Free Album Streaming: New CDs from The Antlers, The Cars, Sloan, Warren Haynes, More

The new album by the Antlers (shown here playing NYC's River Rocks series last summer) is available for free preview.

There are a lot of good new albums for free preview right now, especially from AOL Music/Spinner (AOL seems to have merged its Spinner album previews into AOL Music).

Of particular interest: the new Danger Mouse album, which features vocals by Jack White and Norah Jones; the Broadway cast recording of "The Book of Mormon," the no-holds-barred musical from the "South Park" creators; new albums from indie favorites The Antlers, Sloan, and Okkervil River; and the first albums in many years from new wave bestsellers The Cars and from Warren Haynes, guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band and Gov't Mule. Oh, and a greatest hits album from the Beastie Boys and new albums by Sloan, Booker T. Jones, and Kate Bush. (Note: I just realized the Warren Haynes Band is playing at NYC's Beacon Theatre Thursday, May 12th; you can get tickets here.)

As always, there are more offerings available than the selections shown below.

NPR First Listen:
"The Book of Mormon" Cast Recording
"Feel It Break" by Austra (Canadian band blending classical music and electronica)
"Director's Cut" by Kate Bush
"Follow Me Down" by Sarah Jarosz

KCRW Album Preview: 
"Rome" by Danger Mouse And Daniele Luppi (streaming until June 7)

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Burst Apart" by The Antlers
"I Am Very Far" by Okkervil River
"Move Like This" by The Cars
"The Road From Memphis" by Booker T. Jones
"Solid Gold Hits" by Beastie Boys
"Celebration, Florida" by the Felice Brothers
"She Was a Boy" by Yael Naim
"The Double Cross" by Sloan
"Man in Motion" by Warren Haynes
"Life Like" by Joan of Arc
"Collider" by Sam Roberts Band

Music Notes: Go-Go's & The Cars Playing NYC, Google's Music Cloud, Prince's 21 Nights in L.A., Bob Mould Memoir

Video for "Blue Tip," a song from "Move Like This," the forthcoming album from The Cars.

There's music news from the cutting edge of technology and the punk and new-wave days of the 1980s this week:

* The Go-Go's have rescheduled their reunion tour, which was cancelled last year when guitarist Jane Wiedlin suffered a knee injury while hiking. The Go-Go's and their "Ladies Gone Wild" tour hits New York's Irving Plaza on June 3rd; tickets are available here. Their planned tour last year was billed as a farewell tour, but this one isn't—I'm hoping that means that the band isn't planning on this run of shows to be its last. The tour coincides with the 30th anniversary of their blockbuster debut album, "Beauty and the Beat."

* The Cars on tour: I mentioned a couple of months ago that The Cars were coming out with a new album, "Move Like This," in May, and now they've got some tour dates planned. They're playing New York's Roseland Ballroom on May 25th, and you can look for tickets here.

* Google's cloud music player being tested: Amazon.com launched its cloud media player last week, and apparently Google's entry into the market is undergoing testing by the company's employees. Although Amazon's service seems to have run afoul of the music companies by not getting licensing rights, CNet wrote a few weeks ago that Google is in negotiations with the companies for rights to stream music from the cloud.

* Prince will play a 21-night residency in Los Angeles, starting this Thursday, April 14th at the Forum in Inglewood (where the Lakers used to play). The next shows will be April 21st and 22nd; the rest have yet to be announced. Tickets for the shows went on sale this morning. It's unclear where the rest of the Prince concerts will be; info on dates and locations are being made public on short notice. But here's a nice, fan-friendly twist to Prince's "21 Nite Stand": supposedly close to 85% of the tickets will go for $25, including fees.

* Bob Mould autobiography coming: I didn't know that the Minneapolis rock icon was working on a memoir, but someone mentioned it on Twitter today and there it was on Amazon.com: "See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody"comes out on June 15th and is available for pre-order. From the description (which I'm guessing comes from the publisher):

For the first time, Mould tells his dramatic story, opening up to describe life inside that furnace and beyond. Revealing the struggles with his own homosexuality, the complexities of his intimate relationships, as well as his own drug and alcohol addiction, Mould takes us on a whirlwind ride through achieving sobriety, his acclaimed solo career, creating the hit band Sugar, a surprising detour into the world of pro wrestling, and most of all, finally finding his place in the world.

That's definitely a book I'll want to read.

Music Notes: Adele on Letterman Tonight; The Cars Record New Album; Music Exec. Rails Against Grammys

* A day ahead of the U.S. release of her new album "21," Adele is performing on the Letterman show tonight, Feb. 21st. She performed a live webcast tonight for the show, which I didn't know about until it had already happened. You might be able to find the Adele live webcast archived here. (See the video for "Rolling in the Deep," the first single from "21," above.)

* New Wave rockers The Cars have recorded a new album. Rolling Stone says that "Move Like This," the band's first album in 24 years, will be released on May 10th. The album features all the original surviving members of The Cars—Ric Ocasek, drummer David Robinson, guitarist Elliot Easton, and keyboardist Greg Hawkes. Original bassist Benjamin Orr (who sang two of their top hits, "Just What I Needed" and "Drive") died in 2000. No word on whether they'll play any concerts, though Ocasek says in the article that it "might be fun to do a couple of shows."

* A longtime record exec is cranky over some of the Grammy Awards given out last week. Steve Stoute, who seems to be especially known for his experience in hip-hop, took out a full-page ad in the New York Times Sunday to slam the ceremony as an “awards show [that] has become a series of hypocrisies and contradictions.” He was miffed that artists like Eminen and Kanye West didn't win more, citing their longtime influence, and also complained that teen pop star Justin Bieber didn't win. "How is it that Justin Bieber, an artist that defines what it means to be a modern artist, did not win Best New Artist?"

Stoute's argument seems to be that sales and popularity should win out over artistic merit. Isn't that the opposite of what the Grammys are supposed to be about? (OK, we know they don't live up to that ideal all that often, but still, his complaint seems pretty off base.)

Cheap Music: Discount MP3 Albums at Amazon.com - Limited Time

Amazon.com has special deals every day offering discounts on MP3 albums (as low as $1.99), and while these usually only last one day, here are a few good deals that are still valid a few days later. (Note: prices are still effective as of 1 a.m. Eastern time, Monday, Nov. 16th.)

* Document (R.E.M. No. 5), R.E.M. - Although this album doesn't get the attention of some of the band's better-known sets, it contains some classic R.E.M. tunes you'd recognize, most notably "It's the End of the World As We Know It," "The One I Love," and "Finest Worksong."

* Candy-O, The Cars, $2.99 - Ah, the second album by The Cars... I listened to this LP (yes, LP) many, many times when it came out. Includes "Let's Go," "Dangerous Type," and the title track.

And don't forget Amazon's usual 50 MP3 Albums for $5,a monthly feature on the site. The November offerings include new-music favorites from Heartless Bastards, The Gaslight Anthem, Yo Gabba Gabba, The Decemberists, The Antlers, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and Blitzen Trapper. For hip hop fans, Jay-Z's latest, The Blueprint 3, is also available for five bucks.

There are classic rock/pop albums from Johnny Cash, Heart, The Beach Boys, The Clash, The Band, The Steve Miller Band, and and Minutemen. For jazz and blues fans, there's Nat King Cole, Art Blakey, and John Coltrane.