This is a late reminder, I know, but the free Global Festival concert is going on right now in Central Park (it started at 4:30), and you can watch it free online at YouTube or Yahoo.
The Global Festival is going on now in Central Park's Great Lawn.
The concert features the Foo Fighters, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the Black Keys, Band of Horses, and K'Naan. For more information on the Global Festival, visit its website here. In addition to the live webcast going on now, there will be two additional showings so that people around the world can see it at a convenient time. The other showings are on Sept. 30th at 2:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Although this post's title may give the impression that it's mostly veteran artists who are streaming new albums this week, there's actually a diverse array of offerings. Among the veterans, Paul Simon is out with the two-CD, one-DVD "Live in New York City," just a few weeks after his old partner Art Garfunkel issued a two-disc collection of favorite tunes.
Video "To Who Knows Where" by James Iha's new album (streaming this week).
Rickie Lee Jones returns with an album of her interpretations of familiar tunes such as "The Weight," "Sympathy for the Devil," and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart." James Iha (formerly of The Smashing Pumpkins) is back with "Look to the Sky," his first solo album in 15 years. And the reunited Ben Folds Five is streaming its latest release (and has done a video with the Fraggles, the furry critters from Jim Henson's "Fraggle Rock").
Oh, and if you need a Michael Jackson fix (or just want to feel really old), Spinner is streaming the 25th-anniversary edition of the King of Pop's "Bad."
For albums from artists who are newer and/or more unusual, NPR Music is streaming albums by electronic musician and producer Ricardo Villalobos, the Danish band Efterklang, the singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone, and the Paris-based musician Melody Prochet (performing as Melody's Echo Chamber), her first. And KCRW has new releases from The Peach Kings and John Tejada.
Also: Pitchfork is streaming the new EP by one of our favorites, the Dum Dum Girls.
See the specific sites for more streaming albums, and as always, let us know what you think of these releases by leaving a comment. Dig in, and enjoy...
It's good to see a new release from Aimee Mann, and the video for the title track from "Charmer" (directed by Tom Scharpling, above) is lots of fun, starring Laura Linney as a Mann body double that the singer sends out on tour.
As you've no doubt heard, Amanda Palmer's "Theatre Is Evil" is the release she funded by raising more than a million dollars on Kickstarter. If you signed up, you may be getting all kinds of swag from Palmer, or (like me) you just kicked in one dollar, which nevertheless gets you a free digital download of the entire album. So what's it sound like? Find out by listening on Spinner below.
As always, check the individual sites for more releases (especially from Spinner, which typically has at least a couple of dozen new albums each week).
Above: Muse (shown here playing at the 2006 Leeds Festival) is performing two gigs in the NYC area in October.
It's getting harder to keep up with all the new concert on-sale info coming out each week, but here goes. As always, there are many more on sale than I can list here. And of course, these listing reflect shows that I think are going to be in high demand (and thus sell out quickly), as well as shows I'm interested in seeing.
Most of the concerts go on sale Saturday, May 1st, but there were a few popular shows that had tickets available Friday, April 30th (links provided):
