Marina & The Diamonds

For me the best act of this year’s Sziget Festival was definitely Marina & The Diamonds. On her 2010 tour she covered 3OH!3’s Starstrukk and subsequently offered it as a free download as a little present.

So Close

There have been several highly unpleasant experiences pouncing on me these past weeks, most of which were totally out of my control to avoid. Also - all hail Monday - they still seem steadily coming.

To make matters different this time is the fact that I know precisely what could instantly evaporate all my worries. However, if I achieve or not this said nirvana is also out of my hands (and - for now - reach).

Regardless: I will never let it go.

Sziget 2011 - Day 5

Sziget 2011 - Day 4

Sziget 2011 - Day 1

Go Radio

Go Radio is a pop-punk band from Tallahassee, Florida. They have one free download track on Last.fm, Any Other Heart. Turns out, this song was featured in Lastfmdiscover.com’s acoustic session:

Although former Mayday Parade vocalist Jason Lancaster was looking for some much needed time off and to get away from the daily grind of being in a band, he wasn’t idle very long. Jason was soon putting together and fronting Go Radio. Just after the release of the debut album Lucky Street, Jason along with Alex Reed, Matt “Burns” Poulos and Steven Kopacz stopped by for a Last.fm Discover session. Start by lsitening to the heart-wrenching story that Jason has never really told in detail behind the song “Any Other Heart”…..then witness the rest of the session at Lastfmdiscover.com

They are also found on MySpace.

Asobi Seksu

Aosbi Seksu could probably run for the Best Named Award: アソビ・セクスtranslates to ‘sex for fun’. They were introduced to me by my EU Law professor Johannes back in Japan (visiting from Germany). I almost missed their new shoegaze / dreampop album Fluorescence released in February 2011 off of which Trails is a free download:

Tribute to Nirvana's 'Nevermind'

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind SPIN magazine asked contemporary artists to cover the album’s tracks in their original order. What’s even better is that the whole shebang is free to download in exchange for an email address. The SPIN website also offers some band interviews on the subject.

Edouard AD

Not much is shared about this band (guy) and I don’t speak French to understand their (his) Facebook page. Nevertheless I find their (his) electronic music quite funny. Their (his) whole EP is free to listen & download on Last.fm and Soundcloud.

Life's Decay

This is quite a mixture of genres, mainly dark acoustic sounds with a touch of classical. What really makes it interesting is the French vocals. After all, Life’s Decay is a Paris-based duo offering several tracks as free downloads on Last.fm.

I got Inksterna (2007) in the radio but also liked Emerance (2009):