Audio Absinthe

I have a couple of friends whose musical tastes and opinions I really respect.  The one who showed me Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” expects it will explode on the blogosphere becoming a hit and there’s good reason to believe him, it’s just starting to happen now.  BlackBookMag.com compares their sound to MGMT and Peter, Bjorn, and John, predicting the song to become one of the big hits of this summer.  Indie radio stations can be, at times, predictable and if you keep track on Hype Machine and Elbo.ws alone, you’ll have a pretty good collection of these kind of blogosphere hits. The song has been selected as a favorite by over 2,500 different people and the song’s only been around for a week.  Check out Foster The People’s official website and you might find all of the songs just as refreshing and enjoyable as “Pumped Up Kicks.”  If there was a fantasy music league, I think these guys would be a good bet.

MP3: Foster The People – “Pumped Up Kicks”

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The Radio Dept. is an indie-pop rock band from Sweden.  Their upcoming album, Clinging To A Scheme, is scheduled for release in April of this year and will be their 3^rd full length release to date.  The single off of the album is called “David” but it’s another track, “Heaven’s On Fire,” that has become one of the most blogged about songs of 2010.

MP3: The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire”

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Clinging To A Scheme (Labrador, April 2010)

Sub Pop records has joined SoundCloud.  They’re premiering their newest release by Dear Companion allowing you to stream the full album, song by song.  Here are some of the songs from the Sub Pop catalog that have been uploaded to SoundCloud already.  If you haven’t checked out the new Beach House album, I strongly recommend looking into it…

Beach House – “Norway” (Subpop, January 2010)

Flight of the Conchords – “Sugalumps” (Subpop, October 2009)

Fruit Bats – “The Ruminant Band” (Subpop, August 2009)

Nirvana – “About a Girl” (Subpop, 1989)

Fyfe Dangerfield is the front man of Guillemots. His debut solo album is called Fly Yellow Moon and it was released on January 18th in the UK. I’ve only heard two of the tracks off the album. “She Needs Me” perfectly embodies all of the soft, pop qualities that were already bothering me with “When You Walk In The Room” which is otherwise fun and avoidably catchy.  I’m suspicious that the album’s overall sound is closer to “She Needs Me” which I didn’t really enjoy.  There’s something about “When You Walk In The Room” that I do like a lot but I can’t really put my finger on it.  Since those are the only two songs I’ve heard from the album, I guess I’ll have to wait until it’s released in the US to really check it all out.

MP3: Fyfe Dangerfield – “When You Walk In The Room”

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Fly Yellow Moon (Polydor Records, January 2010 (UK))

At the end of 2009, Florence and the Machine released a special 4-disc deluxe edition of their debut album, Lungs.  The bonus tracks include acoustic versions, remixes, and live performances of the songs from the debut album.  Florence’s powerful voice shines on these acoustic tracks.  ”Hurricane Drunk” is the 6th single from the album and will be released on March 22, 2010 with the acoustic version included.  Not included in the deluxe re-release was Florence’s cover of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love.”  It’s a pretty amazing version of the hit song from ‘86 and certainly not what I was expecting when I first learned of it.  These are truly great, beautiful songs.

MP3: Florence and the Machine – “Hurricane Drunk (Acoustic Version)”

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MP3: Florence and the Machine – “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (Acoustic Version)”

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Lungs (Deluxe Edition) (November 2009)

MP3: Florence and the Machine – “Addicted To Love (Robert Palmer)”

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