Album Review: Strange Negotiations - David Bazan

This album is Bazan's latest, from last May. It's fantastic, and like much of his other work it's a strong mix of powerful fast songs and emotional slow ones. Personally, I prefer his faster, angrier stuff, but I can appreciate the others just fine. There are four standouts that come to mind immediately, mostly in the up-tempo range: "People", "Eating Paper", "Strange Negotiations", and "Wolves at the Door".


Wolves at the Door, more than the other two, is a fast and angry political tune. I first heard it on the Grapes of Rad (who also happen to have Bazan on each year for their Christmas show), and was immediately ready to buy the album. Like Arrows, though, my wallet demanded that I wait for a sale.


Eating Paper and People are a little more back and forth, getting faster and slower throughout. The title track, Strange Negotiations, is generally pretty low-medium compared to the others and, like many of Bazan's songs, threatens to bring a tear to your eye even if you aren't listening to the words.


If you were a fan of Pedro the Lion or Headphones, or if you just like Bazan, check this album out. It was live-streaming on his Facebook page for a while, but I think you'll have to look somewhere else to preview it now. If you want some of his stuff for free, though, check out Daytrotter, where he has two older sessions up.

Daytrotter

So, I just rediscovered Daytrotter.


Daytrotter.com is a wonderful site that allows you to download in-studio tracks from a huge number of bands, for free. Bands go in, record a set of songs, and then you get them! For free! I had forgotten about the site for a while, but I just went back and downloaded 14 sets. That's 54 songs, from 9 bands, and all I had to do was sign up. Blitzen Trapper, David Bazan, Dutchess and the Duke, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, Josh Ritter, Mountain Goats, Say Hi, Tallest Man on Earth, and Throw Me The Statue. Woo!


The service does use its own downloader, which you have to install first, but it's just in Java so it's pretty much painless. I also had to go in and move around the files to get them into iTunes without cluttering up my computer with copies, and delete the "Welcome to Daytrotter" track that comes with each set, but really those are not big deals.


UPDATE: The new Downloader just came out, now it's slicker and can add the tracks directly to iTunes!


It's free, dangit. C'mon.