Wednesday, December 12, 2007

New Music from a couple of AbPow favorites.

Two big-time favorites of mine have released some new music for digital download: Derby and Josh Fields.

We'll start with the boys from Portland, Oregon. Derby's still yet to release Posters Fade, their full-length followup to 2005's AbPow Album of the Year This Is The New You, but in the meantime they've given us a download-only EP that's a teaser for the disc. Available at CD Baby, it shows them further refining their sound. They've upped the BPM on "Streetlight" and even the midtempo "If Ever There's a Reason" without sacrificing their melodic gifts, while opener "Argyle" brings to mind "Jet Set", the wonderful opener from New You. (And to confound, they have a new track titled "This Is The New You" on the EP as well).

Meanwhile, 2007 Album of the Year contender Josh Fields has three new songs available for purchase via Snocap on his MySpace page: "Malibu", "Sleepwalking", and "Everywhere I Shouldn't Be" (non-album track "Bigger Than Life" is available as well, and all but "Sleepwalking" are streaming on the MySpace player). These tracks are of a piece with those on his self-titled debut and are definitely worth the .99 each.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I noticed a blog is going dark. But if you google:

"kevin gilbert" -Australia rarities

And click on the *CACHE* link of the Wordpress search result the above search results in (mine was second from the top), the download link still works (or did a minute ago when I tested it).

I encourage all to grab it while you can. Any chance of rescuing it by reposting it here?



http://shorterlink.com/?IXBUCK

frup.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/kevin-gilbert-rarities/




megaupload
Rarities.rar
Filename: Rarities.rar
Filesize: 86.03 MB


Title: Rarities
Date: The lifespan of Kevin Gilbert
Location: USA
Sound Quality: Variable (C overall)
Format: Variable
Source: Mail trade
Size: 86.03MBs
Tracklisting:

1. Commance [03:30]
2. The Ghetto of Beautiful Things [04:47]
3. If Ever Rain Will Fall [11:19]
4. Morning Light [03:49]
5. Oh Come Emmanuel [03:58]
6. Puppet Suite (Tired Old Man) [07:14]
7. While Heroes Cry [08:23]
8. The Last Thing on Your Mind [05:50]
9. Things She Said [04:11]
10. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) [04:49]
11. Best Laid Plans [05:31]
12. The Ballad of Jenny Ledge [05:01]
13. Blank Page [02:18]
14. Back in N.Y.C. [06:37]
15. Last Plane Out [04:26]

>>>DOWNLOAD<<<

It is easy for one to believe that Kevin Gilbert did not record and release much during his far too short career. Thud and Toy Matinee were the only major releases that Gilbert ever saw hit the shelves during his life (not counting the one that Sheryl Crow took credit for). Luckily, the estate of Kevin Gilbert has done a good job by offering some of Gilbert’s material that was unfinished at the time of his death, such as The Shaming of the True and The Kaviar Sessions. The majority of material from Gilbert’s old band, Giraffe, is also available for purchase now (all of these CDs can be found at PopPlusOne).

All of the music found on online stores is just the tip of the iceburg. After all, Gilbert had been making music even before his Giraffe days. Gilbert also played plenty of gigs in his time as well, many of which were at least partially recorded by an audience member or a radio listener. There is a tiny treasure trove of Gilbert material that many fans do not know about. Kevin Gilbert’s official site offers his earliest release, No Reasons Given, as a free download, and they used to offer a collection of 13 bootlegs/demos/oddities. Yet, there is still more.

That’s where this upload comes in. Many months ago, I recieved a wonderful amount of Kevin Gilbert material through a mail trade. There were a few complete shows on the discs, (such as the Progfest 94 show and the Roxy set) but most of the material was taken from various demos and shows. I gathered some of this miscellaneous material and compiled it into one rarities collection. The sound quality varries greatly, as some files are nice 256kbps VBR MP3s while at least one runs at 16kpbs! Despite the sometimes-disappointing sound quality, this collection is well worth a download, as it contains some great, rare Gilbert music.