Last night I went to see the Rilo Kiley tour kickoff. We missed The Golden Age (the line outside was sort of a mess), but did catch Tim Kasher doing a solo-acoustic set, which ended with a couple of really great songs, then M. Ward doing his great folk guitar thing, and then Rilo Kiley playing a great set to the sold-out crowd.

• M. Ward – Carolina [128Kbps 4.0MiB]
• Rilo Kiley – The Good That Won’t Come Out [6.5MiB]

I recently got picked up 4 CD’s that I wouldn’t have bought if it weren’t for downloading the MP3s:

• The Postal Service – Such Great Heights [6.8MiB]

Couldn’t resist. Ripped some songs from the Morning Becomes Eclectic RA. Here’s one of my fav new songs that I didn’t have a good quality version before:

• Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life (Live).mp3

RA -> WAV -> Normalize -> LAME – not the best lineage, but well, it sounds way better than what I had before.

Picked up the Saddle Creek 50 at the BE concert last week. Been listening to it a lot. 22 tracks by 11 artists (1 old, 1 new) on 2 CDs for $10. Good deal:

• 12 – Bright Eyes – One Foot In Front of the Other [7.1MB MP3]

If you walk away, I’ll walk away

But first tell me which road you will take

I don’t want to risk our paths crossing some day

So you walk that way, I’ll walk this way

(was great live) – oh hey, Bright Eyes did Morning Becomes Eclectic (new songs, starting with One Foot In Front of the Other) last week – at the show Conor explains the whole guitar tuning, apparently he had the chance to take his guitar into the shop before the tour… but didn’t, and is currently regretting it.

U2 – The Hands That Built America (Live – 2003 Oscars) [6.1 MB]

Late in the spring, yellow cloud on a desert skyline,

Some father’s son, Is it his or is it mine?

Giving Source Tags & Codes a good re-listen, and am digging it much more than the first time. Same thing happened w/ the Interpol album. I’d pick up a copy of Source Tags right now, but Interscope is an RIAA member (Yes, this does actually affect my purchasing decisions [of course, my end of the year EFF contributions as well]).

Luckily I’ve acquired a few tracks to keep me otherwise occupied this past week. A former coworker plays drums for an Austin band called Halley. They played at La Zona Rosa after this year’s 20×2, and were pretty rockin’ live. They’re album is great (where to buy it), with this great post-rocky type feel. Here’s a track from that’s been in rotation:

• 01 – Halley – Adventures of George and the robbers (record player pt. 1) [8.3MB]

Also, I picked up a copy of Scott Andrew‘s American Thing EP (MP3’s at his site). I’m ferverntly awaiting some more script rock (although hopefully, with a sing-along chorus).

Hung around campus for the Piebald show at Ground Zero tonight. Piebald was pretty cool, but who I was really blown away by was the band they’re touring with, Minus the Bear. I liked ’em so much that I actually picked up both their EP’s and their full length from the merch table.

• 01 – Minus The Bear – Spritz!!! Spritz!!!.mp3
• 05 – Minus The Bear – Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo.mp3

I just threw up some recordings of some new (unreleased) songs that Conor sang on the tour. I believe he sang all three in the encore of the LA Bright Eyes show I went too. The first two are excellent recordings from an Austin show, and then last song (my fav of the three) is unfortunately lower quality (from SF).

• The Trees Get Wheeled Away
• I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (Road to Joy)
• First Day of My Life

I haven’t been following my U2 news much lately. Those who know me well know that I’m a huge fan. They are practically the only band I’ve listened to consistently since I was a kid, and if I was forced to pick one, they’d easily top my list of “favorite band ever.” That being said, I had no idea they had a new single, coming out, but they do, and it’s very cool. Sorta Doves-like.

There are apparently 5 versions of the song, but I’ve only gotten my hands on three four of them:

• Electrical Storm (Radio1 Demo) [6,280KB] – my fave version right now
• Electrical Storm (Album Version) [6,100KB]
• Electrical Storm (Single Version) [5,116KB]
• Electrical_Storm_Orbit.mp3 [6,014KB] – this is William Orbit Mix (Radio Edit)

Hmm, it’s been a while since I post up some MP3s, so here’s some stuff I’ve been listening to recently:

• 01 – Ben Gibbard – Plans Get Complex.mp3 [3,780KB] – All Time Quarterback, a bunch of Death Cab for Cutie front-man Ben Gibbard’s old low-fi recordings. Reissue available from Barsuk. Short album, but some great little tunes.
• 06 – Desaparecidos – The Happiest Place on Earth.mp3 [5,360KB] – Earlier this year Connor Oberst fronted this politico-rock side project. This song is my favorite from the album; if you like it, you’ll probably like the rest of album.
• 11 – Bright Eyes – From A Balance Beam.mp3 [5,284KB] – Ok, so this came out earlier this year on the There Is No Beginning to the Story EP, but it’s still one of my favorite (and one of the more accessible) tracks on the new Lifted album.

A while back, a friend mentioned Bright Eyes to me. While I was crawling around AudioGalaxy I picked up a bunch of songs (well, pretty much everything out there, that’s pretty much how I like downloading songs… and unfortunately, buying albums, or more accurately, catalogues). A few weeks back, I did end up buying a mess of Saddle Creek albums, and while I’m still digesting, there’s definitely some good stuff. I’ve been listening to this one song for months and am still in love with it.

• 02 – Bright Eyes – A Perfect Sonnet.mp3 [5.4 MB]

It’s sort of strange thinking that the singer/songewriter Conor Oberst is the same age as I am. In some ways it makes me think I should be doing more with my life, but in other ways, it just reminds me what I’ve invested my time in. It’s good to see people really doing something well though. Hmm, that ramble led nowhere. Anyway, it’s pretty cool in any case. He’s also in/been in: Commander Venus and Desaparecidos, both of which have some cool songs but whose albums I don’t have.