Artist Spotlight: The Machine

The Machine is an excellent Pink Floyd tribute band that allows recordings of their shows to be hosted on the Live Music Archive.  At the time of this writing, there are 22 shows available for download in a variety of formats - namely, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, and VBR MP3.  So far I have downloaded three shows, and they all sound great and are quite lengthy; each of them clocks in at just under three hours.

The Machine covers a huge variety of Pink Floyd material.  All the staples that you would expect are here, like "Money", "Another Brick in the Wall Part II", and "Comfortably Numb", as well as more obscure songs; notably, they play songs from The Final Cut, something Pink Floyd themselves never did in concert.  They even play songs from the two David Gilmour-led albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, which kind of surprised me as those two albums do not seem to be very popular among Pink Floyd fans (The Division Bell happens to be my favourite album of theirs, though).  All of the songs are played incredibly well - to my ear, there's not a whole lot to distinguish them from the real deal, making them very authentic sounding.

This post has been written in memory of my father, who passed away very suddenly last month.  Music was a huge part of his life, something that he passed on to both of his sons, and he was the biggest Pink Floyd fan I have ever known.  I love you, Dad.  I wish you were here, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day.

URL:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheMachineLive

Artist Spotlight: Justin Townes Earle

I have been a huge fan of Steve Earle for many years now. I am currently enjoying listening to his recently released album Townes, which is a tribute to Earle's friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt. This album is not the only thing Earle has named after the late singer-songwriter - his first son, Justin Townes Earle, also bears that name. It is perhaps not too surprising that Justin has chosen to pursue a career in music. When he was a teenager, he made a guest appearance on his father's album El Corazón, playing guitar the rocker "Here I Am". He also appears on Townes, this time singing a duet with his father on "Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold".

I initially found it rather amusing that Justin appeared on the album "courtesy of Bloodshot Records", but after thinking about it a bit, I think it's great that he is forging his own musical path, rather than just riding on his father's coattails. Justin has released three albums of his own in the last few years, and last.fm is currently hosting two free MP3s from the second album, The Good Life. The first one, "Hard Livin'", is a fun country romp, while the second one, "Who Am I to Say", is a beautiful ballad. His Wikipedia page mentions that he has played at South By Southwest for the last 2 years, and a quick trip to the SXSW website yielded a third free MP3: "Midnight at the Movies", the title track from his latest album, which is another beautiful, laid-back country ballad.

Justin has also recently given permission for recordings of his concerts to be distributed via the Live Music Archive. At the time of this writing, there are 21 complete concerts available for download in multiple formats, including MP3, OGG, and FLAC. The sound quality of these recordings is not always perfect, but if you are a fan of live recordings, they are well worth checking out. Right now I am listening to the 2008-12-24 show from The Cactus Cafe in Austin, TX, and it sounds great - the recording is very clear, and the performances are excellent.

For someone who bears the names of not one, but two musical legends, Justin Townes Earle has a lot to live up to; from what I have heard so far, he is doing very well for himself indeed and has a very bright future ahead of him. I'm really looking forward to hearing more from him, and I hope you enjoy this music too. Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.last.fm/music/Justin+Townes+Earle/_/Hard+Livin
http://www.last.fm/music/Justin+Townes+Earle/_/Who+Am+I+To+Say
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Townes_Earle
http://2009.sxsw.com/music/shows/schedule/?a=show&s=88839
http://www.archive.org/details/JustinTownesEarle

Halloween Treat Bag

Okay, it turns out that I have more Halloween music than I have time to post about, so I have decided to round up some of my favourites into one big post. If you still haven't found any good music for your Halloween activities, or you are just looking for some more, I hope that this helps you to find what you're looking for.

First up is an EP that I originally spotlighted back in the spring: Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I. This first part of the quadruple EP Ghosts I-IV is available to download for free and consists of 9 instrumental tracks that range from haunting and beautiful to loud and noisy. While not Halloween music per se, ghosts are such a common theme at this time of year that this release is nonetheless very appropriate.

Next, we'll stop by last.fm for Februus' cover of "This is Halloween", originally from Tim Burton's 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. To me, this sounds like a great cross between the original version from the movie and Marilyn Manson's cover version from the bonus disc of the 2006 reissue of the soundtrack: the instrumentation is a gothic metal style much like Manson's version, but the variety of voices in the vocals is much more like the ensemble style of the original.

Our next stop will be Jonathan Coulton's website for a pair of songs. "Creepy Doll" is a song inspired by "various 70s horror movies that scared the hell out of [him] when [he] was a kid," and "Skullcrusher Mountain" takes us to the secret lair of a misunderstood evil genius. You'll probably meet his half-pony, half-monkey monster and his hungry wolves along the way, if his doomsday squad doesn't ignite the atmosphere first. Like most of Coulton's songs, these two are a lot of fun to listen to, so if you like what you hear, I would highly recommend checking out some more of his songs - a lot of them can be downloaded for free.

Mary Shelley Overdrive is another band that I have discovered thanks to the Free Metal Albums blog. They have two Halloween-themed EPs available from their blog: Shock Theatre and Bride of Shock Theatre (download links can be found in the right sidebar of their blog). I was initially drawn to these releases for the covers of Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" and Blue Öyster Cult's "Godzilla", and after a couple of listens their version of The Misfits' "Halloween" quickly became another favourite of mine. I love the movie samples that are sprinkled throughout many of the songs. Most of the music has a punk or metal feel to it, and much of it is rather noisy, but it could make a great soundtrack for whatever you're doing this Halloween.

Ondrej Kapov De Triste's Creeps Theme is a short but very sweet release featuring the opening and closing themes for a horror movie. There is some wonderful potential here and I would love to hear what this artist could come up with for a full film score; for now, please enjoy "Emotion" and "Emotioncreep" this Halloween.

As a bonus treat, why not help yourself to some free Smashing Pumpkins music, perhaps to listen to whilst carving jack-o'-lanterns? Hundreds of their live recordings, spanning nearly two decades, are available from the Internet Archive. The Smashing Pumpkins were also one of the first artists I featured on this blog for their freely available studio album Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, which makes for an excellent listen at any time.

I hope that these last few posts have helped you to find some good music to listen to this Halloween. If you've found anything cool here or elsewhere, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. Have a safe and Happy Halloween, and Happy Listening!

URLs:
http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options
http://www.last.fm/music/Februus/_/This+Is+Halloween
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songdetails/Creepy%20Doll
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songdetails/Skullcrusher%20Mountain
http://freemetalalbums.wordpress.com/
http://maryshelleyoverdrive.blogspot.com/
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/24743
http://www.archive.org/details/SmashingPumpkins
http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2008/01/album-spotlight-smashing-pumpkins.html

Album Spotlight: Silber Sounds of Halloween

Are you all ready for Halloween yet? Need some spooky music to help set the mood for whatever you'll be doing? Then Silber Sounds of Halloween, a free compilation from indie record label Silber, may be just what you're looking for. Much like the previously mentioned Calling All Fiends compilation, this is a collection of offbeat, cool, and often very creepy music that is great for establishing a Halloween mood.

The album opens with a beautifully haunting, almost Pink Floyd-like song called "The Dreaming Body" by Lycia, and is then immediately followed up with "Dawn of the Dead", a hip hop song by Peter Aldrich. This abrupt shift in styles in the first two songs alone is very indicative of the album as a whole: this compilation is not restricted to any one genre or style; you will find quiet atmospheric music, heavy metal, post rock, soundcapes, and a number of other genres. With such a broad range of styles represented, there will very likely be something that will interest you, and maybe you will find a new favourite band to follow.

A few of my personal favourites from the compilation are Rachel Goldstar's dreamy "Amsterdam"; The Wades' "Sídhe", a haunting track full of screams and whispers, all played over a slow metal groove that would not sound out of place on an old Black Sabbath album; and Cam Butler's "Does Your River Run Deep", a classical/rock hybrid which has an awesome groove. But with 30 songs and over 2 hours of music, I find myself discovering new things to like about the album every time I listen to it, and I am really looking forward to checking out some more work by many of these artists.

More information about Silber Sounds of Halloween, including links to many of the artists' own websites, can be found on the Silber Records site. The compilation itself can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Check it out, see what songs work for you, have fun listening to it, have a safe and Happy Halloween, and happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.silbermedia.com/comps/halloween/
http://www.archive.org/details/silber065-silbersoundsofhalloween

Artist Spotlight: Thumpermonkey Lives!

Who are these guys? They are awesome.

That's a direct quote from the notes I made whilst listening to some new music recently. Doing this blog has enabled me to hear all kinds of interesting music, and occasionally I discover an artist that really blows me away. In this case, "these guys" are Thumpermonkey (also known as Thumpermonkey Lives! on their latest releases - I'm not sure why the name changed), a British band that absolutely defies categorization. As of January 2, 2008, all of their music can be downloaded freely from the Internet Archive.

Their music is primarily progressive rock-based, twisting and turning its way through all kinds of tempo and time signature changes; where it will end up from one minute to the next is anyone's guess as you're taken on an epic journey through musical lands both familiar and unfamiliar. For example, I think that fans of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle will love this band; the vocals in particular show a strong Mike Patton influence, and the music has the same out of control, chaotic feeling that was often present in the music of those bands. "Shchrodinger's Cat Lives!", in particular, sounds like a mutated resurrection of Faith No More's "Surprise! You're Dead!" Other parts of the album remind me of Tool (the instrumental section in "Slug City"), Fates Warning (the main riff in "Asymptote", although it is much groovier than anything I've ever heard from Fates Warning), and Steve Vai (some harmonized guitars near the end of "My Reality is Stronger"). None of this is meant to say that the music is unoriginal in any way; I am merely trying to describe it in terms of music that I am familiar with so that people who are also familiar with those artists may have some idea of what to expect. Thumpermonkey Lives! have definitely managed to forge their own sound, which is something that's not always easy to do.

Bring Me Sun for Breakfast is the latest release from Thumpermonkey Lives!, and so far it is my favourite. But their older albums and EPs are well worth checking out as well, and it is amazing to hear how far they have progressed in such a short time. Links to all of their releases are included below. From what I've heard so far, Thumpermonkey Lives! will definitely be a band to watch out for; I'm already looking forward to hearing more from them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.thumpermonkey.com/
Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Inmates [EP - 2001]
Alpha Romeo [EP - 2003]
Pigheart [LP - 2004]
Chap With The Wings, Five Rounds Rapid [LP - 2006]
Bring Me Sun For Breakfast [LP - 2007]

Album Spotlight: Smashing Pumpkins - Machina II

Sometime in the mid-1990s, I decided that I didn't want to listen to any music that was really popular at the time. I was a teenager and just wanted to be as different as I could be. I had my own favourite artists, mainly in the metal and progressive rock genres, and I figured I was fine listening to what I liked. Unfortunately, about a decade later I began to realize just how much great music I had shut myself off to, and for the last few years I have been doing a lot of catching up on music that I had missed out on. That can get expensive at times, so it's always nice to find some of that music available for free.

One band that I was always kind of a casual fan of is The Smashing Pumpkins. I liked a lot of the songs that I heard, such as "Today", "1979", and "Tonight Tonight", but never really enough that I wanted to buy any of their albums; I'm sure my elitist attitude didn't exactly help. I'm sure I'll eventually get around to obtaining some of their albums, but recently I was delighted to discover that one of their albums was released for free on the Internet. The album is called Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music and was released in 2000; until their reformation in 2007, it was actually their final studio album.

Not only is it free, but it is also a very good album. There is a lot of heavy rock, such as the rapid-fire album opener "Glass", the slower "Dross", and a cover of James Brown's "Soul Power". There are also a lot of more melodic songs like "Real Love", "Go", and "If There is a God". Also included in the download is a collection of "B-sides" to the album, which include alternate versions of a few of the songs, including a beautiful piano & vocals version of "If There is a God", which is one of the true highlights of the album. Some other highlights of the B-sides include "Slow Dawn", a melodic, mid-tempo number with a wonderfully warm sound, and "Try", a nice poppy song.

Now, because of the nature of this album's release (only 25 vinyl copies were made and distributed to online Smashing Pumpkins fans, with instructions to redistribute it on the Internet for free), there are a number of sources to download it from. I don't know if any of these sources is better than the others; the one I have does sound a little muffled, but it is definitely listenable and doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the album at all. The Wikipedia page about the album lists the following sources:

SmashingPumpkins.com (160 kbit/s CBR MP3) (doesn't seem to be available now) 
Billy-Corgan.com (320 kbit/s CBR MP3) (no longer available)
ThePumpkins.net (192 kbit/s CBR MP3)
MetroChicago.com (192 kbit/s CBR MP3)
Archive.org (192 kbit/s CBR MP3)
Archive.org (Q101 transfer, FLAC, OGG and MP3)
Archive.org (Virgin transfer, FLAC, OGG and MP3)
SPIFC.org (192 kbit/s CBR MP3) (seems to require a password now)

Please let me know in the comments what you think of the album, The Smashing Pumpkins in general, or your opinion of what is the best download source for this album.  Happy listening!