Tragic Josh sprays rainbows of musical beauty over the disenfranchised youth of today. Come revel in the glory of his select aural spectrum of love.

1. Bowerbirds – Ghost Life

Just a really lovely song that'll keep you till the end. much to your surprise.


Download the Free Mp3 “Ghost Life” by Bowerbirds courtesy elbo.ws now!




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2. Electric President – The Violent Blue

I can't honestly say that I think this dude is the best advert for this band, but I do like this song. It takes it's time and knows how to carry it's momentum. The last third is probably the best.





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3. White Birch – The New Kingdom

These guys are incredible. But apparently all Norwegians sound like Erlend Oye.


Download the Free Mp3 “The New Kingdom” by White Birch now!




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4. Vic Chestnutt – I Flirted With You All My Life

Never really heard much of his stuff, bought an album once but was kinda disappointed, but this is just a beautiful song.


Download Free Mp3 “I Flirted With You All My Life” and others by Vic Chestnutt now!




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5. The Antlers – Atrophy

I'm sure you're all aware of these guys so this really isn't news to anyone but myself. I overlooked them amidst all their hype, but have recently come to appreciate what a wonderful record they produced thanks to a number of other blogs. An old dog can in fact learn new tricks after all.


Listen to “Atrophy” by The Antlers at Hypster




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6. Sharon Van Etten – Love More

Exquisite. She's gorgeous AND amazing.


Direct download the free mp3 “Love More” by Sharon Van Etten courtesy weathervanemusic.org




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7. First Aid Kit – Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

These guys are amazing. My new favourites, and what an amazing cover.


Direct download the free mp3 “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by First Aid Kit via hypeful.com




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8. First Rate People – Girl’s Night

Infectious and fun, just what pop should be like.





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9. Herb Albert – Rotation (DJ Harri Edit)

Old school brilliance. This was what Ibiza used to be about.


Download the free mp3 “Rotation (DJ Harri Edit)” by Herb Albert via Space Dust




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10. Cold Mountain Child – Of Self

Something reminiscent of classic Dire Straits. OK, and a fair chunk of Iron and Wine as well!




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11. Spirit Spine – Enchanted Island

Incredibly simple and sparse. and short. too short. but that's good.


Download the free mp3 “Enchanted Island” by Spirit Spine via WeeklyTapeDeck.com




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12. Liars – No Barrier Fun

Great vocals, and a fantastic arrangement. Love the beat and the cello.


Download the free mp3 “No Barrier Fun” by Liars via fairtilizer.com




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What are you listening to this week? Post your comment!

Tags: best new tracks, Bowerbirds, Cold Mountain Child, download mp3, Electric President, First Aid Kit, First Rate People, free mp3, free music, Herb Albert, Liars, Sharon Van Etten, Spirit Spine, The Antlers, top songs, Tragic Josh, Vic Chestnutt, White Birch

There’s a moment in the 2008 documentary Man On Wire when Philippe Petit — the French street performer who improbably accessed the rooftops of the World Trade Center’s twin towers in 1974 to perform an illegal an wire walk between the two structures — describes removing his clothing and methodically splaying his limbs about in hopes of finding an arrow — the arrow — that his confederate had shot from the neighboring tower rooftop in the dark of night, to which was tied the monofilament line that ultimately bore the cable upon which Petit would perform his feat of daring some hours later.

Finally coming to find the arrow after feeling something brush against his naked thigh, Petit discovers it perfectly yet precariously perched upon a rail at the tower’s precipice, so vulnerable that even slightest breath of wind could send it tumbling 110 stories below, and with it — Petit’s dream.

That image — of an instrument impossibly defying the natural order of things, balancing against disaster, created for pain and yet intended to deliver beauty, is the first thing that struck my head upon learning late last night of the death of Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous.

While I can tell you I am an ardent fan of Sparklehorse, I’ve never read an interview with Linkous, never viewed their Wikipedia page and truly, until last evening, didn’t even know the whole tale of his previously successful suicide attempt, resuscitation and ensuing surgeries.  I’d long ago learned that the more dear an artist is to me, the less known about them, the better, so frequent the disappointment has been any time I’ve met or discovered too much about someone whose creations had acquired some kind of deeper meaning in my world.  Truth be told, if I were alive in the time of Schopenhauer, Hesse or Schiele, I would have avoided them with haste lest running the chance of ruining part of myself by being exposed to their assholisms (the same cannot be said for Nick Cave).  Even so, I owned a vague notion that Linkous was in pain and was challenged by his own existence, and therefore wasn’t wholly surprised by the news of his death.

Though I was an early adapter upon the release of 1995’s Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, the music of Sparklehorse never became so meaningful to me as it has in the few years since Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain came out.  Inside that record slept a Rosetta Stone which, once discovered, allowed me to access parts of  other Sparklehorse albums previously insignificant to me.  Perhaps it was in my getting older that every failed relationship stung slightly more, given the eventuality of the hourglass our lives are set against, and therefore I was learning a truer meaning of mortality, but somewhere between the near-simultaneous losses of a great love, a great friend and a parent, the warbling voice, obscured lyricism and oftentimes discordant tapestry that defined Sparklehorse suddenly felt a lot more like life to me than anything the gay buccaneers in Coldplay could ever vomit out.  Even the beloved Radiohead (the British Wilco) and Wilco (the American Radiohead) started to feel more artful than truthful when measured in the context of my life.  It didn’t really seem like spiders singing in the salty breeze or the pointless snide remarks of hammerhead sharks were meant to mean anything; however, looking in your face for a thousand years because it’s like a civil war of pain and of cheer certainly seemed like it might.

Many a night out of mine has begun with air-raid screenings of “Someday I will Treat You Good” and/or “Mountains” while just as many have languished to an end with” Sad And Beautiful World” and “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” (and vice versa).  I pushed my ears to damage this summer after listening to a bootleg copy of Dark Night of the Soul endlessly, and just 48 hours ago, right around the time Mark Linkous composed what would be his final message to this world, “Shade And Honey” spilled from my girlfriend’s tiny computer speakers after I thumbed through her laptop for just the right song as we roused ourselves from bed and dressed in a room heavy with the cologne of our lovemaking.

It’s perhaps fitting, given the equine imagery that is pervasive in Linkous’ lyrics, to describe experiencing Sparklehorse as not wholly unlike viewing the birth of a foal — an arresting, grotesque display that ends in something awkward and beautiful.  While that might not resonate with everyone as a revelation, it certainly seems more truthful than the short-attention-span, black-and-white consumerist orgy that Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers insist we should inhabit instead.  It’s therefore no coincidence the music of Sparklehorse has found its way into misunderstood, below-the-radar indie films such as The King and Laurel Canyon; in both, Sparklehorse songs are covered by characters who are undergoing something of an awakening with no easy remedy against their otherwise storybook backdrops.  It’s not so much that Sparklehorse is a alternative for the mainstream as much as it is a soundtrack for those in the minority who are struggling to acknowledge that everything might not be alright, but that in and of itself is in fact ok.

Perhaps therein lies a lesson that Linkous was too close to experience for himself.  Though only his family and loved ones will truly know, it seems that whatever his pain, whatever his displacement, every moment he spent searching and creating was a victorious acknowledgement of life.  That there are no more Mark Linkous compositions forthcoming to baptize our days would be disheartening if he hadn’t already blessed us with so much.  Still, for the sake of all the sunlight and starlight I’ve burned listening to Linkous’ music, Sparklehorse will ever be in my mind a cloudburst of radiant if uneven watercolors, undefined by the final action of one man.

In the silver morning hollow
trembling and getting old
smelling burnt oil of heaven
about ten years, too big to hold

Truffle Jones filed this report from the set of Hardcastle and McCormick: The Movie.

Tags: Dark Night Of The Soul, Don't Take My Sunshine Away, Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain, Hesse, Laurel Canyon, Man on Wire, Mark Linkous, Mountain, Sad And Beautiful World, Schiele, Schopenhauer, Shade And Honey, Someday I will Treat You Good, Sparklehorse, suicide, The King, Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot

Perhaps selling out major venues from coast to coast by word of mouth, or playing festivals from Lollapalooza to Red Rocks is a sign that your electro-freak mashup outfit is doing well, but probably not as much as being endorsed by the Queen of avant electro herself; Bjork was spotted at one of their recent shows at The Roxy in Los Angeles.

Making their SXSW debut, The Glitch Mob are set to play 3 Austin events before heading over to key slots at this year’s Coachella and Winter Music Conference gatherings. And this May, they embark on their first full nationwide tour in support of The Glitch Mob’s debut album release Drink the Sea (due May 25 on the band’s own Glass Air label). Following years of triumphant official remixes for the likes of TV On The Radio and Ed Banger— The Glitch Mob and its members even held the top two spots on XLR8R’s “50 Best MP3s of 2008” over the likes of Hercules and Love Affair and the Kills—and solo releases on tastemaker labels like Planet Mu, Drink The Sea represents a musical sea change for the band. Across the album, the trio of producer/ instrumentalists Justin Boreta, Ed Ma, and Josh Mayer artfully craft new, futuristic sounds that take influence from numerous genres, but land in none. Then again, flipping the script comes as no surprise for the group XLR8R says are best known for both “tearing up dancefloors and confusing the hell out of anyone trying to put a label on their music.”

To get a sense of what all the fuss is about, download Glitch Mob’s latest remix of TV On the Radio’s “Red Dress”:

Download TV On the Radio’s “Red Dress (Glitch Mob Remix)”

Visit The Glitch Mob at Myspace

America, you have been warned…

Tags: bjork, download mp3, electro, free music, indie music, Lollapalooza, Red Rocks, the glitch mob, The Roxy