All links point to the 2005 SXSW Showcasing Artist page for the artist mentioned, except in the cases where I could not find a page (which probably means that the MP3 is located in the “add-on” batch of 20 songs).

The music ranges from bluegrass (Runaway Planet), dub (Sub Oslo), Americana, pure pop, punk and loads of decent acoustic tracks. There are also a small handful of bands seeking to revive the glam-punk of The Boys (Ends, Bones, Real Heroes) and some good electronica tracks. If you have been listening to my podcasts you will have already have heard a third of these tracks; I recommend you get the rest as well while you can (this batch of MP3s will probably be taken offline when the 2006 festival comes along).

A dozen or so artists are not listed simply because I already had the songs. So no Jawbone or Kings of Convenience in the list.

Sturgeons Law applies; this is the top 5%.

I listened to every one of the 750+ tracks and brought the list down to those below. Should you prefer to download all 750 tracks there is a couple of torrent feeds at SXSW’s Fest4Pod.

I’ll see if I can get time later to include direct links for the MP3s; but for now you will have to go each SXSW artist page to get the MP3s.

• S2SG2 — Aero Wave
• The Littlest Birds — Be Good Tanyas
• 3 Sheets to the Wind — The Black Halos
• Do You Wanna — The Bones
• Blah, Blah, Blah — Cartel de Santa
• Where You Are — Clare Burson
• Erotik Platonik — Cubiky
• Handful Savants — Cue
• New Hope Cemetery — The Damnations
• Ohh La La — Ditty Bops
• Just As Well — Emily Sparks
• Pucker Up — The Ends
• Kanon — Enon
• Trampoline — The Grates
• Pass and Fail — Heartless Bastards
• The Hustler — Jeff Klein
• Not Going Anywhere — Keren Ann
• Metal on a Gun — L-D Section I
• Too Late for Tonight — Laura Cantrell
• Ablaze — Liz Durrett
• I’ll Be Yr Bird — M. Ward
• Mercy Now — Mary Gauthier
• Nutopia — Meg Lee Chin
• Workshy Wunderkind — Nightingales
• Tonight, the Night — Bonnie Pink
• Move That Strut — The Real Heroes
• How Shall I Love Thee? — Rose Polenzani
• Rocking This Disaster — Roue
• Burn the Clutch Out — Runaway Planet
• List of Demands(Reparations) — Saul Williams
• Some Girls Have All The Fuck — Some Girls
• Afghan/Forlift — Stan Ridgway
• Sub Oslo Vs. Bookshelf Speakers — Sub Oslo
• Lucky Lipstick — Surferosa
• Walking With a Ghost — Tegan & Sara
• Happiness and Misery — Tywanna Jo Baskette
• The Ghost of the Girl — Willard Grant Conspiracy
• Glee Foundation — Xcella

John Tracy is podcasting using free legal MP3s over at the John Tracy Show. My recommended track from his latest show is

• Collapse with The Lavellas.

I should have listed this resource ages ago, as it was one of the first podcasts using legit MP3s only. Matt May is using mostly Creative Commons licensed music in his Staccato podcasts. Matt’s track listings have been a little bit sparse lately, but do download

• Language of My Reality a CC-licensed track remixed by Click.

Download podcast MP3 file.

Acecast podcast number five (MP3, 112Kbps, 24.9MB, 30m:57s). You can download the MP3 file by clicking the podcast icon or link above. You can also use a podcasting application to subscribe to the Acecast RSS-feed, and it is now possible to subscribe to Acecast podcasts in iTunes 4.9 by using “Advanced/Subscribe to Podcast” and entering http://www.acecast.com/index.rss20 in the pop-up window.

Five is for fine SXSW-festival music.

These are the results of the Norwegian jury … Well, sort of anyway. These are the results of listening to every single one of the 750+ South by Southwest 2005 showcase MP3s (free and legal MP3s as always here on Acecast). Around 40 tunes were found good enough to podcast, but in the end, I had to choose ten. Some of the missing tunes will probably be used in later podcasts. All my recommended tracks from the 2005 SXSW showcase will soon be listed with download links in a separate posting.

I open this podcast with the rockin’ swagger and raspy vocals of the Heartless Bastards. I also play The Bones from Sweden (the Scandinavian choice) — one of the better glam-punk bands in the showcase (The Boys ca 1978).

There is place for a couple of really good synth-pop tracks from Cubiky and Aero Wave (who sounds a bit like Martha and the Muffins).

I play a tune from the latest “fair podcasting” CD by The Grates, 50 seconds of flat out hardcore from Some Girls, and some fine English lounge-rock from the Nightingales.

Female atmospherics is provided by Liz Durrett and Tywanna Jo Baskette. I finish with an acoustic track from Keren Ann.

Normal service will resume with the next show.

Production notes.

Kit: MXL V67 condenser microphone, Behringer UB802 mixer, Hercules DJ Console sound card. Applications: Audacity, iTunes, MP3Gain, MP3tag.

All tracks played are free and legal downloads. All tracks are copyright the artists and their record labels/music publishers.

Extended tracklisting for Acecast number 5, 12 July 2005.

All tracks and links below point to the 2005 SXSW-festival artist showcase.

• Wildspot— Belbury Poly. The Acecast signature tune.
• Pass and Fail — Heartless Bastards.
• s2sg2 — Aero Wave.
• Some Girls — Some Girls.
• Workshy Wunderkind — Nightingales.
• Happiness and Misery — Tywanna Jo Baskette.
• Do You Wanna — The Bones.
• Trampoline — The Grates.
• Ablaze — Liz Durrett.
• Erotik Platonik — Cubiky.
• Not Going Anywhere — Keren Ann.

Brief playlist for the fifth podcast.

Initial post: Tue, 12 Jul 2005.

• Pass and Fail — Heartless Bastards.
• s2sg2 — Aero Wave.
• Some Girls — Some Girls.
• Workshy Wunderkind — Nightingales.
• Happiness and Misery — Tywanna Jo Baskette.
• Do You Wanna — The Bones.
• Trampoline — The Grates.
• Ablaze — Liz Durrett.
• Erotik Platonik — Cubiky.
• Not Going Anywhere — Keren Ann.

Full details and MP3 download for the fifth Acecast podcast.

Initial post: Tue, 12 Jul 2005.

I have removed the 10-second preview clips of tracks played on the shows and the “pre-listen” option. The option was not that widely used, iTunes 4.9 makes the feature somewhat redundant and it takes too much time on my part.

Apologies to those who used it. It’s gone and it’s not coming back.