Nov 14-18 – Codhoppers Weekly Playlist

You may have noticed I’ve been a bit absent lately. This comes from a variety of reasons, including a busy work week, family illness and an 8 month pregnant fiancé…Along with all of these things there has also been a lack lustre amount of music to report on. Last week was HUGE with albums leaking so when the big Drake and Gambino albums dropped, everyone had already heard them.

Besides all of that I still managed to work my way through a good amount of music at work this week. You’ll notice that I got into listening to a series of albums from one artist in a row. It may not expose me to a lot of different artists, but it is a good way to hear the span of music an artist has produced. I listened to a lot of good music this week, so click on Read More to check out my weekly playlist. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Nov 7-11 – Codhoppers Weekly Playlist

Recently I have started working in an office, where listening to music is acceptable. For the first two months I listened to the local radio station that specialized in rock music. Unfortunately their music selection was awful, they played the same songs every single day and rotated between about 20 bands. On three separate occasions I caught them playing the same song within an hour and a half of each other, but these were not new songs! They were songs from the 90s!

Anyways I finally made a stand and decided to bring in speakers and an iPod and make my own musical selections from here on in. I saw this as a good opportunity to share with you what I choose to listen to when I slave away at work. Now lets remember that it is an open office where people can walk in off the street, so dubstep and rap are definitely off the list.

Click on Read More to check out the first edition of Codhoppers Weekly Playlist. You’ll also be able to view all my weekly playlists by checking out the Codhoppers page in the Authors link along the top of the page.

Acoustic Performance of What You Know – Two Door Cinema Club

The Conductor is a great guy, he went to Lollapalooza this year and brought me back a Two Door Cinema Club shirt. Unfortunately he forgot to give it to me before he moved to the Yukon. For those of you who aren’t up to speed on Canadian geography, its comparable to moving from California to New York is the dead of winter. Regardless something good came out of Lollapalooza, and its this video which is an acoustic rendition of What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club.

Chris Carrabba – Covered In The Flood Free Download

At one point or another in your life, you’ve listened to Dashboard Confessional. There is no need to lie, or explain yourself. Chris Carrabba writes and performs heartfelt soul wrenching songs that strike you to the core when you hear them.

Well today Chris Carrabba released a four song free EP that features him performing acoustic covers of other peoples songs. Just because he didn’t write them doesn’t make them any less sensational. Plus when its free how can you really go wrong? This EP will fit perfectly in your iTunes collection (between Alter The Ending and Dusk and Summer if you change the artist to Dashboard Confessional).

Check out I’m In Love With A Girl and Skyway below and Click Here to head to Chris’ blog to download the EP for free.

I’m In Love With A Girl – Chris Carrabba
Skyway – Chris Carrabba 

Top 10 Road Trip Songs

I am minutes away from embarking on the biggest road trip of my life. Over 6,000 km, 6 provinces and a two week timeline. In preparation for this adventure I have hand picked my top 10 favourite road trip songs.

Hit the jump for the list!

New Music Video – Still – Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club released a new video today from their latest album A Different Kind of Fix. Still is a straight forward performance video that leaves the entire emphasis on the song, and with this song thats how it should be. It’s haunting and beautiful all at the same time. I’m glad they didn’t try to glam up the video with a ridiculous story line and decided instead to allow the music to speak for itself.

Owen – Ghost Towns

We’ve got another great release from Polyvinyl Records to share with you. Ghost Town is the newest, and possibly last album from Owen. After listening to Ghost Towns I really hope Owen releases more material, because he is a talent that shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Ghost Towns is a 9 track LP that is set to be released on November 8th, but you can currently stream the album via his Bandcamp page.

Owen didn’t shy away from the seemingly constant ghost references on this album and instead chose to embrace it. He lays all his emotions and sentiments on his guitar frets and lets the audience pick up on the obvious as well as hidden metaphors in his music.

I really like this album and I think you will too. Stream it below and go out and buy it when it comes out next month. Enjoy.

Listen To Driftwood Today

A couple months back one of my friends sent me a Youtube clip of a couple of guys that ran in the same circles as us back in high school. That same friend today sent me a link to a sound cloud page which featured 5 acoustic songs put together by Driftwood, the two guys I knew back in high school.

I actually went to summer camp with one of them, and used to jam in my neighbours basement with the other. Fast forward quite a few years and the two Jordans, (Bradley and Jones) are putting out amazing acoustic songs that have me questioning why I didn’t practice more.

I’m not sure if they are preforming or planning on releasing anything in the foreseeable future, but until that day comes, it would be in your best interest to listen to these songs and be amazed by what is coming out of small towns in Southwestern Ontario.

Saint Stanley – Driftwood
Waterburn – Driftwood
Layers – Driftwood 

Deadmau5- Raise Your Weapon (Work In Progress)

Think Raise Your Weapon– stripped down to the bare essentials, no dubstep drop, no madeon and no big room appeal. Deadmau5 released this work in progress yesterday via Soundcloud and with almost 80,000 hits its clear that he could literally take a shit, wrap it in a bag, bang the bag on a set of drums and call it a #1 hit.

The vocals from Greta Svabo Bech are stunning and have a completely different feel with this version (which is stated as the ‘album version’). Not sure what will come of this but we will always keep you in the loop on upcoming Deadmau5 releases.

Two Ben Gibbard Songs From The Arthur Soundtrack

I recently had the pleasure of spending a lazy sunday watching movies with my girlfriend and one of the movies we watched was the 2011 Russel Brand remake of Arthur.

Although the movie did have a few funny parts, I was really expecting more from the all star cast. But this is not a movie blog, so why am I writing about Arthur? Well the soundtrack that accompanied the movie was purely outstanding. It featured tracks from Eternal Summers, Mark McAdams, Daniel Merriweather, but most impressively from Ben Gibbard.

Gibbard most notable known from his time in Death Cab For Cutie has really become one of the best song writers of our generation. Try and find a Death Cab song that doesn’t pull at your heart strings.

Well Gibbard penned two brand new solo songs especially for this film that have been on constant rotation in my iTunes and I thought it was about time that I shared them. You can stream When The Sun Goes Down and Where Our Destination Lies below and if you enjoy them as much as I do, go out and buy the soundtrack, you won’t be disappointed.

When The Sun Goes Down – Ben Gibbard
Where Our Destination Lies – Ben Gibbard

Scoundrels Arrogance Blues Acoustic Studio Session

Last month we brought you the free EP from Scoundrels and I have been jamming out to it ever since. Well today I came across an acoustic video of Scoundrels performing Arrogance Blues at Riflemaker Studios in Soho. It was recorded on 1940s and 1950s studio equipment which gives it a wonderful vintage feel. It sounds great and reminded me that I should tell all my friends about Scoundrels.

City and Colour Streaming Live Session Wednesday

I have been lucky enough to see City and Colour perform live, but if you haven’t, you are in luck. On Wednesday Dallas Green with be sitting down with Livestream.com to record a live acoustic session. He will be playing songs from his new album as well will be taking requests and answering questions.

You can RSVP to the event by clicking here. This is a really cool concept and I will for sure be tuning in. The streaming video will start at 7PM EST on Wednesday so set an alarm on your phone now. Enjoy.