Goodbye

Genre: Editorial

I am sad to say that Free Albums Galore will be closing. Of course, what is here will stay here to allow others to find all these great free albums and as a historical archive of, for me at least a golden era of unusual and exciting music.

Thanks to all who have frequented these pages and thanks to those who expressed their concerns for myself and my family. I want to assure everyone that we are well and happy. The reasons have more to do with changing priorities as I get older.

Have a wonderful life.

What’s happening?!

Genre: Editorial

No, Free Albums Galore is not dead but it is slightly comatose. Unforeseen circumstances and general chaos has forced me to put this site on hiatus. I was hoping I could start again in September but this is not to be. At this point, I should be able to get Free Albums Galore back on its feet in October. Wish me luck and I apologize for any inconvenience.

A temporary hiatus

Genre: Editorial

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will need to take a brief break from this blog. I will not be posting for the rest of this month. But I will be returning on the first of July to continue my search for the best free and legal online albums on the internet. Thank you all for your continued interest and I will see you in July.

Update

Genre: Editorial

There are a couple changes at Free Albums Galore.

First, I’ve removed the Other Resource page for the single reason that there are just too many great music resources on the internet to keep up with. There was no way I could keep it up to date in the way I would desire.

However, I have replaced it with The Best of The Net Labels which is a listing of all the net labels which have at least one album featured on this site. Since most of the music here comes from independent net labels, it seems like a good way to acknowledge these brave souls. Unfortunately, it is just not possible to keep up with every great album on even the best net labels. So now if you find a netlabel that you like through my regular postings, you can use this page to check them out occasionally to see what other treats they have. I have also added links for a few of my favorite resources for free and legal music at the bottom of the page.

If you want your net label listed, the requirement is simple. You must have at least one album reviewed at Free Albums Galore. You can tell me about your label by e-mailing me at freealbumsgalore@yahoo.com. Please let me know what genres of music you offer and suggest a few of the albums that you think would be appreciated by my readers. If you told me about your net label in the past and I haven’t yet featured an album, please try again.

Cleaning Time

Genre: Editorial

The weather cooled down today. I cleaned the garage which made my wife very happy. Since my energy was high, I proceeded to clean up my web site which has been in half-ass progress in September. So now it is done. It has been over a year since I fixed links, marked albums no longer available, etc. but with close to 2000 posts, this is a major task. The bad news is that there are lots of albums no longer available. When you are looking at links up to five years old, this is inevitable. I try to feature only permanent links but impermanence is the nature of the internet. Nonetheless I think the count is still impressive.

Here’s the count…

1931 albums featured…

Minus…

214 albums no longer available…

equals…

1718 currently available free albums!

Still staying around 90% still active which I think is worth a shout!

I still take recommendations. You can e-mail me at freealbumsgalore@yahoo.com. Please look at this to see what criteria I follow for selection. Biggest violation of criteria are albums needing e-mail registration to download. Sorry, not free in my book. Also, please remember I get literally hundred of recs per month and can feature only a very few. I also do not have time to answer every e-mail. I wish I did. But I still manage to listen to every recommendation I get even if it takes a while.

My next task is to redo my miscellaneous link page as it is woefully out of date. Someday…

Now on Facebook!

Genre: Editorial

I guess it was inevitable. I am now officially on Facebook (Marvin Vernon, the Free Albums Galore guy) and invite all my friends from Free Albums Galore to be my friend on Facebook. Yes, I know it took me long enough. For a guy who runs a blog, I’m not all that technological advanced. (I still refuse to tweet!). Any fans of this blog and especially those artists who enjoyed being featured here are welcome to join me at Facebook.

A brief vacation

Genre: Editorial

I’ll be taking a little break from Free Albums Galore. But don’t worry. I’ll be back on June 17th just in time to keep my promise of one album for each day of the month. In the meantime, please don’t forget to stock up on the 16 albums from Jane Siberry and anything else that tickles your fancy.

Book Review: Corn Flakes With John Lennon

Genre: Editorial

I just finished reading Cornflakes With John Lennon and Other Tales From a Rock N’ Roll Life by rock critic Robert Hilburn. I thought you might like my review which I posted on FMU’s Free Music Archive this morning. Hilburn was a major influence on me during the Classic Rock era and wrote with a compassion for the artists that was unique, if maybe a little “square”, compared to many of the other critics who wrote during the time. You can also find my review at Goodreads, a book site for reading fanatics. If you would like to read my review, just follow this link.

Update (Cough!)

Genre: Editorial

If case you wonder why I haven’t been posting much, the pesky little H1N1 flu…a much better and more accurate name than Swine Flu…has made a visit to my house. At the very least I’ve developed a strange kinship with Brian Littrell who looks exactly how I feel. I think it’s on the downswing, not the worst flu I’ve ever had but in the top five.

In the meantime, most of you already know about my new connection with the Free Music Archive. However, Free Albums Galore is now a curator which means I’ll be downloading some of the goodies from this blog to FMU as soon as I gain my energy back. I’m especially interested in hearing from artists whose Creative Commons Licensed albums have been featured here but are no longer available for download. Wouldn’t it be nice to give them a new home?

One more little goodie. I recently notice that Mojo Nixon has almost everything he released available for free over at Amazon for “a limited tme”. I always knew he was a little wacko. Check it out (U.S. only).

Free Albums Galore Joins FMA

Genre: Editorial

You heard that right. Free Albums Galore Joins FMA!. The good people at the Free Music Archive asked me to contribute to their site so I decided to do exactly that. If you have not already discovered this treasure chest of music, FMA is a project of listener sponsored Radio Station WFMU. They are currently in beta mode but already have tons of good free music available for downloading. All of it is either creative common licensed or available with permission of the artist.

You can find my own FMA blog here. Presently I am simply re-posting some of my Free Albums Galore reviews but I expect I’ll be writing some independent articles in the future. In the meantime, make sure you check out all the music. As an introduction I suggest you download Selected Sounds From The Free Music Archive volumes one and two.

Spring Cleaning 2009

Genre: Editorial

It’s time to get out the broom and sweep away all the bad and fix up the good. All albums now have good links and those albums that are no longer available are labeled as such. There were quite a few links that simply needed to be re-directed so if you couldn’t get to an album before, check it now. So let’s get to the final count…

1417 featured albums…

Minus 129 albums that are no longer available…

equals…

1388 free and legal albums still available! That’s more than 90% of the albums featured and reviewed since 2005!.

One reason for the increase in lost albums was the demise of the Musica Excentrica net label. It disappeared last year with no explanation and took with it a lot of superb music in the electronic and experimental genres. If you are one of the artists whose album I featured and you have moved your music to another site please let me know. A lot of musicians have moved their albums over to Jamendo and, if that was the case, I corrected the download link on my posts to reflect this.

The Autoplate netlabel has also closed its doors. I will miss the exceptional collection of minimalist music, drones and field recordings that this label featured so well. Fortunately you can still download all their albums but there will be no new releases. Their parent label Thinner is still going strong.

For those who are interested, Coldplay is giving away their new live album Left Right Left Right Left for the price of your e-mail address.

The Free Music Archive is now open, at least in Beta form. Lots of free and legal music is already there. I’ve already found a few nice offerings and have just scratched the surface. I expect to be doing a little posting and commenting on The Archive as soon as I can find the time.

That will do for now. Keep sending those recommendations.

Thanks but…

Genre: Editorial

I received a number of e-mails regarding my last editorial “update” post. Some of you inquired with various levels of concern for my health, sanity, and the state of my marriage. Thanks for your concerns but I assure you that all three are doing just fine. Well…My wife says my sanity is debatable but everything else is cool. I also want to assure everyone that there will be no discernible change in Free Albums Galore. I will continue to provide an album per day as promised when I took over this blog from Luke. If I ever get to the position of not being able to maintain this site, I will pass the baton to someone else as Luke did to me. Free Albums Galore is in for the long haul.

Some people have offered to help me out with the reviewing. I considered that at times but I like the idea of Free Albums Galore being a collection of one person’s opinion. It provides a consistency in criticism. So this site will for better or worse continue as a one man band.

Also thanks to all the bloggers who added me to their blogrolls and said nice things about me…Even the blogger that favorably reviewed my site then warned people that some of the music sounded opposite to how I described it. Hey! I call them as I hear them!

Update

Genre: Editorial

When I took over Free Albums Galore from Luke in 2006, I was recently retired. Since then I landed the proverbial offer-I-can’t-refuse and am now a full-time worker again. This delegates my blogging time to weekends when I search for albums and write up enough posts to fill the week. This of course dominates my weekends and is more than a little irritating to my wife who wonders why I can’t be like a regular guy and just go out and have an affair. Nonetheless I struggle on and continue to bring good quality free and legal albums to the music hungry world…Which is an overly verbal way of explaining why I was shocked when I looked at the album recommendations and found 220 albums I haven’t yet listened to! So if you see a post on an album and wonder “Didn’t I tell him about that a year ago?”, that’s why.

But keep them coming. Email me at freealbumsgalore@yahoo.com.

A caution. If your album is only posted on a share site like Rapidshare, I’m not likely to bother with it. Share sites are not really permanent hostings and usually means it is a “limited-time offer” which I don’t feature either. I have made exceptions like when the artists assures me it will be long-term and that it is actually their album to offer as free, but usually I pass them up.

Here’s a few extra treats for you. Composer Oleg Paiderdin offers quite a few of his compositions on his web site. They tend to be under 10 minutes and lean toward the use of woodwinds rather heavily. Some of the reviewers compare his composition to Arvo Part and Xenakis which is good company indeed.

I am looking forward to the day WFMU’s Free Music Archive kicks off their library and wows us with a vast collection of independent music and local or forgotten artists. Until then, you will still find a lot of interesting music including live studio recordings from the very strange radio station.

I haven’t kept up my music resource page so I urge you to check out these music blogs that review free albums: Phlow, Catching The Waves, and Musikrebell. These are three of the newest and best reviewers of free music on the internet.

I also have not ended with a music video for a while, so here’s one of my favorites. It’s a nice hair metal cover of a classic Del Shannon song with Del and Donny Osmond in cameos. The dinosaurs are pretty rad too! I think I used to jam with the bass player in a bar in Pacoima…

Lorenza Borrani & Matteo Fossi - two sonatas

Violinist Lorenza Borrani and pianist Matteo Fossi play two great sonatas of the Romantic period. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata no.10 op.96 for violin and piano is a fairly gentle work for the often tumultuous composer although it is not totally without its deep and sorrowful moments. It is certainly full of melodic beauty and rich harmonies. Robert Schumann’s Sonata in D minor n. 2 op. 121 for violin and piano is a tour de force that revels in its minor key tension. Both works are exemplary examples of the violin and piano sonata and the two musicians give them a fine performance.

No longer available

…And More Albums!

Genre: Editorial

A few people asked why I do not feature free albums that require registration. This is because I do not really consider it a free album. You are essentially paying with your privacy. The information can be used, and is used, to create a mailing list, marketing purposes, or to allow the artists to estimate his customer base. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is a perfectly acceptable method to increase your market, whether you are an artist, a record label or any type of business. But you are giving something of value for the product.

But, as I said, I have no problem with it. In fact, especially with so many artists and record companies looking for new market strategies, there is an increase in the amount of “free” online albums available for only an email address or some other form of identity. I thought I would mention some of the current ones and you can use your own judgment.

West coast punk stalwarts Pennywise are debuting their new album by offering it for free from their Myspace page. You must be a member of Myspace and add Textango as a friend. The specific instructions are available from the page. I haven’t tried it..probably won’t…but Pennywise is one of the better hardcore punk groups to come out of the California scene. So if you are into the scene, it might be worth it. Caveat emptor.

One “subscription needed” freebie I can highly recommend is from the Classical record label Chandos. By simply subscribing to their newsletter you can download a free full-length MP3 album each month. The album for March is An Introduction To Edward Elgar featuring fine performances of Elgar’s compositions including “Pomp and Circumstances”and the “Enigma Variations”. Next month’s album will feature works by Prokofiev. I consider this the music deal of the internet. I’m also looking forward to the newsletter although I’ve yet to receive it.

Aside from the thousands of independent music treasures they regularly offer, eMusic’s paid subscribers are often treated to free offerings ranging from record label samplers to full albums by unknown but talented artists. I’ve been told that non-subscribers can gain access to these albums but my attempt on another computer failed to verify this. Nonetheless, I’ve been a happy eMusic subscriber for six years so it might be worth the bucks to subscribe if you are a music fanatic like me.

Ex-Boo Radley songwriter Martin Carr has his sixth Bravecaptain album, Distractions available by subscribing to his newsletter. Haven’t tried it but a number of my readers have recommended it. So give it a go if you are so inclined.

A while back I was lucky enough to download the six track EP Stop Drop and Roll by Foxboro Hot Tubs which went on their site for three days then disappeared. It is a delicious throwback to the days of 60s garage bands. It appears that Foxboro Hot Tubs may actually be Green Day. Certainly if the vocalist isn’t Billy Joe Armstrong, he is doing a hell of an impersonation. You can still get one MP3 trackoff the album from the web site but you’ll have to wait for the full length (12 track) CD for the rest. My guess is that it will be well worth the wait.

And while I’m at it, thanks for all your recommendations. Feel free to email me about good free and legal albums, yours or someone else’s, but please understand that I can’t reply to every single e-mail (gotta work sometimes) and I can’t feature every single album. In fact, only about 10 to 20% of the albums I listen to make it to the blog. Nonetheless, I do find time to listen to every single recommendation (eventually!) and appreciate all comments and recs.

Spring Cleaning, 2008

Genre: Editorial

It’s time to clean up the links again. Those pesky webmasters keep changing the urls so I have to keep relinking. It’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it. All in an attempt to offer the most free and legal online albums I can. So now all the links to active albums are fresh and the albums that are no longer available are…duh!…marked No longer available. So here is the count as we edge on closer to one thousand featured albums…

996 featured albums

minus…

73 albums that are no longer available

leaving…

923 free and legal albums!

Now go fill up your hard drive. And remember to support the artists by buying their CDs or other merchandise, going to their concerts, sending them a donation, or, at the least, telling them how much your appreciate their music.

Some Words About Radiohead

Genre: Editorial

I have received several questions on whether I would be featuring Radiohead’s album In Rainbow. I decided not to for two reasons…

1) Everybody already knows about it. The album has been written up from The New York Times to Popular Mechanics (I’m joking about Popular Mechanics…I think). Radiohead certainly does not need a little blog like mine to promote their record. But I do appreciate their help in unintentionally promoting Free Albums Galore. Several papers have mentioned my site in the same article thus introducing many readers to not only my blog but to lots of quality musicians who are not in the enviable position of Radiohead but still deserving of an audience. The new visitors aren’t just browsing and leaving. They’re telling me that they are downloading class acts like Billie The Vision and The Dancers, Sun Zoo, and 3Sacchetti and loving it.

2) It isn’t really a free album. You are expected to pay something even though I guess you can get away with paying nothing. But basically it is an honor system. I actually love the idea. I understand that the average paid amount was four British pounds. With over 1 million downloads, that puts a hefty amount of change in Radiohead’s purse. Without taking anything away from Radiohead, I hope this monetary gratitude extends to the lesser known artists that are featured on this site and the listeners support the artists by buying their CDs, their T-shirts, or sending a donation as some politely ask…maybe even if they don’t ask. This is a way to ensure that good quality independent music flourishes. And frankly, they could use the bucks a lot more than Radiohead.

The reactions have been fascinating. Trent Reznor has all but stated he will be handling the next Nine Inch Nails album in a similar fashion. He has already placed Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggytardust!, of which he produced, for sale or non-sale in the same style. The Charlatans UK have announced their next album will be totally free when released in early 2008. You can get the first track here. But the cracks in the pavement have been noticeable for a while. Free remix collections sanctioned by the artists aren’t all that rare anymore (more about that in my next post) and other name artists like Smashing Pumpkins, The Crimea, Harvey Danger, and The Butthole Surfers have waded into the free and legal waters in the past.

All of this has encouraged the cries of the end of the RIAA and the major music moguls. I disagee. The corporate music scenario will still be viable for mass produced acts like Britney Spears and Beyonce, However it will no longer be the only model and it will no longer be “The only game in town”. Music marketing is entering a turbulent and exciting era. Radiohead has shown that they can go on their own with new styles of marketing and succeed. Other big name bands will and are following suit. All this opens the door to the independent artist who will no longer be corralled into courting the corporations to make a comfortable living. Corporate music and independent or internet music marketing will exist side by side giving creative artists a bigger choice in how they present their music. The suits won’t like being in total control any more but that’s the way it is.

Or am I just a dreamer? Wait and see.

Fall Cleaning 2007

Genre: Editorial

I just completed my semi-annual link cleansing marathon. All links to featured albums were inspected, cleaned and given the Free Albums Galore seal of approval. Lots of albums links that were not working are now fine. If you previously couldn’t download an album you might want to check it again. It would be nice if the artists and labels would tell me when they change the URLs but I’m not complaining. It keeps my life interesting. I also marked the dead links as “No longer available”. The amount of dead links increased mainly due to the demise of Disfish.

Here is the tally…

825 featured albums…

minus 51 albums that are no longer available…

equals…

774 available albums!

Not bad, huh?

News article alert!

Genre: Editorial

The Oct. 7th Sunday Times (UK) published an article titled “The day the music industry died”. It is an interesting look at why major artists are giving away their music and why the record industry is headed downhill.

But take a look an this excerpt…

The scale of this charitable epidemic can be measured by a quick browse of the Free Albums Galore blog that lists more than 800 albums by a range of artists – from the Beastie Boys to some unsigned metal bands – all of which are free to download.

Thanks, Times, for the mention. This explains why my visitation numbers, which are already in four digits, tripled today.

And thanks to Daleyblog for pointing the article out to me.

Update

Genre: Editorial

I was sad to discover that Disfish, the innovative non-DRM music distributor, has closed its web site. The given reason was because the donation model was not successful enough to keep the site going. Just another warning about how important it is to support the artists and their music. If you are one of the Disfish artists whose albums were featured on Free Albums Galore and you have moved to another site, please let me know so I can update it.

But there’s good news too. Netlabels and music blogs continue to increase. I revamped the resource page to show a bunch of new sites, all offering free and legal music. Check it out.

That’s it. August was a tough month.

Update

Genre: Editorial

It’s been a while since I did an update.

First, I should publicly answer the most common question I get in my email; “Is it ok to recommend my own album?”. The answer is yes but please remember that I only feature about 10 to 20 percent of what I listen to. So there is a good chance I will not write up your album. If I do write it up, it may not show for a while since I have a huge backlog of free and legal albums in the wings. Still, some of the best albums I received were recommendations from readers and some by the actual artists. So by all means, please send those links to my email

Second, I love comments but please remember they are moderated so they do not show up immediately. There should be a warning on this when you submit your comment but I’ve been told there isn’t. Another thing to fix if I ever go to my own web site instead of a blog.

Speaking of self-recommendations, Ross Mohn kindly informed me of his own internet project. The Digital Archive Streamer connects to a number of internet music archives and allows the listener to hear a stream of music based on the keywords he places in the search. The archives are primarily university based and mostly American traditional (Bluegrass, Appalachian, Native American, etc). He’s adding new archives regularly. It’s hard to find specific things but a search for “blues” brought out a stream of very interesting old field recordings and 78s. Check it out and have fun.

The Folkways Collection is my choice for best podcast on the internet. It consists of 24 one hour radio broadcasts on the history and music of the Smithsonian Folkways collection and traditional American music. It is well worth the listen.

Those who are not into folk music may find TGR’s Free Metal Albums more to their liking. These are all free and legal albums. Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Avant Garde Metal… If it’s metal you’ll find it here. Definitely a site to bookmark for the metal freaks.

BlocSonic and its NetBloc series is still going strong. I featured the first volume of NetBloc but now there are six volumes of this excellent monthly overview of the independent music scene. You can pick up volume 6 and the previous albums. Anyone who is at all interested in internet music must give BlocSonic a regular visit

Finally, the video of the month. The Zimmers may be the oldest rock band in the world .Their lead singer is 90 years old and their oldest member is the amazing Buster Martins who gained some fame when the 100 year old man fought off three teenage muggers single-handed. They recently recorded an album and went on tour to educate people to the plight of senior citizens in Great Britain. You can catch their video of The Who’s “My Generation here.

Spring Cleaning 2007

Genre: Editorial

Yes, I know I’m a little late for Spring Cleaning. It’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it.

I have just gone through every album link on Free Albums Galore. I checked them, fixed them, updated information where necessary, re-checked them, and when all else failed, marked the dead links as not available. Many so-called dead links simply needed to be redirected so if you recently tried to download an album and failed, try again. It will probably work this time. I’m amazed at how many of these albums are still alive and kicking.

Here’s the count…

681 featured albums.
Minus 21 no longer available…equaling…

660 free and legal albums STILL AVAILABLE!!!

Go download them all and enjoy!

Update

Genre: Editorial

I am still getting lots of good recommendations from you readers. I am getting so many that it is hard to keep up . Site visitation has tripled since the first of the year and continues to increase! What that means to me is more people are getting turned on by online independent music and enjoying a world far away from the antiseptic sounds of commercial radio and corporate music. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to recommend an album or just say hi. And if you leave a comment, please remember that all comments are moderated so they won’t show up immediately.

Thanks goes out to Rachael Smithey of About.com for including Free Albums Galore in her list of Top 10 Free Music Downloads Sites. I must admit it feels a little weird to be mentioned along with Amazon, KCRW, and NPR but way cool!

The award for first newpaper to mention Free Albums Galore goes to The Independent for the article titled “Why is the music industry dishing out free downloads?”.

David Ace Dean has some nice tunes on his Myspace page. There is a neat 80s electropop thing going but with some modern indie rock sensibilities. Check it out.

Celtic music fans will enjoy record label Green Linnet’s web page and their offer of one free MP3 a week from their extensive catalog.

I just received news of the death of jazz legend Andrew Hill. He was one of the last really great pianists in modern jazz as he bridged a gap between post-bop and the jazz avant-garde. You can hear some fine excerpts of his artistry at his web site.

Lastly, test your ability to identity 10 classic metal bands in E.W’s “Name That Hair Metal Band” Photo Quiz. I got only four right but I don’t know whether to be embarrassed or proud!

Update

Genre: Editorial

I am reminded about a convenience store’s radio ad in which they boast “Too much good stuff”. That’s the way I feel this month. So let’s just get to the good stuff.

BlocSonic’s first compilation of exceptional netlabel music was favorably reviewed by me and has met with praise by practically every music blog and site that mentioned it. Volume Two of NetBloc is now available and continues to meet the high standards set by the first volume of this monthly series. You can download it here.

Likewise, Silent Ballet continues its own look at independence artists. While The first two collections surveyed post-rock music, Volume three looks at experimental sounds. Download it here.

Edie Brickell offers a generous amount of free tracks, all in her unique but casual voice.

Those who are into experimental music will enjoy these single file MP3s of live performances by Chinese sound artist and improviser Yan Jun.

One of my favorite independent labels for jazz is Palmetto Records. You can get several Sample MP3s from jazz artists Marty Ehrlich, Ben Allison, Javon Jackson and others.

I’ve mentioned Last.fm before but now the music networking web site is offering tons of full tracks for free legal downloading. That includes entire albums, many of them already featured on Free Albums Galore. I don’t think you need to register to download the music. (If it is otherwise, I would appreciate being corrected). While you have to hunt around a little to find them, there is a chart of the most popular free downloads. Especially check out the free tracks by the excellent Billie The Vision & The Dancers. I’ll have a lot more to say about them very soon.

Some day I might do a Free Videos Galore and this hour long documentary would definitely be on it. Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision is a fascinating look at author Hunter S. Thompson and his unique brand of journalism. It is a must -see.

Finally, the video of the month. Barry White is given the ultimate cover treatment by the fab duo, Gollum and Smeagol.

A Valentine Special!

Genre: Editorial

Here’s a special something from the people at Stone’s Throw. DJ and producer Peanut Butter Wolf made a mixtape for Valentine’s Day that was originally broadcasted on Tokyo’s J Wave radio station. It’s a sexy mix of romantic and soulful music from heavyweights like Marvin Gaye, Stereolab, Archie Bell & The Dells, and many others. It is only available through Valentine’s Day so grab it up quick. Here’s the link

Some of you may also like the Chrome Children Compilation Vol. 2 which is available for free downloading for a limited time. It’s not my cup of tea but I’m sure some of you may dig it.