
Canción de la Semana: “Muérdete la Lengua” – Francisca Valenzuela (2.5) This is a lot like a slower Addison Road song in Spanish. Maybe something like a Fiona Apple song without piano…is that even fair? I don’t, but anyways, it’s okay.
Thus far, May is taking the cake for 2010 when it comes to music releases. Plenty of great releases this week from both new and veteran acts, including the fantastic Josh Ritter album, that is available for purchase on Amie Street for only $5. Yet even with all these excellent releases, my top two most anticipated releases of the year are yet to come.
We finally got official notice that the great Christopher Nolan will be giving us another edition to his brilliantly revamped Batman franchise. No word yet on who the villian will be. It’s gonna be hard to top the the previous two performances by Cillian Murphy and Heath Ledger.
Apparently Letterman has decided to get into the music business. His new record label is launching this summer with the release of their first signed band, Runner Runner. I’m curious to see what kind of impact this might have on Late Night and the music featured on the show.
On a more unfortunate note, it was announced just the other day that the recent acquisition of Lala by Apple, will result in the shutting down of the music streaming site. I’m pretty bummed, but hopefully it will lead to iTunes giving us more than a 30 second preview. Here is a site worth checking out as a possible replacement, My Friends and Music.
Indie label, Vanguard Records, got caught up in the Christmas spirit and decided give to us a free Holiday Sampler. It has tracks from some the best artists that they represent, from Brandi Carlile to Josh Ritter to Dar Williams to Greg Laswell…well you get the point and you can see all their names on the album cover to the left. Not all of the tracks are Holiday themed, but it is still a great mix for the holiday season. Click here to get this joyous holiday mix.
If you are a band (or know of a band) coming through the Atlanta area we would love to have A Bloody Interview with you! Just send us an e.mail with a link to your music to nathan@ihopeyourearsbleed.com.