Stream "Wincing The Night Away"

The Shins are streaming their entire new album "Wincing the Night Away" on their MySpace page.
The album hits stores on Tuesday (January 23rd).
Link: The Shins on MySpace

New Marrdest Mouse

A new tune from Modest Mouse has hit the airwaves. I've been anxiously waiting to hear their new sound, now that Johnny Marr of the Smiths has joined the band. Dashboard is a damn good sounding tune, uptempo with some horns added and the biggest bonus of all Johnny Marr.
You can check it out at their MySpace page.
The new album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" is scheduled for a March 2007 release.

New Release Roundup

Here's the quick list of new and notable releases:

Autumn Defense-Self Titled: Pat Sansone and John Stirratt of WILCO have released their third album.

Honeydogs-Amygdala: One of my favorite bands to come out of the Minneapolis alt. country has a new album. They write good catchy up-tempo country-flavored rock songs, and their whole catalog is worth a listen.

Crowded House-Farewell To The World: Finally available, the live recording of Crowded House's farewell concert. The show was held outside the Sydney Opera House with an audience of over 120,000 people. Cruise ships filled with fans anchored in the harbor to listen to the show and watch the fireworks display. They are a band that only scored a few big hits in the states, but they should've had at least a dozen more. One of the best bands to ever come from down under. This is a great concert, and I am glad it has been released, as my crappy VHS copy is starting to fall apart.

Neko Case-Live from Austin TX.: Part of the Austin City Limits series of CDs. She already released a live album last year which was damn good, but I am not going to complain about being able to add some more Neko to my CD collection.

The Shins new album leaks. A Blessing and a Curse.

Wincing The Night Away, the new album from The Shins was leaked a few weeks ago.
Some reports say this is not the final mix of the album. The album is a big change sonically for the Shins, and it may take some getting used to for new fans. I'll save the review of this album for another time, right now, I just want to talk about leaked albums.

I have mixed feelings about albums leaking. On one hand, as a fan I love to get my hands on albums as soon as I can. I 'm eager to hear new music, especially from a band I love. Once in a while, things happen with bands and producers and record labels, and music gets leaked that you would have never heard otherwise.

Sometimes, a leaked album ends up being totally different from the commercial version, if it is leaked before the final mix is done. For fanatics and completists, these are the things that can make the world go round. One example is Whiskeytown's final album Pneumonia. The Ryan Adams led band recorded the album for Outpost records, and the label dissolved when Polygram was acquired by Universal. The album ended up in limbo for quite some time. It was leaked on the net, and fans were able to hear an album that might never be released commercially. The album made the rounds for over a year, and was finally released by Lost Highway records with a completely different mix, and a different track listing. Two songs on the bootleg version are not on the final release. The leaked version was so widespread, that one of the tracks, Barlights, which is not on the final version, was covered and released by the band Minibar before Pneumonia was released. I have both versions of this album, and I love them both a lot, but for different reasons. This is a case where I am certainly happy the bootleg exists.

Another example is the famous case of WILCO and their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, detailed in depth in their documentary "I am Trying to Break Your Heart". This album changed the perception of leaked albums and their effect on sales. Without the album being leaked, it may have never been released. Its free distribution on the net generated so much hype, that it outsold all of their previous albums many times over.

Sometimes though, I wish albums didn't leak. If you download an album, and you are anything like me, the first listen isn't a "real listen". You may be skipping through tracks to make sure all of the files work, or you are just listening through a crappy pair of computer speakers. For a real music fan, there is nothing better than taking the wrapper off of that CD you just bought for the first time, and sitting down and listening to a new album on a good pair of speakers, with nothing between you and the music. Sometimes, it feels like knowing what you are getting for Christmas. The element of surprise, and the belief that "good things come to those who wait" is taken away. So for those reasons, I consider the leak of the new Shins album a blessing and a curse.