A Great Day For Soul (With A Side Of Sole)

Gonna be sending out some of the finest soul ever made, figured it was a good day to do it. Just waiting for the last 2 transfers to finish.

Al, Curtis, Isaac, James and Ray.

Enjoy! More after the jump...

South by Southwest 2009

The SXSW 2009 music festival, which takes place March 18-22, released its preliminary official lineup (subject to change). i'm not gonna lie... i didn't go through all 1100+ artists on the list but i did skim through it and a few caught my eye. there are some notables like Crystal Method and Peter Bjorn & John. Stereogum even reported that legendary hip hop group Dead Prez would make an appearance although i didn't see them on the list today.

personally, there are two acts i am most excited about. first, my good friends the Afghan Raiders will be taking the stage at this staple music festival and i'm really stoked for them to showcase their talent in front of a great audience. i've never been to SXSW before so i guess this means road trip! check out Afghan Raiders' video for "Future Thinkers" in the full post.

next up is the flavorful sounds of Martina Topley-Bird. i sent an email to the group about her a while back. The Blue God was one of my favorite albums of 2008... definitely top 5, maybe even top 3. it was another fantastic Danger Mouse production. nuff said. i found this awesome video of Martina performing "Baby Blue" acoustic backstage at Glastonbury's stone circle.



Afghan Raiders : "Future Thinkers" [Music Video]


Martina Topley-Bird : "Baby Blue (acoustic)" [Live]

More after the jump...

School of Seven Bells

i mentioned in an email the other day that School of Seven Bells would be performing at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. well the show is tomorrow night Friday January 16, 2009. tickets are only $10 in advance and $14 DOS. i have to warn you.... this is going to be a late show. the doors open at 11pm and i'm guessing SVIIB will go on somewhere around 2AM. at least that was the case when i went to check out The Glitch Mob (awesome group that deserves a post of their own) at LPR last month.

i found the video above on the youtubes and thought it was pretty cool but if you want more, click on the full entry of this post to check out a live video someone shot of SVIIB performing at Irving Plaza (i don't care if its call "The Fillmore" now... that place will forever be IRVING PLAZA). the video clips together a few of their songs from the show and is surprisingly good quality for a digital camera or whatever was used.

i also threw in a video for Prefuse 73's (another artist worth checking out) "The Class of 73 Bells" featuring SVIIB. if you've listened to the first track "Iamundernodisguise" on Alpinisms, you'll recognize it right away on 73 Bells.

School of Seven Bells [Live] @ Irving Plaza


Prefuse 73 w/ School of Seven Bells : "The Class of 73 Bells" [Music Video]



More after the jump...

Animal Collective

Album of the year, they're saying? So far, maybe. Overall, I'm not so sure.

Granted, I've been listening with one earbud in (trying to be stealthy at my support job), I think listeners are just starving for something different. I must say though, this album is chock full of individuality. Its just not necessarily my cup of tea. Judging by their Last.fm page though, seems like they've got an ample sized following. All hipsters perhaps?

It's nice to see bands exploring uncharted territory though, no? The more music evolves the more it blends together (ex: OJ's indielectrock reference). Its refreshing to hear something entirely different.

More after the jump...

One More Chance

no this post has nothing to do with Biggie Smalls or the Notorious biographical film that is coming out this weekend. i've decided to give blogspot another chance before i convert to wordpress... partially because i've spent too much time setting up this blog and maybe even more so because i'm lazy. i'll try to get at least one music-related post up today and more importantly email the group something that may be worth their time. More after the jump...

Sorry Google

i love Google services and all but i have to say that Blogger/Blogspot really sucks. i've used Wordpress before and its free services are feature-rich. i can't believe that Google is so far behind them in that aspect. the only reason i chose blogspot was because its linked to your google account and i know that some of the people who i want to contribute to this blog already have gmail accounts. do i really need to install Google Analytics on every page in order to see some of the statistics that are already included with Wordpress in a nice clean interface? no. i shouldn't have to.

that said, i am planning to move this less-than-a-day-old blog over to wordpress.com. the only problem is some d-bag already took themusicexchange and is doing nothing with it. i will post the new address when i find something suiting that is available.

suggestions are welcome. More after the jump...

Hells Yeah

Thanks for setting this up OJ.

My girl started alphabetizing my 2000+ CD collection this week, so I have been slowly bringing my dinosaur collection to the digital age.

I have a couple additions to the ambient request, and in the wake of Phish's summer tour announcement, I think we can get that going too.

Thoughts? More after the jump...

Is it Too Late for a Best of 2008 List?

we're just shy of two weeks into 2009 so i hope these lists aren't too stale. my good friends over at Badical Beats put together not one but two Top 10 Lists (actually Top 11 including the bonus honorable mention tracks) for your download and listening pleasure.

not too long ago someone sent out a recommendation request in the electronica/ambient/trip hop genres so this may be right up your alley. Beans and Mikey put together two playlists from 22 of the best albums and artists of 2008 in what i would call the indie-electro-rock (indielectrock?) genre. there's some very fun stuff on this list that you may already be familiar with.


BEANS' TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2008 PLAYLIST
01. HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR - "TIME WILL"
02. BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW - "ZODIAC GIRLS"
03. DEERHUNTER - "NOTHING EVER HAPPENED"
04. WOMEN - "SHAKING HAND"
05. BEYOND THE WIZARD'S SLEEVE - "DIG IT"
06. DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES - "HERRING BONE"
07. THE RUBY SUNS - " OH, MOJAVE"
08. MAUS HAUS - "WE USED TECHNOLOGY (BUT TECHNOLOGY LET US DOWN)"
09. SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS - "HALF ASLEEP"
10. DEASTRO - "LIGHT POWERED"
BONUS TRACK
11. ATLAS SOUND - "ATIVAN"

MIKEY'S TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2008 PLAYLIST
01. DIGITALISM - "POGO (DIGITALISM'S POGO ROBOTIC REMIX)"
02. RATATAT - "MI VIEJO"
03. JUSTICE - "PLANISPHERE (PART 3)"
04. THE BLACK GHOSTS - "ANYWAY YOU CHOOSE TO GIVE IT"
05. FLYING LOTUS - "ROBERTA FLACK (FEAT. DOLLY)"
06. HEALTH - TRICERATOPS (ACID GIRLS REMIX A)"
07. TOBACCO - "HAIRY CANDY"
08. DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? - "WITH A HEAVY HEART (I REGRET TO INFORM YOU)"
09. KOUSHIK - "BE WITH"
10. CRYSTAL CASTLES - "COURTSHIP DATE"
BONUS TRACK:
11. THE CHAP - "CARLOS WALTER WENDY STANLEY"

if you dig any of the artists or tunes on the lists above and want more, you know what to do. More after the jump...

Welcome to The Music Exchange!

i created this blog for the Google Group The Music Exchange in hope that it would spark some interesting conversations about the music we love. based on all the emails i've seen lately, we seem to have an eclectic taste in music. when i found out that the group had passed the 100-member mark, i figured we must have a wide-range of opinions.

so rather than clog up our inboxes, let's use this blog to share our thoughts and opinions on anything music-related like what are you listening to now? what do you hate? what's your guilty pleasure? what have you recently discovered that you love? have you been to any good concerts lately or do you have any shows coming up? share some photos and videos. what do you think of the current state of the music industry and where do you see it going?

i definitely can't do this alone so i'm hoping that some of the regular contributors from our group will also contribute to this blog. if you're interested in writing some posts, reach out to me so i can add you as blogger to this site.

happy listening! More after the jump...