On the Download

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A A A Comments By Dave Herrera and Andy Vihstadt Thursday, Sep 6 2007

Tim Kasher is a star in Omaha's indie-rock scene, but he's looking to score at the movies. The frontman for the Good Life (as well as Cursive) headed west earlier this year to work on the companion film for the band's forthcoming Help Wanted Nights, a concept album set in a small-town bar. Sure, the movie will probably get the straight-to-DVD treatment, but at least it has a killer soundtrack. Check out the Good Life's page at www.saddlecreekrecords.com to download "Heartbroke" and "You Don't Feel Like Home to Me" from the LP, due in stores this week.

The Good Life is close at hand.

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Al Jourgensen may be a pioneer in music's industrial revolution, but when it comes to album titles, he always seems to fall back on cheap puns. Joining the ranks of The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste and The Dark Side of the Spoon, The Last Sucker (due September 18) marks the final chapter in the 26-year career of his band, Ministry. That's right: Al's almost fifty. But you wouldn't believe it listening to the lead-off track and first single, "Let's Go," which pulls out all the stops with an onslaught of fuzz-driven guitar and punishing drums over Jourgensen's demonic banter. Download it exclusively at www.spinner.com and pray this guy doesn't wind up in the same retirement home as your parents.

Finally, in a move that's sure to further alienate and enrage hard-line former Against Me! devotees who already regard the band as sellouts for inking with a major label (or even for leaving No Idea in the first place), Ben Lee has recorded an acoustic version of New Wave, the Gainesville-based act's latest disc. Evidently, the former Noise Addict frontman immediately fell head over heels in love with the platter, which he considers to be a pop masterpiece. "Listening to it on the way to Australia, I wondered to myself how these songs would sound acoustically," Lee writes on his blog. "A couple of days later I was on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and had the thought 'I'd love to cover this album.' The whole thing. Beginning to end. So I did." Lee has made those recordings available for free download on his website (http://www.ben-lee.com/blog.htm).

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