If you are a fan of The Decemberists, then you will also be a fan of The Builders & The Butchers. They are one of the best contemporary bands that plays traditional-style folk music that I’ve ever heard. If that is too many qualifiers for you, then they are one of the best bands to drop in my inbox this year. You might even say this band was all it took for me to get working on this blog again, and you might not even be a filthy liar when you say it.

From Loch Lomond/Builders Split
Vampire Lake – (MP3, 9.5 MB)

From The Builders & The Butchers
Bottom Of The Lake – (MP3, 9.3 MB)

From Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well
Golden And Green – (MP3, 5.5 MB)

There was once a wise man who said, it is not the holidays without a holiday song from My First Earthquake. As you might imagine, that wise man is me. Their videos are as strangely enchanting as ever, and I will be sure to post last year’s holiday song on Christmas. As always, you can download the song freely, so have at it! But watch the video first, because otherwise it is for naught!

Holiday Sweaters – (MP3, 5.2 MB)

I am all about sentimentality at the moment, and finding the right tunes for said moments. I happened to stumble upon these plucky lads from an ad for play.create, a wonderful night of charitable events. Explosions in the Sky are an American instrumental group, specialising in just such music.

Now, I’m not one for instrumental music, short of orchestral scores: I just find it to be rather dull. Explosions, however, are incredibly pleasing to the aural palette, which is probably the best I can say about them. I’m sure many won’t really get what I’m digging at, but there’s something soothing and flowing about these tunes – they tell their own stories as well as, if not better, than what most ‘musicians’ care to shove down their microphones these days.

Unlike most of my entries, these folks have MP3s! And a lot of them too, so take your pick. The tune I heard in the ad was Day Five from their 2005 release The Rescue, but feel free to poke around this page for some more. They’ve very nicely put up the entire album as well! Ain’t that swell?

From The Rescue:
Day One – (MP3, 6.7 MB)
Day Two – (MP3, 5.6 MB)
Day Three - (MP3, 6.7 MB)
Day Four – (MP3, 4.4 MB)
Day Five – (MP3, 9.0 MB)
Day Six – (MP3, 6.6 MB)
Day Seven – (MP3, 6.4 MB)
Day Eight – (MP3, 3.9 MB)

If there is one thing that I don’t like about most so-called “supergroups,” it’s that people focus on how cool it is that so-and-so’s from various bands are now all in the same band, and competely ignore that their music is as inane and trite as it ever was. That’s one of the reasons why I prefer bands who term themselves a “music collective,” because they tend to focus on good music more than their invented popularity. With that, Learning Music is a music collective from Los Angeles that produces an album every month. While such a quantity may not mean there are stringest quality control standards, there are plenty of gems to be found. These songs are from October’s album, which was produced and co-written by Alex Silverman, who I have written about before. I must say, the lad has some musical chops on him.

From Famous: The Jonny Pride Story
Ambitions – (MP3, 5.9 MB)
They Didn’t Tell Him – (MP3, 6.1 MB)
Heads A Rock – (MP3, 6.8 MB)

Now, apparently there are bands that I think everyone has heard of, but that idea does not mesh with reality! At least that is the case when I referred my good buddy Hughster to the lovely tones of Nouvelle Vague. Granted, people out there in blog land may say otherwise, but I don’t really know them so it means NARY A THING.

Anyhoo, Nouvelle Vague are a great French outfit who take a bunch of old, popular and seemingly random tunes and cover them. The frosty thing about it is though is that the singers they get onboard to cover the songs have never heard the songs they’re covering before, which, instead of ending in a complete disaster , actually sound great! It’s rare I’ll find a cover version to be better than the real song, but Master & Servant on their latest album, 3, completely beats out the Depeche Mode original. Sorry guys! As well as that, there’s a brilliant version of the Violent Femme’s famous Blister in the Sun, which is a heck of a lot funkier than the original.

From 3
Master & Servant – (MP3, 3 MB))

Though they seem to be the biggest thing since sliced bread over in England, if you ask nearly anyone in America about Madness, they will probably respond, “Oh, they are that poppy English band that did our house!” This is extraordinarily unfortunate, as they have quite a significant body of work, spanning various genres and being generally awesome. I know I was personally a bit surprised when I first realized their association to 2nd wave ska, but after I had finally been introduced to One Step Beyond, it was pretty obvious that any hype about them has been completely deserved.

They had a few less interesting releases in the few decades between their ska era and now, but with 2005’s Dangermen Sessions, they not only had brought back the ska, they also brought back to quality, reviving my excitement in the band. And if anyone knows me (though you wouldn’t know it from my posts on here), I am all about the ska, so it makes even more sense that I’d give such a hoot.

And then they come up with a sprawling concept album, bereft of ska (except for a few moments where it sort of seeps in the cracks) — and wouldn’t you know it, I like it even more. The Liberty of Norton Folgate is a fantastic piece of work, full of unexpected genre changes (pop, polka, rock?) and more energy than can strictly be accounted. And even if the thing was awful, the beautiful ten-minute-long title track alone would carry the record. Of course, it doesn’t have to, with tracks like On the Town and NW5.

From The Liberty of Norton Folgate
Clerkenwell Polka

Dreamy female vocals woven among electronica and various instruments. Definitely not my type of music, but after buying it on a whim for a couple dollars from the best record store ever, I felt, as usual with my random purchases, compelled to at least try to like it. Luckily, I didn’t have to go much further than the first track, Black Cat Bone, before I pretty much fell to the charm. It’s a song good enough to get a dude who’s not a fan of the genre at all to like it anyway.

There are a few points where things seemed stretched out a bit (a few songs over seven minutes, and while I don’t mind long songs, sometimes it felt repetitive), but the rest of the album is solid and enjoyable. Apparently they’ve got a bunch other albums and they might even be well known but what do I know? I buy cds because of historical allusions in their names.

Also, these two songs are supposed to be available through their site, but the links don’t work so here ya go!

From Good Looking Blues
Black Cat Bone – (MP3, 6.2 MB)
Uneasy – (MP3, 7.0 MB)

To continue something of a trend, The Mugs are a band that e-mailed me last September, and I’m just getting around to posting them now. They are an indie rock band out of Brooklyn, and a good one at that. These songs are all from their latest EP, Ravel Day, which came out last year. They are not such a great band if your intent is to blow out your eardrums, but if you want to listen to something nice and relaxing, perhaps something similar to The Shins, then The Mugs are probably the way to go.

In other news, this is the last autopilot post for either/or, so hopefully I (or someone else!) will be back to post something nice for you to listen to.

From Ravel Day
Could It Be – (MP3, 4.9 MB)
Mile Seven – (MP3, 5.2 MB)
True – (MP3. 5 MB)

While I may have mentioned Jessica Fichot’s music two years ago, that is practically an eternity in the world of blogging. And considering I mentioned her on a mix, the mention consists of roughly “oh wow, this song is good, please listen to it.” I can do better than that! Ms. Fichot was born in the US, the product of French and Chinese couplings. She was then raised in France, which is a good thing for music fans. She later graduated from two music schools, one in Paris and one in Boston, and even wrote a lot of children’s songs, including gems such as The Recycling Rap. These are no simple pop songs, either – she had over 20 musicians playing on her songs. It’s pleasantly surprising that they aren’t muddled by noise. In any case, if you are in the mood for impeccable French music sung by a lovely chanteuse, you simply cannot go wrong with these songs.

From Le Chemin
Le Grenier – (MP3, 4.1 MB)
Un Deux Trois – (MP3, 3.7 MB)

I mentioned the band Kingsbury a while back in one of my posts, so why not write about them again? Their latest EP, Lie To Me, came out late last year so isn’t particularly new anymore, but it is still good music that you crazy kids have yet to listen to. Their music is likely best described as atmospheric rock, more about setting a mood than blowing your mind with explosive guitar riffs. It is great music to relax to, preferably with a cold brew in hand. Another thing I love about this band is that they release all their music for free! I always like bands who would prefer to have their music heard than make a few bucks. That said, I am sure they also like making bucks, so go ahead and buy their albums if you like them. Or heck, donate your life savings! Remember to check out their site for more free music, too.

From Lie To Me
Lie To Me – (MP3, 6 MB)
Back On The Orange Grove – (MP3, 7.3 MB)
As I See It – (MP3, 4.3 MB)