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Doy's Musical Bifocals: Home of "Ten Albums" and Free Music!

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 9 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #8162 in Arts, #159862 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

 

These are the confessions of a music freak. My name is Doy, and I need help. This lens covers all music, all the time, most of it of the FREE variety, but also great bands that you need to check out now...and support them through your purchasing power. I love music, man...everything from bluegrass to hip-hop to electronica to alternative (whatever that means). Come here to get music! And if you know of places I haven't included here, e-mail me, please!

Ten Albums: Devics 

My list goes up to eleven!

This week's guest lister...er...albumer...gotta get a name for that -- this week's guest is Sara from the super-cool band Devics. I have yet to hear the newest album, "Push the Heart," but I've heard a lot of their earlier offerings, and hope that they break out huge soon.

Sara Lov is a brilliant pianist who brings her haunting voice and melodies, and with producer and multi-instrumentalist Dustin O'Halloran, the two weave beautifully dark dream pop worthy of the best in shoegazing. The music isn't that pigeonholed, however. At times, songs drift into baroque or chamber-pop, sounding like long forgotten dirges and echoes of Poe that hang over the sound of a piano. To compare them to trip-hop pioneers Portishead wouldn't be too far of a stretch, either. Minus a lot of the house beats, Sara Lov seems to have much of the same dark melodic sensibilities.

Comparisons aside, however, this band is making gorgeous music, and just showing the continuing creative validity of indie pop. You must check them out. I am partial to their album, "My Beautiful Sinking Ship" as one of my favorites, but they've made many great albums since then. Great stuff, people!

So...without further waxing poetic...here are Sara's ELEVEN!

hi there Doy,

it's tough picking 10. Anyway, mine goes up to 11... : )

See the rest of Devics' picks at Ten Albums!

Segundo

Release Date: 07/01/2003

Amazon Price: $13.98 (as of 07/05/2008)
List Price: $13.98
Used Price: $4.12

Usually ships in 24 hours

Year of Meteors

Release Date: 08/23/2005

Amazon Price: $16.98 (as of 07/05/2008)
List Price: $16.98
Used Price: $4.55

Usually ships in 24 hours

Small Change

Release Date: 10/25/1990

Amazon Price: $10.99 (as of 07/05/2008)
List Price: $11.98
Used Price: $5.87

Usually ships in 24 hours

Master and Everyone

Release Date: 01/28/2003

Amazon Price: $15.98 (as of 07/05/2008)
List Price: $15.98
Used Price: $7.99

Usually ships in 24 hours

XO

Release Date: 08/25/1998

Amazon Price: $9.97 (as of 07/05/2008)
List Price: $13.98
Used Price: $3.25

Usually ships in 24 hours

Free MP3 sites 

Places to find new music for FREE!

Here's a growing list of sites that offer high quality (in most cases) mp3's that are free and legal for downloading. Sure to waste hours of your time, and expose you to some good music.
Epitonic!
This site has TONS of free mp3's, largely from independent bands. Some of the best new music I've heard came from this site.
Insound!
A site with more free mp3's from lots of great bands. You're sure to find something here worth hearing.
Matador Records!
Matador Records has a ton of great artists (The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman, Cat Power, Stephen Malkmus, Guided By Voices, etc.) and offers tons of free mp3's on their site. Check it out!
Jade Tree Records!
Jade Tree is home to some excellent Indie artists, including Pedro the Lion, onelinedrawing, Ester Drang, Joan of Arc, and many others. On this page you'll begin some 10-plus pages of free mp3 downloads from these artists.
Pitchfork free mp3's!
Pitchfork media has tons of music content, and downloads of select songs for your enjoyment. They've assembled some great tracks from some great indie artists...worth a look!
Free John Vanderslice mp3's
For those of you who haven't heard of John Vanderslice, please know that he's one of the most important purveyors of Indie Rock out there right now. He is a super cool guy and makes really good music, and offers these mp3's at really high quality. Please check him out!
Brian Jonestown Massacre mp3 archive!
You may know the Brian Jonestown Massacre from the documentary "Dig!" which covered their legendary split with the band, The Dandy Warhols. BJM has offered ALL (catch that, ALL!) of their albums for free download, all in an .ogg format (there are several plug-ins to allow these to play in iTunes), and have offered other mp3's from other bands on the Dead Bees label. Check it!
Steadman's FREE music
The band Steadman has been mentioned in a number of blog posts. They were formerly on the Electra label before it went belly up, and are now offering ALL of their albums as FREE mp3 downloads. Pretty good pop sound...and Paul McCartney likes them :) They can't be all bad!
Puzzling Music Archive!
This is an interesting collection of music, including on of my favorite bands, Deerhoof.
Belly Bongo LP's!
There are tons of records here that have been converted to mp3. Most of it vintage, but you never know what you're going to get!

Great places to find new music! 

A few links to tons of music content.

Here are a few links that not only give you information on bands you like, the albums they've made, and reviews of those albums, but also the bands THEY like, influences they site, contemporaries who play the same type of music, and the people who've followed in their shoes. Hours and hours can be wasted on some of these sites. Enjoy!
Pandora music-finding app!
Type in a band or a song you like...this application will find similar music for you and add it to a "station" that you can revisit later. A part of the Music Genome Project. Great site! Great App!
Allmusic.com! THE SOURCE for all things music!
This is the place to find out anything and everything you want to find about music. Bands, albums, reviews, contemporaries, influences, history, you name it. It's ALL here at allmusic.com.
New Music Canada!
This isn't only a site to find new and cool Canadian music (there's a coo music scene going on up here, eh?), but also a place to find great music from all over the world. Lots of content here. A few downloads, but most of the songs play from a flash-based player.
Rolling Stone! The original music magazine!
Though it doesn't boast nearly the content that allmusic does, Rollingstone.com has tons of music content, many articles of which come straight from the magazine. Great articles, news, and other musical content to quench your thirst.
Pitchfork!
Pitchfork has tons of music content! With more of an indie music bent, Pitchfork has lots and lots of reviews on the latest music; articles and interviews; and more!
Last FM
Last.fm is a place where you can enter some of your favorite bands or tunes, and the site will create a customized station for you. You can also hook up with others in a community who like the same types of music you like. Lots of cool stuff! Check it out!
Emusic.com!
This place has the largest collection of independent music that I've encountered. You MUST visit this site. The downloads aren't free, but only about 25 cents per song...and a nice downloadable exporer application that makes downloading really easy. The format is mp3, too, and the files are 178 kbps VBR files, and sound really good. Check 'em out now and get 25 FREE DOWNLOADS!

3Hive MP3 Blog 

Links to free mp3's and other good things...

3Hive.com is a great place to find new music. Here are some of their latest articles and offerings.

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Audiofile: free mp3 EVERYDAY! 

From Salon Magazine

Audiofile is home to great music news and the "Daily Download," a free mp3 from interesting bands...everyday! I think a free registration is required, but it pays off with the first couple of downloads!

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Podcasts: HOURS of free music! 

Podcasting is a new way to get content to your iPod, and a fantastic way to hear new and interesting music.
CBC Radio 3!
CBC Radio 3 plays a varied and eclectic mix of music, most of the bands of which are from Canada. For those of you who didn't know, there is a lot of new and exciting pop music coming from Canada, and CBC Radio 3 features some of the greatest of them.
CJSW Podcasts!
CJSW is the radio station of the University of Calgary, down the road from me. They play a lot of good music, and feature a rich mix of podcasts for you to choose from.
KCRW!
KCRW is a great radio station, offering a range of shows, music, and ideas. Here you'll find quite a few podcasts to choose from.
KEXP!
KEXP Seattle is one of the most influential radio stations on the airwaves. They play a range of music and are great at introducing new artists. Check out their podcast here!

CC:365 A new free mp3 everyday...365 days a year! 

This won't hit live for another month or so, but Everyday CC:365 will release a new mp3 under the Creative Commons License. Free music, people...spreading the way it was intended. Enjoy! And be patient!

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Doy

About Doy

Call me Doy. My name has a funny ring to it, no?

My name is a multilingual joke, apparently. In Spanish it means, "I give." In Romanian, it means "two." In Portuguese, it means, "pain." The Vietnamese word, "ka-doy" is apparently the name for the female sexual organ.

On the positive side, though, it has inspired some of my younger peers to spontaneous fits of creativity. An example, you ask?

"Doy was a boy. Doy had a toy. Doy fell down and broke his butt. Oy, oy, oy!" And this, people, from a first grader.

When you get down to it, I'm a muse of sorts.

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