It’s almost Crimbo and several of our fave bands have opened their bag o’tricks and shared with us mere mortals their musical wares, some for free, some as a taste of things to come…

R.E.M.  – Discoverer

A cool ditty from these legends, it is a good taster of what awaits on their upcoming (March 2011) album, Collapse into now. The sound is a bit of a throwback to their bigger sound from the 80s, in fact, I swear Michael Stipe is almost saying “finest workshop” in one bit. I liked Accelerate a lot, and this tantalising clue is a great hook for their new album.

Wet Nuns – Christmas is here

A re-working of a song of them you could only hear in their first EP, the song stops being about a bad day in a Bandido-run town and more about a lamentation about this season. Rock out with the Grinch after downing some Moonshine and get it here for free. The instrumental break is pretty cool, with a firm drumming and a chunky fuzz that feels perfect to counter those horrible Xmas jingles.

Firesuite – Sammy Davis Jr Jr

Way punkier than their shoegazey previous effort, Firesuite gets their noise hats on, their overdrive on full  and offer a one and a half minute of angry garage rock, with not a vocal on sight, just a very angry grunt by the end.

Los Campesinos! – Kindle a Flame in her heart

Any song about the bitter experience of finding a lump of coal is a good song in my book. And if you don’t like this, I will sic Schwartz Piet on you! Cool ditty from Los Campesinos! and another keeper for this, the season of cheap gifts and cool alcohol.

Links

R.E.M.

Website. Myspace. Last.fm. Twitter. Facebook.

Los Campesinos

Website. Facebook. Myspace. Twitter. Last.fm.

Firesuite

Facebook. Soundcloud. Myspace.

Wet Nuns

Myspace. Facebook. Last.fm. Free EP. Reverbnation.