Free Music Friday #104: Ha Ha Tonka

Ha Ha Tonka feature in free music Friday again - that makes four times. (I'll need to check if that's a record.)

Ha Ha Tonka, a photo by JasonBaldwin on Flickr.

A website I've never visited before, called The Ruckus (which has a couple of taglines, one of which is the magnificent "With great moustache comes great responsibility.") gives a free download of a track called Made Example Of. It also links to a site where you can choose how much you are willing to pay (including nothing) for a six track tour sampler (more about this in a moment).

First though, Made Example Of. If you have never heard Ha Ha Tonka before, this is a good introduction. It's lively, quirky and it tells a story. The repeated refrain is:

"If you don't change where you're going,

Your gonna end up right where you're heading."

Sounds like a warning from your parents but perhaps if parents sounded like Ha Ha Tonka, more teenagers would pay attention!

If you like the sound of of Ha Ha Tonka, you will probably enjoy the six track sampler that features two of their tracks. It is billed as the Death of a Decade Tour Sampler and it has tracks from Ha Ha Tonka, Hoots And Hellmouth and The Spring Standards. It looks like these bands were on tour with the other two (mostly) supporting Ha Ha Tonka. The Sampler gives you a flavour of what they sound like together and it sounds to me like they work well - it would have been a good tour to catch.

What I think is especially interesting though is the website that is hosting the sampler. It is called Bandcamp. It is interesting because they host albums for download but rather than having a fixed price per track, they let the customer decide how much they want to pay. It looks like the artist can set a minimum price, but in the case of the Ha Ha Tonka sampler, there is no minimum, so I guess you could take it for free if you wanted.

You can also embed the tracks on your own site if you want to spread the news, like this:

It looks like an interesting business model which the site's front page is keen to show works and (they claim) works better than some other download models.

What do you think?

Free Music Friday #96: Ha Ha Tonka

Both Ha Ha Tonka and the HearYa site have featured here before and now they are back for a third time.

Head over to the HearYa site for a review of the new album and a free download of a track called Usual Suspects. The review suggests that the band's sound has matured and improved. I really like the sound of this track. If it is an indication of the quality of the album, I guess I'll be adding a third Ha Ha Tonka album to my collection.

Ha Ha Tonka - Usual Suspects from BAMM.tv on Vimeo.

Looks like they would be fun to see live too.

Free Download Friday #48: Ha Ha Tonka - Take 2

I wrote about Ha Ha Tonka back in July last year (Free Download Friday #17: Ha Ha Tonka). I discovered their session on the HearYa Music music blog and liked them so much, I got their album off of eMusic. In fact I liked them so much, I got their second album too when it too became available on eMusic.

For some reason, I've not been back to the HearYa Music blog for a while. When I finally did stop by, I was pleased to discover there was another session from Ha Ha Tonka - this time playing tracks from their second album (Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South). There are four tracks for download from their session:

• Walking On The Devil’s Backbone - Probably my favourite of the four on offer. Driven along by a strong beat and some interesting noisy guitars.
  
• Close Every Valve To Your Bleeding Heart - Starts off fairly quietly, name checks Dostoevsky, then bursts into angry guitar part when lamenting the loss of love. Excellent stuff.
• Hold My Feet To The Fire - Not sure what this is about (an abusive relationship?) but interesting changes of pace and interesting harmonies.
• The Outpouring - Some church-style organ to go with the noisy guitars.

They also link to their YouTube channel where you can watch the recording of the tracks:



So are you a Ha Ha Tonka convert yet?

Free Download Friday #17: Ha Ha Tonka

This is why it makes good business sense to give away free downloads... I can't remember where I first heard about Ha Ha Tonka's sessions for HearYa Music blog but I downloaded, for free, five live tracks from HearYa Live Session 8. I liked what I heard... so I went and paid money for their debut album - Buckle In The Bible Belt. :-)

[Ha Ha Tonka @ W'burg] IMG_2970
Originally uploaded by Adam Scally

About the songs
The band has an indie-rock sound with some alt-country and a good bit of gospel/blues thrown in. Now, it has to be said, a description like that would not normally make me think, "Hmm! I must have a listen." but on this occasion, I'm glad I did. The lead singer (Brian Roberts I think) has an interesting voice and the other chaps in the band add some close harmonies that sound great.

All five tracks are good but three leap out in particular.

Caney Mountain: A dark tale, apparently based on a true story, about a preacher fleeing a lynch mob after murdering a girl. An outstandingly good track that got five stars on my iPod on first listen. The video is appropriately dark and unsettling:



Hangman: An a cappella rendition of a traditional song that is (I think) a version of Gallis Pole. Impressive harmonies - especially from a live take.


St. Nick on the Fourth in a Ferver: Probably my favourite of the five tracks available for free.

Available on eMusic: Declaration of interest
Both of the current Ha Ha Tonka albums can be found on eMusic. If you sign up for eMusic as a result of following this link, I get some extra free downloads but I would highly recommend this site anyway as a great source of cheap, legal, music for download.

Sponsorship
The HearYa site has so many MP3s available for download, it is difficult to know where to start. Well, start with Ha Ha Tonka but after that it gets difficult. :-) This appears to be another example of sponsored downloads as the session is "Sponsored by Beernuts". When I first started thinking about this, I wondered if established acts would be more likely to get sponsorship, leaving new acts struggling to get started. However, both today's site and last week's seem to be sponsoring up and coming music, which is excellent.

What do you think?
So what do you think of Ha Ha Tonka? What do you think of the HearYa site?

P.S.
Sorry this is late again but with it being holiday time, the posts are likely to be a bit more irregular than usual.