Free Music Friday--The Monday After the Fact Edition

What with it most likely being a short week here at LET this week (gobble, gobble, kids), i decided that if i let last week's Free Music Friday slip by, it probably would be at least another week before i got one done. Since nobody wanted that to happen, here we are with The Monday After the Fact Edition.

Validating our continuing love of all things Swedish, jj dropped a couple of freebie tracks last week, now with sample-y goodness from the xx and Akon!

mp3: let them (jj from Sincerely Yours)

mp3: i'm the one/money on my mind (jj from Sincerely Yours)

With his ninth solo joint, The Apollo Kids, hitting shelves December 14, Ghostface Killah decides to show you what he's got on the first single, "Together Baby." With a soulful sample on the hook, GK continues to slaughter on this one.

mp3: Together Baby (Ghostface Killah from The Apollo Kids)

Continuing their tradition of unearthing seldom heard gems, Light in the Attic knocks another one out of the park with Jim Sullivan's U.F.O. Utilizing the legendary Wrecking Crew as his backing band, the artist is shrouded in mystery. For our purposes, though, the sumbitch could write a mean pysch-folk-rock tune, and that's really all we care about here.

mp3: Highways (Jim Sullivan from U.F.O. )

Katy Goodman must have decided two bands simply were not enough, with the Vivian Girls / All Saints Day member dropping a new one as La Sera. First single, "Never Come Around," shares the same dream-pop vision as her trio, but without the wall of fuzz. Quite frankly, a welcome change of pace to my ears.

mp3: Never Come Around (La Sera from Never Come Around/Behind Your Eyes 7")

And to send you on your merry way, the Golden Filter remix of the Morning Benders' "Excuses" (incidentally, my favorite track on their Big Echo). Now with more dance floor-y-ness!

mp3: Excuses (The Golden Filter Remix) (The Morning Benders from their website)

The Greatest Getting Ready To Buy A House Mix You Will Ever Hear

(Ed. note: i actually wrote this entire thing yesterday afternoon, but thought i'd have time to post it last night since i hadn't finished the links. Guess i was wrong on that one. Oops.)

OK, kids, i'm going to put together a bid to purchase a house in a couple of hours, so that's obviously going to reflect in this here post o' mine. C'mon, you know how things work 'round these parts by now, don't you? If not, you may really want to rethink majoring in Terrible Chrisology. Sure, the lab work seemed light at first glance, but you knew the readings were going to be killer. Plus, who could have guessed that all that nude modeling was required? What's really disappointing, though, is that your parents honestly believed this was going to be the semester you finally graduated. And now you've let them down again. i hope you are satisfied. Ass hat.

Changing topics completely, anyone out there a Gabriel Garcia Marquez fan? Specifically, have you read The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow? i cut my cuticle nearly seven hours ago, and the damn thing is still bleeding. That can't be good, can it?

Now back to the Greatest Getting Ready To Buy A House Mix You Will Ever Hear...

The Missus probably will disagree, but one of the things i'm most looking forward to regarding buying a new house is the opportunity it will allow me to have a room dedicated entirely to ninjas. While i may or may not be kidding, was your immediate reaction that such a room was incredibly cool or patently lame? Factor your geekdom quotient accordingly. One million bonus points if you're female and went with the former.

mp3: House of Flying Daggers (Raekwon ft. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah, Method Man from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt. II)

Who doesn't want their home to be a metaphor for illicit sex? Nobody. Not even your grandfather. While that's probably not the actual metaphor that Zero 7 was shooting for on this track, i stand by my initial statement.

mp3: Home (Zero 7 from When It Falls)

Good advice is good advice.

mp3: A House is Not a Home (Field Music from Tones of Town)

This is going to be the third house we've tried to purchase (first one, the preggers wife of the selling couple went hormonal and decided she didn't want to sell after all; second one, guy didn't like our bid, which was his problem, as he was approximately $100K overpriced; and now this one). Of course, we've already sold the place we live in and have to move out in a few weeks, meaning it's either moving into the Ps' basement or out on the streets if this bid doesn't happen.

mp3: Homeless (Burial from Untrue)

As long as it doesn't go as bad as this, though, i'm sure we'll be fine.

For the Record (Label): Stones Throw Records

Well, after giving props to Arts & Crafts recently, it dawned on me that maybe there were a few other labels out there that deserved similar affection. Hence, today's love fest for Stones Throw Records.

As I've mentioned lately, probably too much, I have re-fallen in love with hip hop. This is due in large part to the emergence of a new wave of MCs spitting lyrics on fresh and new topics, but possibly more importantly, some DJs that have crate digging capabilities I previously thought impossible. DOOM, Madlib, J. Dilla and cats in that vein, I'm looking in your direction. Imagine my surprise when I discovered damn near all of my favorites of today all happen to have output on the same, glorious Stones Throw Records label.

I first heard of the label when they put out Chrome Children Vol. 1, an Adult Swim mixtape that came out just after the DangerDoom collaboration. Well, that taste led me to dig deeper still, and I've been pretty addicted ever since.

Headed up by quite possibly the best named hip hopper of all-time, Peanut Butter Wolf (aka Chris Manak), the label excels at bringing tree blazing, freakalicious hip hop to the masses. Named after an inside joke, the label is based on the principle that they release music they like, the public-at-large's tastes be damned. The result typically is cosmic slop goodness, plain and simple.

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that they're not just hip hop, either, as signed artists Mayer Hawthorne and Omar Rodriguez Lopez, among others, clearly attest.

What's more, Stones Throw has to be one of the most fan friendly labels out there today. I cannot recommend enough that you sign up for the mailing list, Twitter feed and anything else they're pushing. I can't think of another label that gives away so many free goodies, from a regular podcast (sometimes samplers from upcoming albums, sometimes DJ sets that will blow your freaking mind) to mp3s to instructions on how to make your own Quasimoto Cubeecraft paper toy with brick & cigarette. Seriously, they're the label that just keeps giving (though I am devastated I didn't win these kicks).

Here's just a sampling of some of those aforementioned innumerable free mp3s I know you like so bad.

mp3: Beep 03 (Koushik from Beep Tape)

mp3: Chinatown Wars (Ghostface Killah & DOOM, produced by Oh No)

mp3: Concentrate/The Funk (Oh No from Dr. No's Ehtiopium)