Hey Younglifers (and everyone else), quick update today with a fun christian band called House of Heroes. Christian music as a genre can be hard to find for free so stuff like this is appreciated. Even though they are technically classified as Christian, they have a very broad appeal and should be enjoyable by anyone. They have a great varied sound that mostly stays within alternative but can range from poppy acoustic to even a heavy metal sound (within the same song even!) Amazon has 4 free songs from 2 separate locations. The first is a three-song EP titled "The End is Not The End" containing the songs "In The Valley of the Dying Sun", "If", and "Lose Control." "In The Valley of the Dying Sun" in particular is really good if the high vocals in the chorus don't annoy you. The other songs do not have that falsetto though... If you download it as an album it's free but if you do it song by song there will be a cost. The second is a free Christmas song off of another 3-song EP titled "The Christmas Classics - EP". "Silent Night" is available for free and is an honestly good cover with a nice string ensemble through the bridge. If you don't have an Amazon account, you will need to make one for free but it will ask for info like credit card for billing (it is Amazon after all.)
The video below is for "In The Valley of the Dying Sun" and is actually a very good video and adds extra layers of meaning to the song. Warning: There is lots of blood and violence in the video. Enjoy nonetheless!!!
UPDATE: The Christmas single has been removed by Amazon (they are often temporary deals) but the EP is still intact. Another song from their newest album is available from here if you post a message through Twitter about it. Please give them a chance and download this great music!!!
Before I dive into my choice for today, I want to recommend my brother's blog site that he just started for highlighting indie or smaller artists that deserve your attention. We'll both be trying to cross promote and link to each other with my site hopefully offering free music to many of the bands he recommends. Check it out!
Every now and then I run into some really good 8-bit styled music and most of the time it happens to be from the same band. For those who don't know 8-bit music is basically what you would hear from a old-school video game system (Nintendo, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Gameboy.) Some bands even go as far as only using the original consoles to make the music such as 8-bit Weapon (also known as ComputeHer). Their site has plenty of free music worth listening to including two full EPs. The first was created as a soundtrack to a retro-styled cellphone game (that has since been released for free for PC) called "Reset Generation." The whole album is available as a zip file directly from here. Good stuff with a fun techie remix of "American Pie" ironically called "2D Died." The second album is an 8-bit re-imagining of the movie "Tron." It includes several pieces from the original soundtrack redone in bleeps and bloops and is available here. Several other of the singles are specifically worth your attention including "Gameboy Rocker", "Crazy Comets", and "Mario 2 (Drum Mix)." Other tracks have been available on the site from time to time including a remix of a Freezepop song and a christmas themed EP but have currently been removed. The christmas EP will probably be up again by next christmas though. A couple other singles can be found on Last.fm if you're interested. Enjoy!!
For those that like anything Japanese or just something that sounds unique, then I highly recommend this free album from a Japanese band named Secret Ocean. It is fully enjoyable without understanding Japanese so don't worry... The band fits into a unique style of pop that borders on acoustic folk with an emphasis on acoustic guitar and bongo-like drums. A well put-together album with strong vocals (even if you don't understand them) and rhythms to chill along with. Also vaguely reminiscent of Katamari Damacy (if any of you know what that is...)
The whole album is available for free at Jamendo. The site may ask you to sign up for a mailing list but that is well worth what you're getting out of the deal. Really worth checking out!!! Enjoy!
UPDATE: Turns out I was wrong, this is not the full album. The whole thing is available through iTunes with six more tracks that seem to be just as good and I would highly recommend purchasing the full album if you enjoyed the other tracks. Sorry for the mistake.
If that name doesn't ring any bells, then you either don't know what he's responsible for or you're not a nerd. Kidding... Described as "If Bob Dylan and the internet had a baby", he's a great folky rock artist that isn't afraid to get silly but remain partially serious through it all. Some of his best known songs include "Still Alive" (the credit song to the game "Portal"), "Re: Your Brains" (zombie invasion in the office), "Code Monkey" (an overworked but simple man love ballad), and a slow acoustic cover of "Baby Got Back." If that alone doesn't get you interested, then wait for the offer.
Jonathan Coulton's site has free mp3s of 2-6 songs from every album that he has released. These aren't B-sides either, most of them are some of the best songs each respective album. Awesome right! Let's make it better!! iTunes has a podcast (made by him) containing 4 full albums of great songs. They are the "Thing a Week" albums where he literally recorded a new song every week for a whole year. Hopefully the link above will open the iTunes page for you; if not then just search for "Jonathan Coulton" or "Thing A Week" in iTunes and look for the podcast. As I've mentioned before it is an easy conversion from an iTunes podcast to an mp3 but either way you will have plenty of free music from a great artist.
I could get into full detail about all the songs that are worth your particular attention but I'll list a few that you shouldn't pass: Big Bad World One, Chiron Beta Prime, Creepy Doll, Dance Soterios Johnson Dance, Flickr, Furry Old Lobster, Ikea, Mandelbrot Set, Podsafe Christmas Song, The Presidents, Shop Vac, Skullcrusher Mountain, Stroller Town, When You Go, and the four mentioned in the opening paragraph. But ALL of his music is worth it!! Below is Flickr (song made entirely based on randomly selected photos from the site flickr.) Enjoy!!
UPDATE: Don't worry none of the music has gone missing but I would like to mention that I have gained a new appreciation for many Coulton tracks that had once been overlooked. A lot of the music is very intelligent and relationship story-based with songs like So Far So Good, Make You Cry, I'm Your Moon, You Could Be Her, Summer's Over, Pizza Day, Pull the String, and others above like Shop Vac, When You Go, and Big Bad World One. These songs have made a great creative chill playlist for me that I would highly recommend to anyone!!
LIMITED TIME OFFER!! Jason Poe (a great indie rock artist, similar to Goot but much less poppy) is offering a 7 song demo EP for free for the next couple days if you help him spread the news. If you post a status to twitter through this link, or "like" him on facebook through this link, then the music is all yours. But hurry, it will only last a couple more days!
For those of you who aren't in such a rush (or you missed it) then he is offering another 2 song EP through this site. You can get a better idea of what he's like from the video below. Enjoy!
Here's a fun one for you. A surf rock band that plays wearing mexican wrestling outfits! Sound weird enough? Not to worry, they are really good. Los Straitjackets have been around for a while providing quality surf rock (and Christmas-themed surf rock) since 1994.
Amazon is currently offering 2 free songs from 2 different albums. The first is a Christmas song "(I) Deck The Halls" from the album "Yuletide Beat." The other is a song called "Fortune Cookie" from the album "The Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets." Have fun!
I'm really surprised I found this one. This is a band that seems to be incredibly polarizing depending on who you talk to (either "the greatest band evar!!!" or "the downfall of western society.") Either way their current fame is undeniable which makes finding songs from a band of this size amazing. If you haven't heard them, they keep an eclectic balance between hard rock and some weird indie sound with high pitched vocals. Strange but effective. They also keep a running comic written and drawn by the band that the music is supposed to compliment.
One of their old record labels (Equal Visions) is offering a free single from three of their most popular albums. From the album "The Second Stage Turbine Blade", you can get the song "Devil In Jersey City." From "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3", you can get "A Favor House Atlantic." And finally from "Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV...." (really long name) you can get the song "Welcome Home." Yes that's right, their biggest single that probably everyone has heard for free. Both "Welcome Home" and "A Favor House Atlantic" are featured in the game Rock Band as well.
But I'm not done yet. One of the band members has his own side project that is also sponsored by the same record and is also offering a free track. The band is called The Prize Fighter Inferno and they are offering the song "Who Watches the Watchmen?" from the album "My Brother's Blood Machine." Also note that the video below is the best I could do since the real music video was removed from Youtube for copyright reasons. Oh well, enjoy regardless!
