Grant Manship

Danielson Releases Danielson Alive! EP for Free

'Tis the Season of Danielson and that means some free goodies for all of you on the good list.  The EP consists of six classic Danielson tracks which were originally recorded during various live shows and radio broadcast performances including CBC's famous "Real Art Ways" program and venerable VPRO Dutch Radio.  You can preview a couple of the tracks off the EP below or just go ahead and download the whole thing here.

• Danielson - "Flesh Thang" from Danielson Alive! EP
• Danielson - "Southern Paws" from Danielson Alive! EP

Free EP from Bon Iver on MySpace Transmissions

The latest installment in the MySpace Transmission series comes from Bon Iver.  Not only are their videos of interviews and the various performance but you can also download a free 4 song EP of the performance.  Justin and Co. performed "Flume", "Lump Sum", "Blindsided" and "For Emma".  Check out the videos and download the EP here.

Get Your Free Digital EP From Grampall Jookabox

A few weeks ago, I suggested calling Grampall Jookabox's brand of music, "folk-hop."  Word from Asthmatic Kitty suggests he is a, "ghetto-folkster."  Pretty close right?  Today, we get a better glimpse into just exactly what a ghetto-folkster sounds like with the release of Grampall's free digital EP called Rill Bruh.

The EP contains the previously posted "The Girl Ain't Preggers" in addition to seven other tracks.  You can download the EP here or, if you want to listen before you leap, check out "Air Penance" below.  It sounds like this track's narrative does a nice job of  picking up the theme of family turmoil where "The Girl Ain't Preggers" left off.

• Grampall Jookabox - "Air Penance" from Rill Bruh EP

Richard Swift Releases Free Digital EP

Richard Swift just released his new EP Ground Trouble Jaw and being the swell guy that he is, he's giving it away for free through eMusic.

The EP is classic Swift through and through.  As the press release for the EP states, "the five tracks run the gamut from 60s girl group pop to Motown soul to Onasis-flavored 50s street gang doo-wop to synth-fueled pop classics (think Prince sitting in on the "Plastic Ono" sessions) - all with Swift's emerging trademark vocals which bring his songs to life like few other singers do today."  If you've been living under a rock and are somehow unfamiliar with Mr. Swift, download this.  Seriously.  The guy is brilliant and there isn't any reason why he shouldn't take over the world soon.  It's better that you're up to speed on things when that finally happens so like I said, pick this up.

I'd have to say my favorite tracks are "Would You" and "Lady Luck".  I've listened to both tracks at least 10 times since downloading the EP this morning.  Make sure you check them out below before you inevitably proceed to download the whole EP.  Speaking of downloading it, if you have trouble with the eMusic link you can download a zip file with all the tracks ready to go here, courtesy of yours truly.  Enjoy!

• Richard Swift - "Would You" from Ground Trouble Jaw
• Richard Swift - "Lady Luck" from Ground Trouble Jaw

New NIN Album Available Now For Free!

Radiohead left it up to you but Trent has decided for you.  You will take the album for free and you will like it.  Yes, that's right!  At some point this morning Trent Reznor took his experimentation with releases to a new level and decided to give away his new album The Slip away for absolutely nothing.  The note from NIN is as follows:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE.  your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

So what are you waiting for?  Pick up your free swag here.

Okkervil River Giving Away New EP of Covers

Okkervil River have made a 9-track mixtape of cover songs called Golden Oppportunities available as a free download on their website.  Not only do you get the music but they're offering liner notes and printable artwork for download as well.  The album features songs from The Fugs, John Cale, Randy Newman, and Serge Gainsbourg among others along with thematic ties to "The Stage Names".

The songs from Golden Opportunities were recorded at various radio stations, concerts and empty hotel stairwells while the band was on tour in Europe and America over the last year.  Make sure you download the mixtape here.  The Serge Gainsbourg cover below should be more than enough reason to hurry up and get that done.

• Okkervil River - "I Came Here To Say I'm Going Away" from Golden Opportunities