Music on the Cheap

Since we’re getting ready to make room for a new human life here at Rockland-Ave, we’ve been working hard to save money. Not only am I no longer lighting my cuban cigars with c-notes, I’m also finding ways to not pay huge money for music.

Low cost music doesn’t have to be bad music. Here are some albums that have freshened up the itunes library recently for zero or low dollars.

The Foxboro Hot Tubs: Stop Drop and Roll.

They are, allegedly, Green Day performing under a different name, singing surf rock songs. It certainly sounds like Green Day, and Wikipedia (source of truth on the internet) seems to confirm it.

They released an EP on their website for free, which seem to fit in nicely with my low budget musical needs. I suspect this will be a trend for bands hoping to break out (even established bands trying to break out under a different name), where the first series of songs are released online for free in order to build up some interest, and then the band makes up the difference in touring.

Radiohead: In Rainbows.

Radiohead, like Green Day, have been around for a while. To change things up, and to celebrate their own freedom from a traditional record contract, they released their most recent album online (no longer available for some reason) before it was sold in stores and said pay whatever you want.

I ended up paying about five bucks for the album and it was well worth it. It’s good work-listening music. It reminds me a lot of OK Computer, one of their earlier discs.

Ratatat: Remixes Vol 2.

Kate and I both really dug Ratatat’s last album, Classics, so I was pretty excited to hear they were releasing another remix album, and for free to boot. Lots of excellent guitar music, mixed in with hip-hop. You can download it from their website.

While Classics is excellent for the work day (and well worth paying money for), Remixes Vol 2 has some shady hip-hop lyrics throughout, so you want to keep the headphones on for that.

So, anyone out there hear anything good lately?