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2011 Free Downloads

Several Shades of Why

Is It Done

J Mascis - Is It Done

Low! http://www.subpop.com/artists/low

"Try To Sleep" from the Low record C'mon out April 12th, 2011

C'mon: http://www.subpop.com/releases/low/full_lengths/cmon

C'mon

Try to Sleep

Low - Try To Sleep

Daniel Martin Moore! http://www.subpop.com/artists/daniel_martin_moore

In the Cool of the Day

Daniel Martin Moore - In The Cool Of The Day

Daniel Martin Moore!  http://www.subpop.com/artists/daniel_martin_moore

Dark Road

Daniel Martin Moore - Dark Road

Obits! http://www.subpop.com/artists/obits 

Moody, Standard and Poor

Shift Operator

Obits - Shift Operator

Papercuts!http://www.subpop.com/artists/papercuts

Fading Parade

Do You Really Wanna Know

Papercuts - Do You Really Wanna Know

Low on Sub Pop http://www.subpop.com/artists/low

C'mon http://www.subpop.com/releases/low/full_lengths/cmon

C’mon is the shortest title of any Low album, which seems fitting, as it also ranks among the most succinct and straightforward entries in their variegated discography. Singer-guitarist Alan Sparhawk has even perfected the “elevator pitch” for C’mon: “Recorded in an old church in Duluth, MN and mixed in an apartment in Hollywood, CA.” But that brief synopsis hides universes.

Comprised of new material written on and off the road, the ten-song set was recorded in a former Catholic church, aka Sacred Heart Studio (where the band previously crafted 2002’s Trust) and co-produced and mixed by Matt Beckley. The band took full advantage of Sacred Heart’s high, vaulted ceilings, natural reverb, and audible affinity for organ sounds and group singing. The thunder-crack percussion that peppers the final minute of the slowly unfolding “Majesty/Magic” is just one example of this dynamic in action. With its jangly guitars and sweet vocal harmonies, opener “Try to Sleep” sets the album’s tone: Warmer, fuller and more introspective. Whereas 2007’s Drums and Guns railed against the war in Iraq, C’mon feels like a plea for humanity, decency and common sense in a world gone mad. Sparhawk concurs. “With the last couple of records, we were grappling with something outside of ourselves. This one feels more like, ‘Well, forget that. I’m looking in your eyes right now, and we need to figure out how to get through the next moment, together, as human beings.’”

Without curtailing their artistry one iota, the trio has made one of its most accessible, affecting albums to date. And while the origins of C’mon may lie in a church in Minnesota, Beckley’s apartment in CA and the hearts of the modest individuals who created it, the resulting music has the capacity to resonate deeply with audiences everywhere.

Especially Me

Low - Especially Me

You Gotta Lose

Obits - You Gotta Lose

Vetiver on Sub Pop
http://www.subpop.com/artists/vetiver

"Can't You Tell" from the 6/14/11 Sub Pop record The Errant Charm 


The Errant Charm

Can't You Tell

Vetiver - Can't You Tell

Chad VanGaalen on Sub Pop
http://www.subpop.com/artists/chad_vangaalen

"Sara" from the 5/17/11 Sub Pop record Diaper Island

Diaper Island

Sara

Chad VanGaalen - Sara

Fleet Foxes on Sub Pop http://www.subpop.com/artists/fleet_foxes 
From the May 3, 2011 album, Helplessness Blues  

Helplessness Blues

Grown Ocean

Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean

Chad VanGaalen on Sub Pop http://www.subpop.com/artists/chad_vangaalen


Peace on the Rise

Chad VanGaalen - Peace on the Rise

"Wonder Why" from the 6/14/11 Sub Pop release The Errant Charm
http://www.subpop.com/releases/vetiver/full_lengths/the_errant_charm 

Wonder Why

Vetiver - Wonder Why

Bakesale: Deluxe Edition

Skull

Sebadoh - Skull

Do What You Will

Papercuts - Do What You Will

“Whenever you’re here, you’re alive” are the first words sung on Dynamite Steps, the fifth album from Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers collective, and the group’s first in five years. The Twilight Singers’ previous release, the acclaimed confessional opus Powder Burns, came out in 2006. Dynamite Steps is clearly the next chapter, a whole new level of catharsis and progress, evocatively cramming all the highs and lows of the maverick singer-songwriter’s past half-decade into unexpected sonic trapdoors. “Shot on location” at various locales significant to Dulli’s life, you can hear the sense of place emanating up from the grooves of Dynamite Steps. Here, the weary nighttime decadence of New Orleans rubs up against the oppressive sunshine of Los Angeles and the desolation of Joshua Tree’s desert vistas. Dynamite Steps explores the thin line between life and death, mortality and immortality, resignation and celebration—that mythical moment when your life flashes before your eyes, drawn out here over the course of eleven songs. The album’s forty-three minutes prove an unflinching odyssey through the dark side, but one that’s ultimately redemptive in its scope and power.

Dynamite Steps

Blackbird and the Fox

The Twilight Singers - Blackbird And The Fox (featuring Ani DiFranco)

It’s all but inconceivable that J Mascis requires an introduction. In the quarter-century since he founded Dinosaur (Jr.), Mascis has created some of the era’s signature songs, albums and styles. As a skier, golfer, songwriter, skateboarder, record producer and musician, J has few peers. The laconically-based roar of his guitar, drums and vocals have driven a long string of bands—Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Gobblehoof, Velvet Monkeys, the Fog, Witch, Sweet Apple—and he has guested on innumerable sessions. But Several Shades of Why is J’s first solo studio record, and it is an album of incredible beauty, performed with a delicacy not always associated with his work.

Recorded at Amherst Massachusetts’ Bisquiteen Studios, Several Shades… is nearly all acoustic and was created with the help of a few friends. Notable amongst them are Kurt Vile, Sophie Trudeau (A Silver Mount Zion), Kurt Fedora (long-time collusionist), Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Paulo Zappoli (Black Heart Procession), Matt Valentine (The Golden Road), and Suzanne Thorpe (Wounded Knees). Together in small mutable groupings, they conjure up classic sounds ranging from English-tinged folk to drifty, West Coast-style singer/songwriterism. But every track, every note even, bears that distinct Mascis watermark, both in the shape of the tunes and the glorious rasp of the vocals.

“Megan from Sub Pop has wanted me to do this record for a long time,” J says. "She was very into it when I was playing solo a lot in the early 2000s, around the time of the Fog album [2002’s Free So Free. She always wanted to know when I’d do a solo record. Several Shades of Why came out of that.

“There are a couple of songs that are older, but the rest is new this year. And it’s basically all acoustic. There’s some fuzz, but it’s acoustic through fuzz. There’re no drums on it, either. Just one tambourine song, that’s it. It was a specific decision to not have drums. Usually I like to have them. But going drum-less pushes everything in a new direction, and makes it easier to keep things sounding different.

“The album comes out around the time of South by Southwest, so I guess I’ll play there. It would be cool to have a band, but I don’t know. Some of the songs have a lot of musicians on them. I might start out solo then add people as it goes along. I don’t like playing solo so much. It’s weird. You have to try and keep the show going. If you break a string you have to come up with banter, like Richard Thompson does. He’s the master of the one man show. For me it’s stressful.”

There is little evidence of stress on Several Shades of Why. The title track is a duet with Sophie Trudeau’s violin recalling Nick Drake’s work at its most elegant. “Not Enough” feels like a lost hippie-harmony classic from David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. “Is It Done” rolls like one of the Grisman/Garcia tunes on American Beauty. “Very Nervous and Love” has the same rich vibe as the amazing ruralist side of Terry Reid’s The River. And on and on it goes. Ten brilliant tunes that quietly grow and expand until they fill your brain with the purest pleasure.

What a goddamn great album.

—Byron Coley

Not Enough

J Mascis - Not Enough

Born in the tiny coastal hamlet of Plaplaya on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, Aurelio Martinez, 39, may be one of the last generations to grow up steeped in Garifuna tradition. These traditions encompass the African and Caribbean Indian roots of his ancestors, a group of shipwrecked slaves who intermarried with local natives on the island of St. Vincent, only to be deported to the Central American coast in the late eighteenth century.

At the heart of every song on Laru Beya beats a traditional Garifuna rhythm. However, beyond the beauties of Garifuna tradition and Aurelio’s striking interpretations lie the true guiding force behind the album: the loss of his late friend and mentor, Garifuna musical icon, Andy Palacio. Palacio, won regional popularity as the powerhouse behind punta rock, a Garifuna-rock synthesis that broke onto the Central American scene in the 1990s. International acclaim followed with an award-winning album in 2007 that truly put Garifuna music on the map.

A mere month after Andy’s death, Aurelio and producer Ivan Duran, headed for a small fishing village, where they set up a studio in a beachfront house. Recording and living by the sea for several weeks, they were still in grief and shock, yet they knew they had to do something amazing to honor Palacio’s life and work. Aurelio was able to explore the Garifuna connection to Africa when Senegalese Afropop legend Youssou N’Dour selected him as his protege in 2008. N’Dour encouraged Martinez to channel his virtuosity, to balance his evanescent stage presence with reserve until just the right moment. N’Dour also contributed his unique vocal abilities to several songs on Laru Beya.

The album is the second release on Next Ambiance, an imprint founded by Jon Kertzer host of KEXP’s Best Ambiance radio show and Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman. The label’s first release was I Speak Fula (Feb. 2010) by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni ba. SPIN: “I Speak Fula effortlessly mixes the rapid-fire pluck of bluegrass, the doleful churn of the blues, the joyous pulse of Afropop, and (in a makeover from his gentler 2007 debut) the caffeinated whirl of high-velocity rock.” Laru Beya is not only Next Ambiance’s second release, but Aurelio’s as well. Garifuna Soul, his 2005 album on Stonetree Records, was described by Songlines Magazine with, “It really is like nothing you’ve ever heard before.”

Laru Beya

Tio Sam

Aurelio - Tio Sam

Born in the tiny coastal hamlet of Plaplaya on Honduras’ Caribbean coast, Aurelio Martinez, 39, may be one of the last generations to grow up steeped in Garifuna tradition. These traditions encompass the African and Caribbean Indian roots of his ancestors, a group of shipwrecked slaves who intermarried with local natives on the island of St. Vincent, only to be deported to the Central American coast in the late eighteenth century.

At the heart of every song on Laru Beya beats a traditional Garifuna rhythm. However, beyond the beauties of Garifuna tradition and Aurelio’s striking interpretations lie the true guiding force behind the album: the loss of his late friend and mentor, Garifuna musical icon, Andy Palacio. Palacio, won regional popularity as the powerhouse behind punta rock, a Garifuna-rock synthesis that broke onto the Central American scene in the 1990s. International acclaim followed with an award-winning album in 2007 that truly put Garifuna music on the map.

A mere month after Andy’s death, Aurelio and producer Ivan Duran, headed for a small fishing village, where they set up a studio in a beachfront house. Recording and living by the sea for several weeks, they were still in grief and shock, yet they knew they had to do something amazing to honor Palacio’s life and work. Aurelio was able to explore the Garifuna connection to Africa when Senegalese Afropop legend Youssou N’Dour selected him as his protege in 2008. N’Dour encouraged Martinez to channel his virtuosity, to balance his evanescent stage presence with reserve until just the right moment. N’Dour also contributed his unique vocal abilities to several songs on Laru Beya.

The album is the second release on Next Ambiance, an imprint founded by Jon Kertzer host of KEXP’s Best Ambiance radio show and Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman. The label’s first release was I Speak Fula (Feb. 2010) by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni ba. I Speak Fula was also recently nominated for a Grammy award for “Best Traditional World Music Album.” SPIN: “I Speak Fula effortlessly mixes the rapid-fire pluck of bluegrass, the doleful churn of the blues, the joyous pulse of Afropop, and (in a makeover from his gentler 2007 debut) the caffeinated whirl of high-velocity rock.” Laru Beya is not only Next Ambiance’s second release, but Aurelio’s as well. Garifuna Soul, his 2005 album on Stonetree Records, was described by Songlines Magazine with, “It really is like nothing you’ve ever heard before.”

Aurelio - Laru Beya

Fleet Foxes 
http://www.subpop.com/artists/fleet_foxes
http://www.fleetfoxes.com 

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

We're not the best, but we're pretty good.