Danielson Alive!!

there is a free danielson ep you get get at emusic.  6 live tracks.  hint: click on each individual download link for each track.  if you click "download album" and you're not a member, they try to get you to sign up.  but they don't bother you about it if you do each track individually.  also: 2008 is The Year Free Music Broke Out i believe.  there's been free music forever, but this year there is a lot.  i like it.

Hey guys, it's tuesday!  i hope you got these albums last week:

TV on the Radio

Dr Dooom.

Dr Dooom is actually very very awesome.  if you hated the return of dr octagon, like most people did, you will love Dr Dooom 2.  Basically he's like, "i killed dr octagon, and y'all are bringin him back?  fuck that.  he's dead.  i'll kill him again."  

and of course tv on the radio is album of the year material.

anyway, this week.  lots of stuff:

*Mercury Rev

*Murs

*People Under The Stairs

*Madlib (but the vinyl is out on oct 14)

*Ani DiFranco

*Ben Folds

*Polysics (but shoot, i already got that on vinyl a long time ago!)

*Roots Manuva

*Jennifer Hudson (yeah i dunno.  she's a great singer but it could have annoying production or songwriting and it might end up not being great.  i'll hold off for now.)

and reissues of

Creedence Clearwater Revival (basically all of their albums now with bonus tracks!)

The Jesus And Mary Chain (box set of b sides & rarities)

oh and IRON MAN on dvd!

and THE BEACH BOYS AND THE SATAN on dvd!

oh guys, i never told you so you might not know: there is a charity digital EP from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists available at touch & go records.  it's called Rapid Response and it is awesome.  it's a response to what happened at the Republican National Convention.  very quick, dirty recordings made in like a day or so.  like punk rock is supposed to be.  you should get it.

thank you 3 doors down

I went to see Cloverfield today.  More on that later.  But when we went into the theater I saw/heard Matt Walsh.  And there up on the screen was the Upright Citizens Brigade (minus Amy Poehler)!  Now, I have not yet seen season 3, so I don't know if this was from that or if it's the gang getting back together to shoot weird random things to play at movie theaters.  That in itself was supercool.  

However, you take the bad with the good. Another pre-show item that played in the theater was a music video by 3 Doors Down.  This in itself was painful, but not my main source of annoyance.  The music video was a promotional tool of the US National Guard.  And apparently you can get the song for free at the National Guard website, so if you're into 3 Doors Down, you should totally join the National Guard.  Or at least go to the website.  I'm not gonna look it up or link to it, because I don't want to help them out.

During the music video slogans flashed on the screen.  Now, I associate the National Guard with the rest of the US military, so the irony was more about other facets of the military, but some of the slogans were "Never Give Up," "Never Admit Defeat," and the best one was "Never Leave...A Comrade" (the first part came up, followed by the second part).  I guess the editor of the piece couldn't sneak in "Never Learn From Your Mistakes" without being too obvious.

Now that I think about it, I wonder how deep this influence goes.  How many movies does this video play at?  Because when I think about it, the movie Cloverfield paints the National Guard in a (fairly) favorable light.  I'm not saying there was an influence on the movie (at least I hope not!), I'm just wondering if there's an endorsement and if there's a shady reason that propaganda played before the movie.

Plus, 3 Doors Down sucks.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Army Bound

Buy Living With The Living at the Touch & Go Digital store!  (Or get the vinyl, of course.  Probably comes with a free digital download that way.)