Songs About Albums: Volume 2 Coming Soon!

UPDATE (10 DEC 2016)

Songs About Albums: Volume 2 is now available to download from Bandcamp and SoundCloud!

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Well, it's been a long time coming, but the second volume of Songs About Albums is finally almost ready!

For those who don't remember, Songs About Albums was a free-to-download compilation that The Album Wall released last year via Bandcamp and SoundCloud. It featured 10 songs by 10 different artists, each of whom chose a favourite album to sing about. There were heartfelt tributes to Murmur, Shoot Out the Lights, Transatlanticism, and a whole bunch of other LPs; it was rad, and now there's going to be another volume of it.

An Absolutely Cuckoo Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and to mark the occasion, a few of us got together at Gwdihw and covered our favourite tracks from 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields.

Me (as Shiny Tiger) performing some Magnetic Fields song, probably

It was a slightly bizarre experience, to be quite honest. Listening to an album - particularly an album like 69 Love Songs - tends to be a very private experience, and so it was strange to hear those gorgeous Love Songs in public. Finding myself surrounded by people who knew all the words to Absolutely Cuckoo and Washington, D.C. was something of a revelation; until last night, a small part of me suspected that I may have just imagined 69 Love Songs, because surely if those songs were real then everyone would be singing them?

Let's Pretend We're Stephin Merritt

What are you doing for Valentine's Day this year? Catching a film? Enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner? Jetting off to Paris for a long weekend in the City of Love?

Well, whatever you had planned, cancel it, because you're coming to this instead:

Click here for Facebook event page.

Remember when, a little while back, I convinced a bunch of talented people to cover their favourite tracks from 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields? Well, many of those talented people will be getting together in Cardiff on the 14th of February to perform their covers live and pay musical tribute to Stephin Merritt and his magnificent three-disc masterwork.

EP Corner: Box Rocket

Welcome once again to the cosy little nook that I like to call EP Corner. Each of these blog posts focuses on a commendable example of the extended play format, with the overall goal being to demonstrate that EPs can be just as engaging and as artistically rich as full-length albums. We've already covered Chronic Town by R.E.M. and Of The Night by the Guillemots; today, I'd like to talk about my friend Ed.

Ed is many things: drawing, film-making, and music are just three of the talents on his resumé, and while I'm most interested in his music for the purposes of this blog, it should be noted that the physical version of his Box Rocket EP (available here) comes with a pretty rad comic book, because that's just the sort of multimedia guy he is.

3 for Free

So you want some new albums to listen to, but you've spent all your money on food/petrol/Fabergé eggs? Fear not! Here are three rather good records that you can download gratis:

Secrets of the Witching Hour by The Crimea

Everyone got super-excited when In Rainbows came out and you could pay what you want for it, but the Crimea fans in the audience weren't all that impressed. And that's because some months previously, our favourite band had made their second album available online...for free! As you'll see in the sidebar on the right, this is one of my favourite albums EVER, so I'd strongly recommend that you download it as soon as possible. It's actually a pretty good summer album, in spite of its slightly downbeat themes.

Best Tracks: Don't Close Your Eyes On Me, Light Brigade, Several Thousand Years of Talking Nonsense

BOAT FOR SALE by Ed Stockham

Okay, I may be a little biased here because I know Ed personally, but this is definitely worth a download. It's a pay-what-you-want album, but it does look like you can pay nothing if you're so inclined (although you should definitely stump up whatever cash you can, I'm sure Ed will appreciate it). If you ever watched Spider! on CBBC, you'll find plenty to love here; it's lo-fi but lovely, and a great one for a rainy day.

Best Tracks: i'm not a wise old man, a monster on my shoulder, running

Terroruterino by Siesta!

Just because you don't understand a word they're singing doesn't mean it doesn't rock. Siesta! are a Spanish band whom I discovered through The Waiting Room (a very good radio show that features all kinds of weird and wonderful music), and this album is...well, it's a krautrock album that you could probably get away with playing at a party. Download if you like motorik beats and Mediterranean madness.

Best Tracks: A una chica llevaría una isla desierta, Turbomanises, Uranes

Do you have any good free albums to share with the class? Post a link in the comments below, preferably with a brief description of what it sounds like.