Song Spotlight: Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven"

[Alas, this turned out to be too good to be true.  I don't know when it happened, but the free download has been taken away.]

This comes as a total surprise to me, but Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" can currently be downloaded for free from last.fm.  All of the free downloads that I've ever seen on last.fm have been approved by the artist, so I am assuming that that is the case here; however, another "song" called "Led Zeppelin is the worst band ever" (which is actually about half a minute of someone banging on a piano), which claims to be a Led Zeppelin song, also showed up today.  I don't know if this means that last.fm has been hacked, or someone is playing a bizarre joke, or... well, I just don't know.  All I do know is that one of the most iconic rock songs ever made can currently be downloaded for free from a site known for legitimate music downloads.

I may as well keep this post short, as I really don't know how long this song will remain available.  If it isn't already in your collection and you haven't gotten your fill of it from listening to classic rock radio, go check it out.  Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.last.fm/music/Led+Zeppelin/_/Stairway+to+Heaven
http://www.last.fm/music/Led+Zeppelin/_/Led+Zeppelin+is+the+worst+band+ever

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