10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Wire, Kristin Hersh

Share:

It’s Friday, which means that we’re watching the snow come down in New York and wishing we were in Austin, and also that it’s time for our regular roundup of new music to download for free. This week there’s a new Glass Candy track from the upcoming After Dark II compilation, along with an unreleased Kristin Hersh track from a new solo record, a taste of John Vanderslice’s David Bowie covers record, a new/old Wire track, new songs from Mudhoney and Thee Oh Sees, and a bunch of other stuff. None of this will cost you a dime, so click through and get a piece of the action!

Glass Candy — “The Possessed” (extended runway edit) Johnny Jewel’s Soundcloud is the gift that keeps on giving, and this week it’s dispensed this new Glass Candy track, which will apparently be on the upcoming Italians Do It Better compilation After Dark II. In the meantime, you can get this via RCRD LBL.

Kristin Hersh — “Wonderland” Yay for new Kristin Hersh material! This is a new song released as part of her Works in Progress series, wherein she’s releasing early copies of stuff she’s working on for an upcoming solo record: “These songs are the early recordings for a full-length solo record called Spark Meet Gasoline. Some may change before they’re done. Some may be disappeared.” Get it here. (As we reported yesterday, she’s also looking for video collaborators.)

Wire — “Love Bends” The renaissance of Wire continues apace with this track, which is apparently one of a bunch of ’70s-era songs that the band didn’t record at the time and has revisited for the upcoming album Change Becomes Us. It certainly sounds like classic Wire, and we’ll be fascinated to hear the rest of the album, which is out on March 25th via the band’s own label Pink Flag. For now, this track is available via Stereogum.

John Vanderslice — “Big Brother” We spoke to John Vanderslice about his David Bowie covers record a couple of weeks back, and we can confirm that the whole thing is pretty great. One of the tracks surfaced on Stereogum this week — there may be more to come, so watch this space ahem ahem.

Mudhoney — “I Like It Small” “I’ll take GG Allin over Long John Silver any time,” proclaims Mark Arm halfway through this track, which sounds exactly like every other Mudhoney track ever recorded — so, in other words, it’s pretty great. (It’s rather amusing that Mudhoney do the Stooges better than the Stooges do these days, too.) Get via Soundcloud.

Thee Oh Sees — “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” And speaking of bands whose output remains as reliable as ever, here’s a new track from Thee Oh Sees, which is exactly the sort of pleasantly melodic, fuzzed out garage pop with which we’ve come identify them. Bravo. Get it via Pitchfork.

Carnivores feat. Bradford Cox — “Pillow Talk” The ever-prolific Bradford Cox cannot be tamed! When he’s not making Deerhunter or Atlas Sound records, he’s guesting on other people’s songs — like this one, from Atlanta-based band Carnivores. The track has a pleasantly lo-fi charm, and can be downloaded via Aquarium Drunkard.

Halasan Bazar — “Sometimes Happy Sometimes Sad” If you’re into lo-fi, somewhat retro rock ‘n’ roll, you may well enjoy this super-catchy track from Danish flower punks Halasan Bazaar — it’s imbued with a pleasantly vintage atmosphere, without being the straight-out revivalism purveyed by some of the other ’60s-“inspired” bands kicking around at the moment. Get it via Ad Hoc.

Phantom Love — “Lotus” Ten minutes of epic, spacey, synth-driven, Carpenter-esque faux- soundtrack-y stuff? Oh, hell yes.

Cleaners from Venus — “It’s Been So Long” And finally, an unreleased track from dreadfully monikered ’80s footnotes Cleaners from Venus, which is apparently going to feature on an exhaustive box set. The song is rather endearing in a kind of sub-Tears For Fears way, and you can get it via Pitchfork.