Download China Rats’ “Nip It In The Bud”

china rats
It’s a rare occasion when I’ll suggest that you go watch shitty YouTube videos of a band to get an idea of their sound. Given the nature of China Rats‘ single, “Nip It In the Bud,” with its hooky refrain and artfully-placed stop-and-go aesthetic, I wanted to really like these boys from Leeds. However, its production is so clean, the whole “Buzzcocks meet Undertones with a hint of the Sonics” vibe their publicist is pushing just doesn’t work for me. But you watch a video of them doing “To Be Like I” live last year at London Calling, and you immediately go, “Oh — 100% Exploding Hearts. Fuck and yes.”

So, download “Nip It In the Bud,” because it’s free and all, then watch the video below, and start hoping they get a producer who understands how to not make them sound like a preening bunch of toffs.
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Free music to soundtrack your holiday weekend

Before I step away from the computer for a glorious three days of over-indulging in sun, booze, and fire-cooked meats, I wanted to share some free tunes that’ve found their way onto the Internet over the past few days. There’s some good stuff for you to play while in the car, at the beach, or next to the grill.

loseyerdamnmindFirst, we’ve got a bunch of new stuff from Evil Weevil. The record label’s got previews of six upcoming releases and artists, including perennial Rock Star Journalist faves the Hussy.

Although not a new track, this number from Cement Tomb Mind Control ought to further convince you to buy the LP, as well as whet your appetite for their upcoming single (singles, actually – they’ve got a couple coming out on Slovenly Records’ imprint Black Gladiator later this year, as well). More info about those releases, including tentative dates, is at the Evil Weevil blog.
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Download every God Equals Genocide release

cover-geg-sal-splitMargin Mouth, a record label out of Los Anegeles, has posted a free download of GEG Era One, which is each and every release from God Equals Genocide. You can get those 7-inches here. From the label:

Of course with the 2 splits, only the GEG songs are available. And also these tracks are unmastered. If you feel even the slightest bit of guilt, feel free to paypal some change to marginmouth@gmail.com, write a nice note, or buy the goddamn records. Thanks.

If you’ve never heard the California punk trio, you really ought to. Their low budget recordings have a tendency to sound like they were all recorded in one take. This means God Equals Genocide’s songs are rough and tumble, but with a certain charm.

You can purchase the physical records in the Margin Mouth store (except The World Is Wearing Me Down), which gets you the No People and Shang-A-Lang tracks, too. It’ll run you $16 PPD.

Wiggly Tendrils presents a fantastic indie Halloween comp

cover-spooky-tendrilsThe Wiggly Tendrils, a cross-country writing collective, created an album up that went up on Beat the Indie Drum yesterday. It’s free, it’s indie, it’s Halloween…it’s kind of cutesy, but it’s also fairly fun.

All the bands involved in Spooky Tendrils came up with the song ideas, and the Wiggly Tendrils wrote them to spec. The opening track, from the Parents, features the superb lines “Let’s paint this town red / From Twilight to the Dawn of the Dead,” which is just the thing to snag my attention and rope me in for the duration. There are also songs about Dr. Mario giving you pills and a Jewish werewolf.

You can stream tracks, look at lyrics, and download the whole thing on the album’s release page.

Sit back and unwind with free summer comps

cover-summertimeHoly hell. DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie dropped their Summertime mixtape earlier this week, and I’ve listened to it every day since I downloaded it. It’s both on my iPod and burned off to CD for easy playing in the boombox, stereo, and car. This is officially a billion times better than any of the comps I’ve made myself and thrown in the car over the past few weeks.

Seriously – while segueing from James Brown’s “The Payback” into “Never Gonna Get It” by En Vogue is obvious as all get out, it still sounds fucking awesome. There’s also Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day,” the Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By,” 2PAC, and Seals & Croft. It’s an hour of chilled-out, sippin’ on vodka and lemonade, stone-solid fucking jams. Go over to UNDRCRWN and download that sucker.

cover-solid-meltsLawrence label Solid Melts put up their summer comp this week, too. It’s also a giant, featuring quite a few bands that you ought to know (Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk, Expo 70), and a ton of acts that are totally unknown. It’s called Empire of Fun, and you can get it direct from Solid Melts.

If you’re a little leery of downloading a 125 meg file, the Rathaus is streaming six of their favorite tracks, and you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect. That Cloud Nothing track is very much worth your time.

Free Warped Tour sampler

warped-tour-samplerWe’re gonna try and give you a free download of something good (or, at the very least, decent) every Friday. Like everyone else, we’re calling it “Friday Freebies.” It might be an album, it might be a track, or – in this case – it might be a sampler.

The Warped Tour is hooking you up with a free iTunes sampler of bands playing this year’s tour, which kicked off today. The sampler includes Alkaline Trio, Set Your Goals, GBH, Cobra Skulls, and the Voodoo Glow Skulls (making this twice as skeletal as most free samplers).

You can find the link, and attendant download code at the Warped Tour sampler page.