Filed under: news
So I recently started getting down with last.fm. I know, about 5 years late or something. I can’t early-adopt to everything web 2.0 now can I?
Within the past couple of days I’ve put up all of the hrtph releases. So….this means that if you’re a last.fm user and you don’t happen to have your fav hrtph releases with you you can stream them! And scrobble them! And, yeah.
Oh yeah, and if you wanna, add me as a friend as well.
xo
Mike
Filed under: jason sposa
The Olivia EP
Jason Sposa
hrtph008 : EP
Released: January 5, 2009
All files and art in this .zip file (archive.org)
Stream here
1. The Welcome Song
2. Games
3. Could My Heart Still Share Love Anymore
4. All of those Years
5. I Love the Way that You Do It!
6. Personal Sing a longs
Hello. My name is Jason Sposa. I am 28 years old. I live + work in the greater New York City area. I am married to the prettiest girl in the world + we have a beautiful little girl named Olivia Bee. For the past 10 years, I have been making music under various monikers, disguising myself behind a catchy name or phrase that made me, well,
me.In the summer of 2007, I discovered that my wife + I were going to be parents. Preparing for the newest addition to my family, I understood that I would have to compromise a lot of the things I love to do. With nine months to rest indoors + brace myself for the biggest adventure of my life; I was certain of one thing: I wanted to write a record for my daughter + I wanted to write it without a catchy phrase or band name to hide behind.
Armed with a handful of vintage keyboards + a mission from the heart, I proudly present to you THE OLIVIA EP. The principle: keep the music simple. They are songs which I imagine she listens to on the school bus or rediscover, one lonesome day, tucked deeply amidst other knick-knacks in a trunk while feeling homesick. I hope that when she hears my words to her that they will soothe her after her first broken heart or remember that she is special on one of those good-for-nothing afternoons, or, perhaps, with my heart’s content, she will truly understand how much I love her and am proud of her as she plays it for her own children.
Nonetheless, thank you; and, I hope you enjoy listening.
The record is dedicated to Olivia Bee Sposa.
Your mother and I are already so proud of you.xo
jason
Check out Jason Sposa’s drawings at his site Underneath My Tree and hear more music on his myspace page.
The Olivia EP by Jason Sposa is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Hey gang,
Now that we’re officially in ‘09, it’s a good time to start thinking about new releases! First in line is Hoboken, NJ’s Jason Sposa: a maker of some of the most heartfelt keyboard-kissed music I have ever come across. Jason is set to release his latest offering The Olivia EP via heartphone in January. This is real good news kids!
For the time being, check out Jason’s Myspace page and get acquainted. Then check back often for more free, amazing music.
Happy New Year!
Filed under: Mike Downey
As it is every year, December brings out all of the best of lists. I usually read through some, realize everybody is picking the same albums and then I get bored.
However, it’s pretty rad to see your own album pop up! PopMatters slotted Hold Horses in at number 8 of their top 10 Best Indie Pop Albums of 2008. Cool!
Don’t have the album YET?!! You can purchase it for a minimal amount if you’re into that sort of thing. Follow this thing for details.
Hey bud, here’s a quick update on some recent heartphone-related press:
75 or Less reviewed Sukpatch’s Light’s End…Love’s Swell here.
Erasing Clouds reviewed both of my, Mike Downey’s, heartphone albums here.
And also, somehow this flew under my radar…. a video that Tinyfolk made for “Rabbit Washington” off of A Football Fields’ Battery Home EP is right here on Youtube.
Filed under: Sukpatch
Light’s End…Love’s Swell
Sukpatch
hrtph007 : EP
Released: November 11, 2008
All files and art in this .zip file (archive.org)
Stream here
1. Lover Lay Down
2. If You Want Me to Stay
3. Reform
4. Xialon
Sukpatch is Chris Heidman and Steve Cruze. Formed as a stoned accident in the summer of 1990 while roommates in the dorms at Colorado State University, Chris and Steve began a long strange trip into their own world of crackly jacked beats, analogue backdrops and High Times poetics. They’ve been heralded by those in-the-know as the pioneers of indiepop breakbeat (Want to call it indie hop? Fine.) and for good reason. While the other Colorado bands down the block were digging out their parents’ old Kinks records and going retro Sukpatch were spinning records by The Butthole Surfers, Velvet Underground, De La Soul, Primitives, Spacemen 3, Loop, Captain Beefheart (to name a few) and unknowingly spawning their own mash up brand of woozy drum machine-driven pop.
Sukpatch slinked into the public eye in the mid-90s and dropped albums and singles on indie hotshot labels like Slabco, Sub Pop and Beastie Boys own Grand Royal. After a near 7-year hiatus they were at it again and in 2006 gave us their latest full length 23 in all of its hazy, lazy and hypnotic glory.
Light’s End…Love’s Swell moves right along, and even betters Sukpatch’s well-documented style. But all history lessons aside, what we’ve got here in front of us is a quick peek into the spaced-out world of the baked pop music that only Chris and Steve could give us.
As Sukpatch releases come less frequently these days, this is a rare gem nestled here in this little corner of the world wide web. We’re glad you’ve landed here. Enjoy!
Visit Sukpatch at their site and their myspace page.
Light’s End…Love’s Swell by Sukpatch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Filed under: Fredrik
Been enjoying the Fredrik single that came out last week? Yeah, me too!
Fredrik is on tour now in the States so please go catch them if they come to your town.
To kick off the tour they played in Washington, D.C. last night on the set of a Swedish TV news program called Nyhetsmorgon, which was broadcast live from the Swedish Embassy.
They played 2 songs off of their recent full length Na Na Ni, available for purchase in the US via The Kora Records and in Europe via Jezebel Recordings.
Click here to see both of the songs.
Upcoming Fredrik dates:
Nov 5 2008 DC9 Washington, Washington DC
Nov 6 2008 Metro Gallery Baltimore, Maryland
Nov 7 2008 Cake shop New York City, New York
Nov 8 2008 Union Hall Brooklyn, New York
Nov 9 2008 Brillobox Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nov 10 2008 Bug Jar Rochester, New York
Nov 11 2008 Lost Dog Cafe Ithaca, New York
Nov 12 2008 TT the Bear’s Boston, Massachusetts
Nov 13 2008 Space 538 Portland, Maine
Nov 14 2008 TBA, please contact if interested in setting up a show
Nov 15 2008 Pianos New York City, New York
Nov 16 2008 The Khyber Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nov 29 2008 KB w/ Beach House & Jana Hunter Malmö, Sweden
Dec 5 2008 Atalante, Preview festival Göteborg, Sweden
Filed under: Fredrik
Holm
Fredrik
hrtph006 : single
Released: October 30, 2008
All files and art in this .zip file (archive.org)
Stream here
1. Holm
2. Maran
Fredrik is a 6-piece band from Malmö, Sweden and is fronted by, well, Fredrik of the duo The LK (aka The Lovekevins).
The buzz surrounding the band Fredrik has been considerable since the release of their debut album Na Na Ni last spring. A string of unforgettable performances and sparkling reviews both in Sweden and abroad have established them as one of the year’s most talked about secrets.
“Holm” is the title track and single off of their Holm EP, slated to be released Nov 1st, 2008 courtesty of Malmö-based POL and Jezebel Recordings.
“Maran” is Fredrik’s exclusive and previously-unreleased offering to heartphone.
Listening to these two back to back is a guaranteed six and a half minute escapist’s dream. Whether you are transported to the rural Scandinavian countryside or spiraled into the hazy wetlands on a late autumn day, this is your soundtrack and the reason you’ve forgotten where you are, where you came from or where you ever belonged.
Repeat if necessary.
For more info about Fredrik, please visit their site and their myspace page.
Holm (single) by Fredrik is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
It was brought to my attention that there is a growing group of music lovers out there that don’t quite buy into the mp3 format. They don’t like their files squashed. They want the same files they’d receive if they purchased a cd. I can’t argue with that. We’re preaching quality over quantity at the heartphone headquarters.
So when I came across a new service that would easily let me upload uncompressed files and get them out to the people I jumped on the chance. The service is called bandcamp and I’m pretty excited to be a part of what they’ve got going on. They are helping turn the music industry into something public and easily accessible. heartphone is loving it.
Bandcamp’s downfall at the moment is that it isn’t set up for a label to create a profile and list all of their releases in one place. It is set up on an artist by artist basis. So for the time being, only my Mike Downey releases will be available, as those are the only ones I have the rights to. If you would like to see other heartphone releases available in uncompressed formats, please email me or get in touch with the artists themselves and state your case.
Now, the way this works:
Kicking Gas for Laughs is available via bandcamp on a pay what you want scale. The minimum for the entire album is $1. Download it for free here at 320kbps. I will let you decide what you think the uncompressed files are worth. They are not available for free simply because I want to make the uncompressed files a bit exclusive and special along with giving people a way to donate monetarily if they so choose.
Hold Horses is available in all digital formats for $8. This album was never available for free and is also on iTunes, Amazon mp3 and eMusic. I think $8 is about the cheapest you’ll find. And the money comes directly to me without a middleman, except Paypal, involved. And, the previously-mentioned download sites surely aren’t letting artists make lossless files available.
Ok, that about does it. Oh yeah, I will also be putting my debut Adventure, Bless and Don’t Be Sorry (not a heartphone release, originally released on cd) on bandcamp shortly. So keep an eye out for that if you don’t have it already.
Happy downloading.
I’m wildly excited to blurt out that Sukpatch is firming up the final details to their upcoming EP which will be exclusively delivered by heartphone. I’ve heard the songs and if you are a fan of their last full length entitled “23″, you’ll be happy to know that these follow in that direction. You’ll have to wait a little longer to hear for yourself. Get excited and check back often for more details.
Sukpatch photo by Damon Green.
