By Leor Galil, guest blogger

Before Community’s Season 2 premiere Thursday night, the people behind the TV show will dish out laughs in 140-character bursts during a “Twittersode.”

That’s a Twitter episode. No, the creators of the comedy, which follows disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger and his interactions with students when he starts attending community college, won’t be posting video links on their Twitter accounts. Instead, Community’s characters will tweet to each other as they prepare for the first class of the new semester. Fans can watch the action on NBC’s Community Twittersode site, or follow the characters’ Twitter accounts.

via Community’s ‘Twittersode’ Just Might Work | Underwire | Wired.com.

There are few shows on TV like Community. When I heard they were doing a “Twittersode,” I became intrigued. I pitched this piece on the experiment to Wired‘s Underwire blog, and it’s now online. Read it, and be sure to check out the Twittersode… if you dare!

Image by Getty Images North America via @daylife

Free the Music is a guide to new albums, EPs and songs that are available for free online. Today’s drop is: Childish Gambino – Culdesac.

Donald Glover lives a charmed life. At 26, he’s been a YouTube sensation with Derrick Comedy, wrote for the critically-acclaimed comedy “30 Rock,” and stars in another hit NBC comedy, “Community.”

Then there’s his hip-hop side-project, Childish Gambino. Glover showed promise on his first mixtape, I’m Just A Rapper, juggling odd, multi-syllabic rhymes while matching his flow to popular indie tunes. I’m Just A Rapper 2 felt like a re-run you’ve seen too many times: The rhymes sounded slathered together on short notice, the choice of instrumentals less-focused.

Now, Glover’s released his “official” release, Culdesac. Though the high quality piano introduction on “Difference” should inform a defiant and all together vibrant album, it doesn’t. In fact, the overwhelmingly overproduced nature of the album’s first two tracks sound gaudy and out of place, and highlight Glover’s oft-off beat rhyme schemes.

With I’m Just A Rapper, Glover leaned on a handful of stereotypical rap crutches (money, women, power), but created a unique lyrical narrative different than the over-the-top gangsterisms that pervades many overplayed hip-hop tropes. Yet, with Culdesac, Glover sounds stuck on repeat even when the beats below his vocals have a fresh-out-of-the-studio sheen.

On Culdesac, Glover leans harder on hip-hop thematic crutches, and uses them as a gateway to inform listeners of his charmed life. Yes, it’s important to talk about what you know. But with Culdesac, listeners could play a drinking game called “Tina Fey,” wherein you drink every time Fey’s name is mentioned. Chances are you’ll be drunk halfway through the album. Glover spends a lot of the album talking about how great he is, but it comes off as more insecure than truthful.

It’s not all bad. “Do Ya Like” has a fantastic electro-rap flow with one brilliant sample-based hook. And Glover even gets to deliver his best line of the record: “NBC is not the only thing I’m coming on tonight.” Yes, it’s juvenile, and Glover is up front about it in the song, but it’s a rare spot of lyrical brilliance in an underwhelming album. When things align, Glover seems to have all the talent in the world. But, for better or worse, Culdesac is merely a document that shows just how fallible an ambitious, creative person can be.

You can download Culdesac for free here.

Community just got picked up for a second season.

That’s right. “Community” will have a second season. If you haven’t had the distinct pleasure of watching one of the best shows on television – a remarkable feat considering this show is only in its first season – take a peek at the latest episode below.

[huluvid id="9TuCf2m45LQU3ok2Phyy7w"]

Well, almost. Childish Gambino’s new mixtape, I Am Just A Rapper, has so much potential. Yet, the results are a little mixed.

Childish Gambino, otherwise known as Donald Glover, is someone to watch out for. When it comes to rhymes, Glover’s got plenty of fresh material to flesh out on I Am Just A Rapper. There’s plenty of whip-smart references to cultural ephemera like Jersey Shore and slightly-innovative ways at describing the same-ole, same-ole of hip-hop (women, fame, etc) on the mixtape. Glover’s also got plenty going for him outside of hip-hop: He’s a pivotal member of the Derrick Comedy team, he’s been part of the writing team for a number of 30 Rock episodes and he’s one of the many shining stars on NBC’s newest comedy, Community.

Perhaps that is why I Am Just A Rapper is slightly underwhelming. Whether it’s been in his role as Troy on Community or his other comedy work, Glover has shown himself to be someone who understands the finer points at deftly-delivered communication. So it’s a little perturbing to hear Glover get hindered by some of the usual pitfalls that befall lesser-than MCs by covering some of the same worn-down elements in terms of posturing. Fortunately, those moments are fleeting, and sometimes even help to display the introspective layers hiding underneath some of the “cash, money, hoes” scenario.

Although Glover’s flow and lyrical skillz are impressive, what really drags down I Am Just A Rapper is the shoddy production. Rather than strip popular tunes by Sleigh Bells, Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective of their vocals, Glover merely slaps his rhymes right on top, often creating a muddled and distracting sound. Though the feedback-flavored track “New Prince” benefits from the use of Sleigh Bells’ abrasive sound to create one bombastic tune, the use of Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” sounds completely drowned out, un-equalized and a bit washed out in combination with Glover’s vocals.

Still, at the price of a few minutes of downloading, I Am Just A Rapper is definitely worth a listen. Download it here. And if you live in Portland, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis or Los Angeles, look out for local screenings of Derrick Comedy’s movie, Mystery Team.

Mystery Team trailer (Red Band Trailer – NSFW):

[youtubevid id="nxx1vOhlqmM"]

Banditos' pillow fight

In many ways, the random acts of fun inspired by Banditos are a reminder of the Punk Percussion Protests that were held in front of the South African Embassy in the summer of 1985. Back in emo’s infant days, Revolution Summer as it were, members of Positive Force and various individuals in the Dischord roster and faimly would gather infrequently by the embroiled embassy to stage impromptu protests. Demonstrating their newfound thirst for politics beyond their small community, the punks would gather a handful of times that summer and bang on all kinds of objects that would make a sound, end on end, in a vibrant and out-of-the-ordinary display of political fortitude and engaging idealism. At a time when hardcore had soured the image of punk for individuals within and out of the underground, the Punk Percussion Protests were one of many ways in which DC’s emo scene challenged expectations for all-things-normal in the world of punk (and outside of punk at that).

Positive Force/Fugazi flyer

Keeping up with the sense of challenging expectations, the Punk Percussion Protests against Apartheid ended that summer. However, they were brought back briefly at various intervals, which also included a Positive Force, Fugazi-encompassing protest against the first War against Iraq. The event, originally a protests in support of the homeless, grew with the timetable set by the Bush administration (again, the first one) for Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait. Aside from the large-Fugazi show, there was a mass drumming assembly in front of the White House. According to the book Dance of Days, the protests were so potent that “Bush complained to the press that ‘those damned drums are keeping me up all night.’” Talk about out of the ordinary.

Fugazi – Turnover (live at the Positive Force anti-war/homelessness protest):

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=gzC0RNkBXM0]

Jimes live

Jimes hails from Chevy Chase, an annexed part of the greater Bethesda area that’s all encapsulated in the DC metro area. Despite the feet which separate his home turf from mine, I had to go to New York to even realize such a character/musical entity existed. And so, while searching for a small-scale, underground show to follow up my Siren adventure, I discovered Jimes was scheduled to play a new hole-in-the-wall venue in Brooklyn.

I didn’t make it to the show (I ended up throwing away all my post-festival plans for relaxation), but Jimes certainly stuck with me. The anarchic, non-musician to the extreme, uber-garage pop immediately jumped out at me. Hey, it’s not great musicianship, but there’s an immediacy and power to it that’s lost on a lot of bands I like to lump into the “mainstream.” Clearly, Jimes (who is the singer, but is also the umbrella name for the full-band) isn’t doing this for money or fame, but simply the power of expression… or most importantly, fun.

More Jimes

Of course, Jimes’ forwardness with which he proclaims his inability to create music is easily connected to the first wave of punk, where non-musicians became an icon of the movement (if not exactly the true creators of said punk music). And as emo is as much a part of the narrative of punk as it is a sub-genre, Jimes’ straight-forward creation of music for the sake of creation is reflective of much of the narratives behind emo’s most noteworthy acts. Although many of those acts had different ideas for simply creating their music, one thing is clear throughout; it’s just important to do it. And if Jimes has any relation to those in the Dischord crowd, the kids in the Mid-West emo scene of the 1990s, or the teens bouncing around basements in New Jersey in the late 90s/early 2000s, his drive to create is in part fueled by his derision of the mainstream society around him.

As far as Jimes’ connection to any greater community is concerned, that is a scene I would be very interested to learn more about. Jimes’ playfulness and musical audaciousness is reminiscent of a number of acts from around America, yet ones who don’t appear to have any direct connection to one another. Math the Band readily comes to mind; the New England-based act was originally just a fun-loving guy named Kevin who sang over beats he constructed on his laptop. But Math has since expanded into a full-fledged band that’s been touring with buddies Harry and the Potters (the defining act of wizard rock, which is it’s own little scene) and will soon be playing a festival in Pittsburgh with none other than Bob Dylan. Juiceboxxx is another one of these whatever-you-want-to-call-it acts, though there is a touch of professionalism. Hailing from Milwaukee, Juiceboxxx is known for putting on urgent and insanely danceable shows, all of which can be heard in the immediacy of the goofy-yet-catchy laptop-based hip-hop tracks.

Math the Band

I could be trying to force certain puzzles in place when there isn’t anything there necessarily. Without any immediate connection to one another, there’s a certain lack of any tangible scene, a driving force which has powered emo to this day. And yet, for some reason, all of these acts are cropping up across the United States that have a general aesthetic connection; technologically-driven (though slightly deficient) music and a drive for creativity that is more parts humor and fun than anything else. If anything, this is a mark of the technology on the ability to create music. Just as cassette tape players made it easy for anyone to make some form of music in the 80s (which Calvin Johnson took to heart with K Records), the laptop has made it insanely easy for anyone to record anything.

Juiceboxxx live

Although mash-ups, techno, dubstep, grime, and any other electronic-based genre have long been the focus of technology-in-music when it comes to the role laptops have played on modern music, they can be (and in the case of Jimes, are) used for simply recording live instrumental playing on the fly. What’s happening now is something similar to the rise of garage bands in the 60s (although not on such a grand, noticeable scale). As rock bands became a commerce of cool, kids across the country formed bands without any thought of ability or community – just make music. And it’s happening again, only with the laptop instead of the guitar.

Call it “New Garage.” Call it whatever you want. In the same way that garage rock produced hundreds of hundreds of bands across the country, each unique and the same all at once, that commitment to music above all else is happening all over again. And that’s a great thing.

You can download most of the Jimes catalog here. Below are clips of live shows from Jimes, Math the Band, and Juiceboxxx.

Jimes:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=4LzbXd1vUVs]

Math the Band:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=AyhqN-Rjthg]

Juiceboxxx:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYtP9iFcVVY&feature=related]

We’re proud to announce that PARTS & LABOR will be releasing their new album, “Receivers,” on 10/21/08 here in the US and 11/03/08 in the UK.

Brooklyn’s Parts & Labor has become one of my favorite bands in recent years, and it’s been simply wonderful to see them grow as an artistic entity and in the eyes of the music community. In a handful of years and successive releases, they’ve turned from an anthemic noise act of uncompromising creativity into the center of a vibrant underground music scene in Brooklyn. With the release of Receivers in October, there is no doubt they’ll continue on their trajectory of making outstanding music. From the sound of it, they’ve already managed to do that. Pitchfork released the track titled “Nowheres Nigh” today, and chances are, P&L aren’t far off from joining a number of their critically-acclaimed contemporaries. The song is pure pop, but still contains those elements that make Parts & Labor such an anomaly; the clashing sounds of electronic blips float with ease atop shoegaze waves of fuzz, while Joe Wong maniacally bashes away on the drum-kit in the background and BJ Warshaw exemplifies the poppiest vocal work to rival any previous track the band has made. It’s a change-up for the band, but it keeps to their mantra of pushing their own creative notions.

old Parts & Labor live pic

I’ve been lucky enough to see Parts & Labor grow in time with a bit of my own maturation. While interning at Rock Sound magazine in London, I introduced the folks at the magazine to Parts & Labor after throwing their then-upcoming release (Mapmaker) onto the stereo. The staff instantly fell in love with the band as I won a little cred in their books; pretty soon I was interviewing Dan Friel for an “Exposure” piece on the band, no doubt bringing them into the homes of many new UK fans. A year later I had the pleasure of putting on a show with the band at Brandeis University; I was involved in putting on a lot of great shows in Chums coffeehouse (the venue of choice at Brandeis), but the Parts & Labor show was one of my favorites. A month ago I treked down to Brooklyn for the After The Jump Fest, where Dan pointed out what acts to check out, which included a set by newly-acquired P&L guitarist Sarah Lipstate’s solo project, Noveller.

I’m more than happy to say that I will also be a part of the next Parts & Labor album. While they worked away on Receivers, Parts & Labor asked fans to send in audio samples, leaving four questions as guides. I sent in a little something, and although I have no idea how they used it, the band has decided to use every single submitted audio sample for their record. Now if that’s not the sign of an inclusive, open community I don’t know what is. Of course, those ideas go hand in hand with Parts & Labor; besides the musical influence of punk’s past, the ideological influence of the DIY, hardcore and post-hardcore greats that filled the 80s is especially strong in how the band runs everything. And community, as strong as it is within the lineage of emo (and I shall write no more on emo and community for this post), is an especially strong aspect of Parts & Labor’s existence and coexistence. Friel and Warshaw even went as far as to create their own record label – Cardboard records – in order to release material from bands that they felt a strong ideological, musical, and personal connection to. Just as, say, Dischord (ok, I lied a little bit about two sentences ago) became an epicenter for a small, DC punk community, Cardboard has become a connection for like-minded musicians across the country. Just pick up Love and Circuits, a double album compiling all the bands that Parts & Labor has shared a communal bond with, and you’ll hear a fraction of the bands involved in the American art-punk/noise/whatever you want to call it community. Just as a record label, a venue, or a town can become centers of musical and cultural scenes, in their own way Parts & Labor – as a band and an idea – have also become something of a meeting point for a community.

The Cardboard Family

Parts & Labor will be performing at Siren Music Festival this Saturday and Whartscape this Sunday. Make it to the shows if you can.

Parts & Labor – Nowheres Nigh

Parts & Labor – The Gold We’re Digging (video):

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=YwCFP1qyz9k]

The Mae Shi live

In the other, pulling together as a duo is No Age, with a little help from High Places and Abe Vigoda, at the Middle East Downstairs.

No Age

It is a challenge to behold… For music fans of Boston, tonight’s concert calendar will have a tough choice, but either event will provide a winner. This may be a match for an individual’s night, but it is no way a battle between acts. This cavalcade of musicians rolling through town represents some of the brightest acts from the three pivotal underground music communities today.

The Mae Shi, No Age, and Abe Vigoda mastered their craft and honed in on their acts out in LA. There, they (along with a multitude of other acts) formed a community dedicated to furthering the boundaries of art and punk. It’s a living, breathing unit that can be seen in the 40 Bands 80 Minutes documentary (it is what it says – 40 bands performing 2 minute songs in a sweaty LA venue) or on any regular evening at The Smell, the all ages venue that No Age placed smack dab on the cover of their 2007 album Weirdo Rippers. With the critical acclaim these three acts – alongside peers such as HEALTH and Mika Miko – have been receiving, the LA underground scene has once again been thrown into the national music limelight.

The Smell

Although LA has received a considerable amount of attention, so has Brooklyn (home of High Places) and, more than any other area, Baltimore (home of The Death Set). Forever cast in the shadows of nearby, larger areas (Baltimore has DC, and although Brooklyn is a part of NYC, Manhattan has always dominated the other burroughs), these tiny, seemingly-culturally deprived areas have burst with creative ingenuity in all forms of the arts. Baltimore has built an insular community to match its small sized, and has since been propelled to the national level thanks in part to the Wham City collective and its unofficial head Dan Deacon; in little pockets of a city that most residents have either forgotten or never cared about, out came a sprawling arts basin that seems as communally inbred as it is creative. Venture north a number of hours and you hit Brooklyn, itself a sprawling mass of space that’s cheaper – and therefore, more attractive to aspiring artists looking to make it in the big city. Any busted-up storefront could easily be turned into an art gallery or performance space, and a good number of them art (at least in the Williamsburg area). Out of it has formed numerous art-punk acts as wide spread, yet communally linked; TV On The Radio, Battles, Parts & Labor, and a ton of others all call this place home.

Baltimore's Video Hippos at Brooklyn's Death by Audio

Both Baltimore and Brooklyn offer scenes that are in close proximity to areas of cultural resonance, but their chance location has given both places an almost-secluded quality which has allowed these communities to prosper and trade ideas amongst one another without the eye of the mainstream music world staring down upon them. LA, though a mainstream cultural capital in its own respect, is so spread out that over the past few decades, it has allowed for numerous musically-based culture movements to spawn and spread out of little pockets in the vast city side and across the suburban sprawl. These communities are created and developed in the guise of complete creativity, without the influence and impact of commercial interest to hinder, attract, or distract anything or anyone from the ultimate goal of creation. These qualities are the typical stamp-of-approval for the development of underground art communities in the US; the resources are there in almost every location in America, but it takes a special formula of location, individuals, and atmosphere to make it work.

This is an important aspect of the development and continued thriving of emo as an underground cultural force. It’s still one that drives the many different voices of emo in its current underground status. True, emo has become a fashionable commodity, but it doesn’t mean that it hasn’t continued to thrive as an underground culture, one separate from its mainstream state. It’s the ideas of creativity and independence that the innovators of the culture imbued into its artistic essence that not only kept emo in the underground for so long (around 15-17 years, depending on when you choose to mark its beginning and entrance into the mainstream). When what became known as “emo” began in the ashes of DC’s hardcore scene, a good chunk of the punk music community scorned it as hardcore had yet to hit its dramatic fall on the national level. DC was (and in many ways, still is) ignored by the music industry as an important place, so emo transformed, unfettered by outsiders and made for the better by community members. As Fugazi became the scene’s main touring act and magnet, their sound became a beacon to anyone looking beyond the convention of punk and broadcast a vibrant and diverse aural image of emo around the world.

Fugazi

From there, communities outside of the insular DC scene began to form around the idea of emo. The strongest cross-state emo community to arise didn’t occur until the mid 90s. While connections formed among artists from different scenes (Sunny Day Real Estate and Shudder To Think as touring partners comes to mind), the mid 90s provided a time when scenes across the country formed their own little pockets and ideas of emo, yet would come together to share them. Outside of DC (which added Chisel and The Dismemberment Plan to their list), the East Coast had pockets of sound; NYC had Texas Is The Reason, New Jersey had Lifetime, Boston had Karate and Jejune (who later moved to California), and down in Florida (if you want to count it as the East Coast) there was Hot Water Music.

Mineral

But the mid 90s and emo will forever be associated with the Mid-West, where the bands were as connected to their hometown scenes as they were with the rest of the middle-country-divide. Cap’n Jazz, The Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World, Mineral, Christie Front Drive, Braid, The Get Up Kids, Boy’s Life, and dozens more upon hundreds of those which may never be heard by the masses have formed a dominant portrait of a land and time in the emo narrative. The places they came from are all different and so are their ideas, but they all came together to form a variety of sounds that continue to exist within popularized forms of emo today. Consider it the time of multiculturalism in underground American punk. While the national hardcore scene transformed local sounds into one big rule-based notion of musical defiance summarized in a minute and a half of screams and thrashing guitars, the mid 90s Mid-West emo scene allowed for individual pockets to develop their version of emo undeterred by outsiders all while coming together to form bonds and trade ideas to enhance their individual perspectives. This can be seen in everything from split singles on vinyl (such as the Jimmy Eat World/Christie Front Drive split that attracted the attention of Captiol Records) to a shared creation of lyrics (The Promise Ring’s “Picture Postcard” attributes some lyrical content to Braid’s Bob Nanna), to simple ties of friendship that extend past inter-state routes. Just as the movers and shakers of today’s underground music scenes breach state lines to form communities while continuing to build their local ones, emo became a strong presence throughout America before it became a mainstream phenomenon. Those connections kept it a living, moving center of a community, and that notion continues to drive like-minded individuals who operate under whatever label they choose to this very day.
No Age – Eraser

The Mae Shi – Vampire Beats (video):

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=XOF1kV7cVVE]

Gonna make this one quick and then I’m going to take the weekend off. I recently recieved a comment for my Coheed & Cambria post that was not only in poor taste, but horribly written, argued and against the entire point of this blog. This blog is about an openness towards the entire idea of emo in general, and is made in response to the close-minded view of emo. Calling someone an “emo bitch” is basically reiterating all of the negative stereotypes of our society in general, and are a simple sign of frustration at an inability to create any arguable concept. I’m all for creating a conversation about the topic (that’s the point of this blog), but outside of that, attacking me as an individual and not my argument is just poor. So a few thoughts here…

1) The comment attacked me for my supposed sole love of emo. For anyone who knows me or has read even a hint of this blog, I’m a lover of any and all genres. In fact, most of the music that I discuss that is made within the recent past is in fact not emo. Hip-hop, art-punk, indie… it’s a mish-mash of genres.

2) On Coheed & Cambria being emo: to me, emo is of relatively loose definition. If you want a straight up definition, here it is: a subgenre of post-hardcore originating from the mid-80s DC punk scene, where musicians subverted the rule-based notions that plagued hardcore by imbuing it with ambiguous and outside notions of music and lyrics. Much like post-punk, the definition of post-hardcore relies on reliving the original concepts of hardcore (ie punk to its outer extremes), and the what separates emo from other post-hardcore genres is a strong focus on multi-dimensional lyrics that are meant to connect to all who are welcome to the ideas present (ie building a community) and are based in the personal predicaments of the maturation of the lyrics’ writers (everything from politics to yes, love).

So when I hear that Coheed & Cambria are not emo, I have to laugh. They do confine to the flexibility of the genre’s essence. The infamous commenter noted that they are prog and metal, which is true, they do make use of that. But somehow that makes Coheed not emo? False. Clearly this person only has a close-minded interpretation of emo overall, which was why I established this blog in the first place – to combat that. Clearly this person has never opened their mind up to the mind-numbing emo-cum-art-punk of Happy Go Licky (featuring all four members of Rites of Spring, the originators of emo), the exhilirating combination of funk, metal, go-go, emo, classic rock, and a touch of hip-hop of Fugazi, never thought to pick up the later work by Sunny Day Real Estate (or their follow-up, side project, The Fire Theft) which drenches the sound of early 90s emo in a great lake of progressive rock. These acts and individuals made emo such a vibrant, creative, and ambiguous force against the tyranny of definition that has carried the genre/culture/whatever to its current state. And Coheed’s combination of third wave emo (the aesthetics that mark Thursday, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, and tons of others – cathartic punk-based musics derived from the original DC aesthetic) with progressive and metal is no different. They just provide a different musical melenge from their peers, which set them apart in their community; Coheed toured with these bands (on various treks and the usual Warped Tour) and particiapted in the community forum of the record label (Equal Vision is one of the largest independent labels supporting emo in its third wave, releasing albums by artists from Alexisonfire, Saves The Day, Armor For Sleep, and a host of others). To say that Coheed is not emo would break the very ideas that continue to make emo so hard to define in the typical concept of a musical genre.

3) So how come I can enjoy Coheed’s earlier work and not their later work? Because if I only supposedly don’t listen to anything but emo, according to the infamous comment, I shouldn’t be able to stand to any of Coheed’s music at all. Period. What a fallacy of an argument. Seriously. The reason I can barely listen to the newest Coheed album isn’t because it isn’t emo, it’s because it just isn’t that great.

Finally, this is meant to be a forum for positive reaction about one of the most negatively associated genres in music/cultural movements today. So, if you would like to provide a fluid and well-thought argument, be my guest. But if you walk in with close-minded assumptions about emo and can only take out your frustrations on the author, well you’ve obviously come to the wrong place.

So, excuse me for that, but I made this blog in an attempt to create positive change – please take your negative concepts elsewhere.

Have a great weekend! I promise more cultural insights and how they relate to emo quite soon. Until then, goodbye!

Since Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want, online release of In Rainbows last October, the idea of artists offering their albums for free has been at the forefront of almost any article relating to popularly consumed music. It could be a simple sign that most mainstream music-critique sources are so out of touch that they’ll jump on anything they can grab a hold of and declare it to be a pop culture phenomenon (cough cough Rolling Stone). Whether or not it is seen as a gimmick or the wave of the future for music consumption, there has no doubt been a rise in the availability of 100% legal, free music for the masses.

Or at least there has been a rise in the promotion and knowledge of said musics since the tipping point of In Rainbows‘ release. Radiohead may have been the first to make such a move seem shocking and relevant, but they were far from the first to release their music for free. Hell, Prince even beat Radiohead to the punch by an entire season, or at least this headline in the Daily Mail would have you believe:

“Prince is determined to revolutionise the music industry” – 14 July 2007

Then again, Prince did release his newest album, Planet Earth, for free a tad earlier than it’s regularly scheduled release to anyone who picked up the Daily Mail on Sunday. Then again, it did cost the couple of pounds you’d need to pay for the Daily Mail… and the cost of knowing you spent money on a newspaper as poor as the Daily Mail (really Prince? The Daily Mail? You couldn’t have gotten a few million from the Observer?). And then again, it was basically only available to folks in the UK.

Prince's Planet Earth

But even before Prince fired the first big shot at the music industry, bands of big and small sizes had been releasing their music for free to anyone with an internet connection. From Harvey Danger (of “Flagpole Sitta” fame) to Danger Doom (through the lovely folks at Adult Swim), free-online music was the cutting edge before it was cutting close to a gimmick.

But before free, legal downloads were en vogue, one band broke through the fighting lines of the music industry to deliver the goods straight to the fans: Jimmy Eat World. As the Arizona emo quartet entered the new millennium having been dropped by Capitol records following frustrations between both parties. With their future unclear, Jimmy Eat World set up a mini-tour across America for their die-hard fans in order to scramble together some money for the follow up to their now-beloved 1999 album Clarity. As with numerous acts in the emo lineage, the guys in Jimmy Eat World knew that creating an intimate connection among their audience was a top priority. How do you build a community between fans and a band, especially with a community that stretches from sea to sea? Through music. And, knowing that having an audience aware of every note you play is essential for the inclusion of concert-goers, Jimmy Eat World did what Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich would have found at the time to be the least-sensible thing; they released the demos of their next album to the fans for free. And they did it through Napster, the controversial music-sharing program that kicked off the music industry’s current worries.

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World made a big gamble… and the returns were immediate. Their tour sold out, and the band returned home to record the new album. A major-label bidding war erupted (their old label Capitol even threw down after hearing the group’s newest work), and Jimmy Eat World signed with DreamWorks. Jimmy Eat World’s new album, Bleed American, was released in the summer of 2001. Following September 11th, the band changed the album’s name to simply Jimmy Eat World.

In 2002, Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” hit the top of numerous pop charts and was in consistent rotation on MTV. Jimmy Eat World became the band’s first platinum (and multi-platinum) record, and opened the gates to emo’s larger acceptance into the mainstream. Dashboard Confessional may have become the poster-boy for emo at the time, but Dashboard never earned the success and widespread acceptance that Jimmy Eat World not only garnered, but has continued to reap. Behind Jimmy Eat World’s surprise success, emo found its natural springboard as a cultural phenomenon on a mainstream level; in many ways, JEW are the Nirvana of emo, and “The Middle” is very much the new “Smells Like Teen Spirit” of the third wave of emo. Emo’s success as a widespread movement owes a debt to Jimmy Eat World and their vociferous support of their fans and community. And Jimmy Eat World’s success owes a bit of debt to music downloading. And so, before Radiohead made legal, (possibly) free music a “new” concept, Jimmy Eat World made it a lifeline for an entire movement.

With that, I present a listing of numerous free/pay-what-you-want albums and EPs that have been released online this year.

Enjoy it:

AmpLive – RainyDayz Remixes

Antlers – New York Hospitals EP

Atmosphere – Strictly Leakage

The Cool Kids – That’s Stupid The Mixtape

Dan Deacon – Back-catalog

Food For Animals – Belly acapellas

Forest Fire – Survival

Girl Talk – Feed The Animals

Gnarls Barkley – elpuocddoeht

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I – IV and The Slip

NIN and various openers – Lights In The Sky Tour EP

Stereogum’s Remix Artist Collective Volume 1

Let me know if I missed any 2008 free releases!