This has been a great week for music and a great day for the chamber-pop talents of Ra Ra Riot. Not only did stage wallflower and bassist Mathieu Santos announce the release of his solo album, Massachusetts 2010, but the band took advantage of the Internet’s newest music social network, Turntable.fm, and decided to stream the entire album in the band’s own room.

Just in case there are some readers who may not be familiar with Turntable.fm, the site is a music streaming service that allows users to enter into various rooms and DJ their own music that can be uploaded to the site so long as it’s in mp3 format. Each room has five spots open for DJs, and the songs alternate down the line of users so that no one person is completely controlling the room. DJs and listeners in the room can vote on songs as being either “Awesome” or “Lame”, giving the DJ points. As a user receives more points, they are able to change avatars. If too many “Lames” are selected, then the user can be booted out of the DJ booth. It’s a fun and addicting service that also allows interaction among users, which is one of the great reasons why the debut of Santos’s album was such a huge success, even though technical difficulties were experienced along the way.

Social networking news site Mashable posted about Santos’s plan to stream his album live with his band members assisting. At that moment, the news went viral and Ra Ra Riot fans took to the room for the chance to interact with the band. Before the album streaming began, the five original members took turns spinning 80s classics and cracking jokes with fans. The room was completely packed by the time the first song off of the album, “I Can Hear the Trains Coming”, started playing. It got to the point where the “Ra Ra Riot” room was the most populated one on Turntable. And eventually, after streaming the first four songs on the album, the entire site ended up crashing because of the massive amount of traffic caused by the five Syracuse University alumni.

From the songs that I heard, Santos’s album will fit right in with the Ra Ra Riot discography. While not as bubbly and poppy as Wes Miles and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij Discovery album, Massachusetts 2010, still possesses the pop sensibilities of Ra Ra Riot with a few unique elements sprinkled in. For example, Miles joins in on saxophone for the album’s version of “Massachusetts,” along with another song. As the songs passed from one to another, Santos’s voice sounds as if he’s Miles’ long lost brother. The joyful melodies mixed with another smooth voice from the group puts this album up there as a summer “must listen.”

“I Can Hear the Trains Coming” serves as an excellent introduction to Santos’s sound. Heavy on the bass, of course, with droning keys providing a sunny backdrop to a song that is overflowing with positivity as the vocals lead off with the lyric, “I’m a believer!” The single evolves into the energy and power brought on by a locomotive as the beat picks up towards the end and guitar tones pierce through the curtain, bringing the song to exciting finish.

With a set release date of August 2, fans can currently head over to the Barsuk Records site and pre-order the album, which will be pressed on white vinyl for the first 500 copies and individually numbered as well. For the first 30 pre-orders, small illustrations drawn by Santos – who does all of the artwork for Ra Ra Riot – will be included. A 7-inch single of the “I Can Hear the Trains Coming” will also be released on July 26 through Old Flame Records with only 300 copies pressed on green vinyl.

Connect with Mathieu Santos: Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter | MySpace

Connect with Ra Ra Riot: web | Facebook |Twitter | MySpace

Mathieu Santos // I Can Hear The Trains Coming [mp3] from the forthcoming Massachusetts 2010