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For your listening (and viewing) pleasure... new audio and video players and free MP3 downloads: |
Great Northern
Trading Twilight For Daylight
"Home" MP3
Silverlake, California's Great Northern craft dreamy and dramatic pop songs straight from the heart. Their full-length debut album Trading Twilight For Daylight is a thing of beauty, every song equally as enchanting and sure to burrow its way into your conscious.
The male-female vocals on "Home" weave seamlessly as unforgettable melodies are draped in stately piano and synth-string flourishes. Elsewhere "Telling Lies" flirts with the epic as its exhilirating guitars lure you to the bridge, where it then snows glorious mountains of spine-tingling "oooh" and "aaah"s.
And we are very much oooh-ing and aaah-ing over this impressive collection.
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The Western States Motel
The Western States Motel
"Powerlines" MP3
The Western States Motel is the brainchild of Los Angeles' Carl Jordan. His self-titled debut album is a perfect soundtrack to a long solo drive up the west coast evoking balmy Summer nights, moments and memories recorded in a spare bedroom littered with various beat-up guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments.
Songs like "Powerlines" recall The Shins' Garden State anthems with their blissed-out pop sound, while "Cheap Speakers" more an electro-folk vibe a la The Beta Band. The entire affair has a laidback and intimate vibe that invites the listener in and hands 'em a cold one. Cheers.
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The SLIP
Eisenhower
"Even Rats" MP3
"Children Of December" MP3
"Seeing them live was amazing...I instantly felt a bond with these three guys. You see so many tired, boring rock acts doing the same thing over and over, but these guys are reaching out...They're taking what we know of music and trying to twist it to a different place." - My Morning Jacket's Jim James
Co-produced by the band and the dapper Matthew Ellard (Elliot Smith, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Morphine) and with additional engineering by good friend and fellow Montrealien Drew Malamud (Stars, Metric, The Dears), EISENHOWER easily stands as the most cohesive and evocative work The SLIP has released to date.
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World Leader Pretend
"Bang Theory" MP3
"Bang Theory" Video - Windows Media | QuickTime
"Punches" EPK Video - Windows Media | QuickTime
Far from the buzz and clink of Brooklyn-bound trains, half a world away from the NME, and out of reach from the bicoastal arbiters of style and taste, lays the city of New Orleans. If the American South is considered far-removed from the pulse of the nation, then this fair city is doubly so. It is the square peg to the Deep Souths round hole, a city with blinders that keeps its focus from most anything but itself. Its unique culture and self-conscious insularity evoke many reactions: some call it quaint, historic, and timeless; others think it's dreary, dangerous, and completely out of touch with the contemporary culture that surrounds it. But the young men of World Leader Pretend simply call it home.
www.wlpband.com
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Abandoned Pools
"Armed To The Teeth" in stores now.
"Armed To The Teeth" Windows Media
"Armed To The Teeth" RealPlayer
For singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Tommy Walter, the name of his musical alter ego, Abandoned Pools, once more seems to fit his situation like a well-worn glove... On Humanistic, his 2001 debut, it referred to his leaving behind a seemingly carefree upbringing in the L.A. suburb of Westlake Village to pursue a career in rock, which led him to become one of the founding members of the eels after studying French horn and composition at USC and then University of the Pacific. That dream had its roots in Walters childhood love of pop and rock music, beginning with the Star Wars soundtrack and Prince, then growing to include 80s U. K. new wave bands, indie guitar rock and cutting-edge electronics, all of them apparent on Humanistic as well as his brand-new Universal Records EP, The Reverb EP.
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Dungen
"Ta Det Lugnt" in stores now.
"Panda" MP3
The title translates roughly into English as Grab The Calm which kind of perfectly sums up Dungens sound. Its immediate and you want to get involved, but theres also such a laid-back, hippy vibe to the whole thing. This is the 3rd and most astounding album from the young and talented Swedish multi-instrumentalist Gustav Ejstes aka Dungen. This is the long awaited follow up to his two previous highly acclaimed albums, and this recording showcases the ultimate psychprogpopfolkrock this side of Elephants Memory, The Stone Roses and Pentangle. Ta Det Lugnt is a beautiful musical trip out into the Swedish forests and back again.
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Sigur Rss
Sfglspur audio streams from the album "Takk..." in stores 9/13.
Real Player
Windows
Huge and intimate, orchestral and gossamer-light, rich layered and essentially simple, Takk is a work of a band operating at the very top of their game. It accomplishes what maybe they havent done since they first appeared, which is to make high-flown ideas appear to be straight ahead pop music, or, perhaps more accurately, invest pop music with a sense of magic long since lost in the mists of time and imagination.
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Nada Surf
NADA SURF SET TO RELEASE THE WEIGHT IS A GIFT, THEIR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED
FOLLOW-UP TO 2003'S LET GO on September 13th thru Barsuk.
Do It Again:
MP3
Remember when Nada Surf came out with Let Go in 2003? Remember how it
was a
poignant, enchanting reminder of why you started buying records in the
first
place? How it was just so sweet and nuanced and superbly designed? How
the
sentiments moved you and the harmonies made you swoon? Well, the
follow-up
to Let Go has arrived, and we couldn't be more thrilled to tell you,
The
Weight is a Gift is just that - a gift.
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Iggy Pop
2-CD IGGY POP ANTHOLOGY, A MILLION IN PRIZES AND 1999 CONCERT DVD, LIVE AT THE AVENUE B
In Stores: July 19, 2005
Search And Destroy:
Windows Media
RealPlayer
Lust For Life:
Windows Media
RealPlayer
Candy:
Windows Media
RealPlayer
Slammin backbeats to the midsection, punishing and relentless guitar riffs that fry the eardrums to a crisp, and lyrics that call for revolution of mind and soul even as they forever extol rocks eternal truths summertime, cars, women, pain are collective evidence that Iggy Pops roadmap hasnt changed all that much since the Stooges were first unleashed upon the world a few years back.
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King Elementary
Kudzu
Hit The Mirror MP3
Rebecca MP3
Satisfactory MP3
All four members might be the oldest eighteen year-olds to ever grace a rock stage. While most kids are on summer break, theyre practicing in their garage. While most kids are spending their weekends studying for tests and writing papers, theyre playing shows. Nothing about King Elementary is angst-ridden, awkward or uncertain these are, by far, some of the most confident rock songs youll hear all year, and this band has some of the most star quality youve ever seen in faces so youthful.
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Silversun Pickups
Pikel EP
in stores July 26th
www.silversunpickups.com
Kissing Families:
MP3
The Tumbleweed Effect. Brian Aubert attributes the formation of his band, Silversun Pickups, and the tight-knit musical community surrounding it to this phenomenon. It just blows along and people stick, he says. Aubert, bassist-singer Nikki Monninger, keyboardist Joe Lester and drummer Christopher Guanlao will unveil a new EP, entitled Pikul (Dangerbird Records), July 26.
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Nine Black Alps
Cosmopolitan (audio):
Windows Media
Real Player
They're from Manchester, one of the most musical cities in England, but you won't hear that in their sound. Nine Black Alps looked well beyond their own front door -- and even over an entire ocean -- to find their inspiration, crushing out on American artists like Sonic Youth and Elliott Smith, as opposed to famed Mancunians such as The Smiths, Happy Mondays and New Order. The result is a band that sounds raucous, bursting with un-harnessed energy and angst, who have recently been buried in an avalanche of label offers and critical acclaim and they havent even put out a record yet.
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Esthero
We R In Need Of A Musical ReVoLuTioN (video):
Windows Media Lo | Windows Media Hi
RealPlayer
We R In Need Of A Musical ReVoLuTioN (audio):
Windows Media
Real Player
Esthero was much more than a one-night stand. 1998's Breath From Another was the catalyst that sparked a love movement in which the years that followed were spent waiting and longing for her return. Blessing us with gifts such as Country Livin (The World I Know), Swallow Me and That Girl, she was indeed Heaven Sent. Esthero was our breath of fresh air. Her voice - often imitated, never duplicated - reached a part of our souls that had previously remained dormant. She was our beacon of light. A sacred blend of jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk, and rock, Esthero became our best-kept secret. Then just like that, she was gone.
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Sinead O'Connor
w/PETER GABRIEL: Blood of Eden (audio):
Windows Media lo | Windows Media hi
Real Player lo | Real Player hi
w/MASSIVE ATTACK: Special Cases (audio):
Windows Media lo | Windows Media hi
Real Player lo | Real Player hi
On June 21, 2005 Capitol Records/EMI Music Catalog Marketing will release Sinead OConnor: Collaborations, a newly-compiled album that explores her unique work with a broad range of artists across many genres and cultures, including trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack, Ghostland, Afro Celt Sound System, U2s Bono and the Edge, Peter Gabriel, Moby, Irish folk-pop singer Damien Dempsey, and the Specials Terry Hall. A strong figure with a hypnotic style, Sinead OConnor resists the mainstream, finding reverie and demand among some of the worlds greatest artists.
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Innaway
"Rise"
MP3
Video
TOUR DATES:
June 06 Los Angeles, CA @ Silverlake Lounge
June 13 Los Angeles, CA @ Silverlake Lounge
June 16 Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar (Record Release Show)
June 19 Los Angeles, CA @ Silverlake Lounge
June 26 Los Angeles, CA @ Silverlake Lounge
Brian Jonestown Massacre tour starts August 1st.
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Amusement Parks on Fire
"Venus In Cancer" audio
QuickTime
Windows Media Player
Nothing compares to the genuine clamor of pure youth. Michael Feerick of Amusement Parks on Fire, now 20 years old, has made a record all his own, on his own, entirely written and performed just before the end of only his second decade here on earth. And it is as loud and artful as it has to be, to drown out this crowded world in 2005. This is not shoegazing music, this is stargazing music, bigger than itself, wise beyond its years, atmospheric punk rock space blues for the 21st Century. Welcome to Amusement Parks on Fire.
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Amusement Parks on Fire
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Caesars Paper Tigers
Video:
"Jerk It Out"
Windows Media Player
RealPlayer
Swedens Caesars take a confident step out of the garage on their new album, Paper Tigers a lively, layered rock album informed as much by Lennon/McCartney as the 13th Floor Elevators and Stooges.
Hailed by Blender for making music as hot as a kiln, their upcoming album Paper Tigers finds the band entering adulthood with a mature style of richly layered power pop without abandoning their youthful sense of taste and irony.
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Caesars
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The Sun Blame It On The Youth
Audio:
"Justice"
Windows Media | QuickTime
"Pavement Jive"
Windows Media | QuickTime
Video:
"My Girlfriend's Best Friend"
Windows Media | QuickTime
The Sun started as a recording project when Chris Burney was on the road with Tim Easton in 2001, who after much nagging, allowed (aloud?) Chris to play a bit of stand-up bass next to him. Columbus, Ohio was the place where this mess originally started however weeks were spent in Chicago at Leroy Bachs loft recording and making merry. Music is a language we can speak when we want to express our love. This is where it gets weird because the vultures appeared to feast on the remains of dreams broken, but thats a bit dramatic and we wouldnt be anywhere without our friends. Chris moved to LA and began the assimilation process into the Machine. Managers were met, demos passed around. Interest from long-haired, bright-eyed simple musicians from the Midwest was at its peek due to perceived business triumphs of Other Bands You May Have Heard Of. Smelling the green blood fuming from the pits crotch, Chris struck up his band.
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The Sun
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EELS "BLINKING LIGHTS AND OTHER REVELATIONS" in stores April 26
"old shit/new shit" MP3
"hey man (now you're really living)" MP3
Eels e-card
The new Eels album, BLINKING LIGHTS AND OTHER REVELATIONS, is a two disc album about "God and all the questions related to the subject of God," says it's creator, Mark Everett, also known as Eels leader E. "It's also about hanging on to my remaining shreds of sanity and the blue sky that comes the day after a terrible storm," he adds, "and it's a love letter to life itself, in all its beautiful, horrible glory."
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The Postal Service "Against All Odds"
Windows Media
RealPlayer
Chillout 06 continues the tradition set by its predecessors by
featuring an
eclectic group of artists and remixers who push the boundaries of the
genre.
Its a perfect collection for the casual electronic music fan that
likes to
throw dinner parties with stylish music in the background and the
seasoned
veteran whos looking for the next emerging star in the genre.
Thoughtfully sequenced, Chillout 06 flows from gold and platinum
artists to
unknowns to international heroes to 80s classics with ease. The
Ultimate
Chillout series has set the standard for the genre and Chillout 06 will
not
disappoint.
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The Sights
Song: Circus
Audio Stream
MP3
THE SIGHTS - 3 high school friends from Detroit, MI released debut
album, Are You Green?, in 1999/2000 then Got What We Want in 2002. The band's
freakishly precocious ability to blend frenetic garage rock, Motown and
60's
pop into something equal parts classic and catchy got them noticed. Got
What
We Want was released in the U.K. a year later, which got them some very
nice
words from British press and in 2004 came to the notice of James Iha
(Smashing Pumpkins) who signed them to his label Scratchie Records thru
New
Line. Their third (self-titled) album is coming out April 12th, 2005
featuring the first single "Circus".
more
The Sights
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Garbage
Song: Bleed Like Me
Windows Media
RealPlayer
Song: Why Do You Love Me?
Windows Media
RealPlayer
On the day Garbage gathered in Wisconsin to start work on their fourth
record, they came up with the glittering and steely Right Between the
Eyes
in all of 30 minutes. Things would not go quite so well with BLEED LIKE
ME
again.
The band battled illness, surgery, creative disagreements, major life
changes anddepending who you askeither a break-up or a much-needed
sabbatical. But nothing good comes easy and BLEED LIKE ME is simply
smashing. From the lusty, masochistic skronk of album opener Bad
Boyfriend
to the industrial-strength protest-pop of Metal Heart to the
hauntingly
transgressive title track, its everything that youd expect from one
of the
past decades most acclaimed and innovative bands: Sexy, sonically
ambitious, loud, emotionally fraught and catchy as can be.
more
Garbage
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David Bowie
Album E-card
The 2-CD sets feature previously unreleased tracks, new stereo mixes, restored original sequencing and new liner notes by their original producer, Tony Visconti. Recorded in July 1974, David Live is an enthralling documentation of Bowie's innovative and extraordinary 1974 Diamond Dogs tour. Bowie started the tour as a glam rock king, but as the tour progressed, he adopted a new sound and a new look, best described as Philly soul. Early in 1978, David Bowie began rehearsals for what was to be his biggest tour to that point of his career. The majority of the show's setlist was to be comprised primarily from the Low & Heroes albums, but Bowie surprised his fans by including a selection of songs from the Ziggy Stardust album, rearranged to reflect his new futuristic synthesizer sound. This tour is captured in this 1978 live album Stage. Both sets in stores March 15, 2005.
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David Bowie
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Long-View
Song: When You Sleep
Windows Media Lo | Windows Media Hi
QuickTime
RealPlayer
When EM Forster gave us the aphorism "only connect" he wasn't strictly talking about the collective musical endeavours of Rob McVey, guitarist Doug Morch, bassist Aidan Banks and drummer Matt Dabbs, but he might well have been. In their brief year in the public eye, Long-View have stepped round the distractions of scenes and posturing to release a run of magically elevational singles and one exquisitely yearning debut album, establishing a clear identity for the band as genuine communicators rather than this week's circus act.
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The Bravery
Song: An Honest Mistake
Windows Media
Album E-card
The HQ is on the corner of Mott and Broome, on the edge of New Yorks Chinatown. Push through the graffiti-ed door, clamber up the rotten stairs, past the sweatshops and youll find the place. Its where The Bravery have spent the past two years planning operations, obsessively working up their wirey garage-electronics and occasionally venturing out into the city to play the results.
more
The Bravery
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Robbers On High Street
Song: Spanish Teeth
MP3
Tree City, the eagerly-awaited full-length debut by the New York quartet known as Robbers on High Street, has already been tipped by many as the first great rock 'n' roll album of 2005. The new discproduced by the band and Peter Katis, whose credits include work with the likes of Interpol, Mercury Rev and the Get Up Kidsdelivers on the abundant promise of the band's acclaimed debut EP Fine Lines, offering 13 bracing slices of brash, aggressive songcraft that blend youthful swagger and boundless energy with an insightful, introspective undercurrent that helps to set Robbers on High Street apart from the competition.
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Robbers On High Street
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Neon:
Song: Hit Me Again
Video:
WMP med | WMP hi
Real Player med | Real Player hi
Quicktime
GREAT ROCKNROLL instinctively reflects its roots. The Kinks fascination with the crumbling British Empire stemmed from Ray Davies childhood growing up in the shadow of the faded grandeur of Alexandra Palace. Nirvanas dystopic worldview stemmed largely from Kurt Cobains troubled adolescence in the depressed logging town of Aberdeen, Washington. So it is with Neon. I was brought up in New South Wales in this place called Broken Hill explains singer-guitarist Josh Bitmead. Its called the capital of the outback. Nearby is this ghost town called Silverton; think Mad Max. It looks exactly like it does in the movie so as you can imagine, you have to make your own fun.
more
Neon
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Joy Zipper:
Song: Out Of The Sun
E-card
Video:
WMP lo | WMP hi
Real Player lo | Real Player hi
A music writer said were like a candy apple with a razor blade inside, which I think is a really great way to put it, says Joy Zippers Tabitha Tindale. Vinny Cafiso, the other half of Joy Zipper (and Tabithas other half in real life), admits that he doesnt like to give away too much and says he and Tabitha are indeed flowering it up a bit to hide the darkness underneath.
There is an exquisite sweetness to the Joy Zipper sound. The tone of American Whip, the duos second album (due Feb. 22 on Dangerbird Records), is set by Christmas Song, which boasts a dreamy chorus I love you more than a thousand Christmases/ I want you more than any gift I can think of that sticks like Juicy Fruit. The Alpha Centauri keyboard effects, super-groovy organ line and that one Summer Of Love guitar progression give way to ecstatic stacked harmonies recalling The Beach Boys and The Beatles, two of Tabitha and Vinces favorite antecedents. more
Joy Zipper
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Elefant:
Album E-Card
"Misfit" Video:
WMP hi | WMP lo
Pop music seems to be most fulfilling when it is able to convey the
gravity
of human desire and disappointment; if youthful confusion and
self-doubt are
a part of it, so much the better.
But few bands in recent years have been able to articulate this torrent
of
emotions with any sort of genuine sensitivity. Rather, we've endured a
decade and a half's worth of sullen indie rock, whiney emo, and clumsy
nu-metal. Even as an exhilarating new music scene unfolded in New York,
one
which seemed to draw on decidedly more complex and sophisticated
influences,
there was a gaping hole of bands that relied more on grace than
abrasiveness.
Then, in the fall of 2001, amidst all the hype and fanfare in New York,
Argentine singer Diego Garcia allied himself with drummer Kevin McAdams
and
a guitarist that simply goes by the name Mod, and just such a band,
Elefant,
was born. Bassist Jeff Berrall was enlisted shortly after, and the
lineup
was completed.
Certain fashionable post-punk influences clearly seemed to inform their
music. But Elefant were a band apart from their New York comrades,
many of
whom were mining much more morose musical territory and flirting with
anarchic imagery. Elefant, rather, were melancholy but romantic, dark
but
seductive.
www.elefantweb.com
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Dirty Vegas:
Song: Walk in the Sun
Album: One
Audio:
WMP lo | WMP hi
Video:
WMP lo | WMP med | WMP hi
Real Player lo | Real Player med | Real Player hi
QT lo | QT med | QT hi
As the wonderful widescreen pop of Walk Into The Sun suggests, ONE marks a great artistic leap forward for Dirty Vegas. Recorded in London, Cornwall, and Scotland, the album features a richer, more organic approach than its technology-driven predecessor. Tracks such as Save Me and Human Love see the South London-based trio incorporating full-bodied live instrumentation including an eight-piece orchestra into their idiosyncratic musical milange of sounds and styles.
The result is altogether extraordinary an eclectic, unique collection that establishes Dirty Vegas as one of the most adventurous and forward-thinking bands of our time.
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The Futureheads video, "First Day":
Quicktime Broadband
Windows Media Player
Audio: "Decent Days and Nights" LIVE @ Henry Fonda Theatre -
LA, CA
Windows Media Lo | Windows Media Lo-Med | Windows Media Med | Windows Media Hi
QuickTime
Sunderland four-piece The Futureheads are both an intriguing and
powerful
mass of contradictions. They are a band who - like all the best bands
-
look and feel like a gang, but who, in this instance, can rarely agree
on
anything at all. A band who have deliberately set themselves only
short-term, low-key goals, but are, realistically, on the verge of
going all
the way. A band who recognize and salute the DIY ethic, while
simultaneously detesting its implicit under-achievement. A band who can
accurately cite Devo, Queen, Fugazi and Kate Bush as influences, but
who
have carved out their own instantly identifiable sonic niche.
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The Shore video, "Hard Road":
Quicktime Broadband
Real Player
Windows Media Player
The Shore Album Player
The Shore's debut album is in stores
now.
Rock solid songwriting. A passionate commitment to music that makes a
difference and the chops to pull it off. With a name as evocative as their music, The Shore is a richly talented young quartet whose seamless ensemble sound welds a rich mix of influences. From Neil Young to Coldplay to the Verve, The Shore brings it all together in a grand musical vision that is reminiscent of the best that rock can be while remaining utterly innovative and original. The Shore is an album that celebrates the enduring values of heartfelt songwriting and consummate craftsmanship in a collection of songs that seems certain to land The Shore a place among the very best of tomorrow's
rock originals.
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These Arms Are Snakes
Location is Everything, Vol. 2
Jade Tree
MP3
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onelinedrawing
The Volunteers
Jade Tree
MP3
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From Ashes Rise +
From the "Nightmares" CD:
MP3
Strike Anywhere +
From the "Exit English" CD:
MP3
Birdie Hilltop
Frigital Records
MP3: "Bucket of Laughs"
Crax Crux
Frigital Records
MP3: "To the Birds of the Limb"
MP3, player, and band archives:
Magnet
Midnight Movies
Rilo Kiley
Snow Patrol
Carina Round
Stellastarr*
Muse
Felix da Housecat
Keane
Shrek 2 Soundtrack
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Vedette
The Fever
Irving
Lovely Feathers
Islands
Peter Walker
Mates of State
Coldplay
Sunshine
