Mars Needs Guitars

June eMusic Downloads (My Teenage Stride, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Art Brut & Palomar)

2007-07-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

Here is the first round of eMusic downloads that cover the month of June '07. I have been a member of eMusic now for at least a year and really love it. I get 90 downloads a month and use them up rather quickly. It is by far the best digital music download service out there and is totally DRM free. If you sign up for the service via the link below you will also be helping keep Mars Needs Guitars alive since I get a small kickback from those who subscribe via my link. It would be greatly appreciated.

So, here is the first half of new albums I downloaded for the month of June and some tracks to enjoy. You can sign up by clicking on the link below and get the first 25 mp3's free, plus you can cancel immediately if you don't like the service (which I am confident you will not do because it is excellent).

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

My Teenage Stride

mp3 Depression Kicks

mp3 Ruin

Ears Like Golden Bats

Black Moth Super Rainbow

mp3 Drippy Eye

mp3 Jump Into My Mouth And Breathe The Stardust

Dandelion Gum

Art Brut

mp3 Sound Of Summer

mp3 Late Sunday Evening

It's A Bit Complicated

Palomar

mp3 Bridge Of Sighs

mp3 Beats Beat Nothing

All Things, Forest

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic

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Crazy

2007-07-06T21:02:00.000-05:00

image from here

"I made enough money to buy a house. That's crazy, but fame proved ephemeral." - Moon Unit Zappa

"They'll probably make it unpatriotic to be Democrat. It's pretty crazy." - Neil Young

"I stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them strings with a bottleneck. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn." - Muddy Waters

"We're all crazy and the only difference between patients and their therapists is the therapists haven't been caught yet." - Max Walker

"When Jesus comes back, these crazy, greedy, capitalistic men are gonna kill him again." - Mike Tyson

"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Like, the kind of arrogance that some of the policy makers and world leaders are carrying with them right now is, I think, reflective of the very worst of the United States. It's that teenage arrogance, as a young country, the know-it-all kind of thing. That makes me crazy." - Michael Stipe

"What will I be doing in twenty years' time? I'll be dead, darling! Are you crazy?" - Freddie Mercury

"You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy." - Charles Manson

"Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy." - Sigmund Freud

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?" - Albert Einstein

"My son don't have to say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. He don't have to be called those crazy names." - James Brown

mp3 Let's Go Crazy

Prince And The Revolution - Music from the Motion Picture "Purple Rain"

mp3 Crazy Beat

Blur - Think Tank

mp3 Went Crazy

The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro/Wilder

mp3 Wild And Crazy

Division Of Laura Lee - Black City

mp3 Crazy About You

Whiskeytown - Pneumonia

mp3 Crazy (Studio Version)

Her Space Holiday - Audio Astronomy

mp3 Crazy

The Afghan Whigs - 1965

mp3 Still Crazy

The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic

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It's All About Getting In Tune

2007-07-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

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"It is impossible to experience one's death objectively and still carry a tune." - Woody Allen

"If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune." - Count Basie

"For a person as obsessed with music as I am, I always hear a song in the back of my head, all the time, and that usually is my own tune. I've done that all my life." - Bjork

"It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents." - Samuel Butler

"I think you can have the greatest lyrics in the world and if it doesn't have the best tune in the world it will suck. I mean if the music wasn't important it would just be a poem." - Julian Cope

"You can't teach the old maestro a new tune." - Jack Kerouac

"The audiences are there as a result of my history with the band but also as a result of my being able to reach people with a tune." - Bruce Springsteen

"Once in a while and really the exception, will be when I have an idea, then I'll write a poem first and then write a tune to the poem." - Roger McGuinn

mp3 Getting In Tune

The Who - Who's Next

mp3 Dream Wanderer's Tune

Deerhoof - Milk Man

mp3 Her Melancholy Tune

Superdrag - Last Call For Vitriol

mp3 I Could Never Tune

The Subjects - With the Ease Grace Precision and Cleverness of Human Beings

mp3 Intro And Theme Tune

Six. By Seven - Club Sandwich At The Peveril Hotel

mp3 Pavement Tune

The Frames - Set List

mp3 Sugartune

Sloan - Smeared

mp3 Stay Tuned

Ambulance Ltd - Ambulance LTD

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Angel And The Love Mongers - The Humanist Queen

2007-07-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Angel And The Love Mongers are from Knoxville, Tennessee but their music has a distinctive Brit pop feel to it. The band is singer/guitarist Angel Zuniga and drummer Eric Nowinski and their latest, The Humanist Queen, will be officially released September 4th on Rock Snob Records (though it appears the album can be picked up on CD Baby right now). Add to the mix some studio help and production by famed artist/producer Mitch Easter and you have a very nice piece of lush music.

mp3 The Humanist Queen

Angel And The Love Mongers Website

Angel And The Love Mongers MySpace

Buy The Humanist Queen here

Video - Home from The Humanist Queen

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Summertime Mix - Part II

2007-06-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

image from here

mp3 Summer

The Church - Forget Yourself

mp3 Summer Chill

Chapterhouse - Mesmerise

mp3 Summer Here Kids

Grandaddy - Under the Western Freeway

mp3 Summer

Mogwai - Ten Rapid (Collected Recordings 1996-1997)

mp3 Summer In The City

Vietnam - Vietnam

mp3 Summer Loop

Folksongs For The Afterlife - Put Danger Back in Your Life

mp3 Summer Skin

Death Cab For Cutie - Plans

mp3 Summer

Wheat - Medeiros

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Summertime Mix - Part I

2007-06-26T20:02:00.000-05:00

image taken from here

Sorry about the lack of posting lately, the Black Dog has been seriously on my ass and I have been under. I woke up the other day and realized it was summer, wtf... My whole life is passing me by and I sometimes wonder why I am even still alive.
There is no need though for you to miss out on some summer tunes. Just a word of advice, don't ever ever take the good things you have (a job, a significant other, money, a nice place to live) for granted. It is when you reach the lowest of lows as I have, that you realize how lucky you are to have had those things and you pray everyday that you can once again have them. Words of wisdom from a down and out, depressed loser..

mp3 Endless Summer

Follow The Train - Breath of Sigh

mp3 Feel Good Hit Of The Summer

Queens Of The Stone Age - Rated R

mp3 Gold In The Air Of Summer

Kings Of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street

mp3 It's Summertime

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

mp3 Lone Summer Dream

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Origin, Vol. 1

mp3 Skills Of Summer

Wire Train - Last Perfect Thing: A Retrospective

mp3 Summer Gold

The Eaves - The Eaves

mp3 Summertime Blues

T. Rex - Electric Warrior Sessions

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Peel

2007-06-16T21:01:00.000-05:00

It's rare to get this ecstatic over a new band but Austin's Peel have done that for me. Yes, I am a little late at the game since it appears Peel have already garnished a ton of blog love. But they are good enough for another mention here. Their music is a fuzzy, warbling blend of power pop that shines on every track. Take note, take a listen to the goodness of Peel.

"A warped power-pop sound combining lots of guitar fuzz and other noise with bright, catchy melodies." - KEXP

"We're pretty into the self-titled debut from the brainy Austin outfit Peel; then again, we're suckers for any song that sounds like a 21st-century take on the Meat Puppets' "Backwater."" - Idolator

"Borrowing the trademark looseness of Pavement with the vocal deliveries in the vein of Apples in Stereo, Austin's Peel seems to have something both new and energetic with enough nostalgic reference points to be charmingly familiar." - Gorilla Vs Bear

mp3 Sliding Doors

mp3 Love Soaked In Blood

Peel - Peel

Peel On MySpace

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Untitled Records

2007-06-15T00:05:00.000-05:00

The always lovely Rachel from the Untitled blog has moved to a new blog with a new domain name. The new blog is called Untitled Records and is looking awesome to say the least. Rachel is one of my most favorite bloggers and is one of the nicest, friendliest bloggers you will ever meet. She also has excellent taste in music. So, update your bookmarks and visit Rachel at her new site and leave a comment congratulating her on the new digs.

mp3 Untitled

Blonde Redhead - Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons

mp3 Untitled

Six. By Seven - 04

mp3 Untitled

Charlene - Charlene

mp3 Untitled

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

mp3 Untitled

The Cure - Disintegration

mp3 Untitled

Superchunk - Cup of Sand

mp3 Untitled

Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights

mp3 Untitled

Salim Nourallah - Polaroid

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Anger

2007-06-11T18:12:00.000-05:00

image from here

According to Live Science, Anger Fuels Better Decisions.

"Despite its reputation as an impetus to rash behavior, anger actually seems to help people make better choices—even aiding those who are usually very poor at thinking rationally. This could be because angry people base their decisions on the cues that "really matter" rather than things that can be called irrelevant or a distraction."

"Previous research has shown that anger biases people’s thinking—turning them into bigger risk-takers and making them less trusting and more prejudiced, for instance."

"In both studies, the researchers found that the angry subjects were better at discriminating between strong and weak arguments and were more convinced by the stronger arguments. Those who were not made to feel angry tended to be equally convinced by both arguments, indicating that they were not as analytical in their assessments."

Read the full article here.

What the hell? I guess all that money spent on self help books and countless clinics/seminars was just all a waste. Forget about toning down that anger, instead ratchet it up and start making better decisions. Jeebus.....

mp3 Anger

The Czars - The Ugly People Vs. the Beautiful People

mp3 Never In Anger

Rainer Maria - Past Worn Searching

mp3 A Little Anger

Sleet - Volume Drops

mp3 Don't Be Afraid Of Your Anger

Clem Snide - The Ghost of Fashion

mp3 Don't Look Back In Anger

Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?

mp3 Angryman

Band Of Bees - Sunshine Hit Me

mp3 This Angry Silence

Television Personalities - And Don't the Kids Just Love It

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Oblivion Mix

2007-06-10T01:02:00.000-05:00

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Oblivion - the condition or state of being forgotten or unknown

But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity. - Thomas Browne

Ignorance is not bliss - it is oblivion. - Philip Wylie

Since fame is an illusion and death is in our future all we have is the next moment before we are swallowed into oblivion. - Al Goldstein

The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objectives; history records the successes of the latter, while oblivion is the reward of the former. - Alfred A. Montapert

Apathy is a sort of living oblivion. - Horace Greeley

An artist, under pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature. - Auguste Renoir

Oblivion is the rule and fame the exception, of humanity. - Antoine Rivarol

But what is all this fear of and opposition to Oblivion? What is the matter with the soft Darkness, the Dreamless Sleep? - James Thurber

Pleasure is a sort of oblivion, a forgetfulness. Pain is remembrance, you cannot forget pain. - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

mp3 Feeling Oblivion

Turin Brakes - The Optimist LP

mp3 Cmon Cmon Oblivion

Macha - Forget Tomorrow

mp3 Have You Forgotten

Red House Painters - Vanilla Sky

mp3 What's Forgotten

Vitesse - You Win Again Gravity

mp3 Forgotten Works

Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future

mp3 For People Unknown

Windsor For The Derby - We Fight Til Death

mp3 Unknown

Tortoise - It's All Around You

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New Inbox Music Downloads

2007-06-09T18:05:00.000-05:00

Here's a selection of new indie tunes fresh from the Email Inbox, definitely worth checking out!

Here is the first single from Spiritual Mansions' - Give Us Your Hearts (Afternoon Records). Spiritual Mansions are from Minneapolis and are a band that favors big rock choruses, a classically trained pianist and writing good pop songs. Give Us Your Hearts will be out June 19th.

mp3 The Tumbler

Spiritual Mansions - Give Us Your Hearts

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Division Day are from LA and have recently "found a new home" at Eenie Meenie Reocrds. The band's debut album Beartrap Island will be "officially" released in the Fall. They will also be opening for The Fratellis in both San Francisco and Los Angeles next week.

mp3 Lights Out

Division Day - Beartrap Island

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The email calls Chicken Poodle Soup "The Last Living Ska Band Ever, Ever". The band is based out of Minneapolis, MN and if you like Ska, horns and all, then these guys are it. Good stuff!

mp3 The Panic Show

Chicken Poodle Soup - Fridge Full of Dreams Ep

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"Lejeune is a Washington, DC quintet dedicated to writing and performing romantic pop rock about the usual: Japanese nightclubs, dorm-room affairs, street violence, and magical thinking. The seasoned ensemble has honed its robust and velvety sound, finding inspiration in '60s torch singers, spaghetti-western soundtracks, and new wave pop."

mp3 Bizarre Histrionics

Lejeune - For Club And Country

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Airiel are from Chicago and bring us some serious shoegaze. "Many bands today are an exercise in minimalism, stripping everything down to bone and sinew. Airiel takes a different approach. Injecting their well-crafted songs with an arsenal of flangers, reverb, and distortion while simultaneously producing hummable and even danceable songs, much like Ride, House of Love, and Chapterhouse before them." Thinktank is a blistering track from their latest The Battle Of Sealand (Highwheel Records) which comes out August 21, 2007. Awesome!

mp3 Thinktank

Airiel - The Battle Of Sealand

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The Moon Mix

2007-06-09T01:02:00.000-05:00

image from here

Yeah, I love astronomy and the amazing mysteries surrounding the stars, planets and galaxies. A favorite site is the Astronomy Picture Of The Day Archive which shows a daily picture of some fantastic and beautiful features of our universe. It's mind boggling stuff to say the least.

An awesome, recent pic is the Great Mountain Moonrise:

"On May 31st, a gorgeous Full Moon rose over Uludag Mountain in Bursa Province, Turkey. This alluring telephoto view of the twilight scene is a composite of images taken roughly every two minutes beginning shortly after Sunset, following the rising Moon as it moves up and to the right. Of course, as the Moon rises it gets brighter and changes color, becoming less reddened as the sight-line through the dense atmosphere is steadily reduced. Each of the final two exposures also captured a rising planet Jupiter. Like the Full Moon, the bright, wandering planet is nearly opposite the Sun in Earth's sky and was caught on the lefthand side of the picture in two places, just above a small peak in the mountain side. Intriguingly, some considered this Full Moon a Blue Moon." - source

mp3 Low Red Moon

Belly - Star

mp3 Moonrainbow

The Comas - Conductor

mp3 Blue Moon Rising

Gomez - Liquid Skin

mp3 Blue Moonlight

Los Lobos - Just Another Band from East L.A.: A Collection

mp3 Moonlight

My Bloody Valentine - Geek! EP

mp3 Red Moon

Turin Brakes - Jackinabox

mp3 The Whole Of The Moon

The Waterboys - This Is the Sea

mp3 Gentle Moon

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

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Random Associations

2007-06-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

image from here

Do you feel any colder, locked as always in a strangely isolated place?

The Stars, they beckon you, dancing in the sky...

If only you could reach far enough to touch one, then it would be

The whole world shines in front of you but it is not yours to see

For the weariness of untold secrets, all you really need is an honest friend

But all you find there is a scattered soul and a kingdom of lies

And you grasp, you reach, you push, harder against the grain

Only to find yourself, more than ever, locked deep in that cold dark place

mp3 Colder

Travis - The Boy with No Name

mp3 A Strangely Isolated Place

Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place

mp3 The Stars

Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

mp3 Dancing In The Sky

Moonbabies - Moonbabies at the Ballroom

mp3 The Whole World

The Dilettantes - 101 Tambourines

mp3 An Honest Friend

Summerbirds In The Cellar - With the Hands of the Hunter It All Becomes Dead

mp3 Kingdom Of Lies

Folk Implosion - One Part Lullaby

mp3 More Than Ever

Bedhead - Transaction de Novo

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Seas, Oceans Mix

2007-06-06T20:05:00.000-05:00

image from here

Yeah, I stole part of the name of the post from the wonderful Tim over at the Contrast Podcast. For some reason I can't get my act together to contribute and Tim has been nice enough to invite me numerous times. I guess I am a little leery about contributing since I will probably pick some depressing song and talk about how it depresses me (my constant state of being for quite awhile now). Anyhow, you should go check out the latest edition of The Contrast Podcast entitled Seas, Oceans And All Things Marine. It's a good one for sure!

Also, if you like mixtapes and mixes in general than please go visit Monkey Bastard's MP3 Blahg where you will find some of the best mixes in the music blogosphere. Mr. MB has definitely put some time into these mixes and they are outstanding. You can download the latest or check his archives. The latest one up is titled Golly! It's Monkey Bastard's Beach Party Compilation 2007!!!. Truly one of my favorite blogs these days, I love well thought out and eclectic mixtapes like these.

And speaking of Seas, Oceans - here is a little mix of that flavor to make up for not contributing to the latest Contrast Podcast.

mp3 The Ocean

U2 - Boy

mp3 In Deep Sea

Pillow - Flowing Seasons

mp3 At Sea

Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls

mp3 Salty Seas

Devics - Push The Heart

mp3 Sea Shanty

The Pogues - Red Roses for Me

mp3 We Sleep In The Ocean

The Cloud Room - The Cloud Room

mp3 Way Of The Ocean

Three Mile Pilot - Another Desert, Another Sea

mp3 Blue Blue Ocean

Echo & The Bunnymen - Echo & the Bunnymen

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eMusic Downloads (Shout Out Louds, Electrelane, Trespassers William & White Rabbits)

2007-06-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

This post concludes the music I downloaded per my purchased credits on eMusic for the month of May. My credits renew on June 9th so there will be a batch of new and old stuff to get. eMusic is by far the best source for digital (DRM free) music downloads. Their catalogue keeps growing with new indie music and old classics. If you are into Shoegaze they also have a nice selection of shoegaze related bands on the site. If you sign up for the service via the link below you will also be helping keep Mars Needs Guitars alive since I get a small kickback from those who subscribe via my link. It would be greatly appreciated since I am coming up on my yearly host service renewal costs.

So, here is the second half of new albums (for the month of May) that I downloaded and some tracks to enjoy. You can sign up by clicking on the link below and get the first 25 mp3's free, plus you can cancel immediately if you don't like the service.

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Shout Out Louds

mp3 Streams Of Whiskey (Pogues Cover)

Tonight I Have To Leave It

Electrelane

mp3 Tram 21

No Shouts, No Calls

Trespassers William

mp3 Low Point (Noble House Performance)

Noble House EP

White Rabbits

mp3 March Of The Camels

Fort Nightly

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Holy Shit - Mars Really Does Need Guitars!

2007-05-30T22:01:00.000-05:00

Got this one from The Constant Skeptic

According to the Nasa website:

"Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist. The unusual hole pictured above was found on the slopes of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons. The above image was captured three weeks ago by the HiRISE instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The holes were originally identified on lower resolution images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, The above hole is about the size of a football field and is so deep that it is completely unilluminated by the Sun. Such holes and underground caves might be prime targets for future spacecraft, robots, and even the next generation of human interplanetary explorers." - link

Another post here on the subject.

Holy Shit Batman, my theory is these are large alien concert halls where the Martians rock out. Now all we need to do is to fly to Mars and bring them some of our Earth guitars to try out in those huge concert halls. Just think, the first Earth based concert on the planet Mars. And I know just the band to send:

mp3 Mars Needs Guitars!

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

mp3 Black Hole

Jetscreamer - Starhead

mp3 Polaroids From Mars

Tullycraft - Disenchanted Hearts Unite

mp3 Oxygenating Mars

The Polish Ambassador - Diplomatic Immunity

mp3 A Love From Outer Space

A.R. Kane - "i"

mp3 Prince Of Mars

Kitchens Of Distinction - Capsule: The Best of KOD 1988-94

mp3 Trip To Mars

Skatalites - Greetings from Skamania

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The Foundry Field Recordings - Fallout Stations EP

2007-05-29T22:01:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite releases of last year was Prompts/Miscues from Missouri's Foundry Field Recordings. On June 5th, a new companion EP – Fallout Stations (Emergency Umbrella Records) will be released. The EP contains new songs, rarities and highlights directly related back to Prompts/Miscues. The last track on the EP titled Transistor Kids starts out with a one minute piano solo and then morphs into fuzzed out guitar shoegaze pop. Excellent!

mp3 Transistor Kids

Here's the video for Holding The Pilots/Holding The Facts from Prompts/Miscues.

mp3 Holding The Pilots/Holding The Facts

Foundry Field Recordings Website

Foundry Field Recordings MySpace

Pre-order Fallout Stations EP

Sign up to eMusic & download Prompts/Miscues with your 25 free downloads

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