It’s Monday, which means it’s time for another edition of our regular start-of-the-week stream-a-thon, wherein we scour the Internet for worthy and/or noteworthy albums that are streaming this week at absolutely no cost. Today, we are delighted to start the working week with some joyful African vibez, courtesy of the new album by the Very Best. There’s also more from the suddenly prolific Mission of Burma, pop-rock stuff from JEFF the Brotherhood, and plentiful noise courtesy of Baroness and Fang Island. It’s all awaiting you after the jump, so click through and get a piece of the action!
The Very Best — MTMTMK
Yay for the return of The Very Best, the collaboration between Radioclit and Malawian vocalist Esau Mwamwaya. As we mentioned in the context of our recent post on albums you need to hear in July, their album Warm Heart of Africa was one of our favorite records of recent years, and their exuberant multicultural take on African sounds works just as well second time around, and is just the thing to pep up a kinda depressing Monday morning. Get involved at NPR.
Mission of Burma — Unsound
Yay also for another new album by the resurgent post-punk pioneers Mission of Burma, who’ve proven far more prolific in middle age than they did in the early 1980s. The fact that the band apparently split because of Roger Miller’s rock ‘n’ roll-induced hearing problems only makes this album’s driving energy all the more impressive — job-related deafness or not, they’re not slowing down any. (Unsound also includes a song called “Semi-Sort-of-Pseudo-Plan,” which is the sort of planning we can entirely relate to.) Hear it via Spinner.
JEFF the Brotherhood — Hypnotic Knights
Despite the old truism about books and their covers, there are certain band names that kinda prejudice you against the band in question, despite your best intentions. So it was for us with JEFF the Brotherhood, a name with unfortunate echoes of Toad the Wet Sprocket and also the ability to conjure up images of crowds of long-haired men in shorts. Still, if catchy pop-rock anthems are your thing, the two brothers behind the brotherhood – namely Jake and Jamin Orall – do them very well, and their new EP Hypnotic Knights is full of them. It’s streaming right now at NPR.
Fang Island — Major
They’re not to be confused with the mighty Teeth Mountain, but Rhode Island psych trio Fang Island are just as raucous in their own way. Some of their solo-heavy, convolutedly structured songs veer perilously close to prog territory, but we’ll forgive them that so long as they keep their loudness at the levels displayed here. Excellent. Listen right here.
Baroness — Yellow and Green
And finally, speaking of raucous: melt your speakers with this action, preferably while doing slow-motion devil horns at the long-suffering colleague at the desk next to you. Now that’s a fine way to start the working week, eh? Just click here to start the riot.