LA's art rock band, Grouplove, will be featured in an upcoming Bands to Watch post.
“Colours” – Grouplove from Grouplove EP
Whether or not you were at SXSW 2011, you may have noticed that we have been posting extensive playlist mixes featuring more than 200 great songs from artists and bands who performed at SXSW during the past week. Some of the bands we highlighted were “indie” favorites of ours, and many others, and a good number were bands that were “new to us.” In fact, stay tuned, next week we’re going to start a new playlist mix called ‘New To Us: Great Songs from Bands We Hadn’t Heard Before.’ Chances are that if you download all of the free samplers and MP3 mixes outlined below, you’re bound to come across some fine bands and artists that are new to you.
“Floating Vibes” – Surfer Blood from Astro Coast
We pretty much learned of most of our recent new-to-us artists by listening to pre-SXSW playlists from a variety of websites and sources, plus about 10 free SXSW 2011 samplers that we’ve collected and organized here for you to pick and choose which you’re most interested in. For some of the Amazon free samplers, you’ll need to sign up for a free Amazon account if you don’t already have one; but it’s well worth the two minutes it takes for oodles of music from talented artists and bands.
Free SXSW 2011 MP3 Samplers
- Blockbuster sampler from Spinner features more than 200 MP3 singles from bands appearing at 2011 SXSW. Comes in four zip files; likely not to be available for long.
Free Official SXSW 2011 iTunes Sampler: Featuring 21 free tracks from Bright Eyes, Brother, The Civil Wars, Foster The People, Glasser, Lucinda Williams, The Vaccines, Toro Y Moi and more.
- Download a free 29-track sampler from Tunecore, Experience Austin featuring Bareface, Carnivores, Art of Shooting, Sun Hote, Scattered Trees, Dead Models, Thieving Irons, among others.
SXSW 2011 Live Sampler via iTunes: That was fast. Download for free dozens and dozens of live MP3s of performances at last week’s SXSW featuring bands like Beach Fossils, Dom, Neon Tree, Glasser, The Civil Wars and many others.
- The NPR team going to SXSW put the “Austin 100,” their must-see artists for SXSW 2011, and included 43 MP3 links from Yuck, Great Lake Swimmers, Damien Jurado, The Dodos and more.
– Austin Town Hall Sampler SXSW 2011: Featuring 27 Free MP3s from artists like Beach Fossils, Blair, Chikita Violenta, Cloud Nothings, Everyone Everywhere, MiniBoone and others.
- Better Propaganda Sampler for SXSW 2011: Listen and download approximately 50 free tracks with artists ranging from A Classic Education to The Black Angels and Wye Oak to Portugal. The Man, to name just a few.
Emusic SXSW 2011 Sampler: Download a free six-track sampler with songs from Obits, Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Ty Seagull and more.
– Bloodshot Records SXSW 2011 Sampler: Featuring 8 free tracks from Eddie Spaghetti, Ha Ha Tonka, The Silos, Ben Weaver and The Waco Brothers and others.
Raw, lo-fi ’60’s rock sound has made The Strange Boys a Band to Watch
– Tunecore’s Experience Austin SXSW 2011 Sampler: Download 29 free songs from bands like The Strange Boys, Bright Eyes, Natural Child, The Dodos, and many others.
– Dirtnap Records SXSW Sampler: Featuring 10 free MP3s White Wires, Mind Spiders and High Tension Wires.
– Don’t Mess With Texas SXSW 2011 Sampler: Featuring The Black Angels, Charles Bradley, The Generationals, Braids, Say Hi, Menomena, Surfer Blood, The Dodos, among others.
Filter Magazine’s 2011 South By Southwest Sampler : Includes tracks from SXSW 2011 bands like Royal Bangs, Datarock, Phantogram, Maps & Atlases, The Black Atlantic and others for a total of 20 free tracks.
Rethink Pop Music SXSW 2011 Sampler: Featuring The Armchairs, Dinosaur Bones, Man on Earth, Sun Hotel, Hollis Brown and and many others.
– Ioda SXSW 2011 Opening Day Bash Sampler: Featuring Gold Panda, Beach Fossils, Typhoon, Weekend, Fredrik, Geographer and others.
– Nail 2011 SXSW 2011 Sampler: Featuring Stereo Is A Lie, New Roman Times, El Da Sensi & The Returners and Quick & Easy Boys.
– New Granada Records SXSW 2011 Sampler: Featuring Little Baby Pines, VCR, Okay, Green Eyes, His Little Head, and others.
Yuck took time out from their busy schedule to perform for a KEXP session at Johnny’s Bike Shop in Austin during last week’s SXSW 2011. He’s probably sick of hearing it, but frontman Daniel Blumberg, at times, has a striking resemblance to a young Bob Dylan. Also, watch Yuck’s live set for NPR at SXSW.
“Forget” – Daniel Blumberg’ solo debut under the moniker Oupa. An EP is expected in June.
As with Grouplove, LA's Generationals, another big draw at SXSW, will be featured in an upcoming Bands to Watch post
IRC’s Free SXSW 2011 MP3 Bonanza
Get over 150 tracks from some of the best veteran and new SXSW bands and artists that we highlighted largely according to the recommended showcases that we featured last week during SXSW. With just a couple of exceptions, all of the tracks are from showcase bands that were part of official night-time SXSW events. We did not have time, unfortunately, to profile and include tracks from bands that were either scheduled for day-time showcases, or that were not part of an official SXSW event. In order to do that, it would take many days, if not weeks, to put it all together. After all, there were nearly 2,000 artists and bands that performed at SXSW 2011. Enjoy.
Fresh Tracks from SXSW Bands : Newly released songs from SXSW bands like The Strokes, Yuck, Generationals, Natural Child, The Strange Boys, Guards and more.
Listen to IRC Band to Watch in 2011 Yuck’s SXSW performance for NPR
Best SXSW Band Showcases Mix I – A Mammoth Playlist Mix with 75+ tracks from bands like Okkervil River, Submarines, Beach Fossils, Generationals, The Dodos, The Joy Formidable, and many other praised SXSW artists and bands.
Fang Island was one of the big buzz bands at SXSW 2011
Best SXSW Band Showcases Mix, Vol. II – Kurt Vile, Bright Eyes, Fang Island, Jonquil, White Wires, Neon Trees, Family Of The Year and many more.
WXRT SXSW 2011 Sampler: Download, in three parts, more than 100 free MP3s from bands like Black Lips, Cloud Nothings, Cold War Kids, Deer Tick, Holiday Shores, Maritime, Josh Ritter, John Vanderslice, Paleo, The Raveonettes, Wye Oak and many others.
Note: You might also want to check back on this page in the next couple of days, as we will be adding more SXSW samplers and mixes as they come in or when we come across them in our post-SXSW reading – the wealth of reviews, videos, photos, music and accounts is overwhelming. Also, while we are on the subject, we should tell you that we regularly update posts after they have been published, sort of like a Wiki. In fact, at some point in the future, one of our goals is to actually create a separate wiki for Indie Rock Cafe so that you, and anyone else, can contribute relevant, useful and interesting information and media.
