Your Weekly Download Lowdown

(Catching up on some stuff you may have missed over the holidays.)

Download Radiohead Concert Film

Just into 2011 and rumours abound that Radiohead will be releasing new music this year. For those Paranoid Androids that just can’t wait- a special treat. Last January, the Oxford quintet put on a very exclusive (limited to only 1400 fans) show in Los Angeles to raise money for Haitian earthquake relief. Thanks to a handful of ardent fans supporters, an official two disc DVD consisting of footage from the concert, videotaped by fourteen different fans, and a few audio tracks is available for download, and is even streaming on Youtube. All twenty four songs performed are featured in the film; the setlist (see below) including classics from The Bends to 2007′s In Rainbows. All Radiohead asks is that you donate to Oxfam Charity in return.


You might recall a fan made concert film sanctioned by the band with high quality audio supplied by them, that was made available last August. Great stuff there too!

You can find all the links to download this two hour concert film here. Again, if you do download the film, all Radiohead asks is a donation to Oxfam in return.

So Radiohead fans... Give early and give often.  This one is very much worth it.

Setlist:

Faust Arp
Fake Plastic Trees
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
National Anthem
Nude
Karma Police
Kid A
Morning Bell
How To Disappear Completely
Wolf at the Door
The Bends
Reckoner
Lucky
Body Snatchers
Dollars & Cents
Airbag
Exit Music (For a Film)

Encore:
Everything In Its Right Place
You and Whose Army?
Pyramid Song
All I Need
Lotus Flower
Paranoid Android
Street Spirit

Adventures in Downloading

The always wonderful Aquarium Drunkard has assembled a terrific tribute compilation to Television’s oft neglected second album Adventure . Originally released in 1978, Adventure remains one of my all time favourite records and is a worthy candidate to honour. The new compilation features contributions from a number of Los Angeles’ best musical talents, and is a follow-up of sorts to last year's stellar Ram on L.A. compilation.

The list of participating artists includes: Local Natives, The Henry Clay People, The Happy Hollows and more. (Full listing below) My personal highlight is the Imaad Wasif/ Lykke Li collaboration- “Carried Away”. The compendium is available as a free high-quality download in either handy FLAC and/or 320kbs mp3 configurations. Organizers are encouraging those who have the means to donate to the Los Angeles based Silverlake Conservatory of Music. 100% of all donations go directly to the conservatory. A worthy cause dear reader, this one is well worth your attentions and donations. Go here to download it.

The Players: The Henry Clay People :: Glory, Foreign Born :: Days, The Happy Hollows :: Foxhole, Local Natives :: Careful, The Deadly Syndrome :: Carried Away, Imaad Wasif w/ Lykke Li :: The Fire, Dirt Dress :: Ain’t That Nothin’, The Growlers :: The Dream’s Dream.

Canadian Goodness

Your Weekly Download Lowdown

The first song from Broken Social Scene’s forthcoming new album, Forgiveness Rock Record, entitled “World Sick,” is now available for free download via the band’s website brokensocialscene.ca.

Forgiveness Rock Record will be released May 4th, 2010, and was co-produced by the band and Tortoise’s John McEntire at Soma Studios in Chicago, with additional recording at Giant Studio and The Schvitz Studio in Toronto.

The band will also be making a number of concert appearances around the world. Tour dates are listed below.

March 14th, 2010 Elkton , FL Harvest Of Hope Festival

March 18th, 2010 Austin , TX Stubbs BBQ

March 19th, 2010 Austin , TX The Parish

May 1st, 2010 San Francisco , CA The Fillmore

May 3rd, 2010 Los Angeles , CA Henry Fonda Theatre

May 7th, 2010 New York , NY Webster Hall

May 13th, 2010 London , UK Brixton Academy

May 14th, 2010 Minehead @ Butlins , UK All Tomorrow's Parties

May 15th, 2010 Brighton , UK The Great Escape

May 17th, 2010 London , UK Heaven

May 18th, 2010 Amsterdam , Netherlands Melkweg

May 19th, 2010 Cologne , Germany Burgerhaus Stollwerck

May 21st, 2010 Paris , France La Maroquinerie

May 23rd, 2010 Linz , AUT LinzFest

May 24th, 2010 Berlin , Germany Kesselhaus

May 27th, 2010 Barcelona , Spain Primavera Sound Festival

May 29th, 2010 George , WA Sasquatch Festival

June 19th, 2010 Toronto , ON Olympic Island

Also, fresh from their recent performance at the Vancouver Winter Olympiad, Ontario’s own Constantines have recorded a terrific four song Daytrotter session. A mix of old and new this session is a recommended download.

Best New Music - New Lali Puna On the Way

Good news for people who like good great music The first album in over five years from Munich experimental pop group, Lali Puna is at last on the way. Our Inventions will be released April 6th on Morr Music, and along with the lovely Valerie Trebeljahr and members of The Notwist and Tied & Tickled Trio, there's a special appearance by the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra's - Yukihiro Takahashi!

You can download the first (and only) track available from the album below. The song is called "Remember". This one is very much worth your listening time and iPod storage.

Free Download Here Lali Puna - "Remember" mp3

Artist: Lali Puna

Album: Our Inventions
Release Date: April 6
Label: Morr

Tracklist:

01 Rest Your Head
02 Remember
03 Everything Is Always
04 Our Inventions
05 Move On
06 Safe Tomorrow
07 Future Tense
08 Hostile to Me
09 That Day
10 Out There [ft. Yukihiro Takahashi]

Your Weekly Download Lowdown

While many people know Brian Borcherdt for his work in the Polaris Prize nominated group Holy Fuck, he also has an entirely different artistic side that is equally stunning. Introspective and so very beautiful, his solo work is stuff to be treasured.

Lucky for us, Borcherdt has recently made available a number of solo recordings and at-home demos, entitled Torches (The Ward Colorado Demos). These intimate recordings have recently been released by Borcherdt and are available via the Hand Drawn Dracula label as a free digital download.

Brian Borcherdt - Torches (the Ward Colorado demos) (HDD004)
(Digital Release Date: November 17th 2009)

Side 2004/05

01. Crime Scenes
02. Worn Thin
03. Further
04. Connected/Disconnected
05. Follows
06. Vanishing Act
07. Lowhills
08. Tides
09. Torches

Side 2006

01. Preserver
02. Cold Wind Blowin'
03. Furnaces
04. Oh Oh Oh
05. Working For The Weakened
06. Steady Hands
07. Detention
08. Guide Home

Recorded in Toronto, coastal Yarmouth of Nova Scotia, and in the mountains near Ward, Colorado, Torches includes home demos and unfinished album attempts from 2004-2006. Personal and compelling material these recordings are very much worth your listening time. Highly recommended

Newcomers and fans can download the 17 tunes, written and recorded between 2004 and 2006, for free from handdrawndracula.com. Get them here.


Brian Borcherdt - While I Was Asleep from Hand Drawn Dracula on Vimeo.

Your Weekly Download Lowdown - Antlers

Hospice, the superb release from Brooklyn, NY trio The Antlers, will be hard to top when I set out to compile my favourite records from 2009. The album’s profoundly emotional themes make for a powerful listening experience. The album is built around a central narrative about a man losing a loved one to cancer and despite its evocative, even difficult subject matter I find I am drawn to listening to it time and time again. The set is both completely heartrending and very compelling. Be assured you won’t forget this one soon.

I was curious then to hear the band’s recently completed Daytrotter.com session. First off, if you are new to this band, I highly recommend you download the tracks that comprise this session. Peter Silberman’s incredible falsetto truly makes these tracks essential. All of the songs have a certain organic quality that colour them differently this time from the fragile melodies that comprise Hospice.

If you like that, go buy the record. You won’t be disappointed but maybe a little sad. Highly recommended.

Your Weekly Download Lowdown

Epic Comes in Silver and Black

I can only think of a handful of bands currently making challenging and creative music thirty two years into their careers. One of those bands is Wire. Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey are the current members of the other London’s most influential punk bands and have just completed an extended trek throughout North America in support of their latest album Object 47. On the heels of their final 2008 date at Chicago’s legendary Metro, the band stopped by the Daytrotter studios to record a session of old and new music. Colin Newman explains:

In keeping with Daytrotter’s “played” feel we chose four songs from the set we have been touring throughout Europe & North America during 2008. We did this session the day after the last date of the North American tour (in Chicago), which was in fact our last date of 2008! We never attempt to “reproduce” album versions in our live sets, so each piece must find its expression as a live entity. In that way this studio recorded version of Wire playing live was a unique document. Falling at the end of our most extensive touring year since 1987 it became a unique document recorded at a unique time!

Download here.

Also on Daytrotter, a new session from the Department of Eagles. Their latest, excellent recording In Ear Park has been playing endlessly in my cd player and will no doubt figure prominently in my 2008 Year End List. This exceptional session works as a well worn “folklore-ish" accompaniment to that. Department of Eagles is the the side project of Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and his New York University college roommate Fred Nicolaus.

Download here.


Last, and by no means least, the Athens, Ga., band Of Montreal has been making some of the most eclectic music of the past decade. On the band's latest cd, Skeletal Lamping, Of Montreal plunges listeners into the freakishly surreal world of Georgie Fruit, the "transsexual alter ego" of singer Kevin Barnes. Barnes, has built a reputation on meticulously crafted, synth-driven psych-pop, with flamboyant production* and gleeful sonic flourishes. Of Montreal brought this musical spectacle to Washington, D.C. for a show at the legendary 9:30 Club and NPR were there to record it.

Listen and download here.


* The peak of recent onstage theatrics came mid-set in NYC during "St. Exquisite's Confessions," when Kevin Barnes mounted a very nervous looking white pony, singing the song's first minute or so from atop it.