New Music: Jesse LaMonaca "The Deal"

Jesse LaMonaca and the Dime Novels have spent many months putting together their second full length record, The Lament of Tumbleweed Hawk, which will be celebrate a release party on February 18 at the Casbah. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, when that record was being mixed and mastered, Jesse visited Brandon Conway in Nashville and they went to Blackbird Studio for some fun and ended up recording a couple songs while there.

This is Jesse LaMonaca and Brandon Conway performing "The Deal".

Latest tracks by Jesse LaMonaca

Almost Christmas Music From Foxtail Brigade

Perhaps you remember my good friend Anton Patzner from Judgement Day? Well, he sent me some new tunes from his latest project with Laura Weinbach. They have a few different records up on BandCamp, but this will help you through your bah humbug moments.

Blind Pilot stream "We Are The Tide"

I love this time of year. Tons of new music, tons of great tours. Blind Pilot are about to release their latest, We Are The Tide, and you can hear the full thing for the next two weeks on NPR.

Stream the full album or hear each track individually on NPR here.

Here's the band (with really low light) performing "Just One" last year at the Casbah.



You can catch the band on October 2 at the Belly Up. Grab your tickets here. Also be sure to check out their site for some really cool pre-order options for their record.

Blitzen Trapper stream American Goldwing

Blitzen Trapper are back with another outstanding record in American Goldwing. When your album is simultaneously previewed by KCRW, Paste, and Drowned In Sound, you probably have a pretty good publicist, but even more important, you certainly have a gem of a record. Personally, I've loved these guys since their first Casbah show and since they skipped us a couple tours, I'm looking forward to seeing them back in town at the Belly Up when they co-headline with Dawes on October 9. You can buy tickets here.

Free Music Roundup

I feel like I've been hoarding some new music and if I keep waiting to get through all of my e-mail, I'll never be finished, so for now, here are some free downloads for bands with upcoming shows. Some of them are coming to San Diego, some have their closest shows in LA, but either way, keep them on your radar and download away, little puppies!

Menomena "Taos" & "Five Little Rooms"
Sept. 17 @ Casbah

Film School "Heart Full of Pentagons"
Sept. 19 @ Casbah

Paul Collins "Do You Wanna Love Me?"
9/22 @ Soda Bar

The Wagner Logic "Waiting For Snow"
Sept 25 @ Tin Can

TV Buddhas "Fun Girls"
Sept 26 @ Bar Pink

Hooray For Earth "Surrounded By Your Friends"
9/28 @ The Loft at UCSD

Jukebox The Ghost "Empire" & "Empire (Freelance Whales Remix"
9/28 @ The Loft at UCSD

Sebatien Tellier
"Look"
9/30 @ El Rey Theatre

Heavy Young Heathens "Sha La La La La"
Oct. 3 @ Belly Up with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Voxhaul Broadcast "Leaving On The 5th"
October 7-10 - Los Angeles, CA Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Festival

Cloud Nothings "Hey Cool Kid"
10/10 @ Soda Bar

The Acorn "Kindling To Cremation (Megafaun Remix)"
Closest show: Oct. 13 @ The Echo, Los Angeles

Shadow Shadow Shade "Say Yes"
10/15 @ Soda Bar

Women "Narrow With The Hall"
10/19 @ Casbah

Blood Red Shoes "Light It Up"
Oct. 19 @ Casbah

Ra Ra Riot "Boy"
Oct 21 @ Belly Up

Villagers "Becoming A Jackal"
Oct 21 @ Belly Up with Ra Ra Riot

Envy "Dreams Coming To An End" & "A Breath Clad In Happiness"
10/22 @ Casbah

Weekend "Coma Summer"
11/11 @ The Loft

New Video: Dead Confederate "Giving It All Away"

I'm working on another free music roundup, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share this video from Dead Confederate. The song is called "Giving It All Away" and is from their forthcoming album Sugar, which drops on August 24. You can grab a free download of the song by visiting the bands website here.

The band appeared at last year's FM 94/9 Indie Jam. They return on September 12, this time at the Belly Up, to co-headline with Alberta Cross. You can buy tickets here. Tickets are $14. If my memory serves me right, every show this band has played in San Diego has been sold out, so if you wanna see them again, buy your tickets now.

Free Music Roundup: July 20-26, 2010

Let me catch you up with my life for a second. After doing Comic-con all week (and at least one party or show every night), I was absolutely wrecked. Every muscle and bone in my body ached. I came home on Sunday night after 10:30 and my neighbors were having a party (that had started at 3 pm, by the way. And one that they promised "wouldn't be noisy".) I've created my share of noise over the years, so I tolerated the party for a while. Then it got later. I sent a text message. No reply. I called. No Reply. Then they really blew it by chanting/cheering during the True Blood repeat, which I was seeing for the first time. I actually went out of my apartment midshow and yelled to them so as not to miss my show. I believe it was something like, "[neighbor's name], It's 12:30! On a Sunday! Time to call it a night!" And then I slammed my screen door on my foot. FML.

I am officially that person. Their friends gathered their bibles and left and I was content because I was finally going to get sleep. And man, did I sleep. Well, until the big mouth salon chick opened up shop at 7 a.m. to catch her clients up on her slutty weekend rendezvous. The same time she starts, so does the construction that has that awful beeping that Caterpillers make when they're in reverse. All. Day. Long. *sigh* I remember when Kensington was quiet and I was the loudest one in the hood.

I attempted jumping right into catching up with updating the Casbah calendar and email and posts and job hunting and other "work" come Monday, but my apartment was frightening. So I cleaned. Three loads of laundry. Find places for all the Comic-con crapola. Go through mail. Put all CDs and press kits in one place. Clean the fridge. Clean the litter box. Do the dishes. Dust. More dishes. Vacuum. Make dinner. Do dishes from dinner. Recycle junkmail and magazines from 2009. Fold laundry. Put freshly laundered sheets on the bed. Play with cat while attempting to make bed. Bleed on freshly washed white sheets due to gushing cut from playful but overzealous cat.

It was well into nighttime before I felt like everything was in it's right place and I could finally get to business. I finally started to read the last few days worth of email, one by one. All 323 of them. Naturally, in all of that there was a lot of bullshit, but there were also a lot of free downloads to offer. I haven't listened to all of these though I did sample and they cover a spectrum of genres, so you're just going to have to listen on your own and see if you think they're worth downloading. Unlike last week, most of these bands are not touring through San Diego. I'm putting the locals and the touring bands at the top, but there will be a lot more if you click on 'keep on reading'.

For all downloads (except Fever Sleeves which is at Mediafire), right click and 'save as' or 'save link as' to download depending on your browser. These are all externally hosted by various official sites which have cleared for posting but reserve the right to remove the links at any time, so download them while ya can. This by no means covers all new music, this is just the music that was sent to me over the past seven days to share with my readers.

Fever Sleeves Soft Pipes, Play On
For full album free download, click here.
NPMT at The Ruby Room, August 13

Eastern Conference Champions "Bloody Bells (M. Zero Remix)"
At Beauty Bar San Diego August 17

Fillagar "Gray Area"
Appearing at Soda Bar August 23

The Lights "new new"
Appearing at Soda Bar August 27

Little Gold "Completely Fucked"
Performing at Tin Can with Lovey Dovies, September 1


There was no logical way to organize these, so they're alphabetical.

A Lull "Weapons for War"

Arab Strap Daughters of Darkness"

Awolnation "Burn It Down"

Backwards Quilt "And Then The Sigh"

Blip Blip Bleep "Freak You Out"

Burnt Ones "Burnt to Lose"

Dana Falconberry "Singing Lullabies"

Darker My Love "Split Minute"

Drunken Barn Dance "A Winter's Tale"

FUR "Black Castles"

Gangcharger "Apparition"

Hooray For Earth "Surrounded By Your Friends" (Twin Shadow Remix) "Form" (Oh No Ono Remix)

Jesse Woods "Mind Drips" (Neon Indian Cover)

Jody Porter “Aurora”

John Eichleay "Hideout"

Keegan DeWitt "Say La La"

Lazy "Who Could Break Your Heart"

Le Vice "Shy Guy"
Munk "Down In L.A." (Them Jeans Remix)

Nihiti "Black Cars" "The Return of Kind Ropes"

Pegi Young "Body Breaks" (Devendra Banhart cover)

Rusty Anderson "Where Would We Go?"

Shit Robot "I Found Love (TBD Remix)"

Snuffaluffagus "Brazil Wood Poetry"

Soars "Throw Yourself Apart"

Soft Metals "Love Or Music"

Sunset "Sunshine Hair"

Team Bayside High "No Sleeves Attached" (DJ Mix)

The Murdocks "Black Jesus Knocking"

Tucker Jameson & The Hot Mugs "Last Train Home"

Wartime Blues "Youth"

Woodsman "When The Morning Comes"

Yacht "Nausea" (X cover)

Young Man "Five"

Move over Feist: Meet JayMay

I don't know what it is about me, but I've always been a tough critic when it comes to chick vocalists. In my music collection, I'd estimate that less than 5% of my CDs are from female vocalists. I'll always be a fan of The Sundays, Natalie Merchant, and Hope Sandoval, but generally, I really have to be moved by a CD to get into it. I never really got into the Lily Allen CD that I was told would be the next big thing, I freakin despise Amy Winehouse, and I just couldn't jump on the whole Feist bandwagon. Their music really does nothing for me.

Perhaps because it's a lazy Saturday morning, perhaps because I'm in a really good mood, or perhaps because it arrived in my mailbox at the end of a hectic week, like a little postcard from the karma gods understanding just how I'd been feeling, for some reason from the first line of the first song to the last line of the last song, I love this disc.

So here's a piece of the press release:

New York City songstress Jaymay has confirmed a March 11th U.S. release for her debut full length Autumn Fallin' on Blue Note Records.

Currently touring the UK where Heavenly Recordings has released Autumn Fallin' to slew of 4-star reviews (see below), Jaymay got her start at a NYC open mic night in 2003. Soon after she was invited to play at various Lower East Side venues such as Pianos, Mercury Lounge, and her much buzzed about (and oversold) Living Room Residency, which moved Gothamist to gush "Girls with Guitars are everywhere in this city, but this one --like a siren--was pulling people into this room and leaving them silent, speechless even. Shocked and lulled into a stupor."

Jaymay eschewed the inevitable and numerous label offers that came in the wake of these shows, opting to self-release the beautiful Sea Green See Blue EP, which scored an "indie spotlight" on iTunes and frequent rotation on Los Angeles' influential KCRW. She then began work on Autumn Fallin’, a song cycle that vividly details the story of a New York City relationship gone south for the winter.

Ultimately, EMI made her an offer she creatively couldn't refuse, resulting in perfect homes at Heavenly Records in the UK and Blue Note here in the states.

Since then, Jaymay (born Jamie Kristine Seerman) has taken up residence in London, touring Europe and the UK with the likes of Bright Eyes, Jose Gonzales, Caribou, and Okkervil River.

I'm on my second listen through as I type and I still can't put my finger on why this chick is getting through to me, but I'm really digging it.

You can check out an MP3 HERE, her MySpace HERE, or her official site HERE.

"It's not that I hate you; I never loved you enough to hate you."

New Music

Lots of good new music out this week, and I've got a coupon for you if you click the Insound button on the right site of this site. Enter coupon code "SXSW_Insound" for 10% off your order, good until 3/16.

Beirut- Long Island
Bloc Party- A Weekend in The City
Bonnie Prince Billy- Lay And Love
The Colour- Between Earth and Sky
Sondre Lerche- Phantom Punch
Peter, Björn, and John- Writer's Block
Teddybears- Soft Machine