We’ve got some stickers and we’re giving them away. If you’d like one or two please email Tyler [at] thealbumproject [dot] net, with your address and “Sticker” as the subject. There are only a limited number so this is a first come first serve offer.
Those who find creative places to stick them, which promote the site, and aren’t illegal, may also win something. You can submit a picture of the sticker in action to the same email address.
Bands, do you want to hear your music on our podcast? Let me rephrase that, bands, do you want other people to hear your music on our podcast? We’d love to premiere new music as well. Contact me.
Here is just a little info to let you know some of the things happening/changing at The Album Project recently.
* The podcast is now available for both iTunes and Zune
* For the first time sense the site started, almost 3 years ago, there are now 2 regular contributors (in addition to myself). You can see what Jared and Kate have done by clicking on their name on the ‘About’ page.
* Soon we’ll have stickers to giveaway, plus another very exciting and secret thing to announce (giveaway) very shortly.
UPDATE: The podcast is now featured in the new releases section of iTunes [music podcasts]. Be sure to leave a review or at least leave a star rating.
Pointed out in the most recent read feedback post, Hockey is a band you should really be listening to, or at least check out. Falling in that hip-indie genre, and stylistically similar to the band Everybody Else, the quick witted lyrics play nicely off the hook filled rock.
Song to start with: “Song Away”
If you subscribe to Paste in any form, you should be able to download both The Rocketboys and Concerning Lions this month on Paste Magazine’s VIP downloads.
[As a side note, did anyone get anything from that brief review/overview of the album from Paste?]
Want to write reviews and clever remarks about bands? If so, find my contact info [Hint: contact page] and submit 1 full review of something recent and 1 daily rec of a band I don’t know about. Even if you don’t want to make bands smile or cry depending on what you write, but know someone who does, please pass along this link to them.
The site now carries information on 100,000 upcoming music events, with over 2,500 added daily added from about 80 sources. These include Ticketmaster down to small local listings papers, as well as by the Songkick user community. It’s particularly that aspect which has supercharged the site: user uploads are now up 900% year on year.
TiBconcerts, Bandsintown, Livekick, hearwhere, GigJunkie.net, Setlist.fm, GigLocator and Gig Lovers are all competitors as well.
Do you use any of these site?
Songkick.com
Info Source: Techcrunch
I know Fictionist was recommended fairly recently, but I just received their new album which comes out March 2nd and it’s good. “Blue-Eyed Universe” is a poppier track for the band, though the progressive folk rock style that the band perfects is still intact. This is a good time to get acquainted before the album comes out and grab it on release day.
Starting today ou can download ‘Love’ from Angels & Airwaves for free, not even needing to provide an email address or anything. Here is the blurb on the site about the download.
This album is free for you. If you like it and want to put some money towards it, we would be grateful for your support. In fact, as our way of saying thanks, we’ll give you an exclusive song remixed by Mark Hoppus of blink-182! If you don’t want – or aren’t able – to contribute, then please accept the album free of any charge. You don’t even have to give us your email address.
This post is pretty straight forward. MGMT have announced their new record with be out April 13th. The press release is below for those interested.
Columbia Records proudly announces the North American release of Congratulations, the keenly awaited new studio album from MGMT, on Tuesday, April 13.
One of 2010’s most eagerly anticipated new releases, Congratulations is the successor to MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, the 2008 debut album which established the band’s potential as a visionary force in pop music.Congratulations is a collection of nine individual musical tours de force sequenced to flow with sonic and thematic coherence: “It’s Working,” “Song for Dan Treacy,” “Someone’s Missing,” “Flash Delirium,” “I Found a Whistle,” “Siberian Breaks,” “Brian Eno,” “Lady Dada’s Nightmare,” and “Congratulations.”
Produced by MGMT and Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, E.A.R., Spectrum), Congratulations was recorded throughout 2009 in upstate New York, Malibu, and Brooklyn and features Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, MGMT’s core duo, performing with Matt Asti (bass, backing vocals), Will Berman (drums, backing vocals), and James Richardson (guitar, backing vocals), the band’s live line-up.
If you’ve got about 4-5 minutes to spare, this short video from Make Magazine showing the process a new, smaller record company uses to press vinyl records is well worth your time.
For the last couple of years there has been a resurgence in popularity of vinyl records. Largely due to digital downloads rending the portability of compact discs obsolete, people are starting to gravitate to vinyl as the physical format of choice. In this short documentary from Nick Cavalier we get a behind-the-scenes look at the production of vinyl records at Gotta Groove Records, a new vinyl pressing plant in Cleveland, Ohio.
Just a quick reminder, we put out a second digital compilation for free about 2 months ago. It contains 13 awesome songs, some of which are unreleased anywhere else. Check out the album page where you can download or stream the entire thing.
Looking through the list of Grammy nominees, it’s tough to really care. Littered with only the biggest names, it doesn’t seem like much thought went into picking the best, simply selecting those who sold the most.
I like Kings Of Leon as much as the next person, but how is “Use Somebody” nominated for so many things, including ‘Song Of The Year’ when it came out in 2008 on the album ‘Only By The Night’.
There weren’t very many, but some of the interesting nominees include Silversun Pickups for ‘Artist Of The Year’, and both Phoenix and Death Cab For Cutie who are nominated for ‘Best Alternative Music Album’. Death Cab for ‘Open Door’, which was pretty good and Phoenix for ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’, which should win, in my opinion.
You can see and scoff at the entire list right here.
Update: I forgot to mention that Mos Def was also a nominee, and despite my dislike for most rap, his latest album, ‘The Ecstatic’ is awesome. The indie-rap style is unique, and really shows some variation.
Paste magazine is offering free mp3 downloads for people who donate through their site, or anywhere else.
It’s a way to raise money and keep awareness high by offering free MP3s to everyone who donates to help Haiti (through Songs for Haiti or, indeed, any charity). Already, more than 200 artists have donated 250+ songs.
In return, donors will be able to access a cache of MP3s through our Download Vault. Songs for Haiti includes tracks by Ludacris, Andrew Bird, Switchfoot, Derek Webb, Dex Romweber Duo, Bruce Cockburn, Josh Ritter, The Welcome Wagon, Joe Pug, Umphrey’s Mcgee, Keller Williams, Disco Biscuits, Bloodkin, Mugison, Deer Tick, Eric Beverly & the Sunday Best, House of Heroes, The Rosewood Thieves, Jason Harrod, A Camp, The Champion and His Burning Flame, The Low Anthem, Jonathan Kingham, Hanson, Gaslight Anthem and so many more.
Visit Paste to find more info on donating and downloading some fantastic music
Once with The Hush Sound, this is Greta’s new band.
This is pretty awesome.
Check out a video from the TWLOHA event which features Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Aaron Gillespie (Underoath/The Almost), Dustin Kensrue (Thrice), Anthony Raneri (Bayside), Josh Moore, and Zach Williams covering a Beatles song.
Source: Spin.com
Word on the streets, and when I say “streets”, I do mean those imaginary internet streets, is that Hellogoodbye has finished their new upcoming record, but because of legal issues, it won’t be released for awhile. To hold people over, it looks like there will be cover songs posted on their site on a somewhat regular occurrence. To start it off there is a Beatles’ cover of the song “Do You Want To Know A Secret”, as well as the upcoming album’s single “When We Fist Met”.
I’ve been guilty linking to Twitter posts from bands as a source of news, which it can be considered, but it gets old seeing it as the sole source of data being “reported”. The reason? Frankly, anyone can follow these artists and labels making these announcements. For the sake of providing an answer to something that wasn’t a question, I’ve put together some Twitter lists which will help you follow bands that get talked about here so everyone can be on the same page.
Twitter Lists
Frankly music news can get pretty boring, not to mention an overload which is why I can’t keep up with it all and won’t try. If you have bands that should be added to our Twitter lists, leave them in the comments and I’ll add them.
Here is a free download of Brett Dennon’s holiday track “The Holiday’s Are Here (We’re Still At War)”. You can also download a sampler with the same song that includes [non-holiday] tracks from Stephen Kellogg, Needtobreathe, Joshua Radin and others as well.
Paper Route’s label has let us put up a free download of their new 3 song Christmas EP titled, ‘Thank God The Year Is Over’. You can download the album here.
Tracks
1) Thank God The Year Is Over
2) In The Bleak Midwinter
3) Wish (Cover)
In the traditional Paper Route style, these Christmas oriented tracks pay tribute to a busy year finally come to an end. The cover of “Wish” from the band’s album ‘Absence’ is toned way down and gives it a completely new life as an acoustic track.
The Album Project is proud to announce the second volume in the ‘Names You Should Know’ series of free digital compilations. This compilation is meant to help promote even further some of my favorite bands that people probably don’t know about. Please pass the link around so more people will be exposed to these great bands.
Regardless of whether you went out shopping, are going to go out shopping, or slept in, here are some music deals you can grab. If there are other deals going on, leave those in the comments with a link as well.
P Is For Panda – EP’s $1, Full Albums $2
Music from
* Andy Zipf
* Mike Dunn & The Kings of New England
* Gasoline Heart
* Andy Shauf
* Damion Suomi
Amazon – 500 digital albums each $5
Sleeping At Last Online Store – 20% off order
Use the code: TOFURKEY and get 20% off your order
Tooth & Nail Records – 15% discount
Use the code: MISTLETOE and get 15% off your order
The Fold parody Miley Cyrus in their version titled “Every Band In The USA”
This story of Justin Bieber [some teen pop artist] not Twittering and thus landing the Def Jam label VP in jail was too interesting not to post.
An album signing scheduled Friday for teen sensation Justin Bieber at Roosevelt Field mall was canceled because a crowd of 3,000 young girls and their parents started aggressively pushing and shoving, police said.
“We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message,” Smith said. “By not cooperating with us we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk.”
Police arrested a senior vice president from Bieber’s label, Island Def Jam Records, James A. Roppo, 44, of Hoboken, N.J., saying he hindered their crowd-control efforts by not cooperating.
He was in custody Friday night, pending charges that could include criminal nuisance, endangering the welfare of a minor and obstructing government administration, Smith said.
There’s a lot you could say about this, but in the end, “Seriously?”
Source: Newsday
There has been quite a discussion in the review post for John Mayer’s latest record, so I thought I would add this video from 11/17/09 for people to check out. TryJM.com has a post with the whole show cut into individual songs if you like what you see.
Pretty stright forward. You can stream a new track from Minus The Bear titled “Into The Mirror”, you if you like what you hear you can download it along with a b-side track titled “Broken China” from Amazon.com
The Album Leaf has titled the new record, ‘A Chorus Of Storytellers’ and will release it February 2nd on Sub Pop Records. The track listing is below. Who’s excited for this?
1 Perro
2 Blank Pages
3 There Is a Wind
4 Within Dreams
5 Falling from the Sun
6 Stand Still
7 Summer Fog
8 Until the Last
9 We Are
10 Almost There
11 Tied Knots
Source: Prefix Mag
I’ll let Inspired Flight explain their sound:
Rooted in hip-hop and dipping into elements of indie rock, downtempo, dub and dance, Inspired Flight is taking your pre-conceived notion of what a band and DJ are and merging them into something new and quite hypnotizing.
Even if the description does not call out to you, you’d be wise to still give the band a listen. Chances are you’ll be hooked to the chill, laid back music.
I’m a bit confused, but here is the movie inspired by, or thought up by the band Angels & Airwaves.
After losing contact with Earth, Astronaut LEE MILLER becomes stranded in orbit alone aboard the International Space Station. As time passes and life support systems dwindle, Lee battles to maintain his sanity – and simply stay alive. His world is a claustrophobic and lonely existence, until he makes a strange discovery aboard the ship. Driven by the powerful music of ANGELS & AIRWAVES, “LOVE” explores the fundamental human need for connection and the limitless power of hope… A high-impact visual adventure, that resonates a common truth, that everyone has a story to tell and something even greater to leave behind.
Queens Club - Young Giant
The Classic Crime - Vagabonds
Four Year Strong - Enemy Of The World
Frightened Rabbit - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
The Rocket Summer - Of Men & Angels
Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
