Merry Christmas from Low

Low has a new album being released by Sub Pop in 2011. In anticipation of that and in celebration of the vinyl re-issue of their classic 1999 Christmas album, Low will be playing in SLC at Kilby Court on Dec. 17.

And they're giving away some free music too.

Click here to get the EP.

Merry Christmas.

Walking Far From Home

We picked this up at our local record store on Black Friday. We suggest you go get it too.

Find more artists like Iron and Wine at Myspace Music

The Curse

Pretty cool video created by Josh Ritter's drummer to go with the song "The Curse" from Ritter's recently released So Runs The World Away.

Watch it HERE.

I can't say enough about how great I think this song is. I won't even try tonight, except to say, if you've never heard the song you should probably listen to it without the video first. Kind of a "read the book before seeing the movie" type thing.

May vs. the field

April's album of the month will be up soon.

May's could take a little longer. Great music has been coming out every week this month. Band of Horses and Black Keys to look forward to this Tuesday. Damien Jurado the next. The National's High Violet is making a case for album of the year. The Hold Steady and Broken Social Scene albums are well worth their time. The New Pornographers successfully ruffled some uptight feathers, reinforced unfortunate stereotypes about people in Utah and put out some harmless, beautiful pop music. All in all, none of this month's hotly anticipated releases have been big letdowns. May has proven to be as incredible has hyped.

Which raises the question: Where would your money go, in a May vs. the field (other 11 months) bet on the month 2010's Album of the Year was released?

It's a tough call. But, before you make your decision you may want to consider the following bit of good news from Arcade Fire's website:

No date yet, but it's coming. Sometime this year.

Which is a very compelling argument for betting on the field.

Second Chance, First Listen

The liberal media is taking care of your ears. In case you missed it when it was streaming at NYTimes.com last week, The National's upcoming album High Violet will be streaming in it's entirety at NPR from now until the album's release next Tuesday (May 11). Give it a listen. I expect this will make a few top ten list this year.

NPR First Listen: The National's High Violet.

the positive externality of the album leak...

...is the pre-release album stream. The schedule for releases in May is insane. NPR is giving you a little bit of a head start.

If you're looking for something new to listen to over the weekend, try streaming these upcoming releases. Click the name to link to the stream.

Josh Ritter- So Runs The World Away

The New Pornographers- Together

Broken Social Scene- Forgiveness Rock Record

The Hold Steady- Heaven is Whenever

Hurry, hurry

The National's new album is out May 11, and it's streaming at NYTimes online for 1 more day. check it out here.