Three or four years ago my band played a show with the Dying Californian and I’ve a been fan ever since. A very, very casual fan, I should say, because I didn’t get around until buying their CD until this month. I’m glad I finally did, though, because it’s full of rambling, shambling, Neil Young-esque folky tunes (which is a style I have a soft spot for).

Here’s a track off their album ‘Coarsegold’…if you like the song you can buy the whole thing here.

The Dying Californian - “The Martyrdom of Perpetua”

P.S. When I ordered this CD (yes, very old-fashioned of me), there was a slight problem with the processing, and as an apology for my minor inconvenience, Jeff at Turn Records hooked me up with some free albums by other bands on his label. It was some good stuff, so I definitely recommend checking them out if you’re an indie rock fan.

Obviously I’m not very good about living up to the “of the week” aspect of this whole MP3 posting thing, but in honor of Wilco’s recent performance in Berkeley, here’s one of my favorite alternate Wilco tracks. The “real” version can be found on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which you should definitely buy if you don’t have it already.

Wilco - “Kamera 2″

After a two month break, I’m trying to get back in the habit of posting a weekly MP3. Since it’s been so long, here are a couple of tracks from one of my favorite duos, Brian and Chris. The first, “Untitled” (happily the music is much more inspired than the song title), is off their album Vectors and the second, “Action Packed Vacation”, is off their latest one titled 3:

Brian and Chris - “Untitled”

Brian and Chris - “Action Packed Vacation”

Ok, not exactly an obscure band, but this is a pretty obscure song so I figured it was worth posting. It’s Radiohead’s live cover of “Cinnamon Girl”, one of my favorite songs.

They do a good job of it - it starts off especially strong - and if not for a few flubs here and there it’d move up a few notches (then again, it’s sort of reassuring in a weird way to know that Radiohead botches notes every now and then). It’s from something called the EMI Canal Promo, although I couldn’t track down much more information about when or where it was recorded (if you know, please post a comment).

Radiohead - “Cinnamon Girl”

Over the weekend I decided that it would be fun to occasionally supplement this blog’s mostly Mozilla content with some interesting MP3s from the vaults. The inaugural edition is from a mid-80s band out of Cleveland called the Mice. It’s a pretty awesome high-energy blast, with some great angry Reagan-era lyrics as well (that are still quite relevant today, of course).

So, check it out and enjoy with my compliments. And if you like this song, you can buy an entire album of their stuff right here.

The Mice - “Not Proud of the USA”

Ok, I promised myself I would put up a few more Mozilla posts before I started sidetracking, but I need to give a quick shout-out to how insanely good Arcade Fire is. I was fortunate enough to see them last Saturday at the Greek Theater in Berkeley and it was pretty sensational. If these guys roll through your town, definitely don’t miss ‘em.

Here’s a sample clip (not from my show) to whet your appetite:
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

More Mozilla stuff coming soon…