Free Download Friday #73: Band of Skulls

I mentioned last week (Free Download Friday #72: Support Acts) that I had other free downloads from Band Of Skulls that I was surprised that I had not already featured... well, better late than never!

I have found three tracks from this band... well three and a half because there are two different versions of the same track; a live version and a remix. Three tracks come from the RCRD.LBL site (which I have linked to before) and one from Paste Magazine (which I found while looking for Band Of Skulls music).

• Blood - a studio track. I read a review somewhere (can't remember where now) that said the Band Of Skulls sound like The Black Keys. I'd say this track was the most Black Keyish if the tracks on offer here. There is an interesting noisy guitar solo towards the end (about three and a half minutes in) and the interplay between the vocals from Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson is excellent.
  
• Impossible (Live At The Troubadour) - a great live track with a seemingly endless section of noise at the end. Brilliant!
• Death By Diamonds And Pearls (MightyMetronoms Remix) - a dance remix which is OK if you like that sort of thing.
  

You can hear all of these before downloading thanks to the RCRD.LBL widget:

And from Paste Magazine:

• Death by Diamonds and Pearls - A live version of the track murdered by the MightyMetronoms above! As far as I'm concerned, this raw, stripped back version is so much better than the remix version that I almost considered not linking to the remix version on the RCRD.LBL site.

I think I like the power trio approach to music because, with only three people in the band, there is no room for passengers. All the members of the group have to step up and deliver and I hope you agree that Band Of Skulls deliver big time in at least three of the downloads on offer here!

I would like to hear more from this band... but I would really like to see them live.

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 Friday #21: Glasvegas

I heard a comedian having a go at the Mercury Prize so went to see who the nominees were and was pleased to see Glasvegas there.

glasvegas
Originally uploaded by princess toadie

I think the first time I heard their music was when Radio 1 gave away a session track for free on the run up to Christmas 2008. I liked what I heard and subsequently bought their début LP called Glasvegas.

It was a bit tricky finding legal Glasvegas downloads but the two on the RCRD LBL site look legit. You can download Geraldine (which is excellent) and a remix of Go Square Go (which is OK).

They are described as Indie Rock and they remind me a bit (although just a bit) of The Ramones. Usually, however, they are described as being like Jesus and Mary Chain. Their songs often have a strong, basic beat from the drums overlaid with distorted, incessant guitar noise with a vocalist that sings in pure Glaswegian. Brilliant!

Check them out and let me know what you think.

P.S. I also found a download on the Preveiw New Music site - a live version of Daddy's Gone. However, I couldn't find any information about the site so I'm not sure how legal it would be to download from there. Does anybody have information about this site and the legal status of the downloads it links to?