GarageSpin: New Music Archives

South By Southwest (SXSW) 2008 700 Song Torrent

Hey, here's a quick way to fill almost a GB of space on the old iPod. The annual music festival, South By Southwest (SXSW) 2008 put together another annual torrent download of songs to go along with this year's annual... Read More

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FreeMusic: Napster vs. Real Rhapsody vs. Yahoo Music vs. eMusic - A Free Trial Showdown

While searching for free music one day, I compared the main features of competing subscription-driven music download sites Napster, Real Rhapsody, Yahoo! Music Unlimited, and eMusic, and specifically, their free music trials. Free trials cost nothing, are fun, and provide... Read More

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2007: Top Songs, Bands, 'Bums

Well, it's time. Time to continue the tradition of ripping off other people's indie 2007 top song, band and album picks for the past year. (See 2006 top songs, bands, bums and 2005 top songs, bands, bums for blasts from... Read More

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Sweet Freebie: 25 Free MP3 Downloads from eMusic

So, you can download 25 indie tracks (or rap, classical, blues, whatever) from eMusic right now for free. They're doing a 14-day free trial that lets you keep the music you download, whether you subscribe or not, with no obligation,... Read More

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Sigur Ros, Talented Musicians, Painful Interviewees

Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland that's sold 2 million records of music that contains made-up, gibberish language. (That's a story in and of itself, since it proves once and for all that lyrics don't matter. Just kidding. The... Read More

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Get Radiohead's New Album "In Rainbows" for $0.00

Radiohead just announced that they'll be making their new album "In Rainbows" available for free download under a choose-your-own-price pricing model. In addition, they'll be selling the same album in the form of a uber-package including a CD, LPs, and... Read More

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Recording a Song A Month -- the Calendar Songs Project

Didn't I just write about an artist recording a new album every month? Ok, yes, I did. Funny coincidence. Andrew at NewMusicStrategies just wrote about Tamara, the Calendar Girl, who has been recording a song every month, collecting remixes posted by... Read More

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Recording an Album a Month...Dayam

Ok, so I was blown away when I first learned Jonathan Coulton was recording a new song every week during his "Thing A Week" project. I just learned about artist Sean Wright who's been writing and recording an ALBUM a MONTH... Read More

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Scott Andrew's First Full Length CD

Hey, remember when I interviewed Scott Andrew, the DIY programmer and musician extraordinaire ("lo-fi acoustic pop superhero") earlier this year?He's on the verge of releasing his first full length CD called Save You From Yourself, and is starting a fundraiser... Read More

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High School Musical 2 Sountrack Rips Billboard Apart

I had sorta heard of Disney's High School Musical 2 in passing, but had no idea what kind of powerhouse it was until I read today about High School Musical 2 soundtrack reaching #1 in billboard this week (and the movie itself breaking the... Read More

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DIY Music Video by Chick-Core Rapper Girl Crusade

Last weekend, Girl Crusade (Tara), Gino, Xelle and I got together to shoot a music video for her track, "The Nose Job Song". Armed with a digital camera (video cameras are for wimps), Vegas 4 (video editing software from 2003),... Read More

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MAJA - Video Game Rap and Anime Hip Hop Artist

I love video games, and I love anime. Lucky me, there's a hip hop artist MAJA that busts rhymes about both, along the lines of MC Frontalot, MC Chris, and the other Nerdcore artists out there. Apparently, MAJA has a following... Read More

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Track Your Fav Bands' Tour Schedules with Band Tracker

Oodle's Band Tracker launched today. It's kinda cool, you create your own personalized list of bands whose tours you want to keep track of, and it lets you buy tickets as well. Emails are sent to you with timely updates... Read More

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Chick-Core Rap is Born (Presenting Girl Crusade)

That's right, you heard it at GarageSpin first, the first chick-core rap artist is here... Presenting: Girl Crusade. (I googled "chick-core rap" and nothing came up. Case closed.) Girl Crusade is sort of a cross between Eminem and Wierd Al,... Read More

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Kazoo Cover of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek"

I must share. First, if you haven't heard "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap, check it out. It's not for everyone, but it blew me away. A cool use of a Harmonizer effect, which I'm not usually fond of.But even... Read More

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Interview With DIY Rocker and Coder, Scott Andrew

Once again, I am inspired by DIY greatness. Scott Andrew is both creator and coder, rocker and designer, lyricist and melodist. (I think that's a word, right?)Seriously, the guy's got skills. Musicians and music fans will dig his beautifully written... Read More

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Acoustic Cover and Video for "Hey Ya" by Outkast

So, I can't decide whether to applaud this guy, or smack him upside the head. No, actually, I dig this "Hey Ya" cover, and fully appreciate the mashup with the actual Outkast video. It reminded me that I'd love to... Read More

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iJigg, A Cool Digg-Like Popularity-Based Music Site

If you've ever used Digg (note the little Digg button under this post), you'll get iJigg, but for those who haven't -- songs are uploaded by indie and unsigned artists into a mega-pool of music. Surfers check out the new... Read More

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Amie Street and its Popularity-Based Mp3 Pricing Model

There are a million digital music stores out there, and Amie Street has successfully broken through with an incredibly unique concept that seriously rocks.Get this:New songs uploaded by unsigned & indie artists start out at a price of $0.00. (Thereby... Read More

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Nerdcore Rising, the Movie, and the Trailer

Hey, remember when I interviewed MC Frontalot, the indie "nerdcore hiphop" artist? Well, film production company Vaguely Qualified Productions followed him around during a tour and created the documentary Nerdcore Rising. Wierd Al is in it, nice. It looks like... Read More

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Best Indie Music of 2006

Last year, I pointed out a few Best Indie Music of 2005 lists to help tie the year's indie music scene into a neat little bow for you. Well, it's time for the best indie music of 2006. (No, there's... Read More

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Started My Next Song, Finally

So, I finally started recording my second song on Thursday, and am incredibly psyched. Not much, just the core "loop" I'll be using. The song is called "Take A Stand". I wrote the lyrics back in April of this year... Read More

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Six Songwriters Collaborate 3000 Miles Apart

Gert is a band made of of six songwriting-musicians that lived a continent apart, but decided to make like Voltron and join forces online.This account of artistic collaboration includes audio clips and email blurbs that track the progress of their... Read More

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Interview With MC Frontalot, Nerdcore Hip Hop Playah

Take gangsta rap, replace the ho's, guns, 'n' gangs with computers, codes, and Star Wars references...whaddaya get? Nerdcore Hip Hop is a growing sub-genre of hip hop where geeks bust rhymes about nerdy subjects. It's awesome. (Hit Wikipedia for a... Read More

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Calling All Fiends - Indie Music Created For Halloween

In case yesterday's pumpkin carving wasn't enough, there's a ton of indie artist-produced halloween music created to "frighten, damage and disturb" as part of the Calling All Fiends program at Oddio Overplay.You can stream or download the 16 soundscapes and 15... Read More

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Jonathan Coulton Finishes 52nd Weekly Song

A huge congrats to Jonathan Coulton for completing his 52nd, and final, "Thing A Week" song. For his final recording, Jonathan produced a cover of We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions, using his fans' handclap recordings in the production. ... Read More

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Joshua Radin Launches Home-Recorded Album

Singer/songwriter Joshua Radin's album was released this month by Columbia Records. What's interesting, is, the album was recorded entirely in his bedroom. It kind of reminds me of Sufjan Stevens and Nick Drake. He talks about how his hushed singing style resulted... Read More

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