Freedom

Amanda Palmer finally is free of her label, and in celebration, posted the following song:

If you like it, you can download it for whatever price you like (including free).

As I said on Twitter and Facebook: Direct-to-consumer is the new black.

Friday Music

Not a huge list this week — usual reason (busy as fuck).

First up — this song is used in a commercial for, inexplicably, insurance. Can’t remember which company, so the ad obviously doesn’t do the job. But what it did do is make me want to track down this song, which I can only describe as “haunting.” So I did. And here it is: Hem – “Half Acre.”

Next, a *brilliant* mashup — thanks to for pointing this out to me via Twitter: Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce vs. Metallica – “Enter Telephone (DJs from Mars club remix).”

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings have a new album coming out this month! Woot! New album means (hopefully) new tour, and even more hopefully, a new date in Lawrence! This is the title track: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – “I Learned The Hard Way.”

Yesterday while I was laptopping, Henry’s (the coffee shop where I was ensconced) played this album, which I hadn’t heard in ages. It got a lot of guff for being “Pop-punk”, but I had a lot of respect for the group sticking with their indie label and telling the majors to fuck off. Plus, any “pop” group savvy enough to name-check Desmond Dekker gets serious authenticity points in my book. Rancid – “Roots Radicals.”

Lastly, one of my favorite tracks from The Police, which doesn’t nearly get the airplay of their bigger hits. They performed this one on the last tour, but Sting isn’t really capable of hitting this register any more, so it was an octave down. Gettin’ old. Phooey. The Police – “So Lonely.”

There ya go, kids. Enjoy.

Galactic Empire State of Mind

Best thing in the history of EVER.

Great song, clever re-working, concentrates only on the original trilogy, and Leia is HAWT.

(Facebook will screw up the embed when this gets RSS’d over to Notes, so I already posted it on my wall.)