Indie 69 October 2011 Playlist Released

Not too cheesy I hope.

Late again. Sorry. There was simply no way to get it done any faster this month. Well, without it sucking.

I think this is a solid collection though.

The extras have some pretty good tracks, too.  Some were just too good to leave out, even though I’m doing my best to go back to the 69 tracks limit. Maybe next month, with fewer extras.

I don’t have much time left right now, so I’ll leave it at that and just let you enjoy the music…

You can grab it HERE and any of the usual places.

See you here or in November.

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Indie 69 September 2011 New Music Playlist

ASCII and ye shall receive

Letter Nate than Beaver, as they say.

Oh that cannot be right. Isn’t that what they say?

Oh, yeah. Better late than never. Very true, unless you’re waiting for an organ.

Minimalist cover art this month, eh? It’s a new trend for me, I think.  For a while anyway. This image caught my eye, as I have been reading a few non-fiction books covering the influences of 60’s culture on science and technology. The best so far has been “What the Dormouse Said – How the 60’s Counterculture shaped the personal computer” (non-affiliate links to Amazon), but I’m still digging into “How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival” and really enjoying it.  So when I saw this GEM of an old kit computer, AND it said “69” on the display, I stopped looking. Perfection.

If someone tries to tell you the 60’s was a waste of a decade, slam a pie in that person’s face. That person is full of poop. Why not full of pie as well? Mmmm… pie.

Oh, I almost forgot to make excuses.

Here it goes…..

Umm, my dog ate my playlist. Traffic was HORRIBLE! I just found out that one guy, yeah, who used to clip my uncle’s toenails and collect them in jars? Yeah he like, died and stuff. We were so close. TERRORISM! (was scary) My boss made me stay late ’cause Greg called in sick.  My socks didn’t match and it took me 14 days to find a pair.  I was naming my new band and all I could come up with were combinations of  the words tropical, party, vacation, summer, youth, young, camp, ocean, lagoon, river,  a whole bunch of Canadian provinces/cities, and lake.  Weird. Kept.  me.  busy. ( is it just me?? or does anyone else notice this stuff?? )  My playlist fell of the back of my truck.  No, seriously.  And I don’t even have a truck.  Wow.

The truth is actually a tiny bit personal and a little of the same old, same old problems with Internet, memory cards/sticks, etc. When I finally did have time, I didn’t want to do a rush job. It ended up taking a lot longer than I’d expected (or am used to). So there’s that. Seems to be yet another trend. Note to self: Start earlier AND never type “note to self” again….. again.

The good news is…. great playlist.  138 tracks! Another double-sizer.

You can get it …HERE… and in all of the usual dens.

Sorry if you spot any dupes/repeats (songs that have already been featured in previous months). I do my best to catch them. But there are 2 or 3 tracks in there that are not particularly new. Just new for me, and hopefully you too.

See you here and in October.  I’ve gotta get to recording *Camp Alberta Lake Summer Youth Party Vacation Lagoon Kids‘ debut E.P. , tentatively titled “The  End Of Summer Bonfire Singalong E.P.”  Or maybe it’ll be self-titled.  See you here (perhaps) soon and in October for sure.

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* the band previously known as “you will know us by the trail of excuses your mom made to herself in order to drink until her pee was flammable and sleep with random bellboys….”

(that’s 4 dots at the end, very important)

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Indie 69 August 2011 Playlist Released

empty.... full

August already? The summer is going by fast, and not as “summery” where I am.  Not much to say this month except that I think its a good , if sparse , playlist this time.

Get it HERE ( TPB link )

No “Tasty Leftovers” planned this month. May be a failed experiment. Hard to say.

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See you here, and in September.

Enjoy. Get some sun while you can.

Indie 69 July Playlist Released!

BANG!

A few days late, but worth it. This one just took FORfriggenEVER! There will again be a “Tasty Leftovers” playlist in July, some time around the 15th. There were again just far too many good tracks to fit into a 69 or even 100 track playlist. And when the size of the whole thing approaches a GIG, you know it’s just too much for one music download.

Not much to say here aside from posting the link. I’ve been busy with a few other things, far too busy to be posting my musings and meanderings here in the old blog. But that will change as the summer moves along. I had some trouble with truncated files again. Somewhere through the process of using memory sticks to bring all the files with me so I could work with them wherever I decided to be for the day, many files ended up with the end of the song missing, or the file going from around 6mb to around 300kb. NOT good. So I ended up spending a LOT of time, last minute, seeking out copies on Hypem. I sent off e-mails to the artists whose tracks I could not locate copies of. Sadly, I couldn’t wait around for replies. So if you are one of those people, not to worry. You’ll get on next month.

I found a few surprises in the inbox as I was going through submissions. One was a very special song by an artist that I love, based upon a true story I wrote. It was moving, beautiful.  I cannot WAIT to get permission to share it with all of you. The other news was that I was sent an invitation to Google Music Beta!!! I’m excited to give it a shot and when I’ve used it for a few days I’ll be sure to write a review up and post it here. Has anyone who reads this blog tried it? What did you think?

So on to what you’re all here for…

Grab the July Indie 69 New Music Playlist

HERE

(and in all of the usual places you steal it from… lol)

SEED SEED SEED!

Hope you enjoy the hell out of it. I think it’s a “very special” playlist this time. Like a very special episode of your favorite sitcom. Except without a victim.

Whatever that means.

Be sure to read the NFO file inside the playlist and give me some of the specific feedback I’m asking. (open it with notepad or your favorite plain-text reader of choice… look for PDF versions in the near future)

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See you in a couple of weeks for the Tasty Leftovers. I’m going to have some real fun with it this time.

Indie69 June 2011 Tasty Leftovers Now Released

I can has head?

Okay, so what the hell is this??

Well, these days I’m getting about 400 tracks a month or more. And to be honest, there’s only room for just SO many tracks on the main playlist. And I’ve noticed that there’s SO MUCH good music left over every month, it just gets tossed into a folder and forgotten, for the most part.

That’s not fair if the whole point of this is to get new music HEARD. So I decided to put together a second playlist now, every month (I presume), featuring these leftover tracks.

These TASTY leftover tracks. So eat up!!

GRAB IT HERE!!: GULP!

Yummy.

You may notice a lot more remixes, instrumentals and more obscure experimental or weird stuff here on this playlist. So if that’s your thing, you may like this one even more.

But that’s not everything here… there’s plenty of sweet pop goodness and rock delectibles and edibles to chew on.

Enough eating metaphors to fill you up yet??

groan.

Anyway. Enjoy. And remember, if you found YOUR music here, it doesn’t mean I thought any less of it.. quite the contrary. These are NOT REJECTED TRACKS!! Those go in the trash.

That comes to about half of what I get going into the recycle bin.

Hope you all like it. It was fun to put together. As much as the other playlist. I imagine I will even do this one with quite a bit more care and attention from now on, even throwing
in some older stuff and personal favorites from time to time. A kind of playground for my evil whims. Bwahahahaha!

See you in July, Guy.

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P.S. – The concensus is in. The concensus being that I decided. I’ll put these out when I have enough tracks to justify it about halfway through the month.

Indie69 June 2011 New Music Playlist now available

The mantis quietly judges you.

Well, well. June has arrived. And change is in the air.

…So that’s what that smell is…

I’m going to do things this month a little bit differently. Instead of stuffing a few tracks left over into a folder, and because there are now usually SO MANY good tracks left after I’ve narrowed it all down, I’ve decided to do a second playlist every month featuring what I call the “Tasty Leftovers”.  These are not rejected tracks. These are the ones that I liked but for whatever reason just didn’t seem to fit. Or would have made the playlist just TOO huge. Since I started off about halfway through the month this time with (around) 400 tracks, and STILL didn’t catch up with 100% of the e-mail submissions alone (if you were left out and your track was great.. chances are I just have not heard it yet.. check next month), I decided that it’s just getting far too huge for a convenient download. I cannot imagine everyone wanting to download over a gig of music just from my playlist alone, every month. So now there’s a second playlist (watch for it here) to take care of what was left for the month that didn’t suck. The whole idea of all this is to help this music get heard, new music. And with so much of it being so good, it just seemed wrong to stuff it in a folder and forget about it.  And let’s face it, that’s what was happening. There are only so many hours in a day and so many days in a month. The “Tasty Leftovers” for this month number more than 100 tracks. It’s up to you if you want to grab both playlists or just the main one. If you dig the instrumentals and remixes, the extremely eclectic or bizarre.. you may find a few examples of that in the leftovers. But there are quite a few pop and rock tracks in there as well.

I must apologize, however, for not having the time to double-check for duplicates this time. I scanned over it and trusted my memory this month. I hope it served me well and did not fail all of you. But if it did, I hope it’s not too much trouble to delete a couple of dupes. But let’s get to the playlist now and I’ll save my babbling on for a little further down the page…

You can grab Indie69 June 2011 New Music Playlist HERE and at all of the usual places you find it.

I would also like to announce my official intention to move the site to a new host with more flexibility, even though I adore WordPress.com. There are just a few tiny, specific reasons why I want to move to a new place. One of them is better community flexibility and more direct control over ways to submit music, as well as a specific interface I prefer at the new host. IF you are interested in guest blogging, let me know. I’m interested in finding music lovers who would like to post short reviews and mp3 downloads. Although I adore music criticism, I prefer to focus on what you DO like rather than posting articles about things you hear that you do not. I find very little value in being “warned” about bad music when so much of it is available for free. What’s the risk?? If I like a sample track, chances are I won’t HATE the album. And if I hate the sample track or single, why on earth would I buy the album? There’s no risk anymore which kind of takes the purpose of a lot of the criticism and flushes it right down along with things like Blockbuster stores and floppy drives. It’s still really enjoyable to read a well written review, and there are so many of those out there. But when things go negative these days, I tend to find myself wondering about things like motive and personal issues rather than the music. Is it just me? I’m not saying  “love everything you write about”, I AM saying “don’t write about music that you think is terrible”. There are exceptions, of course.  If something is so terrible that it becomes humorous or compelling in some other way, by all means write about it. I also ask that the focus be on new music or specific genre. If this all sounds fantastic and you’re okay with just getting a link and credit, get in touch at indiesixtynine@gmail.com . I expect to start the move this month.

Coincidentally, May was this blog’s best month ever, stats-wise. That was nice to see.

I hope you love the playlist(s) this month. Keep in touch, I love the e-mails and submissions. You know where to find me now on Twitter and Facebook (personal profile coming soon, I think). And keep your eyes open for the “Tasty Leftovers”, expect to wait no more than a few days, if that long. Comment if you’d rather see it arrive halfway through the month instead.

..and remember, always.. SEED SEED SEED! (even the old stuff.. I just re-seeded all of the 2009-2010 playlists)

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Indie 69 May 2011 New Music Playlist Released!

Do not taunt happy playlist fun ball!!

Funny story. See, I was up all night finishing this sucker, mostly because it’s  couple of days late, but partly because I’m just like that. Once I get really rolling on a project, it can be VERY difficult for me to set it aside and finish it later. So I pull all-nighters. But I feel good, because this is a great one. And what makes it special is the huge number of artists that I’ve never, EVER heard of. And I could not, again, narrow it down to just 69 tracks. What I did instead was try to place the more “out there” tracks toward the end of the playlist, in the 80s and up. I suggest that you listen to the whole thing, but if you have limited time up front, this will make it easier if you know that the VERY strange tracks and instrumental-oriented things are at the end. I guess. It just depends on what you consider “strange” and “out there”.

I also had some really great, positive conversations with artists last night as I was reaching out to a final few at the last minute. And one of them was with the artist at the number one position this month, “New pyjamas”, someone I could only find a single blog post about. And the track I included, “fishing” really surprised me. Can’t wait to hear what he does next and I’ll be sure to share whatever I can when it happens. But enough of my chitter-chatter. If you want more info, a few links and more of my rambling on, see the NFO file in the torrent, which you can open with notepad or any old plain text editor. But for now…. finally….

Indie 69 May 2011 New Music Playlist – which you can GRAB HERE. (TPB link, tinyurl shortened)

840 MB , 114 Tracks.

I’m a little extra proud of this one, the music I picked, and how it just flows. It’s a good one. So if you like it too, please spread the word. Link to this blog, re-tweet the link to the torrent and my related tweet. Just generally spread the word. Let’s get this one to as many ears as possible. And the same goes for the other playlists out there such as Blalock’s, Criznittle’s and the others. All of which can be located using indierockplaylists.com .

Summer is almost here now, too! I think it’s going to be a great one for new music, if this is any kind of preview. There was just so much more than usual. I’ll see you in the blog posts and on Twitter @indie69 .

Okay.

Enjoy… shutting up now. I’m a little delirious now, off to bed.

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Sasquatch! 2011 Playlist upped.

Everybody Run!

I didn’t do this one, but it looks pretty good and has a TON of tracks.

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I would have loved to have been there, and if you’re like me and couldn’t make it this year ( I heard it sold out) ,  this will give you a “nice” reminder of what you missed.

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This features 350 tracks, it’s a big torrent. And rather than the usual 1 track from each act, there are multiple tracks from many. I have no idea if this is official in any way whatsoever. So it’s up to you. It’s also over 2 gigs, and so far only has one seed. But that will change soon as it’s being leeched heavily. It should not take too long to be well seeded.  (EDIT: as far as I know, these are not live tracks)

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Get it HERE.   ..Enjoy. Just a heads up. (TPB link via tinyurl)

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groopEase – New Music Discovery / Group Music Purchasing Service

. . .

While I was checking out Google’s web alternative to popular iPad app FlipBoard, (Google Fast Flip,which is nice, btw) I discovered a story about a new service through a post at Mashable from April 6th. It immediately sounded interesting to me in concept. I appreciate and desire to support any new or unique approach to getting new music to new listeners. And this one really seemed unique, at least in the world of new music curation/promotion. While I prefer less commercial approaches, you can’t blame a guy for making a buck or two, as long as it’s legit and not scammy.

I’m sure many of you either have heard of or use “deal of the day” services and apps like Groupon. This is a bit like that, but with a tiny bit more of a buyer’s “club” feeling to it, and so far not actually a “daily” service.  I assume many of you are also open to trying AND buying new music.  groopEase takes an interesting, new approach to discovery and then deeply discounted purchase. Members to the service/site are initially getting the opportunity to purchase about 2 or 3 new digital albums a week for as much as 75% off,  as well as a single track to download and preview from each album.  The site also reports that some artists will have videos to preview on the site.  It’s invitation-only, but with a 1 dollar credit for each person you invite that joins and makes a purchase once you get in.  Mashable seems to have missed that detail, claiming that you get the credit simply by getting your friend to “sign up”, which is not the case.  (no, I have no invites and would not use this venue to take advantage of the discount/credit)  Check the Mashable article’s comments for what SEEMS to be an open invitation, but could simply be someone trying to get dollar credits. Hard to tell. No accusation here, I just do not know.

Since I have not tried the service out myself, yet (I will), I cannot be sure exactly what types of music they will be featuring. The site’s FAQ describes the artists/bands as “indie” and “up and coming”, which could be utter crap or utterly interesting, depending on whether or not they consider bands that sound like Coldplay or Kings of Leon to be  “indie”. ( one simple test is to ask yourself, “would this be available in a little bin at Starbucks?” )  Or whether they think of things like “hipsters” and skinny jeans when they hear the word indie rather than imagining artists doing it all themselves in a garage or basement somewhere. Time will tell, and I will certainly report back with my opinion. My impression, or “gut” feeling is that they have their hearts in the right place, which is why I wrote this article. I get a good vibe from them.

I think it’s very important to find new ways to bring community back to music discovery.  Especially beyond the more mundane, almost mechanical and ephemeral/disposable places that pass for community these days.  ( I still like you last.fm , but Farcebook and Theirspace are just depressing..as are many other sites that focus either on streaming or garish profiles combined with a tendency to encourage the cultivation of attention spans similar to hummingbirds and houseflies…. in my opinion .. and no, I will not water your crops!) It remains to be seen if this particular community turns out to be a purely commercial enterprise. But it’s another step in a new direction and I like that the steps are being taken at all. Rather than being like radio curators, it feels like they are instead closer to CD-store-employee curators. More personal and cliquey, less broad. I hope they end up being at least as opinionated, or have haircuts I wish I had already. But that’s just an impression from the outside.

I find that this is maybe the longest review I have ever written for a service I have not yet tried. But if you’ve read this far, that cookie has crumbled.

In any case, I suggest you give it a try if you can get your paws on an invite.  CHECK IT OUT.

And to make you feel even better about your purchase, if you end up making one, is the fact that they are giving away 5% of sales to charity. Currently, the charity is “Empower Nepali Girls”, which is a very, very worthy charity. They help the most neglected and impoverished girls in Nepal reach their potential and beyond by providing educational funding based on financial need combined with academic potential/performance.  90% of all money donated goes directly to the children’s  education. Females in Nepali culture face numerous challenges and barriers, including the possibility of being married off at extremely young ages (as young as 11!! ?? !!) and a high statistical probability of being sold into sex slavery. This is why the focus is on girls while not excluding boys. It’s easy to forget sometimes, especially during genuinely rough economic times, just how lucky we are to be living where we do, (assuming a large majority of my readers are from western nations) when we do.  Even if you don’t check out groopEase, at least check out this charity, and take a moment to read some of the very moving stories.

namaste.

The Dears live on Oregon Public Broadcasting (video and audio)

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You can catch The Dears doing live performances of  “Yesteryear”, “Thrones”, “Blood” and “5 Chords”  (video) on Oregon Public Broadcasting HERE. There’s a 2 part interview as well, but you may not notice it as it’s audio-only and sort of at the bottom of the page. Also be sure to check out the newly (and nicely) re-designed TheDears.org HERE. The performances are great, but a little messed up in places by a bad mix (where are the keys hiding?) . Overall, really good though. My fave is probably Blood, one of the best tracks from Degeneration Street, which is by far their best album yet. See my review of it HERE. I really hope they come back through California again.

I like the OPB music site, too. There you will find studio sessions with a variety of artists including Annuals, Blitzen Trapper, The Decemberists, Foreign Born, Loney Dear,  M. Ward, Neko Case, Patrick Watson, Viva Voce, The Wooden Birds, and tons more. Many of them very , very good. I especially liked the Loney Dear session. Dig in, it’ll be worth it.

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