Promote your event / Contact MCB

YOU HAVE REACHED MOTORCITYBLOG.
email us anytime motorcityblog@gmail.com



12/16/08

FREE MP3s: Dylan Connor // Josiah Leming // DREIDEL // DeVotchka

Dylan Connor Album Release: Breakaway Republic - January 2009!
Check out Dylan Connor's "Breakaway And Burn" mp3 here:

In 2004, having returned to the East Coast, famed producer Bryce Goggin
(Spacehog, Pavement, Nada Surf, Lemonheads, Phish, Apples In Stereo, too
many to name...), invited Connor to Trout Recording in Brooklyn after
hearing some of his signature 4-track demos. Stripped of the heavy
instrumentation and bed of distortion, only himself to harmonize
with...Connor and Goggin emerged with the debut solo effort "Plug in." The
songs, naked except for splashes of Bryce's keyboards, percussion, and
effects, received an overwhelming response from the public at large and
diehard M.Headphone fans alike. He supported "Plug In" by touring with Mike
Viola, Milton, and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. The song "Love's an
Infection" was featured in the March/April issue of American Songwriter
Magazine for its lyrical craftsmanship. "Plug In" has been played on ESPN
television broadcasts, and has hit the charts of dozens of college and
commercial radio.


Connor continued to plant and grow roots in New York, eventually hooking up
with his current band members and further developing his distinct style on
the Goggin-produced EP "Breakdowns and Hymns" (think Morrissey and Paul
McCartney fronting Nada Surf). This EP saw the coalescing of a band. With
one member of M.Headphone, and a couple friends from the distant past,
Connor's live set was becoming a cohesive, dynamic experience. With the
current band he has developed the organic moment captured on "Plug In" into
a singular electric rock sound; matching the voltage of M.Headphone.

The significance of his unique experience at Burning Man years ago (whether
or not folklore need apply) is the influence behind Breakaway Republic's
motivations and urgency.


Tennessee-born singer and songwriter Josiah Leming will release his eagerly anticipated debut album for Reprise Records in early 2009.

Until then, you'll definitely want to watch the video for his beautiful song "Angels Undercover." The video is simple, compelling and quite moving. Angels Undercover: Selections From Josiah Leming’s Album Debut — a five-song sampler of tracks from the forthcoming album is available now on Josiah's MySpace page and via iTunes.

DOWNLOAD "ARCTIC OUTCRY WIND"

Leming left his home in Morristown, TN, at age 17 to make it as a musician, hoping to find a way to help support the family he was leaving behind -- eight siblings (six of whom are adopted), an out-of-work stepfather, and a mother with terminal cancer. Leming traveled around the Southeast playing open-mic nights in any club or coffeehouse that would have him, sleeping in his car and taking odd jobs to pay for food and gas, all the while dreaming about the album he would make one day.

For Leming, the dream of making an album has finally arrived.

Erran Baron Cohen's Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah is a collection of songs that brings the ancient music of Hanukkah into the 21st Century. The album contains five reinterpretations of classic favorites as well as five original tunes created exclusively for this project, all sung in English, Hebrew or Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish).

DOWNLOAD "DREIDEL" FROM SONGS IN THE KEY OF HANUKKAH

The songs are performed by some world-class Jewish singers, including Israeli superstar Idan Raichel, world-music diva Yasmin Levy and New York City-based rapper Y-Love (who actually rhymes in Yiddish). The result is a record that is both meaningful and fun.

"Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah...is a musical voyage that bears repeated listening both for adults and kids who will love to hear the re-workings of the songs they already know as well as the new, original tracks," says Baron Cohen. "Hanukkah has always been a kid-focused holiday so the challenge was how to transform the music so that it was cool and interesting for adults and yet something that the whole family could enjoy."
Good Vs. Evil.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Beauty And The Beast.
Any and all of these concepts seem quite fitting when hearing that DeVotchka was the band chosen to have its song “How It Ends” featured in the new Gears Of War 2 commercial for XBox 360. The commercial premiered last month during the Sunday Night football game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts and will continue to run through the holidays, making for quite an enjoyable media-based holiday season with you and your family glued in front of the television.

More importantly for DeVotchka, though, is the new life that this promotion is breathing into an extraordinary album that was far overlooked a few years ago. The unlikely pairing of four extremely talented musicians with such diverse backgrounds is what makes the music of DeVotchka so enjoyable. With the uncanny on-stage arrangement of a junkyard cluttered by sousaphone, accordion, piano, violin, a bouzouki, an upright bass, percussion, trumpet, drums and a Theremin, it’s no wonder Xbox 360 chose this band as one that could bring such a conversely beautiful approach to a war game. Brilliantly playing into the end of the year 2008, this is a holiday package that is sure to end your year on a good note!