If It's Too Loud...

I'm not sure what inspired me to go about making a mix with numbers, except that I've wanted to do it for about 15 years now and never got to it. So here's a bunch of great songs with numbers in the title. Hopefully there are a few new things in here for you to enjoy. Aimee Mann - "One" : A cover from the Magnolia soundtrack, she takes the Harry Nilsson classic and somehow makes it her own without betraying the original. It fits in extremely well with the tone of the film and soundtrack, too. A favorite cover of mine. The Two Man Gentlemen Band - "The Square Root of Two" : While I'll always think of The Two Man Gentlemen Band as a band that does songs about history, they also have quite a few math songs in their repertoire. While this doesn't achieve the heights of their great "Prime Numbers," this is still a cute math-based love song. Kathleen Edwards - "Six O'Clock News" : The only artist to get two slots o...

A very thin week this week, but an unexpected favorite has emerged from the list, so let's dive in. Phox - Phox : This wasn't even on my radar until Ken sent it over to me, and I immediately fell in love. It's sort of reminiscent of the best of Freelance Whales in many regards, although I find the band incredibly difficult to put into any specific category. It's a really accessible album with a lot going for it, some pretty memorable songs (I'm quite partial to "Raspberry Seed" on first listen), and a lot of interesting things to make repeat listens something to look forward to. Easily my favorite new release of the week, and the best of recent times I think. Highly recommended. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sea When Absent : I consider A Sunny Day in Glasgow to be a little more challenging than most of what I listen to, and this album seems to continue along those lines. I enjoyed Autumn, Again , and this one is one I definitely need more time with, ...

Boston's own Kingsley Flood have one of the traits of my favorite bands: While their albums are good, their live show is amazing. They basically blend the popular neo-folk movement of the day with the fun and edge of pop punk. (And by pop punk I mean the kind found on Lookout Records back in the 90s).  That being said, imagine my joy when Kingsley Flood surprised us all earlier this week by announcing a new live album ( Live at the Armory ) would be out next week ! And that right now you can download a sampler of the album for free through Noisetrade! By now, you all know how much we love free music at If It's Too Loud..., so this is a complete no-brainer for us. The two songs of theirs I saw last year at the Newport Folk Fest were a highlight of that day, so this is almost a consolation prize for missing their full set. To download Live at the Armory Sampler , head on over to Noisetrade . For more info on Kingsley Flood, please check out their website  and catch them li...

I love a good remix, so today I'm offering up 20 of my favorites. For best results, throw it on shuffle, crank up the volume, and get something done while you're grooving. With many of these, there may be some language you'd want to avoid, so there's your warning. Beastie Boys - "Body Movin'" (Fatboy Slim remix) : I feel like this might have ended up being the actual single for this song way back whenever, but, like so many Fatboy Slim remixes, I feel like this far exceeds the original. Once you've listened to enough remixes, you recognize the Fatboy Slim fingerprint almost immediately, so if this sort of big beat thing isn't for you, well... Ellie Goulding - "Lights" (Bassnectar remix) : One of the few appearances of modern dubstep on this list, I do feel as if this version of "Lights" is also superior to the original, leaving the basic melody and structure intact while adding an element of urgency that the original la...

You may recall us highlighting the new album from Hallelujah the Hills on First Listen a month ago. This week, the band opted to place the new album, Have You Ever Done Something Evil , as a name your price release at their Bandcamp. This album is worth a few dollars of your music budget anyway, but they are offering it up for free. So if you want a decent punkish album by some Boston upstarts, check out their Bandcamp page and get to downloadin'.

Another slow week as we enter the summer, but there are a few new highlights out there. The Two Man Gentlemen Band - Enthusiastic Attempts at Hot Swing & String Band Favorites : Blog favorite The Two Man Gentlemen Band is back with a new album of "Hot Swing and String Band Favorites," which is something they've done live for a while now. It's the typical high quality from The Gentlemen we've expected, and it's also nice to know that scoring Disney cartoons hasn't really impacted the band on a whole. Definitely another solid release from one of my favorite groups. Yuko Yuko - Babes : I only heard about Yuko Yuko from some other music blogs. It's lo-fi Casio-style electronic music, and almost feels ironic to a fault. I don't hate this, mind you, but I can see it being pretty grating to some listeners. With that said, if you can accept the premise, there are some solid songs on here worth hearing. Say Hi - Endless Wonder : Say Hi is a b...

Got a Girl is the collaboration between Dan the Automator (Handsome Boy Modelling School, Deltron 3030) and actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead ( Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Smashed ). I know, I know. For those of us who remember " Party All the Time ," we know to cringe whenever we see an actor try to become a singer. Lately, there have been exceptions, with Zooey Deschanel and Donald Glover become bona fide recording artists. Luckily, Got a Girl is legitimately good. They duo just released their first video, "Did We Live Too Fast." The song plays with both 60s French torch songs and Dan the Automator's trademark laid back hip hop. It's much closer to Lovage... Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By than the Automator's more known work. The video features Winstead as a wife dealing with discovering her husband (the Automator) has a fetish for ladies with a third eye. It's definitely worth a watch. Got a Girl's debut album, I Love You But I...

So I spent the majority of this past week sick as a dog. My 11+ year vomitless streak remains intact, but I have been coughing up a storm, had a few low-appetite days, low-energy days, and so on. It inspired me to seek out some songs over the weekend that either centered around being sick, or had illnesses/sickness in the title, or had some sort of relationship to being sick in the song. Some of these are stretches, sure, but I'm sick. Let me be. I try to keep these clean, but a lot of these songs have some language in them, so be aware. Kid Koala - "Flu Season" : Kid Koala opens this up with a quick song that takes coughs and sneezes to create a beat for this short interlude. Felt appropriate. Richard Cheese - "Down With the Sickness" : There was no way I was going to sully this blog with some mid-1990s nu metal garbage, so I may as well class it up with the Richard Cheese version of the Disturbed "classic." This is kind of Richard Chees...

In it's 28th year, the Green River Festival is one of the best kept secrets in the New England concert scene. It doesn't have the name recognition of Lollapalooza or the Newport Folk Festival, but that fits Green River just fine. Western MA has long had a mysteriously great live music scene, combining national touring bands with a small town feel. The Green River Festival has long been the centerpiece of the scene. This year will be no exception, and might just be the best line up Green River has seen yet. Saturday features Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Lucius, Puss n Boots (featuring Norah Jones), The Lone Bellow, Poor Old Shine, Grant-Lee Phillips, and more. Sunday is just ridiculous, with Josh Ritter & Royal City Band, Trampled By Turtles, Hurray for the Riff Raff, multi-national rapper Ana Tijoux, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (and you all know how I feel about her), The Deadly Gentlemen, and more.  Plus, there's the added extra of hot air balloons. You can ...

A few highly anticipated releases, a few surprises, so let's dive in. We've been doing this for a year already? The Fresh & Onlys - House of Spirits : I confess to having never heard of this band before this week, and the type of music they do is appealing, a sort of darker indie rock/pop sound. This album doesn't have any immediate highlights on first listen, but it's still a pretty good album for this week, and deserves to not get lost in the shuffle. Half-Handed Cloud - Flying Scroll Flight Control : Back when I first got into indie rock, a lot of the Elephant 6 stuff I was into was the sort of psych-folk experimental stuff that, frankly, I can't listen to anymore today. That's effectively what Half-Handed Cloud is, and I really don't have anything to say since it isn't really for me at all. Craft Spells - Nausea : Craft Spells is another band I didn't know until this week, and I really liked this album. It's the best parts of a...

Normally we do our "Friday Freebies," but this is a today only kind of thing. To celebrate their 6 year "bandiversary,"* one of our favorite Northampton, MA bands is giving away their entire digital catalog for free on their Bandcamp page . This includes last year's fabulous Calling Out and all the way back to 2009's Nothing Bad Will Happen.  As always, if you're going to download a band's entire freakin' catalog for free, you should check out their website , follow them on Facebook , go see them at the Flywheel in Easthampton, MA on 7/25, and at Sonelab (also in Easthampton) on 9/13. Also, if you're on this site, we can pretty much guarantee you're going to like them. Especially for free. *Hey, today is If It's Too Loud's 1 year blogiversary! Go us!

For those of us that grew up on the more rural side of the suburbs, we know concerts on the town common all too well. It's always some marching band playing Sousa's finest, or maybe you'll hear the most horrific version of "The Sound of Music" you've ever heard. It's not where you'd expect to find nationally touring musicians. WBGY put on this year's Asparagus Festival, complete with paper asparagus hats and local food and craft vendors on the Hadley town common. It's not usually the type of event I'd find myself at, but when my favorite band to see live is playing, I'll make an exception. Playing such a family friendly event is perfect for a band that brings a 6 month old on tour with them, and they even commented that it was the first time they had played before 10:00 pm in a long time. The true beauty of seeing David Wax Museum live is that they perfectly fit their surroundings, from large outdoor festivals in front of thousan...

This week's mix celebrates the art of the cover song. I love a good remake, and the songs listed in this playlist are some of my favorites that may not be known so well. Enjoy! Sarah Jarosz - "The Tourist" : Sarah Jarosz is one of my favorite current bluegrass artists, and she makes it a point to have at least one cover song on all her albums. My favorite of her's, by far, is her version of Radiohead's "The Tourist," which keeps the atmosphere of the original while offering some really impressive musicianship. Dum Dum Girls - "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" : Dum Dum Girls are still running with the reverb-heavy indie rock, but they tackle this classic by The Smiths in a way that I almost enjoy more than the original. It's great how well their sound compliments the song, and the result ends up being more immediate than the original. Ben Folds Five - "She Don't Use Jelly" : Originally on a compilation called ...

Whenever Weezer releases new music, I can't help but get just a little bit hopeful. Weezer fandom is like that relationship that has gone on far too long, and you've been miserable for well over a decade, but those 3 years at the beginning were so amazing! Maybe we'll go back someday! Even though you know it will never happen. Anyway, Weezer released some new song snippets that aren't totally horrible. "The Waste Land" is reminiscent of the slower, more plodding side of Black Sabbath, but in a totally weenie way. Personally, I'd love to see Rivers connect more with his metal roots because that would seem more honest and genuine than the vast majority of what they've released in the past 13 years. "Ain't Got Nobody" is much more uptempo, and has potential but could also just be mindless drivel.  Sigh. Someday I'll just give up and stop listening. Until then. check out the snippets below.

First Listen's new home is officially on Thursdays for the foreseeable future. Hope that works out for everyone. Meanwhile, a lighter-than-normal week with a lot of interesting options. The Orwells - Disgraceland : All hail power pop! Easily the best release of the week, The Orwells have a second album that is just a great power pop record from top to bottom. I didn't realize how much I was looking for something like this until midway through the second song on the album, and nearly everything feels like a winner so far. Really a solid listen for anyone reading this. Centro-matic - Take Pride in Your Long Odds : I feel like Centro-matic has been around for ages, and they've always existed on the fringes of my musical existence. The new album is good, it's solid indie rock as you'd expect it to be, I think. A little off-center, still melodic and interesting. I keep waiting for some sort of leap that never seems to come, which might be the only downside, ...

Embracing the theme of "...you're too old" a bit here at the blog, welcome to a new feature that I hope we can keep up with a bit. The rise of digital and streaming has really cramped the one thing I spent a ridiculous amount of time doing, and that's making mixtapes and mix CDs. Yes, now I have a rotating Spotify playlist for myself, but the days of trading mixes on CD and such are long, long behind us. So Spotify makes it easy to share mixes and make mixes, so why not? It's goofy, but maybe you'll find something new and enjoyable. Either way, it's scratching my itch, so at the very least this is a harmless indulgence, right? On occasional-to-every Mondays, we'll share a 20 track mix of something, whether it be a collection of new tracks or some silly themed mix. Have a mix you've been working on? Let us know, and maybe we'll let you feature it here as well! Today's inaugural mix concerns the recent digital dump of rarities R...