Free Range Music: Wolf Parade, Built To Spill, Islands

>> If you were to have a look at what our favorite songs have in common, you might recognize a thread of desperation running through many of them. From Joy Division's live rendering of "Disorder" to Kam Fong's "King Of Prussia," songs from men on the edge have always given us a chill. One of the more desperate rockers of 2005 was Wolf Parade's "I'll Believe In Anything," and Sub Pop has some particularly compelling Quicktime video of the band performing the track live right here. [Photo by Hali McGrath, lifted from Haliphoto.com].

>> One of the bigger questions you are going to have to consider this week, presuming you haven't been considering it already, is whether you are going to buy the new Built To Spill record. We've heard it several times and can report that the ratio of late period BTS jammers to early (and in our opinion better) period BTS indie pop has evened out a bit on You In Reverse. We think this is a good thing. We're not going to propose that this record is as good as There's Nothing Wrong With Love or even Perfect From Now On, but it is pretty good. PunkNews here points to an album stream, and we bet that this time tomorrow we'll be posting AOL's album stream as well. Two opportunities to try before you buy.

>> Speaking of forthcoming album streams, if you haven't already taken our advice and procured Islands' Return To The Sea, which came out last week, the MySpace Music page tells us that the Canadian act's record will be streaming in Filter's The Booth here this coming week. Dig it.