Looks yummy, doesn’t it? Well, I have to disappoint you though… if you came here for free beer, it’s definitely the wrong place. But you can get another tasty freebie here: following my posting from Wednesday, I can now offer you the latest song by Vancouver-based Alternrock-artist Id Guinness. Together with the permission I also got some news on the delayed album: Soul Envy is still in the mixing stage and will therefore be delayed for a few more weeks. But in the meantime, Id plans to release one or two more songs from the album; expect them to pop up here as well. Also, if you like to receive the tracks from Mr Guinness himself, feel free to shoot him a mail by clicking the pic above. Oh, and I forgot to mention that if you pre-order Soul Envy now, you’ll also get the ten-track-strong album Crush d for free… quite a good deal, don’t you think? Chech Id’s homepage for the details.
… no, not from me… it’s a bit too early for that although I already have picked some of my favourites. You’ll need a few more weeks patience though before I’m letting the cat out of the bag. But fabulous Internet-label Insound has just released their top-50 of free 2009-MP3s, and there are quite a few gems among them. This doesn’t really surprise me, as for years now, Insound has been a constant source for great music. So here’s another chance to check if you’ve missed something this year. Take a look at Insound’s Top 50 here, and below, you can find my Top 5 picks:
1. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Come Saturday
Today is News Folder Day which means I’ll be listening to all that stuff that has piled up and been labeled “News” over the last few weeks. As so often, I sometimes don’t even remember who recommended that stuff, or even where I got the songs from. So I just go along, tell you what I hear, and if something’s worth a closer look, I’ll see what information I can get. Let’s go:
Lastbandalive – The Mexico Of Europe
I know that this was a recommendation from Morten as I’ve ripped this song from MySpace for him. And it is a damn catchy tune that these 3 Danish lads have composed… hear it once, hear it for the rest of the day! No free downloads unfortunately, but I recommend that you visit their MySpace anyway for a listening session.
ID Guinness – Life As We Know It
Got this new song from the Canadian Alt-Rocker himself; it’s the first teaser from the new album Soul Envy which is available for pre-order via his MySpace (it should be out since August 09…). I’m still waiting for an approval to post the MP3, so in the meantime check his homepage and re-read my first article about ID Guinness here.
Totally unrelated to the News Folder, I have just found out the news about Get Well Soon’s next album. It is called Vexations and will be released on January 8th next year. Can’t wait!!!
Get Well Soon – If This Hat Is Missing I Have Gone Hunting (MP3)
Pernice Brothers – Chicken Wire
voted by Spinner.com as the saddest song ever. Well, it is kind of sad (especially the lyrics), but definitely not the saddest ever. I’d rather vote for this one:
Here’s a more uplifting one by the Pernice Brothers:
Pernice Brothers – Somerville (MP3)
A last one I have time for: Autokratz is a Manchester producer-duo, and their ElectRock-sound has quite something. Been listening a lot to the rather good Always More (hear it on Last.FM), and Can’t Get Enough is not so bad, either. Probably nothing to stick around for too long, but fun while it lasts!
I’m a bit stuck with the reloading process… hope I can pick up the pace again soon! Still soooo much work left… 
Well, here’s some music:
Bristol-based dark-electro-wavers Dragons have released two outtakes of their 2007 album Here Are The Roses. Download Heart Of Stone and Once In The Fever from their latest MySpace-Blog.
I’m really getting tired of crawling through terribly designed MySpace-pages with tons of videos, flash-games and other rubbish popping up all the time. This was once a great platform for music-lovers, but it turns more and more into a playground for inhibited designers. No wonder my friend-request list keeps growing and growing; I can’t check more than one or two requests before I get tired of finding what I’m really looking for… the music! This system is just too overloaded with unnecessary features… or am I just getting too old for this nonsense? What do you think? (about MySpace, not my age! 
).
Sometimes it’s the look that does it: while surfing the net over the weekend, I came across this album cover:
and since the Northern Lights is something I really like to see one time (and my laut.fm-radiostation is called Northern Lights!), I decided to check out the music behind this. Well, good thing I did, and good thing I picked Emily as the first song to listen to. Bad thing is that I can’t get it out of my head now! See and hear for yourselves:
One more good thing is that the rest of Absent Elk’s debut album Caught In The Headlights is very listenable as well. The UK/Norwegian band have created some fine indie-pop-melodies somewhere between Pulp, Keane and maybe Arctic Monkeys. And they even made me listen to one of my most-hated songs of 2009… check this:
Good stuff indeed!
Edit: Schallgrenzen-Peter has about the same problems with MySpace as I do… in his post from today, he states that the best times of MySpace are over, and that there are apparently plans to make the user pay for listening (just listening, not downloading!) to music on artists sites… if they really think this will save MySpace, they’re dumber than I thought!!!
Yes, it’s another of these weeks where nothing goes as planned. I’m not going to switch to bitching mode though, but instead give you a quick overlook on what has been going on here:
Degrees have a new song, and I’m proud to share it with you. And yes, it is great!
Degrees – Can’t Walk Through This Alone (MP3)
Been listening a lot to the new Kent album Röd, and even if they may have turned from indie-rock to indie-disco once again, I must admit that I really like the album. They definitely haven’t lost the ability to write catchy melodies and gripping hooks; and once again, blog-buddy Morten hits the nail on the head with his review.
Oh, and while you’re at Morten’s anyway, check out the news on solo-turned-trio-turned-duo-project Champagne Riot.
I’ve written about Eardrums‘ Handshake project on my old blog (fortunately, this one post has already been reloaded… check here), and from the looks of it, it seems to be shaping up nicely. The deadline for participation is now set to December 31st, so if you’re an artist, painter, poet, photographer or want to be part of this great project in any other way, I suggest that you hurry up and get in contact with Eardrums Music!
Carpark North has taken part in a remix project and offering the result as a free download. It’s a bombastic and orchestral version of The One. Which one? This one:
Carpark North – The One (MP3)
Still got some mailbox and MySpace-stuff left… hope to find some time to post a bit of it this week!
Swedish indie-pop-act Sambassadeur will release their new album early next year, and as always, their great label Labrador offers the first single, Days, as a free download. Again, an uplifting and very entertaining song. Bring on the rest!
http://www.myspace.com/sambassadeurtheband
Sambassadeur – Days (MP3)
There’s also something more from The Raveonettes. Following their rather great new album In And Out Of Control is a left-over song called The Chosen One, and I can’t really see why they haven’t included it on the album. In my opinion, it would have fit perfectly. Anyway, it’s available for free, and so you can add it to the album-playlist yourself! 
http://www.myspace.com/theraveonettes
The Raveonettes – The Chosen One (MP3)
Hawksley Workman, Canadian singer/songwriter who some of you might remember from his 2003 hit We Will Still Need A Song, will release his 1999 debut-album in the US for the first time on November 17th. If you’re interested in For Him And The Girls, check the Shorefire link below for more information. Maniacs, the first song on the album, is a somewhat strange thing, and as a Swiss I can honestly say that it’s a good thing Hawksley didn’t pursue his yodeling career! 
http://www.hawksleyworkman.com/
During the work on my reload I came across this post, and thought why not check whether there’s any news from this great Irish band. Well, it looks like the Guggenheim Grotto is in the midst of touring, so work on a new album is probably on the backburner right now. Still, I realized that I haven’t even bought their 2008 release Happy The Man, and decided to take a closer look at that. The debut, Waltzing Alone, was (and still is!) a wonderful piece of music, so it certainly doesn’t do any harm to remind me and you of this band. And… they are still offering the A Lifetime In Heat EP for free, and since this one contains my two favourite songs from the band (see below), now’s the best time to get familiar with the Grotto. You know you want to!
http://www.guggenheimgrotto.com/
Download A Lifetime In Heat EP
The Guggenheim Grotto – A Lifetime In Heat (MP3)
The Guggenheim Grotto – And A Tear Isn’t Such A Bad Thing (MP3)
I’m in the middle of correcting my re-loaded posts and came across this one just a few minutes ago. Now the original post included an MP3 of the band’s song Heroin Unlimited; it’s no longer available, so I deleted the link. And what happened next? My Mediamonkey, which is running on shuffle today, must have sensed my action and started to play… right, Heroin Unlimited! Sometimes I really think there’s a ghost in the system!!!
OK… now I’m starting to worry… next song on the playlist was Twilight Zone by Golden Earring! And here’s me thinking Halloween was over!
Nine Inch Nails – 1 Ghost I (MP3)
Bang Gang – Something Wrong (MP3)
I’ll keep you updated on my paranormal day!
It’s a dark, grey and rainy day today, and along comes a song that perfectly fits this mood. Viola’s free November-track No Connection is a slow and melancholic tune, possibly the darkest track they’ve ever recorded. Decide for yourselves:
http://www.violamusicclub.com/
Viola – No Connection (MP3)
Regarding the blog-reload: I’ve now re-posted every article from 2009 and 2008; some of the 2008 ones still need adjustment, but I’m getting there… slowly, but I’m getting there! You can access the old posts by selecting the desired month there on the right under Recently, On MOTM.
After the good news about the Shout Out Louds‘ new album, I’ve received word today that fabulous US indie-folk-act Midlake is also readying their next full-length. The Courage Of Others will be released in February 2010. According to their label Bella Union, it turned out slower, darker and more carved, both eerier and dreamier than its predecessor The Trials Of Van Occupanther. Now I’m intrigued!!! Here’s the tracklist for The Courage Of Others:
‘Acts Of Man’
‘Winter Dies’
‘Small Mountain’
‘Core Of Nature’
‘Fortune’
‘Rulers, Ruling All Things’
‘Children of the Grounds’
‘Bring Down’
‘The Horn’
‘The Courage of Others’
‘In The Ground’
Some UK and US tourdates have also been announced (check their website for details), and I haven’t give up hope that they’ll come and visit Switzerland as well; would really like to see them live! Well, time will tell…
here’s an all-time-favourite:
Midlake – Roscoe (MP3)
