Angels - Owl City

They Were Kids That I Once Knew

Beautiful and sobering track by Stars - "Dead Hearts"

Dirty Gold - "California Sunrise"

Dirty Gold has been getting some attention the past few days. This track makes me want want to move out West.

Arcade Fire New Single Leaked

The Arcade Fire has just announced that their upcoming album, The Suburbs, will be released on August 2nd. But if you're like me and can't wait to get your Arcade Fire fix then you are in luck!

One Thirty BPM got two these two unreleased tracks off of a BBC broadcast and now they are here for your listening pleasure!

New Album Release: Atlas

A Few Words - The American Dollar.mp3 (right click to save) [audio:few words.mp3]

Equinox - The American Dollar.mp3 (right click to save) [audio:equinox.mp3]

The two man instrumental band known as The American Dollar has done it again!
Their latest album, Atlas, provides a vast soundscape with some fresh perspective.  There's more character in this album and they took some risks by trying some new techniques and sounds.
Check out their MySpace and grab the album if you enjoy it as much as I do.

bazan back in full form

David Bazan is the greatest songwriter of this decade. There I said it. The Christians hate him because he's turned his back on them, the atheists scoff at him because he still talks about God. He may have lost his faith but he hasn't lost his ability to engineer lyrical genius. After a long wait and a string of house shows across the west coast Bazan released his highly anticipated full-length solo album a few months ago. Curse Your Branches from Barsuk records is in stores now and on iTunes.

final songs of summer

I'm really going to miss the summer time, here are two songs that I'll keep listening to well into the school year.  This ones for Hallie with a special thanks to Mike for his sophisticated musical taste.

Grapevine Fires

The fires in Southern California are incredibly dangerous, scary, and costly.  I wish we never had to deal with wildfires but in all the destruction there is something awfully beautiful that serves as a reminder of how powerless we really are.

Passion Pit Remix + Dan Deacon

Here's one of the better remixes from the Passion Pit remix contest in anticipation of their upcoming album. I also had to throw in a track off Bromst by Dan Deacon because they both make some very strange and wonderful music.

No One Wants To Hear About Your 97th Tear

Will Sheff incorporated a ton of references to other songs and artists in "Plus Ones." Here's the complete list compiled by Cynthia Closkey:

1 "96 Tears," Question Mark and the Mysterians, 96 Tears (1966).

2 "99 Luftballons," Nena

3 "Seven Chinese Brothers," REM, Reckoning (1983).

4 "Eight Miles High," written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby, recorded by The Byrds and included on Fifth Dimension (1966).

5 "TVC15," David Bowie, single (1976); a song possibly about Iggy Pop hallucinating, or possibly not.

6 "Care of Cell 44," The Zombies, Odyssey and Oracle (1968).

7 "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," Paul Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years (1975).

8 "Three Times a Lady," The Commodores, Natural High (1978).

9 "What’s New, Pussycat?," Tom Jones (1965).

10 "Sixteen Candles," The Crests (1958).

11 "Let’s Get Lost," Chet Baker (1955).

The Way We Get By

Man I am looking forward to Summer break. Here's a song that helps me get through the day.

From Here I Can Touch the Sun

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." - attributed to Leonardo da Vinci


I always thought "The Commander Thinks Aloud" was a good track until I learned the context in which it was written.  The I realized it was one of the best songs I'd ever heard. Lead singer of The Long Winters, John Roderick, wrote "The Commander Thinks Aloud" in reaction to the Challenger spaceship disaster. It is a serenely beautiful song with both figurative and literal language that paints a beautiful picture of a painful event.

Boys and girls in cars
Dogs and birds on lawns
From here I can touch the sun
Yeah yeah

Put your jackets on
I feel we're being born
The Tropic of Capricorn is below
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

We stall above the pole
Still your face is young
As we feel our weight return
Yeah yeah

A trail of shooting stars
The horses call of storm
Because the air contains the charge
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

The radio is on
And Houston knows the score
Can you feel it?
We're almost home
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

The crew compartment's breaking up
The crew compartment's breaking up
The crew compartment's breaking up

If you like this song you may also enjoy "Ultimatum" by The Long Winters.

You Are My Center When I Spin Away

One of the great (and sometimes not so great) things about Radiohead's music is that it gets remixed and covered. A lot. "Videotape" was my favorite track off of In Rainbows.  I still think the original is the best but here are a few other versions that deserve some attention.

In The Shadow of Your Family Tree

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family." -Anthony Brandt

Family is a word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  To some people it means closeness, to others it means you have to live with someone you hate.  Some people think of family as a group of people they have to care about.  And to other people it is a refuge from a world that really doesn't care.  Being in a family often gets really messy but without one I don't think life would be nearly as enjoyable.

Random Grab Bag: Ratatat + Doves + CSS

It's funny how one word of encouragement can fuel a persons day. I was just thinking that posting on the blog wasn't worth my time when my brother told me "everyone has been talking about SoundSuck lately." Everyone may just mean my friends and family but because of his encouraging comment I have a renewed energy and am reminded of my passion for good music. If you have something encouraging to say to someone please share it with them- I guarantee it will mean something no matter how small.

David Bazan - Unreleased Live Material

We've been waiting for a new album from David Bazan for a long time now. A very long time... Thankfully he's been playing some new stuff on tour and some awesome people have been recording it for all of us to enjoy.






If you want to hear the rest of this live show at the Grey Eagle then download the whole performance here.

If you like David Bazan, don't miss his cover of "Hallelujah."

Minus the Bear rocks the acoustic

Every so often I come across an acoustic set that has really exceptional audio engineering.  I don't know much about decibels or audio levels but I know that Minus the Bear's new Acoustics EP sounds extremely clean. It's also great to see artists really reworking a song and shaking things up with an acoustic guitar instead of just replaying the original track with a different instrument.

The Arcade Fire Is Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts

Here's a previously unreleased track by The Arcade Fire the band gave out with their documentary film, Mirror Noir. It's called "Burning Bridges" and it's an instrumental version of a song called "Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts." Hopefully we'll get to hear the song on their next album.



If you like The Arcade Fire check out all 3 versions of "Wake Up!"

Resurrect Me - Jon Foreman

I've really enjoyed Jon Foreman's partial departure from Switchfoot over the past few months. It's brought about some great material like this fun track, "Resurrect Me."

Professor Murder - Free Stress Test

Saw this headline in The Wall Street Journal today and it made me think of "Free Stress Test" by Professor Murder.