Child Bite - Wild Feast

Yeah, punk rock is dead, but there are a handful of bands making chaos that refuse to believe this proclamation, and they're all the better for it. And maybe the punk rock zombie has just been reanimated into a new unholy beast, and if so, Child Bite are roaming the streets searching for brains to infect. Spazz-tastic, post-post-punk is the mission statement of Wild Feast, Child Bite's self-released molotov-cocktail of a record. ~from a recent Child Bite press release

You can stream this "spazz-tastic" new band's LP, Wild Feast, here. Or you can sample the mp3 to 'Brain/Sleep' here.

AOL Radio

For free CD quality radio on the net, the place to be is AOL Radio. They not only feature high quality niche stations such as British Invasion and an all-Pearl Jam channel, but they include several key XM Stations as well...all for free! All you need is a broadband connection and a free AOL/AIM account.

A Great Year-End List

Check out Neiles Life to to see what his picks for the Top 25 Albums of 2006 were.

What makes his list so great, you might ask? He includes at least two MP3s from each album on the list for sampling.

Time Congratulates "You"

Yesterday, Time Magazine named "You" as Person of the Year for 2006.
At first glance, this seems like a cop-out, a classic pandering to the very demographic that keeps that journalistic conglomerate in business. Obviously, "You" could mean anybody and everybody that has bought into the magazine, in one form or the other.

However, within the context of Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Myspace, and other user-generated sites, "You" comes to represent---well, You,--- and other readers of this blog and participators of activities on the Internet.

To explain further what Time means, I provide a quote directly from their writing staff:

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

With that said, congratulations to all of "You" for being a part of the revolution---for taking part in a medium that has the power to wrestle influence away from "Conflict" and "Great Men" and give it to those of us just large enough to matter. Thank-"You" for challenging the mainstream media and providing us with information that the three major networks were afraid to cover.

And as far as music is concerned, thank-you to all of "You" music bloggers and readers who affirmed that it wasn't the Big Five Record Companies who determined which bands deserved exposure or not. Thank-"You" for showing that radio exposure is so eighties---that "You" are only interested in listening to what "You" wanna listen to.

Give yourselves all a pat on the back: According to Time, "You" all deserve it.

'I'm From Rolling Stone' to Air in January

Rolling Stone joins forces with fellow pop culture exploiters MTV, to bring us I'm From Rolling Stone, a reality television show about interns at the world famous music magazine. Talk about overkill.

Read more here.

The Shins - 'Phantom Limb'

A radio single hasn't gotten me this pumped up for a forthcoming album in a long time. Wincing the Night Away will drop January 23. But until then, you can sample all the goodness of The Shins' latest single, 'Phantom Limb,' in MP3 format here.

Alternatively, you can listen to XM's Ethel, where you're bound to hear it at least twice in a two hour period ;)

Steely Dan - 'Dirty Work'

'Dirty Work (MP3)' disappeared from the Steely Dan repertoire after original lead singer David Palmer left the group in 1973. Compared to the rest of the band's catalog, 'Dirty Work' is largely anything-but the cynical jazz rock fusion that came to define the band's sound later on. More pop-oriented than sophisticated, 'Dirty Work' provides a tasty detour to listeners traversing the Steely Dan collection.

Vote For Your Favorite Song of 2006

JT brought "sexy back," and Mz. Furtado was "promiscuous." Panic at the Disco pondered whether anyone had ever heard of "closing a God-damned door," and Fall Out Boy instructed everyone to just "dance, dance." All in all, the two-thousand and sixth year of our Lord proved to be a very entertaining revolution around the sun.

Yes, it's that time of year again, where the oft-replicated meme makes its emergence: time to vote for your favorite track of 2006. Because we are lo-fi (as well as cheap) and lack any sort of polling mechanism, we call on our readers to comment on what their favorite tracks were of the past 12 months. You heard correctly: Just comment to this post, detailing what your most likeable musical composition of the year was. From country, to jazz, to reggaeton, to pop, to indie trash, we urge all of our readers to participate in this most unscientific of all polls.

As an added bonus to our shyest of patrons, we even provide the option to comment anonymously. So come on, and bear your soul. Who knows, you may discover that you weren't the only one in Manhattan who actually digs Hinder's 'Lips of an Angel.'

PS: Stay tuned for my personalized review of my favorite album of 2006.

Failure - 'Stuck on You'

Failure was by far one of the most unrecognized bands of the 1990s. Combining addictive choruses with driving guitar hooks, this post-grunge band was too often labled as a "Nirvana wanna-be," and subsequently its members never received the credit they deserved.

In 1996, the band went out with a bang and released their final album, Fantastic Planet. Anchored by such dirge-pop anthems as 'Sergeant Politeness,' 'Saturday Saviour,' and 'Smoking Umbrellas (MP3),' this swan song effort proved to be the favorite of many of their fans. Ultimately, it was the space-rockish 'Stuck on You (MP3)' that bound the LP together and proved to be the album's shining star.

Pushing its lyrical properties unto the listener through its music, the song begins with a seductive guitar loop that maintains and echoes itself throughout the entire track---slowly, but surely, getting "stuck on you." Compounded with lyrics like "You burrowed like a summer tic" and "You played yourself to death in me," 'Stuck on You' is not only a fetching refrain, but a profound love song as well.

65 Days of Static

They drove through ghosts to get here, and we're glad they did. 65 Days of Static, after achieving acclaim in the UK, brings to America their album One Time For All Time. This experimental rock LP is fractured, yet intricate; detached, but cerebral. Indeed it flows from beginning to end quite seamlessly.

You can stream this exceptional album by clicking here, or you can stream the track 'Welcome to the Times' below:


65 Dats if Static - 'Welcome to the Times' (MP3)

New Thrills in 2007

In the words of frontman Conor Deasy, Irish pop rockers The Thrills are set to release their third studio album in 'earlyish' 2007 - although there's still a few last minute tweaks to take care of.

Read the rest of the story here at Soungenerator.

Pop Justice and the New Jo Jo Album

If you are up for some laughs, check out Pop Justice's review of the new Jo Jo album. Otherwise, that's all I've got for now. Hopefully next week see's us pick up the pace with our posting.