Tag: "free music"

Welcome back to Mixtape Mondays. Starting this week, OurStage will be bringing you this column each and every week! That means more free music for fans, and more opportunities for independent artists to gain notoriety. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming edition of this column, or you know an OurStage artist that you feel deserves a mention, send an email to jshotwell@ourstage.com with a link to the profile and the subject “Mixtape Mondays.” We listen to everything, but are not able to reply to every submission. If you want to ensure we received your mixtape, please feel free to tweet us day or night.

This week on Mixtape Mondays we only have two new releases to discuss, but I went ahead and threw in a new single and mixture announcement to spice things up. If you were hoping for something you can play loud while the snow falls, this week is definitely for you. Continue reading ‘MIXTAPE MONDAYS: Tyga, Fat Trel, and More!’

The wait is over (and only a week overdue)!

French Montana took to DatPiff late last night to release his highly-anticipated mixtape, Mac and Cheese 3. It features guest appearances by J.Cole, Rick Ross, Diddy, Future, Mase, Fat Joe, Wale, Mac Miller, Curren$y, Tyga, Machine Gun Kelly and more. Production comes from Harry Fraud, Young Chop, Rico Love, Boi-1da and more. You can find a download link for Mac and Cheese 3 below.

We have been hyping this mixtape for a few weeks now, and I’ll tell you up front that it more than delivers on the promises of the early leaks. French is playing for keeps these days, and I wouldn’t be surprised if his 2013 label debut, Excuse My French, opened atop of the charts. Consider this mixtape primer for the takeover no one will be able to stop.

Click here to download Mac and Cheese 3.

If you enjoy French Montana, be sure to check out OS artist Jitta On the Track.

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Mixtape Mondays
Chief Keef Reveals Album Art

Welcome to the second installment of OurStage’s latest column, Mixtape Mondays! This feature runs 2-3 times a month and highlights the latest mixtape releases from hip hop artists around the world, as well as those here on OurStage. If you’re an aspiring hip hop superstar, send links to your OurStage account, as well as your latest mixtape to jshotwell@ourstage.com with the subject “Mixtape Monday Submission.”

Two weeks have passed since we last spoke and a slew of great new mixtapes have hit the market. We talked about how great the Fall has been for music in my last column, and it seems that streak may continue well into Winter. For this entry of Mixtape Mondays I have two releases to highlight, as well as some big news from an two artists you need to know before 2013 arrives.  Continue reading ‘Mixtape Mondays: LLoyd, Jitta On The Track, And More!’

Steady Skies

Steady Skies rides the line between the arena and the front porch. They’re musicians who dole out poppy hooks and plucky banjos in equal measure; a rock band that flirts with country. Start your introduction with “Remember When,” a driving melody pushed along by the deep ripple of bass, bright spears of guitars, and the slight country cadence of singer Tyler McCuen. That song’s mid-tempo musings give way to more apocalyptic imagery on the doleful “Church Bells.” “I hear church bells ringing in the city streets / Crowds of people falling on their knees,” McCuen sings over wailing guitars. If thinking about the end of the world is too much of a buzzkill, skip to “Waiting For.” There, existential anxieties—bursting dams and falling skies—are wrapped up in an ambling, country-spun melody. When in doubt, a spoonful of banjo can help the melancholy go down.

Hello Dollface

Hello Dollface hails from a small town called Durango, tucked into the southwest corner of Colorado. But they haven’t stayed put, racking up miles playing shows across Colorado, Mexico, and Arizona. Their music has the same vagabond soul — meandering between blues, jazz, and folk pop and even making its way over to Scandanavia for a tune. “Den Svenska Laten” translates to “The Swedish Song,” and, true to its name, is a Baltic waltz sung entirely in Swedish. Violin, soft percussion, and plucked strings are braided with Ashley Edwards’ husky, silky vocals. “Capital Me” is more percussive, jazzier fare with reverberating guitars, xylophone, and a strutting bass. But it’s “Great Wall” that really picks up the pace, galloping along while the violin whinnies and the xylophone twinkles. It’s a sad and hopeful little melody from a band of restless romantics. Check ‘em out.

“There’s nothing wrong with being different,” Orly Lari sings on “Wasteland” over a torrent of guitars and drums. And being different, to EarlyRise, means raging against the powers that seek to tear us down. Lari, along with co-conspirator/guitarist Raz Klinghoffer has created a leitmotif of unrest that carries over from one punishing track to the next. On “Wasteland” the bass gurgles, guitars shriek, drums thrash, and Lari’s climbing vocals offer the only succor from the storm. Every song is a battlefield. From the sinister slouch of “Become Mad” to the stuttering, crashing “Face Me,” EarlyRise delivers hard rock that’s as angsty as it is melodic. On the latter, Lari sings, “I’m not afraid anymore as I declare war.” You may as well surrender.

The City Never Sleeps

Though the members of The City Never Sleeps hail from all corners of New York state—Albany, Middletown, and Oneonta—none live in the city to which their name refers. The irony ends there, however. Musically, TCNS is all about earnestness delivered via tight, stylized songs with snap. On “Mr. Hide” a percussive bass, jutting guitars, and glossy boy-girl harmonies create a taut little rocker buffed to a shine, with a gnarly guitar solo to boot. “Return to Sender” features an exhaustive revue of guitars that stretch, scribble, grunt, and thrust all over the pop rock melody. But on “Crumble At The Fault,” the band switches things up, sewing a bit of jazz into the blissed-out ballad. Glistening guitars nip and synths sigh as singer John Glenn admits, “Sometimes I feel just fine.” We know the feeling, dude.

Hollywood Boulevard is where legends leave their names. All along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, entertainment icons share the same stretch of concrete: Michael Jackson; Diana Ross; Billy Joel. Just a stone’s throw away, an artist by the name of D. Hollywood (the “D” is for “dirty”) is plotting his own rise. A multi-instrumentalist, daredevil, and eccentric, Hollywood’s bombastic personality is inextricable from his rakish style of west coast rock. “My Name Is Love” is made up of lurching, low-throttle guitars, synths, and Hollywood’s wild child lyricism. “My name is love and I’m a liar” he sneers. Drums and vocals provide the meat of “Chutes and Ladders.” It’s lo-fi, extra dirty rock delivered in lashes. But Hollywood’s greatest moment comes in “On Fire,” an impossibly catchy anthem with big, swaggering guitars. “I’m going out tonight, gonna set the world on fire,” he promises. We believe him.

Stateside

Stateside isn’t a band for the faint of heart. Made up of Mike Tarry, Chip Su, Jeff Meiers, Phil Zepeda, and Jeff Zager, the group crafts explosive hardcore that raises the hackles. “Bridges Worth Burning” combines serrated guitars, thunderous drums, and the guttural heaving of Tarry for polyrhythmic, bipolar screamo you can feel in your solar plexus. Like singers Mike Patton and Chester Bennington, Tarry tempers his barbaric bellows with melodic, plaintive singing. On “The Eve” surging guitars and drums create a tempest over which Tarry moans, “I’m wasting away.” But things aren’t always so bleak. “Make Your Move” is a motivational anthem about the city that never sleeps wrapped up in roiling guitars and semiautomatic drums. Maybe lyrics like “Broadway’s alive and calling me home” and hardcore make strange bedfellows, but even the devil gets to take a day off.

AM to AM

AM to AM is led by Will Tendy, a guitarist/songwriter/producer/engineer who’s manned the sound board for indie luminaries like Melissa Auf der Maur and Morningwood. But his skills at the console are just one of the many reasons AM to AM sounds so good. Tendy—along with bandmates Sarah Goldstone, Jonathan Schmidt, Peter Recine, and Derek McWilliams—builds dynamic, swaggering rockers layer by layer. “Spot of Light,” with its rhythmic lashings and high falsetto soul, makes for a jagged dance party. There’s a lot going on here—stomping drums, bluesy guitars, choppy keys, and big digital swaths of fuzz. But Tendy’s production chops bring all the elements working together for the common good. “Sew” and “Outline” set forth gunfire guitars, pummeling drums, and polyrhythms for intense, stylized melees. But if you want a kinder kind of lashing, skip to “Pop As Science” and see how one of their bubblier melodies can still hurt so good.