The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

I think I might start doing a post every once and a while on classic albums and the songs you might not have heard from them. Today’s choice is The Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds.

While I’m sure you’ve heard “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “God Only Knows” (a personal favorite of mine), “Sloop John B”, and maybe even “Caroline No,” you might not have heard some of the deep cuts like That’s Not Me and I’m Waiting For The Day (my personal second favorite from the album). Both contain lush arrangements and multiple harmonies that the later-day Beach Boys were famous for.

Here’s the songs:
MP3 Beach Boys – I’m Waiting For The Day
MP3 Beach Boys – That’s Not Me

I Love the Sound of You Walking Away…

This collection is one I call “Songs that use the phrase ‘walk away’ somewhere in the lyrics.” There was many to choose from and there were some notable exclusions (including Cheap Tricks “Walk Away” and Boston’s “More than a Feeling”) but I widdled it down to five tracks.

The first is an acoustic track from one of my favorites of the new Franz Ferdinand Album fittingly called Walk Away.
MP3 Franz Ferdinand – Walk Away (acoustic)

The second is fantastic song that was just featured on the latest O.C. episode. This song has been playing in my head for about a week now and features the line “every time I see you, you just walk away”
MP3 The Subways – I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say

This song is from one of my most memorable high school records, Something to Write Home About. You got to hand it to the Get Up Kids.
MP3 The Get Up Kids – My Apology

This track has some of the cheesiest 80’s synthesizers I’ve ever heard. But its the Cure and they’re amazing, so you cut them some slack.
MP3 The Cure – The Walk

To end this collection, I’m putting Collective Soul’s live cover of U2’s 1980 classic “I Will Follow”. The singer sounds really bad on this song, but the guitar work is very good – so it just about makes up for it.
MP3 Collective Soul – I Will Follow (Live at Woodstock)

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World is an amazingly talented Arizona band that was a doorway for me to get into alot of great music. This was, of course, before The Middle and Sweetness became huge MTV and radio hits. Once I started to really getting into Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity, some of my indie-hip friends started giving me some more indie/”emo” music, most notably Sunny Day Real Estate and Death Cab for Cutie.

I realize that Jimmy Eat World will probably never make another Clarity, but I still consider myself a loyal follower of them. I saw them live for the first time this spring (see picture). Here’s some of their rarities which includes a Christmas classic, a couple of their songs done acousticly, and a stand-out track from the EP they recently released.

MP3 Jimmy Eat World – Last Christmas
MP3 Jimmy Eat World – Work (Acoustic)
MP3 Jimmy Eat World – A Sunday (Acoustic)
MP3 Jimmy Eat World – Closer (from Stay on My Side Tonight EP)

Find the bands!!!

This is a wallpaper image from Virgin Digital Music’s website. Everything in this picture represents a band/artist. The contest is to see who can find all of them. It’s really fun and I’ve spent a load of time on it already.

For example – the guy smashing the pumpkins in the picture is Smashing Pumpkins, the queen in the middle is Queen. Not all of them are this obvious. Try to see how many you can find!

While you’re playing the game, here’s a song by Queen for you to listen to:
MP3 Queen – Play the Game

Here’s where you can download the high-res image.

I'm On The New U2 DVD!

Last May, I attended two U2 concerts and while standing in line for the concert was interviewed for the official tour DVD. Six months have passed since then and the DVD is being released to the public. I bought it and started to watch the “Beyond the Tour” Documentary to see if I made it, and was shocked to hear after less than 30 seconds me saying “This is our first U2 concert and we’re so excited,” accompanied with a video clip of me squinting into the camera.

Then at about the 9 minute mark, there I was again at the beginning of a rapid-fire fan Vertigo sing-a-long saying to my girlfriend, “I’ll start out saying the ‘hello hello’s and then you can say the ‘hola’s.” Needless to say, during the sequence the video cut back to me a few times doing my best Bono impression. It was cool to watch me on screen and see some of the fans that I stood in line with up there also.

The DVD itself is pretty good, if you’re a U2 fan, definitely pick it up. If your not a U2 fan, why are you reading this post anyway?

For the Mp3 today, I’m posting my favorite U2 cover – Johnny Cash singing One. I’ve heard great things about the Johnny Cash movie, and am hoping to see it sometime this week. I posted some more Cash songs earlier which you can download here

MP3 Johnny Cash – One

There Should Be More Songs With Bagpipes…

…is my opinion because they usually sound pretty darn good. Maybe its my Scottish ancestry, but I think that bagpipes rock. To prove my point, I’ve made a bagpipe mix with all the bagpipe songs that I currently have. If you can think of some more feel free to leave a comment and tell me.

This is the song that introduced me to the bagpipes in pop songs phenomenon, it also has one of the best uses of the f-bomb in a song –
MP3 Rilo Kiley – A Better Son/Daughter

These are both songs from really good bands that happen to feature the bagpipe – make sure to pick up their respective CD’s if you don’t have them – here and here

MP3 Neutral Milk Hotel – Untitled
MP3 Belle & Sebastian – Sleep the Clock Around

This is a band that I found online when I searched for bagpipe music. I have to say that I quite like it –
MP3 Dirty Three – Doris

Here’s one for fun –
MP3 AC/DC – It’s A Long Way To The Top

help save Arrested Development – find out how here

Summer at Shatter Creek

This band makes some pretty decent-sounding sleepy dream pop music. They’re myspace calls it “ethereal music that seems to float out of the speakers”, which is a pretty good description. I haven’t really gotten into their music yet, but I’m in a sleepy mood right now so I thought it would be an appropriate band of the moment.

Sigur Ros fans might like this music, although I’d have to say that Summer At Shatter Creek has a ways to go before reaching their level. Anyways, its worth a listen.

MP3 Worlds Away
MP3 Your Ever Changing Moods

find more info and buy their album at their myspace page

Bono + Brandon Flowers

At a recent U2 concert Bono brought up Brandon Flowers to sing with him on In A Little While – the song that Flowers calls “U2’s masterpiece.” Everyone knows that Where The Streets Have No Name and Bad are U2’s masterpieces, but I’ll forgive Brandon this time since he is (according to Bono) in the “swankiest rock and roll band on the planet.”

U2 also played a bit of “All These Things I’ve Done” but I don’t have that…yet. Here’s the recording (theres a minute-long intro before the song) –
MP3 U2 feat. Brandon Flowers – In A Little While (live)

*update – you can grab some video of this performance here

Soft

I just received Soft’s new single, Higher, in the mail with a nice little note from the band, and I was very impressed with the song. The first thing that came to my mind was the melodic indie rock of Jimmy Eat World crossed with the swirling power-pop guitars of Cheap Trick. Both bands which I love, and which coincidentally enough, I’ve seen recently seen live. So far, this is the only song I’ve heard but I should be receiving some more soon. Check out the band’s website!

Download Now –
MP3 Soft – Higher

The Cloud Room

I got into this Brooklyn-based band after hearing the single “Hey Now Now”, it’s a fantastic upbeat sing-a-long track, so I bought the whole CD. You can download/listen to the song from one of these links. Their debut CD has many songs with the same simple construction and pulsing beat, but most of the songs are a bit more melancholy than “Hey Now Now”. Nevertheless, its one of my favorite CD’s from this year.

MP3 Hey Now Now
MP3 Waterfall
MP3 We Sleep In The Ocean

buy The Cloud Room