Free Music

The Slit - "No Twig"

Toronto-based experimental folk trio The Silt are set to release their proper debut for Fire Records on January 12th. After two lo-fi outings on their own label, Cat's Peak is a true meeting of pop and experimentalism, replete with sublime harmonies, and words of nature's magic and love's mysteries delivered with the band's characteristic avant-country sensibility. A veritable super group of Toronto's young, improvised music community, the band is regarded as the brainchild of singer/guitarist/flautist Ryan Driver, whose solo album Feeler Of Pure Joy - recorded with Sando Perri of Constellation Records - will also be released by Fire in early 2009. The Oldham-esque broken-folk of "No Twig" is available for download below.

Download: The Slit - "No Twig"

Dragonette - "I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)"

The recently released "Galore" (I Surrender Records through Red Distribution) was produced by band member Dan Kurtz himself (who also produced Fiests critically acclaimed Monarch Lay Your Jewelled Head Down just prior to forming the band). Their debut single off the album, "I Get Around," hit the Top 20 in Canada and the ridiculously infectious "Get Lucky," reached global status after it was synched to fifteen major movies and advertising campaigns in the United States.

With songs reminiscent of those ranging from bands such as The Eurythmics and The Cars, Dragonette is sure to spark the interests of many a teen girl and boy as much as they would, your suburban housewife or club kid queen. Their music and live shows can ultimately be described as "a world of guilt-free pleasure mixed with '80s party prowess." Eclectic and exciting, stretching from sunny-day folk to hard driving dance rock, this is music for the masses at it’s finest.

The band is currently hard at work in the studio recording their follow-up to Galore. This yet-to-be-titled album is due out May 2009 but don't wait. Listen to "I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)" with a free download.

Download: Dragonette - "I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)"

Franz Nicolay - "World/Inferno Vs. the End of the Evening"

Franz Nicolay grew up in a cabin with no electricity until he was 17 and moved to NYC. Once in NYC, he fell in with the legendary circus-punk collective known as the World/Inferno Friendship Society, before hooking up with Anti-Social Music and later the much heralded Hold Steady. He's also appeared on sessions for bands like Against Me!, The Living End, Star Fucking Hipsters, Bouncing Souls, The Loved Ones, Leftover Crack, Jennifer O'Connor and many others. Of course, little needs to be said about the man's impeccable sense of style and his most-famous mustache as well!

Preview Nicolay's new album, "Major General," with a free download of his track "World/Inferno Vs. the End of the Evening."

Download: Franz Nicolay - "World/Inferno Vs. the End of the Evening"

Funeral Party - "Carwars"

Funeral Party are offering their song "Carwars" for free download. The song is about forbidden love, specifically, the love that occurs in the back seat of your car with your best friend's girlfriend while he's passed out drunk in the front seat, no less!

Funeral Party's "Bootleg EP" is available at all digital retailers including iTunes, Rhapsody and Amazon etc etc blah blah. A debut full length album, which is being recorded in December and January at The Mars Volta's studio in Los Angeles, is expected to be released on April 21, 2009. Funeral Party recently finished up their first full US tour as direct support for the French hipster icon Yelle (Astralwerks), in October/November 2008.

Download: Funeral Party - "Carwars"

Winter Gloves - "Let Me Drive"

Montreal's Winter Gloves will first introduce themselves with the three-song, digital-only Let Me Drive EP – which features early versions of several tracks from their forthcoming debut full-length, about a girl.

But don't wait for your chance to hear the quartet, who endearingly dub themselves "glock-rock" for their use of the oft-ignored glockenspiel, began as the solo project of Charles F. (lead singer/songwriter/wurlitzer).

Download and listen to Winter Gloves' "Let Me In" now!

Download: Winter Gloves - "Let Me Drive"