More free stuff in our freebies section.

POLYVINYL TURNS 15

polyvinylrecords.com

It’s hard to believe that Polyvinyl Records is 15 years old. To celebrate their birthday, they’re offering a 30-song sampler as a FREE DOWNLOAD. Artists contains the staple of Polyvinyl artists, including Matt Pond PA, Owen, Xiu Xiu, Loney Dear, Deerhoof, Vivian Girls, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, of Montreal, and Asobi Seksu.

Excerpt of Matt Lunsford’s letter:

We [Darcie and Matt] never wrote a business plan or decided that we’d “become a record label.” We dropped out of college. We scraped together whatever resources we could to put out records. We worked hard and we learned a lot. We kept our DIY mentality and we always tried to match the level of work and commitment that our bands had. We put out over 200 records. And somehow, 15 years passed.

Polyvinyl is still Darcie and me and now a staff of eight. Six of us here at HQ in our cozy downtown Champaign office, three at our satellite office in San Francisco, and one in New York. We still work hard every day to tell the world about bands we love — and we are proud that we still maintain the same 50/50 profit sharing model with them. Oh, and the internet happened.

Don’t forget that there is still that Holiday sale going on, plus A Brief History in Moving Pictures a DVD compilation of 60 music videos, AND be sure to check out their limited edition colored vinyls. They are awesome and would look great in any record collection.

SPIN’S BEST OF 2011

spin.com

Wow, 24 free tracks, plus an additional 8 free tracks. As usual, I think these free tracks are a fantastic deal. I’m a happy magazine subscriber (print and digital, however I will drop the digital version since I can’t read it “offline” since they updated their app). This Christmas, I gave out a few Spin Target CDs and subscriptions, just so you know that I stand behind this music magazine.

Playlist:

Cass McCombs “The Same Thing”
Deer Tick “Miss K”
EMA “Breakfast”
F***ed Up “The Other Shoe”
Iceage “Broken Bone”
Kurt Vile “Jesus Fever”
Liturgy “Generation”
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks “Tigers”
Telekinesis “Country Lane”
The Men “( )”
Wild Flag “Romance”
Youth Lagoon “July”
Yuck “Shoot Down”
Zola Jesus “Vessel”
Cubic Zirconia “Take Me High”
Future Islands “Balance”
Peaking Lights “Amazing and Wonderful”
Phantogram “16 Years”
Pterodactyl “School Glue”
Zambri “Heather”
Caveman “Thankful”
Summer Camp “Down”
The Juan Maclean “Everybody Get Close”
The Soft Moon “Total Decay”

THE SAINT PAUL CULTURAL ORCHESTRA

www.thespco.org

Ever wanted to be completely bored? Just kidding. This free concert is financed in part by the City of Saint Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program … so you’re actually paying for it. So you might as well head out to see them in January 2012. You can order up to four free tickets.

Free Concert at the Ordway

On Thursday, January 5, you can experience the SPCO completely FREE and ring in the New Year with Joana Carneiro and a high-spirited program combining the Classical period with modern fare. The sunny Pastoral Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven will be performed alongside the orchestra’s presentation of Paul Dresher’s Cornucopia, a work commissioned and premiered by the SPCO in 1990.

Concert Details

Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony

Thursday, January 5 at 7:30pm

Ordway, Downtown Saint Paul

Program to include:

Paul Dresher: Cornucopia

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, Pastoral

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