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"Bands have been increasingly taking to hot startup Turntable.fm to mingle with fans and test out new jams. Wednesday, New York-based chamber-pop band Ra Ra Riot will host its own room, where bassist Mathieu Santos will premiere his upcoming solo album, Massachusetts 2010.\nSantos's disc (which started developing while Ra Ra Riot was recording its most recent album, The Orchard) drops on August 2, but interested Turntable.fm users can check it out today in an interactive, avatar-packed environment (click there for access). \n\"It seems like a cool thing and my friends have been talking about it a lot,\" says Santos of Turntable.fm. \"It's an important thing, you know? To be open to discovering and enjoying new music as an activity with both friends and other people whose taste you appreciate and trust. This is basically the same thing, except it's not limited to you and your friends' record collections, and you guys don't have to be in the same physical room.\"\nFor those of you who may have not had access to the Internet for the past couple of weeks: Turntable.fm is a series of web-based chatrooms in which \"DJs\" take turns spinning tunes, which other users rank as \"awesome\" or \"lame.\" \"Awesome\" votes garner DJs points, which net them more elaborate avatars (like the coveted Daft Punk helmet). Right now, the service is still in beta and can only be accessed if you have a Facebook friend who is currently using it (and if you live in the U.S.) Users create DJ queues from the MediaNet library or by uploading their own MP3s.\nSantos plans to upload his most recent disc and spin it for the room, but the band will play other tracks as well.\nLast week, we suggested that bands hold listening parties on Turntable.fm in order to pump new releases \u2014 artists like Diplo and Paper Diamond have already tested out unreleased songs in the venue. Seems like this could become a popular practice as the site becomes more and more ubiquitous.\nCheck out and download Santos's first single, \"I Can Hear The Trains Coming,\" below. He samples dial-up. Rad.\n\n\n    \n\nImage courtesy of Doron Gild"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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