iTunes screenshot.
I download music. I download a lot of music. I don't purchase music often, so I completely and totally understand when kids come up to me at shows and look me straight in the eye and tell me they're not going to buy my record tonight because they've already, or are going to go home and, download it. There just isn't any reason to show animosity towards this new-ish way of communicating; to me, this feels like a natural way of weeding out assholes and the people that aren't smart enough to make interesting work.
I want to give back. Here are three ZIP files of instrumentals. Download them, use them for karaoke, perform as YACHT or The Blow, chop them up and make your own remixes, make your own new songs, put them on indietorrents, upload them on alt.binaries.mp3.cooldudes, do what you will. These are 256 kbps DRM-free MP3s properly tagged with album art. Have at it!
First I'd like to give you all of the instrumental versions of the songs I've recorded and been playing on tour in 2007. This includes all of the songs from I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real., a bonus track that was included on the European release of the album, and the song I made for the David Shrigley book and music compilation, Worried Noodles.
YACHT: 2007 Instrumentals
(85 MB ZIP - 256 kbps MP3s)
1. So Post All 'Em
2. See A Penny (Pick It Up)
3. We're Always Waiting
4. Platinum
5. It's All The Same Price
6. The Magic Beat
7. Drawing In The Dark
8. It's Coming To Get You
9. If Music Could Cure All That Ails You
10. I Believe In You
11. Your Magic Is Real
12. Women Of The World
13. Don't Stay In Bed (Bonus Track)
14. I Saw You (From Worried Noodles)
I totally forgot about The Summer Song, so here it is, as a lonely 7.2 MB MP3.
Next I'd like to give you all of the instrumental versions of Paper Television, and a b-side track called "Get Around" we made at the same time and released on a Yeti Magazine compilation and on a 7" single for Parentheses on Tomlab.
The Blow: Paper Television Instrumentals
(56 MB ZIP - 256 kbps MP3s)
1. Pile Of Gold
2. Parentheses
3. The Big U
4. The Long List Of Girls
5. Bonjour Juene Fille
6. Babay (Eat A Critter, Feel It's Wrath)
7. Eat Your Heart Up
8. Pardon Me
9. Fists Up
10. True Affection
11. Get Around (B-Side)
The last thing I want to give you, for now, is my side of a split 12" I made with my friend Luke (Lucky Dragons) in 2005, but didn't come out until this year. Buy the 12" here from Marriage or here from States Rights. Randy of the band No Age listed it on a best of 2007 Pitchfork thing.
YACHT: We Float Around, Hang Out On Clouds
(23 MB ZIP - 256 kbps MP3s)
1. I Can't Complain
2. Like Most Babies
3. No Apologies
4. (New Wave) Polly
5. Healthy Student
6. Until It's Fucking Gone
I don't need your money.
If you're a company and you want to use these songs for commercial purposes, that is a whole other story. Contact Jeff Pachman at Domino Publishing if you would like to do so.
Re: Radiohead: Nope. I've been giving away MP3s since I've been a band.
Re: Remix, sure thing. What song would you like to remix?
interestingly i got that lucky dragons split from indietorrents welllllllll over a year ago (it may even have been in late 2005) and thats how i came to have heard your music in the first place, which of course led to me actually purchasing your 3 proper albums. i like how you operate.
I think I'm going to make a career as a Jona-like now. I'll have venues book me as YACHT, show up with an iMac, blast these tracks and karoke along.
Nah, it'll never work. You need to give your dance moves away for free too :)
The version that was on indietorrents of the Nirvana record were DIFFERENT from the final released version. At least the LD side, i think.
Jona, i think you wake up cooler each morning cooler than the day before. keep up the nice work. you are so rad!
This is such a nice thing to do. I know I'm going to be singing in all the wrong places but thankyou!
Hooray! Thank you. I have been wanting some instrumental music to use in videos that I make. I know you don't need my money, but I gave you some anyway. Just a little bit. Probably not even enough to buy mittens but hopefully you have some already.
i know you've probably covered this in some other crawlspace of this website, but is there anywhere on here you discuss what synths you use regularly? can't get enough of that yacht-trademarked bubbly synth bass tone.
what about the people that aren't "smart" enough to make interesting "work" but try anyway? Where do they fit in?
Should they just not try to sell any art? Or should they not try to make art at all? Pretty discouraging if you ask me. Who knows what someone might find interesting?
I guess all I'm saying is the methods of consuming music are changing and we shouldn't expect to get rich, or even make our money back, from making CDs. I'm all for living off of music, I'm think we all just need to think more carefully and be more creative about the physical goods we make. In the same breath I want everything I make to be accessible. An Emerson CD player and a $10 CD from a show is still the cheapest way to get into YACHT.
The assholes I was referring to were friends of the RIAA bands like Metallica that want to put 12 year olds in jail.
I really don't know. I'm stoked on this conversation, though.
Here's some inspiration:
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne
Maximum thanks for the free tuneage! Something I think that is lame though, now every time someone puts out free tunes on the internet someone always mentions Radiohead. That's kinda lame, like Jona said he + other peeps have been doing that for a long time. Jus Saying that it's kinda lame that Radiohead is getting credit for putting free tuneage on the internet. Anyways, does anyone know how to do that alt tag thing where the black box pops up? Is that a wordpress plugin? Thanks in advanced!
Shapes of Sweetness: http://www.mudcorporation.com/
It's javascript and CSS called MudToolTip (scroll down to the reusable code part of the site). Thanks to E*Rock for that link like 3 years ago.
jona. i am one of these kids who came up to you at a show to bear his downloadin' soul. thanks for being such a top trump in most all regards.
have some time off to recharge your duracells and then please come back to play the UK. i danced so hard in manchester that my trick knee slipped out of place and i couldn't manage stairs for days afterward.
beautiful stuff
Say word! I came across your music for the first time via Believer magazine's music issue last august ("Your Magic's Real" is one of the tracks on their disc, but I guess you'd have to know that already). Now this! Definitely looking forward to finding out more! Keep up the good work. Enjoy the holidays. Peace
You're amazing. You just offered two of my favourite releases in the last year for free (basically). I love the instrumentals and have yet to listen to We Float Around. Merry Christmas.
Jona - given how you feel about the aesthetic wunderkind that is MySpace, wondering what your take on this hip new site "Facebook" is?
Thanks.
Oh Cool! Thanks a lot, Jona. I've always wanted more artists to release instrumental versions of their songs.
Duuuuuuuuude this is amazing. Imma pass this on to other dj's and these songs are almost guaranteed to get all sorts of chopped up/blended/remixed/etc. Guaranteed I'll be messing around with these files before too long..
You know what would be awesome, is if people did a bunch of WEIRD AL-style parody versions of these songs.
"pardon me but wasn't that your fart! that i smelt in the car, on the drive back from Grandma's house?"
um. yeah.
Ultra rad. Thanks for this Jona. Sorry we didn't get to meet up when you were in London.
Oh, I just noticed on Paper Television instrumentals, 'Fists Up' has one vocal track in it that must have not gotten muted!
Hi Jona... Ummm We had Thai food in Auckland, NZ... remember? Then dancing too... yeah, so weirdly coincidental was asking Star for your emails tonight then saw a link to this on the Hollerboard... was gonna hit you up for some instrumentals and accas to mess around with, I had a dream last night that I made an awesome mix.
PS Best show of 2007, really. Thanks
I made a Yacht/ Notorious BIG remix of See A Penny (Pick It Up):
http://download.yousendit.com/845984367074AF44
Hope you enjoy.
Awesome! Man, you should post some of the acapellas for some remixes.
The Notorious BIG mash up is pretty sweet too!
I can't seem to download these, it can't connect to host. I need these TODAY for a set I'm doing tomorrow.
Ah, shit! I had to move the files to archive.org because I ran out of bandwidth and archive.org is down! Crazy!
The links are down again... Nirvana 12" is working but I can't seem to get the 07 and Paper TV instrumentals.
And not to be greedy... but what are the chances of getting some acapellas? Cause that would be sweet.
wait wait. you know what song has been stuck in my head and i would love an mp3 of? the "don't you don't you just wanna stay in the shower" song. i don't really know what it's called, obviously. is that available at all?
hey jona thanks for the david byrne link, very good read! oh and thanks for your music, of course
by the way, i missed your show in paris, when are you coming back?
peace yo
YACHT:READ These three/response/instrumentals
OFF THE MAINE LAND/ CLOSE BYE
Another mound close bye
the river in its bed cried close to me
and around
dangling white barked trees
shining water
and the smiles as well
smudgery the shore line and sand
disintegrates, through fingertips
and above
skeleton sons revealed.
COLLECTING ROCKS
Stepped in somehow
tingling feet
hopeful and bound
fofo,the center
under the dirt soon surfaced.
Panda's bare smile
whispers loudly
"no reason"
A poor student thanks you a lot. I'd definitely go see you if you'd come to northen france. It's the least I can do!
Sweet dude, I'm still enjoying 'Your Magic Is Real' a lot. Come back to Australia soon.
Also, you've gone missing a bit on this blog, any updates coming up soon??
Hey Jona. I'm the guy that gave you that (hopefully memorable) blowjob in Tokyo- remember? I played a show as Yacht last night and paid my rent with the ¥. Thanks!
You are shooting yourself in the foot and the music industry in the foot with this type of thing. Jesus, have some self-respect!
hi jona!
i almost had a mini-heart attack when i found out you're coming back to this salty city for another show at kilby on march 31st!
yay! see you soon!
-lala
p.s. bringin gold yacht insignia t-shirts..? domo arigato!
thank you for making my dreams come true last night. i have a wonderful, delightful crush on your lady friend! the show will flash in my mind whilst i am on my deathbed as i lay remembering the good times of life. i await your return!
vancouver will love you until the end.
Um, kinda weird question... Is your band the one that will be performing with Chairlift in New Orleans at the House of Blues? I'm sorry to admit that I hadn't heard any of your stuff before but I love Chairlift and I'm really hoping your band is the one now! I've been looking all online and I'm not sure because the tickets don't actually go on sale until 1-24 (my birthday! Yay!). So, please let me know! Thanks a million!
Faith
I think your blog was interesting and will visit often.In the meantime, I can recommend
andy rogers music
Any word on whether the instrumentals from Poor Aim EP (The Blow, not YACHT, but Jona's brainchild) will be released?
Me again. Can someone define 'commercial purposes'? Like, using it at a school for pre-show jams while the theater is being loaded up with the guests, and as they leave (for revenue, technically). That counts as commercial, huh?
Christoph,
I might have the Poor Aim instrumentals somewhere, but the hard drive with the sessions crashed a while ago and I might have lost them.
Re: your question about commercial purposes, NO, you can totally play them in the school theater!
Oh, That's Fine Then. Don't Go Looking.
Commercial Purposes: I'll tell them and make something so it shows the album art/info regarding YACHT/etc.
Thanks so much!!
Much Love, Christoph
Is it some resonance from Radiohead?
Nice but.. hum.. can I have parts to do a proper remix?
++++