We’ve talked about the Creative Commons a little bit here before and about how much we think that it’s a good idea. Well, a couple of days ago, we came across a blog that is serving up a new CC licensed song every day for a year.

The name of the project is CC:365, and just as our summary explained earlier, they are serving up a new song each day that is licensed under the Creative Commons license. For those of you who haven’t followed this, it basically allows an artist to have copyright over a song, but to grant you the listener, the right to trade it, share it and pass it along to your friends. Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m in the mood for a little chilled out electronica and luckily for me, Atomica delivers just what I needed. A beautiful down-tempo track that features an amazing female vocal floating along like a dream.  Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m feeling the mellow music today. I think it’s that the winter has now officially overstayed it’s welcome with me. Time for some warmer weather. But until then I’ve got some great tracks like Williamson’s ‘Time You’ll Never Get Back’ to fit my mellow mood. It’s an instrumental track that interweaves electronics with some beautiful guitar work. Immediately made me think of Mogwai and The Flaming Lips. The song has a nice buildup and great melody to keep it catchy and interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s been quite some time since we’ve served up a new hip-hop track. Too long really, but we’re going to make up our shortage in quantity with quality. Just check out ‘Whatever’ from Tru Ski, short for True Skills. Talk about a bangin’ track. The sound is thick and the beat is really over the top. And to top it off, this track is about the copyright issues that you run into with sampling. Read the rest of this entry »

The Grammy’s confuse me to no end. How can an album be selected for awards in 2005 and then come back around and be nominated again in 2006 for awards and win again? Albeit that it wasn’t the exact same awards, but U2 had songs off of “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” nominated in 2005. So…doesn’t it make sense to have the entire album nominated in 2005 as well? Instead it got nominated again this year, knocking out some poor blokes and racking up more metal for the ole mantle. And I am not knocking U2 mind you. I like those kids and everything Bono is doing for the world. As Pat Wilson from Weezer said, anybody who still puts that much passion into the rock music they’ve been doing for twenty-five years has my respect. I just think that system needs tweaking a wee bit. I mean giving awards for art is arbitrary anyway, so at least get it right if you are going to do it. Right?

Anyway, watching part of the Grammy’s gave me heartburn and also sparked me into finally getting around to doing this article. Because everybody…I mean everybody…whether they annoy you or whether you just can’t get enough of them…everybody loves a list. So, here’s my list of the Top 5 Albums of 2005. Relish, get pickled and enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

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Prepare to be blown away by Granian. I’m serious… you’d better get ready before you hit that ‘Listen’ or ‘Download’ button up there, because you are going to be very happy with the artist that you’ve just encountered. Granian sports a sound similar to Matchbox 20 or John Mayer, only better. Seriously. And I enjoy both of those artists as well, but Granian’s stuff is just flat out better. His vocals are strong, his arrangements are near perfect and I really can’t think of anything that I would change in this single. ‘Mark My Words’ is just so radio-ready that the fact that he hasn’t had this single worn out already over the airwaves is a crying shame (and a testament to the sad state of radio, but that’s a topic for another day). Read the rest of this entry »

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Let’s go ahead and get this stated right up front. Blackline bring the rock! And they do it with melody, they sport a HUGE sound and they have hooks to back the songs up. Also, their instruments lock in together and make their sound tight as hell. ‘Run’ is a slice of modern rock that has some similarities to bands like Nickelback, but they show their old-school metal roots a little more, along with the grunge influences as well. Check out the Ozzy influences in the chorus. They manage to take all of these different sounds though and integrate them seemlessly. You can tell by listening to this track that these guys aren’t just copying someone else’s sound. They’re taking them in and blending them into something that is their own.

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So the other day I’m browsing through some artists, trolling around on the Intarwebs trying to locate some brand spankin’ new music worthy of unleashing on the Gigatracks visitors. I happen to come across this young singer-songwriter and take a listen to one of his songs. Wow! That’s my first thought. This guy’s definitely GT material. So I’m letting the track spin and I start digging around in his bio and I find that he’s a ripe old 17! So that comes as shocker number two, since his sound is far more mature than that. Then I notice that he lives just around the corner from my house! Now if I lived in a large city, that might not come as a surprise, but I live in a very small town that is not exactly a hotbed of musical activity. We can boast that we have a yearly bluegrass festival, but don’t epect to see Alison Krauss or Nickel Creek here. Read the rest of this entry »