Good Weather For Airstrikes

Sufjan Stevens is a veritable god. He’s not scene really, he’s not a hipster, he’s just above everything. He might be post-indie, he’s that good. Anyway Sufjan and his crew of minstrels rolled into DC’s 9:30 Club on Tuesday, and Zack, Adrian, Everett, Jia and I were there to witness the glory. Unfortunately Sufjan’s band was two Illinoisemakers short, as Chera (spelling?) had recently sustained a broken ankle, and the absence of Katrina (hottest xylophonist ever) went unexplained. This resulted in a more stripped down version of the Illinoise, but it also made the show one of the most intimate concerts I’ve ever been to. Sufjan played through all of Illinois‘ chart-toppers (”Chicago”, “Casimir Pulaski”, “John Wayne Gacy”, “Metropolis”, “Predatory Wasp”) and a couple tour staples (”The 50 States Song”, a haunting rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”), before changing clothes, sending the rest of the Illinoisemakers to their dressing rooms and returning to the stage for an encore consisting of three songs from Illinois‘ sparse and intimate acoustic predecessor, Seven Swans. Highlights of the evening were the stripped down versions of “Chicago” and “Casimir Pulaski Day”, Sufjan’s dramatic piano version of “The Star Spangled Banner”, and the final song of the evening, “To Be Alone With You”. Also awesome were the gimmicky (note: I love gimmicks) pre-song cheers the Illinoisemakers performed before a selection of the songs. Suffice it to say, I felt the Illinoise. Definitely in my prestigious Top Seven Shows of All-Time (in the five to seven range) group. Below download a selection of Sufjan MP3s, including the incredible acoustic version of “Chicago” that Sufjan performed. I also hosted MC DJ’s remix of “Jacksonville”, titled “Jacksontown”, from his Illinois remix album of, Illin’ Noise. Read more about Illin’ Noise and download the whole thing (via torrent) at The Confabulators.

MP3s:
“To Be Alone With You” - Sufjan Stevens
“Chicago” (Acoustic) - Sufjan Stevens (via Welcome To The Midwest)
“The Star Spangled Banner” (Live) - Sufjan Stevens (fast-forward to 2 min 20 sec mark in order to skip introduction)
“Jacksontown” - MC DJ

So eventually I’ll be posting M3s 1-4 (including the various special editions) on this site, so things might be a little bit out of order, but for now, here it is, in all it’s glory, M3 Volume Five. I’m trying out a new hosting service, so if some of the tracks don’t download properly, just contact me and I’ll fix it as soon as possible. The MP3s are posted below. Go wild.

M3 Volume 5:
01. “Crosses” - Jose Gonzalez
02. “Wonderwall” - Ryan Adams
03. “Silent Sea” - KT Tunstall
04. “Galaxies” - Laura Veirs
05. “Ohio” - Damien Jurado
06. “16, Maybe Less” - Iron & Wine ft. Calexico
07. “The Scientist” - Johnette Napolitano
08. “Reason Why” - Rachael Yamagata
09. “Breathe Me” - Sia
10. “Blue Light” (Engineers’ Anti-Gravity Mix) - Bloc Party
11. “Two More Years” - Bloc Party
12. “A Town Called Luckey” - Rilo Kiley
13. “Stacked Crooked” - The New Pornographers
14. “The Trapeze Swinger” - Iron & Wine
15. “Such Great Heights” (Recorded Live in DC, 10-4-04) - Rilo Kiley

Since it’s been a while since the last M3 (”Rock Edition” back in late July), M3 Volume Six will feature 15 tracks of peaceful bliss. The 15 songs all share a common mood/sound, and the album flows like water through a levee (too soon? sorry). Some of you are bound to have heard some of these before, but most should be fresher than Will Smith in Bel Air. “Crosses”, by Jose Gonzalez, and Ryan Adams’ immaculate cover of “Wonderwall” (both songs featured on the OC at one point or another), set the tone for the rest of the album and lead perfectly into Mercury Music Prize (the highest music-related award given in the UK) finalist KT Tunstall’s “Silent Sea”. Laura Veirs changes the pace slightly with her poppy new single, “Galaxies”, which features the catchiest synthesizer squiggle this side of The Shins. Iron & Wine and Bloc Party both have two epic songs featured on this latest edition of M3, and their are also two covers on this installment, courtesy of Johnette Napolitano and Rilo Kiley, who both offer interesting new takes on two (relatively) indie classics, “The Scientist” and “Such Great Heights” (respectively). Anyway, without further ado, here is the tracklist for M3 Volume Five, the actual tracks will be posted shortly.

This is seriously like the biggest post ever. Bloc Party is my favorite band of 2005. Their debut album, Silent Alarm is more or less my favorite album of 2005 (if Silent Alarm is number 1 then Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake… is number 1a) and in my opinion, one of the most enjoyable albums (and one of the most impressive debuts) of all time. So this post is dedicated solely to Bloc Party, and you will be able to download all of Silent Alarm, as well as some remixes/b-sides not publicly released, and finally all of the videos the band has released to date. Also, I’m pretty sure Bloc Party’s lead singer, Kele Okereke, is one of the coolest people of all time. While I highly recommend the vast majority of this album, “Helicopter” and “Banquet” stand out as two of my top five favorite singles of the past year.

Silent Alarm MP3s: (links expired)
1. “Like Eating Glass”
2. “Helicopter”
3. “Positive Tension”
4. “Banquet”
5. “Blue Light”
6. “She’s Hearing Voices”
7. “This Modern Love”
8. “Pioneers”
9. “Price of Gas”
10. “Little Thoughts”
11. “So Here We Are”
12. “Luno”
13. “Plans”
14. “Compliments”

Bloc Party also has numerous quality remixes available, including a relatively new remix of “Banquet” by Mike Skinner (more commonly known by his rap name, The Streets) which has apparently been getting a lot of airplay over on MTV2 in the UK. Two other standout remixes are of “Helicopter” by DJ Allen. The Breakneck Mix is, as the name implies, much more urgent and upbeat, while the Santa Monica Mix is much more relaxed, but both are equally fantastic. Also, “Bloc of Nails” is a mash-up involving Helicopter and “Hand That Feeds” the leadoff single from Nine Inch Nails’ newest album, With Teeth, and it is one of the most well-produced mash-ups I’ve heard.

Remixes:
“Helicopter” (DJ Allen Breakneck Mix) (via BlocParty.net)
“Helicopter” (DJ Allen Santa Monica Mix) (via BlocParty.net)
“Banquet” (Phones Disco Edit) (via BlocParty.net)
“Banquet” (Black Moustache Remix) (via BlocParty.net)
“Banquet” (Streets Remix) (via Mr. Red Penguin’s MP3 Heaven)
“Bloc of Nails” (Nine Inch Nails vs. Bloc Party) (via BlocParty.net)

I’m also hosting Bloc Party’s new single, “Two More Years”, available in the UK on October 4th as part of a double A-side single (the other half of which is the new song “Hero”, not yet available). Along with “Two More Years”, I’ve also posted “Tulips” the b-side from the “Little Thoughts” single (released last year) and “Pioneers” by the Mystery Jets, an awesome (though very different) cover available as a b-side on Bloc Party’s recent “The Pioneers” single.

B-Sides/Others:
“Two More Years” - Bloc Party [highly recommended]
“Tulips” - Bloc Party (via BlocParty.net)
“Pioneers” - Mystery Jets (Bloc Party cover) (via Mr. Red Penguin’s MP3 Heaven)

Finally, I’ve also linked to all of Bloc Party’s available videos. The best ones are the videos for “So Here We Are”, “Helicopter” (UK Version), and “Banquet” (2005 Version). For some reason the videos for “Helicopter” (US Release) and “The Pioneers” are basically the exact same video, only different edits. You can right click > save target as to download the Quicktime videos, while the WMV Format videos are only available for streaming.

Videos:
Quicktime Format (download: right click > save target as)
“So Here We Are”
“Tulips” (very high resolution, will take a while to download)
“Helicopter” (US Release)
“Two More Years”
“Banquet” (2005 Version)

WMV Format (stream only: click link to watch)
“Banquet” (EP Version)
“Little Thoughts”
“Helicopter” (UK Release)
“The Pioneers”

I’m exhausted. Enjoy.

So I’m in a pretty bad mood today, as my good friend Jia is in Austin, Texas for Austin City Limits and insists on calling me repeatedly during my favorite bands’ sets (I’ve gotten calls during “Marching Bands of Manhattan” and “Banquet” so far), and I’m so jealous I want to break things. But I can take solace in the fact that after two weeks of waiting for my copy of The Go! Team’s new EP, which I special ordered from Australia, I finally have it in my hands/on my pod.

After conquering indie dance floors everywhere (and Pitchfork) with their 2004 debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, The Go! Team are back in action with the Are You Ready For More EP, previously available only at shows on their recent tour of Australia. The six song EP serves as both proof that brainchild Ian Parton isn’t just a one-album wonder, and also serves to satiate the masses until The Go! Team’s sophomore album, or at least the US/Remixed version of Thunder, Lightning, Strike (available October 14th), is released. The EP opens with the US/”single” version of “Bottle Rocket” which, aside from cleaner production and new vocals from lead-singer Ninja, is still the same classic dance-floor anthem we know and love. Pitchfork summed it up accurately when, in their review of the album, they wrote that the new version is “sort of like seeing your girlfriend with a new haircut”. The next track, and highlight of the EP, is the wintry instrumental piece, “The Ice Storm”, complete with swirling (presumably arctic) winds and jingling bells. Next up is another instrumental b-side, “We Listen Everyday”, which harkens back to the The Go! Team’s touchstone action-hero-theme-song sound, but doesn’t really stand out as anything particularly special. The next two tracks, previously unreleased “Did You Feel It Too?” and b-side “Hold Yr Terror Close” feature, for the first time, drummer Chi Fukami’s relatively (in comparison to Ninja, at least) subdued vocals. The EP goes out on top though, with another new track, “We Just Won’t Be Defeated”, which showcases The Go! Team doing what they do best, creating extremely danceable, chaotic (but at the same time controlled) noise and rocking the fuck out. Download Are You Ready For More’s highlights below.

MP3s:
“Bottle Rocket” (Single Version) - The Go! Team
“The Ice Storm” - The Go! Team
“We Just Won’t Be Defeated” - The Go! Team

The Epochs are a band who’s sound is somewhat difficult to describe. They themselves used the wide-ranging genre terminology of “electronic/rock/pop”, though the ‘pop’ label may be a stretch. Formed by Ryan and Hays Holladay in Arlington, Virginia (thus making them, like, the only good thing to come out of Northern Virginia, ever), The Epochs used a wide variety of sounds on their 2002 debut, Ten Billion Light Years of Solitude.

The album took the two brothers over a year to complete, though after repeated listens it’s hard to argue with the results. Three new members have since been added to the band to help to translate the multitude of sounds found on their album into a live setting, and the band relocated operations to New York, where they performed regularly at The Knitting Factory and Nublu.

The band’s interesting sound and strong work ethic slowly built up a buzz around New York City, and record label DC3 signed them a little over a year ago. The Epochs recorded a promotional EP for DC3 with five songs, one of which, “Mouths to Feed”, stands out as one of the more appealing singles of the past year.

Temporarily relocated to Seattle, The Epochs are hard at work on a new album. Two songs from the as-yet-untitled record can be sampled at the band’s website. Below is an mp3 from The Epochs from their promotional EP.

“Mouths To Feed” - The Epochs (from Promo EP) [highly recommended]

Right, so Everett Case (known on the streets as MC Evro), one of the baddest mothafuckas in the Maret School’s esteemed history, will be helping to contribute artist profiles to the site from time to time. Just sayin’.

Pitchfork reports: “Having successfully changed all of our lives, indie pop juggernauts the Shins are hanging up their superhero capes and getting back to what they do best: making music. The band recently entered their home studio (located in frontman James Mercer’s basement) with reliable producer Phil Ek, who manned the boards on 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow. As of right now, very little progress has been made on their as-yet-untitled third album, with drum tracks being laid down this week, but Pitchfork will keep you updated on the status of what is likely to become the soundtrack to any number of 2006/2007 romantic comedies concerning quirky contemporary twentysomethings.”

I’m sufficiently thrilled. Here are some non-album Shins MP3s to make the wait more bearable.

MP3s:
“We Will Become Silhouttes” - The Shins (Postal Service cover)
“Baby Boomerang” - The Shins
“Sphagnum Esplanade” - The Shins

Remember when Santana Moss blazed the Cowboys for that 40-yard touchdown reception on 4th and 15 and then straight-up clowned Roy Williams on a 70-yard TD reception one possesion later? And remember how Sean Taylor obliterated the Cowboys attempt at a comeback with his demolishment of Terry Glenn to prevent a first down, and thus secure the victory? Yeah, that was more or less the highlight of my life. Download two hot celebration jams below. Hail to the Redskins.

MP3s:
“Move Your Feet” - Junior Senior
“Move Your Feet” (Remix) - Junior Senior