New Music. Now.

Patience? Please. Here's a rundown of all sorts of albums you can hear before they actually hit stores.

High Violet : The National - The album leaked and the band decided the best route to take would be to stream it on The New York Times website starting Friday the 23rd. Unlike the leak, High Violet will be streamed in its full quality. The album comes out officially May 10th.

Forgiveness Rock Record : Broken Social Scene - NPR's All Songs Considered has got the Exclusive First Listen right now, running through May 4th when the album itself hits stores/drops/other cool phrasing to say "is released."

Heaven is Whenever : The Hold Steady - Can't say I'm not, hmmm.... how to put this, completely over The Hold Steady, but still it's probably worth mentioning. NPR also has the album streaming until its May 4th release date.

Streaming Albums-- A Good Idea!

Somewhere Chris Anderson is cackling about the value of "free" and congratulating himself for writing a book about it. Dude can have it. Free is the greatest tactic these days in appealing to a generation that gets whatever it wants, when it wants it.

I'm listening to Vampire Weekend's Contra right now. When it hits stores on Tuesday, I will probably buy it. It's good and investing $9.99 in it presents zero risk because I know exactly what I'm getting ahead of time.

That's a level of convenience you can hardly believe. In the past few months alone, hearing albums streamed in their entirety has lead to me buying Noah and the Whale's First Days of Spring, and the previously blogged about Ben Gibbard/Jay Farrar Jack Kerouac project One Fast Move or I'm Gone.

The flip side is that when The Hold Steady streamed Stay Positive on their MySpace a few years ago, I decided not to buy it.

In the long run though, that risk minimization has opened the door to discover even more music. Maybe you find something you feel like you can't live without-- that's another album purchased. That's also priceless.

*NPR's All Songs Considered is pretty much the greatest for hearing cool albums streamed, partly because they bring albums to your attention that are usually worth the time. You can find Spoon's latest, Transference here on the 11th.

The Musically Inclined Turns One!

Time sure flies, folks. One year ago today I was plotting a way to write about music on my own terms and for my own enjoyment...and of course put all that opinion out there for other folks to read. Considering that the average blog life is six weeks, you could say that I'm more than a bit proud. We started off with a healhy little rant on Live Earth and have since waded through monster album releases, trips to Best Buy, new discoveries, unfortunate discoveries, and the ocassional industry appraisal. It's been great and a lot of fun to watch a tidy group of subscribers form. What's also great is that this well is far from dry and (knock on wood) The Musically Inclined is going to be cruising along for many more years to come. Thanks for reading.

Peace kids,
Erin


TMI's Finer Moments
Caught in the Mélee
Best Buy is the Man
The National: Boxer
Finally Got My Hands On...
Jack White Tries to Make Nice with Detroit

No Such Thing as a Free Album

Recently I got wind that The Hold Steady is streaming the entirety of their soon to be released album, Stay Positive on their Myspace. I checked and sure enough, there it was. While I'll hold off on any comments about the album itself, it's worth noting that not so long ago record execs, fans, and artists alike would have balked at the notion of laying it all out there at no charge, even before the album is released for purchase. Can you do that? How does that even work? Well, these days-- yes you can and I get the feeling that there is a certain sense that there's really not much to lose or gain. As reported here at TMI a month or so ago, digital finally walloped regular cd sales and the trend is so drastic that it would be mind-bendingly naive to imagine that this shift could ever be reversed.

From the outside looking in, things are falling apart. Major record labels which at one time were the end-all, power-wielding dictators of protocol, are gradually losing leverage and clout. Sure the internet is infested with countless bands banking on novelty and grassroots type movements, but the big deal is that the established acts don't really need the big labels and can opt to employ their own home style marketing tactics.

When Radiohead announced they'd let fans name their own price, the risk was purely theirs and their sheer boldness earned In Rainbows far more publicity probably than would have been expected of a conventional Radiohead release. A positive side effect perhaps is reaching new potential fans, but it will still never be enough to offset the decline. Coldplay just offered a free download of "Violet Hill" in anticipation of Viva la Vida, and now of course, The Hold Steady put all their cards on the table, begging copyright infringers to get creative.

To an extent, I don't understand. At the same time it makes perfect sense, if there's going to be an evolution in the proverbial "way we do business," they might as well take it into their own hands and see what's left when the smoke clears.

Stay cool, kids.

The Hold Steady Stays Positive

It feels as though I just bought The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls of America and already the band is working on their fourth release, Stay Positive. No word on when it's actually going to hit stores. When I first read the news, I realized I wasn't that excited. The original review I wrote of Boys and Girls was good, but in the months after writing it, their album sank into the oblivion of my record collection. True, quite a few new albums have been added since, but there's got to be some difference if Heavier Things took years to get old and Boys and Girls fizzled after weeks. A review written after a month or so would have been a different one, perhaps. They can't all be dynamite.

I still think the lyrics are clever and very literary but the songs themselves proved to be for the most part, forgettable. Obviously, with any yet-to-be heard album, the potential is endless, but if we're in for another round of boozy lyrics and rock stumbling dangerously close to formulaic...I think I might pass.

Finally Got My Hands On...

It's been a long time coming. Last week I picked up Boys and Girls of America by The Hold Steady. I have to admit it was exciting to finally be in the check out line with this album whose shrink wrap is anointed with critical blessings from so many credible sources. How could so many be anything but dead-on?

Previously the only tracks I'd heard were "Massive Nights" and an acoustic version of "Stuck Between Stations" which I thought were absolutely great-- lyrically adroit and most of all fun. At it's best, Boys and Girls of America is upbeat and spunky plus a dash of cerebral for brilliant lines like "he was drunk and exhausted but he was critcally acclaimed and respected," plus you can't go wrong making Kerouac references. Very rarely is it possible to take the music out of the equation and be left with literary pieces instead of a song. Craig Finn writes densely with so many allusions that it's not nearly enough to just listen intently. "He's Tennyson in denim and sheepskin." I could live off lyrics like those. It reminds me of "Desolation Row" by Bob Dylan except it's obvious that Finn was not trying to be a cheap Dylan wannabe and is at heart a storyteller.


So about the rest of the album...it's a tough call. At first I was disappointed because none of the songs seemed to jump the way the other two did and there's regrettable repetition of phrases like "clicks and hisses," and "pipe made from a Pringles can." It felt like the song Marty Robins wrote so many years after "El Paso," adequately named "El Paso City," which was literally a retelling of the former but this time he was suggesting that he'd been the hero of the song in another life. Dude! I can hear the neurons frying! In this case, sharp gives way to boozy and drug-addled, resulting in the feeling that the chance for excellence was squandered.

If there is one song I really and truly hate, it's "Chillout Tent." The female vocalist grates on me like nothing ever has before. I would just remove that cut from the album all together. It's like Bonnaroo the musical. Honestly, the news coverage is enough for me. 

On the flip side, there are good things about this album. The overall sound is authentic, accessible, riff-ladden rock which doesn't take itself too seriously but is so legitimate. While not being stripped down, The Hold Steady keeps it relatively simple, avoiding getting glossy or overproduced.

The picture painted is of those lovely people we all know who are supreme underachievers. They're having a great time coasting through life and we are ever so fond of them. As for buying the CD, in the end I'm glad I did. It's worth having in the collection for the gems like "Chips Ahoy" and "Southtown Girls" which serve as incentives to play it again. So, if for some reason you don't have it yet, it is worth consideration...or impulse. Just Skip over "Chillout Tent."

The Hold Steady- "Massive Nights" from Boys and Girls of America

I liked it on first listen. It's not often a band manages to combine great music plus lyrics that are clever and beg to be looked up and printed. "Massive Nights" tells the story of a pretty wild dance back in the day, sounding like it's being told by the guy who lives across the hall while he's singing in the shower. Perhaps the song itself could have played during that dance. Granted, it's no magical prom night, referencing venue's bathrooms and a perpetually hovering chaperone, but if nothing else the night was memorable and made for a good story. High school, in other words. The drums and guitar make for what can only be described as a kicky beat and are used with skill never overtaking the song in an overly enthusiastic attempt to be kick ass rock. These guys sound like they know what they're doing-- which is not always a given in these matters. Kudos to The Hold Steady for creating an anthem for the good times.