Site of the Week: Better Than The Van

Here’s a tiny post to point out one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time — a couple of cool kids have set up a website called Better Than The Van that seeks to help cash-strapped bands on tour find free places to sleep all over the country. They’ve been mentioned in Wired and Killer Startups, and hopefully this post will serve as our stamp of approval. If you’ve got any friends in bands on tour, or if you want to pretend you’re in a band so you can crash someplace for free, head over to BTTV now.

Site of the Week: Better Than The Van

Here’s a tiny post to point out one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time — a couple of cool kids have set up a website called Better Than The Van that seeks to help cash-strapped bands on tour find free places to sleep all over the country. They’ve been mentioned in Wired and Killer Startups, and hopefully this post will serve as our stamp of approval. If you’ve got any friends in bands on tour, or if you want to pretend you’re in a band so you can crash someplace for free, head over to BTTV now.

All Hail the King of Spain

Sorry it’s been so long since my last update, free WiFi in Kentucky and Georgia is like an unpretentious Pitchfork review– very, very hard to find. Right now my cohorts and I are driving from Atlanta to Columbus to Montgomery, which is basically an extended journey to get ourselves as close as possible to New Orleans by tomorrow, before heading to Galveston, Austin, Dallas, Amarillo, Sante Fe, Denver, Aspen–deep breath–and every other city that our hybrid chariot will deliver us to. I’ve been wanting to get a route map up here so you can better gauge the insanity of this trip, but until then… how ’bout some music?

A couple of months ago I was browsing one of my favorite music blogs when I stumbled upon Tampa’s King of Spain (solo man Matt Slate) and his pretty and understated debut Entropy. My favorite track is “Animals (Part 1)” which sounds like what I would imagine David Byrne’s Playing The Building would sound like if it was more melodiously orchestrated– an industrial, slow-paced, introspective rumination of the sort of self-aware minutia that made Paul Auster’s City of Glass one of my favorite novels. Listen up, kids »

[MP3] King Of Spain – Animals (Part 1)
[MP3] King Of Spain – Decades

NPR has more on King of Spain

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MySpace | More MP3s | Buy Entropy

[MP3] Kirsten Price: "Magic Tree"

With Amy Winehouse proving to have a Mary Poppins-sized bag of issues plaguing her career, that alternative rock meets soul and tangos with jazz void may be filled next by Kirsten Price. Her voice and sound come as a surprise upon first listen, but once the excitement begins to wane you begin to hear the strength and smooth delivery of Price’s voice. She’s well equipped for garnering a large following, was featured on Dodge’s Pop Dee-Lite’s Singles Party, and has an album titled Guts & Garbage dropping July 1^st. Enjoy “Magic Tree” and find out more about Ms. Price via the links below.

[MP3] Kirsten Price – Magic Tree

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Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s | Buy Guts & Garbage before stores on iTunes!

[Exclusive] Golden Animals: "The Steady Roller"

When we first caught up with the sparkling rock duo Golden Animals, they’d just recorded their debut self-titled EP for Happy Parts Recordings which they thankfully decided to share with the masses for free. After building a fan base intrigued by the band’s penchant for desolate rock grooves and web-based musical expressionism, Golden Animals went straight up bizness– driving out to the middle of the desert amidst 120+ degree sunbursts, blood-red sunsets, lactating cacti, and endless freedom unadulterated by the headcased noise of society and discomfort of forced social interaction.

With the influences of what the duo calls “all that naturally transpires when nature thinks no one is looking,” a scorching debut was born. It’s called Free Your Mind and Ride a Pony, an equally comforting and strident affair that’s as much a product of Hunter S. Thompson’s desolate America as it is Tom Wolfe’s. If you like your rock dusty and your song-length escapes surreal, give Golden Animals a chance or two.

[MP3] Golden Animals – The Steady Roller
[MP3] Golden Animals – Try On Me

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  Check out the video for “Big Red Rose” over at YouTube »

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Label Site | MySpace | More MP3s | Buy EP

[History Mixery] Custer’s Last Stand (1876)

“There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry.” -George Armstrong Custer

[MP3] The Blakes – Pistol Grip
[MP3] Grandaddy – The Final Push To The Sum
[MP3] Horse Feathers – In Our Blood
[MP3] Paul McCartney – Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)

Will "Beat The Drum/Belt Those Backing Vocals" Champion

Everyone has seen this commercial a billion times by now but I can’t help but laugh every single time I see it. No, I don’t laugh at the sweet rainbow colored fog machine Coldplay are using or Chris Martin’s pulsating happy hands.. rather, the percussionist Will Champion is the inadvertent comic that makes me laugh out loud. I like the song “Viva La Vida” and even like how it’s chopped and pasted together for the 30 second spot, but Champion (living up to his last name) takes his 2 seconds of solo face time and doesn’t try to be funny but I think it was scripted so cheesily he couldn’t help it. After Martin throws up numerous fist pumps while belting “Roman Catholic choirs are singing”, the camera pans to Champion who beats his drum and belts out backing vocals in an over-dramatic, head-shaking type of way. The first time I saw that commercial I laughed at Champion’s mannerisms and still find it funny after seeing it 1, 873 more times. Just a little morning pick-me-up; back later in the day!

Sorting On Shuffle

As I was shuffling through a bunch of these parcels containing musical contents and emails with mp3 attachments, I set my iTunes on a random shuffle mainly because I was too tired to make up my own mind. However, my typical Gemini-like indecisiveness ended up playing dividends when Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint came across my speakers with their 2006 collaboration The River in Reverse. I hadn’t heard the album in quite some time and if you haven’t yet, I’d recommend checking out a copy anyway you know how (admit, you’ve accessed the public library before). I had the good fortune of seeing the duo at my fondly thought of Bonnaroo ‘06 (the main reason I purchased the album) and, for all intensive purposes, these musician’s skills and musical clash of rock ‘n’ roll meets jazz tinged N’awlins feel so pleasant on your ears it’s almost unfair. I’d definitely put this album in one of my “favorite albums” bin over the past five years and if you happen to be sorting mail.. beware, this music will turn your somber mail room into Fantasia dancing broom-like recreation.

[MP3] Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – Tears, Tears, & More Tears (Lyrics)
[MP3] Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – The River in Reverse (Lyrics)

Make believe you’re an Amazonian and buy The River in Reverse!

[Video] Weezer + 200 Fans Cover Radiohead’s "Creep"

As Pitchfork previously reported, Weezer had a Hootenanny in Portland– inviting hundreds of fans to come perform along with the band with whatever instruments they could somewhat play– which included Weezer originals and some covers, like this one for Radiohead’s “Creep” »

Now that that’s out of the way, when the hell is Radiohead gonna cover “Buddy Holly”? Ok, ok, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

[News] Farewell George Carlin

I just returned from a very fun weekend to hear some very sad news. One of my all-time favorite comedians and one of the wittiest minds in show biz, George Carlin, died yesterday at age 71. I was fortunate enough to get to see him a few years back and many came to love his cameos in various Kevin Smith films. He was definitely edgy and not everyone’s favorite comic; showcasing funny thoughts on religion, white people, the English language, and abortion.

Hopefully the first host of SNL in 1975 and the comic arrested for disturbing the peace via uttering his seven words during a performance in 1972 may rest in peace. Watch his classic seven words and rent a few Carlin stand-up videos tonight – you’ll have a grand chuckle.