Alternative & Indie Thread

[exy]

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (2009)

mp3 320kpbs | 104MB | 48:17 min. | Released: April 14, 2009.

After almost 20 years of using the alias Smog for his music, Bill Callahan switched to his given name for his releases after 2005's A River Ain't Too Much to Love. For 2009's Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, Callahan returned to the more intimate, acoustic-based sound of latter-era Smog albums, featuring string and brass arrangements by Brian Beattie.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is a record of grand hopes and epic imagery, and powerful, uplifting music--the most accomplished of his 20-year career. <Mojo>

Eagle is the ultimate cohesion of Callahan’s singular storytelling and bewitching delivery. <Paste Magazine>

His vantage from Eagle is one of textured ambivalence; his images split and shimmer like double-exposures, immediately releasing an obvious meaning quickly followed by a subtler one that equivocates the first. <Pitchfork>

1. "Jim Cain" – 4:39
2. "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" – 4:19
3. "The Wind and the Dove" – 4:34
4. "Rococo Zephyr" – 5:42
5. "Too Many Birds" – 5:27
6. "My Friend" – 5:12
7. "All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast" – 5:52
8. "Invocation of Ratiocination" – 2:41
9. "Faith/Void" – 9:44

http://rapidshare.com/files/225375915/BC-SIWWWAE.rar

[exy]

Son Volt - American Central Dust (2009)
Release Date: 7 July 2009 | mp3 VBR~256 | 72MB | 44:04 min.

After touring in support of their 1993 masterpiece Anodyne, the seminal alternative country band Uncle Tupelo split up over long-simmering creative differences between co-leaders Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy recruited much of the band to form Wilco, while Farrar teamed up with original Tupelo drummer Mike Heidorn to form Son Volt, the more tradition-minded of the two Tupelo offshoots.

Son Volt returns with ‘American Central Dust,’ out July 7 on Rounder Records, a plaintive 12-song collection that recalls the melodic succinctness of the band’s debut album ‘Trace.’ After the musical experimentation of 2007’s ‘The Search, ’ ‘American Central Dust,’ the band’s first album on Rounder, refines the band’s robust sound. Fiddle, pedal steel, lap steel and sparkling piano add an atmospheric nuance to Son Volt’s Americana inspired rock, surrounding band leader Jay Farrar’s stream of consciousness lyrical imagery.

1. Dynamite
2. Down To The Wire
3. Roll On
4. Cocaine And Ashes
5. Dust Of Daylight
6. When The Wheels Don’t Move
7. No Turning Back
8. Pushed Too Far
9. Exiles
10. Sultana
11. Strength And Doubt
12. Jukebox of Steel

http://rapidshare.com/files/226241690/SVACT.zip

[exy]

Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Elvis Perkins in Dearland (2009)
mp3 192kpbs | 62MB | 44:18 min.
Folk-rock, Alternative Singer/ Songwriter, Americana, Contemporary Folk

Elvis Perkins (born February 9, 1976) is a folk-rock singer-songwriter, who came to prominence with the release of his debut studio album, Ash Wednesday, in 2007. Perkins subsequently toured in support of the album with his band Elvis Perkins in Dearland, composed of Perkins alongside multi-instrumentalists Brigham Brough (bass,vocals, saxophone), Wyndham Boylan-Garnett (organ, harmonium, trombone, guitar, vocals) and Nick Kinsey (drums, clarinet, vocals). The band released their eponymous debut, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, on March 10, 2009.
Known for their wide range of dynamics and eclectic instrumentation, Elvis Perkins in Dearland have frequently drawn comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Neutral Milk Hotel, Buddy Holly and The Band. <Wikipedia>

"I don't let doomsday bother me; do you let it bother you?" asks Elvis Perkins, drawing a line between the downtrodden elegance of his 2007 debut and the rustic, sprightly Americana that energizes his second release. Perkins still writes about death, having lost both his parents to tragic circumstances, but he does so with a sort of homespun grace, turning the funeral dirges of yesteryear into cathartic celebrations. Supported by a proper band and a veritable heap of instruments -- including horns, pump organ, clarinet, and banjo -- Perkins tackles a number of rootsy styles here, from the brassy New Orleans bounce of "Doomsday" to the old-timey chamber pop of "Send My Regards to Lonelyville," whose climax involves a tangle of saxophones, tuba, strings, and brushed percussion. There are traces of past songwriters in this delightful jumble, from Bob Dylan to Leonard Cohen to Pete Seeger, but Perkins rarely lingers long enough to risk being pigeonholed, preferring instead to play the role of a wandering troubadour. He follows "Lonelyville" with "I'll Be Arriving," a rumbling, haunting nugget of organ chords and blues-rock guitar, before closing out the disc with "How's Forever Been Baby," whose barroom waltz is both beautiful and heartbreaking. This is still the same Perkins who turned misery into moving music several years ago, but he's learned to dress up those sentiments in engaging Americana attire, a move that softens the blow but rarely cheapens the art. <AMG>

1. "Shampoo"
2. "Hey"
3. "Hours Last Stand"
4. "I Heard Your Voice in Dresden"
5. "Send My Fond Regards to Lonelyville"
6. "I'll Be Arriving"
7. "Chains, Chains, Chains"
8. "Doomsday"
9. "123 Goodbye"
10. "How's Forever Been Baby"

http://rapidshare.com/files/227011974/El_Per.rar

[exy]

Gogol Bordello - Voi-La Intruder (1999)
Gypsy punk | mp3 320kpbs | 116MB | 56:58 min.

Voi-La Intruder is the debut album by Gogol Bordello, released in 1999 by Rubric Records.

Gogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999 and is known for its theatrical stage shows. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music, as its core members are immigrants from Eastern Europe. The band incorporates minor-key accordion and fiddle (and on some albums, saxophone) mixed with cabaret, punk, and dub as well as multiple languages. Phill Jupitus described the band as "a bit like The Clash and The Pogues having a fight... in Eastern Europe," while Kenneth Partridge of The Hartford Courant described lead singer Eugene Hütz's voice as "somewhere between that of Borat and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog". <Wikipedia>

Combining elements of punk, gypsy music, and Brecht-ian cabaret, Gogol Bordello tells the story of New York's immigrant diaspora through debauchery, humor, and surreal costumes. <AMG>

1. "Sacred Darling" - 1:48
2. "Voi-La Intruder" - 3:07
3. "Greencard Husband" - 2:20
4. "Passport" - 4:21
5. "Start Wearing Purple" - 3:25
6. "Shy Kind of Guy" - 3:27
7. "Mussolini vs. Stalin" - 2:43
8. "Letter to Mother" - 3:50
9. "God-Like" - 5:33
10. "Nomadic Chronicle" - 4:22
11. "Letter to Castro (Costumes for Tonight)" - 3:21
12. "Unvisible Zedd" - 4:27
13. "Sex Spider" - 3:07
14. "No Threat" - 3:32
15. "Against the Nature" - 7:22

http://rapidshare.com/files/225370544/Gogol_Bordello_-_Voi-La_Intruder__28parte_1_29.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/225370695/Gogol_Bordello_-_Voi-La_Intuder__28parte_2_29.rar

[exy]

Jason Lytle - Yours Truly, the Commuter (2009)

Release Date: May 19, 2009 | mp3 VBR V0 | 75MB | 42:22 min.

After 15 years at the helm of Grandaddy the Modesto, California quintet whose celebrated five-album run started as a project in Lytle s bedroom and took him around the world Jason Lytle returns with a new collection of songs that are at once a continuation of and elaboration on the musical and lyrical ideas he explored in that band. The title Yours Truly, The Commuter tells it all: songs about the treks we all make, from one state to another, from inner lives to outer, and the tolls those travels take. Musically, the dreamy soundscapes mirror the dramatic environment of Lytle s newly-adopted Montana, where the record was written and recorded, while the twang of central California farmland remains in the inflection and phrasings of the Modesto native s unmistakable voice. Electronic flourishes collide with acoustic guitars and soulful piano parts, recreating Lytle s signature electro-lo-fi atmospheres. I wrote all the songs, I engineered the whole thing, I recorded it, I played all the instruments -- this is what I do, says Lytle, and we are glad he s taking passengers on this journey.

1. "Yours Truly, the Commuter"
2. "Brand New Sun"
3. "Ghost of My Old Dog"
4. "I Am Lost (And the Moment Cannot Last)"
5. "Birds Encouraged Him"
6. "It's the Weekend"
7. "Fürget It"
8. "This Song Is the Mute Button"
9. "Rollin' Home Alone"
10. "You're Too Gone"
11. "Flying thru Canyons"
12. "Here for Good"

http://rapidshare.com/files/227614530/_5B2009_5D_Jason_Lytle_-_Your_Truly_2C_The_Commuter_-_V0_MP3.zip

[exy]

Ben Harper and Relentless7 - White Lies For Dark Times
Release Date: May 5, 2009 | mp3 192kpbs | 65MB | 47:24 min.

Combining shuddering, groove-laden funky soul and folky handcrafted acoustics, singer/songwriter Ben Harper enjoyed cult status during the course of the '90s before gaining wider attention toward the decade's end.

On his first album with a new backing band (featuring members of indie rockers Oliver Future), rootsy vet Ben Harper offers up an impressive array of American music, ranging from muddy blues to eerie folk to Hendrixian wah-wah. On the inspirational "Shimmer and Shine," you even get a bit of all three. But the fact that the album's best moments are in the details -- a fiery lick, a wailing vocal ad-lib -- speaks to the singer- guitarist's recurring problems: secondhand song structures and little to say beyond self-helpy reiterations of lyrical beatitudes. <Spin>

1. Number With No Name
2. Up To You Now
3. Shimmer And Shine
4. Lay There And Hate Me
5. Why Must You Always Dress In Black
6. Skin Thin
7. Fly One Time
8. Keep It Together (So I Can Fall Apart)
9. Boots Like These
10. The Word Suicide
11. Faithfully Remain

http://rapidshare.com/files/228455468/BHAR7-WLFDT.rar

[exy]

The Handsome Family - Honey Moon (2009)
mp3 VBR~189kpbs | 57MB | 44:52 min. | Release Date: April 14, 2009
Alternative Country, Neo-Traditional Folk, Indie Rock, Alternative Country-Rock

Husband-and-wife duo the Handsome Family has been labeled both alt-country and traditionalist, but truthfully their often-dark music lies in a unique space somewhere in between, blending the sounds of traditional country and bluegrass (and, especially, murder ballads) into a more modern scenery. <AMG>

2009 release, their eighth studio album overall. Honey Moon takes place under bowed branches and deep within winding corn mazes. The release celebrates the duo's 20th year of marriage with a series of love songs that sharply contrast the dark themes of their previous seven albums. Full of an awed sense of emotion in the face of nature's mysteries, Brett Sparks (music) and Rennie Sparks (lyrics) branch from their usual canon of the dark and mysterious on Honey Moon, to establish a theme rooted in the tradition of 19th century romanticism. For the first time there is no body count. It is an album of transcendence, of touching the divine, if only for a moment, through our love of someone else, even if he is a katydid. <Amazon>

On their eighth album, spouses Brett and Rennie Sparks continue to put a brilliantly surreal twist on everyday subjects, using nature imagery to evoke the weird intensity of all-consuming passions. <Spin>

Though answers don't come easily, the process of getting to know them is fascinating nonetheless. <Billboard>

http://rapidshare.com/files/228206227/The_Handsome_Family_-_Honey_Moon__282009_29.rar

[exy]

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca [2009]

Relase Date: June 9, 2009 | mp3 224kpbs | 70MB | 41:11 min.

The Dirty Projectors are the project of Dave Longstreth, a former Yale student who left college to become one of the most prolific and unique indie singer/songwriters of the early 2000s.
His first album, The Graceful Fallen Mango was released under his own name and introduced his distinctive arrangements of both lo-fi and hi-fi production. Longstreth released his first album as "Dirty Projectors" in 2003 entitled The Glad Fact, on the Western Vinyl label. In 2005 he released The Getty Address, a concept album surrounding musician Don Henley; in 2007 he released Rise Above, an album of Black Flag songs as reimagined from memory. In 2007 he also did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. In April 2008, Dirty Projectors signed with Domino Records, and the label announced the release of Bitte Orca for June 9, 2009. 2009 also found the band collaborating with David Byrne on the song "Knotty Pine" for the compilation album, Dark Was the Night. On May 8, 2009, members of Dirty Projectors will collaborate with Björk to perform an original composition by Longstreth, written for five voices and acoustic guitar, as part of a charity concert to benefit Housing Works, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing shelter for homeless men, women, and children suffering from AIDS. The concert is to be held at the Housing Works Bookstore & Café in downtown New York City.

Reviewing the version of Bitte Orca which leaked onto the internet two months before its official release date, Stereogum called the album "stunning" and "pay-off for joining Dave Longstreth on his years of recorded self-discovery." Immediately after it was leaked, Bitte Orca was named an "Editor's Pick" by the music blog 20 Watts. Prefix called the album "a breakthrough, which filters their left-field avant aesthetics through more conventional song structures. <Wikipedia>

1. "Cannibal Resource" - 3:55
2. "Temecula Sunrise" - 5:05
3. "The Bride" - 2:49
4. "Stillness Is the Move" - 5:14
5. "Two Doves" - 3:42
6. "Useful Chamber" - 6:28
7. "No Intention" - 4:17
8. "Remade Horizon" - 3:55
9. "Fluorescent Half Dome" - 5:45

http://www.mediafire.com/?yyg0zmt2zmj

[exy]

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth (2006)
mp3 VBR~234kpbs | 84MB | 52:19 min.
Post-Punk Revival, Indie Rock, Garage Rock Revival

First Impressions of Earth is the third album by The Strokes. It was released in January 2006 (see 2006 in music), having been preceded by lead single "Juicebox" some weeks earlier.

First Impressions of Earth is widely seen as an expansion beyond The Strokes' first two albums, Is This It and Room on Fire. The album received mixed reviews from critics, unlike their previous material which were generally acclaimed. "Heart in a Cage" was the album's second single, followed by "You Only Live Once". NME rated First Impressions of Earth at #8 in its Albums of the Year 2006 list.

First Impressions of Earth entered the UK album chart at #1, The Strokes' first one at the top spot, while it reached #4 in the US, with an entry sales week of 88,000 units, somewhat below the performance of its predecessors. As of October 2006, the album had sold 271,000 units in the US, falling short of gold certification. Although the album was the band's first release to reach #1 on any chart worldwide, it is the only one not to reach UK platinum status, and spent much less time on the charts than the previous albums. <Wikipedia>

1. "You Only Live Once" – 3:09
2. "Juicebox" – 3:17
3. "Heart in a Cage" – 3:27
4. "Razorblade" – 3:29
5. "On the Other Side" – 4:38
6. "Vision of Division" – 4:20
7. "Ask Me Anything" 3:12
8. "Electricityscape" – 3:33
9. "Killing Lies" 3:50
10. "Fear of Sleep" – 4:00
11. "15 Minutes" – 4:34
12. "Ize of the World" – 4:29
13. "Evening Sun" 3:06
14. "Red Light" – 3:11

http://rapidshare.com/files/230198216/First_Impressions_of_Earth.rar

[buddha00man]

Originally Posted by exy

Son Volt - American Central Dust (2009)
Release Date: 7 July 2009 | mp3 VBR~256 | 72MB | 44:04 min.

1. Dynamite
2. Down To The Wire
3. Roll On
4. Cocaine And Ashes
5. Dust Of Daylight
6. When The Wheels Don’t Move
7. No Turning Back
8. Pushed Too Far
9. Exiles
10. Sultana
11. Strength And Doubt
12. Jukebox of Steel

http://rapidshare.com/files/226241690/SVACT.zip

any chance for a re-up on this one??