Free Music Friday #85: New Year Resolutions

Despite my best intentions, I completely failed to honour at least one of my New Year resolutions; namely, make at least two Feedback posts a week. Here we are, over a fortnight into 2011 and I'm making my first post of the year - a free download Friday, and it's late! Will try to do better next week.

However, to make up for it, I'm not just linking to a free track this week. I'm not even just linking to a free album but four free albums and some video! (Well technically, one is a triple album but it's still four CDs worth of music!)

Thank you and goodnight!

Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

I have linked to Dream Theater related stuff before and they are a band that has grown on me since I saw them in concert a few years ago. I read with some concern therefore when I read that Mike Portnoy, drummer/lyricist/founding member/backing vocalist..., was leaving in what appears to be {understatement alert} not entirely happy circumstances! Mike is an outstandingly good drummer but with his umpteen side-projects and other commitments, perhaps he was spreading himself too thin. I think, however, that Dream Theater should be able to keep going and growing and I am sure we will continue to see and hear Mike's work here, there and everywhere. What I really hope though is that a few years down the line, Dream Theater and Mike Portnoy will sort things out and get back together again.

Anyway, to acknowledge the genius that is Mr Portnoy, here is a link to a multimedia extravaganza that is described as follows:

"Independent musicians, graphic artists, and a computer graphics demogroup have collaborated on a grand scale multimedia tribute to Mike Portnoy,in celebration of over a quarter of a century of highly influential musicianship."

The project is called Honor Thy Drummer and what you get (among other things) is three albums worth of music from artists that have collaborated with, or have benefitted in some way from association with Mike. As is to be expected, it is mostly in the Metal genre, but with a definite tendency to the Progressive end of the spectrum - just the way I like it!

And if that isn't enough for you, I also have a link to a sampler disk that includes a free track from Dream Theater featuring Mr Portnoy. The Roadrunner Records Amazon Sampler has twelve tracks for free download. (Oddly, individual tracks are listed with a cost but if you click to download the whole album, it is added to your basket at a cost of £0.00.) Many of the tracks are a bit too Wooorrrarrgh for my taste but some of the tracks, including the one from Dream Theater are great. (And sorry Jeff, not sure if this is UK Amazon only.)

So there you are. Plenty to keep you going even if it is a fortnight before my next post. Let me know what you think of the tracks. Which is your favourite?

Free Download Friday #1

It's a Friday and I hope this is the first of a semi-regular series of links to free downloads... so Free Download Friday seems like a good name. (Better the Zero Cost Zursday anyway!) So, lets start with a biggie...

Thank you and goodnight!
Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

I mentioned in my post about last.fm that I am a relatively recent convert to Dream Theater but making a debut on this blog is Airbourne. On the face of it, these groups do not have a lot in common. Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band whereas Airborne is an straight out hard rock band from Australia. What links them is Roadrunner Records. This is a record label that has a number of big names on its roster (including Nickelback and Sammy Hagar) but also has a load of other groups that I didn't know much (or anything) about before I found my way to the Roadrunner site. New discoveries that I'm impressed with include Black Stone Cherry (excellent southern rock), The Parlor Mob and Theory of a Deadman.

The UK Roadrunner site is a great source of information about upcoming tours and releases, and it offers the occasional free download, for example, currently you can download Carnival Of Crows by the Parlor Mob (and I would recommend you do!). However, for the mother lode of free downloads, you have to head to the American site.

When you first arrive you are offered the chance to subscribe and download a free album. In fact you get a choice of two: Annual Assault (thirteen tracks which feature some of their more metal acts) or Between Rock and a Hard Place (eleven tracks which feature some of their more rock oriented acts). I subscribed and went for the rock album and Daughter Number Two joined for the metal one... but both of us liked both. :-)

Even better, many of the artists' pages on the American site offer a free download track. Here are some of my favourites (in alphabetical order):

• Airbourne - Runnin' Wild
• BiffyClyro - Mountains {A fine Scottish band.}
• Black Stone Cherry - Please Come In {A very mellow track compared to other stuff of theirs I've heard.}
• Dream Theater - Forsaken
• Opeth - Burden {I don't usualy like band with a "Wooorrraaargh!" approach to vocals but these chaps are growing on me.}
• The Parlor Mob - Hard Times
• Sammy Hagar - LOUD
• Theory Of A Deadman - Hate My Life

These are just a few of the downloads on offer. Go explore and then let me know what your favourites are.

Classic Rock Presents Prog - Poll Results

In Prog Rock Favourites I posted my top five Prog albums which I'd sent into Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine. At the time, I wasn't hopeful of my choices getting into the top five but I have been pleasantly surprised at how well all of them have done.

Guitar heroes
Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

All five of my choices feature in the top 50, one of my choices is the number one choice and best of all (for me at least) they reprinted my comment about Dream Theater. Brilliant! (Although, I think I need to stop using the word "swagger"!)

I was tempted to give you details of where they all appeared in the list but that hardly seems fair to the magazine. However, I think it is reasonable to give some broad details about the albums/artists I chose.

My first choice was Rush and I was pleased to see four of their albums in the top fifty although disappointingly, none made it into the top twenty. (Their top placed entry was, perhaps not surprisingly, 2112.)

Genesis did well with five albums in total and three in the top ten. Interestingly (at least, interesting to me) the top three are all Gabriel era Genesis. I was surprised but happy to see my choice, Selling England By The Pound, placed above The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. :-)

Next I went for Pink Floyd and they also did well with four albums in the list and three in the top ten. As might have been expected, Dark Side Of The Moon was their highest placed work.

I then moved onto a couple of sprog rock bands and it was good to see newer bands featuring fairly strongly with Dream Theater and Porcupine tree managing two entries each and Dream Theater even scraping into the top twenty.

Other newer prog bands also feature showing that the best of prog is not necessarily in the past (although it is fair to say the old guard dominate the list). As with all lists like this, it is a product of its time. If they did the same exercise next week, they'd get a completely different set of albums. However, I find the top ten difficult to argue with and there are some albums listed that I am now inspired to track down.

Good fun and my name in print. What more could you ask for in a Best Of list? :-)

Prog Rock Favourites

Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine asked its readers to choose their five favourite prog rock albums. This is the message I sent them:

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How can I possibly choose a favourite prog album? - It's too hard and if you ask me tomorrow you'd get a different answer. :-)

I'll give it a go anyway...

Hope
Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

1) Rush - Snakes And Arrows
That the number one choice was going to be Rush was not in doubt but which one to choose? I almost went for A Farewell To Kings - the album that introduced me to Rush many (many) years ago. However, it was the word, the concept, Progressive that swung me to Snakes And Arrows. Here's a band that's been together 35 years but are still producing new and exciting albums. Some reviewers were a bit sniffy about the Snakes tour - complaining that they didn't do enough old stuff and too much from the new album. Numpties! Rush were not doing a reunion nostalgia tour. They were touring their new album. An album they were excited about and wanted to play for their fans. Now that's what I call Prog!

2) Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Genesis with Gabriel. I could have gone for the obvious and chosen The Lamb but "I Know What I Like In Your Wardrobe" was one of the first singles I bought and this remains one of my all time favourite albums.

3) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Again, perhaps not the obvious choice. Why not Dark Side or The Wall? It was tricky but I still remember getting this album with the plastic cover, the stickers and the poster... and then I played it... It still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Brilliant.

4) Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos
Wanted to include some new bands and Dream Theater were an obvious choice. A band that understands their prog roots but delivers with a Metal edge and a rock swagger.

5) Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet
Alex Lifeson plays on one of the tracks. That was reason enough for me to check out this album (see 1 above!). I then went backwards through much of their back catalogue to discover the progression of a truly Progressive band.

So there's five. No Marillion? No Yes? No... There are so many that should have been there but you only let me choose five!

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I don't expect many (any?) of my choices will end up in the top ten but today, that's my top five. What would you go for?

Dream Theater Competition

I told you about the free download of the Dream Theater track in I know it's not Friday.... It was only available from the Roadrunner Records site for twenty-four hours but last night I got an email encouraging me to pass it on. They are want everyone who gets a copy of the track to add a pin to a map saying where they live. Everyone who puts a pin in the map is entered into a competition to win CDs and other goodies. They say:

To enter the competition click on the image below and pin where in the UK you're from. Then help spread some ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’ by sending the track to as many of your friends and asking them to add their location/details as well.

We will then put all the people that have “pinned” the map into a prize draw.

So if you missed the twenty-four hour download period but want a copy. Let me know and I'll send you the track. And if you want to enter a competition to win a bucket load of prizes, go to the map and add your pin.

I know it's not Friday...

Download a full track, A Rite Of Passage, from the new Dream Theater album. (And have a snigger at Mike's blue beard while you are there.)

This one only lasts 24 hours (less now because it's already about halfway through) so go... now!

Finding music

I'd like to do a series of posts on where I find music, how I discover new artists to listen to and where I get music from (mostly eMusic currently... but that's a topic for another post). I thought I'd start with last.fm.

I like last.fm for a number of reasons. They have a good range of streamed music you can listen to and a fairly active community of music enthusiasts setting up groups (e.g. Rush, Joe Bonamassa and Blues! to name three I've contributed to) and posting up-coming events (e.g. Rush's Snakes and Arrows Tour will let you see a successful past event and Joe Bonnamassa in Glasgow shows an event I posted). You can listen to streamed audio on the website or you can download the last.fm music player (Windows, Mac and iPhone versions are available) and recently it has started offering a few tracks as free downloads (e.g. Discipline by Nine Inch Nails). It also provides useful tools that you can embed in websites and blogs, such as the recently played tracks and favourite artists widgets at the right-hand edge of this blog and the player widget shown below.

A radio station based on the music I play.

However, the feature that really sold it to me is that the more last.fm knows about what you play, the better it gets at suggesting music you would like to listen too. For example, last.fm suggested I would like Dream Theater and Muse... and it was right! Oh... and you can link your music player (iTunes, Windows Media Player, Real Player...) to last.fm so that it can learn what you like to listen to more quickly.

Where do you get your music recommendations? What streaming music services do you listen to?

Free Download Friday #9: Turtlehead covers Overkill

Today's download is from a band you may not have heard of because Turtlehead are a band that "lasted about 30 minutes". :-)

The download is a cover of Overkill by Motörhead and comes from the blog of one of the chaps who host Talking Metal. Why should you be interested in a cover by a band you've never heard of and that you'll probably never see again? If I tell you who is in the band, perhaps that will pique your interest:

Mark Strigl (Host from Talking Metal) – Guitar
John Ostronomy (Host from Talking Metal) – Guitar
Frank Bello (Anthrax) – Bass
Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth (Overkill, The Cursed) – Vocals
Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) – Drums

If you skipped over it, go back and check the drummer again. :-) Mike is on fire in this track. This is a live recording and he just powers through it. Bobby Ellsworth bows out exhausted after the second or third reprise :-) however Frank Bello manages to keep up with Mike (with perhaps one stumble) and it feels like everyone is hanging on for grim death as Mr Portnoy drags them in his wake. Everybody's game is lifted. A thoroughly enjoyable romp!

You can read a bit more about the Overkill cover in the Mark's blog entry or you can check out the video from the session on YouTube.



Hope you enjoy.

Free Download Friday #6

Greetings! As you are probably aware, David has made a big mess and is unable to post here for a while. I volunteered to do this week's Free Download Friday post for him, since writing about free music is an area in which I have a little experience (I maintain the Totally Free Musc blog, where I try to post at least once a week about my favourite free music sources that I've found). He asked me to keep it in the "noisy guitar, Blues Rock or Prog Rock area", so I took a look at my notes and decided that this would be a great chance to write about an album that nearly slipped through the cracks on my own blog: Nightmares + Lullabies by Six Red Carpets. I hesitate to call it "prog rock" per se, but with its instrumentation, use of dynamics, and overall concept, the album sounds quite progressive nonetheless.

Nightmares + Lullabies opens with a brief instrumental piece called "The Weaver Call"; piano, synthesized strings, and crashing percussion combine to create a very dramatic sound, setting the stage for great things to come. "Twenty Two and the Charm of Gravity" kicks the album into high gear with a frantic drum beat that is soon joined by a thundering bassline and vocals that sound like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Billy Corgan with an Italian accent. I hear a bit of Radiohead in here too (not surprising, as their press kit lists Radiohead as one of their biggest influences), and the song concludes with a bass outro that brings Geddy Lee to mind. "Here's to the Nightmare" features some heavy, dark guitar riffs that give way to a soaring chorus. The album's best bridge can also be found in this song: a half-spoken, half-sung section that builds and builds in intensity until the tension is released in another heavy section, this time bringing Tool to mind.

There are some mellower moments, too. "Deep Down in Water (Part 1)" has a very nice spoken word outro (incidentally, there is no Part 2 anywhere on this album, leading me to wonder whether they have it planned for a future release or if they just added the "Part 1" as a joke, like Dream Theater initially did with their song "Metropolis Pt. 1"). "Vanilla Scent", probably my favourite song on the album, is a gorgeous song with synthesized strings that really fill out the sound; I also hear a bit of R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" in the verses of this song. "Bring Me Noise" features another spoken outro with some beautiful piano playing; this part reminds me of some of the spoken stuff that Fish has done on his own and with Marillion.

Nightmares + Lullabies also happens to be a very well put together package. In addition to the MP3s (which, at 320 kbps, are quite high quality and contain embedded artwork and lyrics), there are 2 PDF files included: one is a short story which introduces the concept of the album, and the other is an e-booklet with lyrics and beautiful paintings for each song (which can be downloaded separately if so desired). It is clear that a lot of care has been put into this album. Their press kit states that "the final result is not comparable with a “big production”", but I would have to respectfully disagree - this package is every bit comparable to past high-profile online offerings like Radiohead's In Rainbows and Nine Inch Nails' The Slip. The fact that Six Red Carpets seem to be aiming even higher than what they've already done has me excited to hear what they come up with in the future - these guys will certainly be a band to watch. Happy listening!

URLs:
http://musicddm.blogspot.com/2009/04/ive-made-big-mess-and-im-now-in-danger.html
http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/
http://www.sixredcarpets.com/albumdownload.htm

Free Download Friday #64: Return to Roadrunner Records

After seeing Cohheed And Cambria at Rock Radio's Secret Session, I decided to see if I could track down any free music for download. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything from them. However, since they are with Roadrunner Records in the UK, I found my way to Roadrunner Records in the USA where, as usual, there was some good stuff available.

Claudio

Originally uploaded by DavidDMuir

It is a while since I visited Roadrunner Records (see Free Download Friday #44) and I thought it was interesting that I now own CDs that contain many of the tracks they are offering as free downloads. As I've often said, giving a track away free is a great way to generate interest and (probably) sales. It has certainly worked on me. I suspect I wouldn't have half the Roadrunner product I have if they hadn't given me a taste of their bands on the USA site.

So, in alphabetical order, here are the downloads currently on offer that caught my eye. Some I have already and some are new to me but I think all are interesting:

• Airbourne - No Way But The Hard Way: I thoroughly enjoyed the Airbourne gig in Glasgow recently and if you haven't heard them already, this track gives a pretty good indication of what they are about.
• Blackstone Cherry - Soulcreek: Southern Rock done in a classic style by a band of young whippersnappers. Excellent stuff.
• Dommin - My Heart, Your Hands: When I reviewed the Dommin Secret Session, I used the video of this track and now you can download it for free.
• Dream Theater - A Rite Of Passage: Another band I saw in concert thanks to Rock Radio!
• Parlor Mob - Everything You're Breathing For: There's a bit of a retro feel to this lot and I really like this track. Moments of restraint interspersed with noise and mayhem!

So, that's my picks. Have I missed any? What would you recommend.