Sounds Familyre, home of everyone’s favorite melodramatic popular song folk minstrels Danielson Familie, has a free Christmas compilation out for your holiday enjoyment.
Of note, Sufjan Stevens returning from the future, bringing back a rendition of Good King Wenceslas unlike any you’ve heard before (unless, of course, you are a robot).
My favorite title from the vast Sufjan Christmas catalogue has to be Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!).
Although some reunion shows have received a lot more press (My Bloody Valentine curating/headlining ATP, Love & Rockets and Krafwerk at Coachella or Sebadoh performing Bubble and Scrape, just to name a few from 2008). I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the flyer below:
Head over to 4AD for some great free tracks from Deerhunter, Bon Iver and Department of Eagles.
There, you can see the news about the latest Red Hot + compilation, curated by The National. Dark was the Night is set for release on February 17, 2009 here in the States. This will be the 20th Red Hot + release, each dedicated to raising awareness about AIDS and to raising funds for continuing research.
Here’s an alphabetical list of featured performers on Dark was the Night:
… of missing out on free Dr. Pepper, that is.
If you weren’t able to register for your Guns N’ Roses-inspired free Dr. Pepper yesterday — or weren’t able to wait out their overloaded, laggy website — here are some free tracks (of actual good music that didn’t take, like, decades to release!) to ease your 23 flavors-less pain.
The good people of Dischord Records are offering the classic melodic hardcore Egg Hunt 7″ tracks as free digital downloads to everyone who registers for an account there. Yet another reason to support great independent music!
In other 80s news, Stereogum has a couple of clever covers for your downloading happiness, including The Welcome Wagon‘s version of Half a Person by the Smiths and Takka Takka’s take on the Phil Collins epic In the Air Tonight. Did I mention that I went to seminary with Vito Aiuto of The Welcome Wagon?
Also, you can download an Obama-inspired track by none other than the Boss himself (and you don’t even have to make up a fake email address to give to Sony).
You might want to wait before picking up your New Order reissues, though.
Earlier this week, I heard one of my personal heroes, Ian Mackaye, deliver a Q+A session at the UCSD campus.
Ian, for the uninitiated, is a pioneering figure in independent music — founding member and singer of seminal punk bands Minor Threat and Fugazi, as well as current singer of The Evens, and one of the co-owners of Dischord Records.
I have never heard Ian in this particular setting, but I knew he was sharp from the in between song banter I’ve heard from him during past Fugazi concerts — for example, urging crowd surfers to do something truly radical and, instead of crushing the fans up in the front, to try getting passed to the back of the audience instead.
On this particular evening, Ian showed up without an agenda — he opened up the floor to any and all questions the audience had. Questions ranged from the silly (“Who would win in a potato sack race between you and Henry Rollins?” — which, by the way, Rollins would probably win; clearly, the man does many push-ups) to the political (e.g., the current election, war, etc.) and, of course, the musical (in case you’re wondering, Ian has been listening to Eddy Current Suppression Ring lately).
Ian is an extremely quotable person, quick on his feet. I love what he said about the significance of music:
Music is the currency of community
headsparks* 