The popular SxSW festival is about to start, and the organization has already put out over 1000 legally-free mp3s for everyone to download. The Torrent weighs about 5.4 GBs, and it can be daunting to find out what’s good in there.

But I got your back. I spent most of the day yesterday going through these MP3s, and while I might have missed some good tracks, here are my top-50 tracks in the collection (right click to ’save as’).

1. Living Things – Oxygen
2. Scanners – Salvation
3. Glint – Freak
4. We Are Wolves – Blue
5. Hey Champ – Cold Dust Girl
6. Wiretree – Back in Town
7. Keepaway – Yellow Wings
8. Jenny Owen Youngs – Led to the Sea
9. Surfer Blood – Swim
10. Rubik – Wasteland
11. Anya Marina – All The Same To Me
12. We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices
13. Twin Tigers – Automatic
14. I am Empire – You’re a Fake
15. Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer
16. Hollerado – Fake Drugs
17. The Walkmen – In the New Year
18. The Moondoggies – Changing
19. The Low Anthem – Charlie Darwin
20. The Melismatics – Digging Deep
21. The 88 – Love Is The Thing
22. Pictureplane – Goth Star
23. Land of Talk – Some Are Lakes
24. Choir of Young Believers – Action Reaction
25. Crystal Antlers – Swollen Sky
26. Barcelona – The Takers
27. Darker My Love – Blue Day
28. Imaad Wasif – Fangs
29. Freelance Whales – Generator 2nd Floor
30. The Depreciation Guild – Dream About Me
31. Pantha du Prince – The Splendour
32. Solid Gold – Synchronize
33. Memory Tapes – Memory Tapes
34. The Mynabirds – Numbers Don’t Lie
35. The Golden Filter – Hide Me
36. Minipop – Precious
37. Superdrag – keep it close to me
38. UUVVWWZ – Berry Can
39. Ume – The Conductor
40. The Ruby Suns – Cinco
41. Vandaveer – Divide and Conquer
42. Yes Giantess – Tuff’n'Stuff
43. CFCF – Big Love
44. The Pack A.D. – Crazy
45. Dappled Cities – The Price
46. Balmorhea – Bowsprit
47. Ruby Isle – So Damn High (Will Eastman Club Edit)
48. Body Language – New Day
49. Awesome Color – Transparent
50. Woodhands – Pockets

Iceland’s Sin Fang Bous (also known for his Seabear band), is marrying folk with ’60s rhythms, and a good dose of experimental sounds in his solo album. Download “Catch the Light” for free.

I shot for TheOWLMag (by using my Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm f1.4 lens) the following interview with this fresh Bay Area band, Veil Veil Vanish, about their new album. The band, which is compared to The Cure by the media, played their CD release party in San Francisco last night — I interviewed this amazing band just before that performance. Unfortunately we could not stay for the show though.

You can freely download the two tracks heard on the video at the LA Weekly article here.

One of my favorite videographers in the Vimeo/HV20/30/40 community is Matthew Brown. He’s already very popular with videos like “GAY = SIN”, “Bloom”, “Autumn”, “Crash” and many more. Recently, Matthew was asked by well known Seattle label Sub Pop to direct a music video for one of their artists, The Album Leaf (legal free mp3 downloads here). Matthew was very kind to give me an interview about this whole experience.

1. How did the Album Leaf music video happened? Did you approach Sub Pop, or they approached you etc?

Matthew Brown: I made a random art video for my video journal on Vimeo called PETAL showcasing the tulip farms in Washington State, and the band saw and liked my style of shooting and editing and immediately wanted to do something with me. After a few months of no contact I get a message from Jimmy Lavalle (the lead singer of The Album Leaf) saying that he’s watched all my videos and really wants me to do a music video for his upcoming album. The next thing I know, Sub Pop Records says hello.

2. How was the idea for the music video evolved? Did you story board, or you filmed in a free flow way that you put together later?

Matthew Brown: When Sub Pop contacted me, they basically gave me a budget and wanted to have something within two weeks or so. I had a nice conversation with Jimmy on the phone; he told me he wants four things for sure in the video…children, an elderly person, tall grass, and aerial shots (which were chosen because those were some things in my past videos he liked a lot). So, with the time restraint and those four items, I came up with a little idea. The evolution of the actual story and full idea came while shooting. We basically made up everything as we went. We were in the middle of one shot and said, “Wait, what if we did this?”…then that would take us to another moment of the same thinking. The ideas were definitely all over the place. We kind of knew what we were doing, but I think with the weight of the deadline on our shoulders we couldn’t really think about it, haha. I think the editing created the story for sure. It shaped it into something tangible and not too abstract…luckily. We made a simple shot list, but even that wasn’t concrete. I don’t think we even looked at the shot list after we had come up with it. It was just floating thoughts in the back of our minds. I’m a very visual thinker, so I kind of knew what felt right when we were doing it.

3. How different, if at all, is to shooting+editing an actual music video compared to your other videos?

Matthew Brown: I get the same feeling when shooting both a little fun artsy video and an actual music video. With one of my artsy videos I have more leverage to allow it to be abstract, maybe not go anywhere by the end, and with a music video (in most instances) you have to at least “go somewhere” with the concept…it’s got to hook in some way to make the viewer want to watch. My artsy videos are my way of documenting the world around me in a beautiful, emotional way. With music videos, there’s a lot of fiction being told…I think the documenting aspect has to often leave the scene and let something strange and wondrous in. To me, music videos are WAY more fun and challenging. As far as editing, the only difference would be that in music videos I’m a little more hesitant to be experimental, because as everyone knows, they call them experiments because they don’t know what is going to happen or whether or not they’ll even work.

4. What gear did you use exactly to shoot the video? Did you have a crew?

Matthew Brown: We used three cameras, a very bunch pair. The Canon 7D, the Canon HV40, and the Panasonic HVX. Unfortunately, we were only able to use the footage from the 7D and HV40 because there wasn’t enough time to gather and “convert” the footage from the HVX. I was shocked that the footage of the 7D and HV40 was very seamless through the video. I’d say it was 60% 7D footage and 40% HV40 footage. I don’t think people would be able to tell to much. We had two camera rigs for the 7D, one was the Zacuto Gunstock Shooter (that I was privileged to get from my Zacuto award last year), and then another, bigger, rig compiled of both Zacuto and Redrock parts…pretty much a shoulder mount with handle bars in front, hehe. As you can tell, I’m not a very technical person. We had a little DIY dolly with us for a couple of shots. Other then that, it was all handheld. No tripod in sight. For crew, I had the amazing Nate Miller. He’s definitely been my partner in crime on my bigger projects. He played role of cinematographer/assistant director/producer. He knows exactly what I want. Definitely my key person. We had another producer (Ian Todd) acting as the spider web connectors to keep everything together. He was doing the paperwork/emailing/phone call stuff to make sure we were actually getting things done. We had a very talented shooter with us as assistant camera (Christian Hansen) with us as well. HUGE help. During the birthday scene we had a lot of random people show up along with the actor whom I’ve never met before, so we had three coordinators and a couple production assistants.

5. What’s next for Matthew Brown, the filmmaker? Are you interested in directing an actual short movie?

Matthew Brown: Right now I am wanting to get jump started on music videos, and really hone in on my craft and grow creatively, but narrative storytelling is definitely what I’m eyeing at. I am planning a short film where we see the world through the eyes of a little autistic boy as he witnesses his family crumble around him because of his disorder. It’s a very surreal, emotional film that I don’t have funding for right now. I have been trying to raise money to make this project, but it’s been very difficult. I have a couple hundred dollars saved up from generous people so far along with bits of my paycheck, hehe. We are also currently auditioning children with autism to play the roles in the film to make it a more genuine story and to raise awareness easier by showing the true reality of the issue. For now, though, I’ll make music videos and keep experimenting and evolving into more complex and interesting currents of creativity.

Twin Tigers is a pretty interesting rock band from Georgia. Their first album, “Gray Waves”, was released yesterday via Old Flame Records. Download a free mp3 via their PR site.

Portugal The Man, the biggest band Alaska ever created, write:

“On March 2nd we will make this record available to you, press, radio, retail, etc. Nobody gets the record early; we will not be soliciting reviews, airplay or any support from the industry. It is up to you to tweet about #americanghetto or to share or to send friends to buy. If you want to write/blog/play American Ghetto, March 2nd is your opportunity. It will be the same for everyone. [...] Lets take this to the next step.“

Today, the band released their new album, “American Ghetto“. As you read above, what’s very interesting about it is that it has ZERO PR. Portugal The Man had quite some success last year, and made some money from extensive touring (apart from the fact that their van was burglarized in Spain last year with all their instruments, passports, money etc). They could easily put up the regular PR/radio push that every band does when they have a new release at hand. But Portugal The Man didn’t. For this record (and possibly their best so far), it’s ONLY up to fans to spread the word!

And what the heck can I say?

Within 5 hours of its release on iTunes, as I write this, is already in the top-10 of the Alternative iTunes Chart! Just like Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros that I blogged yesterday, Portugal The Man also have a great live show, and their music is very versatile: no one writes that kind of music. And this word of mouth, pays back eventually. But it only pays back for bands that do deserve it.

Best tracks on the album: “All My People”, “1000 Years” (at LEAST preview these two below if you don’t have much free time).

So, definitely give these guys a preview listen. They deserve it if not just for kicking the music industry’s status quo in the balls. Or, download a free track from the album.

Here’s a puzzle for you.

I have been following Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes since their album came out in Summer 2009, and continuously was looking at their iTunes charting. Bear in mind that these guys do minimal to zilch PR. And yet, their album refuses to leave the top-25 of the Alternative charts on iTunes! It never went up to the top-10 either! It wasn’t a case of being released, charting in the top-10, getting “well known”, and then being considered a great album and continuing to exist in the top-25. That was more of a case of a release that was under the radar of most people who only check out the top-10, but with enough touring and word of mouth, being able to continue selling pretty well STEADILY. Which means that the charting in the top-25 we see today is a matter of CONTINUOUS discovering by fans. Whereas other bands will see dramatic curves in their album sale charts (if you were to use Excel), Edward Sharpe ONLY has a steady line, that inclines upwards little by little.

I’m very happy about this situation because it shows that a TRULY great band requires MINIMAL PR. As long as the concerts are great (and from what Dustin was telling me today they’re amazing on stage), the music is great, their personal stories are interesting, their videos are mesmerizing, all that creates a word of mouth that produces steady sales. Not super hits, but advancing popularity, little by little. It just shows that bands with a VISION don’t need major labels. And that band does have vision, very obvious from their two latest music videos that are part of a 12-part musical.

I also would like to blog about the Broken Bells, which I streamed their album today four times already! Their album, coming out March 9th, is the perfect blend for me of indie-sounding music but with the polishing of a major label record. Think of it as a brand new Linux distro that has the great usability and looks of Mac OS X. Yeah, something like that.

If that album had come out last year, it would probably sit in the No 1 of the decade for me. That’s how much I love their tunes.

It’s been months now that we use the AppleTV exclusively as our audio server, so I wanted to report again on the topic, based on that long term usage. All I can say is this: it beats the hell out of any other system.

We have it hooked in our TV via HDMI, but we never turn ON the TV (the AppleTV must be connected to a video cable, otherwise it wont’ start up). We simply use our iPod Touch to control the Apple TV, via the “Remote Control” application, and it works a treat. Only things missing in the Remote Control application is the ability to rate new songs (but ratings already on songs are perfectly usable in smart playlists), and turning the AppleTV OFF (which can still be done blindly using the AppleTV remote control: hit twice the “menu” button, and then long press on the “play” button). A few more gripes remain, but they are not that important really.

Overall, we have found that this is the most enjoyable way to listen to music in our case, and our 85 GB of music. And given that an AppleTV costs a little over $200 these days, and most people in the our area already have either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, it makes it — by far — the best solution for music listening in the digital age.

This is a highly recommended setup.

FCC Disclaimer: Apple is not paying or asking me to write the above. It’s my own personal experience with the setup.

This is one of my favorite electro-rock bands, the Quebec-based We Are Wolves. Their new album, “Invisible Violence“, was released in the US a few days ago. Download some legal mp3s to sample their music here.

I got disappointed with LOST’s “Lighthouse” episode last night. Three reasons:

1. This episode is AGAIN about the Losties learn that they are “candidates”. The previous episode dealt with the exact same thing. I simply found the episode redundant because of this. That’s what happens if you don’t plot ALL your episodes and seasons at the very beginning and based on the story you got, and instead you have to listen to the network about “how many episodes they want this season” or “how many seasons”. In my opinion, LOST should have ended last year. The second part of the 2nd season and first part of 3rd season should have been merged. Ideally, LOST should have only been 3 seasons of ~24 episodes each.

2. So there’s a lighthouse. CLOSE to the fucking caves. That no one seen before? What type of bullshit is that? That was a total cop-out. Even the writers knew that this is a total cop-out, and that’s exactly why Jack was put to say “how come we never seen it before”, and then they had Hurley to say “I don’t know dude, maybe we weren’t looking for it before”. Total fucking cop-out.

3. And Jack has a kid in the alternative universe. Like we care. The 6th season is too late to bring such characters into the main character’s lives. Even Dogen is. He should have at least been *mentioned* in the past by Richard or Ben in order to stomach him in the 6th season. Like the bomb last year. Another such major element that should have been mentioned before the 5th season (cryptically, of course).

All that shows not poor planning, but how that industry works. Yes, the writers have written the GENERAL story of what’s going on in LOST, but not the details. The details are written when each episode is written (usually 3-5 months before the episode is aired). And that’s where the problem lies. For a show like LOST to be REALLY cohesive, everything, every important detail, had to be written by 2004 already.