After the success of ‘Ghosts’ being released for free on Nine Inch Nails website in March, lead man Trent Reznor thanks his fans for their support by offering ‘The Slip’ free of charge, 2 months later. I have yet to listen to the record, but the reviews are sensational. Now if we can just get him to release Axl Roses ‘Chinese Democracy’ for nothing, the world might make complete sense again.

As an added bonus, a band you may not have heard of, The Rosebuds, have done almost the same thing. While the album content isn’t original, they’re definitely taking notes from Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. Their 2007 release ‘Night of the Furies’ has been remixed, and their label, Merge Records is offering it on their website for nothing as well.

Now, I’m not one to complain, but what will this lead to? How many bands are going to start releasing albums for free before the music industry gets their head out of their rectum? While I am happy to download free music legally and share the love, I also know how difficult it can be as an artist to make ends meet. I wasn’t surprised at Nine Inch Nails giving their hard work away, but The Rosebuds album comes as a complete shock. If you enjoy ‘Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep’ make sure you check out ‘Night of the Furies.’ I do own that album, and love it.

When you click on the album covers, you’ll be redirected to the respectable websites to download away. Let me know what you think about the albums, as I won’t get a chance to listen to these for a few days. I’m anxious to see which gem I should try first.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Ben Gibbard ’sway’ first hand this weekend at the raging Coachella festival. I’ll tell you more about that later, as I must rinse my Coachella sins away for the time being. But, in more Death Cab News, Daytrotter, the source for really cool articles on unknowns and knowns alike is hosting 6 live downloads from DCFC. Two of the tracks are off the new ‘Narrow Stairs,’ and the rest are assorted from Transatlanticism and The Photo Album. Free Music Tuesdays are the bestest.

(click on the picture to go to daytrotter)

This Sunday in Golden Gate Park, at the Speedway Meadow, see Brett Dennen for free. It’s the Green Apple Festival (which could be fun?). The other artists I’ve never heard of…
*Mickey Harts Mass Drums
*Yonder Mountain String Band
*Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks

This is San FRAN… couldn’t they find anyone better? Ugh. I’m pretty stoked for that little red headed singer/songwriter though, he’s fantasmastic. It all starts at noon.

I was in a friends car about 3 months ago, and Lyrics came on. As a fan of indie hip-hop, I was ecstatic. He was way underground, usually drawing large crowds in the Berkley/Oakland area, but nothing very big outside of our backyard. His rap is fast and furious, and appears on trax (is that correct?) with lots of other folk. His music is hip, so your parents won’t wanna a copy, but I guarantee that your roommate will.

His new CD, Everything at Once, drops(?!?) on April 21st. To see him live this summer, grab advanced tickets to San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate park, and if you really can’t wait until August 24th, your only hope is the west coast. That is unless you happen to be in Europe. Grace his website and you can find dates all over.

I couldn’t find any free downloads for Lyrics, but I did his new single ‘I like it, I love it,’ on KEXP song of the day for 4/7/08. Just go into your Itunes store and search for KEXP, and you’ll get an amazing array of options, the best one of these being the songs of the day. Word.

As one of those constant Internet Surfers, I find myself subscribing to at least one service a day. Most of these I don’t need, but I really want to browse a certain site, and they’re making me sign up. Damnit. Signing up means that I’ll get a ton of unwanted email. And we all hate that.

That being said, lately I think I have found some jewels in the rough. Too many websites out there to go sorting yourself, so hopefully I can take some of the hassle out of it. Honorably, I’ll list some internet radio players, even though the focus here is to get some free music on your Ipod. So, while you’re at work, check out Pandora.com, Songza.com, Musicovery.com, and Last.FM

Last.FM is actually a fantastic site that I’ve come to enjoy, because as I listen to my Itunes, they track what I listen to, how many times, etc. This way, at the end of the month I can totally see that I listened to entirely too much (insert crappy radio band). They also recommend other artists that “sound like” the artist I’m listening to, usually being completely wrong.

I’ve already mentioned RcrdLbl.com, so, I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. They buy songs off artists for a fee, and then let us, the wonderful music junkies, download them for free. Some great new stuff on there, you can usually find a couple tracks a day you’ll enjoy.

While I hate to endorse any big corporate site, I can’t go without noting download.com. It’s run by CNet, and not totally bad because you don’t have to sign up for a service to immediately start downloading. Often you’ll find a couple unreleased tracks there from your favorite artists that they’ve made available for DL.

Amie Street is worth a mention. Usually filled with unsigned artists that you’ve never heard of, Amie Street songs start off for free, then users have to pay a fee per track based on how popular that certain track has become. A great way to find new artists to share with friends, and fill up your mp3 player for cheap.

Another blog that is a great resource for free ‘under radar’ music is FreeIndie.com. Which I have linked below for your pleasure. They are currently doing an overhaul of the site, to feature a Free Indie 2.0, and a lot of users are impatiently pissed. I think that people need to relax a little bit, cause I know that this new site is gonna be completely bad ass.