Bad News

I am sad that it has come to this. As you may have noticed, when you look back thru my posting history there are a number of large gaps and irregularities. My confession is that this is due to the fact that I have some severe mental illness and battle clinical depression.

Unfortunately, my problems are winning right now. So, I am going on record as stepping away temporarily. I am taking the time to re-prioritize my life and try to get some help.

I WILL BE BACK. I do not know how long I will be away for but I will return. I promise. Until then, if there are any blogs listed on the right that you are not already intimately familiar with, please take the time to become familiar with them. You'll thank me for it later.

I wish you all the best

Peace and love
Matthew

Rare Jeff Buckley Demos

Seeing Heather's new Buckley post, I felt inspired to go ahead and post these demos that are supposedly rare. I don't know for sure about that, but I do know that I just spent over a half-hour listening to "River of Dope" on repeat.

When the Levee Breaks
We Could Be So Happy (Alt. Version)
Forget Her (Alt. Version)
Opened Once
River of Dope
When My Love Comes Down
Untitled

ALright, so Heather got her friend Lisa to hook us up with some information on these tracks. Here's some of what she had to say:
"To the absolute joy and amazement of many, some of these songs
surfaced, late, this past winter. No one really knows their origin.
The file, that contained the tracks, was entitled "Rarities From NYC."
With the exception of, Forget Her (which was most likely recorded
during the Grace sessions) it's believed that most of the tracks were
recorded, in NYC, early to mid 96.

Then there are the rehearsals and preliminary versions of songs for, My
Sweetheart the Drunk, recorded at Sorcerer, in NYC, in the
summer of 96, with Tom Verlaine, pre Parker Kindred. Then there's some
studio recordings, with Verlaine, after Parker joined on as
well. It's hard to pin them down because they aren't mentioned in
anything that's been written about. One can only speculate.

We don't know who is jamming with Jeff on, Levee (which is a total joy
to hear considering Jeff's love of Zeppelin), or on, We Could
Be So Happy Baby (which is fantastic to be able to hear an arrangement
with a full band). I'm guessing this was recorded before his
4-track version, from his solo sessions, in Memphis that actually ends
up on, My Sweetheart the Drunk. It's just lovely to hear him
pulling the guys through some of these songs like when he sings the
chords "gimmie A,A,A,A,A... in, When My Love Comes Down."

How cool is that!?


ALSO, it appears that, as best as I can tell, that EZarchive does not accept Paypal. Does anyone know a good file server that does?

The Society Islands - Don't Miss Out!

On a music forum, a guy posted a link for all of us to download his new album and wanted some feedback. I passed on it at first until all the good feedback started pouring in. Everyone seemed to love it. People were saying it was better than most of the albums that had come out this year. I knew I had to check in on it too, and I am glad I did.
The album "Kiss and Tell", by The Society Islands, has quickly become one of my favorites of the year too. The band is, as the Myspace Page reads, "mostly one guy who made a vow to play every single instrument he can get a hold of - no matter what the consequences." Well, the consequences are quite good on the record. It manages to evoke shades of everything that's good in indie pop, from the Shins and Grandaddy to Pavement themselves.

All these tracks from their Myspace page are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

House of the Syrens
Hotdogs at Sunset
Julia Peculiar
Love Under Palms

Regina Say What?

Regina Spektor has been hot of late. Her new album, "Begin to Hope", and especially the wonderful song "Samson" have been well blogged lately.
However, for those who have been folling Ms. Spektor's wonderful self for a long time knows that this album is quite an instrumental departure from her previous work. Often times before the songs have consisted of just piano and voice, sometimes accompanied by Regina beating a drumstick against her piano bench.
One thing that has not changed however, is the quality of songwriting and the wordplay.
May I suggest checking out a copy of "Soviet Kitsch" to catch up.


Regina Spektor - Flyin'
Regina Spektor - Mary Ann
Regina Spektor - Pavlov's Daughter
Regina Spektor - Us
Regina Spektor - Samson (Original Version)

Polyphonic Spree Pt. 2

Since there was a lot of response to the Polyphonic Spree cover of Lithium, here's another track from that ditched cover EP.

Hope you dig it.

Polyphonic Spree - Sonic Bloom (Tripping Daisy Cover)

Ted Leo Offers You My Forgiveness

So, I was trying to wait until I got my new file-hosting service set up before I posted anything new, but it's taking way too long (bank issues) and I have a ton of new posts planned. Today, I was browsing thru some old forgotten DATs and I came across a slew of great live shows that are worth sharing so here's the first of a few likely coming your way.



Ted Leo
Live 7.19.2004 Albany, NY
Soundboard Audio

01 Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone
02 Biomusicology
03 Me and Mia
04 Counting Down the Hours
05 I'm a Ghost
06 The High Party
07 Little Dawn
08 Heart Problems
09 Under the Hedge
10 The One Who Got Us Out
11 Timorous Me
12 Hearts of Oak
13 Suspect Device
14 Dirty Old Town

Also, I know the site has been getting more hits lately, mainly due to the Polyphonic Spree cover, so if you look thru and see anything that may be expired that you want to hear, either leave me a comment or an email and I'll see about getting those thrown back up for you.