Free Album: Little Hurricane - Stay Classy

Free albums used to be something I put up regularly, but not for a while. Well here's another one. I can't remember how I found these guys, I just found their album on my hard drive the other day. They sound a bit like the Black Keys.

This is an album of covers. There aren't any real duds, but the classic songs where they stick very closely to the original are inevitably a bit dull given the quality of the originals. More interesting are newer songs like Grounds for Divorce, or I'm on Fire where things are slightly less obvious.

Stay Classy

For anyone that likes this, they've also got a free album sampler in advance of a 2015 European tour here.

Note: these are both from Bandcamp, but I'll only put up albums that are free, name a price isn't free (and treating it like it is is ripping off the artist).

Free Albums (or EPs) - Brass Tactics

 

I quite liked my idea of putting up free albums and was surprised by how many good ones there were. But like lots of things it kinda fell of the radar a bit. Here's an EP that David Byrne and St Vincent put out after their tour together. 

It's got an outtake from the album, two remixes and two live tracks. Worth the download just for the recording of Road to Nowhere.

https://mega.co.nz/#F!xEUzmCwK!SX95HV0XF7kp8X3IvTp5Wg 

Various Artists - The Best of Bonaroo

This is a free compilation that was put out to promote voting for the 2008 US presidential election. It doesn't seems to be available anymore, so I've uploaded it, rather than post a link like I normally do.
Anyway, this compilation pulls together the best live performances from Bonnaroo. There's a bit of an emphasis on jam bands, which really isn't my thing, but this is made up for by the quality of the rest of the songs. Worth particular mention is My Morning Jacket's cover of the Velvet Underground's Oh! Sweet Nuthin', which they recently reprised following Lou Reed's death.

Bull Black Nova [Wilco]
Animal [Pearl Jam]
Inaudible Melodies [Jack Johnson]
Rapunzel [Dave Matthews Band]
Cath... [Death Cab for Cutie]
Fuel [Ani DiFranco]
Kill Devil Falls [Phish]
Banks of the Deep End [Gov't Mule]
Delicate Few [O.A.R.]
Not Coming Down [moe.]
100 Yard Dash [Raphael Saadiq]
Throwing Stones [Bob Weir & Rat Dog]
And the Ladies Were the Rest of the Night [The Disco Biscuits]
The Wanting Comes in Waves [The Decemberists]
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' [My Morning Jacket]
Happier [Guster]
Box of Rain [Phil Lesh]

https://mega.co.nz/#F!9J8yUACL!tu4fJKFl4mZ9eU2i-92XBw

The Men - Immaculada LP

So, obviously there was supposed to be text and a link and stuff. Rather than a blank post. My bad. Anyway, this is noise rock, it's really good, not like their later stuff (in that their later stuff sounds different, rather than that it sounds bad). Here's the link:

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/The_Men/Immaculada_LP/

Greg Johnson - A Collection

One good source of free albums is sampler put out by bands and record labels to help promote themselves. These are often good ways to find out about new bands, I stumbled upon Japandroids on a sampler from their record label and have gone on to buy stuff from their label mates from subsquent samplers.

This one is from Greg Johnson, a New Zealand singer-songwriter who writes quite a few catchy songs. There are only seven tracks, but that's probably all you need to figure out whether you want to bother with any more of his stuff or not.

http://gregjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/a-collection

Updates

Just a quick word to say that I've updated a couple of old posts with new material. Pearl Jam's 2013 Xmas single has been released. I've added it to the Xmas singles post as well as adding a link just for each of the two new songs for anyone that has already downloaded the old singles.

Also, just in time for their Australian tour, Okkervil River have released a new addition to their Golden Opportunities series. A link to Golden Opportunities 3 is in the original Golden Opportunities post (along with links to the other two EPs if you haven't got them yet).

Free Albums - Merry Beardmas!

Just in time for Christmas, here is something put together at the good folk over at the Steam Engine. This features Christmas related tracks from a variety of artists. The quality varies between studio and very good audience recordings (mostly studio quality).

Hopefully you manage to slip this on when Grandma tries to play her Christmas carols CD.

http://thesteamengine.net/home/download-merry-beardmas.html

Free Albums - Jay Z and the Beatles - The Grey Album

I've been trying to figure out other free albums to put up and realised I haven't posted what might be the best of them all - The Grey Album. This was created by the producer Danger Mouse and features vocals from Jay Z's Black Album over music from The Beatles' White Album (hence the title 'The Grey Album).

There a quite a few risks with this type of thing - it can be gimmicky without any real musical value, or it can simply combine the worst of both sources, or it can result in something that is hated by fans of both bands. This manages to avoid all of these, resulting in an album that has had some pretty big crossover success.

Public Service Announcement
What More Can I Say
Encore
December 4th
99 Problems
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
Moment of Clarity
Change Clothes
Allure
Justify My Thug
Interlude
My 1st Song


For anyone that wants more, various other mashups have been done (none of them up to the standard of the Grey Album), including mashups with Pavement, Metallica, and Weezer (among others).

Tiger Bones - When You Die

As this free album thing progresses it's going to get harder an harder to focus only on free albums by well known bands. The flip side of that it that this is an opportunity to check out some bands that you (and I) might not otherwise encounter. In this vein - Tiger Bones. This album is one I've been listening to a lot since I downloaded it. The sound is a very indie Joy Division. Perhaps not super original, but originality is often overrated, when the key is quality, which this has in buckets.

http://www.candydinner.com/album/tiger-bones-when-you-die/

Jay Bennett - Whatever Happened I Apologize

It was interesting listening to Billy Bragg talk at his show last year about the influence of Jay Bennett on the Mermaid Avenue sessions. Clearly the guy was incredibly talented. His departure from Wilco is captured in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. But despite all that, and despite the fact that he never gained much public attention again, he produced some really good music right up until his death.

The obvious first question people will ask is does this sound like Wilco, and the answer is no. But that might put some people off but in reality its a good thing - rather than try to recreate his past glories he's moved on to something different that can more easily be judged it its own right. And doing so shows a pretty rewarding album. Ironically, given the disagreements seen in I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, this is very underproduced. In the post part its Bennett playing acoustic guitar, with some minimal additional instruments (all played by Bennett too). The sound is folky and country sounding. Lyrically its bleak but never overly morbid (in some ways it reminds me of Elliott Smith). Bennett's life had some fairly tragic elements, and his death came at time when people close to him said he had finally got himself in a good place. But Bennett's legacy remains in a wealth of fantastic music, including his solo work which is likely to be overlooked in favour of his work with Wilco.

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jay_Bennett/Whatever_Happened_I_Apologize/

Gomez - Live Series Volume 3: Los Angeles

Next up in the monthly series of live albums is one from Gomez. Their show at the Corner last year was phenomenal, and Ben Ottewell's recent Worker's Club gig wasn't bad either. This is one of the albums in what seemed to be an ongoing series of live albums released via their website, although there doesn't seem to have been any additions for quite a while. Volumes 1 and 2 are also available from the link below, but you'll have to pony up for those ones.

This show is from Los Angeles' House of Blues in late 2011. I can't seem to find a complete setlist, but from the reviews I've seen, it looks like this is the complete show.

Bring It On
Hamoa Beach
That Wolf
See The World
Just As Lost As You
Little Pieces
The Place And The People
Shot Shot
I Will Take You There
Whatever's On Your Mind
Get Myself Arrested
How We Operate
Our Goodbye
Make No Sound
Equalize
Ruff Stuff
Here Comes The Breeze
Airstream Driver
Options
Devil Will Ride

http://www.gomeztheband.com/liveseries/#

Atlas Sound - Bedroom Databank Vols 1 - 4

Time for some mid-month free album madness! Or something. This time, rather than a full album or a couple of EPs, you get four full length albums. Atlas Sound is the name used by Deerhunter's Bradford Cox for his solo releases. These are various recordings that Cox made in his bedroom in 2010. He's stated that Atlas Sound is an outlet for his work that doesn't fit with Deerhunter, so don't expect this to sound anything like their work.

The albums all contain a mix of gems and diversions. The volumes don't seem to have any thematic link, so it's hard to recommend one over any of the others. If I had to I'd say that Volume 1 is the one I listen to most, but if you only want one albums worth, I'd suggest downloading them all and then deleting the material you don't like.

[Update: now with added links!]

Bedroom Databank Volune 1
Bedroom Databank Volune 2
Bedroom Databank Volune 3
Bedroom Databank Volune 4

Okkervil River - Golden Opportunities 1, 2 & 3

So, as promised, here is the next in the continuing series of free albums posts (my plan is to have one of these on a Friday roughly in the middle of each month; it's also a nice counterbalance to the Amazon links). These were actually described as EPs, but at nine tracks, Golden Opportunities 1 is as long as two full length Okkervil River albums. Regardless, there are a total of 14 tracks here, so easily an albums worth.

Golden Opportunities 1 was released on the band's website in 2007. It features eight live covers and a live version of Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas off of their debut album Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See (no Amazon link because at $14.58 I'd have a hunt around). The first four tracks are stellar, after that it falls away a bit, but none of these are duds, and fans of Joni Mitchell or John Cale's solo work will probably be more excited about them than I am.

Golden Opportunities 2 is the most recent thing put out by the band (unless you mistakenly include Will Sheff's solo Love Streams project), coming out in 2011. It's only five tracks long, but the quality is consistently high. Unlike the first EP this is all covers recorded in a one day studio session, rather than live.

[Update: Golden Opportunities 3 has just been released. Link added below]

Golden Opportunities 1:

April Anne (John Phillips)
Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Randy Newman)
I Want to Know (The Fugs)
Do What You Gotta Do (Jimmy Webb)
I Came Here to Say I'm Going Away (Serge Gainsbourg)
The Blonde in the Bleachers (Joni Mitchell)
Antarctica Starts Here (John Cale)
Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Chritmas
Solo (Sandy Denny)

Golden Opportunities 2:

It is So Nice to Get Stoned (Ted Lucas)
U.F.O. (Jim Sullivan)
One Soul Less on Your Fiery List (The Triffids)
Plan D (Bill Fay)
Dry Bones (Traditional)

Golden Opportunities 3:

Dance Hall Days (Wang Chung)
Give Me the Night (George Benson)
Money Changes Everything (Cyndi Lauper)
Seven Year Ache (Roseanne Cash)
The End of Innocence (Don Henley)


Golden Opportunities 1 - http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/GoldenOpp_OkkervilRiver192kbps.zip
Golden Opportunities 2 - http://www.okkervilriver.com/index.php (MP3 and lossless versions)
Golden Opportunities 3 - http://okkervilriver.com/goldenopportunities

Free Albums!

It's always mildly annoying when a band you vaguely know announces a tour and you have to figure out if its worth going. Or worse, you discover a band that is absolutely amazing, then find out they just finished their Australian tour.

To potentially save you from both of those problems the Milk Carton Kids' first two albums are available for free from their website.

Also, prior to the release of Channel Orange Frank Orange released Nostalgia, Ultra for free. It's still available for anyone wondering whether to attend his Splendour sideshows, and looking at his recent setlists he plays almost as many songs from this as from Channel Orange.

Given that free things are awesome I might make a post on free albums a semi-regular thing.