popwreckoning

Merry Christmas or Happy Festivus or Happy whatever spelling of Channakuh you choose. No matter what you celebrate this holiday season, we hope everyone can find a free free (and legal) music downloads an agreeable gift.

• Fitz and the Tantrums are giving away Songs for a Break Up Volume I until the end of the year. Go here to download.

• Relient K are giving away their holiday tune “I Celebrate the Day” on Amazon. The song is off their 2008 release, Let It Snow Baby…Let It Reindeer. The album is also onsale at Amazon for $5.

• Peter Bradley Adams is giving away a special EP with songs from each of his three albums here.
• The Cribs – the group so good they got Johnny Marr to defect away from Modest Mouse and join them are offering up single “Cheat on Me” via Twitter. Check out how to do the tweet here.
• Anni Rossi has an entire Christmas EP available here. You just need to sign up for the mailing list.
• Sam Phillips is offering “It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas”for download here.
• Bear Ceuse is giving away “Mad As a Lion” at the top of his blog.
• On Amazon.com, there is a free download from Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas. Go here to get “Christmas with a Monkey.”
• Download Middle Distance Runner‘s new song, “Holiday (Be Good To Me).”  By right-clicking and saving here. The guys explain, “It’s a happy little ditty about all of the things we hope don’t go wrong this time of year.”

When I went to the Jackpot Saloon for the national Lights tour, I didn’t know I would come away discovering one of my new favorite local Kansas City/Lawrence artists.

Katlyn Conroy opened and if I didn’t repeatedly confirm that she was a local Lawrencian with my roommate, I would have assumed she was yet another amazing piano singer from California discovered by the Hotel Cafe crew.

When she announced an Anni Rossi cover – an artist I’ve never been able to buy into the hype for – I cringed. Yet Conroy’s rendition was so pretty and (in pitch!) that I thought even Rossi might be worth another try.

Conroy’s voice is absolutely gorgeous and that’s really all you need to know to know she needs to be in your iPods asap. She is releasing a solo album in the next month, I believe, and she has music with another band called Another Holiday.

Stars of Track and Field performed through a haze of smoke and backlit lights for their first Lawrence show ever. They tried really hard to create a rock show atmosphere, but the crowd was dead. Despite the band trying to interact and get the audience clapping or dancing, people would not budge.

It wasn’t the fault of the band. They sounded great as they played through tunes off the new album and older songs – “With You” with its harmony bridge is my favorite both live and recorded…gotta love build up!

I hope they band didn’t take the crowd’s lame enthusiasm level personally, but there sarcastic comments showed them to be at least frustrated with Lawrence, which is a shame because their distorted rock tunes are exactly the type of thing that Lawrence loves. Sorry boys, but for a city with great local music, we don’t have the greatest concertgoers…something I’d like to see change.

Lights is a very bubbly keytar rocking indie pop singer. Her song, “Last Thing on Your Mind,” tipped me (and I’m sure) many off to her talent after it was used in a commercial.

For such a young singer, I’m amazed at the amount of respect and adoration her fans show her. I don’t see many 40 year olds treated the same way. I feel like each band had a completely different audience. When Lights lifted her arms wide in a slow clap, the audience did the same. They smiled, they laughed, they danced all in unison.

Lights claimed she was in a sad mood and having a rough day when she started playing, but she was all smiles for the duration of the set and call me synesthetic, but that was a smile you could even hear when she sang. It was contagious, too, and made it hard not to love her.

Katlyn Conroy: myspace
Stars of Track and Field: myspace | @ monolith 2009
Lights: website | myspace