Williams Street Presents: Warm & Scratchy
Various labels (5/21/07)
Indie Rock
Download it for free at AdultSwim.com
Adult Swim.com’s commitment to providing our audience with cool free stuff continues on May 21 (TODAY) when our biggest downloadable album yet hits the site (http://www.adultswim.com) like a tidal wave. Made of rock. Oh yeah. … Sponsored by Esurance, the Warm & Scratchy compilation will feature 14 new and exclusive tracks from bands that sound … well … Warm & Scratchy. … While you’re there, check out the Adult Swim produced video for TV on the Radio’s early nugget, “Me-I.” It’s pretty great, if we do say so ourselves.
You are going to have to say so yourself there Adult Swim, because “Me-I†is a horrid, pretentious, low-fi track trying to sound like a Daniel Johnston lost track. Sadly, this trend continues throughout this album, which seems to be filled with indie-band throwaway tracks, studio flubs and alternate versions. I guess this begs the question: Why even release this album?
Sure, it’s free, but what price does your soul pay? These are great bands (TV on the Radio; The Raveonettes; Broken Social Scene; The Good, the Bad & the Queen; and Liar, among others) at their absolute worst. I actually feel kinda’ bad for them. It reminds me of when I was in high school, I would go into … ahem … Hot Topic and see these punk compilations on the counter for, like, two bucks with some pretty big names like Mustard Plug, The Vandals, Social Distortion, etc., and then the album would be filled with the worst tracks these bands could come up with.
There are a few highlights (and bear in mind the highlights are still not all that great): “Dead Sound” by The Ravonettes, “The Bunting Song” (acoustic version) by The Good, the Bad & the Queen and “Stay Awake” by Asobi Seksu.
I guess, in the end, download the album and pick out what you like if you have nothing better to do with your time, or buy Esurance.
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