Mongo Nation

Santo Gold, Evidence, CSS, Living Legends and more!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Need something new to listen to at your annual July 4th barbeque and hamster rodeo? Look no further than this month’s Free MP3 Download Roundup!

This month, we’ve got everything you need to look like a musical elitist in front of your lousy freeloading friends, who won’t touch the chicken wings or hot dogs, but can’t get enough of your steak and baby back ribs!

If you haven’t heard at least a couple of Santo Gold’s songs on the radio this year already, then you probably live in the boondocks or something. Her new self-titled album has at least a half-dozen epic tracks like this one, produced by a bunch of hipster producers that critics think everybody knows but no one actually does. Santogold is often compared to M.I.A. for some reason, but in actuality her songwriting is at least 1000 times better.

L.E.S.Artistes

A member of both Dilated Peoples and The Weathermen, Evidence is indie hip-hop royalty. “All Said & Done” is a dark and brooding jam that is sure to rock heads.

All Said and Done

São Paulo dance/pop/punk band CSS is one of the most exciting bands to bubble up to the surface this year. Equally at home at a rock show as in a dance club, CSS is definitely worth checking out. Their English isn’t great, but their music is!

Rat is Dead (Rage)

Beautiful songs for ugly people!

By Jeremy Azevedo

The June free MP3 roundup this month is so baddass, even Skeletor is bumpin’ it whilst chilling on Snake Mountain, plotting his latest minion dishwashing schedule or whatever the hell it is that he does when not trying to take over Eternia…

And since there is nothing more metal than a blue-skinned leather daddy with a skull for a face that sits on a thrown made of monster bones, I’d say that’s a fair endorsement of this month’s hardcore selection! (But the hipster tracks are pretty good too!)

FRENCH KICKS are so precociously indie, you’ll be surprised that they didn’t record the whole “Juno” soundtrack themsleves! These guys have great potential to be the next big indie rock success.

Abandon

Candlewax Records CEO, founder and producer BLAKE9 is well versed in old school and future school techniques, combining styles like a good bartender combines liquor, serving up a stiff glass of shut the f**k up so overrated pricks like Kanye can solemnly drink it up, knowing full well that their rhymes could be tighter…

Always Something

CLINIC has been around for awhile, and has never really achieved breakout success despite massive critical approval. That has never stopped the press from trying, though, so here goes again: Buy a goddamn Clinic album already! What’s wrong with you people?

The Witch

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New music from The Kills, Dizzee Rascal, The Sword and more!

By Jeremy Azevedo

Are you tired of letting “The Man” tell you what kind of music you should be listening to? I know I am!

So let me tell you what kind of music to listen to instead, and download these tracks right now goddamnit!

DIZZEE RASCAL’s new album, Maths & English is CraveOnline’s favorite hip-hop album of the year thus far (Even though technically it already came out a year ago in the UK). An expert blend of gangster, grime and dance, the US release comes to us with two new all-songs, courtesy of Dej Jux Records.

Where Da G’s?

THE KILLS are super hipsters, another male/female duo whose relationship to one another is the stuff of speculation, much like the White Stripes (To whom they are often compared).

Cheap and Cheerful

Remember 80s bass music? Like DJ Magic Mike and all that? COOL KIDS do. Miami Beach is a throwback 808 track that will bring a tear of nostalgia to everyone who grew up listening to 2 Live Crew and the Egyptian Lover.

Miami Beach

New music from Rocket, Lyrics Born, The Matches, more…

By Jeremy Azevedo

This month’s selection is far and away the best we’ve had to date. White-hot girl band, Rocket, heavy hitters like Lyrics Born and The Matches, and awesome new jazz-hop, nu-new wave, stoner rock and children’s rasta-metal adult contemporary bands are all represented here today.

I know, it sounds like some kind of April Fool’s prank, too good to be true. But I can assure you, everything I’ve said is 100% true. Except for that last part.

ROCKET is the hottest all-girl band in Los Angeles, and perhaps even the world at large. Mixing soda-shop pop with elements of gutter punk and glam, Rocket gets audiences jumping like no one else on the scene. And the lead singer, Lauren Rocket, plays a keytar! How F’ing cool is that?

Future Ex-Boyfriend

LYRICS BORN is one of the most exciting MCs in the game, and has been for a long time. I don’t even know who you could possibly compare him to, he’s like the only guy really doing solid funk-soul hip hop of this caliber. “I Like it I Love it” is perhaps his hottest track since 2000’s “I Changed My Mind”.

I Like it I Love It

THE MATCHES are four weird dudes that do a sort of new wave punk alternative emo rock type thing that’s sort of hard to describe. It’s not hard to recommend them, however, as the unique quality of their disparate sound is refreshing.

Wake the Sun

New music from Del, Flight of the Conchords, The Teenagers, more…

By Jeremy Azevedo

The songs featured in this month’s installment of free music downloads are particularly notable for their content. Prepare to learn about Scarlett Johansson, running this city, why you are not all that (‘cause you ain’t), getting riches, the music biz, and what time it is (it’s business time, duh).

Be sure to download them all, or I will come to your house and make you watch me eat the following kittens:

Biaje is an Oakland rapper that has been putting in work like a maniac for years now. Biaje’s hobbys include, rapping, pimp-slappin’ hos and also ghost riding the whip. Listen to his new album “The Reconstruction” or check him out live with fellow hyphy artists like E-40 and Too Short.

Damn

Dear and the Headlights is an indie rock band that came right the hell out of nowhere and got themselves signed to popular independent label Equal Vision Records. Check out their professional debut, “Small Steps, Heavy Hooves”, out now.

Run in the Front

Del is one of the coolest rappers to ever come out of Oakland. Although he is related to Ice Cube, he has not adopted his cousin’s bad habit of swearing up and down that he’s a “gangsta” and then turning right around and churning out shitty Disney family films. It’s been like 1,000 years since his last solo record, but his new album, 11th Hour, is available now on Definitive Jux Records. If you’re a real hip-hop fan, you know that this means that you are in for a treat.

Bubble Pro

Flight of the Conchords are New Zealand’s 4th best folk parody duo. Their song “Business Time” is a real knee-slapper, and a great example of what made them so popular to begin with.

Business Time

Detroit rapper Guilty Simpson finally gets his own solo album on Stones Throw Records after years of making appearances on records by top producers like J Dilla and Peanut Butter Wolf. When you listen to “Getting Riches”, you’ll wonder what took so goddamn long?! Also, I’d like to point out that the word “getting” is spelled correctly here in the song title. Proper spelling is the new intentional misspelling, I guess! It’s a crazy time we live in!

Getting Riches

Jet Lag Gemini are, sadly, not named after the N64 game “Jet Force Gemini”. They are, however, the best thing to come out of the Eastern Bloc since potted meat!

Run This City

Percee P has gone from selling CDs on the street in NY to being signed to a record deal in L.A. (on Stones Throw) and performing with The Jurrassaic 5 on songs like “No Time For Jokes” off his new album, “Perseverance”. Don’t let this information go to your head, guy that tries to sell me CDs outside of Virgin on Hollywood, lightning doesn’t strike twice.

No Time for Jokes (Madlib Remix)

Disco rock duo “Robots in Disguise” are two of the raddest female musicians to come out of the UK in quite some time. “We’re in the Music Biz” is both painfully honest and lots of fun to listen/dance/make a macaroni picture to.

We’re in the Music Biz

Not to be confused with the 1954 doo-wop group of the same name, The Teenagers are a group of French eletro-pop hipsters that are apparently obsessed with Scarlett Johansson. At least they were before she got all “Hollywood” or whatever.

Starlett Johansson

Check back next month for more of the best FREE music on the web!