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2011Candy - September Edition Two

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Background: On their third album (released a few days ago) 'Letters From The Coast'  The Caseworker exude the feel of a shoegazing Velvet Underground reared by the Flying Nun label - the perfect balance of drone and chime. The band creates an enigmatic intimacy and atmosphere, which they wrap around immaculately crafted pop songs like smoke. Perfectly intoxicating. With opening track and lead single ‘National Runner’, The Caseworker have an instant pop classic on their hands. The song's consummate mix of hypnotic guitars and driving rhythm section are perfectly balanced with Conor Devlin's starry-eyed vocal. Elsewhere, bassist Eimer Devlin assumes lead vocal duties for ‘The Slow Track’ and ‘Sea Years’, both reminiscent of prime Yo La Tengo, while standout ‘Boats’ carries the listener away on its buoyant yet melancholic waves of arpeggios and feedback. The album exudes a wonderful sense of timelessness and romanticism - these are songs to attach to memories. “The C

Traffic - The Low Spark Of High Heeled Sessions

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This is Traffic during 'The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys' recording sessions, at Olympic Studios, London, developed across various dates in 1971 . After the break-up of Blind Faith in 1969, Steve Winwood began working on a solo recording, bringing in Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi to contribute, and the project eventually turned into a new Traffic album, John Barleycorn Must Die, their most successful album yet. Traffic went on to expand its lineup late in 1970, adding Ric Grech on bass. The group further expanded in 1971 with drummer Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominos and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah. The live album Welcome to the Canteen was released in September and marked the band's break with United Artists Records. It did not bear the "Traffic" name on the cover, and instead was credited to the band's individual members including Dave Mason, who returned for his third and final spell with the band. The album ended with a version of The Spencer Davis G

REM - KCRW Live Session 1991

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This is R.E.M. with tracks 1-15 performed live at KCRW Studios, Santa Monica, California, April 3rd, 1991. Tracks 16-17 were perfomed on Saturday Night Live, in New York, on April 13th, 1991. Regarding the lead up to this period of R.E.M. and the gigs themselves wikipedia informs us - The band's 1988 Warner Bros. debut, Green, was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, and showcased the group experimenting with its sound. The record's tracks ranged from the upbeat first single "Stand" (a hit in the United States), to more political material, like the rock-oriented "Orange Crush" and "World Leader Pretend", which address the Vietnam War and the Cold War, respectively. Green has gone on to sell four million copies worldwide. The band supported the album with its biggest and most visually developed tour to date, featuring back-projections and art films playing on the stage. After the Green tour, the band members unofficially decided to take the followin

Josh Ritter - Toronto 2005 (Internet Archive)

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Internet Archive Replacement - This is Josh Ritter live at The Rivoli, Toronto, Ontario, Canada back on January 29th, 2005. This is a solo set recorded to a high standard and a must for any fans of his music and a great acoustic introduction for others. Josh Ritter was born in Moscow, Idaho in 1976. As a teenager, after hearing Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” on his parents' copy of Nashville Skyline, he attempted to write songs on a lute that his father had built, before abandoning the lute and buying his first guitar at K-Mart. Josh Ritter attended Oberlin College to study neuroscience, but later changed his major to the self-created "American History Through Narrative Folk Music". At the age of 21 Josh recorded his first album Josh Ritter at a recording studio on campus. After graduating, Josh moved to Scotland to attend the School of Scottish Folk Studies for six months. Josh then moved back to Idaho for a few months, before moving to Pr

2011Candy - September Edition One

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Background: The Coasts are Eric Mount and Ike Peters. The two met as freshman in college, became best friends, played music together just once, and laid down a rock n' roll album shortly thereafter. Enter Lovely Hearts Club. The advent of turntable.fm has allowed us to not only meet a ton of really great folks out there on the interweb but also hear some really special demos. Ike, a copywriter in Little Rock and one half of The Coasts, played a track for us in the Paper Garden Records room and we were hooked. How do we promote ourselves? Do we suck? These were just a few questions The Coasts had for us. No, you don't suck. You rule. Let us promote you! So here we are. The Coasts are just effortlessly fun, as if The Black Keys and Elvis Costello conceived an uncombed lovechild. The first track off their self-titled release, which you can listen to here, "Poltergeist" is a infectious, rolling pop song about moving into a haunted house. The thing is, you're nev

Sade - Ahoy Hallen, Rotterdam,1984 (Re-loaded)

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This is Sade performing live at Ahoy Hallen, Rotterdam, back on the 21st September 1984. This was a few months after her single 'Your Love Is King' launched her successful musical career. Her web sites biography includes the following - Music was not her first choice as a career. She studied fashion at St Martin's School Of Art and only began singing after two old school friends with a fledgling group approached her to help them out with the vocals. Somewhat to her surprise, she found that while the singing made her nervous, she enjoyed writing songs. Two years later she had overcome her stage fright and was regularly singing back up with a North London Latin funk band called Pride. "I used to get on stage with Pride, like, shaking. I was terrified. But I was determined to try my best, and I decided that if I was going to sing, I would sing the way I speak, because it's important to be yourself." Sade served a long apprenticeship on the road with Pride