Free Download Friday #34: Nine Inch Nails

Before I had started this music blog, I wrote about a crowd sourced video of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson playing at a Foo Fighters concert. Today's Free Download Friday takes that concept and adds rocket boosters!

Nine Inch Nails Live @ House Of Blues...
Originally uploaded by Nine Inch Nails Official

An extended quote from the This One's On Us site will fill in some of the details:

When I first heard about the TDS set the band performed at Webster Hall on August 23rd 2009, I pretty much, like everyone else in the entire world, went apesh*t. Part of it was my epic failure of choosing to see the Bowery Ballroom show the night before instead (which was still mindblowing in its own right). But then I remembered Trent tweeting the night before about the show not being officially filmed due to Live Nation charging them too much dough. Trent also mentioned this would be the first and last time they'd ever play that set... I immediately got on it and used the @thisoneisonus twitter feed to get the ball rolling.

So what ball started rolling? The ball was to collect together video taken by fans in the audience and edit it together to create a multi-angle DVD release of the concert. Brilliant!

I must admit, it never occurred to me that venues charged bands to allow them to video a show. Clearly they are not making enough money just charging for the hire of the venue and the free publicity from the Nine Inch Nails Live From [Insert Venue Name Here] DVD title is clearly not worth anything. The poor lambs have to make their money somehow. It's like the ticket chaps - I use my machine, my time and often my printer to order tickets for a concert and then they charge me a fee on top of the ticket price! Why? "Because we're the only place you can buy the tickets from so like it or lump it. Mmwwa, ha, ha ha!" Bah!

Anyway... thanks to NIN's open camera policy, the chap(s) at This One's On Us have managed to create a DVD that captures the energy and the excitement of the gig. The site notes that the audio is not perfect, and that it "...has some nasty moments due to one over-excited fan screaming in the microphone." To be honest, I think this adds to the atmosphere rather than detracting from it. It feels authentic.

The full DVD release can be downloaded as a bit torrent. This is slightly more complex than a standard point and click download but is appropriate for such a massive file. If you want a smaller, more straightforward download, This One's On Us has links to an iPod friendly version and a YouTube version.

Not the usual Free Download Friday today but I thought it was worth sharing. Is it OK to do the occassional non-audio download or would you prefer it if I stuck to audio files?

Update: If you want an mp3 download, I've just noticed that the NIN Hotline have a link to an audio version of the concert.

Bonfire Night

It's Guy Fawkes - Bonfire Night here in the UK. I noticed that Classic Rock Magazine had suggested a soundtrack for the night, and I thought it would be fun to start a Spotify list on the same topic.

Only eight tracks just now. Feel free to add more tracks on the bonfire/fireworks theme. :-)

When musical worlds collide #3

I thought it was a one off... then I found some more... and here we are with the third When musical worlds collide. Do you enjoy these odd pairings as much as I do? Would you like to see more?

Collision 1: I'll start with the one I'm least sure about. I love the video but I'm not sure it counts as a collision as I'll explain below:



My memory of Gary Numan is of a early pioneer of Synth Pop whereas Nine Inch Nails are the founding fathers of Industrial Rock. Surely no connection there - a clear collision. But when you watch the video - it works. What do you think? musical collision or is there is a clear line from Numan to NIN?

Collision 2: I'm not convinced that the embed code for this next video is right. However, you should be able to see it in the original ill doctrine post. If it doesn't work here, check it out there... as long as you promise to come back here afterwards. :-)

Update: I really like this video but I can't get it to load reliably either here or on the ill doctrine site (which is a pity). I've edited the embedded video out because the page just hangs when it fails to load. :-(

I think this Blues/Rap mashup works well. John Lee Hooker and 50 cent - two very different artists and two different attitudes to money but one interesting musical mashup.

Collision 3: Next up is a musical duo that featured in Free Download Friday #33: - Rodrigo Y Gabriela:



Listening to the free download of Orion, it was clear that they were very good but watching them perform with Robert Trujillo is just stunning.

Collision 4: Finally, something that's more than a little bizarre. When I hear the term One Man Band, I picture a chap playing a guitar, with a bass drum on his back, cymbals between his knees and a kazoo on a bit of wire round his neck... that doesn't come close to describing this chap:



The drumming is good - that he's doing it one handed is brilliant! If you had only heard the track without seeing him perform, would you have guessed that he was doing it live and all by himself?

I can't quite remember who directed me to these videos but feel free to claim the credit in a comment. I can't see that I'll have another of these posts in the near future but if you want to make some suggestions...

Free Download Tuesday... Again!

This is getting to be a habit! For the second week in a row, I decided to post a music download early rather than wait until Friday.

Today's download is from the latest supergroup to hit the Rock world - namely Them Crooked Vultures. The band consists of John Paul Jones (Led Zepplin) on bass, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) on drums and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) on vocals and guitar. To be honest, they had me at John Paul Jones! Can't remember where I first heard about this band but I've been listening to the stuff they've made available on YouTube with interest.

However, today's Track of the Day from Classic Rock Magazine is Mind Eraser, No Chaser from Them Crooked Vultures. Brilliant. The Classic Rock site links you to iTunes where the track is available as a free download to anyone who finds their way there. (When I tried the link, for reasons unknown, it took me to the iTunes site in the USA, so here is a link directly to the UK iTunes page in case you have similar difficulties.)

This a strong track, but not my favourite, so I offer you the New Fang video from the official channel as well. Which track do you like best from the material available so far?



In closing, what's with supergoups and birds? First we have Chickenfoot and now Them Crooked Vultures. All suggestions for the next bird themed supergroup (name and line up) will be welcome. :-)

Free Download Friday #33: Rodrigo Y Gabriela

I was very tempted to keep Rodrigo Y Gabriela for a When musical worlds collide post. I may still feature them again at some point in the future but I decided the downloads available were too good to miss for a Free Download Friday.

_Rodrigo y gabriela Live concert @AB Ancienne Belgique Bruxelles -9
Originally uploaded by Kmeron

Rodrigo and Gabriela are two Mexican musicians who are currently living in Dublin. They play a style of guitar that is normally described as flamenco metal. However, I don't feel this is fair to either flamenco or metal! What ever you call it, they are stunningly talented guitarists, playing a fast, percussive and powerful style on classical guitars.

I heard them on the radio ages ago and thought they sounded interesting but for some reason I did not seek out any of their recordings. However, when I went looking a couple of weeks back, I was pleased to discover three of their tracks were available on the rcrd lbl site. (I've talked about rcrd lbl once before and always meant to go an see what else of interest I could find there.)

The three downloads are:

1. Diablo Rojo
2. Buster Voodoo (Radio Edit)
3. Orion

Of the three, my favourite is probably Diablo Rojo:

What do you think? What's your favourite track?

Free Download... er... Tuesday?

I really wanted to keep this until Friday for a Free Download Friday post but I'm not sure exactly how long the offer will be available. The first time I read about it, I thought it was only going to be a week but Tom Russell seemed to suggest today that it was going to be available for a fortnight...

The legend... and Tom Russell :-)
Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

What am I taking about? Rock Radio are currently offering the new GUN single - Let Your Hair Down as a free download. Follow the link, enter your email address and download their new single. Excellent!

I generally like GUN's stuff but I must admit that on first listen, this one is only OK. Three stars on my iPod - which means it's earned it's place but isn't particularly special. However, as I say, it's only had one listen so far. It may be a grower...

The other reason I wanted to keep this until Friday is that the Rock Radio link takes you to the Townsend Records' site, which is currently offering a thirteen track sampler album as a free download. I've not had a chance to listen to more than a couple of tracks yet, but the names of the artists I recognise makes it look promising. For example, it has two tracks from Thunder and one from Ian Hunter. Interested?

Update: I added the following in a comment...

On subsequent listens, I decided I did like the GUN track and I'm not sure why I was so grumpy after the first listen. Of the Sampler album, I'd say the two Thunder tracks are the best but I really like the Toby Jepson track too.

Free Download Friday #32: Black Math Horseman

Following my Paint it Black post, I went looking for more bands with Black in their name. I found that I had a track on my iPod from Black Math Horseman - which I had more or less forgotten about.

Black Math Horseman
Originally uploaded by jeremiah3

I've mentioned Classic Rock Magazine's Track of the Day before and it turns out the track on my iPod came from there: Tee Pee Tuesday: Black Math Horseman. It's a great track, dark, brooding, progressive, noisy guitar - what's not to like? :-)

I decided to go and explore the Tee Pee Records website and was pleased to find a great deal available to download. For now I'll just offer a couple of Black Math Horseman related links.

First, an old news item with two Tracks for download: Black Math Horseman to release "Wyllt" on April 21st. The two tracks are Tyrant and Deerslayer. I love the guitar sound from the start of Tyrant - discordant and disturbing... and then an ethereal vocal kicks in which intensifies the discomfort. Then some grunged up guitar takes over... Excellent stuff! Deerslayer has a similarily dark opening as befits the title before a driving guitar picks up the pace. However, don't get too settled because the track continues to develop and challenge.

I'll explore the site further and see what else can be uncovered but I thought I'd finish with a link to the Online Sampler. Nineteen tracks (including Tyrant again) in a single zip file. I've only had a chance for a quick listen so far but there was plenty that jumped out even on the quick once through I gave it. I suspect that before too long, I'll be featuring Tee Pee records again in a Free Download Friday.

Let me know what tracks you like from the sampler. Who catches your ear?