I've been a fan of free, online music for a few years now. I'm bored to death by public radio, 90% of everything they play I can name by performer and title, and I don't feel any need to listen to it even some more. My latest fling is The Faint, a band that sounds a lot like yesteryear, reminding me of stuff like Magazine, Blondie, The Fixx, ... (thus, the early post-punk stuff) but with a low-fi quality, a lot of drive, and a harsh edge to it. It's not often that I have an instant liking for 5 out of 8 available songs; my favourite is "Glass Danse", in case you want to take a quick listen yourself.
They have a website too, not suprisingly, with these, and even more tracks. Those remixes are interesting. What I found remarkable was that the original studio tracks are 64kbit/s on their site, 192kbit/s on music.download.com, and that the difference in audio quality is minimal. That shows, in a way, how low-fi their sound really is... those 64kbit tracks are in mono, that might have helped some, limiting the loss in quality, at least a little.
Anyway, they're touring now, they will be in Europe Real Soon Now (!), and I'd love to go to see them live on the 4th of December in Bruges; unfortunately, I do have familiy obligations — those of you with small children and living in or near Belgium or Holland, may be able to guess why.
Thank goodness they'll be back in Brussels on the 17th. I hope I'll be able to make it then.
If I do, I might be able to pick up one or a few of their CDs. Yup, their music being available on Internet for free doesn't imply I'm not willing to spend money on them, I love having a copy of what I like. On the contrary, this is an excellent way to discover good, alternative music (= not the stuff the media is trying force down your throat) at your own tempo, for free, and with no obligations.
