If you haven’t been to Noisetrade, you should go there soon. There is tons of music that you can get for free just buy giving them an email address. The email address gets put on the email list of whatever artist you downloaded but that’s a small price to pay for great music. Recently, I’ve gotten some really great music, all for free. Here are some of the links. Enjoy!

Amy Ray
Brandi Carlile
The Civil Wars
Marketa Irglova from Swell Season
Rosie Thomas

and a bunch of other awesome music.

This is a random episode. I had my friend Katie pick out a bunch of random numbers and then I looked in iTunes and the corresponding numbers made it on the list. Turned out really random, but that was the whole point. Follow Katie on Twitter @masdemoore or check out her blog Life With Arie.

Asobi Seksu- Trails
The Civil Wars- Poison and Wine
Madi Diaz- Let’s Go
Bess Rogers- All In Good Fun
India Arie- Heart of the Matter (cover)
The Hundred In The Hands- Young Aren’t Young
Mika Miko- Beat The Rush

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

2011 was a great year for music and I wanted to do a best of list. It was REALLY hard to narrow this down to my 5 favorite albums of the year. Rather than write my thoughts, I am going to let the music speak for itself.

Florence + Machine- Ceremonials
A great follow up to her 2009 debut Lungs.

The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
A great debut album.

Adele- 21
Brilliant. I don’t care if it’s commercial.

Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes
I have listened to this album far more than is probably normal.

tUnE-yArDs- whokill
The album is amazing. The vocals, the loops, the use of instruments. Brilliant.

Brandi Carlile- Looking Out
Sarah Jaffe- Sucker For Your Marketing
The Do- At Last
The Unthanks- Queen of Hearts
The Civil Wars- Falling (live at Eddie’s Attic)
Bethany and the Guitar- Ups and Downs
Lissie- Little Lovin’ (live)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Civil Wars are creating quite a buzz. They released their debut album Barton Hollow
in February 2011 and have gotten nothing but acclaim since then. They have close harmonies with a folky, country feel and are in a word, amazing.

Now, where’s the free music you promised me??
Their second performance ever was opening for Will Hoge at Eddie’s Attic which a renowned music venue in Decatur, GA. The performance was recorded and the whole thing is available for download without so much as needing to give them an email address. it includes Poison and Wine, which is the first song to get them attention when it was featured on Grey’s Anatomy in 2009.
Get it free here

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals- Goodbye Kiss Buy Here

The Civil Wars- Tracks In the Snow Buy Here

Lissie- Record Collector Buy Here

The Watson Twins- U n Me Buy Here

Sarah Jaffe- Even Born Again Buy Here

Kristy Lee- 45 Buy Here

Daughter- Run

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings- I Learned the Hard Way Buy Here

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I think most people like free music. I know I do!

This morning, I saw that Agnes Obel had a free cover of a John Cale song posted on Facebook. It’s a wonderful cover. Check it out here.

And since I’m sharing that, I thought I would share one of my favorite places to download free music. It’s called Noise Trade. All you need to do to get free music is provide an email address. And yes, you do get put on the artist’s mailing list but you get free music. The artists that come to mind that I have downloaded recently are Bess Rogers, The Civil Wars and Elizabeth and the Catapult among others. Exchanging an email address is a small price to pay for some awesome music.