Illustration by Johnnie Cluney

Last April, before he formed Hospital Ships, singer/songwriter Jordan Geiger recorded four songs at Futureappletree Studio 1 with his previous outfit Minus Story, and as of December 12th those songs can be downloaded from Daytrotter.com for free. Just another free music tip from your team here at The Rathaus.

Looking for even more free music? Checkout the Daytrotter site for an archive full of recordings by hundreds of other artists.

Daytrotter is the website for Futureappletree Studio 1, a recording studio in Rock Island, IL dedicated to capturing intimate performances by some of the top indie musicians working today.

posted by: Harold Johns III

To help clench his victory in the 2002 Illinois gubernatorial election, Rod Blagojevich vowed to eliminate the sort of political corruption that has plagued his state’s government for years. Jump to Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 and Gov. Rob Blagojevich (D) is now being arrested for, among other things, attempting to sell Barrack Obama’s open senate seat to the highest bidder. David of the Chicago, IL indie-pop band Bird Names wrote an album for and about the now infamous governor entitled “For The Love of Rod” and has made it available to the public.

It’s probably best if we let David explain the project:

“In may 2005 I quit my job working at a hotel and immediately wrote a short album about and for the Illinois state governor, Rod Blagojevich. Inside three days I completed the album (with help from Naomi of Bird Names) and mailed it to him with a letter.

The letter explained that I understood that we (Rod and I) had a complicated relationship but that he (Rod) did not know this (since he was busy with other stuff) and so I would sing our relationship to him. I was pretty amped to get the music to him as fast as possible, that he should know disturbingly quickly such inspiration as he made in me.

The letter explained each song to him (especially the closing “The Great Rod Inside,” which talks about him being governor of heaven someday, because I didn’t want to get arrested or put on some list) and the music, if crude and novel, was sentimental and extremely sympathetic.

I received no response.

Today Rod was arrested for a list of things that an evil cartoon governor would do (i.e., trying to sell Obama’s senate seat). Blagojevich has been a man of rich mythic textuality. I knew little about him then except (mostly) for this weird resonance that i think people can still really feel.

I want to give to you today this album, For the Love of Rod. I’m not proud of it musically, but I think we would all do well to remember the man and governor he was once imagined to be.”

Rods Theme

Ride Rod Ride

We Toast the Govs Hair

Sadie Hawkins Dance

Rod at Leisure

The Great Rod Inside

posted by: Harold Johns III

Free music is something we have grown accustomed to in a post-Napster world. Peer-to-peer networks like BitTorrent and Gnutella continue to help millions of people download free music every day. However, doing so is technically illegal, could lead to a lawsuit, and ultimately takes money from the artists who made the music.

WFMU, a renowned freeform radio station out of New York, has the perfect compromise for those still want free music but with none of the guilt. This December, thanks to a grant from the New York State Music Fund, WFMU will unveil the Free Music Archive. “An online digital library of music that will allow music fans, webcasters and podcasters to listen, download, and stream for free, with no restrictions, registration or fees. And it will all be legal.”

Inspired by Creative Commons and open-source software, the Free Music Archive utilizes special copyright licenses that allow musicians to waive some of their rights to the public while still retaining ownership of their work.

As a preview, WFMU has already selected 40 tracks by artists like Silver Jews, Vivian Girls, and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti from their Free Music Archive, repackaged them into two sampler cds, and made them available on their website as free downloads.

What could be better than free, legal music?

posted by: Brent Carter