free audio books - classic literature that you should read or at least listen to

Free Classic Audio Books
Digital Narration for the 21st Century

About 60 different books in MP3 and M4B format (iTunes/iPod - so you can put them in the audiobooks tab and use bookmarks). Click here to find the books.

WWII audio collections

World War II audio collections: (what more could I say that would be profound?)


Pre-war music about the war

1941-1944 speeches and news

Pearl Harbor in music

Radio Coverage from Pearl Harbor

Patriotic Music from WWI

Excellent collection from the early 1900's. Not easy to just click and get them all but worth a little time if you are into historically significant audio. Find it here.

mashups - combining one song with another

2700+ mashups (combinations of two songs) available for your immediate perusal. Click here to get started.

I am not a huge fan of this genre but I find the Beatles mashups interesting.

Hungary - Nomada/various artists mixtape

Various Artists - Hungary Creative Commons Mix

I really can't tell what the actual title of this cd is supposed to be but I can tell you that it is a pretty groovy set of tunes with a lot of gypsy influence and a little rock.

Musopen - public domain classical

There aren't a lot of complete albums here and it kind of looks like a site in it's infancy but I wanted to at least mention the site. Hundreds of great classical tracks by all the classic composers (that is why it is public domain music dummy!). Click here for the homepage.

Music about the atomic bomb???

Political propaganda songs were really nothing new in the mid 40's as they had been around nearly as long as politics itself. But when 'the' bomb was unleashed upon the world a new genre was created - Music About the Atomic Bomb. Twenty-one songs from 1944-1964 are highlighted here.

the good kind of CAR CRASH

Car Crash - Et Le Silence Est Entendu

Damn! There is a lot of really great stuff on Jamendo. Here is one that I just found, excellent indie pop/emo type music. Lots of raging guitar and emotionally charged vocals. This one comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

You know, the guy from A CHRISTMAS STORY

Jean Shepherd (Ralphie in 'A Christmas Story', not the actor but the person of which the movie was based - and also the narrator) had a popular radio show on WOR in New York city in the 60's and if one searches hard enough many of these shows still exist in mp3 format. A lot of the material is dated but if you are lucky you just might get to hear one of stories that went in to the making of the movie. Here is the story of the pink bunny slippers.

podcast - normally updated once per week

Science Fiction and Old-Time Radio

Science fiction was not exactly well represented when it came to old time radio but two of the series that did last for a while were really quite good. Maybe this was because they used some of the top author's short stories of the day and then they didn't muck with the stories? (hint hint Hollywood)

Dimension X was first and X-Minus One continued the same format.

Rusted Root at the internet archive

Rusted Root - July 14, 2006


Let's call it the 'Phil Collins effect.' Whenever you start doing songs on soundtracks for animated kid's movies you instantly suck. Ok, so maybe Phil sucked for a lot longer but I used to think he was decent in the late 70's. At any rate Rusted Root did a song for Ice Age, I don't know if they did it for the movie or it was just on the soundtrack but I was worried. Thankfully they still rock and put on a great show. In the jam-band vein of things they let you record and do what you wish with their shows. Many of them are posted on archive.org in various formats (flac, ogg vorbis and mp3 to name a few). Highly recommended if you like rock mixed with a little world music and thrown into a jam-band blender.

Halloween in January.. sure why not

Calling All Fiends - Various Artists
Halloween 2006

An excellent halloween comp from our friends at oddio overplay.

78 RPM Collection at the Internet Archive

This one might be somewhat of a stretch as it seems that not many people are interested in 'old' music these days but I highly recommend a trip to the internet archive's 78 RPM collection.

If nothing else you will get to listen to some musical history. I recommend starting at the Al Jolson collection or with the novelty records from the collected works of Benny Bell (the song Shaving Cream is played on the Dr. Demento show quite frequently).

(You don't know what a 78 RPM is? It was the predecessor to the vinyl LP. You don't know what an LP is? Yikes...)

KEXP - Seattle radio/podcasts

I am partial to almost anything musical from the great northwest (Nirvana, Sub-Pop, Pearl Jam, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Kill Rock Stars, etc.) so I really get a thrill listening to some of these podcasts. My favorite is probably Music That Matters which plays a mix of local and non-local acts - I always discover a few new must-listen artists when I listen (lately it has been the Murder City Devils). And don't miss Live Performances, a collection of in-studio recordings of nationally recognized bands (mostly 'indie').

kexp.org

365 Days is back!!!

Hooray for WFMU! They are helping Otis Fodder revive his excellent 365 days project. This project involves the daily posting of some strange, bizarre, obscure, and all-out weird track and goes on for 365 days (duh!). Otis funded this one himself four years ago and I have an excellent set of cd's to show for it, along with some great commentary and artwork. Highly recommended!

Already this year we have seen Leif Garrett, Dudley Moore, The Mechanical Man, and to celebrate the return of this series, the first day saw the complete posting of TWO albums:

Michael Mills - Hidden and Satanic Messages In Rock Music
Beatles Forever - an ABC television special from 1977.

Garage, Psychedelic, Punk, Rock, Monster-Movies and every other form of 'primitive rock-n-roll' delivered in podcast form. At least ten shows a week and all good....

website
podcast

Madame Blavatsky Overdrive - Idiot Jones Will Have His Day

I can't lift any graphics from their web page because it's all in flash and I am not that smart (actually I AM that smart but I am also that lazy).

This album is really cool - throw in every 60's and 70's english rock band and mix it up with a little grunge/early 90's alternative and then you get it.

(the picture on the left is Madame Blavatasky, the person, not the band. I don't know who she is either.)

Taj Mahal Travellers - Badongo

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS
live Stockholm July, 1971


experimental Japanese band captured live in concert (posted on the insurrection axe blog). lots of weird sounds with an asian undertone. recommended if you like them really weird.

download is in two parts. part 1 part 2

late 60's pop-psych gem

Zen - Hair

Excellent 'period piece' sounds totally dated but that is good if you like this kind of stuff. Lots of swirling guitars, sitars, and 60's harmonized vocals.

Get it here.


(posted on the Pepsonic Blue Music blog)

WFMU - why can't WE have a public radio station like this one?

WFMU is a public radio station in New York. But they aren't like most public radio stations, at least not like most that I have heard. I like NPR and classical music but I also like some variety, and variety is what WFMU can offer. Tune in live or pick some podcasts to listen to on your MP3 player.

Some recommended podcasts:

Thomas Edison's Attic - old Edison cylinders (by old I mean sometimes late 1800's!)
Coffee 2 Go With Noah - underground hip-hop
Phuj Factory - Weird and ecclectic mix every week

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Ruined

Hippocamp Ruins Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Ruined

This one is a bit out there. A noise/trip-hop/dub tribute album to (what else?) the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There is very little real semblance to the actual album (unlike William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy's version which have no actual resemblance to the album!)

Return of the Jamendo

All the Living and the Dead - In the Moon

Indie-pop with a psychedelic twist, female singer Virginie Lamy has a haunting melodic voice that must be heard (similar to Chan in Cat Power I think).

Beatles + Metallica = Beatallica ???

Beatallica - Garage Days Night

Funny (and, strangely enough, kind of good) album full of such classics as Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath pub band, Everybody's Got A Ticket To Ride Except For Me And My Lightning, and ...And Justice For All My Loving.

You can also get the entire album, Beatallica here.

Jamendo Strikes Back

the home phonema - time to think

another uncovered indie-pop gem from Jamendo. sounds a lot like late 80's post-punk with a little jazz thrown in (a la the chili peppers).

you need bittorrent to get this one but it is worth it...

Download millions of songs in ANY genre

The 'good old days' (1999 or so) of thousands of audio streams by amateurs such as myself are long since past but there are still thousands of audio streams in virtually any genre that you can capture one song at a time and even label. One program that I have used is Stationripper. The free version allows you to 'rip' up to two streams at a time.

Stations that I recommend:

Beyond the Beat Generation - gigantic playlist of psyche/garage tunes - stream

Soma.fm - nice selection of 'indie' tunes - stream

Flashback Alternatives - 80's new-wave and punk with a little pop that you can delete - stream

Historical speeches and other stuff (US centric)

I said that I was going to help you fill your iPod but I didn't say with what! This one is off the beaten path just a bit, click here for hundreds of historical audio speeches and news reports.

Hear Babe Ruth's farewell address, FDR's declaration of war against Japan, Apollo 13 notifying Houston about a problem, and many more.

Some more Jamendo goodness...

the precious band - baroque ep

Absolutely wonderful poppy psychedelic EP. It's only four songs and about 16 minutes long but I was blown away. Very indie-centric.

Another uncovered Jamendo gem that you are going to need bittorrent to get.

polarsun -

nice find from another blog (freealbums.blogsome.com)

some nice melodic indie rock in the vein of apples in stereo, built to spill.

click here to download two albums.