Free MP3s

Just got a press release with the following headline: "No Doubt Fans To Receive Band's Entire Digital Catalog For Free With LiveNation.com Ticket Purchase." Very interesting and exciting news for fans, until you get down a little further and find out that only the folks willing to cough up $80 or more for "top tier" tickets are eligible to receive the digi-log for free. As if someone purchasing $80 tickets doesn't already have the entire No Doubt catalog, but at least said folks will actually feel like they're getting something even if they're not.

Who doesn't love some sultry Neko Case? NPR has her new album, Middle Cyclone, available for listen now. From the NPR write-up:

Elephant 6 fans, and especially Neutral Milk Hotel fans, tend to be a little obsessive, so most of them probably already know that NPR is streaming the show that the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour played at the Bottom Lounge last week.

Yes, the fathers of Orange County punk (established 1980) are still running around Warped festivals and trying to change the world with a hockey stick. At this point, it seems foolish to try and do anything about it.

Enjoy this free MP3 track. Please be aware this music is offered for a limited time, and more than 90 days from the date of this post may no longer be available.

More urban-boogie muscle courtesy of the metal-heads at Kemado Records. Think "Kashmir" on moonshine, getting kicked out of a car by Crazy Horse's fuzz-pedals somewhere in the swamps of Brooklyn, and smoking 'em if you got 'em

Enjoy this free MP3 track. Please be aware this music is offered for a limited time, and more than 30 days from the date of this post may no longer be available.

They may no longer be Big Apple's great new rock hope, but the Walkmen's anthemic melodrama still springs eternal. These are big tunes about big wishes in big cities. Perfect for next year, and every year after.

Enjoy this free MP3 track. Please be aware this music is offered for a limited time, and more than 30 days from the date of this post may no longer be available.

Athens' psych-damaged melody makers Ham1 are preparing to release their third full-length, The Underground Stream, due out  this fall, with an LP slated for an early 2009 release on Infinity Cat Records.

The entire album is available as a free download here.

Several of the group's members (which include principle songwriter Jim Willingham, Christopher Sugiuchi, Eric Harris of Olivia Tremor Control, and Jacob Morris) spent the summer touring with Vic Chesnutt throughout Europe, later spent time on the road with Elf Power, and appeared as Liz Durrett's backing band on her latest release, Outside Our Gates.

Louisville-born Chandra & Leigh Watson bring a country soul to Silverlake, harmonizing on pretty songs about love and lovers. Think of it as the pretty midway between Bakersfield and whatever was lost out in Joshua Tree.

Enjoy this free MP3 track. Please be aware this music is offered for a limited time, and more than 90 days from the date of this post may no longer be available.

Despite their hushed tones and Mr. Collipark's buttered-up tracks, Ying Yang Twins Kaine and D-Roc were never the smoothest members of Atlanta's crunk set. But they certainly competed for most lascivious. And still do.

Enjoy this free MP3 track. Please be aware this music is offered for a limited time, and more than 90 days from the date of this post may no longer be available.

Baltimore-based ATL expatriate label HOSS Records has announced that this fall  it will be releasing the third full-length from Atlanta purveyors of sludge-infected drunk-punk riffage, Brass Castle. Though the currently untitled LP is still in production, here is a sneak peak mp3 of the song "Raining Balls,"  which kind of says it all.

In addition to the Brass Castle full-length, HOSS has a few other releases up its sleeve slated for release late in  '08 / early '09...