Don't Forget To Dance

“Little Girl” by Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse featuring Julian Casablancas

Here’s the nitty gritty concerning this album you can’t buy. Producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse put together an album featuring a different singer on each track along with a book of artwork and photos by director David Lynch. Among the vocalists are Wayne Coyne, Julian Casablancas, Iggy Pop and Black Francis. Sounds good, right? Well, someone at the label it was to be released on didn’t like something about it, because they decided not to release it. Instead, Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse are selling the David Lynch book packaged with a blank CD-R and telling you to do with it what you will

As an added bonus, NPR is streaming the entire album online for your listening pleasure. Listen to it here.

“Little Lion Man” by Mumford & Sons

Part of the new folk movement going on in the UK, Mumford & Sons plays anthemic, rollicking folk, prominently featuring banjo, dobro and double bass. Formed in 2007, they’ve released three EPs that, if played one after the other, would be considered a solid debut album.

Here’s “Little Lion Man” off their second EP, 2008’s Love Your Ground.

Tremble for yourself, my man,
You know that you have seen this all before.
Tremble little lion man,
You’ll never settle any of your score.
Your grace is wasted in your face,
Your boldness stands alone among the wreck.
Learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck.

“Sudden Oak Death” by The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice

Ahhh….summer is almost upon us and what could be a better way to enjoy the sun and warmth than by listening to the new vinyl-only EP from John Darneille’s Mountain Goats and Gone Primitive tour mate John Vanderslice?

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, Darnielle describes the EP, Moon Colony Bloodbath, as, “a loose rock opera/’concept album’ idea about organ harvesting colonies on the moon and the employees thereof, who spent their off months living in secluded opulence in remote American locations.”

With that, enjoy my favorite track so far, “Sudden Oak Death.”

“Along Comes Mary” by The Association

In honor of today’s unofficial holiday, preparation for this evening’s track involved digging deep in the crates for a pop hit from 1966 - “Along Comes Mary” by The Association. You’ve definitely heard it before. You probably haven’t heard it lately. You’re certainly going to dance to it now.

And then along comes Mary,
And does she want to set them free, and let them see reality
From where she got her name
And will they struggle much when told that such a tender touch as hers
Will make them not the same.

“Eating Fish In Hamburger Heaven” by The Little Hands of Asphalt

The Little Hands of Asphalt is the sideproject of Sjur Lyseid, the singer in the Norwegian indie-pop band Monzano. I don’t know who that is either, but if they’re half as good as this album, I’ll certainly give them some space in my ear-holes.

Sounding like Conor Oberst and Elliott Smith, Lyseid sings literate lyrics over sometimes countrified, sometimes Springstein-ified, sometimes upbeat, sometimes downbeat, always enjoyable pop-folk.

So open up your ear-holes, loop up your laces and dance along to “Eating Fish in Hamburger Heaven” by The Little Hands of Asphalt off their March 2009 album, Leap Years.

BONUS FREE MUSIC
As an added feature, you can download TLHOA’s EP Spit Back at the Rain. Released as a free teaser just weeks before Leap Years hit stores, Spit Back at the Rain contains five songs that didn’t make the Leap Years cut, but IMHO deserve to be heard.

Get it HERE.

“Sunblinded” by Brighton MA

With vocals that sound like the love child of David Bowie and Bob Dylan with an occasional Rod Stewart rasp, what more do you need to know to click the play button?

Yes, the music is good. No, I am not saying they are as good as Bowie or Dylan (Stewart… that depends on how you feel about him). Yes, this is their debut album. No, I don’t just like them because I used to live in Brighton, MA (and they’re not from Brighton - they’re from Chicago).

Enough with the questions! Will you just click the play button already?!?!?!

BONUS FREE SONGS
Click here for some unreleased tracks and alternate versions of albums tracks.

“Kill Me Now” by The Dreadful Yawns

Isn’t one of the first rules of coming up with a name for anything - be it a product or a child or a band - not to give it a name that can easily be used against it? I guess The Dreadful Yawns don’t know about that one. What they do know, however, is how to put together a solid album.

Their August 2008 LP, Take Shape, is their third album, though you might consider it their first, since there is only one member of the original lineup on it - principal songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist, Ben Gmetro.

The songs on Take Shape run through many different styles. You can hear influences from Velvet Underground to Pink Floyd to Nick Drake to Sonic Youth, and while these homages are sometimes obvious, they almost always work.

“Kill Me Now” is a fast-paced, danceable, almost happy tune with lyrics that are quite the opposite.

BONUS:
If you want to hear them slow it down a bit, here’s “Catskill” - it should do the trick:

“Boys From the County Hell” by The Pogues

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I know they’re not really indie, but someone had to post a Pogues song today, and it might as well be me. This is one of my favorites, off their 1984 album Red Roses For Me.

Sit back with your Guiness and whiskey and enjoy the evening with the dolce tones of Shane Macgowan and The Pogues.

The boys and me are drunk and looking for you.
We’ll eat your friggin’ entrails and we won’t give a damn.
Me daddy was a blue shirt and my mother a madam,
And my brother earned his medals at My Lai in Vietnam.

“Blood” by The Middle East

I randomly came across The Middle East’s The Recordings of… a few days ago and I’ve not stopped listening to them. There’s not much information available about them, but from what I can gather, they are Australian and they broke up right after they put this album out this past Christmas. However, rumor has it they got back together and are about to go on tour in support of the album. The album is of the new folk variety, but it has some really dreamlike ambient touches.

Since it’s a perfect lazy Sunday I thought some dreamy mellow music would be an apt post, so here’s “Blood” by The Middle East.

“Better Man” by Graham Day & The Gaolers

Our friends across the pond sure do know how to make some rockin’ tunes. To wit, Brits Graham Day & The Gaolers’ sophomore album, November 2008’s Triple Distilled, which again proves that the sophomore slump is nothing more than a myth propagated by record companies explaining the bullsh*t their one-hit wonders subsequently produce.

Graham Day & The Gaolers play balls-out garage rock with some retro and punk underpinnings. What could be better? My guess is, not much.

WARNING: MAY CAUSE INVOLUNTARY DANCING

If I tell you you’ve lost weight,
Or if I say that you look great,
It might make me more complimentary,
It certainly don’t make me
A better man,
Cuz I’m not being honest.