This Week's Mix

Here is your mix for this week. I am off to college. We'll catch up in a couple of days, once I get settled in Blacksburg. Enjoy!

1. The Epochs - Head in the Fire
2. Boy Kill Boy - Suzie
3. Saturna - Roll Down
4. Kings of Leon - Fans
5. Kasabian - I.D.
6. Blonde Redhead - Falling Man
7. Albert Hammond Jr. - In Transit
8. Stars - The Night Starts Here
9. Minus the Bear - The Fix
10. The Sugarcubes - Birthday

IA Exclusive: Saturna

Pacific NW shoegazers Saturna are back with their debut full length. Some Delicious Enemy will be released on May 29th.

They asked me if I would debut a couple of songs for them. I picked new track "Roll Down" and the reworked version of "Blanket of Stars." The thing that stood out to me most about the album, is how much more full their sound has become and how soaring the tracks are. They can effectively pull off quiet and loud (and usually both) over the course of one track. Anyway, give them a listen and let me know what you think.

Roll Down
Blanket of Stars

Introducing Amie Street

So things have been quiet around here lately. Yeah, yeah... what's new, right? Even when it does not seem like it, I am always working on something. Today, I wanted to talk about one of my projects and a special deal that I negotiated for all of you.

Over the past couple of months, I have been sharing some ideas with an upstart digital music store. The site is called Amie Street. I believe so much in what they are doing, that I agreed to contribute to their site. I am writing some features for them and providing a weekly recap of the best indie tracks of the week. Chris is even going to pitch in when he gets the chance.

The thing about Amie Street, is that it isn't your normal music store. There are several things that set them apart.

To start off with, they are all about the underground. Most of their artists are unsigned or on labels that you have never heard of. To give you an idea, their best selling indie track of all time is "Naturally" by Middle Distance Runner. This is really cool, because they are promoting these bands and only these bands. The quality acts are being exposed on the main page, the way Justin Timberlake and Foo Fighters are exposed by iTunes. They cater to all genres as well.

The artists retain the rights to their music and they don't have to sign an exclusive contract. Amie Street keeps the first $5 a track makes and the artist gets 70% of all sales after that. They also offer special deals for the artists to extend to their fans, which also helps the artists gain stature on the site. The artists can put a couple of tracks up or their full body of work. It is entirely up to them and they can add more, whenever they desire. There is no waiting around for the music to post either, it's immediate. Even cooler, is the fact that they can reach fans all over the world.

You can test out new artists without it costing you very much. Every track starts out free and stays free, until it has been purchased 15 times. As the track continues to sell, it goes up in price. Each track maxes out at 98 cents, after 85 purchases.

It is actually possible for YOU to profit off of a song. When you purchase credits, you receive REC's. You use these to recommend your favorite tracks. If you recommend a track when it is free and it goes up to 98 cents, you can cash out and get 98 cents credited to your account. If you recommend a track when it is worth 5 cents and you cash out at 35 cents, 30 cents is credited to your account. How you do it, is entirely up to you.

When you purchase a track, it is yours. You can download it as often as your would like, wherever you would like. Plus all tracks are unprotected mp3s, so you can play them anywhere and on any device.

The system rewards good artists and fans with good taste. That sounds like all of you, right? Now the question is, do they have any good artists? The answer is yes. Just to start off, I will tell you that you can purchase music from IA favorites like Middle Distance Runner, Cedars, These United States, The Epochs, The Jaguar Club, The Payola Reserve and Saturna. The really cool thing, is that you will be buying their music for much less than you would pay anywhere else and they will receive most of the profits. If you catch it early enough, it's free.

Since I love my readers, I negotiated a deal for all of you. When you sign up, enter "instrumental" as your promo code. This will hook you up with free money and REC's, that will allow you to start exploring the site with zero risk. To make it easier on you, I am writing a weekly recap of my favorite songs. So check that out on their main page and you should be all set. I will be updating that early each week. If you are an artist, I'd love to see your music there. I love to access music as soon as I want it. Alright, I am done. Go explore. If you join, look Chris and I up and be our friends. Our user names are joepcas and chrisanalysis.

Questions? Comments? Fire away...

Tracks that you will find on Amie St.:
Middle Distance Runner - Naturally
Cedars - This Century
The Epochs - Mouths to Feed
The Jaguar Club - The Sirens
The Payola Reserve - Lay In Wait
Saturna - Blanket of Stars

Catching Up With Saturna

Remember Saturna? Back in October, the rockers from the Pacific Northwest wrote our second Midweek Mutiny. During his recent trip to the Northeast, lead singer Ryan Carroll got in touch with me. We started talking about their EP and what they have in store for 2007. The following is the interview portion of our conversation. Enjoy!

Q - What are your best memories of 2006?

A - I have to say that putting out our EP ...All Night was a real highlight for me. We worked really hard on it and we got some really great reviews from all over the world. Seeing it in a couple of year end best of lists, really felt good.

Q - What's up your sleeve for 2007?

A - I am so excited about this year. We have a full length ready to go. We worked with some amazing people on it. Tony Lash (Dandy Warhols, Stars of Track and Field) and Brin Addison (Blur, Supergrass, Smashing Pumpkins) are doing some mixing for us and Justin Renney is doing the artwork. It's really turning out well and I can't wait to go on tour and play all of these songs live. We're even hoping to tour the UK in the fall. We're one of those bands that are always working, so expect to see a lot of us in 2007.

Q - I heard that you just played a big show. How did that go?

A - Yeah, we played the Reverb Holiday Party in Portland, OR. We played with The High Violets, Hypatia Lake and The Upsidedown. The place was packed and the bands rocked. Hypatia Lake is the most amazing psychedelic rock band around and The Upsidedown played an amazing set. The High Violets ended the night with a bunch of people jamming with them up on stage and the party didn't end until dawn. We prepared a couple of covers that we love and I heard rumors that somebody got it on video. I'm in NYC now, but I'll find out when I get back. If they did, it's going on youtube.

Q - What covers did you perform?

A - We performed Catherine Wheel's "I Want To Touch You" and one of my personal favorites, Ride's "Leave Them All Behind".

Q – Is there anything else going on with Saturna?

A – Our holiday break ends on January 5th and we start working to finish the album. In the next couple of weeks, it’s a whirlwind of photo shoots, final mixing and finalizing the artwork. After that, Eric leaves for a couple of weeks to Morocco and Spain on a humanitarian mission for Mercycorps. The rest of us will take a much needed break while we wait for the record to be duplicated. By the time that he returns, we should be ready to roll. We'll hit the west coast and then we’ll see everyone in Austin during SXSW.

Springboard
Blanket of Stars