Music Snitch

With all the music festivals going on this summer it’s difficult to keep track of who’s playing where, but the folks at Pitchfork just made it a bit easier.  You can check out their summer festival guide here.

Bear Hands has been working on some new material at the Rumpus Room Studio in Brooklyn, and lucky for us, they taped it.  They also decided to have the audio mastered so they can share it with their fans.  Bear Hands‘ ‘Rumpus Sessions’ is four songs, one classic and three brand new, from their forthcoming debut record (release date unknown).

Take A Listen: Rumpus Sessions from Bear Hands

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Download: Rumpus Sessions (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)

Bear Hands – Website

Tokyo Police Club recently released their latest ‘Champ’ single, “Wait Up (Boots Of Danger)”, and their tour buddies, Passion Pit, gave it a little remix treatment.

Take A Listen: Wait Up (Boots Of Danger) from Tokyo Police Club (Passion Pit Remix)

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Download: Wait Up (Boots Of Danger) (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)

Tokyo Police Club’s new album, ‘Champ’, will hit stores June 8th via Mom + Pop.

The National’s latest album, ‘High Violet’, was released in the states today, along with their new music video for the track, “Bloodbuzz Ohio”.  In other Nacional news, the band’s performance @ Brooklyn Academy of Music on May 15th is being streamed live on YouTube in benefit of the Red Hot Organization.  Here is the link.

Video: Bloodbuzz Ohio from The National

Minus the Bear’s latest album, ‘OMNI’, hits stores today, and if you want to give it a test run before making a purchase decision, you can steam it here.

A bit of insight into ‘OMNI’ (from Dangerbird Records):  This time out MTB wanted to collaborate with an outside producer and began interviewing potential candidates.  Joe Chiccarelli (My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, The Shins) flew up to Seattle and the rapport was immediate, with producer and band in agreement about how to proceed.

“We played the songs for Joe in our rehearsal space and he had a ton of ideas,” Snider says. “He had a great sense of where things could be trimmed, so he was a good set of ears to help us edit what we were trying to get across.”

On April 27, 2009, Minus the Bear began sessions at Seattle’s Avast! Recording Studios, opting to take a more organic approach towards recording.  A conscious effort was made to play together as much as possible, eschewing the usual scratch tracks and overdubs whenever possible.

“He was really awesome about wanting to find the perfect sound before we even started tracking the songs,” Knudson says. “That was a big thing for us, changing the way we record, trying to keep as much of the performances that we were doing in the studio together to maintain the energy.”

“Joe kicked a lot of us in the ass more than any of us had ever been kicked in the ass before,” Knudson says.  “We were doing 10 or 12 takes, more than any of us had ever played, but obviously all those takes paid off. He broke us down and made us evaluate what we were doing and maybe made us think of it from a different perspective.”

Looks like Apple Inc. is shutting down their recently acquired web-based music streaming service, Lala (Apple bought Lala in December).  According to the notice on Lala’s site, their services will no longer be available as of May 31st.   There is speculation that Apple plans on using Lala’s “cloud” technology to develop a web-based iTunes product that would allow users (mobile) to access their music library from various locations.

Lala sent out an email to their customers that included some additional information:

“In appreciation of your support over the last five years, you will receive a credit in the amount of your Lala web song purchases for use on Apple’s iTunes Store.  If you purchased and downloaded mp3 songs from Lala, those songs will continue to play as part of your local music library.

Remaining wallet balances and unredeemed gift cards will be converted to iTunes Store credit (or can be refunded upon request).  Gift cards can be redeemed on Lala until May 31st.”

You can listen to The National’s forthcoming album, ‘High Violet’, in its full glory right now over at the New York Times website.  But move quickly because it will only be available until April 27th.

Along with the release of their sophomore album, ‘La La Land’, Plants and Animals will be broadcasting a live performance from Toronto’’s, Horseshoe Tavern (I think it’s a free gig).  Dose.ca will be streaming video of the show via LiveStream tonight…the set time is 10:40 p.m. EST.

You can also stream the album, ‘La La Land’, in its entirety over at Secret City Records.