Free Album Previews: New CDs by Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, the B-52s, & Many More

Above: Peter Gabriel performing "Solsbury Hill" live, one of the songs on his latest release, "New Blood."

This is one of those "when it rains, it pours" weeks for online album previews. You can hear the new releases from a number of big-name veterans artists, including one who's no longer alive (that would be Johnny Cash, represented in the new "Bootleg Volume 3: Live Around the World"release).

Among the artists who are still with us (and have been for a long time), there are new albums for preview from Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, the B-52s, and even Erasure and Judas Priest. The Gabriel release, "New Blood," is a collection of songs from different eras of his solo career performed with an orchestra and some guest musicians—an arrangement he's been touring with this year.

The Paul Simon release is a two-disc retrospective, including live versions of songs including "The Sound of Silence" and "The Boxer."

And for fans of the Pixies and Frank Black (like me), there's a new album that Black has (under his Black Francis moniker) with Reid Paley, called simply "Paley & Francis."

Among the younger artists with new albums are the New Jersey band Real Estate, Ben Lee, Rachael Yamagata, and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. If you liked the music of The Swell Season from the movie "Once," you'll want to check out the debut album from the female half of that duo, Marketa Irglova. And The new Ryan Adams album is previewing on Spinner this week, in case you missed it at NPR Music last week.

I usually give multiple listens to new albums that I'm interested in, but that should to be quite a challenge this week.

NPR First Listen:
"Days" by Real Estate

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"Songwriter" by Paul Simon
"Deeper Into Dream by Ben Lee
"Anar" by Marketa Irglova
"Norman (Music From the Motion Picture)" by Andrew Bird
"Paley & Francis" Reid Paley & Black Francis
"New Blood" by Peter Gabriel
"Liberty Bell" by Kate Miller Heidke
"The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective" by Ben Folds
"Chesapeake" by Rachael Yamagata
"Bootleg Volume 3: Live Around the World"by Johnny Cash
"With the Wild Crowd!" by the B-52s
"Tomorrow's World" by Erasure
"The Sound of His Voice" by John Wesley Harding
"Ashes and Fire" by Ryan Adams

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Evanescence" by Evanescence
"The Chosen Few" by Judas Priest
"Free EP" by Graffiti6 
"Gift Horse" by Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers

Free Music: New Podcasts with Frank Black, Blues, and XTC & Motown Covers

Above: The bluesy Roadhouse podcast is one of several offering tasty tunes this week.

The holiday season in the U.S. began right on schedule for music lovers with plenty of great new podcast episodes coming out in the last week or so. (And I haven't even begun looking into podcasts offering holiday music... that will be coming soon.) Here's what's come out recently:

The Pixies are on tour, but their leader Frank Black (under the name Black Francis) is about to come out with a limited release of Der Golem, Black's music to accompany the 1920 German silent film of the same name. The FrankBlack.net podcast previews the album, which they say will come in a box set with a run of 500 copies, in their 12/1 episode, titled "The Golem - Investigated!" There are intriguing tracks from the album that show a different side of Black's songwriting and performing talent, including straightforward rock and tunes with horns and a more orchestral feeling to them.

Speaking of Frank Black, there are a couple of Pixies covers on the latest edition of Coverville, the cover song podcast, "Outside there’s a cover request waiting" (12/1). A couple of November Coverville podcasts offer cover versions of two classic artists: Berry Gordy/Motown and '80s British rockers XTC.

Blues podcast The Roadhouse is out with episode #249 (11/28), with tunes from Moreland & Arbuckle, Sue Foley, Bob Brozman, Doug MacLeod, and The Holmes Brothers. Or check out other episodes, including #248, which features Elvin Bishop, Harrison Kennedy, Bessie Smith, Arthur Adams, and others.

New Podcast Episodes: Frank Black, Newport Folk Concerts, The Clash Covers

The FrankBlack.net Podcast is out with an episode on Grand Duchy.

Some good new episodes are out this week in a number of long-running podcasts. Here are a few highlights.

The FrankBlack.net Podcast has been coming out sporadically this year, but they've got a new episode out devoted to Grand Duchy, the band featuring Black and his wife Violet. The band is currently on its first tour, and I caught of few songs during its set at Coney Island's Siren Festival.

If you didn't manage to hear any of NPR's live Webcasts from the Newport Folk Festival, you can still catch them... and keep them, in many cases. NPR Music has started to put up free podcast downloads of Newport Folk concerts, including Joan Baez, Gillian Welch, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Mavis Staples, and more.

If you'd prefer a sampling of the Newport Folk concerts, NPR also has a free podcast download up that covers day 1 of the festival, and there will probably be more to come.

And over at Coverville, the all-cover-songs podcast, you'll find a diverse range of covered artists, as usual. Episode 600 is devoted to covers of KISS, while number 599 tackles Cat Stevens and 598 features cover versions of The Clash's iconic album, "London Calling." And all three of those Coverville podcasts have come just since July 30th!

Enjoy...

The Pixies Celebrate 20th Anniversary of "Doolittle" with a Tour

Here's something that will make a rock-music lover feel old: it's been 20 years since the release of "Doolittle," the landmark album by The Pixies. To celebrate the occasion, The Pixies are hitting the road for a special tour to play the entire "Doolittle" album live. Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering will be playing a series of dates in October to play all the tracks on "Doolittle," and the setlist will include B-sides and other tracks related to the album.

"Doolittle" was the classic disc that gave us some of the most well-known Pixies tunes, such as "Debaser," "Wave of Mutilation," and "Here Comes Your Man," and others.

Tickets for the "Doolittle" tour are on sale now. Here are the tour dates so far (none in the U.S. yet, unfortunately):

OCTOBER
Thursday 1st - Olympia, Dublin, Ireland
Friday 2nd - Olympia, Dublin, Ireland
Sunday 4th - SECC, Glasgow, Scotland
Tuesday 6th - Brixton Academy, London, England
Wednesday 7th - Brixton Academy, London, England
Thursday 8th - Brixton Academy, London, England
Friday 9th - Brixton Academy, London, England
Sunday 11th - Jahrhunderhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Tuesday 13th - Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wednesday 14th - Forest National, Brussels, Belgium
Thursday 15th - Zenith, Paris, France

The Pixies are looking to keep busy in other ways, according to the fan-run site FrankBlack.net, which says that Black is also looking to hire out The Pixies to score movies. “The band needs to work with a film director. Quentin Tarantino or someone like that," the site says. "It’d be like, ‘Make some music for our film, you guys be the sound of the film.'”

Meanwhile, Pixies leader Frank Black is a busy man on the road as always, touring with his own solo shows (under the name Black Francis) and with his act Grand Duchy. He'll be doing a series of dates throughout the Midwest and Eastern U.S. until early August. You can find Black Francis tour dates on the FrankBlack.net Web site.

The FrankBlack.net Podcast is Back (and So is Frank Black)

After a nearly one year silence, the FrankBlack.net podcast is back with new episodes. With one host in the U.S. and the other traveling throughout Asia (and perhaps elsewhere), I guess it wasn't possible to produce the podcast, and the podcast's return, 4/1/08's "The Fools are Back," was itself a cross-continental collaboration between the two hosts, Dean and Brian. A second return podcast, "The Lost Podcast," came out on 5/14.

Frank Black himself has been busy as well (a new child has arrived in the Frank Black/Black Francis/Charles Thompson family), but Black has been working on new music as well. The new FrankBlack.net podcasts delve into this music, including the new album SVN FNGRS. These two podcasts also include some live performances and tracks from a project involving Frank Black and his wife Violet.

If you like The Pixies or Frank Black/Black Francis in any of his various musical projects, you'll definitely want to check out the FrankBlack.net Web site and podcast to catch up with his latest recordings and live shows.

A Great Source for Free Music from The Pixies, Frank Black, and More

Some of the best Web sites about rock musicians have been put together by fans, and these days fans are applying their passion to podcasting. If you're a fan of punk pioneers The Pixies or their leader Frank Black (who has also called himself Black Francis and Francis Black at various times), you'll want to listen to the FrankBlack.net podcast.

Created and run by two Frank Black fans (one in New Jersey, one in Canada), this twice-a-month podcast has for a year now been offering a knowledgable collection of music and information about Black's musical output. It includes full-length selections--free and legal--from his work with the Pixies, his solo career, and his work with Frank Black and the Catholics.

Each episode runs from a half hour to 45 minutes.

Besides the album tracks that may be familiar to Frank Black fans, the podcast features B-sides, unreleased tracks, live performances, and more. Among other things, you'll find:
* live cuts that sometimes differ quite a bit from their original studio versions
* rarities from Frank Black's library that haven't seen the light of day (or the light of a CD player, or whatever the appropriate analogy would be)
* the hosts' choice of underrated songs that deserve more attention
* cover versions culled from tribute albums and elsewhere
* "Frank Black to Back"--alternate versions of songs, played next to each other for comparison
* guest interviews and songs from Frank Black collaborators and others associated with various Black projects

So the FrankBlack.net podcast is a good resource for both longtime fans and for new listeners.

The hosts joke around a bit but never lose site of the focus on Black and his music, so the banter is never annoying. These guys are dedicated fans first and foremost, and their goal is to expose listeners to the genius of Black.

Besides the podcast, the folks at FrankBlack.net run a fan Web site that includes extensive forums, news, tour updates, and more. The site and podcast are great resources for diehard fans and anyone looking to get into the vast output of Black in his various musical incarnations.