Free Music Time: Second Lovers, Adam Bricks, Shellee Coley, & Linus Pauling Quartet Want to Give You Songs

We’ve gotten word recently about several musical-type things people are currently giving away for free to anyone who wants ’em, so I figured we’d run ’em down real quickly in this spot. Here goes:

SECOND LOVERS:
The “biggie” of the bunch, this one’s also kinda time-sensitive… For this weekend only, cool, melancholy indie-country-folk band {Second Lovers} is giving away their debut full-length, Wishers, Dreamers & Liars, over on their Bandcamp page. Download it now, or it’ll jump back up to regular price after the weekend’s done.

The album’s well worth checking out, mind you — when I got a hold of a copy this past summer, I was bowled over by how downcast and grim the whole thing sounds, while still remaining laidback and friendly. Check out the full review here, or just listen to it for yourself, dammit (and then download it, too):

(Oh, and you can catch the band on January 25th up at Fitzgerald’s, in the midst of their upcoming Texas tour.)

ADAM BRICKS:
Moving on to somewhat-briefer things, transplanted NYC singer/songwriter {Adam Bricks}, who for the past year or so has been making H-town his home, had put an original holiday song of his own up on his Bandcamp page.

It’s entitled “Kristmas,” and it reminds me surprisingly of The Weakerthans (or John K. Samson solo, either one), with its gritty, urban-blighted folk feel and the unmissable cold wind cutting through the words. It’s poignant and beautiful, and I’ve listened multiple times and I still can’t tell if I should feel sad or hopeful when it’s over. I’m thinking that’s a good thing. Here you go; listen & download away:

SHELLEE COLEY:
And no, when it comes to the holiday songs, Adam’s not alone. Magnolia-based singer/songwriter {Shellee Coley}‘s released her own (again, up on Bandcamp), a beautiful, glacial, delicately-moving cover of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” and holy wow, is it beautiful.

Coley’s voice meshes amazingly well with the distant-sounding, heavily-picked banjo and twinkling, rain-coming-down keys to transform the song from a bland Christmas favorite into something that sounds like it’s halfway between the Dixie Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier” and Aimee Mann; and for me, at least, that’s not a bad place to be. Check it out below:

I’d also wholeheartedly recommend checking out Coley’s most recent album, Where It Began; you can read the review of that over here…

LINUS PAULING QUARTET:
And last but definitely not least, there’s a band I’ve talked a little bit about recently, namely, the {Linus Pauling Quartet}.

I’ve ranted & raved a lot lately about the band’s badass, funny, heavy-yet-surprisingly smart stoner-rock, so I won’t get too far down that path this time; right now I just want to point you over to yet another chunk of heavy-riffage awesomeness, the official theme song to brand-new video “Assault on the Vault of the Ancient Bonglords”. It’s not on the LP4’s just-released 3-CD anthology of the same name, ironically, but can be heard in the video/promo for the anthology, and now you can own the tune itself, for free.

Take a listen, and then grab the file:

That’s all for now, y’all, and I’m beat; more soon…