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Though they’re from the West Coast, Gran Ronde sounds as if they’d fit right in playing alongside Bloc Party or Interpol. The band’s debut album, Secret Rooms, shows off a melodic, post-punk sound with 11 tightly produced songs (including bonus track “Control”). “Wisdom” is one of the more upbeat singles, with its jangly guitars, catchy hooks, and sentimental lyrics about love lost.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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SLO-O skates over a classic Dr. Dre-style production with his crisp, laid-back flow. The San Francisco newcomer’s hazy tale about grinding on sleepless streets takes on added drama thanks to strings that sweep across a hypnotic keyboard riff. The song’s title references Eldridge Cleaver’s collection of essays and SLO-O proves he too has literary flare: “I walk with my soul on ice, on gasoline blocks, matchbook ready to strike, I’m trying to weave out.”
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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Alabama’s Jamey Johnson has building up a strong fanbase since he debuted with “The Dollar” three years ago. In that time, he’s grown as a songwriter – inviting comparisons to Trace Adkins and George Strait (both of whom have sung his songs). Indeed, Johnson’s deep, rich vocals and rock-based twang have him on the fast track towards critical and commercial success.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date. 
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Carrie Rodriguez is a classically trained violinist who studied at the Berklee School of Music and made a name for herself as an earthy, passionate songwriter in the musician-friendly Austin, Texas. “Infinite Night” is a track from her second album, She Ain’t Me and it’s a murky bit of countrified, roots-y soul music with Rodriguez shining succinctly as a vocalist.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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Coining the new musical style called “anarcumbia”, Mexico’s Amandititita fuses modern cumbia beats with occasionally tongue-in-cheek, observational lyrics about life in Mexico. The songs on her self-titled debut contain all sorts of off-kilter pop songs including a tale about Mexico’s billionaire tycoon Carlos Slim and one track about a serial killer nurse. The one we’ve chosen to present is the futuristic, slightly satirical track about the singer and her metrosexual boyfriend and it’s called (no surprise) “Metrosexual”.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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Working in front one of the all-time great crate-digger beats, Karina makes it easy to fall for her thoughtful, boom-bastic pop. Karina is a pianist/songwriter/teenager whose debut, First Love was produced by Tricky Stewart and The-Dream and has already gained a little bit of love thanks to the single “Sixteen @ War.”
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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The Tennessee-born Whitney Duncan grew up listening to both the early rock ‘n’ roll of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis as well as modern country icons such as Tanya Tucker and Shania Twain. Now that she’s embarked on her own career at the age of 22, she’s able to fuse these elements of classic, rhythm-based guitar music and contemporary country pop. She’s got a strength in her voice which makes a song like “When I Said I Would” sound like a defiant classic.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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Cut from the same singer-songwriter cloth as Jack Johnson and Jill Sobule, Tristan Prettyman applies a warm Carnauba wax to her acoustic California pop, then burnishes it to a deep glow. A troubadour in flip-flops, Prettyman’s sunny take on heartbreak, “Madly,” appears on her second album Hello.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date. 
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This video kicks off R.E.M.’s storming new album Accelerate with a rousing combination of churning guitars and lyrical ire, with the kind of high and low harmonies that make it so defiantly a R.E.M. tune.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
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Duffy has quickly become one of the 2008′s most exciting musical figures in the U.K. The sound on “Mercy” is one that’s out of time – glassy go-go soul with smoky undertones of regret. The young Duffy takes centerstage and does her best Dusty Springfield. It’s a finger-snapping Motown groove with some white-hot soul power underneath.
IMPORTANT: Downloads are only free on iTunes for approximately 1 week from this post date.
