Altered Freebies: The Apples In Stereo; Eels; The Love Language

What's better than music? Free music. Producer Nick Jackson has scoured the Interwebs to bring you the best free downloads featured on this week's Altered Fridays, 4-7 p.m.

The Apples In Stereo, “Dance Floor”
We have been playing this song for a few months now, but definitely one that should be in your collection. Napolean Dynamite would totally get down to "Dance Floor".

Eels, “Looking Up”
So, this song came as a surprise the first time I hit play. I was thinking it would be closer to "Spectacular Girl" or "Baby Loves Me", both off their new album Tomorrow Morning, out August 24th. Instead, a soulful, get-up-and-shake-it song came pumping out of my stereo. This is the type of song you would throw a quarter into the jukebox mounted next to your table at a diner and get down in your booth while waiting for potato skins and an omelet.

This new album is shaping up to be a great one. You can preorder it at eelstheband.com.

The Love Language, “Heart To Tell”
The Love Language throw together a reason to break out your poodle skirts with "Heart To Tell". Their album Libraries it out now on Merge Records. Head over there to stream the whole record (and pick up a copy!).
{via Paste}

Anders Osborne on Morning Sessions

When you first hear the name Anders Osborne, it probably doesn't conjure images of the New Orleans music scene. But when you tune in at 9 a.m. Friday for Osborne's searing live set on Morning Sessions, it becomes clear that the Grammy award-winning songwriter and blues guitarist has become an ambassador of his adopted city. In fact, he's recently joined other Crescent City artists like Dr. John and Trombone Shorty on David Simon's HBO series, Treme, portraying the Dutch busker "Sonny."

Osborne moved from Sweden to New Orleans as a teen, embracing an artist's life and surviving the hardships of modern life in Louisiana. Years of alcohol and drug abuse led him to a crossroads that he’s mapped out in detail on the scorching new single, "On the Road to Charlie Parker." It hints of a man and a city being put back together again--and the promise of a new life waiting at home.

"Charlie Parker" is a standout track is off his new album, American Patchwork, a love letter to America and its music. "I think it's a patching together of my life, New Orleans after Katrina, my personal problems and working to become a better person," he says. "Even though I was born somewhere else, it means a lot to me to be a part of this nation . . . . It's a beautiful feeling to feel genuinely at home somewhere."

Don't miss Anders' interview and performance Friday morning!

Anders Osborne, Honey Island Swamp Band and The Bridge's Cris Jacobs perform at The 8 x 10 on Friday night.

Justin Trawick's Sonic Salvation on Baltimore Unsigned

Tune in at 8 p.m. Tuesday, with a rebroadcast at 9 a.m. Saturday, as Justin Trawick visits Baltimore Unsigned to perform selections from his forthcoming E.P., After All Is Said and Done. The new collection, a follow-up to 2009's Starting Over, finds Trawick writing for personal and professional reasons.

"Story of a Boy" is a cathartic account of a two-year period in Trawick's life that included having a girlfriend who moved across the country, having both parents diagnosed with cancer, and losing his day job. " It was either write a song or go postal and start walking through the neighborhood with a shotgun," he says.

Meanwhile, "Love Song" was prompted by bass player Jean Finstad's observation that Trawick tended to sing about failed relationships."[He] came up to me a few months ago and was like, 'Listen Justin, everyone likes your music, but we really need something that’s not going to drive women out of the clubs . . . . We need some kind of positive long song in our repertoire.' So “Love Song” was actually created to appease my upright bass player."

Justin Trawick performs at the 8 x 10 on Friday, August 20th.

CD of the Week: We Walk This Road

Robert Randolph and the Family Band's fourth studio album started with a musical education. To find new material, Randolph teamed with legendary producer T Bone Burnett to delve into more than 100 years of music.

"T Bone brought in old archival songs from the twenties and thirties," Randolph writes. "I had songs that I had written with the band, or that other artists had sent me, and we sat down and starting sifting through history." 

The resulting album features a musical gumbo of covers and traditional songs that Randolph and Burnett reworked musically and lyrically, including the single, "If I Had My Way." Based on a Blind Willie Johnson tune, guest Ben Harper contributes guitar work and shares vocal duties on Randolph's new lyrics. More contemporary tracks include covers of John Lennon's "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier Mama" and Prince's "Walk Don't Walk," adding additional fuel to Randolph's already incendiary live show.