Each week, Playlist’s Glenn Peoples looks at special tracks offered by the iTunes Music Store and other select online music merchants. Here are the selections for the week of August 22nd.
Their sound kicked off a rock revolution that has led to the closest thing to a British invasion since Brit pop arrived and sputtered in the mid-’90s. Franz Ferdinand will be back with a new album on October 4th. Right now iTunes has the album’s first single, “Do You Want To.” It’s being streamed at the band’s MySpace.com page if you want to hear a lo-fi version.
Tony Yayo is the latest 50 Cent protege to release an anticipated album. Thoughts of a Predicate Felon is available for pre-order at iTunes. As with the pre-order comes a video for the title track and a digital booklet.
Not that you can listen to it, but this column must mention that iTunes is carrying the VOID (Video Overview in Deceleration), the new video compilation by The Flaming Lips. The 18-track set collects the band’s videos from its stay at Warner Bros. Recors — which pretty much covers all their best albums save their last one for Restless Records.
Just added to iTunes is Badfinger’s Airwaves. The 1979 album is out on Wounded Bird and for whatever reason this Rhino Records version just popped on iTunes. No mention of it at the Rhino website, and no trace of it on other online stores. Oh well. Enough investigation. For power pop lovers who want to branch out beyond those albums typically heralded as part of the genre’s must-have canon, this is a good place to start.
The special limited edition version of Interpol’s Antics is available at iTunes. Its bonus tracks are the band’s songs remixed by the band members themselves, plus the song “Song Seven.”
It’s hard to believe any online music store’s hip hop catalog could be without classics like The Notorious B.I.G.’s Born Again and Life After Death. They were both just added to iTunes.
One podcast that caught my attention was the live in-studio performance at KEXP by Amusement Parks On Fire. The young band is a favorite of morning host John Richards, who can be heard praising the band as he introduces them at the beginning of the podcast. Its songs blend a bit of emo with a love for sounds of the past (upbeat shoegazer and Dinosaur Jr’s love of feedback and distortion). Check out the KEXP podcast page for this and four more in-studio podcasts.
Another podcast worth checking out is the inaugural One Little Indian Records podcast. For kicks, check out Seth and Jessica’s Worst Music You’ve Ever Heard podcasts. They two play only music created by themselves, their friends, or amateur bands.
Herbie Hancock’s new album Possibilities is exclusively at Rhapsody. It’s a star-studded affair that finds the music legend paired with such pop stars as John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Annie Lenox, Sting, Trey Anastasio, and Paul Simon. The album comes out next Tuesday.
iTunes free download of the week is “In Love With a Thug” by Sharissa featuring R. Kelly. Warning: At the time of writing the song at iTunes is actually her other single, “I Got Love.” Go to Sharissa’s website and you’ll hear a stream of “In Love With a Thug.”
There are some days when Rhapsody adds an incredible amount of albums and sifting through them all is a Heculean task. While scrolling past unrecognized names I’ll occasionally stop on an album to see what it sounds like. One in ten times—maybe one in 15—the album will be worth listening to past the second song. One nice find was Au bout de el Terra by Julie Salvador, a French singer with a delivery that eases between sharp and soft but always with a great deal of presence.
Two International Noise Conspiracy albums added to Rhapsody, A New Morning, Changing Weather and Survival Sickness. Another new addition of interest is Sybris’ self-titled album on Chicago-based Flameshovel records. The album scored an 8.0 rating at Internet powerhouse Pitchfork recently, which called it “a new band running contrary to several current trends and instead revitalizing the sensibility of 1990s, singer-oriented alterna-rock.”
Also at Rhapsody, a blast from the alternative rock past: Dumptruck’s 1985 album, Positively Dumptruck . All Music’s bio says the Massachusetts band was “among the favorites of U.S. college radio in the mid ’80s.”
Two big new arrivals at eMusic in the last week: The New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema and The Streets’ Original Pirate Material . Twin Cinema has been getting a lot of great reviews, and Original Pirate Material is basically a modern age classic. Also, a bevy of 2 Live Crew albums on Lil Joe Records was recently added to eMusic, as well as five Aimee Mann albums on SuperEgo Records. And if you’re feeling up to it, try out Bjork’s brand new The Music From Drawing Restraint 9 .
MSN Music has a special section devoted to the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards. Read about the nominees, view videos and see who MSN will “take home the bling.” It’s nothing earth-shattering, but it’s something to check out on your way out of Hotmail.