mpFree

One of the best things of the dawn of digital music just might be the free mp3s musicians give away to promote an album. With that in mind, I’ve made a list of five disparate free downloads I’ve come across recently that are worth checking out.

In most cases, the musical act in question will ask for your e-mail address in exchange for the mp3, so that they can add you to their mailing list. Don’t want the extra e-mail? Why not give them that old zany Hotmail address you abandoned three years ago (Cool_Dude_69, MMMBopGurl, Incredible_Volleyball_Playa_204, BackstreetsBack97, etc., etc.) but still check from time to time? Everybody wins!

1. It Ain’t Nothin’ by Cypress Hill

I’m starting with what I think is the weakest track on this list, but that’s mostly because I’ve never been huge into Cypress Hill and their insane-in-the-brain hip hop. But they’re about to release their first record in six years in April, and you can get a taste of it by downloading this free track at www.cypresshill.com. B-Real-tastic!

2. Flume by Peter Gabriel

From Cypress Hill to Peter Gabriel. Did I tell you this list was eclectic, or what? Log on to www.petergabriel.com/flume and you can download Gabriel’s cover of the Bon Iver song Flume. It’s from his new orchestra-and-voice-only covers record Scratch My Back, in stores today. Don’t write Gabriel off as Dad-music. The quality of his catalogue is intimidating at best, and this new record is already earning him rave reviews.

3. Some Kind of Sign by Quinzy

I have to include some local content or the CRTC will come after me. Ha, just kidding folks. I want to include some local content, so here’s a free track from Quinzy you can get at www.reverbnation.com/quinzy. “Guess what? Sign up for that e-mail list to the right and we’re going to give you a free, unreleased track,” the band writes in an accompanying blog. “This is because we care about you.” The track in question, titled Some Kind of Sign, was recorded with Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Rheostatics, Barenaked Ladies), making it most likely a leftover from the sessions that produced the Quinzy EPs One Boy’s Guide to the Moon and These Nautical Miles. Mmm—leftovers.

4. Colouring of Pigeons by The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock

Eccentric Swedish electro-pop duo The Knife are back this year with their collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. Tomorrow, in a Year, an opera based on Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, was released digitally on Jan. 28 and will hit stores in hard-copy form on Mar. 1. You can download the 11-minute Colouring of Pigeons at www.theknife.net.

5. Vika by The Pets

This song is from 2002, but it’s one of my favourites of the past decade and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Hailing from Steinbach, Man., The Pets recorded one great album (Love and War) in their basement, released it and then broke up soon after. (Some members of the band went on to form The Waking Eyes.) Eight years later, the pop opus is just as fresh and exciting as it was back then. You can download the song Vika—a frenetic ode to eternal love—right here, courtesy of the fine folks at Endearing Records.