Now that Obama has had time to arrange his pens and photos of Michelle & Co. in the Oval Office, everything is better in your life, right? Wrong! If only the tears shed on Inauguration day had turned into cold, hard cash, we wouldn’t feel the need to drop the second installment of our Depression Special this week. This edition offers more legal, full-album downloads that will not only delight and titillate, but save you enough dolla-dolla bills to spring for a wonton soup with tonight’s take-out. (Or you could always get really crafty and make your own while listening to your free new music. It’s all about sacrifice now, people.)
General Fuzz – Soulful Filling (2008) James Kirsch creates music under the moniker General Fuzz to dispel the common perception that “electronic music = techno.” Kirsch fuses live and electronic instruments into lounge-y grooves and beats, creating the calm, gentle ebb of floating on the open ocean, looking at clouds, before the panic of floating on the open ocean sets in. Preview| Download the Record
Harvey Danger – Little By Little (2005)With an experiment in self-distribution leveled some two years before Radiohead’s industry “reinvention,” Harvey Danger pulled a Nada- Surf-style resurgence, offering an agreeable set of their poppy piano-rock for free download. If the catchy tunes don’t make you run to the record store (digital or physically) to buy their other CDs, perhaps the impressive vocals of indie troubadour and long-time Danger frontman Sean Nelson will.Preview| Download the Record
Go Kart Records – Six Free AlbumsAccompanying a biting letter to the RIAA (“The RIAA does NOT represent the views of the entire music industry”), this punk success story released six albums from their back catalog for download. The selections span from Plan A Project’s hardcore s/t to Pseudo Heroes’ punk-pop offering Prison of Small Perception.Preview | Download the Records
Girl Talk – Feed the AnimalsIf you don’t have a copy of this uber-popular mash-up mayhem, there’s no time like the present. Sure, you should make a donation to ADD-DJ Greg Gillis, but he didn’t donate anything to the 300+ rap, soul, rock and pop artists whose samples he used to make this album. Just saying. Bygones. Preview| Download the Record
Daisuke Miyatani – Fragments EPWe’ll leave you with an adorably lo-fi EP from Japanese folk-electro unknown Daisuke Miyatani. These three songs could have been recorded under a bridge in the springtime (before he added the electronic tinkering), but the background noise and shoddily-recorded acoustic guitar help make them so endearing. Preview| Download the Record
Know about an album we should feature in next week’s Depression Special? Send our editors an email here and we’ll give it a spin.
Related post: Depression Special #1: Five Free (and legal) Full-Album Downloads