Here are the latest free downloads I’ve found this month.  You can snag some free mp3 singles or watch videos or even listen to entire streamed albums.

Some of these selections may be edgier than what I normally showcase, but they all are solid artists who deserve a listen. Check them out!

Evan Taubenfeld

Before striking out on his own, Evan Taubenfeld was best known as the musical director and lead guitarist for Avril Lavigne, co-writing such hits as “Don’t Tell Me” and “Hot.” After writing and producing for other artists, he’s finally releasing his debut solo album Welcome to the Blacklist Club this fall. The singles “Boy Meets Girl” and “Cheater of the Year” are already getting Evan a lot of attention, including features on MTV’s Buzzworthy, AOL’s PopEater and in J-14 Magazine.

You can check out some videos of Evan on his website here: http://evantaubenfeld.com/ettv

Moneypenny

Moneypenny

After their wildly successful performance at Lollapalooza 2009, Chicago-based DJ/electro duo Moneypenny will take their music to the masses with the release of a free 2-song digital single and string of high profile buzz gigs in Chicago, LA and San Francisco.

The duo, which began strictly as a DJ project in 2008, quickly blossomed into a full-fledged live act as Jessica Gonyea (A-Cup) and Chess Hubbard (Mother Hubbard)’s shared passion for new wave, pop, indie, electronica, and house music led them to write and record original material. Kept under lock and key until their debut live performance at Lollapalooza, Moneypenny’s original tracks quickly became must have material for industry types on both sides of the pond as word spread about these two incredibly talented young ladies. More than just two pretty faces, Moneypenny come stacked with a slew of great songs – one of which has already been licensed to ABC TV’s “Make It Or Break It” – a charismatic live show incorporating custom video projections and DJ skills to keep the after party going all night long.

Moneypenny is working on a full-length, debut release for 2010. In the meantime, they’d like to share a free gift for you to post and check out.

First single “Say No” was recorded in Chicago earlier this year and comes packaged with an insanely dance floor ready remix courtesy of good friends and fellow Chicagoans, Hey Champ.

“Say No” – DOWNLOAD HERE

“Say No” (Hey Champ Remix) – DOWNLOAD HERE

LOVEHATEHERO

[Live Music Alert: October 26, Triple Rock, Minneapolis , MN ]

LoveHateHero (www.myspace.com/lovehatehero) will be joining Eyes Set To Kill and Dreaming of Eden on a fall tour beginning 10/23 in Orland Park , IL . An 11-city Brazilian tour will follow. The band’s new CD, America Underwater, was released next Tuesday, September 29^th on Ferret Music.

Check out the new video for the title track at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaDxf7PIDgE

http://vimeo.com/6695030

http://ferretmusic.buzznet.com

http://www.friendsorenemies.com/web/foe/users/ferretmusic/

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6035391/15686115

OR stream the entire album before you can buy at:

http://www.myspace.com/lovehatehero

http://www.ilike.com/artist/LoveHateHero

http://www.reverbnation.com/lovehatehero

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Ferret+Music/songs

http://www.purevolume.com/lovehatehero

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320536394&mt=8 (Ferret Music iPhone App)

http://www.facebook.com/ferretmusic

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/LoveHateHero/9989801524

Via Tania

To many, Via Tania and her unique brand of self-described ‘moon pop’ are, as of yet, undiscovered musical gems of real beauty. The last five years have witnessed her traipse her own quiet path between Australia and the United States, as well as many exotic locales in-between, putting the finishing touches to her sophomore release, ‘Moon Sweet Moon’, which will be released this month with The:Hours.

“Moon Sweet Moon” will be available digitally October 13 and physically October 20

FREE Download of Via Tania’s first single “Wonder Stranger” Here.

A Brief Story on “Moon Sweet Moon”

“Via Tania came out of a need for personal space,” says the singer/multi-instrumentalist, explaining her set pieces and scene changes. “Even when I was a teenager, I liked to process things at my own pace and write about things alone. In fact, I have a cassette from when I was 14 years old, and the songs on it would fit perfectly in my sets even now.”

Often in her own world, Tania still remembers the rabbit footprints that once dotted her bedroom floor. It’s hard not to. That’s where it all started, after all—where she’d hide for hours dreaming up songs, letting her imagination take flight alongside schoolteacher parents who were “great storytellers” and “didn’t always separate fact from fiction.” “I was an outsider from an early age,” says Tania, a Sydney native who’s weaved in and out of the Chicago music scene for the past decade. “I’ve always been quite comfortable with it, though.”

No wonder why her solo work (as Via Tania) has always sounded like a long day’s journey into night, as if the sun just set and you’re suddenly surrounded by towering trees and the entire cast of Where the Wild Things Are. Except that kid with the crown. Tania’s taken his place, conducting Technicolor pop cuts that might as well be synced up to a short film of its own. Or at the very least, carefully sequenced into a mesmerizing album like Moon Sweet Moon—a parallel dimension that begins innocently enough (the echo chamber keys and buried shuffleboard beats of “The Beginning”) but quickly turns bizarre and a bit, well, mad.

With Moon Sweet Moon, songs started out folky in Tania’s room and expanded ever-so-slightly from there, as she reined in a revolving door of collaborators (including members of Tortoise and Shearwater) along with co-producer Craig Ross. A staple on the Austin music scene (Daniel Johnston, Spoon, Emmylou Harris), Ross met Tania at an Australian show and quickly agreed to help her wrap recording sessions that reached as far back as 2005.

“I told him it was a patchwork of sorts, and he seemed to have no problem with that,” explains Tania. “With Craig, there was a lot of letting go, and reshaping stuff that had been recorded for at least a year. He had such new, fresh ears—a bigger idea of what the whole record should sound like.”

So did Tania. As alone as she often feels in Chicago and Sydney—splitting her time between two very different cities has obliterated her sense of what ‘home’ really means—the Tania of today isn’t all that different than the teenager who used to escape into a world only she could truly understand. “I love new situations and experiences,” says Tania, “taking the challenge of making a new space, meeting new people, writing new songs. You can look at things from many angles, and then you move on—you change again.”

Motion Turns It On

The first track off Motion Turns It On’s upcoming LP, Kaleidoscopic Equinox, is available for download and sharing now. If you’d like to reward your limbic system with the kind of ear candy that can only be classified as post-prog, jazz-laced, psychedelic indie-rock then download this track and share it with everyone in the world.

“GIVE UP THE GHOSTS” (MP3)
http://www.chocolatelabrecords.com/mp3/Give%20Up%20The%20Ghosts.mp3

www.myspace.com/motionturnsiton

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Issues, October 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.