free music

One of my favorite performances of 2009 was a set by Langhorne Slim at the Wakarusa Music Festival. I've been digging up all his past work in the several months since Waka, falling in love with every little bit along the way. Slim is set to release his newest effort, Be Here Now, next Tuesday, September 29th, and I couldn't be more excited. I was making my usual blog rounds, when I came across a post from my friend Dodge on My Old Kentucky Blog. It featured a nice acoustic run-through of his new track "Back To The Wild," but also a short EPK on the making of the album. The clip finds Langhorne Slim in the studio with his War Eagles, and a few other auxiliary instrumentalists to fill out the albums sound. Produced by The Decemberists Chris Funk, Be Here Now is already proving to be one of the best albums of the year, and I've only heard three different songs from it.

Give the short clip a watch:

A tour in support of the new release will find Langhorne Slim zig-zagging across the country including a stop in Austin at the Mowhawk. Slim's publicist also sent over an Mp3 of the first single from Be Set Free – a break-up track entitled "I Love You, But Goodbye." A full list of tour dates, album artwork and the Mp3 download are all to be found after the jump.

I love free music. Most importantly, I love free music from good bands. Monsters Of Folk are a pretty damn good band – well, on paper at least. I, or anyone for that matter, haven't heard any material from this folk-rock supergroup, but knowing that the project was in the works was enough to excite at least a couple music fans. The power-folk trio of Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and M. Ward, along with multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), have an album ready for a September 22nd release, but they've gone and given us a nice little taste of what's to come by allowing the world to download their first single, "Say Please," for the always-nice price of free. It's a very strong song with strummy guitars and a rather happy subject matter (for Oberst, at least...), that sounds more like a new My Morning Jacket track than anything else. James offers strong guitar work and some random back-up vocals, while Oberst and Ward switch off the lead vocal throughout. This is a nice precursor of what's to come from the fifteen track album, and is a nice way to tide us over while we wait patiently for late September to come.

You can download "Say Please" here – all it takes is a simple "please."

We can only hope for a tour, but seriously – how nice would a show be that featured full sets by M. Ward, Bright Eyes and My Morning Jacket, followed by a closing performance from Monsters Of Folk? I'm thinking it'd probably be pretty damn good. We can only hope...

If you're as big of a fan of the Avett Brothers as myself, you're counting down the days until the Rick Rubin-produced LP I and Love and You is released. To tide you over, the Avett's have released the eponymous first single for all to enjoy. You can download "I and Love and You" here, which should help you get by until the full album is released on September 29th.

After a few listens, I'm really digging it, but I have to hear it in sync with the full album to truly appreciate it. The Avett Brothers are hitting the road pretty hard this summer, making stops in (almost) every major market (sorry Houston...) including festival stops at ACL, Forcastle, Outside Lands and Mulberry Mountain Harvest Festival. You can check out a full list of tour dates after the jump.