buy
If I could force everyone to check out one album today, it would be from On An On. Haven't been on my radar until today and just loving it. Stream Give In for free today, buy it tomorrow, and watch the video for "Ghosts." Love this song...
New album from My Morning Jacket, Circuital, is the kind of return to form I have hoped to see from them for a long time. Really, ever since I heard "One Big Holiday" I've wanted to see them focus on being THAT band. Long live the rock band. And it's only $5!
Okkervil River's new album, I Am Very Far, is now streaming free online. Check it out. This is one of my favorite bands and the first indie band I saw in concert. Also, all their albums are $5 right now.
Just got Summer Wakes the Bear Who Sleeps by Aaron Youngren and Charles Perrault in the mail for review. It's a book of poetry, one-act plays, sermons, and essays from St. George Rides the Dragon Press. Intriguing. Aaron is pastor of The Line in Chicago.
“Ah, now I see. For this she sleeps. She sleeps the winter gone, as do all of her kind. She sleeps for rest.” “No. The sleep she has chosen is a sleep without rest, a sleep tormented, a sleep that ends in death.” So begins an exploration of human frailty through the lens of fairy tale, image, one-acts, ritual, and poetry. Along the way: volunteerism as modern indulgence and doubt as modern fundamentalism; a father who tries to be a brother, and a brother who won't let him; a heretical text; a ship's captain who wants nothing more than to leave his wife and children. “So you have done all, you have sent all, and still she did not turn. There is nothing more to be done.” “No. There is still one more to send.”
It's Music Monday and you need some good new music at a good price. Here you go!
CHEAP (Note: I found some of April's $5 albums early. Pick'em up!)
$5 ALBUMS | MARCH (Hurry, ends Thursday!)
NEW & STREAMING FREE
Good New Music (out now)...
Coming Soon (all coming out tomorrow, March 29th)
FREE MUSIC - DAYTROTTER
In the three years since Bon Iver released its critically beloved 2007 debut For Emma, Forever Ago, frontman Justin Vernon earned thousands of new fans – including Kanye West, who invited the sensitive singer-songwriter to appear on six songs of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
But when Vernon sat down to work on Bon Iver’s follow-up album, he discovered a problem. “Somewhere along the line, I forgot how to write songs,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I couldn’t do it anymore with a guitar. It wasn’t happening.”
So Vernon – who wrote For Emma while holed up by himself in rural Wisconsin – changed gears, working with studio musicians, trying to build sounds rather than songs. “I brought in a lot of people to change my voice — not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project,” says Vernon, who hired well-known players like sax man Colin Stetson, who plays with Tom Waits and Arcade Fire, and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz, who recorded with Bill Frissell and Linda Rondstadt. “I built the record myself, but I allowed those people to come in and change the scene.” The album, which is still untitled, is scheduled to come out sometime in June.
If you don't have Bon Iver's two albums, For Emma, Forever Ago (only $6.99) & Blood Bank EP, it's time to catch up and get ready for June. Also check out his stuff with Volcano Choir and Gayngs (though neither compare to the greatness of Bon Iver. Now, when does Beirut's new album come out?
Smith Westerns: Dye It Blonde (2011) is getting great reviews. A Metacritic composite score of 83/100, including Pitchfork 84/100 & AV Club 90/100. I paid full price on the day it was released. You get it for $2.99 today only. Go get it!
I liked the cover. It was that simple. It intrigued me. So I chose to listen to a live stream of The Poison Tree's new, self-titled album last week. Then I listened again. Loved it. It was released yesterday and I had to pick it up. I want to encourage you to pick it up too. Or listen to it streaming FREE. The clips don't do it justice. Let me know what you think.
Louis Armstrong: The Complete Jazz Collection is $5.99 for 85 songs.
I can't express how much love I have for The National. I found them by reading good reviews on three previous albums: Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2003) | Alligator (2005) | Boxer (2007). Their 2010 release which was my #2 album of 2010 is High Violet. A stunner. I listened to it again on Saturday and it's oh, so good. It's also only $3.99 (as I write his post). That sale will end any moment, so please rush to grab this amazing album, full of passion and art. And enjoy "Conversation 16" starring, from Mad Men, John Slattery...
The National
After Governor Quinn signed a new tax law, Amazon has terminated all Illinois Associates. Many of my links go through Amazon. It costs you nothing extra, and it supports my me and my family by helping me buy books (I have no book budget at my church), music, and recently my Kindle. Starting April 15th, this revenue ends.
So if anyone can support Refomissionary by clicking through an Amazon link when you need to buy something, it would be greatly appreciated. I very much appreciate how many of you have supported me this way in the past. Some have even emailed me asking for direct links for books and other products so that they could buy what they need and I could bring in a little money. If you are interested in that: pastorsteve [at] gmail [dot] com.
Again, it's at no extra cost to you. It's the same price. But if you click through one of my links over the next month or so, you'll support Reformissionary. Thanks so much for whatever support you can provide. Click on the banner below to buy something! Thanks for anything you can do.
If you haven't taken my advice to pick up the new self-titled Middle Brother album, I get it. You aren't rich. You can't buy everything out there that is supposed to be "good." Neither can I. But. BIG BUT. Just watch this video of them (& friends) singing their opening track, "Daydreaming." Then try to resist buying it. That's all I ask.
CHEAP
$5 ALBUMS | MARCH
NEW & STREAMING FREE
FREE MUSIC - DAYTROTTER
I really like the sounds of Great Lake Swimmers. Banjo makes the world a better place. This is their official video (live) for "The Chorus in the Underground." It's from, Lost Channels. They also put out an album last year, Ongiara. Enjoy!
The new album from The Joy Formidable: The Big Roar (out March 15th) is streaming FREE at NPR. I'm very impressed with my first listen and hope others will check it out. Their debut, A Balloon Called Moaning, has a couple of the same songs (they changed labels) and is only $5.99.
The Quietus review says of The Big Roar, "The centrepiece of the album is the shattering wonder of 'Whirring' which is, quite possibly, one of my favourite singles of the last five years." Here's the official video for "Whirring"...
Middle Brother released their first, self-titled album today. It's three singers from three bands I really like: Delta Spirit, Deer Tick, and Dawes. I was very eager to get it before I heard it, but it's now surpassed all my expectations. I want everyone to get this album.
King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller is officially out today. Go get it. It's only $12.99 on Kindle.
Other helpful links...
I recently told you the Split EP -- Brooks Ritter: The War EP & Jamie Barnes: The Mercy Seat EP -- was coming.
It's here. Buy it today or stream it online for free. It's great and I think you'll love it.
I also highly recommend the previous albums from Sojourn Music. These albums, along with the new split EP, are the only albums my kids insisted I put on their iPods...
Thom Yorke, uh, dances and sings "Lotus Flower." Dude, The King of Limbs is a great Radiohead album. Buy it | Stream it FREE.
