The band, not the personality test.
Aug 23rd, 2010 by Tim
Dear New Orleans doesn’t come out officially until tomorrow, but the folks at Amazon we’re so excited by the project they agreed to make it their Daily Deal and sell it one day early in the bargain.
So, today only you can snag all 31 tracks for the insanely low price of $2.99. And you needn’t even feel guilty, as when you do so, the charities earn even more than that.
As of 7:30 AM California time, the album is #11 overall at Amazon. Let’s push it into the top 10, folks…
Aug 14th, 2010 by Tim
I spent a good part of the summer helping my friends from Air Traffic Control pull together the Sandinista of benefit albums: Dear New Orleans features over 30 tracks from a wide array of indie, country, hip-hop, jazz and r&b artists, all doing songs dedicated to (and in some cases specifically about) one of our country’s most precious and musical cities.
The album’s being released to mark the 5th anniversary of the flooding caused by the breaking of the levees after Katrina hit, and proceeds will go to the community organizations still helping to rebuild the city and preserve the wider Gulf area.
I’m biased, of course, but I think the album rocks pretty hard. The full line-up will be announced next week, but for now I can tell you that A) it includes several of my personal heroes, B) all the participating artists are alumni of the artist-activism retreats ATC and the Future of Music Coalition have been hosting in New Orleans for the last few years and which I blogged about last March, C) it comes with a booklet featuring artwork by the Mekons’ Jon Langford and some liner notes by yours truly, and D) Wonderlick has a new track on the album.
That track is a new version of “The American Way,” complete with a brass band — multiple trombone parts were arranged by Mark Mullins from NOLA’s own Bonerama, and the Bonerama horns recorded their parts in New Orleans just a couple weeks ago.
More details will be coming over the next week, including news about how to snag the triple album for the price of a 7″ single (really) the day before it comes out.
Jun 14th, 2010 by Tim
In honor of Flag Day (really, today is Flag Day), we’ve got a brand new song called The American Way.
We started this one in SF with Chris Brague on drums, and finished it in LA over Memorial Day weekend with some vocal help from Gretchen Giselle, plus Leo, Lucy and Corrina.
If you would like a free download of this tune, details on how to obtain one after the jump.
May 21st, 2010 by Tim
One rule about album-making I’ve learned over the years is that the song you most want on a record is often the one you should probably cut.
So when we were trying to figure out which of the two dozen songs we’d recorded for Topless at the Arco Arena should go on the record and which should be left off, I nobly sacrificed my personal favorite, “Nobody Loves You Enough.”
This one finds Jenny, Topless‘s heroine, listening to her favorite band in her headphones while she does the dishes and feels lonely, even though her stoned boyfriend is passed out right there on the couch.
The cello part kills me. I can’t remember what the hell made that boinging sound that kicks off the tune.
Anyway, we’ve kind of fallen off the free-download-a-week schedule recently. Sorry about that. But this one is yours for the taking — just click the button below.
May 3rd, 2010 by Tim
Work on Super, the next Wonderlick album, continues. We had our old friend Michael James try his hand mixing “One of the Good Guys,” since it’s got a trillion different parts and we’re not sure which ones should be loudest (or which ones should be completely muted).
Here’s his take. It’s a bit tougher than the original, we think. Let us know which you prefer.
Apr 5th, 2010 by Tim
Time for another free download. This one’s “All Boys Want.”
The title’s self-explanatory, except that it’s not, really. It’s not the only thing boys want, even though all boys do want it. But we are deeper than that.
Sometimes, anyway.
Or so the song insists.
Mar 23rd, 2010 by Tim
Since I spent last week in Austin for the mega-fest that is SXSW, it seemed appropriate to make “Devil Horns” this week’s free download, as it’s all about the transcendent, demonic power of live rock and roll.
This was one of the first songs written for Topless at the Arco Arena, while Jay and I were touring on Wonderlick’s debut (well, “touring” is a bit strong — we were playing one of 7 shows we’d booked on the west coast). The lyrics should be self-explanatory: even at its most ridiculous, a good rock show can make you forget who and where you are.
That happened to me several times last week. This band did it. So did this one, in a way they never did back in the ’90s. But these are the guys I enjoyed the most. No one looks like they’re having more fun so consistently onstage.
Mar 15th, 2010 by Tim
This week’s free download is the first song Wonderlick ever recorded (and also, we think, the first mp3 we ever gave away, way back in 2001, on the late, lamented sayhername.com). It’s called “I Disappear.”
It’s a pretty song, but a sad one, and remains one of my favorite Lick tunes. Though the lyrics weren’t intentionally written this way, I realized during one of the uncountable playbacks while mixing that in each of the three verses the narrator is motionless when he wants to be getting somewhere. First he’s stuck in line at the DMV, then he’s stuck in traffic, and finally he’s in his garage and can’t bring himself to get out of his car, even though the garage door has closed and the engine’s still running.
Uh oh!
Mar 8th, 2010 by Tim
The free download craziness continues. We said one a week, which means we’ll have to write and record and release some new ones before the year is up. But this week we’re giving away a song from our debut: “I Wanna Love You.”
While the song was written as a confession (the singer wants to do all kinds of things to the listener that propriety will not allow), today I hear it a little differently. As in, I want to love you, but you make it impossible, every other person in the world.
Well, maybe not every other person in the world. But enough of them. You feel this way too, sometimes, yes?
Mar 1st, 2010 by Tim
We let Alex Poehlman, the winner of our Lick Everybody contest, select this week’s free download (which we’ll be giving away on Mondays for the rest of the year). He chose “Fear of Chicago,” a tune from the last album that’s about how we almost ran over George Wendt, the dude who played Norm on Cheers, many years ago, one very icy day in Chicago.
Another fun fact about this song: Wilco has a number called “Via Chicago,” which I mis-heard Jeff Tweedy announce live one night before it came out on a record. “What a great title,” I thought to myself. Later that year, I bought the next Wilco album and was dismayed to see that he hadn’t said, “Fear of Chicago,” but “Via Chicago,” which is nowhere near as interesting. So we wrote this song to correct the mistake.
You can have this song for zero dollars, just by sharing it on Facebook. Alex Poehlman shared previous free downloads, and now he appears in a Wonderlick song. Well, he appears in a Wonderlick lyric, that will be turned into a song the very next time we head into the studio.
Hey Jay, when are we heading into the studio again? I have a lyric that’s even better than “Fear of Chicago.” It’s called “Super Friends,” and it’s about this guy named Alex.
Find out how to share the tune and get your free download after the jump.