Jonathan Coulton

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!! 

Coheed and Cambria

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!