Post-Holiday Hangover: Savage Hogg

If you wanna know my opinion, this is precisely why the internets exist, and I'm not just saying that because I'm acquainted with one of the savage principals. There was a time that whatever thrashing discordance one produced in one's garage or basement ended there. That age is over. This is the new age, the age of Savage Hogg. It probably rises up from the hive subconcious of the postmodern id, or something. When I listen to the grinding vocals and ponderous fretwork of Jingle Bells, though, the one thing I think is: Christmas. Actually, the one thing I think is, why aren't there a billion blogs like this? The entire infosphere must be suffused with the noise of those creators who obstinately persist outside of all rational systems. Actually, the one thing I think is "I wonder when was the last time that guy changed his guitar strings?"

Next week, holiday vacation ends and regular updates begin again, maybe, including the return of phree phreakin' phridays. Rock your New Years hard.

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Savage Nogg: Jingle Bells

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Cat Garza

Cayetano Garza is a webcomics and electronica/trip hop artist of modest renown (not the least of which for playing a role in a very silly controversy over webcomics fomented by Penny Arcade). His Magic Inkwell site is always good for some tracks, though what's available for download changes frequently depending on what's current. Also at the moment excellent for pictures of an adorable baby and her hairy, portly father - something I can most definitely relate to. Like a lotta these hippie freebie new media agers there is some sampling of questionable provenance, questionable to a rights purist like myself, but since I've decided to forego seeking any revenue from this site Steve Miller can just bite me, and since I've got obscure up to here and needn't trouble myself with such concerns.

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timetickingclock

Since the current work is available through the hideous MySpace interface (I hates that Space, not because of any social issue but just because I find its functionality to be crap, but the kids seem smitten oh lordee yes). So if'n you want the music that's where you gots to go

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Beige Records

'Tis the season for blippity bloopity electronica, or so the random occurence of my surfable links tells me. Beige Records is an "electronic music recording company and computer programming ensemble," and what else is there to say? Most of the website is fantastically minimal, which floats my boat. The music follows a similar design philosophy, and generally sounds like it was generated by radically obsolete video gaming platforms, which is probably not far off from the truth.

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Saucemaster by The 8-Bit Construction Set

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Alex Reynolds: Music

Mr. Reynolds is a "Biology IT Support Specialist" for the University of Pennsylvania. He also has a vocation, or maybe an avocation (I can never keep them straight), in experimental electronic music. Serious content for a personal page.

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Static Shiver

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Oh Ph@#%! I Phorgot Phree Phreakin' Phriday!

This is so me. This is supposed to be a nice simple blog, and almost immediately I start adding these little twists, and then I go and forget only the second phree phreakin' phriday. But that's okay: It's still Friday. But I still gots problems: no material. All the potentials I had marked and foldered got reviewed and consigned to the "not right for blog" folder. There is a method.

Ah. Okay. It's the further breakdown folder that is the goldmine for the ol' P.P.P. Right then, I give you opsound

You know, I don't remember how I come upon these places in the first place, I continue to be amazed that they exist... and persist. Do they thrive? On the internet nobody can hear if you're poor, provided you've got some webdesign chops. It certainly looks slick. But it meets my rule: it's relatively easy to get to the point where you're downloading MP3s.

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Finding Way by Alchemical 9

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Kong In Concert

Ooh, it's almost topical, what with the big King Kong hype and all. It's also one of those scratch scratch, "is it legal?" numbers, being as how it's all based on arrangements of Nintendo's intellectual property... But this website - and it's a big, obvious website, a stationary target if you will - has been up for well over a year. So while I wouldn't presume to vouch for anything else on the OverClocked Remix site, I'll go out on a limb and say this is probably safe to download. If'n the jackbooted thugs come a'knockin' I guess you can add my name to your countersuit. Until then, I will assume that this is one of those cases where Nintendo has wisely elected to view it as free brand identification juice rather than trying to assert their rights to compositions from a decade-old game for an obsolete platform.

In it's day, though, Donkey Kong Country was the shit, yo. Wikipedia says this is because it was the "first game for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3-D graphics," which really takes me back to my friend Roger explaining the same thing to me 10 years ago and how I didn't really understand it then either. The graphics were hot, anyway. The other much-remarked aspect of the game was its soundtrack. You can read all about it at the site. The bottom line here is that a bunch of nerd artists got together and produced this homage album based on the soundtrack. It's not half bad, if you like that kind of thing.

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Clouded Mind and Ringing Ears (Misty Menace) by Aetherius

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Richard Loidl

God only knows how many free songs are available in the music section of c|net's download.com - and at this point, only God remembers why, of all the music presumably available in this vast hunting ground of the phree, I preserved a single bookmark for Richard Loidl, an Austrian Boogie Woogie pianist. These things are mysteries. Nevertheless, I give you Herr Loidl, and download.com's music section gets a new bookmark in the further exploration folder - I'm sure its the first of many links to come.

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Octave Stomp

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Sexed-Up Mice

No, it's not a band name (though it sure could be... and based on a quick google search, its available). But sexed-up mice are the performers. I thought I'd stray a little further than usual off the beaten path, just to see if anyone is paying attention. If you're like me (and I know I am), you like having your occasional bits of oddment, dialog, and enigmatic noise on your audio playlist in addition to all the music. Pleasing mysteries to round out the random shuffle.

Apropos, it turns out, per this Guardian Unlimited article, that male mice, when exposed to female mouse sex hormones (via, yes, urine), spontaneously break into song - chirped in the ultrasonic range, varying from mouse to mouse, and composed of a limited lexicon of short repeating syllables - much like the contents of pop radio. Scientists (God bless 'em) have recorded some of the tunes and processed them down into the human hearing range. But is it music? It's music to mice.

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Wee Sleekit Mousie

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Optimus Rhyme

I didn't have to dig very far into Optimus Rhyme's website before the word nerdcore came to my mind. I'll admit surprise, though, when upon digging a little for background on the origins of the term (yes, I actually do research for you) I discover that the term was apparently invented by nerdy hip-hop, coined as the title of foundation rapper MC Frontalot's premier album, Nerdcore Rising. So there you go. The thing about music created by and for nerds with a lot of nerdy references is, you're pretty much guaranteed to have some free tracks available for download.

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Ford vs. Chevy

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virt

virt is working on a career making music for video games. More power to him. In the meantime he posts the occasional non-commercial song endeavor. A lot of content and a lot of variety. Although the selection of the day is undeniably reminiscent of being on hold (or possibly in a spa, or about to have some guru tell you to go into the cave and ask your spirit guide to reveal the secret of your heart's desire), I include it as he describes it as his "mom's favourite" of his songs. A boy that loves his momma is alright in my book.

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A Light at the End

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New Feature: Phree Phreakin' Phridays!
KVRX: Local Live

Among the many links I've collected by individual artists, I've also archived a large number representing packagers of one sort or another - not necessarily music makers themselves, but presenting music in a way that is clearly done with the artists' participation and consent. I'm going to try to showcase one of these site every phreakin' Phriday, hence the catchy segment name. As always, the condition for inclusion is that there must be at least one free, downloadable mp3 available.

Austin is renowned as a progressive/liberal enclave in Texas, as well as a locus for music in the south-central 'States. So it's not much of a surprise to come upon something like KVRX Local Live, a show on an Austin radio station featuring live in-studio performances. At last, I can particpate in Austin's local music scene from the comfort of my Minneapolis basement. Oh brave new world.

The fact that they offer free downloadable MP3s of some of the tracks is a little bit unusual, though. Minneapolis' own Minnesota Public Radio station The Current, for example, only offers streaming, no MP3 downloads, and their streams force you to listen to sponsor promos to boot.

Anyway. By way of example: Oceanus is a 6-piece, dual vocalist metal band. The vocals are so egregiously death metal howl and gargle that it might actually be a parody of some sort. If you're not a metal fan, there's plenty more diverse live content at KVRX's site.

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Confined to the Depths by Oceanus

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The Uptones

Oh ska. Even though it originated prior to (and indeed evolved into) reggae, ska always seems like an uncomfortable add-on to me, perhaps because it attracts such an inordinate percentage of white boy wannabes, even by reggae's standards. I grew up in such rural isolation that I didn't even know that ska existed until I ended up at a baffling, anachronistic showcase gig, completely at random, at the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis in my twenties. Prior to that I'd assumed that Madness was an isolated freak of chance. Ska doesn't have much mainstream currency: No Doubt is the closest thing to a current thing going in recent memory, and frankly it ain't all that close (Gwen Stefani's work these days is ska in about the same degree as Green Day's is punk). I'm not sure this is a bad thing. How much staccato horn does a person need?

And yet somehow ska persists. I bet that if you could catalog and categorize all of the legally free music on the internet, you would find that ska occupies an inordinately high percentage of the genre breakdown. I figure I can use at least one ska tune in my collection.

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Bonnie and Clyde

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pitchforumula

By writing software to statisically analyze the content of several thousand record reviews from the Pitchfork music website...

I freely admit to being a sucker for obtuse formalism, so you know that grabbed my attention. The artist details at great length the process for creation that evolves the fabled pitchformula. Personal favorite line:

Sad and dark moods are preferred in the word lists, so I had a couple of brainstorming sessions and made a list of depressing past experiences.

It shows.

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I'm Already Dead

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Loca Records

When conversations stray to the subject of the evil rapacious publishing overlords and their campaigns of human domination, I am always quick to pursue the point that the answer lies not in somehow forcing "them" to loosen their grip on their intellectual property. The obvious moral high road lies in seeking out such artists as are pursuing a compatible philosophy of distribution. If nothing else, Loca Records gots philosophy in spades, frankly a little bit more than I necessarily need in a music website. And I'm still waiting for the progressive activist music commune that's cranking out radio-friendly bubblegum pop instead of moody european ambient lo-fi concept, but in the meantime... Bonus points are assigned because their merchandise is not transacted through freaking Cafe Press, but instantly deducted because their entire inventory is sold out. They regain points in the balance for having some of their catalog available on the charmingly anachronistic medium of vinyl.

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Sesquipedalian Origins by WARD

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spiffyaudio

One of the many things that pleases me about the internets: a few random clicks and you may find yourself rooting around in the electronic equivalent of the back of someone's desk drawer. I have no recollection of how I might have originally chanced upon spiffyaudio. I have the slightest recollection of visiting it many months ago, and despite a relatively recent update promising things to come, it appears to me to contain exactly as much (or as little) now as it did then. Nevertheless, the musique is there, and it is indeed phree. The creator indicates several times that one might, in quest of greater insight, send him/her a note, but it takes some digging and careful observation to locate an actual contact address. Far be it from me to spoil the challenge. Sounds a bit like Rush instrumentals. Maybe I'll stumble across the bookmark again some time in the future and be amazed by all kinds of stuff.

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If Joe Were Here

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Anythingbox

Ever so long ago when I did college radio, one of the station manager types had a particular talent for describing little-known bands in terms of other bands - "kind of like Lou Reed meets Kraftwerk," that kind of thing. It's a shame I've got no facility for this trick, because I've got a feeling that somewhere out there is a clever pairing that perfectly describes Anythingbox. It's electronica, in any event, with lyrics. They call it "elekrodelic music noise." The stylish website has plenty of corners to explore, including the "downloads" section which features a free downloadable EP with artwork.

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Negaverse

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Songs to Wear Pants To

Are you wearing pants right now? Send Andrew an email with lyrical, instrumental and genre instructions and it might just show up on Songs to Wear Pants To. Send him enough money and it's practically guaranteed. Ranges from the hilarious to the odd to the inspired.

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Underage Stalkers

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FAQ

In fact, these questions have never been asked by anyone. Here are some answers anyway.

Didn't you stop blogging...?

What's it all about?

Is this legal?

Hey, you linked to my site and I'd rather you not do so...

How did you find this music?

Can I submit a link?

I've got a real question...

Hey, didn't you say that you would blog no more forever...

or at least, if you ever did again, it certainly wouldn't be through Blogger?

Okay, sure, all good points, but...

1. This isn't really the same thing, because it's not really about me writing, it's about all these swell links where independent musicians make what they've created available for free plus

2. And I'd collected all these links in my bookmarks and it seemed a shame for them to just sit there doing nothing and

3. Really, in light of such rash statements this can be viewed as a subtle post-modern metacommentary on the nature of freedom, or, erm, uh...

4. Shut up shut up shut up just SHUT UP

So, what's this all about?

This is a blog of links to MP3 files of music that are free (that is, you may download them without paying anything). That's all.

Wow, free music. Is this legal?

It should be. Although I'm more or less taking people's words for it, I am only to the best of my knowledge linking to sites that are run by the artists whose music is featured. Since they are the creators, they own the copyrights, so they have the right to distribute their own material for free. But note that giving intellectual property away does not grant the recipient (you, if you choose to download something) the right to redistibute it. Chances are few if any of these individuals would object to non-commercial distribution of their material. But if they don't literally say so on their sites, I wouldn't do so, out of basic respect, to say nothing of legality. If you want to promulgate something you think is particularly cool, either link to their site as I'm doing here, or else contact them and ask permission. There are some weird grey areas, even when you only link to an external site you have nothing else to do with... so if you see something linked from this blog that you think is illegal, go to my profile, send me an email, and I'll investigate it.

Hey, you linked to my site and I'd rather you not do so.

That's not really a question. Legally, I don't think an individual has the authority to deny others the right to link to something they have made available on the internet. However, I believe in respect over legality: if you administer a site and don't want me to link to it for whatever reason, drop me a line by going to my profile and sending an email to the contact address listed there. I will verify your contact information from your site, send you an email confirming your request, and upon your response remove the link.

How did you find this music?

All over the place. General surfing, specific searching, some of it is friends of mine. For all the talk about the paradigm-shaking effect of the internet on the distribution of music, the intense lack of any sort of really effective filter is a real problem for the independent musician. This blog ain't a solution. It's just a bit of fun.

Can I submit a link?

I've got a backlog of links stored up, but I'm happy to add your link to the to-do list. Go to my profile, send me an email.

I've got a real question I think should be in this FAQ, not just one you made up. How do I submit it?

Profile, email, how do you not get this by now?

Happy surfing