More Free Christmas music

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I know it's late, but here are a few more legal freebies for streaming or downloading:

• A free compilation from Sounds Familyre with the following tracklist:
  1: ‘Christmas Eve Nite’ - Danielson
  2: ‘For There Is Born A Child’ - Lenny Smith
  3: ‘Plant A Little Fir Tree’ - Half-handed Cloud
  4: ‘Dayspring From On High’ - Soul-Junk
  5: ‘Pat-A-Pan’ - Leopulde
  6: ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ - Dan Zimmerman
  7: ‘Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming’ - The Singing Mechanic
  8: ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ - Sufjan Stevens (new 11/2007 recording with other Sounds Familyre artists)
  9: ‘What Child Is This’ - Rachel
  10: ‘I Wonder As I Wander’ - Woven Hand
  11. ‘Christmas Is A Holiday’ - Ben + Vesper
  12. ‘Immanuel’ - Joshua Stamper
  13. ‘O Holy Night’ - Elin
• Over the Rhine's special St. Elizabeth's show has surfaced on the Internet Archive. The setlist features a few classic tunes ("Poughkeepsie", "Jack's Valentine"), one Christmas song ("White Horse"), their famous Gillian Welch cover ("Orphan Girl"), a highlight from The Trumpet Child ("Don't Wait For Tom"), Drunkard's Prayer's "I Want You To Be My Love", and one new song ("Angel Band") - they made a point to focus on material that they did not play at the Taft show. There's also a generous amount of dialogue between the band and the crowd.

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Free Christmas Album from Nettwerk!

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I just found out about a free Christmas album that Netwerk has available ONLY THROUGH THE END OF TODAY. Many of these songs are highlights from the artists' respective Christmas albums. You can download it at http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/seriously_westcoast/index.html . Here's the tracklisting:

• 01 - Barenaked Ladies - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• 02 - The Weepies - All That I Want
• 03 - Sarah McLachlan - Silent Night
• 04 - Matt Wertz What Child Is This
• 05 - Liily Frost - Skating On The River
• 06 - Oh Susanna - Go Tell It On The Mountain
• 07 - Medieval Baebes - The Holly & The Ivy
• 08 - The Be Good Tanyas - Rudy
• 09 - Barenaked Ladies - Elf's Lament
• 10 - Melissa McClelland O - Holy Night-MST
• 11 - Jars Of Clay - Hibernation Day
• 12 - Jenny Owens Young - Things We Don't Need Anymore
• 13 - Martha Wainwright - Merry Christmas And Happy New Year
• 14 - Kyle Andrews - Under The Misteltoe
• 15 - Leigh Nash - The First Noel
• 16 - Sarah McLachlan - The First Noel_Mary Mary (DJ Shah Remix)

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REM's Document is 20

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Hey kids, ready to feel old? I was listening to R.E.M.'s Document earlier and I realized it's been 20 years since that came out. No word though, yet, on when it will be the end of the world as we know it, or if we will feel fine.

I highly recommend scoping out Over the Rhine's recent tribute to that record's hit "The One I Love" - here's a link to it a soundboard cut of it on the Internet Archive.

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News: Rilo Kiley New Album Stream

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I just got a hot tip about another new album that's up for streaming - the new Rilo Kiley record. You may recall that their last album proper was 2004's "More Adventurous", a clever set that was half-brilliant and half love-it-or-hate-it. Personally, I think I prefer Jenny's solo record, which we linked to downloads of earlier this year over any of her regular band's stuff. The new album - Under the Blacklight - has been a bit controversial because it sheds most of the band's folk and country leanings in favor of more danceable influences. I'm giving it a first full listen now - so far it doesn't sound quite as jarring as the lead single made me think it might be. You can give this one a listen (legally and free, of course) at myspace.com/rilokiley .

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News: New Album Streams

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A few fairly exciting new albums can be streamed in full online (legally and fore free, of course) right now. They all have Flash players, but most of the hip kids seem to not mind too much. Here's a few that have graced my speakers lately, and some brief thoughts on them:

• The New Pornographers - Challengers
  I'll be honest - I haven't given this one too much time yet. It seems like an enjoyable little disc, though. The New Pornographers tend to be a band I have to listen to a few times to really "get" though - so I won't so much else about this one for a while. You can hear their new album in its entirety at myspace.com/thenewpornographers
  


• Eisley - Combinations
  I'm not too much of a fan of Eisley - which is strange considering how often people compare them to bands that I love (Sixpence None the Richer seems to be an all-too-common reference point). Their new album is an interesting ride though - there are a few interesting musical turns, some decent rockers, and even some moments when those harmonies sound less creepy and more heavenly. It's a bit short at 30 someodd minutes, but it's an enjoyable listen. You can check it out at myspace.com/eisley


• Over the Rhine - The Trumpet Child
  This is a very solid album - my #1 pick for the year so far, actually (although, to be fair, in the time that the 'Bloom has been dormant, I have substantially cut back my new music intake). You can listen to it entirely at http://www.overtherhine.com/recordplayer/recordplayer.html or find out more about it at OverTheRhine.com . This is quite unlike any of their other discs - it's a very jazzy affair. Lots of very organic and retro-feeling horns on this one. The songwriting is up to Karin and Linford's usual excellent standard as well. It's actually very hard to pick highlights here - it's uniformly good and spread out across a variety of styles. One standout is "Don't Wait For Tom" - a clever tribute to Tom Waits. The album is worth hearing at least a few times the whole way through, though, if you get the chance.
  

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Test Post

This is a quick test post - trying out some new formatting. Sorry - it's mostly behind-the-scenes work here so far. We did change up the sidebar a bit - check out the new links.

Be Patient

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Just a brief heads-up - Unfound Bloom is currently dormant but should be back soon (perhaps even before 2007 is out). We will be relaunching with a new format that is focused around a blog that will be intermittently (but regularly!) updated.

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New Tess Wiley download

There's a new Tess Wiley mp3 up on Tapete's download page. You know the deal - it's free, legal, and Tess Wiley!

Belated Jenny Lewis Downloads

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Because we are terrible, terrible people here, we didn't post about Rabbit Fur Coat by Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins last year. Most of the album can be legally and freely downloaded from her record label at http://www.team-love.com/headphones/releases/tl08/ . Be warned though, they use an annoying Flash thing to serve up the mp3s. It's a fairly good album - nothing truly amazing or innovative, but a catchy set of songs sung with Jenny's intoxicating voice and some subtle harmonies from the Watson Twins. The music is a soft mix of folk and country, with acoustic guitars in various tunings, slide guitars, some keys, bass, and drums. The most unusual thing about it is that the album's lyrics are almost entirely about Jenny's musings on religion. Not that we're complaining. Jenny, of course, is the lead singer of critically-acclaimed indie rock darlings Rilo Kiley.

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Switchfoot fansite, Arcade Fire interpretation

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Lately, I've been enjoying a fairly new Switchfoot blog called Switchfeed. Thanks to their exceptional coverage and the prevalence of RSS readers today, there's no excuse for missing Switchfoot news again. For those of us who had a hard time keeping up with all those message boards, this is great news. Additionally, this blog has become semi-official and has been given permission to show exclusive rarities, downloads, videos, etc.

That blog has a regular feature called "MP3 Of The Week" (or MOTW). So far it's been a good assortment of music. This week's track is "Intervention" by The Arcade Fire. They've posted a decent interpretation of the lyrics as well.

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Incidentally, the blasphemous bible thumpers over at Plugged In decided that they agree, at least in theory, with the Neon Bible. I suppose you can only discuss religion so much on your trendy indie rock album before you start to attract the worst of the "Christian music" crowd.

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Steven Delopoulos - Work to Be Done EP

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For those of you who haven't gotten the Steven Delopoulos bug yet, and for those of you who are patiently awaiting his second solo album, there is good news. An EP entitled Work to Be Done and available free online has 6 tracks: two all new tracks, two highlights from the critically-acclaimed solo debut Me Died Blue, and two live performances from his old band, Burlap to Cashmere. It's a decent overview for those just getting into him, and it might help to tide us fans over while we wait for his next release.

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Awesome MuteMath music video

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Normally I don't bother with music videos, but this one is really unusual. It's choreographed with a bunch of bizarre stunts, and shot in reverse in on take (with no edits). In spite of all of that, the lip-synching in the video is better than that found at most Ashley Simpson concerts. How did they do it?

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Inappropriate Joke of the Year

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Don't say I didn't warn you.

It's come to my attention that the lead singer of Boston killed himself recently, upon deciding that that feeling of loneliness and despair was, in fact, More Than A Feeling.

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New Tess Wiley

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If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably already know who Tess Wiley is. She's a mid-90s indie rocker turned singer-songwriter who, after being in a number of bands in the 90s (Phantasmic, Sixpence None the Richer, etc), started releasing strong, pop-oriented solo efforts. 2004's Not Quite Me is currently not available in the states, but if you're in Europe you can probably still get your hands on it. It looks like we'll see a new album from Tess this year. The new album is called Super Fast Rock'n'Roll Played Slow and is expected to be out this April on Tapete Records.

Three songs from the new album are currently available to download (and a few other songs have been "leaked" legally through various promotions): "Halfway Thru", "Messed Up Everywhere Blues", "Raise Your Hand". Also, you can see the cover art over at Turn Off the Radio, and you can see the full tracklist on this German page.


So far, it looks like this will be good but not as good as Not Quite Me, which was really quite excellent for the amount of recognition it received. Seriously, if we could re-write our best of 2004 list, it'd be right behind Funeral. This is the part where we tell you to buy Tess's music, but since Not Quite Me isn't on Amazon and we can't vouch for Rainy Day Assembly, we'll just have to tell you where to buy Super Fast Rock 'N' Roll Played Slow when it becomes available. If you want to buy me a copy of Rainy Day Assembly though, the link's to the right.

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(Old) Arcade Fire

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Yeah, I know, everybody's talking about The Arcade Fire right now. We have something, however, that the other sites don't: a few early tracks only available through The Internet Archive. Some digging we did while we were not posting anything here turned up this link, which was listed on an older version of The Arcade Fire's website to promote their self-titled EP in 2003. Three tracks are available - one from the EP (Woodlands National Anthem), one interview clip, and an early version of Funeral's "In the Backseat". Enjoy! That ought to be enough to tide you over until Neon Bible comes out during the first week of March, or at least until the Arcade Fire appears on Saturday Night Live this weekend. We know you're too good to listen to the leaked version illegally, right?


...and for you cave dwellers who haven't bought Funeral yet...

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Internet archive

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Although the site remains in disarray, I was happy to find that most (if not all) of our articles are still available online. You can view a cached older version of our reviews page (with links to most of the other pages) here. I'd like to thank Archive.org again for all of the wonderful things they do. If we were able to get anyone writing regularly here, we'd be raving on and on about their Live Music Archive, their "Wayback Machine", and their many other amazing features.

Poke around a bit there. Feel free to let people know that articles, interviews, reviews and such that used to be at Unfound Bloom can now be found there.

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