We've fallen behind with our free Mp3 of the week in the last few weeks, but we're back now with a catch-up service.
First up, is a live recording of Booker T & the MGs classic instrumental Green Onions, from Aquarium Drunkard. We profiled Aquarium Drunkard last year, and they're still going strong with tons of content that covers great breadths and depths in and across musical genres. If you have trouble downloading the track, try right clicking and selecting "save link as" (Mac users use "control click").
Noise Trade is currently offering the chance to download Bison's debut album Quill. Released late last year, their record has racked up critical praise and the band has been compared to Indie-Folk giants The Decemberists and Mumford and Sons. Grab this opportunity while you can; Quill isn't offered for free download on Amazon, Last.fm or the band's official website, so it may not be available on Noise Trade indefinitely.
Rounding out this three part mp3 omnibus are two free Dizzee Rascal downloads, "Fix Up, Look Sharp" and "Where's Da G's", available via betterPropaganda.
We'll be returning to our regular free Mp3 of the week this Friday, so tune in!
Showing posts with label downloads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downloads. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
This week's C&C free mp3
This week's free mp3 is Bad Girls Surf from Casa del Mitro. Though Casa del Mitro usually gets filed under lo-fi chillwave, Bad Girls Surf is a dancey track, that stays pretty chilled out for all it's electro-effects. Grab it from last.fm or download the album SuperTrendyCoolFashion, featuring "Bad Girls Surf", direct from his MySpace page.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
This week's free C&C Download
This week's free C&C download is Apex Manor's RF: The Songs of Apex Manor and the Broken West, available through noisetrade. Featuring tracks from his album The Year of Magical Drinking as well as selections from the two Broken West records, this nine-track power-pop complication comes highly recommended for fans of Big Star, The National and Teenage Fan Club and anyone else who enjoys a catchy hook.
Download the album at noisetrade by entering your email and postal code in the boxes in the graphic that looks like this:
Thursday, April 26, 2012
This week's free C&C download
This week's free C&C download comes to you from 8bitpeoples, a DIY record label specializing mostly in chiptune and bitpop. Most of the catalog is available for free download, but our current favorite is a release from Bit Shifter, who also happens to be a co-administrator of the label. His six song EP Information Chase is described as "fist-pumping power-up power-pop...the sound of Gameboys set to 'Kill' and/or 'Party'". Download Information Chase here.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
This week's free C&C download
This week's free C&C download is a Modest Mouse cover from Blackbird Blackbird, a chillwave, noise gaze, glo-fi artist that frequently mixes tweaked nature-sound samples and electronic textures with traditional instruments. Grab his dreamy chilled-out cover of "Float On" here, from last.fm. If you don't have an account with last.fm, and don't want to make one, snag the song via music search engine beemp3.com. Just follow the instructions to get the download link, then right-click and select "save link as".
Last week's free download is from the Smithsonian Folkways website. Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. Our selection is the Mexican folksong "El Son de Sánchez", from ¡Tierra Caliente! Music from the Hotlands of Michoacán by Conjunto de Arpa Grande Arpex. Conjunto de arpa grande or "big harp ensemble" is the rural relative of mariachi, and considered the signature musical tradition of the Michoacán region of Mexico. Scroll down through the Smithsonian Folkways free downloads page to find the track, then right click either the MP3 of FLAC link and select "save link as" to download.
If you have a keen interest in folk songs or ethnomusicology, consider signing up for their free email news letter, which includes access to one or more free downloads each month.
Finally, today's bonus download has been floating around the internet for a couple of years now. Released in 2010 on April Fools, "Twin Peaks" is rapper mc chris's tribute to the cult television series Twin Peaks. The track samples pieces of the instantly recognizable soundtrack over a beat, and only reveals one significant spoiler through the course of its three minutes and twenty-two seconds. Check out this post at You Sound Like a Robot and scroll down to the BOB/Cooper GIF to download "Twin Peaks".
Last week's free download is from the Smithsonian Folkways website. Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. Our selection is the Mexican folksong "El Son de Sánchez", from ¡Tierra Caliente! Music from the Hotlands of Michoacán by Conjunto de Arpa Grande Arpex. Conjunto de arpa grande or "big harp ensemble" is the rural relative of mariachi, and considered the signature musical tradition of the Michoacán region of Mexico. Scroll down through the Smithsonian Folkways free downloads page to find the track, then right click either the MP3 of FLAC link and select "save link as" to download.
If you have a keen interest in folk songs or ethnomusicology, consider signing up for their free email news letter, which includes access to one or more free downloads each month.
Finally, today's bonus download has been floating around the internet for a couple of years now. Released in 2010 on April Fools, "Twin Peaks" is rapper mc chris's tribute to the cult television series Twin Peaks. The track samples pieces of the instantly recognizable soundtrack over a beat, and only reveals one significant spoiler through the course of its three minutes and twenty-two seconds. Check out this post at You Sound Like a Robot and scroll down to the BOB/Cooper GIF to download "Twin Peaks".
Friday, March 30, 2012
This week's free C&C download.
This week's download is yours to select from the offerings at a massive audio-buffet showcasing a sampling of the acts who played this year's SXSW Festival. This year's playlist features free Mp3s from over 120 artists, including Screaming Females, Peelander Z and The Wedding Present. Unlike some promotional playlists, you can download individual tracks, instead of having to download one lump file and manually fast-forward through any tracks you don't care for. You can also sample all the tracks first, either individually by clicking on the title of the song you want to hear, or by streaming the entire playlist. Start streaming and cherry-picking tracks to downloads here.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
App Review: Coupon Sherpa
Coupon Sherpa is a free, mobile app from couponsherpa.com for the iPhone, the iPod touch and the Android system.
Essentially, what Coupon Sherpa does is it rounds up hundreds of in-store online coupons available from various national retailers and compiles them in one handy application. It also offers some exclusive mobile coupons accessible only through their app. There are two ways to use the coupons accessible through the mobile app. The first is to access the coupons through the application, email them to yourself and then print them out from your computer. The second is to use the coupons directly through the app by showing the cashier the coupon on the screen of your mobile device at checkout. Some of these coupons will have a bar code that will scan at checkout, depending on the type of scanner being used. Optical scanners can scan bar codes from the screen of your mobile device, but laser scanners cannot. Coupon Sherpa cannot guarantee that a retailer will honor coupons shown on your mobile device, but the refusal to honor mobile coupons is reported to be rare. If you're worried a retailer won't accept mobile coupons, you can always phone ahead to find out what their policy is ahead of time. If they don't accept mobile coupons, then you can always use the alternate method of emailing them to yourself and printing the coupons before you go shopping. Retailers must first register with Coupon Sherpa before any of their offers are made available through the app or couponsherpa.com, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting the discount so long as it is presented in the preferred format. In addition to offering coupons to national retailers, Coupon Sherpa also aggregates coupons offered by several national grocery store chains.
Though I've only used Coupon Sherpa a handful of times, I've never had any problems with it. Last autumn I used coupons from Coupon Sherpa at Famous Footwear, Ulta, and Express to get discounts on items I needed for my move abroad. Unfortunately, as Coupon Sherpa coupons are only valid in the US, its only use to me now is using it to alert my friends and family to coupons in which they might be interested. The variety of retail discounts offered seems to be consistently varied throughout the year, with offerings from dozens of stores, catering to a variety of different demographics. In addition to offering discounts at family favorites such as Target and Walgreens, there are also coupons for trendier stores like Aeropastale, DSW Shoes and Torrid. The grocery coupons section was nearly no use to me, as the area in which I used to live was served almost exclusively by smaller, regional chains. However, as Coupon Sherpa lists thirty different grocery stores, it could be very useful indeed depending on where you reside in the US. Some of the grocery chains offering coupons through the app include: ShopRite, Foodtown, Giant Eagle, Ralph's, and Genuardi's.
Geography may be the thing that makes or breaks this app for users. One critical reviewer complained that none of the retailers offering discounts through the app had branches in her area. Another complained that "almost all the stores don't even know they are on the app and don't except(sic) the coupons." This is totally contrary to my experience with the app however, as I had no trouble with retailers accepting the coupons. The Famous Footwear in my area did not accept mobile coupons, but they did accept the printed version of the discount voucher. All in all, Coupon Sherpa does what it claims to do, which is offer valid discounts at a wide variety of retailers across different categories. For this I'd rate Coupon Sherpa as worth having if you live and shop in the United States.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Roam if you want to: How to avoid your mobile carrier's roaming charges when you're... roaming
While the big national mobile carriers like Verizon and AT&T cover most of the United States, including parts of Alaska and Hawaii, anyone venturing beyond the lower 48 (and the aforementioned parts of Alaska and Hawaii) may find themselves hit with outrageous roaming charges should they try to use their mobile phone while away on holiday. However, with a little research and planning, these charges can be significantly reduced or avoided all together!
1.) Check with your mobile provider and ask if they offer any options like buying prepaid roaming minutes or an international texting bundle.
Rates vary among carriers but it's almost always cheaper to pay for roaming charges ahead of time, especially if you know you'll be making more than one or two calls or any calls lasting over a few minutes.
2.) If you own an unlocked, quad-band GSM phone, see if local networks offer pay-as-you-go SIM cards.
Mobile SIMs can be quickly and easily switched out by anyone, so if you have a universal phone, this is a worthwhile option even on short trips. There is the initial cost of buying a local SIM card and loading credit on to it, but many networks will "give" away the card for free so long as a certain amount of credit is purchased (usually 5 to 10 units of whatever the local currency happens to be; For example, if you're in the UK, a SIM could be yours for 10 GBP). Unfortunately some countries make it very difficult or impossible for visitors on a short-term visa to purchase SIM cards. Check a travel guide or forum like the one at lonelyplanet.com.
3.) Consider buying a cheap prepaid phone with a re-loadable SIM (or a cheap CDMA phone with re-loadable credit).
If you don't own an unlocked GSM quad-band phone, consider buying a cheap, prepaid or rolling contract phone. This option is better for longer trips and ideal for something like a study abroad term. Finding a mobile hand-set retailer in the region or country to where you're traveling may take a little time and effort, but a quick internet search beforehand will almost certainly turn up the name of the retail outlets, if not their addresses and street-view photos. If used with conjunction with Rebtel and their "ring-back" service, it's possible to use your new local mobile to call back home for only the price of the minutes that you've already paid for, or that are included in your rolling contract.
4.) Exploit the wifi capabilities of your mobile device.
Do you own an iPod touch, a tablet or a smart phone with wireless capabilities? Will you have access to a wireless internet connection on your travels? Then you may be able to rig your device to send free SMS and calls over the internet. If you'll mostly be making calls or sending SMS to other US numbers, then you may want to download the textfree app from Pinger. Now available for the iPod touch, the iPad, the iPhone, Android and the Web, users can send SMS to US numbers for free no matter where they are in the world. While originally textfree could only be used to send SMS, it is now possible to make and receive calls through this app, with many calls (incoming and textfree to textfree) being completely free!
Other apps that allow users to similarly send free SMS and/or calls over a wireless connection include: Talkatone, textPlus, and TigerText.
It is also possible to use Skype on your mobile device. Any calls placed to another Skype user that is signed in to their Skype account, will be free! (All Skype calls placed to mobile numbers or landlines however, will be charged usual rates) Get the Skype mobile app for free here (iPod touch & iPhone) and here (Android).
5.) If all else fails, there's always the classic pay phone + international calling card combo.
Depending on where you're traveling, you may save money or get a card with significantly better calling rates if you buy the calling card online or ahead of time. --But then again you may not. Check out this guide to call costs at lonelyplanet.com to start comparing rates.
1.) Check with your mobile provider and ask if they offer any options like buying prepaid roaming minutes or an international texting bundle.
Rates vary among carriers but it's almost always cheaper to pay for roaming charges ahead of time, especially if you know you'll be making more than one or two calls or any calls lasting over a few minutes.
2.) If you own an unlocked, quad-band GSM phone, see if local networks offer pay-as-you-go SIM cards.
Mobile SIMs can be quickly and easily switched out by anyone, so if you have a universal phone, this is a worthwhile option even on short trips. There is the initial cost of buying a local SIM card and loading credit on to it, but many networks will "give" away the card for free so long as a certain amount of credit is purchased (usually 5 to 10 units of whatever the local currency happens to be; For example, if you're in the UK, a SIM could be yours for 10 GBP). Unfortunately some countries make it very difficult or impossible for visitors on a short-term visa to purchase SIM cards. Check a travel guide or forum like the one at lonelyplanet.com.
3.) Consider buying a cheap prepaid phone with a re-loadable SIM (or a cheap CDMA phone with re-loadable credit).
If you don't own an unlocked GSM quad-band phone, consider buying a cheap, prepaid or rolling contract phone. This option is better for longer trips and ideal for something like a study abroad term. Finding a mobile hand-set retailer in the region or country to where you're traveling may take a little time and effort, but a quick internet search beforehand will almost certainly turn up the name of the retail outlets, if not their addresses and street-view photos. If used with conjunction with Rebtel and their "ring-back" service, it's possible to use your new local mobile to call back home for only the price of the minutes that you've already paid for, or that are included in your rolling contract.
4.) Exploit the wifi capabilities of your mobile device.
Do you own an iPod touch, a tablet or a smart phone with wireless capabilities? Will you have access to a wireless internet connection on your travels? Then you may be able to rig your device to send free SMS and calls over the internet. If you'll mostly be making calls or sending SMS to other US numbers, then you may want to download the textfree app from Pinger. Now available for the iPod touch, the iPad, the iPhone, Android and the Web, users can send SMS to US numbers for free no matter where they are in the world. While originally textfree could only be used to send SMS, it is now possible to make and receive calls through this app, with many calls (incoming and textfree to textfree) being completely free!
Other apps that allow users to similarly send free SMS and/or calls over a wireless connection include: Talkatone, textPlus, and TigerText.
It is also possible to use Skype on your mobile device. Any calls placed to another Skype user that is signed in to their Skype account, will be free! (All Skype calls placed to mobile numbers or landlines however, will be charged usual rates) Get the Skype mobile app for free here (iPod touch & iPhone) and here (Android).
5.) If all else fails, there's always the classic pay phone + international calling card combo.
Depending on where you're traveling, you may save money or get a card with significantly better calling rates if you buy the calling card online or ahead of time. --But then again you may not. Check out this guide to call costs at lonelyplanet.com to start comparing rates.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Ten Sources for Really Free Music That's Really Working For Me
Streaming Services
(1) Pandora
Pandora probably has the least cluttered layout and nicest radio interface of the three streaming services listed here. The sound and connection quality has always been excellent whenever I've used it, but there are ads if you're using the free version, and sometimes they're every three or four songs. This can be annoying, but every ad I've seen so far has been less than 30 seconds. They also only allow free users to skip a certain number of tracks per hour. This aspect, and the lack of a discovery feature, makes Pandora the service I use least frequently to stream, despite its cleanly designed interface. If you aren't looking for new music however, Pandora is a great service for the casual listener. The ads played are brief, and there no annoying radio personalities interrupting your tunaege.
(2) Last.fm
We wrote up Last.fm in detail here last year, but for those who can't be bothered to read the article, last.fm is a free streaming music service (le duh). While it isn't necessary that you sign up and create a profile to use their services, if you want to use their "recommendations" feature to discover new songs, new artists, and new events in your area that are catered to your music tastes, I recommend that you do. In fact, last.fm's "recommendations" feature is the reason I usually recommend last.fm to friends over Pandora. Pandora has a nicer interface, but last.fm has the better discovery algorithm and consistently recommends new artists and songs that I actually want to hear.
(3) Grooveshark
While the streaming radio service on Grooveshark is a little more unwieldy than Pandora or Last.fm, this is service I use daily. Grooveshark is unique to the other two services mentioned in that it allows you to stream any single track in the library, an unlimited number of times at will, whether you've registered for an account or not. Users are able to stream entire albums so long as they've been uploaded to Grooveshark's massive music library. There hasn't been a single track or artist I've searched for so far that doesn't exist in some version in their library. The radio service as it is leaves a little to be desired. Your main options are to either select a genre-based station or to play a track and then turn the radio feature on. The second option creates a radio station of music similar to the initial track selected. This system can be tweaked a little, if users select a few songs manually, before turning on the radio feature. If you want to create a station with more genre variety, selecting a few songs from across a few different genres is the most effective way to accomplish this.
Free Mp3 Downloads
(4) Artist Direct
The online digital media company that acquired Media Defender and Media Sentry in the last decade also offers free downloads! Who knew? Surprisingly, the downloads offered are not limited to the new bands pushed desperately by their labels nor to the obscurities that never made back the cost of their advances. One of my favorite finds so far is this track from the Bloody Beetroots. Be aware though, that in order to save files from Artist Direct to your computer you must right click (Mac users hold control and click) and select "save link as".
(5) Amazon.com
Monster online-retailer Amazon.com offers free Mp3 downloads in addition to regular purchased tracks. Weeding through all the purchase tracks when searching bestsellers, or the obscure tracks when searching the list of the free tracks can be tedious, but browsing these vast collections usually proves worthwhile. Don't over look their huge selection of free Mp3 sampler albums! The catch here is you have to either make an Amazon account or already have one and then go to the trouble of logging in. You then have to install the Amazon Mp3 down-loader. Still, it's all free and the total processes combined take only a few minutes.
(6) Paste Magazine Free Mp3s
Oh Paste Magazine, you never let me down. Updated frequently, across a wide variety of genres, Paste Magazine's free Mp3 blog has a huge collection of free downloads. This has been totally hassle free so far. Visitors to the blog simply click the hyperlinked text that says something like "click here to download Vampire Weekend's cover of Cheryl Cole's Fight for this Love" and the download begins. There have been a few songs (like those on the Saddle Creek label) that require users to submit their email address to receive a link that allows them to complete the download. This being a blog run by Paste Magazine, most offerings come from independent labels. However, with selections ranging from Bright Eyes, Cut/Copy, The Pixies, Elvis Costello and the Tings Tings, there should be at least one track to please everyone.
Mp3 Blogs
(7) Dopplebanger
Dopplebanger features remixes and mash-ups from the Parsian electronic artist Dopplebanger. Tracks featured are mostly Club, Electronic, Hip-Hop and R&B mash-ups, but there are some original compositions posted as well. Currently content is a little sparse, but if mash-ups are your thing, this blog offers some fun, free downloads of remixed hits like Rude Boy and Got It Twisted Sister. Many of the downloads offered are available directly, but a few come through mediafire (but they're still free).
(8) Aquarium Drunkard
Aquarium Drunkard is "an eclectic independent audio blog, featuring daily music, reviews, features, Mp3s, sessions, interviews, and more". One of the great things about Aquarium Drunkard is that they've been around since 2005, and post new content nearly every day, so there's loads of material to sift through. On the other hand, mining the blog for Mp3 downloads can be a little daunting at first, because there's loads of material to sift through. HINT: most of the Mp3s on offer are at the end of each Aquarium Drunkard article. So scroll down. Most of the articles and interviews posted, however, are very readable, comfortably concise, and thankfully for-go the meaningless ratings systems and taste-maker posturing that plagues a lot of writing about independent music.
Recommended Podcasts
(9) Coverville
Coverville is a podcast featuring noteworthy... you guessed it, cover versions of songs performed by both new and well-established artists. Having debuted in 2004, with new episodes released roughly three times per week, there is a huge back catalog of material, with iTunes podcast archive going as far back as late 2009. If you dig deep, like more than fifty pages deep, you can go back even further than that in the archives on their website. This is easier than it sounds though. Enter the archives by clicking the "older entries" button at the bottom of the main page. The URL at the top of the page should now read "coverville.com/page/2/". Simply change that low number to a much higher one, say "60", and you're all the way back in September of 2009, listening to covers of every track from Abbey Road Remember to right click and "save link as" when cruising that deep in the back pages.
(10) Mad Decent Worldwide Radio
Hosted by both the label's team and the label's founder, Diplo, the Mad Decent Worldwide Radio podcast, features artists on the Mad Decent record label, as well as ones that they haven't signed but have taken note. A self-described "NPR for the streets", Mad Decent Worldwide Radio features DJ mixes, videos, interviews, radio-casts and mixtapes highlighting emerging and obscure sub-genres of club and electronic music. These guys also put on a free block party every summer in select cities. Watch the space at maddecentblockparty.com for details.
(1) Pandora
Pandora probably has the least cluttered layout and nicest radio interface of the three streaming services listed here. The sound and connection quality has always been excellent whenever I've used it, but there are ads if you're using the free version, and sometimes they're every three or four songs. This can be annoying, but every ad I've seen so far has been less than 30 seconds. They also only allow free users to skip a certain number of tracks per hour. This aspect, and the lack of a discovery feature, makes Pandora the service I use least frequently to stream, despite its cleanly designed interface. If you aren't looking for new music however, Pandora is a great service for the casual listener. The ads played are brief, and there no annoying radio personalities interrupting your tunaege.
(2) Last.fm
We wrote up Last.fm in detail here last year, but for those who can't be bothered to read the article, last.fm is a free streaming music service (le duh). While it isn't necessary that you sign up and create a profile to use their services, if you want to use their "recommendations" feature to discover new songs, new artists, and new events in your area that are catered to your music tastes, I recommend that you do. In fact, last.fm's "recommendations" feature is the reason I usually recommend last.fm to friends over Pandora. Pandora has a nicer interface, but last.fm has the better discovery algorithm and consistently recommends new artists and songs that I actually want to hear.
(3) Grooveshark
While the streaming radio service on Grooveshark is a little more unwieldy than Pandora or Last.fm, this is service I use daily. Grooveshark is unique to the other two services mentioned in that it allows you to stream any single track in the library, an unlimited number of times at will, whether you've registered for an account or not. Users are able to stream entire albums so long as they've been uploaded to Grooveshark's massive music library. There hasn't been a single track or artist I've searched for so far that doesn't exist in some version in their library. The radio service as it is leaves a little to be desired. Your main options are to either select a genre-based station or to play a track and then turn the radio feature on. The second option creates a radio station of music similar to the initial track selected. This system can be tweaked a little, if users select a few songs manually, before turning on the radio feature. If you want to create a station with more genre variety, selecting a few songs from across a few different genres is the most effective way to accomplish this.
Free Mp3 Downloads
(4) Artist Direct
The online digital media company that acquired Media Defender and Media Sentry in the last decade also offers free downloads! Who knew? Surprisingly, the downloads offered are not limited to the new bands pushed desperately by their labels nor to the obscurities that never made back the cost of their advances. One of my favorite finds so far is this track from the Bloody Beetroots. Be aware though, that in order to save files from Artist Direct to your computer you must right click (Mac users hold control and click) and select "save link as".
(5) Amazon.com
Monster online-retailer Amazon.com offers free Mp3 downloads in addition to regular purchased tracks. Weeding through all the purchase tracks when searching bestsellers, or the obscure tracks when searching the list of the free tracks can be tedious, but browsing these vast collections usually proves worthwhile. Don't over look their huge selection of free Mp3 sampler albums! The catch here is you have to either make an Amazon account or already have one and then go to the trouble of logging in. You then have to install the Amazon Mp3 down-loader. Still, it's all free and the total processes combined take only a few minutes.
(6) Paste Magazine Free Mp3s
Oh Paste Magazine, you never let me down. Updated frequently, across a wide variety of genres, Paste Magazine's free Mp3 blog has a huge collection of free downloads. This has been totally hassle free so far. Visitors to the blog simply click the hyperlinked text that says something like "click here to download Vampire Weekend's cover of Cheryl Cole's Fight for this Love" and the download begins. There have been a few songs (like those on the Saddle Creek label) that require users to submit their email address to receive a link that allows them to complete the download. This being a blog run by Paste Magazine, most offerings come from independent labels. However, with selections ranging from Bright Eyes, Cut/Copy, The Pixies, Elvis Costello and the Tings Tings, there should be at least one track to please everyone.
Mp3 Blogs
(7) Dopplebanger
Dopplebanger features remixes and mash-ups from the Parsian electronic artist Dopplebanger. Tracks featured are mostly Club, Electronic, Hip-Hop and R&B mash-ups, but there are some original compositions posted as well. Currently content is a little sparse, but if mash-ups are your thing, this blog offers some fun, free downloads of remixed hits like Rude Boy and Got It Twisted Sister. Many of the downloads offered are available directly, but a few come through mediafire (but they're still free).
(8) Aquarium Drunkard
Aquarium Drunkard is "an eclectic independent audio blog, featuring daily music, reviews, features, Mp3s, sessions, interviews, and more". One of the great things about Aquarium Drunkard is that they've been around since 2005, and post new content nearly every day, so there's loads of material to sift through. On the other hand, mining the blog for Mp3 downloads can be a little daunting at first, because there's loads of material to sift through. HINT: most of the Mp3s on offer are at the end of each Aquarium Drunkard article. So scroll down. Most of the articles and interviews posted, however, are very readable, comfortably concise, and thankfully for-go the meaningless ratings systems and taste-maker posturing that plagues a lot of writing about independent music.
Recommended Podcasts
(9) Coverville
Coverville is a podcast featuring noteworthy... you guessed it, cover versions of songs performed by both new and well-established artists. Having debuted in 2004, with new episodes released roughly three times per week, there is a huge back catalog of material, with iTunes podcast archive going as far back as late 2009. If you dig deep, like more than fifty pages deep, you can go back even further than that in the archives on their website. This is easier than it sounds though. Enter the archives by clicking the "older entries" button at the bottom of the main page. The URL at the top of the page should now read "coverville.com/page/2/". Simply change that low number to a much higher one, say "60", and you're all the way back in September of 2009, listening to covers of every track from Abbey Road Remember to right click and "save link as" when cruising that deep in the back pages.
(10) Mad Decent Worldwide Radio
Hosted by both the label's team and the label's founder, Diplo, the Mad Decent Worldwide Radio podcast, features artists on the Mad Decent record label, as well as ones that they haven't signed but have taken note. A self-described "NPR for the streets", Mad Decent Worldwide Radio features DJ mixes, videos, interviews, radio-casts and mixtapes highlighting emerging and obscure sub-genres of club and electronic music. These guys also put on a free block party every summer in select cities. Watch the space at maddecentblockparty.com for details.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Moar Music! From Black Tambourine!
Courtesy of bread n' butter and bandcamp.com...
A FREE DOWNLOAD of earlier mixes transferred from the original Black Tambourine cassette. While the mixes are from the same performances and recordings as the remixed versions, there are some differences between the vocals, reverb and guitar effects. As fans of both free downloads and dreamy, noise-pop from the early 1990's, we suggest you check it out.
Original post at bread n' butter
Black Tambourine cassette download at bandcamp.com
A FREE DOWNLOAD of earlier mixes transferred from the original Black Tambourine cassette. While the mixes are from the same performances and recordings as the remixed versions, there are some differences between the vocals, reverb and guitar effects. As fans of both free downloads and dreamy, noise-pop from the early 1990's, we suggest you check it out.
Original post at bread n' butter
Black Tambourine cassette download at bandcamp.com
Friday, June 4, 2010
HIPSTERIFFIC MUSIC MIX FROM iTUNES THROUGH STARBUCKS
Brought to you courtesy of Red Plum.
Through this week until the end of August iTunes has for download, a free, hipsteriffic music mix of ten tracks featuring the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Band, the Shout Out Louds, Goldfrapp, and Hot Chip. While it's maybe not as "edgy" as Starbucks would have you believe, it's not bad. --Well, not once you get over the feeling that you just downloaded a playlist put together through a partnership between Starbucks and iTunes.
Though a highlighting a mix put out through such an unholy alliance gives me a sort of nasty, filmy feeling on my teeth, I can't pretend I don't use both these... what are they anyway? Services? Brands? After all, whenever traveling, whether it's to the big city or some hole out in the sticks, I'm always a bit relieved to see a Starbucks down the corner. This guarantees that even if the coffee is hideously bad every where in town, I will be able to find a palatable, if kinda burnt, cup of coffee somewhere should I get desperate. And while I find the fact that iTunes only works with the iPod a little insidious, I still use iTunes in addition to owning and using an iPod. Eh.
Anyway! Get the playlist here! They're giving it away for free!
STILL TO COME: SAVING SUX (AMEN)
Through this week until the end of August iTunes has for download, a free, hipsteriffic music mix of ten tracks featuring the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Band, the Shout Out Louds, Goldfrapp, and Hot Chip. While it's maybe not as "edgy" as Starbucks would have you believe, it's not bad. --Well, not once you get over the feeling that you just downloaded a playlist put together through a partnership between Starbucks and iTunes.
Though a highlighting a mix put out through such an unholy alliance gives me a sort of nasty, filmy feeling on my teeth, I can't pretend I don't use both these... what are they anyway? Services? Brands? After all, whenever traveling, whether it's to the big city or some hole out in the sticks, I'm always a bit relieved to see a Starbucks down the corner. This guarantees that even if the coffee is hideously bad every where in town, I will be able to find a palatable, if kinda burnt, cup of coffee somewhere should I get desperate. And while I find the fact that iTunes only works with the iPod a little insidious, I still use iTunes in addition to owning and using an iPod. Eh.
Anyway! Get the playlist here! They're giving it away for free!
STILL TO COME: SAVING SUX (AMEN)
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