Spring Offensive, a 5 piece university band with a difference, are definitely a band to look out for. They’ve just brought out their third release of the year, The First of Many Dreams About Monsters which despite technically being a single is over thirteen minutes long and composed of five seperate parts.

It’s been referred to as a ‘mega-single’ and is certainly just that. The First of Many Dreams About Monsters is somewhat of a concept record and Spring Offensive have made it known that it was inspired by On Death and Dying, the book by Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Küber-Ross that first documented the ‘grief cycle’. Each of the five parts to the song represents a different stage of the cycle; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance but that band have pointed out it isn’t about Küber-Ross or the loss of a loved one but about the potential insensitivity of writing about grief.

The First of Many Dreams About Monsters has been made available as a free download by the band and their earlier releases are available from the Spring Offensive myspace.

Released 20th August 2010.

Autumn Gray formed in 2005 and released an E.P ‘As of Now, No Guarantees for Later’ shortly after. Based in Melbourne, they’ve been gigging in the surrounding area ever since.

The band are getting ready to release their debut album ‘The Diary of a Falling Man’ and are giving away three free tracks from it via their website if you promise to share them around to everyone else.

They’ve been working on ‘The Diary of a Falling Man’ for two years now and have kept the recording process truly independent with no budget, building the recording studio in a ramshackle sharehouse and commandeering a Steinway piano for a guerilla recording session.

Diary of a Falling Man Pt 1 – Autumn Gray

Jónsi Þór Birgisson of Sigur Rós has begun to reveal his new solo album side project ‘Go’. He’s not giving much away at the moment but I’m sure all will become clear in due course.  In the meantime, there’s a free track available to download on his website at jonsi.com once you’ve signed up to the mailing list. Be sure to click the letters of Jónsi on the homepage, it plays snippets of other songs from the album. The ‘j’ is amazing.

Boy Lilikoi – Jónsi

From the tags on this mp3, it is revealed that the album is to be called ‘Go’ and is set to be released worldwide on April 5th 2010. Unlike most of his songs, the lyrics this time are in English. I’m not sure whether the rest of this solo album will be in English but it could show Jónsi trying to gain a more foreign listening audience.

Go Do
Animal Arithmetic
Tornado
Boy Lilikoi
Sinking Friendships
Kolnidur
Grow Till Tall
Around Us
Hengilas

‘Go’ Tracklist (announced 07/12/09)

“Raw, unpolished, and disarmingly personal, ‘Woe is Me’ the debut release from indie-folk newcomer Peter Squires is a sweet and sincere portrait of a young man recovering from heartbreak.

Recorded in his Brooklyn bedroom, Squires’ songs cathartically express lovelorn despair with refreshing humor and self-awareness.  Like the best work of Morrissey and Magnetic Fields, Peter Squires keeps things playful while he breaks your heart.”

Peter Squires is making his album available for free. Download link here. (clicking starts a .zip download)

Woe Is Me – Peter Squires

Ten and Six are an interesting indie band from Michigan. They employ a range of instruments into their music, bells in particular which offer quite a unique sound.

Ten and Six started out as a cover band before beginning to produce their own material. They’re first self-titled EP was released in April and is available for just $4.95 here. They also go for the Radiohead, In Rainbows approach of giving fans the option  to download the whole thing hassle free first here at 320kbps quality.

I’ve included the video to their song ‘Bedside Regiments’ below, it’s very impressive.

Trolley – Ten and Six

Bedside Regiments – Ten and Six

Mercury Lullaby – Ten and Six

Paris Song and Michael’s Bells – Ten and Six

Antique Heart – Ten and Six