mp3s and such.

I've been quite busy with work and family obligations the last week, hence the lack of new posts (I haven't even tweeted much). To tide you over, here are a couple of mp3s available for free from longtime favorites with new albums on the way.

First off, Sloan needs no introduction, and their new album The Double Cross comes out in a couple of months. The first single, Chris Murphy's "Follow the Leader", can be downloaded here.

Aussie rockers Grand Atlantic are also set to release their third full-length soon, and they're offering up "Poison to the Vine" as a free download at their special album-centered site.

Popboomerang on Bandcamp - Freebies Galore!

How does 44 free mp3s from one of the world's greatest power pop labels sound? That's what you can get by visiting Popboomerang's new Bandcamp page. They have two samplers up, one with 13 tracks and the other with 31, featuring artists many of you know and love, along with many others worth checking out. From Bryan Estepa to Russell Crawford to Adrian Whitehead to Grand Atlantic to The Wellingtons (and many more), you can't go wrong.

Three for Thursday, 8/13/09

Grand Atlantic-How We Survive. The Aussies with the big pop/rock sound are back with the followup to 2007's This is Grand Atlantic, and they've managed another disc that will lodge its tunes in your head and give your speakers a workout. Oasis, Sloan and Cheap Trick are the bands that come to mind when describing their sound, and there are plenty of great tracks to choose from on this sophomore effort. You could start at the beginning with "Coast is Clear" with its dense guitar sounds and insinuating melody, or with the synths and handclaps of the catchy FoW-esque "Tripwires", or with the Oasis-styled "She's a Dreamer". Then go from there to the classicist power pop of "Freeway", the languid title track, or the raucous "Holding Pattern". No duds here, and most certainly no sophomore jinx.

CD Baby | MySpace | iTunes

Michael Gross & The Statuettes-Dust and Daylight EP. First Lamar Holley and now Michael Gross - it's a veritable flood of Utah poppers. Formerly with The Brobecks, Gross caught my ear with his solo disc Tales from a Country Home last year, and now has formed a new band to release Dust and Daylight. Gross & Co. fit into the pop/rock/Americana mix, with a hint of the Wallflowers about them. "I've Been Wrong Before" rocks with a distinct Western feel; "Stone Face" recalls the Old 97's, while "Novocaine" does the straight-ahead rock thing quite well. The Year of the Quality EP rolls along.

Stream & Buy Here | MySpace


Broken Promise Keeper-Ice Cold Pop. Broken Promise Keeper is the Atlanta-area's Rob Stuart, who keeps cranking out the power pop each year with now his third release. He kind of has a retro-80s power pop sound, bringing to mind Shoes, Let's Active, R.E.M. and adds a level of wit and whimsy to the proceedings. Tracks you'll want to check out below: "I Blame James" (in which a series of famous James are blamed for our narrator's shortfalls), the exuberant "Kristine", and the Beatlesque "Worship from Afar". Good pop that goes down smooth.

CD Baby | MySpace | iTunes

CD of the Day, 6/13/07: Grand Atlantic-This Is Grand Atlantic

The Aussies have done it again. Much in the way that you knew something on the Not Lame label was going to be great (and in the same way you currently know about Kool Kat releases), the Popboomerang logo on the cover of a disc has become a imprimatur of power pop quality, and This Is Grand Atlantic, the debut disc of Brisbane-based Grand Atlantic is another winner from Down Under. Their style is closest to the Brit-pop of Oasis, with Sloan and Cheap Trick also prominent in their sound.

Grand Atlantic wastes no time in getting down to business here: "Coolite" is all swagger and power pop at its best; the track rocks along with crunchy guitars and handclaps, and lead singer Phil Usher has the classic pop/rock voice. "Smoke and Mirrors", with its "under the radar" refrain that will burrow into your head, is more of the same, while "Chaos Theory" sounds like a Noel Gallagher rewrite of "Rain", which is a good thing. "Wonderful Tragedy" lets them branch out, with strings and horns in the service of a great ballad, and "Nice Guys?" sounds like Teenage Fanclub in one of their more rocking moments. The horns are out again on the 60s-influenced "Burning Brighter", which reminds me of the recent Mellowmen disc, and don't overlook the closer, "Peace Be With You", which sounds like Brian Wilson's attempt at "A Day In The Life".

All in all, it's outstanding and inspired work from these Aussies, and a definite top 20 (if not top 10) contender for 2007.

MySpace | CD Baby | eMusic

Updates & Miscellany.

By way of follow-up on some earlier posts, and some other things that I've been meaning to mention over the week or so since I last posted:

* I made reference a few weeks ago to a new David Grahame album becoming available through downloads from his official site. It now turns out that Grahame is only releasing individual tracks as he completes them, and not only are they going for $2 a pop, he's not making any previews of them available before purchase so as to preserve the surprise element. This business model of Grahame's has created quite a lengthy discussion on Audities, with the general consensus being that it's too steep a price, and even those who feel they could justify spending $2/track are put off by the lack of ability to sample the tracks. It is kind of a "pig in a poke" type of setup here, especially with Grahame's hints of a departure from his earlier sound. If anyone here has heard the tracks, please post a comment with your take on them, and if by some reason you're reading this Mr. Grahame, feel free to send me the mp3s on a promo basis and I'll be glad to write up my thoughts on them. :)

UPDATE WHILE PREPARING THIS POST: Apparently bowing to semi-popular demand, Grahame has made samples available. After listening to the five 20-30 second snippets, I'm not detecting that radical a change in his sound, with the exception of "The Slide", which has a horn section and sounds kind of bluesy. The others sound nice enough, assuming the snippets are representative of the tracks as a whole. I'm a bit more tempted to shell out the $2, but I'm not quite there yet.

* Contrary to earlier reports, Derby is not imminently releasing their sophomore disc, Posters Fade. It will probably be out later this year, according to their publicist. Nevertheless, the three new tracks are still playing on their site (click on "music") and I remain eager to hear the rest.

* I'd be remiss not to mention that Jason Falkner has a new disc out, but only in Japan. It's titled I'm OK, You're OK, and if you want it now before it gets a US release (if ever), Kool Kat has it for $32. I may have my power pop membership card taken away for saying this, but I've never really gotten into Falkner that much. It's not that I dislike his music, and maybe it's also due to his very spotty track record of solo releases, but for whatever reason his stuff has never jumped out at me. I'll certainly be glad to give the new one a listen, but not for $32.

* Not Lame put up some new discs today, and one of them looked particularly interesting: This Is Grand Atlantic, by the Australian band of the same name. Although this new full-length is not available yet on eMusic, their EP Smoke and Mirrors (which features several of the same tracks on the full-length along with a cover of Abba's "The Winner Takes It All") can be found there.

* Speaking of Not Lame, they've also rolled out the red carpet for the new disc from The Well Wishers, How I Won The War. So head on over and listen away. You know I'm stoked for this, since their previous release, Under The Arrows, was my #5 disc of 2005. I just got the disc in, so I'm not ready for a full report yet, but it sounds like more of the same goodness.