Posts Tagged ‘Alternative’
Each week we select music from an independent artist we’re excited about and bring it to you, for free, as our Indie Free Download. Hospitality’s Amber Papini has a quintessentially twee voice: self-aware, quivering, and mild-mannered. The band’s latest single, “Friends of Friends,” is about bucking up and getting on with life after a breakup. As the lyrics suggest, March is a bit chilly for sightseeing in New York—but it might be just the thing to cool off from a cad.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. This soul-pop burner steadily builds from a carefree foot-stomper to a stirring, string-assisted powerhouse (courtesy of Graffiti6 member TommyD, who’s helped arrange and orchestrate for ADELE, Kanye West, and others). Jamie Scott’s tender vocal delivery—which stretches to falsetto heights—makes this ode to a lover an intimate, emotionally rousing affair. “Free” is a standout cut on the British band’s debut album, Colours.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we select music from an independent artist we’re excited about and bring it to you, for free, as our Indie Free Download. We’re pretty much hypnotized by this this gorgeous, drone-drenched winner. It’s a spacy, psychedelic whirlpool with a shimmering pop melody that recalls The Cure’s “In Between Days” slowed way down—befitting an act called Porcelain Raft performing a song titled “Drifting In and Out.” This weightless track sets in motion Strange Weekend—an eclectic, beautiful debut album from Italian-born Mauro Remiddi (a.k.a. Porcelain Raft).
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. While writing tracks for Chairlift’s second album, Something, the Brooklyn duo envisioned having to sing them in front of massive concert audiences, which makes “I Belong in Your Arms” extra impressive. The beautiful, weightless track from the band’s new album is an intimate love song, which finds Caroline Polachek‘s soaring vocals skating atop a swirling, ethereal landscape that calls to mind ‘80s electro-pop icons like a-ha and Eurythmics.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we select music from an independent artist we’re excited about and bring it to you, for free, as our Indie Free Download. Twentysomething Peter Barbee (a.k.a. Among Savages) moved from the Smoky Mountains to Nashville as a 17-year-old, and his aptly titled debut—Wanderings of an Illustrative Mind—features the artist’s reflections on youth. “Terrified” quickly builds into a smooth, stirring foot-tapper, with a gentle maelstrom of acoustic guitars, choral accompaniment, and string accents. Barbee confesses he needs stop running, quit playing hide-and-seek with his doubts and fears, and overcome a childhood tendency to suppress his emotions.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. This Swedish duo is made up of two sisters with a love of folk, country, indie and, most stunningly, harmony. A cover of a Fleet Foxes song gave First Aid Kit an overnight fanbase thanks to the Internet, then the sisters set out recording more music, touring, and finding fans and friends in people like Jack White and Bright Eyes. This cut from First Aid Kit’s latest album, The Lion’s Roar, pays tribute to two of country music’s finest pairings: Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons, and Johnny and June Carter Cash.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. The Icelandic six-pack know as Of Monsters and Men—five guys and a girl from Reykjavik—won the annual national battle of the bands called Músiktilraunir with its repertoire of indie rock and folk songs. “Little Talks” is an upbeat delight, festooned with happy horns and boy/girl verses about an idyllic childhood.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we find a track from an artist or band we’ve been enjoying and bring it to you, for free, as our Single of the Week. These indie rock pioneers reunited for a Matador Records anniversary party last year in Las Vegas—and thankfully what happened in Vegas didn’t stay there. Guided by Voices’s classic lineup just released Let’s Go Eat the Factory, its first album since 1996’s Under the Bushes Under the Stars. The 21-song collection is filled with blasts of lo-fi brilliance, as highlighted by “The Unsinkable Fats Domino.” Clocking in at just less than two minutes, the triumphant track is built on a rumbling bedrock. It chugs along with Robert Pollard’s pretty, unaffected vocals floating above it all, urging listeners to “make disbelief unthinkable.”
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
Each week we select music from an independent artist we’re excited about and bring it to you, for free, as our Indie Free Download. Darkness Falls is a Copenhagen duo whose debut album was produced by Danish electronic mastermind Trentemøller. You won’t find too many cutting-edge touches in Darkness Falls’ music; its sound is built on analog rhythms and electric guitar jangle. Streamlined and gritty, this is a new spin on the sound of gritty girl groups and garage pop. File it somewhere between The Kills and Vivian Girls.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
