The Caterpillar

Ödland - The Caterpillar (aer018) 2009
delicate, French, acoustic, 19th century
piano, strings, ukulele, toys, female voice

"Ödland is a French folk band with a modern spirit, never slave of a particular style, but inspirited by the 19th Century. They are in love with classical music, american ragtime and romanticism. Ödland is an entirely acoustic project." -- official website

"Lorenzo Papace was born the 15th january 1986 in Lyon. He started to learn classical piano at the age of 4. Since 2001, he joined many musical groups, with an orchestra or with bands. At december 2008, he decided to make his own musical project, entirely acoustic. At january 2009, started the first Ödland group repetitions. Lorenzo called upon Alizée Bingöllü, actress, with whom he already realized some short movies. Alizée is the Ödland voice. Isabelle Royet-Journoud is a photographer, and wished to explore other creation territories. She is playing ukulele and creating sounds environments with toys and little things. Léa Bingöllü is a violonist, and was immediatly attracted by Ödland's world." -- Aerotone

"We called it The Caterpillar, which is the first song title, because we find it is a proclamation of our thoughts, and of our style. There are discontinuities in it, and very different environments. This song, as other coming, is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, in the Lewis Carroll original work. There is in these 5 tracks a lot a variations between romanticism and ragtime, and we are charmed to propose this diversity for a first production." -- myspace

free to download from Aerotone netlabel
or purchase beautiful CD package

preview music at myspace

Ödland website - Ödland myspace - Ödland on Aerotone

YouTube Music Mashup

Oh hell yes, children! Kutiman is blowing minds with his tunes composed of audio and video samples from YouTube. He has seven built, and an eighth video where he demonstrates his method. He is calling his excellent project Thru You, and you are gonna love it!

Many thanks to Steve K in the old M-D!

Open Firing on the Misunderstood Wolf

On May 4, United States government agents will be free to open fire on wolves. Not even newborn wolf pups and their nursing mothers will be spared.

Please help by sending an email to Interior Secretary Salazar through this easy contact form. While you are there, how about joining Robert Redford by becoming an NRDC BioGems Defender?

Robert Redford has long championed the cause of the wolf. Hear him on the first side of this record narrating "The Wolf You Never Knew" for the American Museum of Natural History in 1971 [320 kb/s, 32 Mb]. You can also click to hear the recording in lower quality [3.5 Mb].

Please take a moment to help save the wolves. Together we might convince the Obama administration to stop the slaughter of wolves and return our small wolf population to the status of Endangered Species. Thank you.
www.savebiogems.org/wolves/

"In 1930, a federal officer shot what was believed to be the last wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act and an ambitious reintroduction program, some 1,500 wolves have returned to the northern Rockies, and the howling wolf is once again the icon of western wilderness.

"But recently, Interior Secretary Salazar rubber-stamped a Bush-era plan to kick the wolves of the northern Rockies off the endangered species list and leave them vulnerable to mass killing. More than 600 wolves wolves could be caught in the crossfire of state-sponsored wolf hunts. NRDC is filing suit in federal court to block this disastrous policy. It’s a fight we’ve won before. In the summer of 2008, NRDC and 11 other conservation groups compelled the Bush administration to abandon its first attempt to strip wolves of their protection when we made the case that the wolves had not fully recovered.

"Over this past year, the wolf population of Yellowstone National Park declined 27 percent -- and more than 70% of wolf pups in the park died of disease. NRDC will be fighting in federal court to compel Secretary Salazar to withdraw this disastrous plan and submit it to the kind of rigorous scientific review that the Obama administration has championed on other issues." -- NRDC website

Polar Bear S.O.S.

The old regime has been escorted out, and the new one is in place. An exciting, uplifting time for most of America. Good news for most of the World.

To my fellow Americans, a toast to our future! For everyone, some American "pomp and circumstance" listening!

01. The Old Fife and Gun Corps, who led the inaugural parade, shares their entire LIVING THE TRADITION
CD (sample: "Royal American Medley" mp3)

02. The U.S. National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner"

03. USAREUR Band and Chorus Ceremonial Music Downloads (sample: "Washington Post March" mp3)

04. Recordings of The United States Military Academy Band at West Point

05. US Air Force Band Recordings

06. US Navy Band ceremonial, classical, jazz, country and sea selections

07. US Marine Band Ceremonial Music. They also led the inaugural parade. (sample: "Hail to the Chief" mp3 -- which will never be played officially for GWB again)

08. 312th Army Band with selected Honor Band Students from Kansas and Missouri with special Guest Conductor, Dr, Kirt Saville, Recorded Live, March 2, 2003 [bottom of page] (sample: "American Pageant" mp3)

09. JOHN PHILIP SOUSA MARCHES LP shared at OddioOverplay.com

10. 399th Army Band performs ceremonial songs

11. 338th U.S. Army Band performs selections

12. US Army Field Band recordings in their entirety from their Concert Band, Soldiers' Chorus, The Volunteers and The Jazz Ambassadors

13. Entire CDs from The United States Coast Guard Band

14. Music from the US Navy Band Music Program

15. Regimental Band of the US Merchant Marine Academy

16. CDs from the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own"

Throcke's Sometimes Not Unpointful CD

Great news! Throcke has released his much anticipated second CD, Sometimes Not Unpointful. The good news continues, you see, as he has once again made his music available to your ears for free. In further cool news, you can purchase your very own CDs from him as well.

Throcke is Christopher Carson of Brooklyn, New York. His music features delicate layers of his many instruments, clever electronic sounds, and field recordings of airplanes, water, elevators and birds. Working away in his studio, Throcke creates music that makes the world a better place.

Have you ever wondered about the name of Throcke? Here's the scoop!

"Throcke does not mean 'The Rock.' It's actually a nickname that dates back to 7th grade when my weird friends and I started a band called Jimmy and the Rotting Potatoes. No one was named Jimmy (well, there was an 'essence' we called Jimmy, who was responsible for lights flickering and doors suddenly opening). Anyway, we tried to come up with some ridiculous names for ourselves, like S.L.U.G., Turnip, Big Andy, RigorMortis, and Throckmorton S. Peagood XVII. What started as a joke somehow stuck and evolved into Throcke."

Christopher has been a drummer and songwriter for many bands, including Planet Nine, Hurka, Grasshopper Highway, Exit Ocean and UMAMI. He has also written scores for several short films. In fact, during the days, he edits film and video, mostly for television commercials.

His Throcke project gets most of his creative time these days -- to the good fortune of we the listeners! Enjoy his new Sometimes Not Unpointful CD, and drop some cash in his tipjar, won't you?

location: Brooklyn, NY USA
license: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Op3n.net mixtapes

Op3n.net is a mixtape netlabel exclusively using music published under Creative Commons or similar licenses.

Here are two Op3n mixes for streaming or downloading by netlabel operators we love.


Mix by Otis Fodder, creator of Comfort Stand

"Comfort Stand is considered one of the basic chapters in the undefined history of the blurry netaudio phenomena. This netlabel from Montreal is RIP since 2006, time enough for Otis Fodder, the big name after it, to pick his favourite 120 minutes from its huge catalogue and blend them together in another exclusive mixtape for op3n.net. "Comfort Stand was an active Net Label from 2003-2006 featuring artists from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States. The label's 80 albums, 16 singles, and 8 compilations remain online, with MP3s hosted by The Internet Archive."


Mix by Marco Kalnenek, creator of WM Recordings

"Squeezing almost four years of WM Recordings history into a 45 minute mix is not an easy thing to do, but hopefully this mix gives at least an impression of the broad range of releases: from weird pop tunes to electronic soundscapes, and from free improvisation to electropop. So basically, this is a rather eclectic compilation. Entertainment for the whole family!"

Roadrunner Annual Assault 2008

As we wrap up 2008, you rockers and metalheads out there want to remember to grab Roadrunner Records' annual free samplers. Rock!

Oprah's Free Holiday Compilation

Oprah Winfrey is on board with free and legal music sharing with her Holiday Hits 2008. Okay, it is Oprah, but this comp has big names on it like Aretha, Harry Connick Jr., Brian McKnight and Tony Bennett. C'mon, folks, that makes it worthwhile, right? Non-christian friends, there are some secular winter selections on there for you, too.

Everyone, this eight song CD complete with cover and CD artwork is available for only a couple of days. It is part of Oprah's Have a Thrifty Holiday special. Learn how to have the thriftiest holiday ever on her website.

Oddio Overplay, Jamendo, Internet Archive's Netlabels collection and Free Albums Galore are great places to find whole albums that you can burn to CDs and share with family and friends for the holidays. They are all free, legally shared selections.

While seriously pro FREE MUSIC, we ask you to remember the musical artists who made 2008 a wonderful year for you. Make a donation on their website or purchase their music, t-shirts and gear. Remember to share the love with those who have brought you so much joy. Also, you might add them to your Amazon.com wishlist. Have you seen their new UNIVERSAL WISH LIST feature? It is awesome! It lets you go to the websites selling music by the artists you love and add their CDs with just a click! How cool is that?

Here's to a new year of great music!

Tuesday's Dozen

First in months, here is the freshest Tuesday dozen, straight from the oven

Lilliput Orkestra Love this French jazz quartet "who plays personal compositions between jazz, rock, electronic and popular music" (MySpace) [free jazz, post rock, prog]	Droopy Contini shares 2 delicious CDs, Surpriscording (solid, straight forward, hard bop) and Strikes Back! (swinging bop) [jazz, hard bop, swing]	DIY-note - Ruptures several tracks on this warm demo from France have been favorites in our home for years, especially "El Despertar" [post-rock, acoustic rock]
James Kochalka Superstar accomplished American comic book artist and writer who is also a rock musician shares many of his tunes and ramblings [pop, rock]	MonsterK7 in French sounds like monster cassette, "a little indie label fond of beautiful musical objects," dedicated to cassette tape preservation [varied]	Un Ode au Toy Piano MonsterK7 presents an international, 19-song comp celebrating the toy piano with some real pros, such as Twink [rock, pop, post-rock, cabaret]
20 Bands in a Box La Magic Box puts together annual comps of their favorite indie artists, most from France [pop, rock, France]	Brian Ellis Trustworthy CD (2005), myspace, official site [folk, psychedelic, acoustic, electro]	A Découvrir Absolument this magazine shares their own series of comps featuring today's French artists [France, folk, pop, post-rock, electro]
French Comps 01audio-video.com offers up their series of compilations showcasing modern French artists [France, folk, pop, post-rock, electro, chanson]	Aaahh-Records little German netlabel billing itself as offering "free and charming music," and they are right! [folk, acoustic, indie, pop]	Barbagallo busy in Sicily writing and performing "indie; acoustic; low-fi... alternative; experimental; prog; alt folk" check his rearranged Satie works