Archives for January 2012

Today's MPFREE comes from American folk band Bowerbirds. We played their track Tuck the Darkness In earlier in January, but when we found In the Yard we thought it should have it's own MPFREE moment.

Bowerbirds are Philip Moore (vocals, guitar), Beth Tacular (accordion, vocals) and Mark Paulson (violin, vocals).

It's called In the Yard and is the second track from the forthcoming album 'The Clearing' which will be out 6th March on the Dead Oceans label.

The album follows 2009's very good Upper Air, and was recorded at Bon Iver's April Base studio in Wisconsin, as well as inside a North Carolina cabin.

We hope you enjoy!

To get your free download just follow this link: Bowerbirds: In the Yard

Well hello there, and a very happy Monday to you.

Today's MPFREE is called 'Walk With Me' by Memoryhouse. It is the second track to be let go from this Ontario indie-pop duo's full-length debut, The Slideshow Effect,which will be released in February via Sub Pop.

They'll be touring the UK in March - here are the dates, and you can check their website for more information

23rd School Of Art Glasgow.

24th Whelan's Dublin, Ireland

26th The Deaf Institute Manchester

27th Start The Bus Bristol

28th Cargo London

To get your free download just follow this link: Memoryhouse: Walk With Me

It's been a week of newbies and big names on the MPFree front. Your final offering comes from Bear In Heaven; a band we got very excited about in 2009 and are happy to see the return.

For the artwork this week Huey asked for your pictures of Australian landmarks to tie in with the Australia Day People's Playlist on Thursday, and we went with this shot from Sophie Clegg.

The track this week are:

Mansions On The Moon - Athens

Toy - Left Myself Behind

St Etienne - Tonight

Brendan Benson - Bad For Me

Bear In Heaven - The Reflection Of You

Some tracks may no longer be available for download.

No tales of love this week for Memory Tapes, this is the tale of a tape made by a man for a party. That man is Martin Jones, who writes...

"I turned 30th in 1999 for which I had a sizeable party. As part of the occasion I created a compilation to play in the background - I suspect with some intent to transition the mood from drinking to dancing. I came across the compilation (actually a CD) whilst decorating last week and realised I'd created a Memory Tape for myself.

"Have to admit I don't know exactly what I was doing in the middle section with some MOR choices, and I shall be having a long chat with myself about that later, but I reckon it's scattered with some tracks I'd include in a compilation today (Reed, Stones, Dusty Springfield, Bobby W, JB and of course the Roses!) All in all it's a curious window into the mind of my younger self with the odd collection of music and self-absorbed cover and despite my desire to change the listing now (only 70% of the tracks) - that's what I chose at the time, so it will remain as a permanent cautionary tale."

Here are the tracks:

Lou Reed - Perfect Day

The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses

Supergrass - Late In The Day

Dodgy - Big Brown Moon

Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man

Babybird - Candy Girl

The Cardigans - My Favourite Game

Texas - Saint

Kula Shaker - Tattva

Reef - I've Got Something To Say

Manic Street Preachers - You Stole The Sun

Stereophonics - A Thousand Trees

Robbie Williams - Old Before I Die

Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street

James Brown - The Boss

Jurassic 5 - Jayou

Bill Withers - Who Is He?

Gomez - 78 Stone Wobble

The Stone Roses - Fool's Gold

Inspired? Email Lauren your Memory Tape and you could be on the radio too.

Your MPFree today comes from the new album from Brendon Benson. He's best know as one of The Raconteurs, but he has a pretty good solo discography worth delving in to (particularly Lapalco).

'What Kind Of World' will be his fifth studio album to be released in April 2012. Here's a song from it:

Brendan Benson - Bad For Me

Your MPFree today is a new song from St Etienne. It comes from their forthcoming new album which will be their first in seven years.

Talking about the song, which is called Tonight, Bob of the band says: "Tonight is about the anticipation of going to see your favourite group. For some reason, I imagine this show is at the Forum in Kentish Town. The whole album is about the power of pop, how it affects and shapes your life."

The track is produced by Tim Powell and mixed by Richard X. You can get ahold of it here:

St Etienne - Tonight

Tuesday's MPFree comes from the bright young things of 2012....possibly.

The NME included UK 5-piece Toy on their '20 Most Exciting Bands Of 2012' list, and here's your chance to judge, for free:

Toy - Left Myself Behind

Hello sausage. Happy Monday. To get things rolling on the free download front we have a slice of fuzzy shoe-gaze pop for your ears.

It comes from L.A.'s Mansions On The Moon and is produced by Pharrell Williams. It comes from the band's Light Years EP and is quite lovely.

Mansions On The Moon - Athens

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another stash of free downloads. It's another strong week, and your final track comes from Santigold. This is a first taste of the new album 'Master of My Make-Believe' which is forthcoming. You'll find it linked in below.

As for the artwork, to tie in with yesterday's celestial People's Playlist, Huey asked for your pictures of aliens or ETs. Oddly, we didn't get any photos, so we went with this instead from Barrie in Huddersfield. It's an ice alien:

Your tracks this week are:

Hooray For Earth - Bring Us Closer Together

Zulu Winter - Let's Move Back to Front

Gary Clark Junior - Bright Lights

Lambchop - Gone Tomorrow

Santigold - Big Mouth

Some tracks may no longer be available for download.

It's another Memory Tapes; and it's another tale of love. We really should rename this feature Love Tapes or something.

This particular story comes from Jenny Strickson, who writes...

""My memory tape was put together by my boyfriend; we met on the internet (on a design forum) and talked every day online for 6 months before eventually plucking up the courage to meet each other.

"We have both been through some difficult times in the past and he helped me overcome personal obstacles in my life. The tracks on the mixtape reflect this starting with a darker melancholy TV on the Radio, through to the happy optimism of M83.

"The tape completely confirmed my feelings for him and paved the way for our relationship, the tape speaks for our longing to meet each other and the relationship we were already building on.

"We've now been together over 3 years, we have a house together, 2 cats and we're talking about marriage and children."

Awesome. Here's the CD:

TV on the Radio - Blind

Wet and Rusting - Menomena

The Funeral - Band of Horses

Turnstile Blues - Autolux

Oceans and Streams - The Black Keys

The Guns of Brixton - The Clash

Breaking your fall - Chris Whitley

Cold blooded old times - Smog

Needle in the hay - Elliott Smith

Lower your eyelids to die with the sun - M83

Do you have a mixtape with a story behind it? Email it to Lauren then.

Your MPFree today comes from Lambchop's eleventh album Mr. M.

The record is due out on 20th February through City Slang and will tie in with a UK and European tour. This follows a free download from last year of the album opener 'If Not I'll Just Die'.

Lambchop - Gone Tomorrow

It's the middle of the week, and this MPFREE will pump your wednesday full of some Texan Blues and Rock n' Roll.

Gray Clark Jr. hails from Austin, Texas and really broke the music scene last year. He has yet to release a full album, but there's quite a bit of excitement about his recently issued four-song set called The Bright Lights EP. He started playing guitar at the age of 12, and gigging around Austin. But now, at the age of 26, recent big gigs have included a rousing set at Crossroads in 2010 and an Alicia Keys benefit last Novemeber, where the duo performed a unique cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

A phenomenal live performer, he's a blues traditionalist who fuses his music with hip hop and soul. Go get your free download by following this link. Jeah! Gary Clark Junior: Bright Lights

Today's MPFREE comes from a band who have been played several times by BBC Introducing.

Zulu Winter are a group of 5 from London. They are: Will Daunt (vocals & guitar), Iain Lock (bass), Dom Millard (keyboards), Henry Walton (guitar) and Guy Henderson (drums). They've been playing together as Zulu Winter for about a year. As well as featuring on BBC Introducing they've just played Eurosonic Festival in Holland and are soon to support The Horrors on their Asia and Japan tour. You can find out more about the band here: Zulu Winter

Tom Robinson has been playing them on BBC Introducing recently and you can get your free download by following the link below to the website.

All this week we're telling you more about BBC Introducing and how you can get involved. BBC Introducing is the place where unsigned, undiscovered and under the radar musicians can get the chance to feature on BBC radio, television and online - as well as the opportunity to perform at festivals like Glastonbury or Reading & Leeds. For more information, and to be part of the Introducing Masterclass 2012, visit the BBC Introducing website here: BBC Introducing

In the meantime, here's a link to your free download. Enjoy! Zulu Winter: Let's Move Back to Front

Mr Stuart Dredge, resident app expert, is back to take us through some reviews on apps for smartphones and tablets.

Here's a line up of what Stuart discussed, and you can follow the links to find out more. H-appy Apping... Jeah!

Shazam Player

We know Shazam as the app that lets you recognise songs playing on the radio, TV or in a club. Now it has a new app for actually playing your music. Shazam Player lets you play the songs on your iPhone or iPod touch, but it also shows you lyrics while they play, and pulls in videos from the band.

iPone

Numberlys

US company Moonbot Studios made the excellent The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore book-app last year. Now they're back with Numberlys, an educational app for kids to teach them the alphabet, which is influenced by black'n'white films like King Kong and Metropolis, as well as the Marx Brothers.

iPhone / iPad

World Of Goo

This started as a PC game where you pull and stick balls of gloop together to solve puzzles, but its natural home is on smartphones and tablets thanks to their touchscreens. A beautiful game that doesn't require hardcore gaming skills to enjoy. And it's just sold its millionth copy on iPhone/iPad, with another 450,000 Android downloads.

iOS

To kick start the week for you we've got a brand new free download from Hooray For Earth. They're a Manhattan/Boston band and they're set to release their debut album 'True Loves' on Memphis Industries in February.

The album was written, recorded and produced by Heroux over five weeks in Manhattan and Brooklyn with the help of long-time friend, founder member and bassist Christopher Principe, with drummer Joseph Ciampini adding two days of rooftop drum tracking.

The free download is called Bring Us Closer Together, and can be downloaded... here: Hooray For Earth - Bring Us Closer Together

Jeah!

The last MP Free of the week comes from Field Music. They are the Sunderland siblings Peter and David Brewis.

The MP Free is a brand new track titled 'A New Town' and it comes out on the 27th February.

Field Music are brothers Peter and David Brewis

The single is taken from forthcoming album Plumb, which comes out on 13th February. They start touring in February with dates confirmed for Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham and London.

So here it is, just follow the link to get your free download. Have a lovely weekend. Jeah!

Every day towards the end of the show we give you a little gift in the shape of a free download.Then every Friday we put all five tracks on the same page for you to make an EP to download to your MPFree player

So here's a round up of what we've been finding and giving away this week. Some tracks see the return of artists with their next single, others are non-ep downloads for new artists. You can find more information on each artist from the weeks blogs.

Have a top weekend!

Monday: Eugene McGuiness- Thunderbolt

Tuesday: Tuck The Darkness In - Bowerbirds

Wednesday: Heavy Metal - White Rabbit

Thursday: Get Up - Kwes

Friday: A New Town - Field Music

This weeks Memory Tape comes to you from Steph who is in the process of moving to Oxford. She came across this mix tape when she was clearing out her cupboards.

Steph says; "Around the age of 15 when I was really beginning to develop a passion for music I also began to realise that none of my peers had the faintest idea about anything from Morrissey to The Magnetic Fields and so did I turn to the internet to engage with others I felt more inclined to share my passions, oh how misunderstood we all feel as teenagers! Well through this forum it was decided that a mix cd swap should take place, to share music as the primary aim. But also perhaps to feel that our shared interests and new found friendships could be validated with something more real than text on a screen and to be able to hold an extract of someone else's most treasured set of tunes.

Well here is the one I received, from a boy of course as these things naturally still went. I forgot all about it until my aforementioned clearout and it really is a rather wonderful mix, I hope you think so too."

Strangeways Here We Are

1. Gerry Rafferty - Mattie's Ray

2. Speed-Date - Arab Strap

3. Product Placement Part 2 - DJ Shadow

4. Animal Collective - Grass

5. My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow

6. Blackalicious - Powers

7. Broken Social Scene - Stars and Sons

8. Wolf Parade - Shine a Light

9. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey

10. Love is All - Turn the Radio Off

11. Mt. Egypt - Battening the Hatches

12. Cass McCombs - Sacred Heart

13. Sonic Youth - Superstar

14. Mogwai - Tracy (Kid Loco's Playing with the Young Team remix)

15. British Sea Power - Carrion

16. Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things

17. Kings of Convenience - I'd Rather Dance with You

18. Squarepusher - Love Will Tear Us Apart

Thursday's MPFREE is a brand new signing to Warp records.

Born and raised in Lewisham in London, Kwes has been making waves since his Hearts In Home release in 2009 and his kaleidoscopic 'Kwesachu' mixtape with fellow unorthodox musician Micachu.

Kwes: Get Up

After a sold out live debut in 2011 he is about to release his EP 'Meantime' in late April. This track titled Get Up is a free non-ep download from the artist to give you a taste of what's to come.

Kwes has previously worked with the likes of The XX, Speech Debelle, Micachu, Ghostpoet and a collective of Congolese musicians and electronic producers on the DRC Music project. 2012 will see him set off as a solo artist. Although he plays it down, he's a brilliant drummer and has performed live with DELS and Elan Tamara.

Oh, and he's such a massive fan of tea that the logo of his label Bokkle is a teapot! Maybe enjoy this track with a nice cuppa...

Wednesday's MPFREE comes from the White Rabbits. They're a six-piece indie rock band with more drum beats than you can shake a stick at.

White Rabbits

This track, Heavy Metal, is the opening track from their new album Milk Famous which comes out in March. It's a follow up to the Brooklyn based and Missouri-bred band's critically acclaimed 2009 album 'It's Frightening'.

White Rabbits are; Matthew Clark, Stephen Patterson (vox and piano), Jamie Levinson (drums), Alex Even (guitar), Gregory Roberts (vox and guitar) and Brian Betancourt (bass). They all joined Lauren for a live session here at 6 music back in January 2010

Their live performances have been described by Esquire as one of "9 Shows A Man Should See". Enjoy!

Get the free download here

Mr Stuart Dredge, our resident app expert reviews some new smartphone and tablet apps for us, including one that will help you pick up vinyl!

The Vinyl District Want to find your nearest record store? There's an app for that. The Vinyl District started off in the US, but now has details of more than 300 shops in the UK for all your vinyl-hunting needs.

iPhone

Android

Life Is Crime Life Is Crime is an innovative location-based game where you have to build your own mob, taking over your actual hometown. It's similar to Facebook games like Mafia Wars, but all the locations are in the real world - you can (virtually) rob banks, rule 'turf' and get your Facebook friends to join your gang.

iPhone

Android

SpotON Radio New for iPhone, SpotON Radio turns Spotify into a personal radio service - a bit like Pandora in the US. So, you type in an artist, and it'll play you a stream of stuff from similar acts. You have to be an existing Spotify subscriber to use it, even though it's a separate app. And you can save individual songs or even whole stations as Spotify playlists. Very slinky.

iPhone

Today's MPFREE is a new track from American folk band Bowerbirds. They are Philip Moore (vocals, guitar), Beth Tacular (accordion, vocals) and Mark Paulson (violin, vocals).

It's called Tuck the Darkness In and is the first track available from the forthcoming album 'The Clearing' which will be out in March on the Dead Oceans label.

It's minimalist, serene, but a toe tapper too.

We hope you enjoy!

Bowerbirds: Tuck The Darkness In

It might be Monday, but the beginning of this week brings more than just post weekend blues... Here it is - your first MPFREE of the week.

It's the new single from singer/ songwriter Eugene McGuinness, who was on the show talking to Nemone at the end of 2011 whilst on tour with Kasabian. It follows his hit single Lion.

You can get your free 'Thunderbolt' download by following this link...

Eugene McGuinness: Thunderbolt

Welcome back folks, here's the first MPFree EP for January.

There are some top names to kick start 2012. With the likes of The XX, Grimes and The Weeknd let's hope the year is as rocking as this EP.

So here are your free downloads - Happy New Jeah!

Monday: The XX - Open Eyes

Tuesday: The Limousines - You Can Call Me Al

Wednesday: The Weeknd - Montreal

Thursday: Grimes - Genesis

Friday: Frankie Rose - Know Me

Each week on Memory Tapes we celebrate a listener's compilation tape or CD

It can be a tape made for them, or made by them.

We pick five tracks from the compilation and play them between 10.30 and 11 on a Friday. This week's tape comes from Ava Szajna-Hopgood

Ava says "In 2007 I moved from North Yorkshire to study at Goldsmiths in London. The first person I met there was Keelan, who had a room two doors down from mine. Two months later we started going out and four years this weekend we still are.

Like everyone else we were at Goldsmiths for two reasons: Graham Coxon and Alex James (and that we didn't get in anywhere else) but in that first term Keelan and I became inseparable. We didn't like the Student Union, so we went to rockabilly nights held in strip clubs, after parties in Whitechapel and long forgotten record shops off Oxford Street.

Without Keelan those first few months would have been nearly impossible for me. He introduced me to The Cramps, Radiohead and My Bloody Valentine, music it was okay to be alone to, songs to relish in isolation.

On the night before I was set to travel back up north for Christmas, Keelan stayed up into the wee hours making me this mix tape. Locked away in his room, I had no idea what was going on until the next day at Kings Cross he handed me the tape.

I hope you like it."

Side A

1. The Master's Apprentices- War or Hands of Time

2. Teddy & His Patches- Suzy Creamcheese

3. Third Bardo- Five Years Ahead of my Time

4. Shocking Blue- Send Me a Postcard

5. Iggy Pop- I Wanna Be Your Dog

6. Sonny Flaharty- Hey Conductor

7. Hunger!- Portland 69

8. The Musical Machine- Double Yellow Line

9. The Blue Rondos- Little Baby

10. The Coasters- Poison Ivy

11. Ray Charles- Hit The Road Jack

12. Five by Five- Apple Cider

13. The Castaways- Liar Liar

Side B

1. Joy Division- No Love Lost

2. Gang of Four- Damaged Goods

3. Au Pairs- You

4. Big in Japan- Suicide A Go Go

5. My Bloody Valentine- When You Sleep

6. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark- Electricity

7. Big in Japan- Nothing Special

8. The Slits- Shoplifting

9. Delta 5- Mind Your Own Business

10. The Raincoats- Fairytale in the Supermarket

11. Orange Juice- Rip It Up

12. Devo- Big Mess

13. The Cramps- Garbage Man

Here's today's MPFREE to kick start the weekend for you.

It's a new track called Know Me from songwriter and musician Frankie Rose.

Frankie hails from Brooklyn and was a former member of Crystal Stilts, the Dum Dum Girls and the Vivian Girls.

This track was released this week and is the first single from her new album Interstella, which will be released in February.

So here it is - enjoy and have a lovely weekend.

Frankie Rose: Know Me

Jeah!

The end of the first week of 2012 is just around the corner, to celebrate check out this Thursday's MPFREE...

This one comes from the Montreal musician Grimes, also known as Claire Boucher

The new track 'Genesis' is from the forthcoming third album Visions, which will be released on the 21st February in North America and elsewhere on March 12.

To get your free download follow this link and enjoy! Grimes: Genesis

This Wednesdays MPFREE comes to you from The Weeknd.

Montreal is a brand new track taken from the new mixtape album Echoes Of Silence which was released on the 21st December. The Weeknd is Ethiopian born Canadian singer/producer Abel Tesfaye.

His debut album House of Balloons placed him on the 2011 top ten lists of some top publications, including the New York Times, Billboard and the Guardian, and it was shortlisted for 2011's Polaris Music Prize.

The Weeknd started releasing tracks anonymously back in 2010. He now continues gives his music away for free and has found overwhelming success.Montreal is his latest release - to have a listen and download your Wednesday MPFREE follow the link, and enjoy!

The Weekend: Montreal

Here's Tuesday's MPFREE download!

The track is a cover by The Limousines of Paul Simon's 'You Can Call Me Al' .

The Limousines are a San Francisco based keyboard-centric duo consisting of rock band front-man Eric Victoriano and multi instrumentalist/ producer Giovanni Giusti. They first met on the internet in late 2006 and quickly started making music together, forming The Limousines in 2007.

Their latest offering is this psychedelic, electronic cover of You Can Call Me Al and you can go get your free download here: The Limousines: You Can Call Me Al

Enjoy!

NEWS - Look back at the Apps and the stats of 2011.

Appy Christmas (and the best apps of 2011)

How big a Christmas was it for apps? Huge! 6.8 million new Android devices and iPhone/iPads were activated on Christmas Day alone, according to mobile analytics company Flurry. And 242 million iOS and Android apps were downloaded on Christmas Day - it thinks one billion were downloaded between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Another company, Distimo, has a chart of the most popular 10 apps of 2011: Angry Birds, Facebook, Skype, Angry Birds Rio, Google Maps, iBooks, Angry Birds Seasons, Fruit Ninja, Talking Tom Cat and Twitter.

NEW APPS

Psonar / 7Digital (both iPhone, Android)

Two new apps promising cloud music went live over Christmas: Psonar and 7Digital. They're different though. Psonar has a catalogue of songs for you to play - but you pay per play, 1p a time. 7Digital has been around for a while as a rival to iTunes but it's only been allowed onto iPhone and iPad - you can download MP3's you've bought from the 7Digital store.

Band Boss

Managing bands? There's an app for that. Band Boss is a new iPhone game that gets you to take the artist to the top (or to the bottom, depending on your skills) - developed here in the UK.

Topical Focus - FITNESS APPS

Here are three of the best fitness apps to help you track your attempts to get back in shape in 2012.

Runkeeper (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone)

Endomondo (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry)

Sports Tracker (IPhone, Android, Windows Phone)

Happy 2012! To start the new year here is the new track from The xx and it's called 'Open Eyes'.

They wrote and produced the track whilst making the follow up to their Mercury Prize winning 2009 eponymous debut album. The band posted the song on their official blog site with the caption "Open Eyes is a demo we did whilst creating our new album, we just wanted to share it with you".

So, here you go...enjoy!

The XX - Open Eyes (Demo)