It’s Monday. The sun’s out, summer’s on the way, and another bunch of new albums have surfaced on the internet for your free streaming pleasure: life could be worse, really. As ever, we’ve collated five of the best (or, at least, the most interesting) records that are kicking around for free on the web at the moment – and if you’re good and read to the end, we promise you a link to Björk’s new single, too. Get a piece of the action after the jump.

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Back in the heady early ’00s, after the heyday of Napster and Audiogalaxy but before everyone and his kid sister had an mp3 blog, the internet was a harsh place for music lovers. But there were a few bright spots, and Epitonic was one of them. Launched in 1999, it was a free, legal source of great, new independent music. We remember making one especially wonderful mix CD (yes, this was also before everyone had an iPod) of Epitonic tunes by bands such as Call and Response, French Kicks, and Barcelona.

Now, fast forward about a decade. Today, Epitonic has relaunched, helmed by one of its founders and funded by a Kickstarter grant. Although the free-music-online landscape has certainly changed since the site went dark in 2004, the revived site already looks promising. In addition to premiering songs by some of our favorite artists — Braids, Marissa Nadler, and The Wrens, just to name a few — Epitonic has an editorial staff on hand to write articles and curate themed playlists. And they promise many more new features in the months to come. Welcome back, old friend!

With Lilith Fair suffering while Lady Gaga and Beyoncé top the charts (and rake in the cash), it’s a strange time for women in music. Perhaps to help make sense of it all, NPR has dropped “Hey Ladies,” a massive survey of female musicians and their experiences onstage and off. The entire nine-part feature is worth reading, but for those who want a taste before sifting through it all, we’ve compiled some of our favorite words of wisdom from ladies including of Montreal’s Dottie Alexander, Hannah Lew of Grass Widow, Marissa Nadler, and even the inimitable Exene Cervenka.

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2009 sometimes felt like a clash of the indie rock titans, with albums from Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, The Flaming Lips, Dirty Projectors and a slew of others already emerging as consensus picks on critics’ best-of lists. And while we were fans of most of these records, too, we were sad to see how many other great releases have failed to get their due. With that in mind, we present, in no particular order, Flavorpill’s refreshingly subjective list of the 10 most underrated albums of 2009. Use the comments to tell us which artists you think deserved more respect than they got this year.

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[Editor's note: This is the first interview from our friend Danielle Kourtesis, Music and Outreach Manager for Rooftop Films; look out for more music coverage from Danielle and the Rooftop gang when they head down to SXSW in March!]

Since releasing her first LP of home recordings in 2004, Marissa Nadler has consistently created aural landscapes we love getting lost in; thank a childhood spent hibernating from the harsh winters that plague Massachusetts. While her upcoming Kemado release Little Hells (which comes out March 3) is just as rich and moody as previous material (perhaps even more so), for her fourth studio album Nadler’s joined by a full band, giving her work added bite. After the jump, she describes how their backing power could affect her future sound, why it can suck to be a female in the music industry, and what crazy odd jobs she has taken here and there to pay the bills.

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