Concerts and CDs for me, more free music for you

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I was able to go to the Low / Pedro the Lion / Trampled by Turtles show last night. I missed the beginning of TBT’s set, but the two co-headliners were both really good live. Low has a kind of muted energy live, it’s kind of hard to explain. They might just be the most talented musicians I’ve ever seen live. I’ll write a full review later, but for now, I will leave you with some stuff to listen to from each band, and a list of some random songs that were played. If you visit the Low website, you can hear a number of their songs there. They played a few older songs, including "(that’s how you sing) Amazing Grace", but they focused on the newer stuff from The Great Destroyer, playing "Monkey", "Silver Rider", "California", and a few others. You can download "Monkey" and "California" on this page, which is ran by their record label. Pedro the Lion played "Never Leave A Job Half Done", "Penetration", "Big Trucks", "Foregone Conclusions", "Rapture", and a number of other songs. It was a great show, and much more energetic than I was expecting. It made Low’s show feel more like an anticlimax, because their music is just so much more relaxing than Pedro’s. You can hear (and download!) some stuff from Pedro at their purevolume page. Oh, and before you ask, no, the legendary Frank Lenz is not drumming for them anymore. I was a bit disappointed about that, and I even had to ask vocalist/guitarist David Bazan about it before I internalized that Frank wasn’t really there (that’s the Fold Zandura fanboy in me whining – Tim Walsh did a great job drumming, really). Then there’s that other group, Trampled by Turtles. I had no idea you could make a banjo, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, and mandolin(?) sound that aggressive. I guess I’d call them alt-bluegrass, but that might not be the right label for them. You can download some of their songs on their website.

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I’ve also gotten a few new CDs since I last blogged – at the show I picked up Pedro’s It’s Hard to Find a Friend and Low’s The Great Destroyer. I picked up Lifehouse’s self-titled at Best Buy (Sorry for those of you who thought I had some kind of indie-cred – I do enjoy some popular music). While I was there I finally got that album from The Arcade Fire that everyone’s raving about lately. They’d given me a raincheck for it a few weeks ago when I went to get it on sale, but today was the first time they’d had it in for me to get. I like it so far, and it just might be the best thing to come out last year. I was at a thrift shop this afternoon when I spotted Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips for sale for $3, so I picked that up too. This’ll actual be my first time hearing them, but I’ve heard that that’s a pretty good album, so I figured I’d splurge the three bucks.

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