Today we feature a number of relatively unknown bands from the Standard Recording label, a little known, small indie label with some big talent.

Up first is the band Everthus The Deadbeats, followed by the whistling, skipping melodies of Amo Joy; "King Basement" from Thunderhawk's upcoming release, VI; the alt country rock of Kentucky Nightmare; the White Stripes-sounding garage rockers, Big Big Car; and, Everything Now's semi-sordid story of life in a trailer park.

"Organic Mechanics" - Everthus The Deadbeats from John Kill & The Microscopic Lullaby

"A Regal Tomorrow" - Amo Joy from The Sane Design

"King Basement" - Thunderhawk from VI

"Caroline & I" - Kentucky Nightmare from Take Her Favour

"The Limestone Stomp" - Big Big Car from Limestone Throne/Kid Fight

"I Live in a Trailer Park" - Everything, Now! from Police! Police!

Get the Standard Recordings sampler in zip format for free, and check out the label's website.

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Labels: Indie Record Labels

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Labrador Records, is one of my favorite overseas independent record labels. Over the years, they have assembled an impressive line up of bands, including The Radio Dept, Sambassadeur, The Mary Onettes, The Legends, Club 8 and Acid House Kings.

Fast forward to right now. Labrador has released a fresh batch of superb new songs from The Radio Dept., The Mary Onettes, Pallers, The Legends, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and The Sound of Arrows. Altogether, this is some of the best indie music out right now, thanks to the smart people with very keen ears for good music at Labrador Records.

In addition to the new releases listed below, you can download a zip file of all of Labrador's free songs, stream them on LastFM and buy the albums of your favorite Labrador bands on Labrador's website. Find the release dates for the following list of new songs. Cheers to a great indie label!

"Dare" - The Mary Onettes from Dare EP
The Mary Onettes on MySpace

"David" - The Radio Dept from upcoming David EP
The Radio Dept on MySpace


"1999" - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names from #4
SKWBN on MySpace

"Humdrum" - Pallers from Humdrum EP
Pallers on MySpace

"Always The Same" - The Legends from Over and Over
The Legends on MySpace

"M.A.G.I.C." - The Sound of Arrows from M.A.G.I.C.
The Sound of Arrows on MySpace

Get more songs from the Swedish label by downloading the Labrador Spring Sample via Pirate Bay.

Labels: Indie Record Labels, MP3s

Seattle's Barsuk Records is the mother label of indie bands like Ra Ra Riot, Death Cab for Cutie, Mates of State, Rilo Kiley, Nada Surf and The Long Winters, and the list goes on. From time to time, we like to give shout-outs to record labels that we like - so cheers to Barsuk!

The cleanly designed site features MP3s, albums, artist profiles and more, including a Flash rendition of the Barsuk Records Songwriters Show from April 2005 featuring Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, John Roderick of The Long Winters, John Vanderslice and Jesse Skyes.

"November Was White, December Was Grey" - Say Hi from new release Ohhs and Ahhs
"Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab for Cutie from 2005 release Plans
"See These Bones" - Nada Surf from 2008 release Lucky

Check out more free MP3s of artists in the Barsuk Records line-up and get some of the albums to hear all of the great songs from your favorites.

Labels: Anti-Flag MP3s, Barsuk Records, Death Cab For Cutie, Indie Record Labels, Nada Surf, Say Hi

A number of musicians and bands contributed to this free MP3 album download available from Asthmatic Kitty Records, a label that has produced favorite indie artists like Sufjan Stevens and Half Handed Cloud.

The album mainly consists of various remixes of the I Heart Lung's song "Interoceans" from artists like SugarLoaf, Strategy and Omid.

Download Interoceans from Asthmatic Kitty Records. You can also stream the album and buy the original from I Heart Lungs.

In case you missed...

IRC's first installment of the PlayThis! Indie MP3 Playlist series featuring MP3s with the word 'summer' in them from artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Convenience, Belle & Sebastian, Pavement, Queens of the Stone Age, The Kinks, Grandaddy and Beck.

Labels: Asthmatic Kitty Records, Indie Record Labels, MP3 Indie Albums

There are few things more enjoyable regarding online music experiences then to discover a great record label that you didn't already know of. This month's indie label honor goes to Dead Oceans Records.

The label is based in Austin, one of the country's top indie/alternative rock cities, where each year two of the music industry's biggest events - the South-by-Southwest Conference and the Austin City Limits Music and Arts Festival - are held. Smart place to start a record label if you don't mind the Texan heat.

Dead Oceans has a great line-up for a relatively small and new label, including indie and alternative rock bands like Explorers Club, Bishop Allen, White Hinterland, The Bower Birds and Evangelicals.

The label has just released The Explorer's Club new debut album, Freedom Wind. This is an interesting album and definitely worth a try, especially if you enjoy the following free track from the album.

MP3: Do You Love Me - Explorers Club

You can purchase Freedom Wind at from Dead Oceans

MP3: Skeleton - Evangelicals

Another recent release from the Dead Oceans indie record label worthy of checking out comes from The Bower Birds. This is a new and pleasant discovery here at IRC. Many fans are enticed by the band's Middle-Eastern influenced tracks that are adeptly mixed with a kind of indie rock that is rarely heard.

The band's song "In Our Talons" embodies this ecelectic offering of influences on The Bower Birds sound.

MP3: In Our Talons - The Bower Birds

View amazing artistic, albeit low budget, music video for "In Our Talons" featured on MTV2 and YouTube.

Canadian Director Alan Poon describes the making of the video to subterraneanblog:

"The images were created by taking individual snapshots of each animal in each position [for] approximately 5 seconds...per day...features three different nature vignettes - a crow (we think), a pair of preying mantises and a crab - and there are three members of Bowerbirds."

In a way coming upon the Dead Oceans Record label was a bit jarring and coincidental for me . Only two days earlier, I had heard a report on NPR about "dead ocean zones" increasing worldwide. The dead zones, a major concern of enviornmentalists and governments worldwide, are growing at an alarming rate worldwide.

The dead ocean zones take over when high concentrations of oxygen-sucking algae form at the mouths of major rivers. Fertilizer run-off from farms flow into streams and then major rivers where they amass in piles, choking the ocean zone's oxygen and killing marine life.

In places like Florida, Japan and Europe, there have been an alarming increase in the number and size of dead ocean zones during the past four decades. Marine environmentalists and oceanographers around the globe say that dead ocean zones are the greatest threat to the world's already threatened oceans.

Hopefully bringing this issue to your attention might get a few people to write their Congressional representatives (it's our democracy if we want to take it).

Labels: Dead Oceans, Indie Record Labels, MP3s

Matador Records has updated its tour dates for November and December bookings. They include new dates for popular artists Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, The New Pornographers, Chavez, Dead Meadow and Pretty Girls Make Graves.

Labels: Indie Record Labels