Soundgarden - "Live to Rise"

Nearly three months ago, I said, "I think I'm finally ready to start posting here again too."  It was a nice thought, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  Oh well - I still think of this blog quite often, but the combination of good free music and time to write about it has been rather elusive.  I have a good song for you tonight, though.

Over the last couple of years, Soundgarden have been slowly but surely putting together one of the best reunions I've ever witnessed, although it probably helps that I was a massive fan of them back in the 90s when they broke up.  From a few one-off shows, to a compilation album packed with hits, rarities, and a brand new song (albeit one that was written and partially recorded nearly two decades prior to its release), to their first-ever live album, to their first tour in fourteen years, to a new album that is due to be released sometime this year, they have once again become a musical force to be reckoned with.  Today marked yet another milestone in their return: the release of their first newly written single since they began their reunion.  "Live to Rise" will be featured on the soundtrack to The Avengers and, for a limited time, can be downloaded for free from iTunes.

I hear a bit of an Audioslave sound in most of the song, but in reality I guess it's more of a Chris Cornell sound, since he wrote the song.  The guitar solo is definitely all Soundgarden, though - I've really missed Kim Thayil all these years!  The best part is that this is just a taste of what is to come - I can't wait to hear the new album!

Happy listening!

URL:

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/live-to-rise-single/id516435279

Blog Action Day 2010

Today is Blog Action Day, a day during which bloggers all around the world come together to write about a single important topic.  Even though I haven't been doing a whole lot of blogging lately (my reasons for which are summarized in a comment on a recent post on Feedback), I still wanted to participate in this day.  The topic for this year's Blog Action Day is water; this being a music blog, it made sense to have some music about water.

A few months ago, I came across a live version of Pearl Jam's "Amongst the Waves", which was originally released on last year's Backspacer.  That album has actually turned out to be one of my favourite Pearl Jam albums yet, and "Amongst the Waves" is one of my favourite songs on the album; the big, anthemic chorus is something that Pearl Jam really excels at, and I love the upbeat nature of this song.  While the song itself isn't actually about water, I'm going to say that it's close enough for my purposes right now.  I'll get back to more regular blogging someday soon, I'm sure; in the meantime, enjoy the song and feel free to check out some more of the Blog Action Day action - there are quite a few music blogs involved, if you're looking for a place to start.

You'll need to subscribe to Pearl Jam's mailing list to access the download.  If you're cool with that, the download link should arrive in your inbox shortly.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://blogactionday.change.org

http://www.pearljam.com/widgets/atw/index.php

Song Spotlight: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - "Believe"

I was a little surprised (but pleasantly so) to see that Trans-Siberian Orchestra have offered another song from their latest album, Night Castle, as a free download; you might recall that they previously offered "Child of the Night" as a time-limited free download.  "Believe" is the latest song to be offered, and what's interesting is that it is actually being made available for a video contest; you can download both the album version and a "radio" version to use as the soundtrack for a video of "something/anything you believe in."  I'm not particularly skilled in video creation, so I doubt I'll even attempt to enter a contest like this; however, for those who are so inclined, it looks like the prize is quite nice, so it might be worth your time.

"Believe" was originally released by Savatage on their 1991 album, Streets: A Rock Opera.  Even though this is technically a cover version, Trans-Siberian Orchestra actually evolved from Savatage, so this song is much more representative of their sound than "Child of the Night" is.  It opens quietly with piano and vocals, which are later joined by drums and distorted guitars; it is a power ballad through and through.  I really like the way the vocals are delivered in this song, and there is a beautiful guitar solo near the end of the album version (the radio version basically strips out all the instrumental sections).

Both songs are available as high quality (320 kbps) MP3s.  If anyone decides to make a video to go along with either version, please post a link to it here - I would love to take a look at anything that my readers create.  Happy listening! 

URL:

http://feature.atlrec.com/contests/tso/believe/

Song Spotlight: Smashing Pumpkins - "Widow Wake My Mind"

Hmm, nice.  Looks like the widget that the Smashing Pumpkins have created for Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (which I added to my post about "Song for a Son" last month) automatically updates when new songs become available. Which is kind of a roundabout way of saying that the album's second song, "Widow Wake My Mind", was released on Monday and can be downloaded directly from the band's official website.  I really like the odd-time guitar riff that opens the song, as well as the different keyboard textures that underscore much of the song.

At the current rate of one song every 41 days, the entire 44 track album should be complete by sometime in October, 2014.  I'm sure that will change as more songs become available, but it's still fun to think about what a huge undertaking this album is.  Happy listening!

URL:

 http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/

Song Spotlight: Grayson Matthews - "All You Need is Love" (Blackberry commercial song)

I was planning to start the year off by writing about some great video game music that I'd found lately.  Last week's post about the Machinarium Bonus EP was the first step in that direction, and I had another excellent album that I wanted to write about this week.  However, when I went back to the site I downloaded it from, I noticed that that album was only the tip of a very large iceberg, so I'm going to take some time to listen to at least some of the new music I've found there and give it a more comprehensive writeup.

 

For now, I'd like to post about Grayson Matthews' cover of The Beatles' "All You Need is Love".  This song is currently being featured in an ad campaign by Blackberry, and the full version can be downloaded from the Blackberry website.  I like this version of the song, even though there seems to be a great amount of negativity about it.  It doesn't feel anything like the original version, but I think that's mainly where its charm lies - the original version will always be there for anyone who wants to hear it, but it's nice to hear an artist try something completely different every once in a while.

 

Whether you're a Beatles fan, a Blackberry fan, or you just like cover versions in general, I think this song is definitely worth a download.  Either way (or even if you don't like it), I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.  Do you think songs like this should be used in advertising, or should they be left alone?  Would the ad have worked better with the original version of the song in it?  Happy listening!

 

URL:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ads/lovesong.jsp

Song Spotlight: Smashing Pumpkins - "A Song for a Son"

Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, the ambitious new Smashing Pumpkins album, has had the first of its 44 songs released.  As of December 8, 2009, "A Song for a Son" can be downloaded for free from the band's website.  I've been trying to figure out the best way of covering this album here; for example, do I post an album spotlight of the entire thing, 44 individual song spotlights, or something in between?  Since a lot depends on how the band itself decides to release the album, I'll just post about this song for now and figure out the rest of the details when I know more.  Given the amount of people who come to this blog looking for free Smashing Pumpkins music (my post about Machina II is the most popular single post on this site by a very wide margin), I think that's the best thing to do.

I really like "A Song for a Son".  Billy Corgan has stated that it has "the right epic quality to it that says, ‘OK, here we go on this massive journey!’"  I have to agree.  The song starts quietly, with piano, acoustic guitar, and what sounds like a Mellotron providing the backdrop for Corgan's vocals.  Later on, it moves into more progressive territory with layers of harmonized guitars.  If this is even a taste of what is to come, then the rest of the album is definitely something to look forward to.

You can download the song from the band's website.  They're using a widget that I will try to embed at the end of this post.  If you don't see anything there, then I guess it didn't work.  If you do see something there, please let me know what you think of it, as I generally like to keep my posts pretty plain, but if people find it useful (i.e. it makes it easier to download the music), perhaps I'll try things like that more often in the future.  Happy listening!

URL:

http://www.smashingpumpkins.com/

Song Spotlight: Paul McCartney - "Meat Free Monday"

One of my favourite moments on The Simpsons was when Paul and Linda McCartney showed up to support Lisa's efforts to become a vegetarian.  As Lisa was preparing to leave, Paul asked her if she would like to hear a song, to which she responded very enthusiastically.  Paul then handed things over to Apu, who began singing, rather terribly, "I'm Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Man, I hope I will enjoy my show."  At this point, Lisa began backing quietly away with a nervous (or was that terrified?) smile on her face.

 

Some 14 years later, Sir Paul himself has composed a song about vegetarianism called "Meat Free Monday".  Now, as I mentioned before, I'm not terribly familiar with McCartney's solo output, so I don't know if he's done this kind of thing before.  I'm pretty sure that he hasn't offered any songs about vegetarianism for free before, though.  Well, technically the song can be downloaded for making a donation to the Meat Free Monday campaign, but the site also includes a link to download the song without making a donation; how you obtain it is up to you.

 

"Meat Free Monday" is quite a fun song.  Musically, it reminds me of some Beatles songs like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Octopus's Garden".  Lyrically, he's not going for anything terribly complicated, with lines like "Meat Free Monday, it's a fun day, and it's happenin' all around the world," but that actually works in the song's favour; by keeping things simple, the song takes on a certain charm, not unlike something you might hear from Sesame Street or Schoolhouse Rock!  No matter what your views on vegetarianism are, I think it's pretty hard to deny that this is a really catchy song.

 

To download "Meat Free Monday", you need to enter your email address in the widget, and the download link will be sent to the address you provide.  Happy listening!

 

URLs:

http://www.supportmfm.org/donate/

http://www.supportmfm.org/donate/download.cfm

Song Spotlight: Moonalice - "Down The Road A Piece"

Well, that was fast.  The second song from Moonalice's second studio album, "Down The Road A Piece", has been released.  Once again, it can be downloaded directly from the band's website in MP3 and FLAC formats.  The title of the album now seems to be Online Only. Only For Free., at least according to the tags in the MP3 file.

 

The song itself is a very cool blues-based boogie tune that features some awesome solos from the piano and guitar.  I hope you've been enjoying this album as much as I have so far, and I'll be back whenever the next song is released.  Happy listening!

 

URL:

http://www.moonalice.com/music/ 

Song Spotlight: Moonalice - "It's 4:20 Somewhere"

Back in September, when the Smashing Pumpkins announced that their next album would be released for free over the Internet, one track at a time, they received quite a bit of press about it (as well as a big increase in the number of visitors to this blog searching for a "free Smashing Pumpkins album"), and deservedly so - it's definitely a different way of releasing music, and it's nice to see major artists trying things like this.  However, it appears that Moonalice have beaten them to the punch, having recently announced the release of their second album, Free, one song at a time over the Internet.  The first of those songs, "It's 4:20 Somewhere", was just released last weekend, and can be downloaded directly from their website in 128k MP3 and FLAC formats.

 

I first wrote about Moonalice back in June.  Since that time, I have continued to follow them on Twitter and Facebook and have just been fascinated by them; last week, they stated that they "got rid of our manager, publicist, and label in favor of Facebook, Twitter, and [their] website" as an experiment in social media.  I don't think too many major artists would be willing to do something like that, so I support their initiative in as many ways as I can.  Of course, it helps a lot that their music rocks, as all the social media experiments in the world wouldn't be able to help them otherwise.  "It's 4:20 Somewhere" is no exception - it's a great mid-tempo rocker with a laid back feel, excellent guitar playing, and gorgeous backing vocals.  It's a great way to kick off their latest experiment, and I can't wait to hear where they go from here.

 

I hope you enjoy this song; if you do, please stay tuned for more new songs from Moonalice.  I'll most likely be posting about each track as it is made available, although future posts will probably be shorter than this one.  Happy listening!

 

URLs:

http://www.moonalice.com/music/ (for the song, plus lots of other free music)

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2009/06/artist-spotlight-moonalice.html

http://www.facebook.com/moonalice?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/Moonalice/

http://www.moonalice.com

Song Spotlight: Allison Crowe - "Going Home Tonight"

Allison Crowe is currently working on a new album called Spiral.  A pre-release version of one of the album's songs, "Going Home Tonight", has been made available via the music blog Muruch.  This is one of the best songs I have ever heard from Allison, which is really saying a lot, as I have been a huge fan of hers for a couple of years now.  A simple, repeating piano figure provides a gentle backdrop for Allison's vocals, which are as amazingly powerful and beautiful as ever.  What's really new in this song is the string section, which soars alongside the vocals and gives the song an epic feel that one might expect to hear on a movie soundtrack.

 

When this song was posted on Allison's Facebook page, I asked when the album will be coming out, and the response was "likely to be late '09 or very early 2010."  If "Going Home Tonight" is in any way indicative of the direction Allison is taking for Spiral, then I think we are all in for a really big treat.  I'll be posting about it as soon as I am able to.  In the meantime, happy listening!

 

URLs:

http://www.muruch.com/2009/11/allison-crowe-new-mp3.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Allison-Crowe/23720081675?ref=nf

Song Spotlight: Paul McCartney - "Let Me Roll It" (plus a video for "Highway")

Paul McCartney is giving away a pair of free songs from his upcoming live CD/DVD set, Good Evening from New York City.  "Let Me Roll It" is a high quality (320 kbps) MP3, and "Highway" is a .m4v video file.  I've never posted about a free video giveaway here before, but if Music Musings can do it, then so can I!  In this case, though, the audio and video files actually come in a single zip file, so there's really no way to get one without the other.

 

I must say, it's very cool to see more and more artists embracing the idea of giving away a track or two in order to promote releases.  A release like this would normally go pretty much unnoticed by me, as despite being a pretty big Beatles fan, I am not very familiar with the post-Beatles output of any of the members.  But I find free music awfully hard to resist, and now Sir Paul has a potential sale while I browse the album's site and wait for my download to complete.  Even if I don't end up buying the album, at least Paul McCartney's music has made it onto my computer, and who knows, maybe I will end up checking out some more of his music as a result of this.

 

I don't think I have ever knowingly heard "Let Me Roll It" before, but it has quite a familiar sound to it, so it's likely that I have heard it at some point and just didn't take note of it; in any case, it's a very cool song with a great bluesy feel.  "Highway" sounds less familiar, but my 2-year-old son and I really enjoyed watching the video together - it's a very upbeat and catchy song.

 

The 39.4 MB zip file is available from the Good Evening from New York City website in a little widget near the bottom of the page that says GET A FREE VIDEO + MP3.  An email address is required; the download link will be sent to the address you entered.  Happy listening!

 

URL:

http://www.paulmccartney.com/goodeveningnewyorkcity/

Song Spotlight: Sarah McLachlan and Emmylou Harris - "Angel" (live from Lilith Fair)

Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking all-female music festival, will be returning next summer for the first time in more than a decade.  In appreciation for all of the excitement about its return, its official website is offering a free MP3 of Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel", as performed by Sarah and Emmylou Harris at the 1998 Lilith Festival.  "Angel" is a beautiful song on its own (it has always been a song that I love, even though I'm not a huge fan of Sarah McLachlan), and this duet is a really stunning version featuring some gorgeous vocal harmonies.

To get the song for free, all you need to do is subscribe to the Lilith newsletter, and the link will be sent to you via email.  Happy listening!

URL:

http://www.lilithfair.com/news/exclusive-free-mp3-download-angel-sarah-mclachlan-and-emmylou-harris

Song Spotlight: Trans-Siberian Orchestra - "Child of the Night"

Trans-Siberian Orchestra's newest album, Night Castle, has been in production for a number of years; I think I first heard it mentioned around 2004 or 2005.  Though it didn't take as long to produce as Chinese Democracy did, there were times I thought that the band might be pulling a Guns N' Roses on us, and that my own kids would be grown up before we could hear the album.  Thankfully that didn't turn out to be the case, as the album is finally being released today as a 2-CD, 26-song set.  One of those songs, "Child of the Night", can be downloaded for free from the Atlantic Records website.  The page states that you have until December 31, 2009 to redeem your free download, and an email address is required in order to access it (although the download link just becomes visible on the page - it is not emailed to you).

"Child of the Night" is a very beautiful little song, about as far away from TSO's normally bombastic, guitar driven, operatic rock as they've ever gotten.  After exploring the album's website for a little while, I came across a free PDF of what looks to be the complete liner notes for the album (seriously, go check it out - it's really cool, although I don't think I'll be looking at too much of it just yet, as the storyline is always one of the biggest treats of a new TSO album for me, and I like to experience it as a whole with the music), I learned that the music for the song was composed by Léo Delibes, and is in fact a cover of "The Flower Duet" from his opera Lakmé.

If you enjoy the classical side of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, you may be interested in checking out some of the source music for their Beethoven's Last Night album.  Assuming I can find enough of the relevant music, I'll also be making a similar post for Night Castle (once I get it), and I have already begun tracking down source music for their Christmas albums, which I will be posting about on my Free Christmas Music blog very soon.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://flash.atlrec.com/tso/form/index.php (the song)

http://www.nightcastlealbum.com/flash_site.html (liner notes and other information about the album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flower_Duet

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2009/02/classical-music-of-trans-siberian.html

http://freechristmasmusic.blogspot.com/

Song Spotlight: "Beds Are Burning" (special Blog Action Day '09: Climate Change post)

 

Today is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers around the world post about the same issue in order to spark discussion about it.  This year, the issue is climate change.  I thought it might be a fun challenge to take part in this event while sticking to my philosophy of only writing about free, legally downloadable music that I like.  For a while I didn't think I would be able to pull it off, but I'm happy to say that yesterday I managed to find something that fits every one of these criteria.

tck tck tck

tck tck tck: Time for Climate Justice is a campaign created for people who care about climate change to have their voices heard by those who have the power to do something about it; namely, the nearly 200 world leaders who will be meeting in Copenhagen in December for the 2009 United Nations Climate Conference.  This is where the next big international climate change agreement will be decided.  The main features of the tck tck tck website are a video of people saying "tck", a map of the world showing where each of these "tcks" come from, and a countdown to the start of Copenhagen 09.  There is also an upload your 'tck' button which allows you to upload a one second "tck" video of your own (or a picture or a text message if you choose).  The intent here is that the "collective power of millions of tcks will be used to exert pressure on the political leaders attending the Copenhagen talks in order to secure a strong, just and binding agreement to resolve the climate crisis."  I think this is a really cool idea, and I'll be uploading my own "tck" shortly.

("tck", by the way, is meant to imitate the sound of a clock ticking down, both towards Copenhagen 09 and for the world in general)

Beds Are Burning - free download

Now, this is still a music blog, and that is something that will never change.  In fact, what brought me to the tck tck tck website in the first place was music, in the form of a reworked version of Midnight Oil's 1980s hit "Beds Are Burning", which can be downloaded for free.  This is a big, "We Are the World"-style version featuring dozens of musicians and celebrities, including Duran Duran, Fergie, Scorpions, Paul Shaeffer, the All American Rejects, and of course Midnight Oil themselves.  I have to confess that I am not familiar with the original version of this song, but I really like this version.  There is also an excellent video on the site which identifies each performer by name - very helpful if, like me, you don't automatically recognize each of the dozens of voices (the video is actually very stylish and goes far beyond just listing names - I particularly like the last half-minute or so, in which a photomosaic of a world map is created, using pictures of the performers as source images).

So go check the song out, and while you're listening to it, please take some time to look around the tck tck tck website to find out more about the campaign, including how you can contribute.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/home/ (for more information about the tck tck tck campaign)

http://www.timeforclimatejustice.org/ (for the free MP3 download of "Beds Are Burning")

Song Spotlight: Allison Crowe - "Creep" (Radiohead cover)

About a month ago, a live recording of Allison Crowe performing Radiohead's classic "Creep" was posted on her website (the link to the MP3 is about two thirds of the way down the page).  The recording is from the start of the millennium and features Allison on vocals and piano, Dave Baird on bass, and Kevin Clevette on drums.  Like many of her performances of nineties alternative songs, this one is very raw and powerful and well worth a listen if you are a fan of Allison, Radiohead, or even cover songs in general.  Much more information about this performance (and about the song itself) can be found on Allison's blog - make sure to read the comments too.

I realize that I haven't updated this blog lately as often as I normally do.  PhD research and a busier than normal month of commercially released music (i.e. new releases from Threat Signal, Megadeth, and Pearl Jam) have left me with little time to listen to and write about free music.  I do have some stuff in the pipeline, but I hope that this will tide you over in the meantime.  Happy listening!

URLs:
http://allisoncrowe.com/music2.html
http://allisoncrowe.blogspot.com/2009/09/creep.html

Song Spotlight: Megadeth - "1,320'"

If you missed out on the free download of Megadeth's "Head Crusher", which was only offered for one day in July, this one is especially for you.  "1,320'", another song from their latest album, Endgame, can currently be downloaded for free from their page at Roadrunner Records.  Like the former song, this one is another dose of old school thrash metal that fans of their older albums will feel right at home with.  The song starts off with the sound of a race car revving its engine, followed by an insane sounding guitar riff that would fit right in on Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!, the band's 1985 debut album.  The final minute and a half of the song consists of Dave Mustaine and new guitarist Chris Broderick trading blistering guitar solos with each other, much in the same way as Mustaine and Marty Friedman did on "Hangar 18" from 1990's Rust in Peace.

I'd also like to take a moment to discuss the value of free music here.  Before I downloaded "Head Crusher" in July, the last Megadeth album I had purchased was 2001's The World Needs a Hero.  I could not bring myself to get excited about their next two albums, 2004's The System Has Failed and 2007's United Abominations.  I think the main reason for this was the fact that I didn't really know who the band was anymore - my favourite albums all come from the 90s when they had their most stable lineup with Marty Friedman on guitar, Nick Menza on drums, and co-founder David Ellefson on bass.  One by one, all of those guys departed the band for their own reasons, leaving me doubtful that Mustaine could ever come close to what he produced with that lineup.

All it took was a single listen to "Head Crusher" to make me realize how foolish I was to think any such thing.  In my post about that song, I said that it sounded "pretty good" and that I was considering checking out Endgame once it was released.  Well, I did just that yesterday, and it has been in fairly constant rotation ever since.  I'm very glad to have found my way back to a band I once proudly considered one of my favourites, and to discover that they are still producing excellent music, no matter who may be in the band.  I think it's even more awesome that it was a free download of a single song that led to the band regaining a lost fan - had I not been able to hear "Head Crusher" for myself, I probably would have carried on without even acknowledging the release of Endgame.  Instead, it is now a serious contender for my favourite album of the year.

So to summarize: free music is awesome and bands stand to gain a whole lot by releasing even a little of their music for free.  If you haven't heard any Megadeth before, or if you like their old music but not their newer stuff for whatever reason, you could do a lot worse than to check out "1,320'".  It's a 3.54 MB MP3 file, and no registration, email address, or anything else is needed to download it - just click the DOWNLOAD TRACK button, and get ready to enjoy.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2009/07/song-spotlight-megadeth-head-crusher.html

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/Megadeth/ (go here for the "1,320'" download)

Song Spotlight: Radiohead - "These Are My Twisted Words"

Finally, I get to write about Radiohead on this blog.  While I'm not a huge fan of the band, they are somewhat responsible for my obsession with seeking out free music wherever I can.  In 2007, they made huge headlines when they released their album In Rainbows as a digital download for whatever price people wanted to pay for it, including nothing at all.  I initially felt a little guilty about paying $0 for an album, but the fact was that I was really not very familiar with Radiohead - I knew a few of their singles and that was about it.  I ended up really enjoying the album, and soon after that I checked a number of their albums out from my local library and ended up buying a copy of Kid A, which absolutely floored me when I first heard it.  A few months later when I started this blog, In Rainbows was one of the first things I wanted to write about, but I discovered that the free digital download was no longer available; at the same time, I learned that, unless something has already been available for years, it's often better to write about it sooner rather than later.

 

The subject of this post is Radiohead's new song, "These Are My Twisted Words" , which was officially released yesterday.  It can be downloaded free of charge from the band's w.a.s.t.e. online store; it can also be downloaded as a torrent from Mininova, where the band themselves leaked the track last week.  Downloading from w.a.s.t.e. gets you a 13.5 MB .zip file that contains the song itself (as a high quality 320 kbps MP3), an image file with artwork, and a PDF file with silhouetted images of trees that are meant to be printed out on tracing paper and then put together "in an order that pleases you".  The torrent does not contain the latter two files, although it does contain a text file with a rather cool looking ASCII version of the artwork; if artwork is the sort of thing that matters to you (and as someone who used to sit and listen to CDs while thumbing through the booklets, reading the lyrics and analyzing the artwork, I understand completely), you may want to check out both versions for completeness.

 

The song itself is a rather interesting one.  The vocals don't start until about halfway through the five-and-a-half minute song, and once they do kick in there do not seem to be any discernible verses or choruses.  Aside from the persistent, driving drum beat, the whole thing sounds very atmospheric and dreamy.  I'm sure that bigger Radiohead fans could write a lot more about it, but I do have to say that I really like it, and I'm looking forward to hearing what they come out with next.  Check it out for yourself, and happy listening!

 

URLs:

http://www.waste.uk.com/Store/waste-radiohead-twisted+words.html

http://www.mininova.org/tor/2846416

Song Spotlight: Metallica - "My Apocalypse Intro"

Metallica have just released a newly-recorded intro to "My Apocalypse", the closing song from last year's Death Magnetic album.  That song, in case you haven't heard it, is the most furious burst of straight ahead thrash metal Metallica have done since 1988's ...And Justice for All (and, I have just learned, the winner of the 2009 Best Metal Performance Grammy award).  According to the band's MySpace page, they have really been enjoying playing the song on tour, but they just "felt like it could use something extra", so James Hetfield wrote a new intro for the song which can be downloaded for free from LiveMetallica.com.

The new intro stands in stark contrast to the rest of the song; instead of being a relentless sonic assault, this is all about building mood.  The first 12 seconds of the roughly one-minute intro consist of nothing but a tolling bell, a gentle rainfall, and a crashing thunderbolt.  The bell and the rainfall continue to sound for the rest of the intro, while a simple melody is repeated on a keyboard (or a processed guitar - it's hard to tell) over a subdued but steady drum beat.  The final note of the melody is accompanied by another crash of thunder, and the drums continue for another few seconds.  It would have been awesome if they'd just released a recording of the full song including this intro, but this is still quite cool - it adds an epic feel to the song, and I'm really looking forward to hearing the full thing someday (hopefully a full recording of the current tour will surface on the site after the tour is finished.)

If one minute of free Metallica music isn't quite enough for you, be sure to check out the rest of the free recordings on that site in The Vault.  There are now more than 20 full concerts available; my brother wrote a guest post about some of his favourites last year if you need help finding a place to start.  Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.myspace.com/metallica
http://www.livemetallica.com/live-music/0,321/Metallica-mp3-flac-download-7-21-2009-Free-MP3-Download--My-Apocalypse-Intro-Copenhagen-DEN.html
http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-post-artist-spotlight-metallica.html

Song Spotlight: Pearl Jam - "Speed of Sound"

Note: As of November 2009, this contest has ended, and I can no longer find a link to the "Speed of Sound" demo.


If you're a Pearl Jam fan, you probably already know that they have a new album coming out in September called Backspacer.  "The Fixer", the catchy first single from the album, is in heavy rotation on rock radio, and various other songs from the album have been played live by the band and by Eddie Vedder in his solo shows.  I have to admit I was a little disappointed when "The Fixer" was not made available for download (although you can still stream it from Pearl Jam's official website, and probably a few other places); I guess I was spoiled when they made "Worldwide Suicide", the first single from their last album, available for free.

Today, though, I found out (via Twitter) about a cool new game on the Pearl Jam website.  If you head to this page, you will be presented with a 3x3 grid of numbered tiles along with the following instructions:

"Find 9 images from Backspacer that have been placed all around the web. Once you find an image, click it and it will be added to the grid on the left.

Find & click all 9 Backspacer images and get a free download!"

Now, when they say "all around the web", they mean it.  To be honest, I don't know how anyone could possibly track down all of the images on their own; fortunately, with the Internet being what it is, there are already a few complete lists of the necessary websites floating around, so if you don't feel like doing all the work yourself, I will include my own list in this post.

First, though, let's talk a bit about the free download that they promise.  "Speed of Sound" is a song that will be included on Backspacer; however, the version available for download here is a solo demo version by Eddie Vedder.  The song is very much in line with Vedder's work on the Into the Wild soundtrack from a couple of years ago (actually, it would fit very well on that album).  Most of the song is just Vedder and an acoustic guitar, but there are some beautiful vocal harmonies and some sparse electric guitar lines that really add to the melancholic feel of the song.  I quite like the song so far, and I am very curious as to how it will sound on the album; whatever the rest of the band decides to do with it, it could well end up being one of the highlights of the album.

Now, onto the list.  Out of fairness to those who would like to try and play the game by themselves (and I sincerely wish you the best of luck if you choose to do this - the promise of a free Pearl Jam download was simply too overwhelming for me, causing me to look for all the hints I could find), I've decided to use bit.ly to shorten the URLs.  This way, those who are impatient (like me) can simply click on any or all of the links to go exactly where they need to go, while the game will not be spoiled for those who wish to play fairly.  Without further ado...

1. http://bit.ly/ngwRE
2. http://bit.ly/pR7aV
3. http://bit.ly/X59oo
4. http://bit.ly/gLXqi
5. http://bit.ly/10JVy6
6. http://bit.ly/KdC7l
7. http://bit.ly/HnxgZ
8. http://bit.ly/ZhVrN
9. http://bit.ly/DfQAa
   

Clicking on any of these links should take you to a page that contains one piece of the Backspacer artwork (if it doesn't, please let me know right away and I will do my best to fix it).  Clicking on the image will take you back to the Backspacer page on the band's website, this time with that piece of the puzzle filled in.  Once all 9 pieces are in place, the download link for "Speed of Sound" will appear.  However you decide to play the game, I hope you enjoy the song once you hear it.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://www.pearljam.com/

http://www.pearljam.com/backspacer/art

Song Spotlight: Megadeth - "Head Crusher"

NOTE: This download was only up for 24 hours and is thus no longer available.

Megadeth's new single "Head Crusher", from their forthcoming album Endgame, is currently available for free from Roadrunner Records.  According to an article at Metalunderground.com, the song will only be free for 24 hours, although the download page makes no mention of a time limit; if this does indeed turn out to be the case, then you should have until 11:00 EDT on July 8 to download it, so go there quickly if this is something that interests you.

Megadeth have long been one of my favourite bands, and they were the first metal band I became interested in back in 1992 or 1993 when I heard "Symphony of Destruction".  I have to admit that I haven't been very interested in what I've heard from them in the last five years or so, ever since they broke up after Dave Mustaine's arm injury.  "Head Crusher", though, is sounding pretty good to me right now, so I may decide to check out Endgame once it is released in September.  It's a solid piece of classic sounding thrash metal that sounds like it would be right at home on Peace Sells.  Dave's snarling vocals are just as aggressive as they've ever been, and there's a great little spoken section in the middle that reminds me of a lot of old Megadeth songs that I love.  The drums are absolutely relentless, and the guitars sound as good as I've ever heard them sound in Megadeth.

To access the 7.5 MB MP3, all you need to do is enter your email address at the website; the download link will appear on the same page after you've done so.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/headcrusher/

http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=45743