I wanted to update anyone who is reading about the upcoming compilation over on our record label side of things at Yer Bird Records. It is getting close, so we are increasingly excited and can’t help but have it spill over to our Slowcoustic personna. Sorry to pander, but seriously if you like Slowcoustic, you are going to love this project.

The CD & digital release will see the official light of day on July 27th (yes, less than 2 weeks!) and is so incredibly chock full of Slowcoustic favourites it isn’t even funny (18 tracks in total). We reached out to our own label artists and to artists that we are fans of and we got a very good group of folks that have donated a “new, unreleased or rare” track to the disc.

We are also working with Music 4 Hunger that assists in feeding children in local and worldwide locations. This is a basic need and often seems to slip past our daily thoughts but it is something that deserves more attention in order to end this tragedy. You can read a bit more on this part and see a note of our release over at Music 4 Hunger by clicking HERE. We will be donating a portion of each CD sold to the charity and hopefully our efforts can join in the cause.

For the music side of things you can see the full roster and track listing over on Yer Bird Records HERE. If you are lucky enough to have an iPhone, we recently launched our free iPhone app (click here to download or find out in the Apple app store) and we are currently streaming a sneek peek of the first 9 tracks from the app. See below for a list of the songs currently streaming for one week:

1. “My Girl Baltimore (Acoustic)”: Paul Masson – Paul re-recorded a solo acoustic version of his signature track from his previously released EP – crazy good.
2. “Sweetheart”: Lotte Kestner – Anna-Lynne Williams a.k.a. “Lotte Kestner” who you may know from the band Trespassers William, has donated her previously unreleased track for use – you may have heard it in her MySpace player, but find the official version on the compilation
3. “Little Wishes”: Strand of Oaks – Tim Showalter who records as SoO is a friend and amazing up and coming artist (new album “Pope Killdragon” will be out next week on eMusic) – find an unreleased track that will ever so delicately break your heart.
4. “Say So What”: Sharon Van Etten – the first of our Brooklyn ladies provides this “duet” with herself that has the perfect balance of lo-fi that she is known for.
5. “Winters Ruin”: Ghosts I’ve Met – Sam Watts & Company who form GIM provide another reason why Seattle creates some of the best music around. We have another stunning beauty from Sam along with Jenna Conrad – amazing.
6. “Ella (Live)”: The Black Atlantic – The foursome from Groningen provide an track from their Live EP available over on Beep! Beep! label and is the only track from that recommended EP that isn’t on their stand out debut release.
7. “Couch Surfing (Acoustic)”: Ivana XL – You will find Ivana at her best here (and coming in as our second Brooklyn songstress). This is a light and almost playful song with that almost sultry voice draped over parts and dancing over others. You will hum this one for days.
8. “Into The Deep Blue Night”: Nic Garcia – Nic is currently working on a new album and this brings his acoustic Midwest drawl back into focus. This is the kind of guy that you should not miss.
9. “You Fool”: Oweihops – Michael Metivier and crew provide a scratchy piece of Massachusetts that sounds like it could be a harmony direct from life in rural America.

That is it – go and get the iPhone app (if you can, steal a friends phone, do whatever!) and listen to all the above and if you like, swing by the store in a couple of weeks to get a copy! Don’t worry a full stream will surface for public for the release as well!

Also, Sharon Van Etten who comes in a track 4 also has an album coming out this October and her lead off promo track I feel bodes very well for the 7 track release on Ba da Bing. I also find it lends to the sound of the track on this compilation, so as this post has no song yet, how about one from Sharon? Enjoy “Love More” (mp3) from the upcoming album “Epic” from SVE.

~Smansmith