Free Music Friday #89: Dust Bowl

Thanks to a Tweet from @JayeRHill last week, I was alerted to another free download from Joe Bonamassa. (Do I need to remind you of how much I like Joe Bonamassa?)

PB300031
Originally uploaded by Joanie H

Jaye thought the free offer was time limited to last weekend but the good news is, it looks like it's not to late to get it. Just go to the Dust Bowl Download page, enter an email address and within a few minutes you could be downloading a track from his still to be released album.

And what a track it is! It is outstandingly good. Wonderful bass line, twanging guitar riff and some great solos from Mr Bonamassa.

My only problem with the track is, the twanging guitar. It's not that I don't like it. Quite the reverse. I really like it. It's just that it reminds me of something else... but I can't place what it reminds me of. Most annoying.

Twang, twang, dwanggg!

I keep singing it to myself in the hope that I'll remember but so far, no joy. Can anyone help me out?

That aside, I cannot recommend this track highly enough. Very much looking forward to hearing the rest of this album.

Free Music Friday #88: Glasvegas

I featured Glasvegas in a free download from iTunes, which they gave way on the run up to Christmas 2009 (see Free Download Friday #39: iTunes Holiday Sampler). The Glasvegas track was one of my favourites on this EP.

I had featured the band in an earlier post (see Free Download Friday #21: Glasvegas) and I liked what I heard from the band so much, I bought their album. This début album was released in 2008 and since then... not a lot but at last, a new album is on its way. It will be released in April of this year and revels in name of EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\ (I guess it seemed like a good idea to the band!) April is still some way off, so to whet our appetites, they are giving away a free track. It is called The World Is Yours, and you can listen to it below:

The World Is Yours by glasvegas

I love the vocals, and the drums, and... well, I really like the track! And, as a techie aside, I like the comment track in the player widget. It seems to be provided by SoundCloud - a site that I'll have to spend some time exploring.

So, how do you download the track? Just go to the download page on the Glasvegas site, sign up for their newsletter and Flo's your auntie.

What do you think of this new track? Are you looking forward to the release of their second album?

Gary Moore (1952-2011)

I am sure other people will do this better than I can, but I wanted to mark the sad passing of Gary Moore with a brief thought or two.

I think I first became aware of Gary Moore when he was in Thin Lizzy at the time they released the Black Rose album and I saw him play with them on the Black Rose tour at the legendary Glasgow Apollo. I think Black Rose is Thin Lizzy's most commercially successful album and remains my favourite. It was because of this album that I started to pay attention to what Gary Moore did post Lizzy and I think it is fair to say that he is one of the main reasons that this teenage Rock fan started listening to the Blues.

I couldn't find any video of Black Rose era Lizzy but I did find this great footage of Gary Moore playing Black Rose with Scott Gorham and Brian Downey:

Rock, Blues and Celtic influences and Gary and Scott having a blast.

Thank you Gary.

Free Music Friday #87: Let Joy Be Unconfined

Much has been made of the fact that Robert Plant has chosen to call his latest venture Band of Joy - the name of the band that he was in with John Bonham before they both joined Led Zeppelin. It is suggested that he is snubbing the idea of a Led Zeppelin re-union by re-claiming the name of his pre-Zeppelin band. Hmm! Not convinced.

Whatever the reasons for his choice of name, his latest release has been receiving a lot of positive critical comment and, if this free track from the album is anything to go by, the praise is much deserved:

At one level, the track on offer - Central Two-O-Nine, is an old style Blues number with uncertain origin (where uncertain=much discussed). So clear return to roots then? Arguably a return to Led Zepplin's roots. There is, however, a banjo working way in the track along with the acoustic guitar giving the track a bit of a country feel that hints at Mr Plant's more recently expressed interest in wider aspects of Americana.

I like this track. I like it a lot. I wasn't really tempted to buy the album he did with Alison Krauss, but I think I'll give this one a go.

Record Industry and MP3 downloads

I have had the occasional rant on this blog about the stupidity of the music industry (see for example these posts). It seems they adopt either a head in the sand or a headless chicken approach whenever online music distribution is mentioned. Apparently they still don't understand music fans or how to make money from online distribution (make it easy to access and cheap to buy - at least that's what I think). It may be though that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Radio General Electric
Originally uploaded by Fernando Candeias

The article, Universal and Sony to change singles release policy, from the BBC website says that two major UK labels are going to end the practice of releasing music for radio airplay long before it is available for purchase. I don't know if this will really make much of an impact on illegal downloading (it could be too little to late - the bad downloading habits may be too firmly entrenched) but it seems an emminately sensible idea anyway and I hope it catches on.

Of course, it is not really a new idea, it a return to old practice because it's the way it used to work when I was a lad. The policy of building up interest and pre-orders by playing a tune on the radio for a long time before release has led to the phenomenon of records appearing high in the chart one week and then dropping like a stone the next. Hopefully, simultaneous release will allow records to build slowly and climb the charts over a period of time like they used to. It could even make the charts more interesting than the have been of late.

So, I think it's a good idea even if it doesn't impact on piracy. But if they announce next that they are dropping the price of legal downloads, I'll start looking for flying pigs.

What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? And do you think it will impact on piracy?

Free Music Friday #86: Tom Waits again

In my education blog I have been going on lately about a conference I attended (see Learning Without Frontiers). As well as enjoying the conference, I enjoyed the chance to meet people that I otherwise only know by their Twitter avatar.

Tom Waits Dublin 31st July 2008
Originally uploaded by daveograve@

There is one such meeting however that I feel a bit guilty about. Poor @OliverQuinlan got stuck between two slightly ranting Scots (@DerekRobertson and myself). I'm afraid we got a bit enthusiastic about music. Derek, of course, was waxing lyrical about John Shuttleworth and associated characters - even bursting into song on occasion by way of illustration. Somehow or other, we got onto Tom Waits. Derek is a fan but Oliver wasn't really aware of him, so I mentioned my Tom Waits download post on this blog (which included one of my favourite tracks - Bottom Of The World) as well as the Peter Gabriel cover (also on this site).

Unfortunately, when I went to look for Bottom Of The World, I was disappointed to see it was no longer available from the Epitaph Records site (although some of the other tracks are still there). I went looking for it to see if it was available somewhere else and in the process found two live tracks for download on the Spinner Music site instead.

The tracks can be found on a page titled Exclusive: Tom Waits MP3 Download, Part Deux but unfortunately, the free download (of Bottom Of The World) on Part One has expired. The tracks that are still available on the "Part Deux" page are excellent. The first is Falling Down (Live) and Mr Waits is positively bellowing the lyrics. it sounds fantastic and it must have been spine chilling to be in the audience. The second is Eye Ball Kid (Live) which is essentially just percussion and Tom barking out the words. Now I know that doesn't sound very appealing but trust me, it's Tom Waits and it's brilliant.

Has anyone reading this post seen Tom Waits in concert? Hearing tracks like these makes me think it would be an experience you'd never forget.

P.S. I think Oliver has forgiven us because he sent a message to say he'd enjoyed the evening but that having listened to some Tom Waits, he said it was, "...not massively my thing". Well, at least we tried!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. (By way of experiment!)

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?