Vout For Voutoreenees

I've been listening to a lot of good music this week, mostly stuff that I've just gotten. To share the wealth, I plucked select songs out of the bunch, and bundled them into a free download sampler for you. Let me know what you think.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DOWNLOAD.

THURSTON MOORE
Trees Outside The Academy: I wonder if anyone expected this record to be so user-friendly. I'm sure the expectations were for 79 minutes and thirty seconds of experimental meanderings. Mine were. Instead, Thurston matches pop song structures with textured, easy-to-digest, idiophonic guitar. It is so good.
Sampler track: "Fri/End"

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PUBLIC ENEMY
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???: Public Enemy are first-ballot inductees in the Bad-Album-Title Hall of Fame. They've sure had some shitty ones. (Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age resides in its very own category of ridiculous.) But here's the good news: How You Sell... is PE's best record in 15 years. The bad news, of course, is that its not as impressive a feat as you'd think. There are a lot of tracks worth hearing on this, and I'm really glad Chuck is back with a credible record after all this time.
Sampler track: "Black is Back"

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WEEDEATER
God Luck and Good Speed: I just discovered this band last week. I was watching an online video of Jim Wendler, a powerlifter I admire. He had this CD in his bag. From what I've heard on various weight-training videos, gym phreaks listen to an awful lot of horseshit, but I figured I'd track the Weedeater down and give them a shot. Lucky me. I've been listening to it plenty. Finding good music this way is like making a new friend. I should have already been aware of Weedeater, via their connection with Billy Anderson, who's worked on High on Fire, Melvins, and Swans records I love. Their web address is weedeatertheband.com.
Sampler track: "God Luck and Good Speed"

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FLOGGING MOLLY
Alive Behind The Green Door
Swagger
Drunken Lullabies
Within a Mile of Home
Whiskey on a Sunday
The only FM song I had heard was from a season-1 episode of Weeds, "If I Ever Leave This World Alive." I got curious about the group, and tracked down the five records above. (My curiosity manifests itself in obsession.) In reading up on the band, I discovered what you all probably already knew: the lead singer is Dave King, who was the voice of Fastway in the 80s. I'm not sure if any more than a few Flogging Molly tracks will end up on my iPod; there's a lot of music to sift through and it's all starting to blend together. (But I can dig a band who's first release is a live record.)
Sampler tracks: "Salty Dog" from Swagger and "If I Ever Leave This World Alive" from Drunken Lullabies.

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DEERHOOF
Untitled: I'm crazy about this band, so I was happy when I checked out their website the other day and found a web-only offering of free mp3s. It's a collection of oddities and rarities. Interesting stuff.
Sampler track: "Holy Night Fever"

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TINARIWEN
Amassakoul and Aman Iman: I have loved one of their tracks ("Tasskiwet") for a while, and reckoned it was time to find more. These two records were a good place for me to continue my education in Tinariwen music. The musicians are Malinese Tuareg rebels. I'm still tracking down as much web material as I can to learn more about them. The music is extraordinary.
Sampler tracks: "Assoul" from Amassakoul and "Awa Didjen" from Aman Iman

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PEEPING TOM
Peeping Tom: Maybe I saved the best for last. I'd been jonesing the Peeping Tom stuff for awhile. I finally got hold of it last week and I can't let go. I put two tracks on the sampler, because you may already have heard "Mojo," which was the single/video. Peeping Tom is Mike Patton (of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, etc.) and a varied gang of contributors. The participants assembled these songs by mail.
Sampler track: "Caipirinha" (feat. Bebel Gilberto) and "Mojo" (feat. Rahzel & Dan The Automator)

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Fuck Was I from the album Batten The Hatches by Youngs, Jenny Owen