The Free Christian Music Blog

James’ Top 10 Downloads Of 2008

So, it was hard, but I narrowed down my top 10 list. And I only included three of my own posts, unlike Matt, who listed ten of his. Nevermind the fact that I joined him late in the year and only posted one day a week for not even every week til the end of the year…

Anyway, I sorted through the 300+ posts and probably 1000+ songs and ended up with this list of favorites:

10: Tie Between Children 18:3, Children 18:3, and Children 18:3 – So, Matt had a tie at 10th, so I thought it was only fair that I do the same. Children 18:3 was a band I found near the beginning of the year and was the first band that year to show me that pop-punk could be something that I could enjoy if it was done right.

9: Sides of the North – This small band was one of Christian music’s best kept secrets, which is a shame because they were awesome. Six songs by them is definitely an awesome post and worthy of placing in the top 10.

8: Summer Slam Volume 2 – Indie Vision Music has been one of the top sources of free Christian music, and SSV2 is their biggest and best. It gave me free songs from Project 86, Stavesacre, Ocean is Theory, The Dark Romantics, and introduced me to a bunch of smaller bands, especially The Human Flight Committee, with their song “She’s A Car Destroyer.”

7: The Devil Wears Prada – I became a fan of TDWP when I saw them at Warped Tour (and crowdsurfed to them). So I was very excited when I found a free sampler containing “Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?”

6: The Awkward Romance – The Awkward Romance was already my favorite local band before they came out with this CD, This Song Is Writing Me, but this CD caught me by surprise by how well produced it was. And the fact that they gave it away for free was an even bigger surprise.

5: Capital Lights – What Children 18:3 started was reinforced by the introduction to my of Capital Lights. And what we have here with “Can I Get An Amen” is Capital Lights at their best.

4: Stavesacre – Stavesacre is a band that I’d heard of a for a while but never listened to for the longest time. However, once I saw on here that they had a song (“It’s Beautiful Once You’re Out There”) up for download, I decided to give them a listen. I was far from disappointed, and I must say that I have found one of my new favorite bands.

3: mewithoutYou – As I’ve mentioned before, mewithoutYou is my favorite band. The only reason that this isn’t listed higher is that I already had the song long before I found the download that I featured. Still, they are my favorite band.

2: Tooth & Nail Fuel Sampler – Any Tooth & Nail sampler is gonna have awesome songs on it, but this one caught me by surprise with the artists that I enjoyed the most on it. Now, I already had the great songs from Children 18:3 and Showbread, but this sampler introduced me to Capital Lights and Oh, Sleeper plus it gave me amazing songs from Sever Your Ties and my personal favorite on the whole sampler, “Abracadavers” by The Classic Crime, which was a band I had long ago written off.

1: House of Heroes – Sure, I found it before I found this site, but the three free songs, in combination with the ones they streamed on myspace, held me over until their new CD finally came out in September. “In The Valley Of The Dying Son” has been in my collection since March and has yet to ever at any point get old, and neither have any of the others, which is why this places as the number one download of the 2008.

Honorary Mentions:

Everyday Joe’s – This sampler was no longer available by the time that I found this site, but anything that includes Listener Project is awesome.

Christmas Day 12 – Matt put a ton of work into this post, listing something like 2 dozen artists with Christmas songs up for download.

Tags: Capital Lights, Children 18:3, House of Heroes, mewithoutYou, Ocean is Theory, Oh Sleeper, Project 86, Sever Your Ties, Showbread, Sides of the North, Stavesacre, The Awkward Romance, The Classic Crime, The Dark Romantics, The Devil Wears Prada, The Human Flight Committee

New Sampler from Indie Vision Music

Indie Vision Music has put out many, many samplers recently, and though many of them are no longer posted online, they have taken the best songs from the seven samplers (sans the heavy stuff, which might be getting its own “best of” sampler) and put them into one. What you get is free songs from Chasing Victory, Project 86, Stavesacre, Ever Stays Red, Esterlyn, and 35 other awesome bands.

I haven’t been able to listen to everything yet, as I have not only been busy but also overwhelmed with this and another even bigger sampler that all of you will probably see in the near future. You might get spoiled this week, thats all I’m saying.

-The Best of IVM Vol. 1-

-James

Edit:  Apparently the wonderful people at IVM are working on another compilation that they hope to put out in time for Christmas.  If you’re in a band and have a quality recording they are interested in possibly using your song in the compilation.

Tags: Amaradio, Amen. The Animal, Arkeo, Avery Pkwy, Blood & Water, Burning Tree Project, Cathy Crescendo, Chasing Victory, Darkroom, Dennis Zender, Dogwood, Erika Soto, Esterlyn, Ever Stays Red, Failure to Excel, Fairgreen, Finchley, Forever Changed, Hands, Kessler, Kings to You, Makeshift3, Man Alive, My Jeremiah, Ocean is Theory, One Hot Minute, Orion Walsh, Paul Wright, Project 86, Quick and the Dead, Say You Will, Send Out Scuds, Sleep for Sleepers, Stavesacre, The Apprentice, The Echoing Green, The Trade, Thrush, Tumbledown, We Shot the Moon

Summer Slam Vol. 2 Free Sampler from IVM

Free music today courtesy of Indie Vision Music. They recently uploaded Summer Slam Vol. 2, the biggest free Christian music sampler since One Dark Summer. This thing is huge! You can get 52 songs absolutely free! You don’t even need to give a email address.

In the 52 songs, there are tracks by MxPx, Project 86, Cool Hand Luke, Esterlyn, I Am Terrified, Stavesacre, The Glorious Unseen, Means, The Echoing Green, and many talented independent artists. The full artist listing is on the page.

I haven’t had a opportunity to hear the songs on this sampler yet, thanks to my internet connection, but I’m drooling over it right now. I know for sure that a couple of songs are rare finds – I haven’t seen the MxPx one anywhere else, and both the Project 86 and Stavesacre were iTunes Exclusives. Which is just one more reason to get this awesome sampler.

I also heard a that the other free downloads on Indie Vision Music could be disappearing soon. It could be a rumor, but if you haven’t yet, make sure you download all of the goodies before tomorrow. All of these links are to free music, making this the biggest amount of music I’ve ever featured. Check it out, enjoy it. It’s after all, it’s free!

Tags: Cool Hand Luke, Esterlyn, I Am Terrified, Means, Mendelson, MxPx, Pennylane, Project 86, Stavesacre, The Comeback Tour, The Echoing Green, The Glorious Unseen

Striking Back: Stavesacre, Lost In City Lights, Rachel Rizzuti, The Morgan Branch

Wow! This last week last been a roller coaster for me. I’ve been at a real estate event in Alabama. Now, when you go to a real estate conference, you usually learn about real estate. Usually. But music follows me. Almost everywhere:

So while I was there I met member from each Lost In City Lights and The Morgan Branch, and Christian musician Rachel Rizzuti’s father. Super crazy how God worked it all out. Anyway, I’m going try and get some music from all three for you to enjoy. Till then, I’ve got links so you can check them out online right now.

I also have a free song from Stavesacre. You can download the song “It’s Beautiful (Once You’re Out Here)” for free on Stavesacre’s Purevolume page. It’s a good hard rock song that reminds me a little of Demon Hunter’s “Carry Me Down”, “One Thousand Apologies”, “Thorns”, etc. Good stuff.

Tags: Lost In City Lights, Rachel Rizzuti, Stavesacre, The Morgan Branch