Random music sharing.
I'm fairly awful at describing music, especially off-genre stuff like this - I sort of wave my hands and go 'experimental!' and annoy people who can actually classify things. Bear with me.
VAST is high-energy (and experimental!), and I've rarely found anyone who doesn't like any of their music. The band is mostly one guy, Jon Crosby, and possibly best-known for the song Pretty When You Cry (which is indeed very good, but Temptation is a lot more interesting to me). A fan site describes them as "at once gentle and vicious, angry and delicate," which might be the best you're getting in terms of description. They are also awesome and offer inexpensive DRM-free .mp3 downloads of their music through the website, about $5 a CD.
VAST - Temptation (.wma format)
They've been killing children, and nobody seems to care
They've been laughing at my god
My god, I wouldn't dare
VAST - Falling From The Sky
I found the cure, and no one cares
It's just another thing to sell
I found a church, and no one's there
It's just another thing that failed
Clann Zu strikes me sometimes as the depressive to VAST's manic; they're more obviously political, slower, and often more mournful. (They also have a little accent mark over the 'u', which I'm being awful and leaving out.) They're apparently (or were, as they've unfortunately broken up) from Australia, and at least a few of the band members are Irish. A lot of their songs are Irish or bilingual, and 'Celtic folk' and 'electronica' get thrown around as descriptors. They also offer .mp3 downloads, but they actually cost more than buying the physical CDs and paying for shipping.
Clann Zu - There will be no morning copy
How long must we live in the daily fear of returning home to find it gone?
We are refugees in our own land, waiting in hope for the day when we can walk our own streets
Clann Zu - five thousand more
I walk past your grave each night and each morning
I still hear the voices of eight million starving
Iron & Wine is the stage name for Sam Beam (it's difficult figuring out the pronouns for one-person bands), and it's - well, American folk alt-country, mellow but not stagnant. I highly, highly recommend Woman King, even if you aren't sure about the whole alt-country-folk-Indie thing; I'm not sure I've ever sent it to anyone who didn't like it.
Iron & Wine - Woman King
Hundred years, hundred more
Someday we may see
A woman king, sword in hand
Swing at some evil and bleed
Iron & Wine - Cinder and Smoke
Cinder and smoke
You'll ask me to pray for rain
With ash in your mouth
You'll ask it to burn again
Jose Gonzalez (the website immediately spits music, beware) is Swedish and born to Argentine parents, according to Wikipedia, and similarly mellow to Iron & Wine and Songs: Ohia, though more melodic. His cover of Heartbeats was used in the Sony Bravio ball commercial, the one where they toss a quarter-million bouncy balls down a San Francisco street. His music is absolutely beautiful, and I recommend you try Crosses.
Jose Gonzalez - Crosses
Ignore them tonight and you'll be all right
We'll cast some light and you'll be all right
Jose Gonzalez - Broken Arrows
That's the way things are sometimes
(Most of the time)
If you like any of these songs, please support the artists! And let me know, so I can send you other things you might like. (Also let me know if you hate any of it viciously, so I can, um, not send you similar things in the future.) Just let me know in general.
VAST is high-energy (and experimental!), and I've rarely found anyone who doesn't like any of their music. The band is mostly one guy, Jon Crosby, and possibly best-known for the song Pretty When You Cry (which is indeed very good, but Temptation is a lot more interesting to me). A fan site describes them as "at once gentle and vicious, angry and delicate," which might be the best you're getting in terms of description. They are also awesome and offer inexpensive DRM-free .mp3 downloads of their music through the website, about $5 a CD.
VAST - Temptation (.wma format)
They've been killing children, and nobody seems to care
They've been laughing at my god
My god, I wouldn't dare
VAST - Falling From The Sky
I found the cure, and no one cares
It's just another thing to sell
I found a church, and no one's there
It's just another thing that failed
Clann Zu strikes me sometimes as the depressive to VAST's manic; they're more obviously political, slower, and often more mournful. (They also have a little accent mark over the 'u', which I'm being awful and leaving out.) They're apparently (or were, as they've unfortunately broken up) from Australia, and at least a few of the band members are Irish. A lot of their songs are Irish or bilingual, and 'Celtic folk' and 'electronica' get thrown around as descriptors. They also offer .mp3 downloads, but they actually cost more than buying the physical CDs and paying for shipping.
Clann Zu - There will be no morning copy
How long must we live in the daily fear of returning home to find it gone?
We are refugees in our own land, waiting in hope for the day when we can walk our own streets
Clann Zu - five thousand more
I walk past your grave each night and each morning
I still hear the voices of eight million starving
Iron & Wine is the stage name for Sam Beam (it's difficult figuring out the pronouns for one-person bands), and it's - well, American folk alt-country, mellow but not stagnant. I highly, highly recommend Woman King, even if you aren't sure about the whole alt-country-folk-Indie thing; I'm not sure I've ever sent it to anyone who didn't like it.
Iron & Wine - Woman King
Hundred years, hundred more
Someday we may see
A woman king, sword in hand
Swing at some evil and bleed
Iron & Wine - Cinder and Smoke
Cinder and smoke
You'll ask me to pray for rain
With ash in your mouth
You'll ask it to burn again
Jose Gonzalez (the website immediately spits music, beware) is Swedish and born to Argentine parents, according to Wikipedia, and similarly mellow to Iron & Wine and Songs: Ohia, though more melodic. His cover of Heartbeats was used in the Sony Bravio ball commercial, the one where they toss a quarter-million bouncy balls down a San Francisco street. His music is absolutely beautiful, and I recommend you try Crosses.
Jose Gonzalez - Crosses
Ignore them tonight and you'll be all right
We'll cast some light and you'll be all right
Jose Gonzalez - Broken Arrows
That's the way things are sometimes
(Most of the time)
If you like any of these songs, please support the artists! And let me know, so I can send you other things you might like. (Also let me know if you hate any of it viciously, so I can, um, not send you similar things in the future.) Just let me know in general.