Paul McGuiness was whining about how free music won't work. Actually, bands better give us money to eat up memory on our IPods!
Merge, Dangerbird and Sub Pop -three indie labels of some fame, no?, have offered, no they won't pay you but, free, big compilation off Amazon.com
So how good are they? They are as good or as bad as the bands but some of it is excellent. There are bands you know, like the Mountain Goats and Beady Eye, and bands you don't but should, like David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, whose "Diamond Mine" is a killer extended psychedelic (but not blues psychedelic -more, well, indieish psychedelic) track. It is on the Merge album. Wye Oak is up next as well and then New Time Viking. A solid outing.
As is the Sub Pop 23 Years Old, featuring OMG Fleet Foxes, Low, Mogwai, Dum Dum Girls, and sure I've got some of it, but some ain't all.
Finally, there is Dangerbird, an they are a touch obscurer though they do have Beady Eye, Fitz And the Tantrum, and Minus The Bear. Of the bands you don't know, the wittily named Internet Killed The Video Star by the Limousines is aces.
So three really good albums for free. On Amazon