Salon's Wed A.M. Downloads • 5/12/04

[DudeAsInCool]

Salon's Thomas Bartlet takes a look at 'the songs of summer', featuring free music downloads from Walker Kong, David Mead, Ambulance LTD and Ryan Adams.

Shadowlands" and "I See Monsters," Ryan Adams, from "Love Is Hell"

Bartlett calls Adams the Paul McCartney of his generation and offers up the Beatles-y "I See Monsters," and the haunting piano ballad "Shadowlands," and "Love Is Hell," "My Blue Mountain," "Wonderwall," "Hotel Chelsea Nights" ...He suggests downloading the whole album. (iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch)

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"Primitive (The Way I Treat You),"Ambulance Ltd., from "LP"

Bartlett offers up "Primitive" and compares the oung Brooklyn band Ambulance Ltd. to the Velvet Underground. He also suggests visiting the band's website to grab another free download, "Stay Where You Are."

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"Nashville," David Mead, from "Indiana"

Bartless offers the opening track, "Nashville", saying "The arrangement and instrumentation (guitar, cello, piano and pedal steel, all swathed in entirely unnecessary reverb) are kind of cheesy, but with a melody like this, sung in Mead's breathtaking, Alex Chilton-esque voice, it doesn't matter." (iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch)

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"Battleship of Thieves," Walker Kong, from "Transparent Life"

Bartlett suggests the 'summer driving song' Battleship of Thieves, "complete with "ooh-ooh-oohs" and horns on the chorus," from this Minneapolis band.

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"Starting Five," dios, from "dios"

Dios hails from the Beach Boys turf of Hawthorne, Calif.and this recommended track "starts with the sound of kids playing outdoors, and includes an ingenious loop of twittering bird sounds, with a little whistled melody in the middle of it. There's a lovely, lazy shaker and tambourine rhythm, and, naturally, an "ooh-ooh-ooh" chorus. But like their idols, dios slyly inject some melancholy into the song, with the unexpected but welcome wistful minor harmonies in the chorus."

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You can read the full article here and get your free downloads at Salon.com (you will have to view a short PBS commercial to get a free one day pass--while you are at it visit the rest of the site!

http://www.salon.com/ent/music/review/wmd/...dams/index.html