KCRW is a popular indie station out in California that is known for being the first to play a lot of great artists (they introduced America to the band mentioned in my last post). Subscribing to their "Today's Top Tune" podcast will prove to be a great joy for you as each day you will wake up to a new present uploaded to
itunes. I have found that four out of every five days will end up providing me with a great song that i end up loving after several listens. Here are a few suggestions for making the most of
KCRW's free gift to music lovers:
1.
Subscribe to their blog
here (I recommend doing it through
itunes).
2. Each day, listen to your new song for about 15 seconds. If it sounds like something you will never listen to again, then go ahead and delete it right away. No need
wasting hardrive space or more time listening to it.
3. Start a couple of new
playlists to organize your "top tunes." I have "indie girls" for mid-slow tempo female artists , "indie guys" for mid-slow tempo male fronted groups, and "Run-eclectic" for uptempo stuff i can listen to as I
exercise. Then, if i determine that i would like to keep the song, i can also go ahead and move it to the respective
playlist which i will use almost as a radio station when i need some good background music. Over time, i will then move the songs that i find i really like into an "Indie favorites"
playlist and delete the rest from my computer.
4. In
your itunes settings, don't forget to highlight all the songs in the "podcast"
menu and keep the artist (
KCRW) and the Album (
Today's Top Tune) all the same. Also make sure to check the box labled "no" for "skip when shuffling" and "remember position." This will
allow you to play the songs from your
playlists or the artist "
KCRW" without having to listen from the podcast
menu which can prove to be
annoying (There are probably some of you out there that know how to
completely remove the song from the "podcast" section all together. That might be very helpful. If you would like to inform us how to do that below that would be great.)
This might seem like a lot of work, but it is well worth it for anyone interested in good, free music. I've discovered tons of great
artists here including Adele, M.I.A. ("Paper Planes" was free there about two years ago!),
Sia, and
Thao to name a few.
Jem's (no relation tot he 80's cartoon) first album, Finally Woken, is one of my favorite albums of the last 10 years. Her sophmore album, Down To Earth, is really good as well! The thing I like about Jem's music is that many tracks have a funktified singer-songwriter vibe (see "Amazing," "Keep On Walking," "They," "Save Me," to name a few). If you are thinking that you have never heard of Jem before, you probably have and just didn't know it as her music has been everywhere it seems (except top 40 radio) in recent years. Enjoy "On Top of the World"!
"Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning..."
Over the Rhine is probably one of my favorite groups. They have a very large catalog of music that varies in style and subject matter. Their last album, Trumpet Child is a great album (although probably not my favorite) and the song "Let's Spend the Day In Bed" is probably one of their more fun songs on the album. "Fun" is usually not a word I would use to describe OTR, but this album does have several fun tracks on it. Enjoy this free download, from Lindford and Karin who Paste Magazine has described as one of America's greatest living song writers. And if you wish, go back and check out their album "Good Dog Bad Dog" and start working up from there...
Wow! This song was definitely one of my favorite songs of 08 and will probably remain one of my favorite songs of all time. You can download an acoustic version of "The Story" by simply giving Brandi your email address (if you don't want her email newsletter, then just remember that it doesn't have to be an email address that you check very much).
A free older track from Death Cab For Cutie entitled "Title and Registration." Death Cab has always been one of those bands that i've wanted to like, but have never really gotten into as much as most people who share musical interests with me. Who knows, now that i got some free music of theirs maybe I'll jump on board!
