The Free Christian Music Blog

Free Sampler from Bruegger’s

I’ve got a free music to share today from a very unlikely source – Bruegger’s, a bagel cafe chain.  Now, I like bagels.  I do.  Normally, I prefer them with cream cheese, but bagels and free music sounds tasty too.  Here’s the tracklist for sampler:

• House of Heroes – “Elevator”
• Seabird – “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful”
• The Almost – “Hands”
• Rachel Lampa – “Avalanche”
• Jaymes Reunion – “Fine”
• The Letter Black – “Hanging On By a Thread”
• The Wellspring – “Put Up A Fight”

It’s all great music, though I’ve never heard of The Wellspring before, and couldn’t find much about them online.  Bruegger’s is offering all six songs for free on their Facebook page, though you do need to “like” the page before you can access them.  Check it out!

-Bruegger’s on Facebook-

Update:  Bruegger’s just added House of Heroes’ “Elevator” to their list of available songs, a song I definitely recommend. 

Tags: House of Heroes, Jaymes Reunion, Rachel Lampa, Seabird, The Almost, The Letter Black, The Wellspring

God Save Us, Foolish Petty Thieves

Before I get to the free music, House of Heroes just released their brand new music video for “God Save The Foolish Kings” today, featuring guest vocals by Stephanie Smith.  The video was directed by Nathan Corrona of Dustbrand Films, who are also responsible for Sanctus Real’s “Forgiven”, Seabird’s “Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful”, Flynn Adam’s “Dishes”, and Grits’ “Fly Away”, just to name a few.  You can watch “God Save The Foolish Kings” above, or if you prefer HD, check it out on YouTube here.

Pretty sweet, huh?  Well, I’ve got even more House of Heroes goodness for you:  The band is giving away their song “Independence Day for a Petty Thief” for free through FreeHoH.com, in return for one tweet.  In keeping with the band’s apparent theme for Suburba, it’s a rockin’ song about a young thief who breaks into homes on the 4th of July while everyone is out enjoying a fireworks display.  Good song.  Enjoy!

-FreeHoH.com-

Tags: House of Heroes, Stephanie Smith

Summer Roadtrip Playlist

I love roadtrips, music, and summer.  So, with the aid of the terrific fans of TFCMB’s Facebook page fans and rad Twitter followers, I’ve combined a list of some of the best summer roadtrip songs.  For best results, listen on an open highway with the top down and the wind in your hair and a few of your best friends in the car.

• Group 1 Crew – “Live It Up”
• TobyMac – “Getaway Car”
• Newsboys – “Go”
• Whiteheart – “Convertibles”
• Johnny Cash – “I’ve Been Everywhere”
• House of Heroes – “Sooner Or Later (You’ll Want I All)”
• The Almost – “Souls on Ten”
• Relient K – “High of 75″
• Jars of Clay – “Scenic Route”
• Anberlin – “Autobahn”
• The Rocket Summer – “Hills and Valleys”
• Ruth – “Rolling With The Punches”
• Newsboys – “Wherever We Go”
• Mat Kearney – “Nothing Left To Lose”
• Capital Lights – “Mile Away”
• The Elms – “Back To Indiana”
• The Wedding – “Southside”
• Relient K – “I’m Taking You With Me”
• The Wedding – “Fireworks”
• Audio Adrenaline – “Free Ride”
• The Almost – “Free Fallin’”
• Owl City – “Sunburn”
• Relient K – “Forward Motion”
• Jonezetta – “Communicate”

Additions:

• Paper Tongues – “Ride to California”
• House of Heroes – “Mercedes Baby”
• Superchick – “Karaoke Superstars”
• TobyMac – “Boomin’”
• Hawk Nelson – “Live Life Loud”
• Stephen Curtis Chapman – “Live Out Loud”
• Hawk Nelson – “The Show”
• House of Heroes – “God Save Us the Foolish Kings”
• Mae – “Summertime”
• The O.C. Supertones – “Supertones Strike Back”
• Ruth – “Back to the Five”
• Relient K – “Chapstick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Chemistry”
• Anberlin – “True Faith”
• The Rocket Summer – “So Much Love”
• Owl City – “Cave In”
• Blood and Water – “The Government Stole My iPod”
• The Classic Crime – “Solar Powered Life”
• Number One Gun – “Forest”
• Newsboys – “Born Again”
• Rapture Ruckus – “Hold On”
• We Shot The Moon – “The Bright Side”
• Ghoti Hook – “On The Road Again”
• Audio Adrenaline – “Chevette”
• MxPx – “The Wonder Years”
• MxPx – “Southbound”
• Family Force 5 – “Ghostride the Whip”
• Leeland – “Follow You”
• Avalon – “California”
• Fireflight – “Desperate”
• Hawk Nelson – “California”
• Relient K – “Forget and Not Slow Down”
• Lecrae – “Jesus Muzik”
• Owl City – “Tip of the Iceburg”
• Lost Ocean – “Just Glide”
• RED – “Hide”
• House of Heroes – “Code Name: Raven”
• The Fold – “Backseat Drivers”
• Mainstay – “Roads”
• Group 1 Crew – “Movin’”
• TobyMac – “Ignition”
• Thousand Foot Krutch – “Forward Motion”
• Switchfoot – “Mess of Me”
• Skillet – “Awake and Alive”
• Kutless – “Tonight”
• The Almost – “Hands”
• Decyfer Down – “Crash”
• Krystal Meyers – “Feels So Right”
• Switchfoot – “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine”
• Relient K – “High of 75″
• Stellar Kart – “Student Driver”

Well, there you have it.  Am I missing anything obvious?  What would you pick?

Tags: Anberlin, Audio Adrenaline, Capital Lights, Group 1 Crew, House of Heroes, Jars of Clay, Johnny Cash, Mat Kearney, Newsboys, Paper Tongues, Ruth, The Almost, the Elms, The Rocket Summer, The Wedding, TobyMac, White Heart

Free Sampler from Uprising Festival

I’m very excited to be writing this post.  After all, it’s not everyday I get to announce something that I discovered that features several rare songs, and the fact that it’s been available for years and yet missed by hundreds of people makes this extra sweet.  What is it?  Well, many of you have probably seen this post before, or come across the sampler from Uprising Festival at some point or another.  The 4-song sampler from Purevolume has been around for a long time.

But wait, that last sentence wasn’t completely true.  You see, it’s not a 4-song sampler at all — it’s actually a 15 song sampler!  One day, I was remembering how I had previously found rare free songs from My Epic, Before Their Eyes, and Blessed By A Broken Heart on Purevolume by looking under the “Albums” page on their profile.  I randomly decided to try it on the Uprising Festival sampler, and to my surprise, discovered these free songs:

• Relient K – “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been”
• Starflyer 59 – “Easy Street”
• House of Heroes – “Invisible Hook”
• Toyko Rose – “Spectacle”
• OneRepublic – “Apologize”
• Cool Hand Luke – “The Foster”
• Goodbye Tomorrow – “Carouseling”
• Hundred Year Storm – “Yesterday We Had It All”
• Melee – “Perfect Mess”
• My American Heart – “Poison”
• Brandtson – “Nobody Dances Anymore”
• Waking Ashland – “Julian”
• Copeland – “Pin Your Wings”
• Mae – “Anything”
• Dustin Kensrue – “Folk Song”

Here’s where things get a little complicated:  Of those 15 artists, I know for sure that Relient K, Cool Hand Luke, House of Heroes, Copeland, Dustin Kensrue, Hundred Year Storm, and Starflyer 59 are Christian bands.  I’m also fairly certain that Waking Ashland is.  Mae may or may not be, I’m really not sure.  Then there’s Brandtson, My American Heart, Melee, Goodbye Tomorrow, and Toyko Rose, none of whom I’d heard of before, but based on my research, I’d say they aren’t.  Finally, there’s OneRepublic.  I’ve heard they’ve had some connections with Christian music over the years, but I’m not sure of the details, and at present, I’d classify them as a mainstream band.

Next, there’s another matter to look into, the songs themselves.  I haven’t been able to listen and compare all of the songs, but it sounds like many of the songs are demos, alternate versions, or rare songs.  I know Dustin Kensrue’s track “Folk Song” is a rare acousic live song, and that Copeland’s “Pin Your Wings” seems awfully soft.  Also, I know that the version of “Apologize” by OneRepublic is a good 30 seconds shorter then version that’s currently available on AmazonMP3, which leads me to wonder if this could possibly be an early version of the song.  Incidentally, I think this is the only song I’ve ever mentioned on TFCMB that’s a former #1 hit on the pop charts.  Interesting stuff for sure.

One more thing I should mention in relation to the songs, when I checked it tonight, Hundred Year Storm’s “Yesterday We Had It All” download wasn’t working.  It could be a temporary problem, or a broken link, but, since you can download the same song for free here, it’s really no problem either way.

To download the songs, all you need to do is visit the Uprising Fest Purevolume page and click on the “Albums” link.  Then, visit the albums you’re interested in and download the .mp3s.  Enjoy!

-Uprising Fest on Purevolume-

One more thing — I know the Uprising Festival Purevolume profile looks rather fan-made, and the reason for that is Purevolume has made several updates since it was first released, and it hasn’t been updated for them.  So don’t worry, it’s legit.

Tags: Brandtson, Cool Hand Luke, Copeland, Dustin Kensrue, Goodbye Tomorrow, House of Heroes, Hundred Year Storm, Mae, My American Heart, OneRepublic, Relient K, Starflyer 59, Toyko Rose

Announcing The 2009 Free Christian Music Awards Winners

It’s time!  The votes are all in, and it’s time to announce the winners in the first annual Free Christian Music Awards!  You helped picked the nominees, and you voted on the winners – so read on to find out how your favorites did!

Free Song of the Year:

1. Switchfoot – “Mess of Me”
2. Owl City – “Fireflies”
3. Tie: Thousand Foot Krutch – “Bring Me to Life” / Relient K – “Forget and Not Slow Down”

With 41% of the vote, Switchfoot is clear winner in free song of the year, which really isn’t a surprise – Switchfoot’s dedicated fans gave “Mess of Me” a lead from the start, and the fact that it was a radio smash for the band didn’t hurt any.  Taking second place with 34% of the vote, Owl City’s wonderfully-popular “Fireflies”, followed by a surprise tie for third between Thousand Foot Krutch & Relient K.

Free Album of the Year:

1. We Shot The Moon – “Fear and Love”
2. Esterlyn – “Lamps”
3. MercyMe – “10 Live”

The award for “Free Album of the Year” was the closest of all the races this year, with We Shot The Moon’s Fear and Love beating Esterlyn’s Lamps for the title by only 1%, and MercyMe’s digital-only live album 10 Live only 3% behind Esterlyn for a respectable third place finish.

Free Christmas Song of the Year:

1. Relient K – “I Celebrate the Day”
2. Thousand Foot Krutch – “Jingle Bell Rock”
3. TobyMac – “This Christmas”

Relient K may have tied for third for “Free Song of the Year”, but they dominated “Free Christmas Song of the Year” from the start, with “I Celebrate the Day” finishing with 1/3 of the vote.  Not far behind, with 22%, Thousand Foot Krutch’s rocking rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock” takes second place, and TobyMac’s “This Christmas” takes third.

Free EP of the Year:

1. House of Heroes – “The End Is Not The End EP”
2. B.Reith – “The B.Reith EP”
3. Esterlyn – “Mending The Meaning EP”

2009 was a good year to be House of Heroes – not only was their The End Is Not The End EP the undisputed winner of “Free EP of the Year” with a whopping 49% of the vote, but the same EP was also the most-nominated of any of the songs or albums in the running.  B.Reith picks up a strong second place finish with 25% of the vote, followed by Esterlyn at third with 20%.

Free Sampler/Compilation of the Year:

1. Tooth & Nail Records – “Fuel Sampler 2009″
2. Huntington University – “Picks”
3. Creation Festival – “Creation Festival 2009 iTunes Sampler”

Taking first place in the coveted “Free Sampler/Compilation of the Year” category by a wide margin is the 2009 version of Tooth & Nail Record’s Fuel sampler, with the underdog and my personal favorite, Huntington University’s free compilation Picks taking second place, followed by Creation Festival’s 2009 iTunes sampler in third.

Most Giving Artist of 2009:

1. House of Heroes
2. Esterlyn
3. MercyMe

“Most Giving Artist of 2009″ is a special category – rather then being nominated by fans, those in the running earned a spot by being exceptionally generous with free music this year.  In an impressive (and much deserved) second #1 victory, the title goes to House of Heroes, with Esterlyn in second, and MercyMe taking rounding out the category in third.

Well, that’s it for this year – what are your thought on the results?  I don’t know about you, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing what’s in store for 2010.  Also, if you’d like to see the full results of the voting, feel free to check out this page for a full list of nominees & how they did.

Tags: B. Reith, Esterlyn, House of Heroes, MercyMe, Owl City, Relient K, Switchfoot, Thousand Foot Krutch, TobyMac, We Shot the Moon

Free Christmas House of Heroes

Wow, it seems as if AmazonMP3 loves giving us free music. You can currently get House of Heroes’ version of the song, ‘Silent Night’ from Amazon. Even though they’re an upbeat rock band, they still do a great version of ‘Silent Night’. I personally think it’s one of the better ones out there. Anyway, in case if you were wondering, the song also was just released in HoH’s The Christmas Classics EP, which you can also buy at Amazon with the $3.00 credit Matt had mentioned a few days ago. Hope you enjoy!

-‘Silent Night’ by House of Heroes-

Oh, and if you have never heard of House of Heroes, you can still pick up their The End Is Not the End EP.

Tags: House of Heroes

The Weekly Downloads: Oct. 6 – Oct. 12

Welcome to another week of free downloads from all of usual suspects – iTickets, NewReleaseTuesday, Tangle, and Gospel Music Channel – this week, there’s about twice as much music as normal, thanks to Gotee Records – but more on that in a bit.

First up this week, Tangle.com is featuring Mandisa’s song “He Is With You” on their homepage.  It’s from Mandisa’s sophomore album Freedom, and the soundtrack to Mandisa’s second music video, which you can watch here.  Check it out!

-Tangle.com-

Also free this week is a brand new Christmas song from Chris Tomlin, courtesy of Gospel Music Channel.  It’s called “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)”, from Chris’s new album Glory in the Highest, which came out two days ago on Oct. 6.  Incidentally, that’s the same release date as Downhere & Family Force 5′s Christmas albums.  Anyway, it’s never to early to start collecting Christmas music, and this is a pretty good place to start.

-Christ Tomlin’s “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)” on GMC-

Besides that, last week, Gospel Music Channel had pretty cool song that’s still available.  It’s “It Is Your Grace”, by Andreas Sandlund.  If the name sounds familiar, there’s a good reason – I was privileged to feature his song “We’re Miles Away” on TFCMB last January, and I’m really excited to see him getting some major attention.  Definitely check this one out!

-Andreas Sandlund’s “It Is Your Grace” on GMC-

iTickets also has several free downloads this week, from COS, Relient K, and Paul Wright.  Now, Relient K shouldn’t need much introduction, nor should Paul Wright, but COS doesn’t have the advantage of being famous, at least not yet.  Basically, “Your Will” is a super-stripped down worship song, it’s barely acoustic, and actually sounds quite good.  Worth checking out.

-iTickets’ Free Music Page-

This post is getting long… and I’m only about half way.  Seriously, this is a big week – and the biggest batch of downloads of from NewReleaseTuesday.com.  They have a whopping 8 downloads this week, seven of whom are Gotee Records artists.  The listing:

• Relient K – “The Lining Is Silver”
• B.Reith – “Mess”
• House of Heroes – “In The Valley of the Dying Sun”
• Abandon Kansas – “I Wonder If It’s Me”
• Ayeisha Woods – “Transparent”
• Stephanie Smith – “Not Afraid”
• I Am Terrified – “Falling On Everlasting”

And hanging on from last week, an excellent song from non-Gotee artist Matt Maher called “Alive Again”.  I’ve already gotten all 8 songs free from other sites, but if you’re missing all or any, this is a great opportunity to download them, for free. 

-New Release Tuesday’s Free Music Page-

Augh!  I just keep finding more music…  ah, it’s hard to complain about that.  You can also get three free songs from Michael W. Smith, Matt Maher (once again!), and Phil Stacey at this link:

-A New Hallelujah Tour-

And you can download three songs from Matt Papa, Jason Gray, and High Valley at OnCourse.  Bottom right of the page, follow the instructions there.

-On Course Magazine-

And that wraps up the weekly downloads for this week, so till next week, this is Matt signing off.

Tags: Abandon Kansas, Andreas Sandlund, Ayeisha Woods, B. Reith, Chris Tomlin, COS, High Valley, House of Heroes, I Am Terrified, Jason Gray, Mandisa, Matt Maher, Matt Papa, Michael W. Smith, Paul Wright, Phil Stacey, Relient K, Stephanie Smith

John Reu, House of Heroes, and The Sonflowerz

iTicket’s has got some very cool downloads this week, from John Reuben, House of Heroes, and new artist The Sonflowerz.  John Reuben’s track, “Do Not”, is a classic song from Reuben, and also the soundtrack to his first music video ever.  More on that in a bit.  Also featured is HoH’s jammin’ song “If” from their latest, The End Is Not The End, and The Sonflowerz’s “Edge of My Seat”.  If you’re a fan of Point of Grace, or female-fronted folk-tinged pop in general, don’t miss these girls.  They’re definitely a new artist to keep an eye on.

-iTicket’s Free Music Page-

Now, the music video for “Do Not”.  The Christian music video website VideoRocket is giving away a free copy of the music video for this week only.  I have to say, “Do Not” is probably my favorite John Reuben video (unless you count the extented edition of “Doin”.  That would be close.)  Reuben’s got a nack for quirky videos with memorable characters, and “Do Not”‘s disgruntled ice cream man is no exception.  What follows is pure Reuben fun.  Check it out!

-VideoRocket’s Free Video Download Page-

And while I’m talking about John Reuben, I might as well mention that I found him on Twitter a few days ago, so… If you ever want to see what Reuben is dippity dip doin’ (I know, I just couldn’t resist…) you can follow him here.

Tags: House of Heroes, John Reuben, The Sonflowerz

“Back To The Airwaves!”

Well, I’m back.  I had an absolutely wonderful time last week.  God answered so many prayers, it was amazing.  It was well worth going offline for a while, even if I did miss a free Since October song on iTickets.

One of the reasons my week away has become more like a week and half away is because my poor laptop gave me the blue screen of death twice last Friday.  That was the same laptop I started TFCMB on a couple of years ago, so I’m deeply sadden at it’s untimely (but not really unexpected) error messages.  At present, to protect all my information from a total crash, I’m going to be using some other computers for posting and such.

Let me think, what else was I going to put in this post?  Aha!  Yes, I remember now.  To make up for being gone so long, I’m going to be featuring several full CD downloads in the next couple of days.  At least two of them will probably be samplers, so you can go ahead and get excited about that. 

Also, I just checked my email this morning and I had an email from FreeHoH.com, about a new free acoustic song download.  I haven’t seen the link on their website yet, so I think it might be just for mailing list members.  So… if you signed up for FreeHoH.com, you need to check your email.  If you didn’t, you should.

-FreeHoH.com-

That said, thank you to everyone who prayed for me last week, and for not complaining about my absence.  I really do appreciate it, and I shall try and make it up to you soon. 

Tags: House of Heroes

A Failure to Excommunicate

Gotee.com recently added 7 new free songs to their already impressive line-up of free songs.  They’ve got two new, old House of Heroes songs (“Friday Night” and “Serial Sleepers”), one Flynn Adams song (“Feel It Now”), two sweet old school Relient K tracks (“Failure to Excommunicate” & “I Am Understood?”), and two free Paul Wright songs (“Heaven” and “You’re Beautiful”).

I would highly, highly recommend the Paul Wright & Relient K songs.  I hadn’t heard much of Paul Wright before, and he really impressed me, both lyrically & musicially.  And of course you can’t go wrong with Relient K, especially their older stuff.    Trust me, it’s good.

You do need to sign-up to download the songs, but it’s easy enough to do.  And, after that you can get all 7 songs, plus the 8 that were previously available.  Enjoy!

-Gotee.com-

Tags: Flynn Adams, House of Heroes, Paul Wright, Relient K