Music Worth Buying + Music Worth A Free Download – Vol II

Before I begin this 2nd edition of this column, I’d like to espouse a little bit about my premise.  I believe that music is one of the primary forces that gives meaning to our lives.  In our current world, music occupies a huge space in everything we do.  And yet…we have de-valued it.  Very few people wish to pay for music these days.  I am a believer that it is important to reinforce your values with your wallet, because these artists provide an amazing service.

All of that being said, I, for one, can not afford to buy all of the music I want to hear.  It is for this reason that I seek out music on the internet that is available for legal free download and wish to share it.  I firmly believe that artists who offer free downloads will encourage people to purchase their music by doing so.  They have taken a leap of faith offering their artistic creations to us with no promise of financial reward.  We, as fans, need to show that we can support music again. We cannot all change our spending patterns overnight to start paying hundreds of dollars into the musical economy, but if we can each find it within ourselves to spend $5-10 per month on music we appreciate then artists will have a chance to start thriving again.

And so I lead off with…

MUSIC WORTH BUYING!

I hope she is a brain donor

Ms. Maura – Reversible Lobotomy

This is a fantastic EP that came out late last year.  Ms. Maura’s voice has SO MUCH range and expression.  The record is a tidy 5 tracks long, but these 5 tracks feel so much bigger.  Throughout the first listen, the songs seem to vary a great deal, but something unspoken ties them together.  Subsequent listens serve only to pull you deeper into her world.  She describes this world by calling this “sultry lady music for moody grooving”. Yes, please. I am so happy I bought this record (digitally on iTunes, but still).

Track 1:   You + Me = Not to Be

With some kind of bell intro and an upright-sounding bass, the track sees Ms. Maura’s voice setting the song up as an old school vocal bluesy number.  As layered vocals, an organ, and drums kick in, the track starts becoming something altogether different.

Track 2:   Peace for a Place

This one demonstrates the extent to which she is a vocal powerhouse.  Her voice, when paired with electronic drums, cool noises, more layered harmonies, all sparsely arranged arranged, is something to behold.  Thankfully we secured the right to offer this track as an exclusive download below…so keep reading…we snagged a remix too!

Track 3:   Fuzzy Brain, Heavy Body

A straight-forward rock beat kicks this one off and holds the song steady as layered vocal parts and a shaker fill it in.  The mood evolves into a tabla + organ kind of vibe.  Sounds jarring, doesn’t it?  It is not.

Track 4:   I Don’t Wanna

A powerful vocal performance yet again. This time she taps into the indignant rebellion of being told what to do over a lush pad of strings, and eventually…yup, you guessed, layered vocal parts.  Let’s just say it’s a damn good thing that, with all of these layered vocal parts, we are so lucky she has a fantastic flexible voice.

Track 5:   You Never Know Where You’re Going

This one begins like an earnest sensitive song with arpeggiated piano and finger-picked guitar.  Listen to the words. The rumor is that she first wrote this song as a young child.  If you listen to the words closely, you can picture it.  But this uncomplicated set of words are placed into a lush and beautiful song, that hides the lyrical silliness of a child.

All in all, a very fun collection of songs, and they seem to work together, not simply 5 songs thrown together. I heartily recommend that you buy it.  But if you are as of yet either too broke or too undecided to follow my advice then you are in for a treat.

We at YourPopFilter.com have been given the honor of offering an exclusive download of Peace for a Place. So click away (you may have to use your middle finger instead of your index…or both if you’re on a sweet mac) and download the album version of Piece for a Place. Directly below it is a remix of the same song, and I gotta say it is AWESOME! So please download and listen! Or don’t if you hate free things…stupid Commie!

Peace for a Place (Album Version)

Peace for a Place (Mister Magnanimous Remix)

If you like Ms. Maura, please check out her website at http://www.msmaura.com or her facebook page

MUSIC WORTH DOWNLOADING FOR FREE!

Besides the exclusive download above, there are always good songs available on the internet!

I want a fucking NAKED BABY!

Newermind – SPIN Tribute to Nirvana’s Nevermind

I was excited to check this compilation album out, since its been 20 YEARS(!) since the release of the original and quite frankly, its been a bit played out.  Not all of it, but I’ve got this hunch that this record is on its way to becoming the eventual equivalent of how my generation felt about Bob Marley’s Legend album: almost everyone has it but if you play more than one track at a time, everyone within earshot of your dormroom feels the sudden urge to put on headphones…or hurt you.

Check this track list out! It’s badasss.

1. Meat Puppets: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
2. Butch Walker & the Black Widows: “In Bloom”
3. Midnight Juggernauts: “Come as You Are”
4. Titus Andronicus: “Breed”
5. The Vaselines: “Lithium”
6. Amanda Palmer: “Polly”
7. Surfer Blood: “Territorial Pissings”
8. Foxy Shazam: “Drain You”
9. Jessica Lea Mayfield: “Lounge Act”
10. Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band: “Stay Away”
11 .Telekinesis: “On a Plain”
12. JEFF the Brotherhood: “Something in the Way”
13. EMA: “Endless, Nameless”

Like any compilation is has its ups and downs, but on the whole, it is a lot of fun to listen to. To get your free download, click here, then enter your email and you will get another actual download link.

If you haven’t heard of EMA (who embodies the whole strength of all the screaming, distortion, and feedback noise of the whole album in one hidden track), then first you need to see this:

Then you need to see if you can catch her on tour.  She just announced tourdates:

09-08 Portland, OR – Holocene
09-13 Brighton, England – Green Door Store
09-14 London, England – Cargo
09-15 Bristol, England – Thekla
09-16 Manchester, England – Deaf Institute
09-17 Leffinge, Belgium – Leffinge Festival
09-18 Tilburg, Netherlands – Incubate Festival
09-20 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
09-21 Munich, Germany – Atomic Cafe %
09-22 Berlin, Germany – Festsaal Kreuzberg %
09-23 Hamburg, Germany – Reeperbahn Festival
09-24 Cologne, Germany – Gerbaude 9
09-25 Frankfurt, Germany – Offenbach
09-27 Kufstein, Austria – TBA
09-28 Vienna, Austria – Badeschiff
09-29 St. Gallen, Switzerland – Palace St. Gallen
09-30 Düdingen, Switzerland – Bad Bonn
10-01 Brussels, Belgium – Orangerie
10-07 Seattle, WA – Neptune *
10-08 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore Cabaret *
10-11 Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre *
10-12 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
10-13 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex *
10-14 San Diego, CA – Casbah
10-15 Phoenix, AZ – The Crescent Ballroom $
10-21 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer #
10-22 New York, NY – Webster Hall #
10-23 Boston, MA – Paradise Lounge #
10-24 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club #
10-26 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club #
10-28 Dallas, TX – House of Blues #
10-29 Houston, TX – House of Blues #
10-30 Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa #

% with Ganglians
* with Wild Beasts
$ with Washed Out
# with CSS, MEN

I saw EMA live and it was incredible.  They were opening for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (give them your email address and get a free download of the song Morning Thought from their recent album It’s A Corporate World). I can’t remember how much tickets were (maybe $12) but I felt like even my broke-ass self would’ve been ok with spending that much to see either band by themselves.  That is a sure sign that they have a good live show.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. looks like THIS - their name reminds me of the Pizza!Pizza! ads from Little Caeser's - but they play "baby making music" according to Erika M Anderson

EMA is the solo project of Erika M Anderson (Amps for Christ, Gowns) and it is some combination of kickass rock, ethereal weirdness, and electronic noises…oh yeah and a super intense female vocalist.  All this adds up not only to a common wet dream of mine, but also to an amazing musical experience.  She is also a recording engineer and so her recordings can be pretty amazing (though she occasionally makes different choices than I would).

EMA's magic fingers for all to see on the cover of her album Past Life Martyred Saints

One of my favorite songs from her recent album, Past Life Martyred Saints, is a track called Grey Ship which starts all fuzzy and lo-fi sounding and eventually emerges into HiFi amazingness.  It is available for free download here.

EMA is also featured on another SPIN free download compilation.  This one is called Pitch’s Brew: A Pitchfork Festival Mixtape and it was released by SPIN in June in anticipation of the Pitchfork Festival held in Chicago a couple weeks ago.  EMA kicked off the main stage.

SPIN Presents Pitch’s Brew: A Pitchfork Festival Mixtape