March 26, 2006

Free Range Music: The Concretes, Psapp, David Bowie (Updated)

The Concretes -- In Colour>> An email from Astralwerks points us to the new Concretes interactive media player here, which streams a bit of each song on the band's new record In Colour. Indie label Hydra Head (not The Concretes' label) has offered full-album streams for many recent releases, and we've been turned onto some great records as a result (Logh's A Sunset Panorama, anyone?). Too bad The Concrete's tunes fade out after a minute or so, but it's still a nice little taste. The interactive player takes a tip from the cover of In Colour and lets kids design what amounts to their own version of the album's cover art: check out our effort posted here at left. But the best thing about the player, of course, is the music. The new set streets April 4 and to support the release the band will play a few weeks' worth of U.S. dates, which we've listed below.

5/04 -- Horseshoe Tavern -- Toronto, ON
5/05 -- Petit Campus -- Montreal, PQ
5/07 -- 9:30 Club -- Washington, DC
5/08 -- The Bowery Ballroom -- New York, NY
5/10 -- Paradise Rock Club -- Boston, MA
5/11 -- Theatre Of Living Arts -- Philadelphia, PA
5/13 -- Martyr's -- Chicago, IL
5/14 -- Fine Line Music Cafe -- Minneapolis, MN
5/17 -- Richard's On Richards -- Vancouver, BC
5/18 -- Crocodile Cafe -- Seattle, WA
5/19 -- Doug Fir Lounge -- Portland, OR
5/20 -- Great American Music Hall -- San Francisco, CA
5/23 -- THE TROUBADOUR -- Los Angeles, CA
5/24 -- THE CASBAH -- San Diego, CA

>> Domino has posted the video for the excellent first single from British electro-twee duo Psapp's forthcoming new set here. The tune is called "Tricycle" and the video is the stop-animation tale of an attic-dwelling mouse who falls for a teddy bear. It's a poignant little number we can see listening to quite a lot when the new record The Only Thing I Ever Wanted streets May 22.

>> Forward-thinking pop music legend David Bowie is packaging up a live concert from his sold-out 1983 tour for DVD release under the title "Serious Moonlight." The show at Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition Coliseum included performances of big Bowie hits "China Girl," "Heroes" and "Young Americans," and we've got hi-fi videos of each tune in three delicious flavors of streaming media. EMI released the DVD last week. Dig the moving pictures and sounds:

David Bowie -- "China Girl" -- QT | RM | WM
David Bowie -- "Heroes" -- QT | RM | WM
David Bowie -- "Young Americans" -- QT | RM | WM

>> How about some more videos? Here's two classics from Sunny Day Real Estate found over at YouTube: the magnificent track "Seven" and "In Circles" from the band's 1994 Sub Pop debut Diary (best album art ever). Here's a zany animated video from The Heavy Blinkers' pop-tastic "Try Telling That To My Baby." Great song, great video. And finally, Josh Rouse completes his conquest for our hard-won affection with this winner, a video for the opening cut off his latest record Subtitulo. The track is called "Quiet Town," here's the video.

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