Last time I checked, The Appleseed Cast had disappeared off the face of the planet…until these two tracks, reportedly off of the new LP Peregrine, showed up anonymously in my email box…I had never really liked TAC before, but I must not have given them much of a chance because I really like what I’m hearing now. So…thank you anonymous emailer! Here are the tracks:

[MP3] The Appleseed Cast – Sunlit Ascending (Highly Rec’d!)
[MP3] The Appleseed Cast – Silas’ Knife

Peregrine comes out on The Militia Group on March 21st…no preorders are available as far as I can tell yet, so until then stop by the band’s official site, their myspace site, and their crappy fan site.

The Barmitzvah Brothers is a yet another group of musical misfits from north of the border, this time hailing from Guelph, Ontario. Aside from the fact that none of the members are Jewish, nor brothers for that matter, I still think the name fits remarkebly well. As defined on their website, the BB’s music can best be described as “eclectic, as it ranges from upbeat tunes to more melancholy ones, and includes elements of polka, alternative rock, punk rock and bluegrass.” Reminds me a little of Mates of State, only with a little more going on, instrumentally speaking. Check it out:

[MP3] The Barmitzvah Brothers – El Ranchito
[MP3] The Barmitzvah Brothers – Powerlines

The BB have a new album coming very soon, entitled The Century Of Invention, which you can order here.

Today’s a good day. This post is officially iGIF’s 100th post since our entry into the blogging world not too long ago….and honestly, I never thought we’d make it this far. Rest assured, now that the posting process has become a little more streamlined, we plan on lasting much longer. I feel like Steve Jobs at Macworld…”We’ve got some great new products for you today.” Well…we really do:

Rare Arcade Fire Live Songs!

I came across these after probing the net forever looking for more AF to sink my teeth into…and trust me, to borrow the words of Rainier Wolfcastle, “Nobody probes more thoroughly than I do.” I’ve never heard these songs in recorded studio form, the first two being perhaps the first known live recording of the band (in an early stage), and the latter being from the widely popular “Live @ TT The Bears, Cambridge MA 2004″ show. Keep in mind that the two older songs are no where near the quality of Funeral, but I still figured they would be nice to hear:

[MP3] The Arcade Fire – Alligator Mine (Live 01/03/2002)
[MP3] The Arcade Fire – Surf City Eastern Block (Live 01/03/2002)
[MP3] The Arcade Fire – Burning Bridges, Breaking Hearts (Live 11/12/2004)

Alec Ounsworth (CYHSY) Rare Early Demos!

Back at the beginning of the CYHSY hype in mid 2005, I remember Brooklyn Vegan posting about Alec Ounsworth, who had made available a good number of rough cuts and demos of songs of his own, including one early demo of Details of the War. Well, I’m happy to say that after more probing, I discovered three very rare pre-CYHSY (think 2000 era) tracks. Two of these, I discovered upon listening, are actually early versions of the widely circulated “new” songs that CYHSY have performed live, including Cigarettes (which I posted earlier here) and Graceful Retreat. As for the titles of these tracks…I would bet that these that I’m posting are the correct song names, coming from Ounsworth himself instead of the crafty “I’ll use whatever lyric appeals to me” of a sly fan. Take a listen, all recommended!:

[MP3] Alec Ounsworth – We Met At The Cemetary (Cigarettes)
[MP3] Alec Ounsworth – Some Loud Thunder (Graceful Retreat)
[MP3] Alec Ounsworth – Stay With Me Now

Sia – Breathe Me Remixes!

These past couple of years have been crazy for this girl, with Breathe Me played in perfect synchronization with the SFU finale, and a year earlier having a song from her band, Zero 7, featured in Garden State. She’s got an album coming out soon, so in conjunction with that (and because we’re cool), here are a few remixes you may have missed:

[MP3] Sia – Breathe Me (Four Tet Remix)
[MP3] Sia – Breathe Me (Mylo Remix)
[MP3] Sia – Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnauss Remix)

New Song From The Vines!

I didn’t really know where to stick this, so I thought I’d put it here. Matt had little success hosting this a little while ago, so I thought I’d give it another shot to let you guys have a taste of what’s to come from The Vines in 2006:

[MP3] The Vines – Untitled

New Iron & Wine Song!

Iron & Wine has contributed an old home recording, a song called John’s Glass Eye, to the newest Yeti Compilation. In typical Sam Beam fashion, the song is a lovely, swaying folk tune, complete with vocalized melody and slide guitar. Take a listen:

[MP3] Iron & Wine – John’s Glass Eye (Highly Rec’d!)

New Elefant Tracks!!

Seems like this is set to be one of the biggest releases of the year. So far, the band has released two tracks on the album’s promo site, and from the sound of them, it’s going to be a great year for Elefant. So, in the spirit of sharing (and caring), here are a couple more tracks for y’all to drool over:

[MP3] Elefant – Uh Oh Hello
[MP3] Elefant – Sirens

and last, but certainly not least…

MORE New Built To Spill Tracks!!!

Built To Spill have kept a pretty tight lid on their upcoming LP, entitled You In Reverse, which is scheduled for an April release. BTS even “leaked” a severely flawed copy of the album to screw up the system. Well, we worked a little magic and managed to get our hands on a few tracks that have until now remained out of sight. Keep in mind that these are unmastered tracks (the released tracks will probably sound a little fuller and more produced), but they should give you more than enough of a taste of what’s to come later this year:

[MP3] Built To Spill – The Wait (unmastered)
[MP3] Built To Spill – Saturday (unmastered)

That’s all for now, I’m all HTML’d out… For those of you who’ve stuck with us since the beginning (yea, about a month ago), thanks for your continual support, I hope we haven’t let you down. For those of you who are new to the site, thanks for stopping by! I hope you like what you see! Believe me, there’s plenty more juice where that came from!

Built to Spill is releasing a brand new CD on April 11, for the first time in half a decade.

This news, to those who have been eagerly waiting, is like hearing that Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix have been in hiding and are recording music together on a far away island.

Sadly that’s not the case, however BTS is streaming a brand new song titled Goin’ Against Your Mind from their MySpace site. Coming off their new album, You In Reverse, lead singer Doug Martsch seems really excited about their new album. The song is great, as you could imagine, and we managed to get a copy of the song for your MP3 seeking ears.

[MP3] Built to Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind

Enjoy the song and check out the lyrics at their MySpace and PFork’s track review.