Beat Radio have managed to bend several ears here at 3hive, so it’s always nice to get an email from Brian cluing us to new tracks, in this case the well-arranged and optimistically emo stylings of “What I Love the Most.” It’s even nicer when the track is a preview of not just an LP on the way, but an LP/EP superset, The Great Big Sea + Miracle Flag EP, which will be available in the coming weeks from CD Baby and iTunes. Plus, I just noticed that you can get a ton more free music than what’s below by just clicking over to the band’s website. Listen now, buy later, know that you’re doing it the way 3hive intended.
Sam’s original post from Sept. 2005:
Beat Radio spin wistful melodies with subtle, vulnerable lyrics in the same vein as Luna or Sebadoh’s more tender moments. Their songs have a radiant, familiar quality that grows on you with each listen. In fact, I’ve included two versions of “Treetops” — the 4-track demo version from earlier this year and a more polished version from the forthcoming EP — for this very reason. Much like a frayed blue blankie I once loved, I don’t know if I’m ready to let go of the demo version just yet. While the EP version is by no means overproduced, it seems so in comparison. But I’ll let you decide for yourself.
In the summer, songs have to pass a test. At least in my world. Each new track must be played at full volume in my car while driving on a relatively empty highway at (or slightly over) the speed limit and said song must make my head and/or butt bounce (depending on bassline, ‘natch), make me smile and think “its summer!” and, finally, make me want to listen again. Unfortunately, my car is presently residing in my Grandmother’s driveway due to the difficulty of being vehicular in NYC. However, I feel more than confident that Seattle five-piece The Crystal Skulls are more than strong enough to satisfy the car test requirements. (They did manage to replicate the experience in the nearly equivalent “peach-jam-making music test”.) Its an easy, breezy pop they sing, just the right kind of music for the mid-summer pause– when the novelty is over and all one really wants to do is find an outdoor space, grill up what there is to grill and just be mellow. And am I alone in noticing a little Steely Dan in “Cosmic Door”? But that would make sense since “Deacon Blues” will always, always pass my summer music test.
Alright, I’m super-geeked for this one. “Only Trying To Help,” Ryan Ferguson’s first solo album is out in just about a month, August 21st, on Better Looking Records. Ferguson continues to shape his songs around the acoustic guitar, but he fills in the surrounding space with plenty of electric guitars, piano and xylophone, fully fleshing out tracks. Compared to his more stripped down EP (which is still available in its entirety below), Ferguson had the time and the room to see his songs through and add the proverbial bells and whistles. The three tracks offered here are just the beginning of his spot-on songwriting. His attention to hooks paired with an intensity, just this side of his No Knife days, make for an entirely re-listenable record. “Only Trying To Help” is what “pop-punk” should be.
In the late ’90s I became briefly obsessed with Ednaswap, the L.A.-based group fronted by Anne Preven and known less for their own well-crafted pop gems than for what other people did with said gems (Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” was originally Ednaswap’s). It made sense that the daughter of composer Andre Preven would have an impeccable sense of composition herself, and that’s exactly what otherwise inexplicably kept me and my former-college-football-playing roommate wailing along to Ednaswap’s catchy heartbreakers like a pair of teenage girls hooked on Dashboard Confessional. That’s not to say that The Drawing Board, the Austin-by-way-of-L.A. group sounds like Ednaswap, but what they share with my former obsession is an undeniably intelligent take on pop music. Think of Elvis Costello or Ben Folds and you’ll get a good sense of how The Drawing Board is mature, engrossing and hummable. Better yet, download “The Writer,” a bouncy little ditty whose playful piano belies its nihilistic lyrics. Still sound too cerebral? Don’t worry, just disregard this writer’s pedantic take, download the rest and you can trust the music.
My friend Cheech is driving around the USA this summer with his girlfriend and a Geoffrey Roberts Award, tasting and blogging about our country’s endangered foods. How great is that?! (Check out his adventures at 
Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, used to play guitar with the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, which might account for her pleasingly random-seeming musical influences. Contrary to standard operating procedure, I don’t have a whole lot else to say other than I really like this woman, she has pluck and style and and I think you should listen to her. Plus, you’ve gotta love a woman who names her album “Marry Me.” Brassy!
I so don’t want to repeat the stories of: “this-indie-rock-star-found-the-band” and “this-cool-producer-dude-recorded-their-album.” Sure, they helped Via Audio gain some traction and a bit of attention, but the story’s a year old and it’ll continue to be regurgitated in the future as the music media re-hash the band’s one sheet (not always a bad idea—sometimes it’s late and you just want to be in bed and you can’t think of anything to write about a really cool band and whew! the publicist wrote something decent you can borrow…). OK, here’s what you’re in for: sweet boy/girl vocals over a relentless tempo, some nice fuzzy guitar tones, sparkling tones for the chorus, then a big rockin’ bridge into chorus with echoing vocoder. Repeat chorus. Oh thank you Via Audio for repeating the chorus again and again. It drives me wild. RIYL: mature electro-gum pop by goofy/cute, thrift-shopping Brooklyn quartets.
During the Civil War, Missouri was a border state, supplying formal regiments and informal militias to both sides of the conflict. Therefore, I’m not sure if 
Two weeks ago when posting the 
It is a difficult thing, trying to find the perfect song to accompany a key lime pie, a margarita, good company and some serious barbeque. The first time I heard the buzz about the Harlem Shakes, I was hoping for just such a song (because I am always hoping for such a song), but I was expecting something a little more, erm, Harlem? When I heard the opening notes, my heart sank a little and then I got over my initial expectations and couldn’t stop bopping. They are clever, loud, playful and often rocking out, and for today, July 4th, I plan on blasting them loudly and often. Margarita in hand.