Fuzzy Lion

Davey von Bohlen has seen a lot, from huge indie success with his seminal band The Promise Ring, to a horrific tour-van crash in 1998 and in 2002, a thankfully benign brain tumor. While The Promise Ring may not be around any longer, Davey is still releasing amazing music, most recently with his band Maritme.

 Heresy and the Hotel Choir is the band’s third album, and in my opinion, their strongest. From the opener “Guns of Navarone” to the closer “Love Has Given Up,” Maritime has crafted a wonderfully cohesive album that I imagine will find it’s way on many end-of-the-year best-of lists.

Download “Guns of Navarone” here.

Official Homepage: http://www.maritimesongs.com

NYC’s The GoStation received critical acclaim with their 2005 EP Quiet Zone and plenty of support from KEXP, K-Rock, XM & Sirius radio, to name a few. Two years later, The GoStation are finally releasing their first full-length titled Passion Before Function.

Produced by Bill Racine (Rogue Wave, The Flaming Lips, Phantom Planet), Passion Before Function will hit stores tomorrow (September 25). The first single, “All Together Now,” sounds like it could’ve come straight off of an Oasis record. Not surprising, since the band lists Oasis as one of its inspirations, along with U2. Those are some big shoes to fill, but GoStation seems up for the challenge.

Download “All Together Now”

Official Site: http://www.thegostation.com

One of 2007’s best albums thus far has got to be Pela’s Anytown Graffiti.

Hailing from Brooklyn, Pela formed in 2004 and released two EPs before releasing this year’s debut full-length. Citing influences from such artists as Bruce Springsteen, Hubert Selby, Hüsker Dü, Raymond Carver, The Replacements, Andre Dubus, The Pixies, Wilco, and the Hold Steady, Pela has crafted a masterpiece that I have been unable to turn off since my very first play.

Listening to Pela, I can’t help but draw comparisons to one of my favorite bands, The National.  For example, “The Trouble With River Cities” features a simple repeated guitar melody over a shuffling drum beat played with brushes. While the timbre of Pela singer Billy McCarthy’s voice doesn’t sound anything like The National’s Matt Berninger, the same dark simplicity is there and works wonderfully.

Have a listen to a couple of my favorite songs from Anytown Graffiti, “Waiting on the Stairs” (mp3) and “Lost to the Lonesome” (mp3).

The band’s official website can be found here.

Lastly, if you still need convincing that this is one of the best “new” bands out there, you can listen to a wonderful performance the band recorded back in June for KEXP which has recently been made available here.

If you have an eMusic subscription, be sure to download the free Curve Records sampler. There are 6 bands on there, all of them are great.

One of my favorites is Grand:PM. I was all ready to buy their record after hearing both of their efforts on the sampler, but unfortunately it’s not available yet. In the meantime, you can download an mp3 of “God Save the Scene” here, and listen to more tracks on their official MySpace page.

Well, it’s about that time now. Classes are out and Greg Graffin can quit his side-job of teaching at UCLA and get back to what he does best – rocking out with the legendary Bad Religion.

Bad Religion are releasing their 14th (yes, fourteenth!) full-length album on July 10th called New Maps of Hell. You can download a free mp3 of the short (but sweet) first single “Heroes and Martyrs” at their website found here.

Bad Religion is playing all summer long at The Warped Tour. Check their site for more info.

You know it’s summer time when you hear the Mister Softee theme song, and what better way to kick off the start of the summer than a remix version of the tune we’ve all come to love.

Twink is Mike Langlie from Boston and he collects toy pianos. With those toy pianos he creates (and re-creates) some very interesting music that appeals to anyone aged 1 to 100.

Check out his track “Softee” here, and visit his beautiful website here.

One of my most favorite bands, The National, recently recorded a “White Sessions” show which broadcast over French radio today. For those who have never seen or heard this band live, you are really missing a treat. Hopefully a listen to this will inspire you to purchase tickets and see this band the next time they come to a city near you.

For those of you in the NYC area, The National is playing 5 (yes, FIVE) sold-out shows in a row at The Bowery Ballroom.

28 MAY: New York, NY / BOWERY BALLROOM w/ The Broken West // SOLD OUT
29 MAY: New York, NY / BOWERY BALLROOM w/ Doveman // SOLD OUT
30 MAY: New York, NY / BOWERY BALLROOM w/ My Brightest Diamond // SOLD OUT
31 MAY: New York, NY / BOWERY BALLROOM w/ Elysian Fields // SOLD OUT
01 JUN: New York, NY / BOWERY BALLROOM w/ The Philistines Jr. // SOLD OUT

Download and enjoy The National’s “White Sessions” here.

Well it’s finally happened; the full version of “Tarantula” has made it’s way on to the web and this song ROCKS beyond belief.

To all those naysayers that thought “The Smashing Pumpkins 2.0″ would never be able to live up to the original is about to be proven wrong. (Siamese Dream was all Billy and Jimmy anyway!)

“Tarantula” - Removed at label’s request.

Anyone that’s interested in downloading a :30 tease of The Smashing Pumpkins new single “Tarantula” can head over here for an mp3.

Update: Link removed per label’s request.

I was very upset when Tim Booth, lead singer of one of my all-time favorite bands James, announced he was leaving to pursue other projects. They never officially announced a “breakup” but it pretty much went without saying. Tim went on to release a solo record which was less-then-stellar to put it nicely, and us James fans were left reminiscing of the good ‘ol days.

James have been releasing records since 1986 and seemed to just get better as they got older. Their claim to fame in the US is the song “Laid.” (She only comes when she’s on top…come on…you know the song.) While “Laid” is a great song, it doesn’t come close to defining the talent this band possess.

Rather than type out a whole history lesson on this seminal band, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Fresh as a Daisy - The Singles, which is a career-spanning retrospective of the band’s music. It’s the perfect introductory into one of our generations best, and most under-appreciated bands. Unfortunately, some of their best songs never were singles, but then again, some of them were!

In the meantime, here are a few James tracks to help get you started…

“Lost a Friend”
“Don’t Wait That Long”
“Destiny Calling“