Hard to Find a Friend - A Music Blog

Peace on Earth : A Charity Holiday Album Vol. II

htfaf — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:29:29 +0000

Note : Regular blogging will continue below, but this news item will stay at the top of your page. Please scroll down and we’ll see you there!

Peace on Earth : A Charity Holiday Album Vol. II
To Benefit : The Children of Uganda Fund
November 18, 2008

$7.50
Digital Download

1. American Analog Set – Winter Birds
2. Telekinesis! – Father Christmas
3. Jennifer O’Connor – Deck The Halls
4. Nathan Phillips – Cross-country Ski’s
5. The A-Sides & Sun Airway – Santa, Please
6. Jason Collett – A Beguiled Christmas in Sales
7. Laarks - Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
8. Oxford Collapse – Hester Xmas
9. The Jealous Girlfriends – Haircut
10. Via Audio – Home Before Dark
11. Karl Blau – Christmas Is Different This Year Now That the Aliens Are Here
12. Synthar – Pawn Shop Christmas
13. Pattern is Movement – O, Holy Night
14. Marla Hansen – Waltz
15. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin & Sweetwater Abilene- Don’t Wrap the Puppy
16. Elizabeth & The Catapult – Christmas With The Jews
17. Laura Gibson – It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
18. The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers – Christmas Card to a Hooker in Minneapolis
19. Chris Garneau – It’s Almost Christmas
20. Vincent Koops – Silent Night
21. Anathallo – Red Plastic Globe
22. Bodies of Water & No Little Kindness – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Photography by Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, & Deborah Kac.

Total Tracks : 22
Total running time : 76 minutes
Cost: $7.50
Format : High-Quality, DRM-Free, VBR Mp3′s

VOL. I also available now, featuring Chris Walla, The Long Winters, Rosie Thomas, Great Lake Swimmers, Casitone for the Painfully Alone & More!

Having problems with your download? Click here.

This album will be downloaded as a ZIP file. Nearly every computer, regardless of manufacturer, operating system, or age is equipped with a utility capable of opening and extracting ZIP files. However, if yours does not, you can download a free one here. The Zip file will contain the mp3′s of the album, and a digital booklet with liner notes and credits.

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htfaf — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:18:59 +0000

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Bon Iver Announces EP, Adds some Dates

htfaf — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:00:00 +0000

The pride of Eau Claire, WI, Justin Vernon, or as you better know him Bon Iver, has announced plans to release a special, if sparse, EP later this winter. When the terrible, grueling, still-dark-at-5, 20 degree February winter begins to sink in, you’ll have very few places to turn except for Blood Bank, the 4-song venture which Jagjaguawar shall be releasing on January 29, 2009.

Also, you can catch the dude on tour, and on Letterman, before year’s end. Check the dates here.

Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP (1/29/2009)
1. Blood Bank
2. Beach Baby
3. Babys
4. Woods

[mp3] Bon Iver – Flume (Live : Backstage in Nashville)
[mp3] Bon Iver – Creature Fear. (Live : Backstage in Nashville)
(From our March Backstage Session with Justin.)

Marnie Stern Announces Shameless Gimmick, No One Minds

htfaf — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:01:00 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from a totally real press release I received early this morning:

“Marnie Stern will be at Bimbo’s in SF this FRIDAY (11-14) also El Ray in LA this SATURDAY (11-15) and she would love to be kissed! Here’s the DL: Cheeks: $3 / Lips: $10 / Tongue: $100… what more could you ask for on your Saturday night out! Bring a date! It’s all in good fun!”

Now, I have a couple of issues with this: One, it’s a shameless ploy to get people to come to a show. Two, no one who is willing to throw out 10 or 100 dollars to kiss a stranger is going to want to do so with a date on their arm, and three – wait, she’s really going to tongue strangers for 100 bucks? This kind of gives me a bad taste (BA-DUM!) in a few ways. Someone get Marnie some “you’re better than that” self-esteem books.

Of course, there is a small disclaimer in place that Marnie refuses the right to refuse to kiss people who smell bad and/or look crazy, but let me know how many San Francisco hipster’s don’t have creepy self-worth issues and we’ll talk then.

Dudes or gals (I’m assuming – there’s nothing in the press release about this being a sausage party) who want to have their picture taken with their tongue down the she-shredder’s throat should probably arrive early enough to get in line. Oh, and I guess she’s going to play music to some point in the evening too, but who cares about that?

Conor Oberst Plays a Really Great New Song on Conan

htfaf — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:10:00 +0000

Conor has done a lot of, well Conor’s just done a lot in the last few years, a good portion of which has left me disappointed. Cassadaga didn’t do it for me for the most part, and his recent “solo” debut left me feeling great about his new Wildflowers-era Tom Petty sound in spots and sad about his rudimentary happy-chord strumming in others. Tuesday night, however, Conan and his band of Mystics descended upon Conan’s studio to play a song, and they chose to do a no one called Nicorette which is more like the Petty and less like the boring stuff. I dig it a lot for a few reasons : One, Nik Frietas gets to sing a little, two the music is actually interesting, and three Conor has a really good stylist these days.

[mp3] Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band – Moab
[mp3] Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band – I Don’t Wanna Die (In The Hospital)

Music Tapes Want to Play in Your Front Yard

htfaf — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:07:00 +0000

God bless Julian Koster. God bless him and his completely unaffected by anything, no frills, no nonsense approach to playing music. The Music Tapes have said to hell with guarantees and rock clubs, and tickets, and all that, and have announced their plan to do a tour beginning tonight in which they will be traveling from city to city “caroling” playing songs from their newly released collection of singing saw tunes.

Households that would like to invite Julian and his friends to come carol may do so up until the night before the carolers arrive in your town by sending an invitation to musictapescaroling@gmail.com or by mailing a written invitation to:

Music Tapes Caroling
c/o G. Stewart
175 Talmadge Street, Apt. 1
Athens, GA 30605

Written invitations will be given priority, should arrive a few days before the carolers arrive, and include an email address or telephone number for reply. Invitations where the inviters indicate that they would be willing to entertain outside guests on caroling night are preferred. Once the limit on houses on a given night has been reached, the address of each house that will welcome guests will be distributed via email to all who email musictapescaroling@gmail.com and ask to attend. The addresses of the houses will not be posted online.
The dates are below,

Caroling Dates:
Nov 11th Savannah, GA
Nov 12th Chapel Hill, NC
Nov 13th Charlotte, NC (afternoon) / Atlanta, Ga
Nov 14th Athens, GA
Nov 16th Nashville, TN
Nov 17th St. Louis, MO
Nov 18th Memphis, TN
Nov 19th Hammond / Baton Rouge LA
Nov 20th Houston, TX
Nov 21st Austin, TX
Nov 22nd Denton, TX
Nov 24th Lawrence KS
Nov 26th Minneapolis, MN
Nov 27th Madison, WI
Nov 28th Chicago IL
Nov 29th Grand Rapids/Lansing, MI
Nov 30th Ann Arbor area, MI
Dec 1st Toronto, Canada
Dec 3rd Buffalo, NY
Dec 4th Geneseo, NY
Dec 5th Oswego, NY
Dec 6th Bennington, VT
Dec 7th New London, NH
Dec 8th Boston / Cambridge, MA
Dec 12th Philadelphia, PA
Dec 13th NYC
Dec 14th NYC
Dec TBA Maine

If this is not the coolest thing ever, please explain what is.

[mp3] Music Tapes – Hark the Herald Angels Sing
[mp3] Music Tapes – Majesty

What to Buy : November 11, 2008

htfaf — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:30:00 +0000

Not much hitting the racks this week, but the stuff that is available is certainly noteworthy. The LONG awaited Christmas on Mars CD/DVD from The Flaming Lips finally hits the racks after years of keeping fans waiting, and Denison Witmer drops his first full-length in nearly four years after laying low and working on that album with Sufjan and Rosie.

Denison Witmer – Carry the Weight (Militia Group)
Philly-singer/songwriter Denison Witmer releases his first album in a good while. It sounds great from what I’ve heard and if you’re not sold yet, you can download a free four-track EP at My Old Kentucky Blog.

Buy at Insound.

[mp3] Denison Witmer – I Won’t Let You Down
[mp3] Denison Witmer – Everything But Sleep

The Flaming Lips – Christmas on Mars (Warner)
The long awaited psych-traveganza which Mr. Coyne has described as “Maybe Eraserhead or Dead Man crossed with some kind of fantasy and space aspects, like The Wizard of Oz and maybe A Space Odyssey, except done without real actors or money, and set at Christmas-time,” will finally be released after an 8 year filming, editing, and prepping process. It had better be worth it, and I feel certain it will.

Buy at Insound.

Peace On Earth : A Charity Holiday Album Vol. II

htfaf — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:00:00 +0000

Well friends, today is the day that I make a very special announcement I’ve been waiting to make since May. I’m talking about the follow up to last year’s HTFAF-Exclusive charity Holiday album, Peace on Earth Vol. I. Like last year, these songs are exclusive to this album, and the album will only be available at Hard to Find a Friend as a digital download.

###
Peace on Earth: A Holiday Album Vol. II
An Exclusive Compilation to Benefit The Children of Uganda Foundation

1. American Analog Set – Winter Birds (Original)
2. Telekinesis! – Father Christmas (The Kinks)
3. Jennifer O’Connor – Deck The Halls
4. Nathan Phillips – Cross-country Ski’s (Original)
5. The A-Sides & Sun Airway – Santa, Please (Original)
6. Jason Collett – A Beguiled Christmas in Sales (Original)
7. Laarks – Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
8. Oxford Collapse – Hester Xmas (Original)
9. The Jealous Girlfriends – Haircut (Original)
10. Via Audio – Home Before Dark (Original)
11. Karl Blau – Christmas Is Different This Year Now That the Aliens Are Here (Original)
12. Synthar – Pawn Shop Christmas (Original)
13. Pattern is Movement – O, Holy Night
14. Marla Hansen – Waltz (Original)
15. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Don’t Wrap the Puppy (Original)
16. Elizabeth & The Catapult – Christmas With The Jews (Original)
17. Laura Gibson – It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
18. The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers – Christmas Card to a Hooker in Minneapolis (Original)
19. Chris Garneau – It’s Almost Christmas
20. Vincent Koops – Silent Night
21. Anathallo – Red Plastic Globe (Original)
22. Bodies of Water – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Peace on Earth : A Holiday Album Vol. II, will be available on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. It will be available exclusively at Hard to Find a Friend as a digital download for $7.50. The album will be sold as High-Quality VBR DRM-free mp3′s, and contains a digital booklet featuring photography by Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu. 100 percent of the proceeds from the album, like last year’s, will be donated to charity. This year’s charity is The Children of Uganda Foundation. Last year’s album was a great success, raising almost $4,000 for charity, solely because of your support and willingness to tell your friends. We hope you’ll help spread the word again this year, and thank you for reading.

If you’d like to be reminded on release day about the album, you can download some reminders:
Download an iCal reminder by clicking here.
Download an Outlook reminder by clicking here.

Peace on Earth : Volume I is still available and may be purchased here.

Did You Catch The Decemberists’ Subliminal Ad ?

htfaf — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +0000

I sure didn’t…
When I watched The Decemberists perform a song in support that new singles series we mentioned a while back, I was thinking a lot of things, like “why are they playing this song?” and “why isn’t the camera showing Chris at all?” and even “Why is their stage plot reversed,” perhaps it was a combination of this and it being 12:30 AM that made me miss Sir Meloy’s Election eve subliminal endorsement. Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised by the manipulative Obama endorsement, considering the Decemberists are commies and all..

[mp3] The Decemberists – Billy Liar
[mp3] The Decemberists – Grace Cathedral Hill

Rosie Thomas Announces Christmas Album, Tour

htfaf — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:02:00 +0000

Rosie Thomas warmed your hearts this time last year with her beautiful holiday contribution to Peace On Earth, and now you can share the same joy for the duration of a 50-minute Christmas extravaganza! The cheekily titled A Very Rosie Christmas features Rosie and her friends singing no fewer than 12 christmas songs, both classic and original, from her house in Seattle, and it’s very beautiful.

You can buy it now at select indie retailers or of course on Amazon or iTunes digitally. Alternately, you can just see Rosie and her band play the thing live this December if you’re lucky enough to live in a market they’ll be hitting. Find those dates here .

[mp3] Rosie Thomas – All The Way to New York City

Buy A Very Rosie Christmas at Amazon mp3 now.