In what has become basically a running gag with longtime YANP readers, I’d like to once again plug one of my favorite bands - Bishop Allen. I do this from time to time in case any of you who just joined us missed out on them.

So why all this fuss over Bishop Allen? Well imagine a songwriting duo raised on the brainy lyrics of The Talking Heads and the stripped-down guitar work of the Violent Femmes. That’s basically the formula to make vocalist Justin Rice and guitarist Christian Rudder. Bishop Allen’s first album, Charm School, was completed in the duo’s apartment on some sub-par equipment. Surprisingly, it turned out to be nothing short of incredible. Since doing a little member swapping and finally settling on Christian Owens on bass and Jack Delamitraux on drums, Bishop Allen is prepared to release their new album - Clementines. (note: by “is prepared” I mean that it will eventually see the light of day)

MP3s:
Things Are What You Make of Them
Busted Heart
Little Black Ache
Eve of Destruction

Bishop Allen on WMCU (includes non-album songs)
01 Penitentiary Bound
02 Things Are What You Make Of Them
03 Making Friends
04 Another Wasted Night
05 One By One

Super Bonus MP3: Bishop Allen - You Aint No Picasso
Name sound familiar? Well it should. When I was thinking of starting a blog, I knew that the first thing I should do is completely rip off a band that I love. So I found out that Bishop Allen’s unreleased demo song, You Aint No Picasso, sounded perfect, yet was so little known that I could get away with it. But if you haven’t listened to Bishop Allen before, don’t download this song. You might not like it (it’s very rough) and then never look into them again. This is only for folks who are already cemented in their love or indifference of Bishop Allen and either wanted more songs or wanted to know why on earth I picked “You Aint No Picasso.”

NOTE: If you guys are Bishop Allen fans and can’t wait for the new album, I have live versions of about half of the album that are good for the posting. Some or kinda lame quality, but they give you a good feeling of what the song will wind up sounding like.