R Kelly vs Broken Social Scene - I'm a Flirt 7/4 Shoreline

This is a damn tight mash up. I hate R. Kelly, but love BSS... just check it!

The Libertines - Up the Bracket

Let me set the scene: Britain, 2002... the indie rock scene in the country had been flourishing since the 60s, but things had begun to get a tad stale. After Oasis's rise of fame and success (and critically acclaimed records) had been leveled off a new force in UK music was about to emerge and reignite the modern British musical revival. A little band from London suddenly took the country by storm, which were known as The Libertines. Now, the frontman you may be a little more familiar with due to his love for drugs his turbulent relationship with super model Kate Moss (I know his name's on the tip of your tongue) -- Pete Doherty!

So The Libertines drop their record in 2002, "Up the Bracket" and it becomes the quickest selling debut album in the UK -- ousting Oasis as reigning champs. This album turns heads worldwide and becomes the talk of the indie scene from the UK (in the US we have The Strokes and The White Stripes and in Australia we have The Vines). The 'tines managed to rise to the top, hit rock bottom somewhere in 2003ish, (had something to do with drug ravaged Doherty) but again were able to churn out a second critically acclaimed album, "The Libertines". Well although they have no disbanded, the Libertines put out two amazing, rocking, clever albums. Some have pegged Doherty, despite his drug problems, as perhaps the Lennon of his era, a extremely gifted and talented poet and lyricists. Not only do both of these albums totally rock and roll but the lyrical content is top notch.

Now, a little later I will get into the spin-off bands which the breaking of the Libertines lead to, one led by Doherty, "Babyshambles" and another by co-lead singer of the 'tines, Caral Barat's "Dirty Pretty Things". Now back to why the Libertines were so important to blowing the lid of the modern-day British music revolution. These fella's put everything into their music and it ended up reaping its toll on some of them (Doherty)... Their music, his story, his continual media coverage on television gave this band so much press, they were delivered first hand to every living room and computer in the Western World. Following this new movement (we will say that Oasis existed in the 1990s generation of UK music), a whole slew of new acts came to the forefront. In the DIY/garage genre we have Mike Skinner's bedroom project, "The Streets" with raw, colorful rhymes and some of the most interesting beats you'll ever hear. Then we have bands such as (long existing) the Doves, Travis, heck, even Coldplay was a part of this. More recently the bands keep coming and coming, Art Brut, The Rakes, The Cribs, Arctic Monkeys, The View, Franz Ferdinand, Jaime T, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, The Futureheads, The Paddingtons, and the list goes on! I will try and cover all these bands in the future, but you should really go check them all out, they are all amazing in their own right, especially if you love the Libertines... all these bands either played with the 'Tines or Caral Barat or Doherty found a lot of these groups.

Anyhow, enough ranting and raving! I love UK music!!!

Download the Libertines first album, "Up the Bracket" here!
And their 2004 album, "The Libertines" here.

Here's a link to the AMG biography.
And the Metacritic pages for "Up the Bracket" and "The Libertines".

And here's a cool video from Up The Bracket, "Time for Heroes"

Patrick Watson - Close to Paradise

The jury has spoken! Patrick Watson wins Canada's 2007 Polaris Music Prize! Up against some majorly stiff competition (such as Feist and Arcade Fire), Montreal's Patrick Watson (the name of the singer/songwriter, but also his band) wins the $20,000 award and more importantly the respect of music critics across Canada (ahh hopefully the prize has begun to pick up some steam outside our borders... akin, but not nearly as well known or popular as the UK's Mercury Prize). And massive props to the Maritime Connection -- The Joel Plaskett Emergency as well as New Brunswick's own (and former Eric's Trip'er) Julie Doiron were both nominated. Watson, often compared to Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright has a very luscious and melodic sound -- this is a record you can just put on and go to another place, definitely worth checking out.

Here's the mission statement for the Polaris Prize:

MISSION STATEMENT
The operation of a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts.

Nab the torrent here! This torrents picked up a lot of attention, shooting to 200+ seeders in the last few days.

Click here for AMG's review of Close to Paradise. And here's their bio on the band.

Check out the video for "Drifters" off of 2006's "Welcome to Paradise" album:

Dog Day - Night Group

Halifax, Nova Scotia's "Dog Day" has finally dropped their full length album "Night Group". Is this one of the catchiest and best bands to come out of Halifax in a while? Absolutely. With members from The Burdocks and some from The Hold, this power-pop group rocks your socks off with some totally infectious tracks. I highly recommend giving this disc a spin, you will be pleasantly surprised!

So don't think twice, nab the Torrent here!

Check here for their AMG biography.

And go here to see their CBC Radio 3 site!

And here's their video for "Lydia" off the Night Group record:

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Well if you haven't had the pleasure of hearing Austin's SPOON... well you're in for one of the best discoveries of music yet. These fella's, lead by the raspy voiced Britt Daniel, have churned out some of the most solid, consistent rock albums of the past decades. Album after album, each as impressive as the last, always critically acclaimed, yet always finding slightly different directions. Their albums are catchy as they come, but they are the underdogs, often flying under the radar of the mainstream.

So I have a a treat for you here, not only is the newest album available here, their entire discography (8 albums/EPs) is all packaged together in this torrent!!! Seriously, just go for it (over 1 gigabyte, but totally worth it). You can literally queue up every single Spoon record and let them play start to finish and you will never want to skip a song!

Check out Spoon's bio at AMG here.

And their latest reviews from Metacritic here.

Check out one of the catchiest songs ever, "I Turn My Camera On", from Spoon's 2005 album "Gimmie Fiction".

Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime EP

Well I must say this is one of the biggest releases in Canada in a while. Tokyo Police Club has taken the indie scene by storm, with appearances on Letterman and extensive US touring, these guys are huge. However they don't have a full length album... yet! This 7 song EP will have to hold you over until they release their full album (which is rumored to drop MAYBE in 2007). Anyway, stop what you're doing and get this meow! These guys rock it, with an edgy punk-rock flavor. This is a band to watch, they will go to the top in 2007-08, guaranteed. If I could buy stock in these fella's I would do it TODAY. Download it HERE!

Check out their Nature of the Crime video from the EP:

Cuff the Duke - Sidelines of the City

This is the third album from the Ontario Alt.Country/Rock band! Give them a try, they produce solid records and their live shows are amazing. I am working on finding cover art!

Don't think --- just download!





Here's the video for "The Ballad of Poor John Henry" from their 2004 album:

Less popular artists profit from filesharing

Here's an interesting post from TorrentFreak:

The rich get poorer and the poor get richer. That’s what filesharing does for the music industry. No wonder the RIAA is desperately trying to shutdown all filesharing activities.
A recent overview of the current literature on the effect of filesharing on record sales shows that the most popular artist (top 25%) sell less records. However, […]

The rich get poorer and the poor get richer. That’s what filesharing does for the music industry. No wonder the RIAA is desperately trying to shutdown all filesharing activities.

A recent overview of the current literature on the effect of filesharing on record sales shows that the most popular artist (top 25%) sell less records. However, the remaining 75% of all artists actually profits from filesharing. How this is possible?

Easy, sharing increases the amount of artists you get familiar with. Especially BitTorrent sites are an excellent platform for promoting new, or less popular artists.

First of all, on BitTorrent sites the users decide what’s popular, not the radiostations, record labels and pluggers. Besides this, it’s far more easy to first download an album, listen to it, and then decide if you want to buy it or not. Sure, most of the people will not buy the album, but since you will probably tell tell your friends about this “great new album”, popularity will grow, and eventually the artist will profit from it.

An excellent example is the band Harvey Danger who offers the opportunity to download their album on their website. As soon as they decided to do this, their popularity grew. By offering their album as a download, they gained a lot of fans, collected donations, and probably sold more albums.

Something to think about…

Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky

Oh joy! This albums dropped early, it's not due out in stores 'till October 8th! So nab it now... For those of you unaware of the Yarmouthtonians (?) by way of Halifax, check'em! The headlining act of Dependent Music releases its 3rd disc and has built a lot of buzz and momentum over the past few years (opening for Pearl Jam in St. John's!). So go ahead, download it now!

Check out their CBC Radio 3 page here.

Oh and here's a WICKED video/song off their untitled 2005 album:

Francis Black - Bluefinger

Well here's my first little post! Francis Black, AKA Frank Black from the Pixie's new album Bluefinger is simply awesome. Catchy as hell, good straight-forward rock and roll. I definitely recommend giving this sucker a whirl.

Here's some reviews at MetaCritic. And here's his bio @ AMG.

I hope you all enjoy! Download!


An "unofficial" video for Threshold Apprehension, a great track from Bluefinger!



Here's the review from All Music Guide:

by Heather Phares

Bluefinger could be seen as a return to form, but whose return to form is it? This is the first music Charles Kitteridge Thompson IV has made as Black Francis since his days with the Pixies, after more than 15 years of releasing albums as Frank Black. The man of many names said he was inspired to go back to Black Francis while recording "Threshold Apprehension," the bonus track for the Frank Black retrospective 93-03. That song -- which also appears here -- and the rest of Bluefinger was inspired by Herman Brood, a Dutch musician, painter, and poet whose fondness for sex, drugs, and rock & roll led to lifelong health and addiction problems, and ultimately, his 2001 suicide at age 54. The switch back to the mysterious Black Francis persona might have helped channel Brood's lust for life -- after all, with the Pixies, Francis excelled at telling twisted, fragmented songs inspired by the Bible and his messed-up id like "Dead" and "Nimrod's Son" -- and Bluefinger has some of the most aggressive, decadent songs Thompson has written under any of his aliases. "Threshold Apprehension" is joyfully self-destructive, shouting about "Grand Marnier and a packet full of speed" and being "junk sick" like they're both fantastic, while the color-coded debauchery of "Tight Black Rubber" is a skuzzy cousin to Black's "Ten Percenter," and actually is fantastic. "My baby's so bad, I nearly killed her!" is an almost Pixies-worthy depiction of weird sex, and even when you're not sure exactly what is going on in the song, it sounds like dangerous fun. However, no matter how much Thompson insists that Bluefinger is a Black Francis album, it's still far closer to his work as Frank Black than to anything he did with the Pixies. He just doesn't sound the way he used to, even though his scream is still one of the all-time great rock vocals and pops up all over the album, especially effectively on the cover of Brood's own "You Can't Break a Heart and Have It." This isn't a bad thing, though; as Frank Black, he has become an excellent, if slightly more traditional, songwriter and storyteller, and that serves character sketches as diverse as the death-defying "Test Pilot Blues" and punk love story "Discotheque 36" well. Bluefinger's range also feels more Frank than Francis. "Captain Pasty"'s revved-up rocker would have fit on Dog in the Sand or Teenager of the Year, while the title track has a compassion and gentleness to it that would've been wildly out of place on a Pixies album. Attaching the Black Francis moniker to this album might ratchet up expectations too high for rabid Pixies fans, but Bluefinger is a good Charles Thompson album -- it's still really enjoyable to hear him have fun and rock out, no matter what name he chooses to use.

Welcome to prudentMUSIC!

Hi Ya'll,

Welcome to my little pet project - prudentMUSIC. Derived from an inside joke (this site is absolutely prudent) the goal of this site is to distribute all my favorite music of the moment to my friends and their friends. I know I know, it's not overly ethical to steal music, but I figure the more ears hear these albums, the bands will still prosper in having their music passed along and hopefully someday we'll buy merch or go to a show of theirs. I think it will eventually work out to be win-win, right?

Anyhow, to get things going you'll need a BitTorrent client, I prefer MuTorrent it is so easy to use, lightweight, a quick and free install! For you MAC users (ha, you know I am rolling my eyes now, suckers), check out Transmission.

Don't know what BitTorrent is? Have you been in a closet? BT is the best and most ingenious method of sharing files on the internet... P2P is old school, BT totally rules. For information on BitTorrent just google it, or read about it on WikiPedia. For a really comprehensive FAQ, check out Brian's BT-FAQ and Guide. And to learn how to open ports and things on your router, check out PortForward (this is key to enabling the best upload and download speeds).

With all of this being said... ALWAYS aim to have your BT ratio close or above 1.0! You gotta give some to get some, so always leave your BT client open and running day and night! The more users seeding the quicker the downloads will go :D

Now that you have your BT client installed and good to go, it's time to go nuts with the downloading! I have a backlog of albums I want to post, I will do this slowly over the following weeks. So what I've been doing over the past 4 or 5 year (since I found out about BitTorrent) is been reading and downloading music. I read tons of online mags (Pitchfork, NME, Spin, etc) and my right hand guides which you should definitely bookmark are:

• Metacritic - This site is totally sweet an amazing. They amass reviews of music (well movies, books, tv shows and games too) from 10-20 different sources and produce a numerical score for each release! So sweet! So always be checking that out. It's a little mainstream so your indie bands from Halifax likely won't make it on the site (well Buck65 did, so you figure it out).
  
  
• All Music Guide - Ha, most of my friends are amazed at the random things I know about bands. Well this is the IMDB of music! It's the music bible -- you can find just about any band on here, their discography, biography, similar artists and other bands those band members may be in. So goodness, if you like the band check them out quick, find out what they're about, where they're from it takes two seconds!
  

Ok, well that's about it for now. I will get to posting albums real soon here. Oh, and for some other good BitTorrent websites, be sure to check these out:

• OiNK
• IndieTorrents
• Mininova
• Torrentspy
• Demonoid

Drop me a line if you have any questions! And feel free to pass the musical love around.