SXSW® starts today with long lines, pouring rain, and a trademarked nickname for those officially in the know: SOUTH BY™ (seriously). The music portion of the festival doesn’t begin until March 13th, and badges are still available.
If you can’t make it to Austin this year, MMT℠ has several no cost, no hassle, no passport or federal registration required alternatives.
SXSWfm
New for 2012 are four channels streaming the music of SXSW Artists, now with even more Hip Hop:
Channel 1: Indie Rock and Pop
Channel 2: Americana and Singer/Songwriter
Channel 3: Electronic, Dance, World and Hip Hop
Channel 4: Rock, Metal, Punk and even more Hip Hop
The Austin 100: A SXSW Mix
The NPR crew sorts through 2,000 acts to bring you 100 hand-picked songs. And since this is Free Friday, 71 of them are available for free download.
CXCW: Couch by Couchwest
The slacker alternative, CouchBy™ brings the music to you. Musicians can submit YouTube or Vimeo links of their CXCW videos through March 17, 2012. The videos must be made expressly for Couch by Couchwest, and can be recorded anywhere except a stage. Fans can view the festival online from March 11 – 18, and are encouraged to share their experience via twitter, facebook or email.
One car, 288 guitars, 55 pianos, 1157 homemade instruments, and OK Go
Musically speaking, the Superbowl is generally a disaster. Will Kelly Clarkson be slain by the Star-Spangled curse? Will Her Madgesty be chewed up by the monster that ate the Black Eyed Peas?
Maybe, but at least we can count on some entertainment from OK Go.
In a letter to fans, the band shared some details about their latest video, made in partnership with Chevy. It was set for a February premiere when they “showed it to the bigwigs at Chevy and GM, and they fell instantly, head-over-heels in love with it. So much so that they immediately proposed a complete change of schedule to integrate it deeply into their Super Bowl plans.” So here’s the plan:
Super Bowl Sunday OK Go “Needing/Getting” Extravaplan 2012™ (all times are Eastern Standard)
12:00pm - Don your beer helmet and start deep frying your chicken wings. It’s an American tradition.
2:15pm - This is an estimated time, as the program is still a bit up in the air. But we will be appearing on the NBC Pre-Game broadcast, likely from the red carpet at the Super Bowl, to introduce the video. NBC will then air a two minute excerpt of the video itself on air. At that time, the video will also go live online and accessible worldwide both as a YouTube embed (naturally) at Chevy’s microsite http://www.LetsDoThis.com and on MTV.com.
Sometime During the Game - We will also appear briefly in a larger Chevy ad, which, due to the way they rollout Super Bowl ads these days, you can already see online here.
Post-Game - Immediately following the game, Chevy will be debuting our dedicated television ad for the “Needing/Getting” video. Thirty glorious seconds of OK Goodness. So stick around for that moment when one team wins, the other team loses, they pan around to all the happy and sad faces for 20 seconds, and then cut to commercial. Because there we’ll be.
The Sonic ad that appears during the game features your Free Friday selection: ‘We Are Young’ from fun. (with Janelle Monáe). The download quantity is limited, but you can catch the whole song with the [OFFICIAL VIDEO].
Black Angel Down, The Forest Wall, and Talia Segal
According to Wikipedia, the DC area is “particularly known for the musical genres of hardcore punk, bluegrass, and a local funk genre called “go-go“. Think Fugazi, the Seldom Scene, and Chuck Brown. Now that’s diversity. This edition of Free Friday features three acts that showcase some of the area’s rock/pop/folk talent, each with a distinctly different style.
Black Angel Down
Black Angel Down brings together veterans of Charm City’s underground rock scene with frontman Nokio, one of the founders of the multi-platinum R&B group Dru Hill. The result is guitar-driven rock propelled by forceful drumming and elevated by strong vocals and sophisticated harmonies.
The Forest Wall
Originally from Philadelphia, the core of The Forest Wall is the brother and sister duo of Derek and Amanda Salazar. After pursing their musical interests independently, they joined together this year to produce their debut EP. The muted and ethereal tones of “Canon” are nicely echoed by the stop motion painting in their video for the song.
Talia Segal
Our final Free Friday download comes from Talia Segal, folk/pop/rock singer-songwriter and DC native. Talia has been plugging away at the DIY peripatetic musician trade for a few years now, and she really does get around. Talia is preparing to release her third album, and is currently on her Free CD tour of these United States of America. Show up and get a free CD, it’s that simple. In the meantime, check out “First There is Goodbye” below.
We first wrote about Honor By August when they were selected to headline the inaugural DC MusicFest. This Northern Virginia band crafts nicely layered and instantly accessible pop/rock with a perfect blend of melody and rhythm.
Your Free Friday tracks are “Only In Photographs” from their debut album Drowning Out the Television (2007); “Found” (2009), the title track off their sophomore release; “Sleepwalking” from their EP, On Our Own (2010); plus new single “Little Black Dress”.
Honor By August won the Grand Prize in the Billboard World Song Contest, as well as an XM Radio contest to open for Bon Jovi at DC’s largest venue, the Verizon Center. Sign up below to get your free tracks from NoiseTrade, which provides a platform for artists to share their music in exchange for a 20% share of the tips. Tip often, and tip well!
It was about a year ago that we launched the Free Friday series with the Austin Edition. We head back to Austin next week for the 25th Anniversary SXSW Music and Media Conference.
Founded in 1987, SXSW started as a regional event with 172 bands playing at 13 venues. This year will see around 2,000 bands performing at 90 venues from March 16-20, and that’s just counting the official shows.
There is an overabundance of free music out there to help attendees sort through the coming avalanche, here’s a a slice of the embarrassment of riches:
NPR: the full-spectrum of their typically excellent coverage includes the “Austin 100 Mix,” a streaming sampler with many of the songs available for download.
iTunes: features an “official” SXSW Sampler with 21 free songs (for a limited time!).
SXSW Baby!: the unofficial weblog for SXSW has a ridiculous “Best of SXSW 2011” 80 song sampler available as a (287MB) Dropbox download.
Christen Lien is a classically trained violist who uses guitar effects and live looping to expand the expressive power of the instrument and create original compositions that transcend genres. And she can play.
The viola is typically seen as a bridesmaid to the violin, but with her debut CD: Vol. I: Battle Cry, Christen makes us forget all about the bride. Ian Gray said it best in his review:
I’ve always felt a little bit of sympathy for the viola. The violin, in spite of its rather thin voice and high screech potential, always gets the limelight, while the richer, sonorous voice of the viola gets relegated to harmonies and pizzicatos. Well, I can feel a little less sympathy after listening to Christen Lien’s new CD Vol. I: Battle Cry. Lien definitely gives the instrument its voice back, and lets it say all the things it has the beauty and the power to say when it’s in the right hands.
Christen is working on a followup, and splitting her time between Los Angeles and DC. She will be appearing at the Sitar Arts Center in Washington DC on Friday, December 10, 2010 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM. It’s a free show, but seating is limited. Check her site, winner of a 2010 Fammy Award (best URL) for details: itsnotaviolin.com.
Christen will also be performing at “For the Love of DC 2.0,” an event that showcases DC’s creative community and benefits Dreams for Kids’ Holiday for Hope, the world’s largest holiday event for homeless and underprivileged kids. For the Love of DC 2.0 will be held on December 15, 2010 — check here for more details.
What makes music “beautiful”? While we wrestle with the metaphysical aspects of this question, in practical terms, one answer is “Esperanza Spalding”. The bassist, vocalist, and composer recently released her second album: Chamber Music Society, a follow up to her well-received 2008 debut, Esperanza. Where Esperanza melded jazz, funk, and latin rhythms with vocals in [...]
One Cello, a MacBook Pro, Ableton Live, and SooperLooper: that’s what it takes to reach the #1 Spot on iTunes Classical and Electronic charts. That and Zoe Keating to compose and perform the music. Zoe has taken the concepts she learned as an Information Architect and applied them to music; creating modular pieces that sequence, [...]
Ok, so it’s more like trade your email address for a free MP3 download Friday. But you’re probably already on Guitar Center’s mailing list, and you should be on Peter’s. (You can unsubscribe at any time.) Peter’s performance from the unlisted (i.e., don’t try to search for it) YouTube video below is available as an [...]
Although he may not be able to compete with Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters, Andrew York has an international following that includes classical guitar masters Christopher Parkening and John Williams, who have covered his compositions including “Sunburst,” played by Andrew below. He also won a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album for Guitar Heroes (2004) with [...]
SXSW® starts today with long lines, pouring rain, and a trademarked nickname for those officially in the know: SOUTH BY™ (seriously). The music portion of the festival doesn’t begin until March 13th, and badges are still available.
, Christen makes us forget all about the bride. Ian Gray said it best in 
, 
