Free Music

Album review

If you want these songs on a regular CD in a regular jewel case with artwork, you'll have to pay up and treat the title as a call to action rather than a price point. If you're content with high-bitrate MP3s, you can get them for free with some (different) printable artwork at the band's website. Giving away music intentionally is nothing new. Plenty of artists have offered free downloads before, but since Free Music is a five-song EP of new material -- as opposed to a single studio scrap, demo, or live performance -- that has generated some attention, it could have a decent-sized impact on how many previously unaware people hear 50 Foot Wave. The band has asked those who have downloaded the release to copy and share it as much as possible. It's certainly the kind of release that most fans would purchase, even though it's neither as rambunctious nor as exhausting as the band's previous two releases. Most of the songs do have the sharp, strange twists and abrupt turns that the band does so well, but the songs aren't as liable to stick to memory. The playing is tight and ferocious, as always, the sound of a band that never tires of peeling the paint off the walls of small clubs.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo