Newsflash: IT IS OKAY TO LIKE LIARS AGAIN.

While I actually did enjoy the witch album I know I was in the minority. Liars new album, Drum’s Not Dead (out now in Australia and Europe, out in 3 weeks in North America), is getting nearly flawless reviews. And with good reason. Drum is an album you can spend time with and enjoy getting more out of with each listen.

Pitchfork have a fairly in-depth interview with the entire band that is an interesting read. Schreiber even manages to avoid sounding like a tool.

Last week a Mute person sent me the Liars cover of Nirvana’s “Territorial Pissings.” Angus’ vocals are quite loooow but here you go:

Download: Territorial Pissings

OK…that’s a lot of covers I’ve uploaded the past couple days. I’ll try to be more interesting soon.

And I forgot I had this Radiohead Neil Young song. It’s taken from a show in California in 2001 and features the entire band ripping through yet another Neil Young classic.

Download: Cinnamon Girl (live)

Over the past few years Radiohead (or Thom Yorke in solo performances) have taken to covering a few Neil Young songs. I came across some of them this week as I was listening to Radiohead on my computer and figure I’d post them.

“On The Beach” comes from the 1974 Neil Young album of the same name (it also happens to be my favourite Neil Young album). This recording is just Thom Yorke on acoustic guitar on British radio (in 2003 I believe).

Download: On The Beach (Thom Yorke solo)

“After the Goldrush” was released on Young’s classic album of the same name from 1970. This version features Thom Yorke on Neil’s piano at the Bridge School Benefit in 2002. Thom sometimes sneaks this song into Radiohead sets before “Everything In Its Right Place”.

Download: After the Goldrush (live 2002-10-26)

Finally, here’s the band covering “Down By the River” during a soundcheck in Bergamo, Italy in July 2003. The sound is poor due to the fact that fans recorded it from beyond the fences of the venue. The cover is not nearly as long as Neil’s original which you can find on 1969′s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Download: Down By the River (Bergamo soundcheck)

I will post some other stuff that may end up on the next Radiohead album later this week.

Photo courtesy of Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair Campaign

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If you own The National’s Alligator (and you should as it’s amazing) you can freely download the bonus disc that it is now being pressed with.

On Shifting Sands has mp3s of the first set from Augie March’s show in Melbourne this past week. Go forth and download new single “One Crowded Hour.”

Melbourne’s Augie March played The Vanguard in Newtown last night as part of a mini-promo campaign for the soon-to-be-released Moo, You Blood Choir (it’s out March 11 here in Australia). The venue was a restuarant/cabaret type place and it was tiny. The crowd was mostly record company types and the few fans who managed to get tickets. It was my first time seeing Augie March (I have seen Glenn Richards do a solo show) and I was really impressed with the new songs. “Just Passing Through” was probably my highlight, though “Song in the Key of Chance” was fantastic as well. The set was short and meant as a preview of the new stuff but the band will be back in Sydney at @Newtown in April for a more regular gig in support of the new album.

The setlist last night ran:

Bottle Baby
The Cold Acre
One Crowded Hour
Addle Brains
Victoria’s Secrets
Mother Greer
The Keepa
Just Passing Through
This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers
—–
The Night Is A Blackbird
Song In The Key Of Chance
There Is No Such Place

Photo courtesy Highroadtouring.com
Thanks Adam for the setlist.

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Other stuff…

Good Weather for Air Strikes is hosting a great Sigur Ros show from NYC earlier this month. I downloaded and listened last night and it’s fantastic sounding. I highly recommend it (plus you get a live version of the rarely-played Staralfur).

The Grates release their debut album Gravity Won’t Get You High (great title!) on April 10. (Thanks Brown Cardigan)

Download the entire (minus 1 song) Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins album, Rabbit Fur Coat at Team Love (the band’s label) for FREE. They did this with Tilly and the Wall last year as well.

Watch the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs video “Gold Lion” (Thanks Stereogum)

One of my favourite bands, Massive Attack, release a “best of” entitled Collected on March 27 as I previously mentioned last month. The first disc contains well-known tracks while the second disc features some new songs and some more obscure rarities. Check out this site set up to promote “Collected.” Podcasts coming soon apparently.

Two songs not on either disc (likely because they are freely available on the net) are the following two Massive Attack songs that I really love. “Aftersun” features vocals by Dot Allison and was featured over the end credits of the film Danny the Dog (aka Unleashed for the North American folk) which Massive Attack did the score for. This song however was not on the soundtrack, but is available on Dot Allison’s site.

Download: Aftersun (ft. Dot Allison)

“Nature of Threat” was released only through the band’s official site in 2001 and continues with the oppressive, dark, paranoia of Mezzanine my favourite Massive Attack album.

Download: Nature of Threat

And how about some new videos?

The alcohol-soaked video for new single “Live With Me” (Directed by the amazing Jonathan Glazer)
Video for new Radiohead-sampling song “False Flags”

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Off to see the Augie March showcase tonight!

Thom Yorke updated Radiohead’s studio blog today with news that will make many Radiohead fans very happy. The band are currently working on the song “Nude” (also known as Big Ideas) for inclusion on Radiohead’s new album, due out sometime later this year (back in September this post on Dead Air Space first hinted at the song’s existence). The recording sessions are being produced by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent who has worked with Massive Attack, Mansun, and Madonna among many others.

Nude has been a longtime fan favourite as the band have played it every now and then since January 1998 when it was first played in Japan. Since the song is nearly a decade old I had pretty much given up hope of ever hearing a recorded version, but it looks like it’s going to happen after all. I’ve included a few mp3s of Nude if you want to hear some different versions. The Red Rocks one (a show I was at!) is a bit of a mess, but it was pretty special to hear it at the time.

Download: Nude (Big Ideas) live in Tokyo Jan. 23, 1998 (debut – Thom solo)
Download: Nude (Big Ideas) live at Radio City Music Hall, NYC April 17, 1998 (full band version)
Download: Nude (Big Ideas) live at Red Rocks, Colorado August 26, 2003 (full band improv)

And here’s a video (from 1998…my guess is San Francisco) of the band performing Nude

I swear I was going to do this before I read Take Your Medicine the other day…so I’m not being wholly unoriginal. Anyway, with the South by Southwest music festival/conference/party of the year arriving next month – and with preliminary show times now available – here is the 2006 crop of Aussies headed to Austin, Texas:

Bluebottle Kiss*, Clue to Kalo, Dappled Cities Fly*, Decoder Ring*, End of Fashion, The Flairz, Function, The Gear, The Grates*, Grey Daturas, Gyroscope, Missy Higgins, Kisschasy, The Living End, Love of Diagrams, The Lovetones, The Mess Hall*, The Morning After Girls, The Presets*, Shifter, Sia, Something For Kate, and last but far from least these days, Wolfmother.

All those *s mean I really recommend those bands if you happen to be going to SXSW. With the exception of Decoder Ring (who are a bit electro) I’ve seen them all live and was impressed by each one of them. Bluebottle Kiss put on a vicious live show (and have a ton of great new songs to rip through), Dappled Cities Fly I’ve posted about frequently and might appeal to you if you’re into more off-kilter indie stuff. The Mess Hall are another stellar live act who will leave you wondering how just two guys make so much noise; their drummer is awesome and they do a great cover of Nirvana’s “Breed.” The Presets put on an aggressive electro/dance/techno live show and at the Sydney BDO had a massive crowd dancing at 11:30am. Since BDO I’ve been listening to The Grates a lot and I really recommend you check them out; lead singer, Patience, has this wonderful stage presence and they have fun little pop songs. And while they aren’t my thing, Wolfmother will have you rocking out if you like to relive Sabbath/Zep 70s stuff. In fact, the photo on my header up there was taken during a Wolfmother show last year. See those devil horns?

Check out this SXSW page for more info on these bands as well as some free/legal mp3s.

Maybe Dan (a SXSW veteran I do believe), Stove, Adam, and Matthew can recommend some others too.

Sigur Ros are returning to Australia in April in support of last year’s release Takk…. I’m already anticipating the show at the Enmore and today I was listening to some live Sigur Ros songs on my computer and I figured I’d share some “rare” songs. Forgive the spelling and the lack of proper Icelandic text etc. These song titles are pretty unofficial and may go by other names now, but they are all unreleased songs (some of them only ever played once). I highly recommend “The Little Match Girl.”

Download: Big (live)
Download: Duet (live)
Download: Orralagio (live)
Download: Rokklagio (live)
Download: Gitardjamm (live)
Download: The Little Match Girl (recorded for the Royal Danish Ballet’s performance of The Little Match Girl)

Photo courtesy Sigur Ros.co.uk

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness. What an amazing band name. A friend of mine put one of their songs off their debut EP of a couple years ago onto a mix cd he made for me and I’ve been waiting for their debut ever since. The album, Fear is on Our Side comes out next month on Secretly Canadian but you can hear one track from it now. They’re dark without being gloomy and are yet another reason Austin, Texas kicks ass.

Download: According to Plan

Alright, I did this over on my other blog after Amanda passed it on to me and figured I’d post it here as well. If you’ve got a blog why don’t you do this as well so we can all make fun of each other’s listening habits. If you don’t have a blog (you likely have a life) just post yours in the comments here.

Sort by Song Title
* First Song: ’84 Pontiac Dream – Boards of Canada
* Last Song: Zungo – Nina Simone

Sort by Time (excluding some random short sound effects and long podcasts etc)
* Shortest Song: The End of Love – Black Heart Procession (12 seconds)
* Longest Song: MFR (live) – Godspeed You! Black Emporer (35:31)

Sort by Album: (I’ve started dating albums by year…but just started so at the moment….)
* First Song: What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye
* Last Song: Mogwai Fear Satan – Mogwai (of songs that are actually tagged with an album)

Top 10 Most Played Songs (I only got this computer in August so since then…)
1. The Greatest – Cat Power
2. 7/4 (Shoreline) – Broken Social Scene
3. Do You Want To – Franz Ferdinand
4. Juicebox – The Strokes
5. Ooh La La – Goldfrapp
6. Number 1 – Goldfrapp
7. Precious – Depeche Mode
8. Heartbeats – Jose Gonzalez
9. I Want None of This – Radiohead
10. Shine a Light – Wolf Parade

Kinda lame…all new songs since August more or less. My real favourites are slowly creeping up though…

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle

I have this disabled in iTunes so I don’t know. But how about 5 great party songs?

1. One More Time – Daft Punk
2. Losing My Edge – LCD Soundsystem
3. House of Jealous Lovers – The Rapture
OK I tried a theme there…a smart one but I’m stuck so…
4. All Nite Disco Party – Brakes
5. Wanna Be Starting Something – Michael Jackson

Search For…And How Many Songs Come Up? (also depends on how you use the search function)
“SEX”: 8 (songs by Decoder Ring, DFA1979, Feist, The Album Leaf, British Sea Power and some more…)
“LOVE”: 340 (including “The Love of Richard Nixon” by the Manics which just played)
“YOU”: 870
“DEATH”: 79 (including some band names)
“HATE”: 11 (including “All You Need Is Hate” by The Delgados)
“WISH”: 16 (largely due to various live versions of “Bulletproof…I Wish I Was” by Radiohead)