Download mp3 (not uploaded by me)

Download (not uploaded by me)

Listen to them on Myspace, follow them on Twitter or Facebook

Check out an interview with the bassist on God Tunes Reviews

Similar to: Third Day, Three Days Grace

The “Play On” round-ups are where I highlight a random assortment of amazing songs I’ve discovered in the past few weeks/months.

Rocketeer, Far East Movement feat. Ryan Tedder of One Republic

Dog Days Are Over, Florence and the Machine, from their new album “Lungs”

Who’d Have Known, Lily Allen- quirky, playful hipster love song

Why Try to Change Me Now, Fiona Apple – I’m not usually a rabid Fiona Apple fan, but this cover of a Frank Sinatra classic is just stellar

Where Did You Go, Jets Overhead

As always, songs were not uploaded by me.

I was so taken with the song “Holding on to Nothing” when I heard it on the following lovely Asian drama MV that I went off to find more about the band, and having listened to their music I am officially a convert.  If you like Secondhand Serenade, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus or any of those other rock/emo pop bands who occasionally craft amazing love songs, then you should like Lovers and Liars. A minty-new band from Tennessee, Lovers and Liars is a four-member band consisting of Stacy Hogan, Adam Nagel, Jason Stout, and Stephen Taylor. Formed about two years ago I think, they released their first EP, Before and After the Awakening, in fall 2009, and recently got signed by a major label (deservedly, in my opinion).

Download “Holding on to Nothing” by  signing up for their mailing list.

Their bio testifies: “We broke with rock tradition, trading Les Pauls and Marshall stacks for lead piano, drum machines, and synthesized textures. Switched straightforward rock shouting for a more diverse approach, using a variety of vocal deliveries to convey more complex sonic ideas. At the core, though, we stuck to hooky, personal songwriting, something that all too many of today’s otherwise worthy “experimental” groups seem to forget to do.”

Their Facebook page is beautifully tongue-in-cheek and humorous, and they’re clearly determined to have the personal touch with their small but devoted (and growing) fanbase, since one of them personally messaged me (in an entirely non-creepy way) when I joined their fans on Facebook.

Join their fans on Facebook
Lovers and Liars Myspace

“We wanted to begin a band that sounded gigantic”, We the Living say on their website, but oddly enough, this 3-member indie rock/pop band from Tennessee mostly crafts songs that are beautifully contained and tender, even wistful. Their website is a little too wordy and cerebral (probably an influence of Ayn Rand, from whose book of the same name I assume they got their name) – their first album apparently is split into “heaven” and “earth” sections and their Myspace page lays forth a manifesto about “spread [ing] the idea that everyone needs a personal philosophy”. Since their music is lucid and unpretentious however I won’t hold it against them. Download their newest EP, “Boom Forest”, by signing up for the mailing list. I just did and the EP consists of 5 exquisite songs. Check out “Left and Leaving” and “Re: Stacks” below.

You can also check out their website and Myspace page

Sometime Around Midnight, The Airborne Toxic Event

“We decided a long time ago not to take reviews too seriously. For one, they tend to involve a whole lot of projection, generally saying more about the writer than the band. Sort of a musical Rorschach test. And for another, reading them makes you too damned self-conscious, like the world is looking over your shoulder when the truth is you’re not a genius or a moron. You’re just a person in a band.”

-Letter to Pitchfork from The Airborne Toxic Event

Download mp3

1) Hopes and Fears, Keane

1. Somewhere Only We Know
2. Bend And Break
3. We Might As Well Be Strangers
4. Everybody’s Changing
5. Your Eyes Open
6. She Has No Time
7. Can’t Stop Now
8. Sunshine
9. This Is The Last Time
10. On A Day Like Today
11. Untitled 1
12. Bedshaped

-”Somewhere Only We Know”|Download

2. Who You Are, Cary Brothers

1. Jealousy
2. Ride
3. Who You Are
4. The Glass Parade
5. Honestly
6. The Last One
7. Loneliest Girl In The World
8. If You Were Here
9. Think Awhile
10. All the Rage
11. Precious Lie
12. Untitled
13. Untitled
14. Blue Eyes

Download: “The Last One”

3)Spirit, Jewel

01.Deep Water
02.What’s Simple Is True
03.Hands
04.Kiss The Flame
05.Down So Long
06.Innocence Maintained
07.Jupiter
08.Fat Boy
09.Enter From The East
10.Barcelona
11.Life Uncommon
12.Do You
13.Absence Of Fear / This Little Bird
14.Who Will Save Your Soul

“Hands”

4)Once, Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova/Strict Joy, The Swell Season

1 Falling Slowly
2 If You Want Me
3 Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy
4 When Your Mind’s Made Up
5 Lies
6  Gold
7  The Hill
8  Fallen From The Sky
9 Leave
10 Trying To Pull Myself Away
11 All The Way Down
12  Once
13  Say It To Me Now

-”If You Want Me”|Download

-”When Your Mind’s Made Up”|Download

01. Low Rising
02. Feeling the Pull
03. In These Arms
04. The Rain
05. Fantasy Man
06. Paper Cup
07. High Horses
08. The Verb
09. I Have Loved You Wrong
10. Love That Conquers
11. Two Tongues
12. Back Broke

“Low Rising”|Download

“Two Tongues”| Download

5)Since 2007-Vol 1/Remember-Vol 2/Always, Big Bang

I’m going to cheat with Big Bang because, like many Asian artists, they have for the most part released mini-albums instead of full albums, and it wasn’t until quite some time after their initial success that they began releasing real albums. But they so clearly deserve to be on my favorite albums list that I’m going to combine Vol 2-Remember, which has the largest percentage of my favorite tracks, with some of their mini-album songs.

1. Intro(Vol 1)

2.Haru Haru (Vol 2)

3. Geojitmal/Lies (Always)

4. Haru Haru(Acoustic, Vol 2)

5. Together with You feat. Park Bom

6. My Heaven(Big Bang)

7. A Fool’s Only Tears

8. Remember (Vol 2)

9. Always (Always)

10. Remember(Vol 2)

11. My Girl(Vol 1)

“Haru Haru(Day by Day)”| Download

“Together with You” feat. Park Bom|Download

6)One Fell Swoop, The Spill Canvas

01. Lust A Prima Vista
02. Staplegunned
03. Polygraph, Right Now!
04. Dutch Courage
05. Natalie Marie and 1cc
06. Teleport A&B
07. Break a Leg
08. This Is For Keeps
09. Himerus and Eros
10. Valiant
11. Secret Oath
12. Bound to Happen
13. Self-Conclusion

“Staplegunned”: Download

-”Teleport A&B”|Download