Peace on Earth Totals!

Hello friends! First off I apologize, I did say I would show you the totals on December 26th, but due to a crazy week that was started by my sister being hospitalized for 2 1/2 days on Christmas morning that simply didn’t happen. All is well now though and I’m excited to tell you that Peace on Earth was a success. I had so much fun making this thing, and it took a lot of time and energy both on my part and on the part of the amazing artists who have contributed so PLEASE buy their records. I am working on a glowing post to express my gratitude and give you a chance to hear more/support every artist who took part.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as fund raising. This is the first time I have done this (though I plan to make it annual!) and all things considered (word of mouth and one text web advertisement was the only marketing) I think you responded pretty well.

So, without further ado,

The total amount raised for Toys for Tots by this year’s Holiday album: $3,150.00!

That translates to a A LOT of Christmas morning toys. The only road block we hit along the way is that Paypal takes .50 cents per transaction of a seven dollar item. Other than that, every penny is going to Toys for Tots!

Thank you all, so much, for reading and supporting this effort. Small things with great love go a long way. I’ll be working on next year’s already come June, so make sure you keep checking in.

Thank you,
Caleb Palma
Hard to Find a Friend

"Peace on Earth" – Now Available!

CLICK HERE TO BUY PEACE ON EARTH!

$7

Having problems with your download? Click here.

Peace on Earth: A Charity Holiday Album

100 percent of proceeds to benefit Toys for Tots

1. Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers – Shepherd’s Song
2. Quiet Company – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
3. Great Lake Swimmers – Gonna Make it Through This Year
4. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / Sweetwater Abilene – The Wheels Are Off
5. Chris Walla – Coventry Carol
6. David Karsten Daniels – In The Bleak Midwinter
7. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
8. The Winston Jazz Routine – Through the Snow
9. Via Audio – My Boo
10. The Long Winters – Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)
11. TW Walsh – Drop the Bomb
12. Ohtis – American Christians
13. Aaron Robinson – End of the Year
14. The Cotton Jones Basket Ride (Michael Nau of Page France) – White Christmas
15. American Music Club – Please Please
16. Johnny Bertram – Merry Christmas (You Won’t Get What You Want)
17. Rosie Thomas – Christmas Time is Here
18. Sleeptalker – This is ChristmasTotal Tracks : 18
Total running time : 58.6 minutes
Cost: $7

This album is downloaded as a .zip file. In order to use it you will need a zip utility

Special Thanks & Credits:
Full performance and technical credits for the songs are available in the .zip file you will receive when you purchase the album

A big thanks to -
The artists – No one is receiving a single penny from the sales of this project except the children who are benefited by Toys for Tots. The artists created these songs on their own time, resources, and talents for no compensation. Please thank them by picking up some of their records.

Perry Wright for aiding in the sequencing of this album.

Robin from www.E-Junkie.com for giving this project a charge-free account so that the entirety of your purchase may go to Toys for Tots.

The Bloggers & News outlets who helped me spread word of this project.

You - For reading, for supporting, for being awesome. Thank you.

Savannah Moulton, Ethan Ring, Bob Andrews – Moral support and listening to my endless rantings, stress-induced worries, and other fits regarding the planning and deadlines of this little album.

Peace on Earth featured on NPR!

The wonderful track from Peace on Earth by The Winston Jazz Routine titled Through the Snow has been featured as NPR’s song of the day! See the article here. Buy the album here.

You can also listen to an archived stream of me and Nathan from TWJR on Out the Other last month. Nathan performs the song live. I talk and make myself look stupid. Listen here.

Thanks goes to Mr. Nathan Phillips from TWJR for contributing the song to our little record. It was an honour to have released it. Totals coming this week for Peace on Earth! I donated the first batch of money today! Check back the day after Christmas to see exactly how much we raised for Toys for Tots.

Thank you for everything friends,
Caleb

Album of the year : 2007 : #1

Via Audio – Say Something

The Facts
Label: Sidecho
Released: September 25
First Mention: Featured Post
Why you care: Rave reviews from Chris Walla, Pitchfork, & Alternative Press.

When I sat down to think of what my favorite record of 2007 was I was faced with a dillema. Do I pick an album that will be on every one’s list (like In Rainbows) or the album that I loved and listened to more than anything this year (a big feat. considering I got it in September)? I decided on the latter, and I’m glad I did.

Say Something, the debut LP from NYC-based band Via Audio, is without doubt my favorite Indie Pop record of the last five years. Maybe you think that’s a bold statement. That’s fine, but I suggest you give it a listen before you do so. Over the course of eleven tracks your ears are treated to 40 minutes of pop perfection, only the songs are filled with far more serious subject matter, and written in a far more articulate manner than folks which the band have been garnering comparisons to (Postal Service, Stars, etc). A factoid which is thrown around in nearly every mention of the band is that they graduated from Berklee, mecca of musical talent in the northeast. While even I have grown sick of seeing it in their reviews, it’s worth mentioning because the arrangements, harmonies, and general musical diversity which make up the album are clearly not the work of amateurs.

There is synth-pop, there is indie rock, there is a touch of jazz at places, there is a touch of grunge at places, there is Dinosaur jr, there are sing alongs, there is Spoon, there are handclaps, there are danceable numbers, there is mournful acoustic balladry. It’s the quintessential “something for everyone” record….only there’s not a bad spot in it.

I’m beginning to realize that this is without doubt the most unprofessional “review” of a record I have ever written, but let that only speak to how infatuated I am with it. I mean, seriously, I still listen to this thing daily and it’s been in my possession for nearly three months. Just go get it, my children. Oh, and of course, if you have not you should go buy our little charity holiday album which features a fantasmgorically good original from the band.

Buy Say Something
See a Via Audio show (On a west coast tour!)
Listen to a live set on NPR

[mp3] Via Audio – Modern Day Saint

Seriously! Buy it! Now! Right Now! Do it!

Album of the year : 2007 : #2

Dr. Dog – We All Belong

The Facts:
Label: Park The Van
Released: February 27
First mention on HTFAF: Song of the Month

Few albums (only one to be exact) made more of an impact on my ipod, turntable, cd player, & subconscious as much as Dr. Dog’s fantastic sophomore effort We All Belong. In all of it’s dusty glory the Philadelphia band does the 60’s better than most people did it in the 60’s. Fuzz-basses, old rickety organs, 4 part harmonies, tambourines, wonderfully destroyed upright pianos, and several hollow-body guitars later you’re left with such a wonderfully familiar taste in your mouth it’s as if you’ve been hearing the record since birth.

[mp3] Dr. Dog – The Girl

Buy We All Belong

Album of the year : 2007 : #3

Menomena – Friend & Foe

The Facts
Label: Barsuk
Released: January 23
First mention on HTFAF: Song of the Month

Barely sliding in the 2007 category with a January 23 release date is Menomena’s wonderful third effort Friend & Foe. The band’s first for my favorite label (Barsuk) is a wonderful train wreck of genre-bending, scale defying, start/stop blend of melodic and tonal madness. Somehow through it all the record manages to feel like….a record. Also responsible for one of my favorite shows of the year, and capturing my attention in January as my song of the month the Portland group has been firmly on my radar throughout the entirety of this year, and that’s saying something considering how much music I consume on a daily basis.

[mp3] Menomena – Wet & Rusting

Buy Friend & Foe

Album of the year : 2007 : #4

#3 & #2 will come tomorrow. The dramatic unveiling of Hard to Find a Friend’s album of the year for 2007 will come Friday!

Fionn Regan – The End of History

The Facts:
Label: Lost Highway
Released: July 10
First Mention on HTFAF: Featured Post

Going into 2007 I didn’t know a whole lot about Irish singer/songwriter Fionn Regan. I had heard the track Put a Penny in The Slot, a talk-along folk number which somehow was also strong in melody, and that was enough to hold my attention. Fast forward to this summer when Nashville based Lost Highway made the good decision to release Fionn’s album in the US. Instant love ensued as I listened to that record on the way home from the record store, and it would be a staple in my playlists straight through the summer into the fall. Fionn’s lived-in classical guitar playing is intimate and impressive, while his songwriting and vocal delivery keep things from ever growing tedious like some of his colleagues (Jose Gonzalez, Sam Beam) fall prey to.

[mp3] Fionn Regan – Black Water Child

Buy The End of History

Album of the year : 2007 : #5

Radiohead – In Rainbows

The Facts
Label: Self Released / ATO (Physical Release on 1/1/08)
Released: October 10
First mention on HTFAF: Featured Post

Even if the gods of modern Brit-Rock didn’t deliver on their long-awaited follow up to Hail To The Thief it would be hard not to include them on the best-of list. Their hyper-publicized “pay what you want” methodology has been hailed as everything from the saving grace of the music industry to the death of record labels to the dumbest thing they’ve ever done (I’ll side with the former two). But luckily for us they do deliver, and they do it quite well. Over the course of two discs (the latter more of an EP in length) Yorke and co. re-state exactly why they are who they are with enough of a re-invention to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, the album does fall flat in a few spots such as the meandering Faust Arp which leads me to place it at number five.

[mp3] Radiohead – Go Slowly

Buy In Rainbows

The Ends Are Meeting Up Again

Tonight I made a discovery for which I am very grateful. Through a series of link clicks that had something to do with Bon Iver which I cannot retrace (the internet is a wonderful place) I happened upon the website of a small Wisconsin record label called Amble Down. While there I discovered a band called Fine. I saw the pictures of this band and thought them to be some high school garage rock band. Then I listened to their music…stark and beautiful: filled with open spaces. Acoustic in nature – full of banjo, acoustic guitars, brushed drums, pianos, and even trombones – the band sounds like what you might expect from a group of kids who have to endure midwest winters. Like Lullaby for the Working Class, Sufjan, & Oberst before them the band clearly paints a picture of the landlocked region through beautiful and sparing folk arrangements.

Upon further investigation I learned that the band made this, their only record, waited several months until their was money to press it, released it, played a show and then split up to go to college, leaving only this 8 song thumb print behind them. I don’t think anything could be more beautiful.

Buy it here.

[mp3] Fine – Count Me Out

Okkervil River – Golden Opportunities [Free EP]

Will Sheff, Jonathan Meiburg, Travis Nelsen, Brian Cassidy, Patrick Pestorius, & Scott Brackett, otherwise known as Okkervil River have done something quite kind. The Austin band has released a nine song EP entitled Golden Opportunities for free via their website. Just in time for the Holidays, the EP is a pretty great example of what has made me fall deeply in love with the band’s music since the release of Don’t Fall in Love With Everyone You See.

The tracklist includes Eight great covers (my favorite being a cover of Randy Newman’s Simon Smith & The Amazing Dancing Bear) and a live version of one of the band’s most tender songs (Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas).

Get Golden Opportunities for free HERE.

Buy Okkervil River records

[mp3] Okkervil River – Savannah Smiles