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Acecast #013 Mar 2006 (MP3, 128Kbps, 35.1MB, 38m:23s).

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http://www.acecast.com/index.rss20 .

The St Patrick’s SXSW Special.

©Neck/Daniella

I am halfway through listening to the 941 tracks in the two SXSW torrents 2006 (free legal MP3s). Rather than wait until I’ve finished my listening (like last year), I’ve decided to get out some of the top tracks right now.

The show was recorded late on St Patrick’s Day, so what better way to start than with a rock’n’folk track called St Patrick’s Day from Neck. I continue with a couple of modern R’n’B/hip-hop/soul tinged tracks (let’s call it “nu-soul”, shall we). Deep’s lyrics are a bit stereotypical (“bitches” and guns and all), but the delivery is excellent and there’s some mean wah-wah guitar. Stephanie McKay’s Tell Him is just pure class.

I play three tracks that could all be classed as space rock. Lesbians on Ecstasy’s Pleasure Principle start out as raunchy electronica, but then the Lezzies pick up their copy of Hawkwind’s Quark, Strangeness and Charm (1977) to borrow the riff&whispering from Hassan I Sahba. I’ve seen Norwegian band WE live and on telly gigging in India and their full-on space rock (they call it “Cosmic Biker Rock’n’Roll” though) is a treat. I’ve always wanted to feature them on Acecast and now I can, since Catch Electrique is part of the SXSW MP3 showcase. The third galactic track comes from veterans Chrome fronted by Helios Creed (I had no idea they were still going).

If I had to select a favourite track [you’ve just done, Ed] from the 400 or so I’ve been through so far, it would be Gliss’s Blue Sky. Last year I opened with the vocal wonders of Erika Wennerstrom (Heartless Bastards) for my SXSW show. Just like Erika, Martin Klingman’s voice is what makes Gliss stand out from the pack, his sneery drawl sounds like he is the product of a foursome between Marc Bolan, (early) Tom Petty, Peter Perrett (Only Ones) and Courtney Love.

There was an abundance of good trad singer-songwriters in 2005; but so far this year (400 MP3 to go so I might still find some) I’ve struggled to find any. Not to worry, I’m a sucker for steel guitar and good female backing vocals, so instead I’ve dug up some classy country from Mando Saenz (think Lyle Lovett without the big band).

I finish the show with Australian vocal talent Sia. She’s been compared with Dido (ugh), but that’s off the mark. I would place her in better company, somewhere around Des’ree and Tori Amos.

More rock and less electronics&acoustics than normal on this Acecast, but I guess the SXSW festival is the sort of happening where you need to make a bit of noise to make an impact.

Special credits to Mando Saenz for having a good artist website (whoever set up Sia and Stephanie McKay’s flashy nightmares of sites could learn a thing or five from Mando).

External credits.

Only one external credit this time, the 2006 South by Southwest festival site. All tracks on Acecast 13 are taken from the SXSW showcasing artists providing free legal MP3s.

Production notes.

Kit: MXL V67 condenser microphone, Behringer UB802 mixer, Hercules DJ Console sound card. Applications: Audacity, iTunes, MP3Gain, MP3tag.

Copyrights.

All tracks played are free and legal downloads and were available at the time of production of the podcast. All tracks are copyright the artists and their record labels/music publishers.

Extended tracklisting for Acecast #013, 17 March 2006.

All artist links point to their 2006 SXSW showcase page, which have short biographies and links to their homepages.

• Wildspot — Belbury Poly. The Acecast signature tune
• St Patrick’s Day (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Neck
• Lac’n on Dueces (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Deep
• Tell Him (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Stephanie McKay
• Pleasure Principal (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Lesbians on Ecstasy
• Blue Sky (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Gliss
• Catch Electrique (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — WE
• Got to Have Someone (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Helios Creed/Chrome
• When I Come Around (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Mando Saenz
• Breathe Me (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Sia
• Night life in Montreal (Spring) (mp3) (soundtransit.nl) — Eldad Tsabary (soundtransit.nl, used as nightlife ambience)

Brief playlist for Acecast #013.

Previous Acecast podcasts.

Initial post: Sat, 18 Mar 2005.

© WE/tjallkonsult

• St Patrick’s Day — Neck
• Lac’n on Dueces — Deep
• Tell Him — Stephanie McKay
• Pleasure Principal — Lesbians on Ecstasy
• Blue Sky — Gliss
• Catch Electrique — WE
• Got to Have Someone — Helios Creed/Chrome
• When I Come Around — Mando Saenz
• Breathe Me — Sia
• Night life in Montreal (Spring) — Eldad Tsabary (used as ambience)

Full details and MP3 download Acecast #013.

Initial post, Sat 18 Mar 2006.

It’s almost exactly a year since the first full podcast from Acecast. Just thought I’d mention it. The site itself was set up in late 2004, too bad I did not get faster off the ground, as the birth of Acecast was taking place as early as October 2004.

Latest CD is for February 2006.

“Fair podcasting” is me giving something back to the artists providing free music. I believe free and legal MP3s are a great marketing tool for new acts (Penny Broadhurst has clocked up over 3000 downloads of a poetry track), they are better than streams (since we can listen to new stuff on the move on our shiny MP3-players) and they give the consumer no legality headaches. Plus there is no DRM.

So what do I give apart from my time and a mention here (and also on the more popular halvorsen)?

Money. I purchase a CD for every month I do a podcast. Not just any CD, but a CD from one of the acts played on my shows. I can’t buy a CD from every artist played (my funds are limited) and some artists have no intention to provide physical product — they are happy to give away their music for free. So there you have it — the symbiotic relationship showing that a free MP3 track can lead to a purchase of a CD. Fair podcasting. Or as Nick Lowe sings, Music for Money.

List of purchased CDs.

Links point to mention on Halvorsen (where the purchases are mentioned as they happen).

• February 2006: The Back Room — Editors
• January 2006: no podcast
• December 2005: Comfort Room — Phillip Eno
• November 2005: thickfreakness — The Black Keys
• October 2005: Veneer — Jose Gonzalez
• September 2005: Saul Williams — Saul Williams
• August 2005: no podcast
• July 2005: Not Cities Left & Protest EP — The Dears
• June 2005: The Ouch. The Touch — The Grates
• May 2005: The Willows — Belbury Poly
• April 2005: Kicking On — Gin Palace
• March 2005: Government Commissions — Mogwai

Download podcast MP3 file.

Acecast #012 Feb 2006 (MP3, 128Kbps, 33.8MB, 36m:59s).

Download the MP3 file using the link or icon above.

If you have an MP3 player you might want to use a “podcatching” application to subscribe to Acecast (RSS 2.0).

You can also subscribe to Acecast podcasts in iTunes (4.9 or later) — use “Advanced/Subscribe to Podcast” and in the pop-up window enter
http://www.acecast.com/index.rss20 .

A long podcast in the shortest month of the year.

© Sara Rumar

Thirty-seven minutes long, a playlist of 13 legal MP3s and my ramblings make Acecast number 12 my longest podcast to date. I open with the Editors’ minor hit Munich, taken from the 2006 South by Southwest roster of showcasing artists. I’ve started filtering the two torrents available for 2006 (940 free MP3s or so) and Munich is the first of many tracks to come from this year’s model (meanwhile you might want to have a look at my 2005 SXSW recommendations).

Sarah Rumar from Sweden keeps up my tradition of playing Scandinavian artists and kindly lends her voice to Acecast to introduce the delightful Euro-pop track Au Monde for her album Stupid Like Me (Warning: contains Swedish laughter).

Magnetix and one-man-one-band Jawbone takes us through some twisted rock, before we explore lusher electronic landscapes in the forms of Jo Jena, Claudio Rocchi and Daniel Lanois (well Shine is at least lush).

I play some proper noisy rock (Godheadsilo and Olneyville Sound System) and contrast the rock with some nu-soul (or R&B?) from Steve Spacek and DJ Come of Age. DJ Come of Age is a fellow podcaster and his Soul Music of the World podcasts will be of interest if you liked the nu-soul tracks played recently on Acecast. I finish with some more electroacoustics from Jo Jena and with a pure acoustic guitar track from the veteran string-wizard Bill Nelson.

Bill is one of the four artists whose fan club I ever was member of and Bill’s Acquitted by Mirrors (a lot of the original content now available online) was excellent — with free vinyl EPs and a good magazine containing writing and artwork by Bill. The three others (as if you were interested) — Durutti Column’s “subscription” service, John Foxx’s “The Service” (both shortliving failures — but I’ll gladly hand over fifteen quid anytime to keep Vini going) and The Cramps’ Legion of the Cramped (which was brilliantly run from Scotland by Lindsay Hutton).

External credits.

Jo Jena’s electroacoustics was found via Disquiet, Sara Rumar’s Au Monde via the Swedesplease blog.

Production notes.

Kit: MXL V67 condenser microphone, Behringer UB802 mixer, Hercules DJ Console sound card. Applications: Audacity, iTunes, MP3Gain, MP3tag.

Copyrights.

All tracks played are free and legal downloads and were available at the time of production of the podcast. All tracks are copyright the artists and their record labels/music publishers.

Extended tracklisting for Acecast #012, 26 February 2006.

• Munich (mp3) (2006.sxsw.com) — Editors
• Au Monde (mp3) (by agreement with the artist, the mp3 is courtesy the swedesplease blog) — Sara Rumar
• My Daddy (mp3) — Jawbone
• The Whistler (mp3) (artrocker.com) — The Magnetix
• Nr.3.3: De Corpore Saturni (mp3) — Jo Jena
• 17 inches (mp3) (archive.org/webbedhandrecords.com) — Claudio Rocchi
• Shine (mp3) (anti.com) — Daniel Lanois
• Friend Island (mp3) (subpop.com) — Godheadsilo
• Immigrantradio (mp3) (loadrecords.com) — Olneyville Sound System
• Dollar (mp3) (download.com) — Steve Spacek. If the download link has expired find Dollar here (download.com)
• Polar Personified (mp3) (download.com) — DJ Come of Age (MySpace). If the download link has expired find Polar Personified here (download.com)
• Nr.3.1: Entrance to Gresham (mp3) — Jo Jena
• The Light Is Kinder in this Corner of the Corona (mp3) — Bill Nelson
• Dalla Finestra (mp3) (archive.org/webbedhandrecords.com) — Giuseppe Rapisarda

Brief playlist for Acecast #012.

Previous Acecast podcasts.

Initial post: Mon, 27 Feb 2005.

© Editors

• Munich — Editors
• Au Monde — Sara Rumar
• My Daddy — Jawbone
• The Whistler — The Magnetix
• Nr.3.3: De Corpore Saturni — Jo Jena
• 17 inches — Claudio Rocchi
• Shine — Daniel Lanois
• Friend Island — Godheadsilo
• Immigrantradio — Olneyville Sound System
• Dollar — Steve Spacek
• Polar Personified — DJ Come of Age
• Nr.3.1: Entrance to Gresham — Jo Jena
• The Light Is Kinder in this Corner of the Corona — Bill Nelson
• Dalla Finestra — Giuseppe Rapisarda (used as ambience)

Full details and MP3 download Acecast #012.

Initial post, Mon 27 Feb 2006.