The voice of Concrete Blonde, Johnette Napolitano, has a new album out and it features more of her signature spin. “Tomorrow Wendy“ was one of my favorite late 80s/early 90s cuts – I even went so far as to see Concrete Blonde in concert at the Hollywood Bowl – but I’ve never bought any of their albums, strangely enough. I’m going to give “SCARRED” a good listen. But in the meantime, download the acoustic guitar ballad “When I’m Gone” for FREE.
Perfect for the lazy days of summer sun is BEBEL GILBERTO’s stunner “Bring Back the Love (Stuhr Remix)” which is so delicate yet practically perfect in it’s delicacy. There are many good remixes like the Prins Thomas mix… and the original isn’t bad either.
LISA SHAW makes two appearances on this list, just as she did on my year end list back in January. “Side 2 Side” has the clean deep house sound that only the excellent Miguel Migs can provide – and that I love so much. And going by her moniker Li’sha, she scores another hit with Miguel on this gorgeous house-y number from a few years ago, “Do It For You”.
American Idol runner-up KATHARINE McPHEE has got the funnest song of the summer in “Open Toes”, a paean to footwear that is so campy, it must have been written by a gay man. (Truth be told, Katharine’s entire self-titled disc is very good; I rarely listen to Top 40-type music but her album crosses a bit of dance, pop, ballads and R&B into one fine piece of listening. It’s so good, In fact, it’s the only Idol alum album I own.)
“Les Djinns (Trentemøller Mix)” by DJUMA SOUNDSYSTEM : An instrumental in the can-do-no-wrong hands of Trentemøller becomes an anthem rather than just a piece of lyric-less music.
“Makes Me Wonder”, the latest by MAROON 5, seems more to me like a boy band offering on par with *NSync or Backstreet Boys than something I’d equate to these alt-rockers, but hey, it’s catchy!
HELLOGOODBYE’s “Here (In Your Arms)” is another cheesy, vocoder laden track that, apparently, I’m a sucker for.
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG’s “The Songs That We Sing” is sparkly and ever-so reminiscent of an old favorite of mine, Ivy.
The voice of EBTG, TRACEY THORN, continues to surprise and delight with her latest, “It’s All True.”
Two songs by my new favorite band o’ the moment: I MONSTER. I’m hearing “Heaven” everywhere – movie premiere DJs, at the mall and on a Macy’s commercial. It’s gorgeous and twinkly and strikes all the right notes. This song is going to be HUGE. “Daydream In Blue” has such a great retro 1960s Mamas and Papas feel to it, replete with record static, then shifts into a darker place and back again.
THE BIRD AND THE BEE – “Because” : Here’s one for you that almost defies classification. If you asked me when I first heard this ditty that I’d be a fan it of, I’d say, “Hell no.” Somehow it made it onto one of my iTunes playslists and thus kept playing. And after more than a few listens, I was hooked. Everything that makes it odd (the off-kilter, almost out-of-tune chords) is exactly what endeared itself to me.
JOHN LEGEND – “Save Room” : I love this song. It’s essentially a late 60s pop-rock number disguised as modern day R&B. I can’t help thinking this is what The Doors/Jim Morrison might have gotten up to in later years had things worked out differently.
I can’t recommend ERASURE’s new disc but I can suggest a replacement, the far superior and more enjoyable “NIGHTBIRD” from 2005 that has several very good tracks, namely the catchy “Don’t Say You Love Me”. Also of note, is the amazing acoustic re-work of “Rock Me Gently” from “UNION STREET”.
Sadly not available on iTunes yet is ROGUE TRADERS’ “World Go ‘Round“, which is currently featured in Old Navy’s “Summerland” spot, this hard rockin’ dance act is Australia’s answer to Garbage. I can’t wait for the remix used in the commercial to be released!
And lastly, because ‘Poverty’ is part of my name and this blog’s raison d’être, I bring you Kaskade’s “Words And Melody” for FREE. It’s a sultry, beautiful number that’s ready to boil to the surface with energy but cools itself off just before it can explode into frenzied chaos. Download it here.
This is music Molly O’Poverty style: On The Cheap. For just $9.99 you get 68 tracks PLUS 3 one-hour+ continuous mixes of said tracks!! Even if you like only half – or a quarter – of the songs, it’s one of the best deals in music I have ever seen and absolutely, positively worth the ten bucks. There are massively good and recognizable artists on these three discs, acts like Trafik, Gabriel & Dresden, Bent, X-Press 2, UNKLE, Leftfield, Trentemøller and Danny Tenaglia are just a few of the highlights.
If you’re a fan of house music, snap this up this deal before the management at the iTunes Music Store realizes their grevious mistake!
I was going to do a full, in-depth post on these guys who, after being dumped by their record label, are graciously giving away their entire third album, but I’m afraid I’m not so much a fan. Some visitiors here may like it for the novelty of a full length album for FREE. Others whose tastes lean more towards mine may not. And it’s not so much that it’s not good or well-produced, it’s more that SECRETS OF THE WITCHING HOUR is just bland indie rock. There are plenty of fair-to-middlin’ acts out there that are successful, so why not them?
The adventurous can download the album here. And if you disagree, tell me so.
It’s been a while, but I’m back with another edition of bite-sized posts-a-plenty! Let’s dive in, shall we?
• New (to me) store BeatsDigital.com has an abundance of FREE tracks for you to download, 14 MP3s in all. More than half I actually find listenable – and more than half is always good odds when it comes to digital music in my opinion. I’m really digging “Supergirl” by TINYLOU with it’s plucky intro and mainstream 2-step sound (take a listen below). Other tracks worth taking a listen are “Cupcake” by Chicken Skin, “Getcha Talkin” by Rex Kwondo, “High Radiate” by The Evil Crew, the downtempo “Missing Time” by SySteMic, the evocative “M.A.S.H.” by TNT, “Open Minded” by Cristian Paduraru and “Strict Rulin” by Da Funk. There’s also a sweepstakes for a trip to Ibiza which you can tell your “friends” about by giving out their email address to give you additional chances to win. I simply used 3 of my junk mail addresses to give myself a total of 4 chances.
• Domino’s Pizza is getting into the FREE music downloads game, for reasons that are beyond me, with dTracks. (If they try to proclaim that fast pizza is a “branded lifestyle”, I’ll know the end is neigh.) But hey, free music is free music so I’m not complaining. It’s probably no surprise that of the three genres they offer, I’m partial to the Campus Mix. Hoops Mix (hip hop/rap) and Race Day Riffs (country) are the other two genres). I found “Hello California” by Salme Dahlstrom and “Sleep Is On The Way” by Arthur Yoria to be the best of the bunch. I wasn’t really expecting edgy electronica from Dominos given that it’s more of niche but it woulda been nice to have some true variety. Registration is required but that serves a dual purpose… now you can order pizzas from your computer as well.
• The Fox station in Los Angeles is offering FREE music downloads, videos and behind-the-scenes vids from Fox shows at the Fox Digital Lounge in conjunction with wantmymusic.com. I wish I could tell you that they had great, recognizable artists to offer but unfortunately the registration process is wacked. There’s a promotion going on for free AppleTV and iPod Shuffles but no where is there a “promo code” which is required to be entered in the contest at the time of registration. After I registered, I was greeting with the “Success!” page to download the app but there is no hyperlink where the download button is for Mac software. Not only a bummer but severely irritating as well. If it’s not Mac-compatible or even Mac-ready, they should really take it down or not have put it up yet. And there’s no way contact either corporate entity for support question or problems. If anyone out there has success with the Fox Digital Lounge, please drop me a line or post a comment!
• Simply Audiobooks is offering FREE MP3s of another kind. There are several full audiobooks to choose from, including classics from Mark Twain, Jack London and T.S. Elliot. Be literate and download some books! In this lazy, convenience-driven world, the very least you can do is have someone read TO you and still consider it reading.
• Here’s a sneak peek at an upcoming full-length post:
I upgraded to WordPress 2.1 today so hopefully there won’t be any unforeseen issues. So far it’s been pretty painless. While I was doing all that geeky tech stuff, I decided to finally try a new theme (Freshy) to the Guide but it screwed up to many links and categories… not to mentioned it wiped out my listing of archived posts. I really like the look of Freshy but it’ll take a pretty big effort on my part to sort things out. So for now, I’m sticking with the lovely Blix theme that has served me well for the last two years.
UPGRADE UPDATE:
Well, I’m having a bunch of issues. The ARCHIVES, ABOUT and CONTACT tabs have disappeared as well as some mix ups in the LINKS and CATEGORIES. Please be patient with the Guide as I work them out and enjoy the few new posts in the meantime.
I’m not sure how I came to know about to Tago-Mago but it features plenty of “bedroom” remixes. His tastes lean more towards rap/hip-hop but he also produces perfectly chilled-out instrumentals, like the sublime “Re-Entry (Water Landing)” off THIEF’S AND OTHER THEMES and the gorgeous “Bark Psychosis - Big Shot” off MY QUIET CORNER TO REFLECT E.P. Strung together, those two tracks create the most relaxing set I’ve heard in a long time, perfect for drifting off to sleep or to set the right ambience when stronger beats will break the mood.
(My apologies if a commenter recommended me to Tago-Mago’s site; I can’t seem to find any reference as to how I landed there.)
Let me just say WELCOME! Thanks to reinvigorate I now know where visitors to the Guide are coming from. So, no matter where you are from, I hope you’ll find music on this site to your liking. So far this month, I’ve had record attendance and looks like I’ll be breaking traffic records by month’s end. That makes me very happy to know more of you are coming by, coming back – and staying longer.
Drop me a line and say ‘hi!’ (And if I got the greeting in your language wrong, please let me know!) I’d love to hear from you.
In what has to be the post with the largest amount of FREE MP3s ever, the organizers of the South By Southwest festival have made torrent(s) available to legally acquire all 739 tracks by this year’s participating bands. It’ll fill up your hard drive with just over 3 gigs of music!
I’ve updated the sidebar of links and added a whole ‘nother category. Let me know if you find them helpful or if you run into any bad linkage.
Also, I’m looking to take on one or two bloggers who are interested in being part of the Molly O’Poverty free & legal experiment. There’s no hard-n-fast requirements other than you must love music, have great taste (either mainstream or off the beaten path) and like to write about the tunes you discover on a quasi-regular basis. This might be a perfect fit if you’ve given up on running your own blog due to time constraints or just wish to work collaboratively with another blogger(s). Drop me a line via the CONTACT tab or at the email address in the ‘About’ section.
I’m delighted to have finally found a clean version of this song I’ve liked for a long time. (And by “clean” I mean not from a mix with bits of song at either end.) I originally heard this unique and clever ditty almost two years ago but it was part of a compilation –and therefore, not clean– and I’ve been on the hunt ever since. You can stream the entire six minute Sugardaddy mix and also download the two and a half minute edit for FREE here.
The unmixed version is available at the iTMS as part of Marcel’s 2005 album, “GAMBLERS DELIGHT.”
From the far reaches of my never-before-seen ‘World Music’ corner comes this spanish language track. The press release states that it transcends the traditional flamenco sound. I’m not sure I would go that far in describing it but I will say that if you’re a fan of The Gypsy Kings and their ilk, you will more than likely like what you hear.
Although not my favorite genre of music, Stones Throw Records is making another full-length hip-hop compilation freely available in cahoots with Cartoon Network’s AdultSwim.
I really loved the Aloe Blacc track “What Now” from Volume 1 so I was a little disappointed with his contribution to Volume 2. But, you know me… I’m able to make lemonade out of lemons and find the stand out: number 14, “The Jazzistics” by Marcus, Martin and Malcolm.
UPDATE:
After receiving a few emails from readers who where unable to download the album, it looks like the Adult Swim folks have made it purchase-only through iTunes or eMusic. As a note with all my posts, you gotta jump on downloads as soon as possible because you never know just how long they’ll be made available.
Beginning January 14th, Beatport will be emailing existing customers with a credit good for 3 FREE songs – if you purchased (at least) one song in 2006.
I’ve been a big advocate of Beatport in the past as they regularly and graciously give away lots of free music. Hopefully, when I’ve directed you to their site in the past, you’ve done some additional shopping on your own. As a mostly dance/electronic music store, their music is DRM free and you get the choice of higher than iTMS quality MP3/MP4 formats plus the option of huge .WAV files.
