We added a new feature on eMusic last week that we’re all really excited about — especially those of us in the editorial department. Now, on all albums and editorial features, you have the newly integrated Facebook option to “Like” us. Just click the thumb-up, and your “Like” will display on your Facebook page, demonstrating your discerning taste and bringing more people to check out eMusic’s editorial features.

On September 14th, San Diego group Crocodiles will be releasing a new album. Get yourself prepared today with this FREE INSTRUMENTAL EP, Fires of Comparison. The EP contains instrumental tracks for songs that were ultimately left off the upcoming Sleep Forever. Maybe the ambitious among you can record your own vocal tracks and send them to the band as “humble suggestions.”

Horse Feathers / Drain You cover from Lesley Graves on Vimeo.

Every now and then you hear about something, and it takes you a minute or two to decide whether or not you’re in favor of it. To wit: Horse Feathers — a band I am, in general, 300% in favor of — closed a recent show in their hometown of Porland, OR with a cover of “Drain You” by Nirvana, a band I am about 500% in favor of. I love both bands, but I am decidedly undecided on this cover. So I open it up for general, end of day discussion. What do you think?

(via Nowness)

In 1972, a young filmmaker named Tony Palmer followed a then-ascending Leonard Cohen on his tour of Europe with the hopes of capturing a film that could be used as both a promotion for Cohen and a snapshot of a particular moment in his career. Like Eat the Document before it, when the subject got a look at the material, he was concerned; Cohen spent months re-editing and rearranging Palmer’s film to create a different version, which was released in 1974. The original was thought to be lost forever but — in one of those terrific cinema miracles — the full version was discovered collecting dust in a vault in Hollywood.

Now, 38 years after its creation, Palmer’s original version of Bird on a Wire is set for DVD release. If it’s anything like the clip above, we’re all in for something spectacular.

(Have you guys seen Album Tacos yet?)

Pretty light day as far as New Arrivals go, so maybe use this opportunity to get that fantastic last Dead Weather record.

A Frames, First Three Records: A Frames were massively overlooked during their lifespan — dark, grimy, often spazzy punk rock that was menacing and imposing. Imagine a second coming of Wire, with muscles, and you’re on to it. I rep extremely hard for their first and second records. If I’m lowering my guard and speaking totally honest here: these would be the two records I’d download today. Highly Recommended.

Bobby Bare Jr., A Storm, A Tree, My Mother’s Head: New one from Bobby Bare Jr. finds the country wiseacre just as soulful and sarcastic as ever. eMusic’s Peter Blackstock conducted an excellent interview with Bare here, in which he gives the story behind the record’s title, and talks about singing with his daughter. This is the rare eMusic interview that features a video component, so I highly recommend checking it out. Of the album, eMusic’s Amanda Petrusich says:

While the title might seem like a goofy nod to Bare Sr.’s famed novelty songs, it’s actually a disturbingly literal inventory: In 2008, a storm uprooted an old birch tree near Bare Jr.’s mother’s home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, cracking the family’s white ranch house in half and pinning her in place. “A hundred years old, that tree was tired and ready to fall…Momma don’t know if she’s gonna die alone in Tennessee tonight,” Bare Jr. bellows over bare, melancholy steel guitar (don’t sweat: she’s doing fine now). Tragic as it could have been, it’s perfect lyrical fodder for Bare Jr., who almost always spikes his confessional moments with a good bit of absurdity. In the acoustic “One Of Us Has Got To Go,” which alludes to his recent divorce, Bare Jr. twists a gut-wrenching moment into a cartoon: “I saw you with your handsome new dude, kissing and smiling last night/ I would rather have poison-beaked sparrows pluck out my crying eyes.” Only a real, pedigreed country singer could marry tragedy and comedy with this much ease.

The Weepies, Be My Thrill: It’s a new album from the Weepies. I’ll leave this one to eMusic’s Wayne Robins, who says:

The music on Be My Thrill evokes the best ’60s and ’70s radio hits: “I Was Made for Sunny Days,” might have grown from a hybrid seed created from the Mamas and Papas and Stevie Wonder. “When You Go Away” recalls Chicago without the horns, but with that band’s knack for mass-appeal pop songs. On the ebullient title song and the bracing “How Do You Get High,” the voices blend like a sweeter version of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. On “Hummingbird,” Talan handles the quick twists of melody like Joni Mitchell driving a Porsche on Pacific Coast Highway; “They’re in Love, Where Am I?” could be from the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer songbook, a future cabaret standard. But mostly, Be My Thrill offers an enveloping warmth from musicians who convey contentment as not just a fleeting possibility but something attainable and lasting.

Richard Thompson, Dream Attic: New one from Richard Thompson. eMusic’s Sam Adams says:

Although some of Dream Attic’s songs drift past the seven-minute mark, there’s no wasted space. You don’t have to love 20-minute drum break to appreciate Thompson’s way with a prolonged guitar solo. Where most guitarists are content to string together a series of small ideas, Thompson’s are miniature musical narratives that elaborate and amplify the mood of the song — an observation that holds for the rocket-fueled rockabilly of “Haul Me Up” as well as the hauntingly harmonized “A Brother Slips Away.”

Suuns, Zeroes EP: FREE EP from the fine folks at Secretly Canadian. Suuns are a new dark-psych band with a fondness for threatening atmospherics and lumbering rhythms. It’s free, so why not check it out?

Various Artists, Yo Gabba Gabba: Music Is Awesome, Volume 2: Who’s gonna front on Yo Gabba Gabba? And why would you? This comp contains contributions from MGMT, Solange, Apples in Stereo, Jimmy Eat World and Weezer. Its predecessor had tracks from The Shins, The Roots, Of Montreal and Mark Kozelek. My name is Joe, and I like to DANCE!

Cephalic Carnage, Misled By Certainty: New album from thrash/grind pioneers sounds just as insane and unhinged as ever. The years have not dulled the band’s whiplash rhythms or penchant for maniacal music. Fans of the brutal will not be disappointed.

And that, as they say, is that. What did you guys find?

Former eMusic Selects act and perennial eMusic favorite Hurray for the Riff Raff is embarking on an enormous fall tour, and eMusic’s A+R Program wants to give you and a guest a chance to win tickets for a show near you!

Just go here, click the “Enter Now!” button, take a look at the tour dates to make sure they’re coming new your town and enter your name! It’s that easy.

Today on eMusic sees the long-awaited return of The White Stripes, including their recent live album, Under the Great White Northern Lights. What can I say about the White Stripes that hasn’t been said already? Over the course of six records, Jack White has managed to evolve without expanding, refining his hooks while keeping his aesthetic ragged and minimal. Any album makes for a fine entry point, and all of them have their strengths and charms.

As an added bonus, we’ve also got music from two of White’s side projects: The Dead Weather and The Raconteurs. I’m a huge, huge Dead Weather fan; their latest, Sea of Cowards is all snarl and stomp — frontwoman Alison Mosshart a charisma machine, pouting and wailing out the lyrics. And, hey, the Raconteurs: not my bag, but a lot of people like them, and this marks the first time we’ve had their album Consolers of the Lonely available in the U.S.

(Note: A weird glitch is preventing said album from showing up on the band’s artist page, so just use the link above until we sort it out).

Enjoy!

If you are not already, we would like to suggest you follow the hilarious Discographies twitter, wherein bands’ entire careers are summed up in 140 characters. It is always funny. Here’s a few of our favorites then, in the comments, anyone want to take a crack at a few on their own? Remember: 140 character max.

Disographies on….
The Rolling Stones: 1-4 arousal; 4-6 tumescence ; 7-10 full engorgement; 11-14 satyriasis; 15-19 midlife crisis; 20-22 erectile dysfunction.

The Clash: 1 thesis; 2 antithesis; 3 synthesis; 4 elephantiasis; 5 arteriosclerosis; 6 paralysis.

Smashing Pumpkins: 1-2 grandiose delusions; 3 Hubris!; 4-6 “Acquired Situational Narcissism” (cf. DSM-IV); 7 feelings of entitlement.

What say you?

This is my brother’s band. It is new to eMusic this week. It sounds like Stars, the Postal Service, hollAnd, stuff like that. I think the songs are very hooky. You might, too!

We’re really, really excited about a new feature that launched on the site this afternoon. In conjunction with the site Bands In Town, eMusic is now offering tour information for your favorite acts on both album and artist pages. So now when you’re freaking out about how amazing that new Zoroaster album is, you can look down, see they’re playing Club Hell in Providence on September 17 (Or Knitting Factory Brooklyn on the 19th, as the case may be), and buy yourself a ticket to enjoy the music live. We’re amped to have this on site, and we hope you are, too!

UPDATED: A quick note! We had to temporarily disable this to fix a few things. It will return shortly!

UPDATED AGAIN: It’s back!

If you’re anything like us, you love Frightened Rabbit. And if you love Frightened Rabbit, you also love Frightened Rabbit live. What’s that you say? You’ve never seen Frightened Rabbit live? Change that today with the above 15 Song (!) live set from San Francisco, which includes a cover of The National’s “Fake Empire.” FEEL IT.

Recent eMusic Selects act Strand of Oaks has been enjoying a strong run lately, sophomore effort Pope Killdragon finding much favor with eMusic members. To return the favor, Tim is making available this live bootleg EP from a performance in Chicago in 2008, which features early versions of many songs that eventually ended up on Killdragon. Enjoy it free, courtesy of Strand of Oaks.

Download Live in Chicago 2008

Yesterday was kind of a crazy new release day at eMusic, huh? With the addition of a few of the year’s best (hello Contra!) along with a gang of new releases, we almost didn’t have enough room on the site to give everything its proper due. Also, um, a little artist named Sufjan Stevens sneak-attacked us with a great new EP on Monday.  So to help you out, and as the summer winds down, we’ve set some space aside to show you some titles you may have missed, along with the obvious winners. Check out our Summer Blowout over here.

Special Bulletin to Anyone Who Downloaded All Delighted People: The price has been reduced from 12 credits to 8 credits. If you have All Delighted People in your download history, and would like those four credits back to maybe spend on the Decrepit Birth album, please contact eMusic’s Customer Service Department at 866-240-9271, or email them, and they shall make all things right.

Bunch of new jams on site today, some of which have been long-anticipated. I’m not much for standing on ceremony, so let’s just get right into the rundown, which includes new albums by les Savy Fav, Ra Ra Riot and the long-awaited arrival of Beach House and Vampire Weekend.

Continue reading ‘new: ra ra riot, vampire weekend’

Andreya Triana is unenthused by your Heineken

Some nice new stuff this week! Live Mogwai, promising new neo-soul, and oh yeah, NEW SUFJAN!!!!***AIRHORN****

Let’s get started with…

Mogwai, Special Moves – The legendary post-rockers release the first document of their much-ballyhooed, powerful live show. Here’s Ian Gittins:

With their intricate, nuance-heavy instrumentation, powerhouse riffs and mastery of the loud/soft dynamic, Mogwai have always been the most visceral and profound of live performers, and this forensically effective album aches with eloquent, insatiable yearning. They are best when they are at their most intense; painfully plangent opener “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” thuds hard into the emotional solar plexus, as does the thunderous, 11-minute, quasi-metal crowd favourite “Mogwai Fear Satan.”

Continue reading ‘na in the uk: mogwai, Sufjan’

The first video ever to include cameos from both John Hodgman and Patrick Stickles? Hang in there until the staging of the actual musical, which is hilariously on-the-money.

Sufjan Stevens
All Delighted People EP
[Asthmatic Kitty]
Release Date: 23 August 2010

The first proper collection of Sufjan Stevens songs in five years starts small: just Stevens’s voice trembling over a gently lowing choir. It gets bigger eventually, adding strings and horns and timpani and gradually expanding to an 11-minute opus that takes on American superficiality while extensively quoting Simon & Garfunkel. How’s that for a comeback?

Stevens always had a thing for grand entrances. He owned the early part of the ’00s owing mostly to two records, the small, autobiographical Michigan and the bigger, conceptual Illinois, twin pinnacles in an era of quiet alongside Antony and the Johnsons, Devendra Banhart and the Decemberists. But things have gone pear-shaped in the decade’s back half, with bands like Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear taking Stevens’s penchant for layered harmonies and elaborate orchestrations and turning them inside-out, favoring the cockeyed as much as the classicist.

So Stevens, wisely, has scaled back. Despite the fact that its bookended by two songs that push past the 10-minute mark, All Delighted People is mostly Sufjan in Miniature, a refreshingly modest affair that doesn’t break its back trying to give Steve Reich a run for his money. Even conceptually, he’s shifted to short story mode, junking big concepts about history and geography in favor of personal narratives. In the bare, lovely “Enchanting Ghost,” he coos, “If it pleases you to leave me, just go,” over a gently pirouetting guitar figure. “The Owl and the Tanager” is even lighter, just Stevens singing softly about personal trauma (“In seven hours, I consider death/ and your father called you yell at me”) over a sleepwalking piano. This is largely a good thing; there were times on Illinois it seemed Stevens was more interested in the arrangements than the song, and clearing out some of the window dressing allows him to instead showcase his oft-forgotten strengths: the eerie, delicate timbre of his voice, his knack for snowflake-fragile melodies, his ability to turn out a heart-stopping phrase with the subtlety of a thief. Even its more outré moments are the work of just one person — like the bent-steel Neil Young guitar solo that runs wild over the beginning of “Djohariah.”

If there’s a spiritual and sonic cousin to People, it’s the records Mark Kozelek has been making as Sun Kil Moon: small, personal statements that make their impact with tenderness instead of grandiosity. “Could I have it all?” he asks in “Arnika,” “Could I have you for a night in the warmth of your bed?” That, in a single line, is All Delighted People — the whole world boiling down to an intimate moment shared between two people. After five years of relative silence, People is the perfect, subtle return.

— J. Edward Keyes

OK, I know I’m biased because I work here, but, you guys, this is badass.

In October, legendary indie label and eMusic fave Matador will be celebrating their 21st Anniversary. No two ways about it: Matador is responsible for some of the most important records in indie rock: Slanted & Enchanted. Exile in Guyville. Turn on the Bright Lights. I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One. The list goes on and on.

They’ll be celebrating this incredible catalog in Las Vegas from October 1-3 with performances from every major artist on the Matador roster, past and present. Pavement? Check. Belle & Sebastian? Check. BEE THOUSAND-ERA GUIDED BY VOICES? CHECK. Ted Leo, Sonic Youth, Shearwater — peep the whole list here.

So here’s where it gets fantastic: eMusic’s Access + Rewards program is giving away a chance for one lucky member and a guest to attend Matador at 21 — Hotel, Airfare and passes to the sold-out event all included. Seriously. If I didn’t work here, I’d be entering this contest 500,000 times.

Enter here.

More details here.

UPDATED: Commenter AndyB came up with an idea I’d like to carry through in the comments, so please, join in: What are your 10 favorite Matador releases of all time?

A fair amount of solid titles today, so let’s get right to it. Plus, I suck at preambles. Below the jump: Flying Lotus, Esperanza Spalding, Ray LaMontagne and a strange, spooky digital 7″ you absolutely have to hear.

Continue reading ‘new arrivals: esperanza spalding & more’