Monsters of Folk

These handsome gentlemen are the Monsters of Folk. I suggest you stop getting your folk music elsewhere.

Listen and watch.

New Beastie Boys

I really dig this artwork for the new Beastie Boys album. Especially MCA back there with the cat. Brilliant.

Hot Sauce Committee is out 9/15. Check the tracklist.

Update: Get well, Adam.

Album art "Cover Versions"

A very similar concept to the "I Can Read Movies" collection posted a while back... Someone went and reimagined the covers art of these albums as if they were released by Pelican books in the 60s/70s.

Many more of these on Flickr.

Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door EP

Death Cab for Cutie has revealed a song each day this week from The Open Door EP, which is available digitally Tuesday (3/31). It's four very solid new songs and a cool ukulele demo version of "Talking Bird."

Listen to the songs at Stereogum:
01 "Little Bribes"
02 "A Diamond And A Tether"
03 "My Mirror Speaks"
04 "I Was Once a Loyal Lover"
05 "Talking Bird" (demo)

Coeur de Pirate

You should give this French Canadian girl a listen. You probably won't understand a word, but you probably won't care.

PB&J have "Nothing to Worry About"

This new Peter Bjorn and John song has a great beat and an equally great video. Not at all what you might expect from the guys who brought us "Young Folks."


PB&J's new album, Living Thing, is out March 31. Here's the album art...


Go grab a free MP3 of "Nothing to Worry About."

Animal Collective is pretty good

If you read any indie music blogs or magazines, you've probably been told that the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, is the greatest thing since Jesus Christ had a threesome with the Olsen twins. So, let me just put this out there... it's pretty good. Not amazing. Hopefully not the best album of 2009. But it is worth getting and deciding for yourself. That is, if you're into artsy, self-indulgent, blippity-bloop music. What might be more fascinating than the album itself is that trippy artwork up there. Give that thing a good stare, and tell me you don't feel a little doped up. Unfortunately, it doesn't work too well at iPod size.

Here's arguably the finest song on the album...

"My Girls"

Good music for good causes

Check out the ridiculously awesome tracklists for Dark Was The Night, a two-disc compilation of original music to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS; and for Heroes, a compilation of cover songs to help children affected by war. The albums will be out February 17th and 24th, respectively.

M. Ward - "Hold Time"

NPR does it again. Last week, they had the new Andrew Bird. This week, they're streaming the new M. Ward album. I'm really enjoying that cover art. And darned if he didn't go and put the future Mrs. Ben Gibbard on this one. In case you haven't heard, that would be Zooey Deschanel. And if you haven't seen it yet, you should probably take at look at Zooey and M. in The Go-Getter, the film that brought She & Him's musical stylings together.

Hold Time will be in your local record shoppe on the Seventeenth of February, Aught-Nine. Here's the languid title track...

New Bon Iver and Andrew Bird

Let's face it. 2008 sucked for new music. Nobody's albums were as good as their previous ones. Luckily, there were a few great newcomers like Bon Iver, whose amazing For Emma, Forever Ago is Beard Crumbs' official choice for album of the year. (Even though it first came out in '07, most people are counting the re-release date on Jagjaguwar.) Some other top newbies were Fleet Foxes, The Accidental, Santogold, She & Him, and in case you haven't turned on your radio in a year, Vampire Weekend was undeniably catchy.

Bon Iver is already back this month with a new EP. Why not make a full album? Who knows, but you can go have a listen to the four song Blood Bank EP at MySpace. It's damn good stuff, but let's hope he got the Kanye out of his system with that last track. You can pick this up on January 20.

Update: The full EP is no longer on MySpace, just the title track.

Double Update: Grab a free MP3 of "Blood Bank" here.



Another sign that 2009 will be a better year in music is Andrew Bird's upcoming release, Noble Beast. This guy is good. Really good. But don't listen to what some dumb blog says, go see for yourself... they've got the whole album streaming on NPR. The record -- along with the instrumental deluxe-edition disc Useless Creatures -- is also out January 20.

Triple Update: Noble Beast is no longer streaming on NPR, but is on MySpace.

For what it's worth, the 'Crumbs did like a few other albums in 2008. Most notably, Death Cab, Beck, The Black Keys, and although they were once again over-hyped, TV on the Radio had some stellar tracks. What do you guys think? Any faves of '08 or anything looking good for '09?

HELLAWEEN

Need a quick Halloween playlist for the weekend? Go grab HELLAWEEN, a 50-minute Girl Talk-esque mega-mix that's sure to get all your freaky monster friends to mash it up on the dancefloor.

Cat Power - Dark End of the Street

On December 9th, Cat Power will be releasing a double EP of... guess what?... MORE COVERS!! Apparently Chan Marshall will never be writing her own music again. At least this one has better artwork than the album that these songs were scrapped from...

Tracklist:

01 "Auld Triangle" (The Pogues)
02 "Dark End Of The Street" (James Carr, Aretha Franklin)
03 "Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Sandy Denny / Fairport Convention)
04 "Fortunate Son" (Creedence Clearwater Revivial)
05 "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (To Stop Now) (Otis Redding)
06 "It Ain't Fair" (Aretha Franklin)

Fleet Foxes at Pitchfork Music Festival

Seattle's Fleet Foxes provide more evidence that melodic folk jams are best sung through thick sweaty beards. More videos of more bands at the Pitchfork Music Festival can be found at Pitchfork.tv.

Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut is out now on Sub Pop.


Download: "White Winter Hymnal"

Update: I don't know how long this will last on YouTube, but they had a great performance of "Blue Ridge Mountains" on Letterman.

The Accidental & Supermundane

I first came across the foxy sounds of UK minimalist folk band The Accidental when they were posted on Kitsune Noir a while back. I was really digging both their sound and the album art (top image), but kind of forgot about them until I came across the site of designer Rob Lowe aka Supermundane. The music and artwork are a really good fit for each other, so I suggest you first click to The Accidental's MySpace for audio pleasure, then click to Supermundane for visuals that will complete your cyber time-wasting experience.

Free MP3 can be snagged here.

Beck - Modern Guilt

Around Beard Crumbs headquarters, any Beck news is big news. Add the fact that his new album is produced by the mighty Danger Mouse, and you've got some serious anticipation. I would argue that Beck was doing just fine on his own, but if there was any complaint about his recent albums (none here), it was probably that they sounded too much like Beck. So maybe it was time for a little collaboration.

Here's a short promo featuring four new songs off the new album, Modern Guilt, available 7/8:



Update: You can now stream "Chemtrails," "Gamma Ray," and the Cat Powered "Orphans" at iLike.

Weezer - "Pork and Beans" Video

Weezer is coming out with their sixth album, the third of which are named Weezer. As you can probably guess by the image above, this one will be known as "The Red Album." By the sounds of some early releases, this is by far their worst album ever. But wait! The first single "Pork and Beans" doesn't suck. Apparently they decided it was more important to make a silly video full of YouTube "celebrities" than it was to make a good record. Oh well, at least we can get a kick out of Rivers' stache and these three minutes of stupidity...

"Pork and Beans"



Update: Watch the acoustic version with creepy YouTuber Tay Zonday.

Flight of the Conchords CD Packaging

By now you've probably seen at least a little bit of HBO's Flight of the Conchords. If not, you should totally be YouTubing and Netflix-queuing that shit right now. Like most normal people, you're probably very skeptical of "funny music," but seriously... these guys are good.

Now that they've officially made the crossover from TV stars to rock stars via their full-length album on Sub Pop Records, they've even given us a reason to skip the MP3s we love, instead going for the killer CD package. In today's iPod-loving world, the best option for music is typically downloading the cheaper, faster, earth-friendlier digital version... but every once in a while, there comes an album with packaging so cool, it must be physically held for the full experience. Or, you can at least go get yourself a look at some more photos of the packaging.

Art direction and type by Jeff Kleinsmith. Illustration by Tyler Stout.

MP3: Business Time

The Roots - "Rising Down"

Those dubious ruffians known as The Roots are back with another studio release titled Rising Down. Drummer and co-producer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson calls this "the most incendiary, political album of our career to date." Check tour dates (Summerfest, July 4!), and get yourself a taste of the goods at theroots.com.

While you're at it, you can "Get Busy" to this video:


Rising Down is out 4/29 on Def Jam. ?uestlove and MC Black Thought discuss the album at RollingStone.com.

Flight of the Conchords Album

New Zealand music/comedy duo Flight of the Conchords already won a Grammy for their EP titled The Distant Future. Now that we're actually living in the distant future, we can prepare to Robo-Boogie to their full-length album debut on April 22.




More info and a free MP3 at Sub Pop.

Update: Another free MP3 on their MySpace.

New Raconteurs!

The Raconteurs have just announced they are releasing a NEW ALBUM!! And it's out in just ONE WEEK!!! More info at Pitchfork.