First Listen: R.E.M. – “Oh My Heart”

Another great one from NPR today, as the track “Oh My Heart” from R.E.M.’s forthcoming Collapse Into Now has been released for our listening pleasure.  The song, which features a nice callback to Accelerate‘s “Houston” (“The storm didn’t kill me… the government changed.”) is a lovely continuance of the energy and focus of that earlier record into a more acoustic setting.

Michael Stipe told NPR this about the song:

It’s a very quiet and very meditative song dedicated to New Orleans — about New Orleans. Jacknife [Lee] is great as a producer, because he saw that we were struggling with what is a very quiet song. We were standing really far away from each other in the room, and it was hard not only to actually physically hear each other, but it felt dispersed. He brought us into the middle, and instantly, of course, the song worked.

Head on over to NPR and check it out!

First Listen: The Decemberists – The King is Dead

One of the albums I’m most looking forward to in 2011 – The Decemberists’ The King is Dead – comes out on January 18th.  But thanks to NPR’s First Listen series, you can now hear the whole thing in its entirety for free on their site.  The album will be available until Jan. 18th, and I heartily recommend you check it out.

Go here to hear The King is Dead, now!

Happy New Year! — A 2010 “Retropackle.”

Hey, everyone!  Happy New Year!  I hope that you have a good one, and that you’re surrounded by good food, friends, and music.  It’s been a long year over here (the epic dissertation struggle continues), and I haven’t always been the most attentive (you’re top of the list of New Year’s Resolutions!)… but I wanted to thank everyone for all their love and support.  I’ve been positively blown away by the amount of excellent music that has been sent my way, and the… well, legitimacy, I seem to have stumbled into.

So, in 2011, I’ll be stepping up to keep things rolling around here.  And I hope that you’ll be there, too!  And since it’s customary, follow me for some things I’ve loved this year, as well as some things I’m looking forward to in the New Year!

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Music for a Rainy Day: The Wilderness of Manitoba

One of the hazards, as well as the great joys, of running a site like this is that you quickly accumulate more things that you “just have to mention!” than you can possibly mention.  And so it is that many truly excellent bands and musicians end up resting beneath the vast expanses of “new” that fall everywhere like snow.  And thus it is that this section – “Music for a Rainy Day” – is born.

Unlike the “Things I Should’ve Mentioned,” the “Mailbag,” the “Now Playing,” or the “New Music/Out Now,” this section is a home for all that wonderful stuff whose only crime is that it came along when I was busy making other plans… conversely, all of this accumulated music now makes for many excellent surprises on rainy days!  As is the case with a band that I’ve been literally intending to talk about all year (thanks, again, Slowcoustic for the excellent recommendation!): The Wilderness of Manitoba.

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Two New Iron & Wine Tracks for RSD: Black Friday

If, like me, you’re someone who can’t wait for Iron & Wine to release Kiss Each Other Clean on January 25th, then take heart!  Iron & Wine released a limited-edition 12″ for Record Store Day’s own Black Friday Celebration.  The single features “Walking Far From Home,” which is also on Kiss Each Other Clean, as well as two tracks: “Biting Your Tail” and “Summer in Savannah.”  You can hear “Walking,” and find a link to “Biting,” after the cut:

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