The summer concert season is upon us and the Hidden Track staff knows that it’s virtually impossible for us to afford every show we want to hit, and still be able to pay our insanely expensive New York City rents. Luckily for us, there are a plethora of fantastic free concerts throughout the summer that don’t cost a dime. We decided to weed through all the listings and present to you our 5th Annual NYC Free Summer Concert Picks. Let’s take a look… HT Recommends: Laura Marling / Michael Kiwanuka / Willy Mason Where: Celebrate Brooklyn! – Prospect Park Bandshell ...

Every week we invite a reader to share with us some of the songs they've been listening to recently. This week, a selection of music from Sydney-based artists Each week, we invite someone to share a playlist of songs they've been listening to recently. This week it's the turn of Marcus Thaine, a 19-year-old media student from Melbourne who writes at totemmag.com. Follow him on Twitter here . Here is just a selection of some of the best new music coming out of Sydney. Melbourne gets all the attention on the Australian music scene when really Sydney-siders ...

Smoke Fairies – even the name itself conjures up something mystical. It actually alludes to the summer mist collecting in English countryside hedgerows. Best friends at school, Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies grew up in Sussex in the UK, and you can see how this influence reaches out through their music. Blood Speaks is a rich mixture of folk, blues and eerie lyrics. They have actually been around since 2009, and through a tough but creatively fruitful year in Canada, and working with PJ Harvey producer Head they caught the attention of Jack White. Yes, that Jack White, who seemed at ...

Sons of Noel and Adrian is more than just a band. The group is filled with English folk’s undercover movers and shakers; whether through the Willkommen Collective, extensive touring, or the other bands in which its members take part, the Brighton twelve-piece has helped lift the scene to greater heights. While they may lack the name recognition of some of their new-folk friends (Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Alessi’s Ark, et cetera), they certainly produce folk music worthy of the attention. Sophomore LP Knots may give them just that. While it’s not an immediately accessible album, it’s a beautiful, complex, and compelling work. The band plays with themes, creating layered and intense soundscapes; from the forceful beat and sighing strings of ‘Big Bad Bold’ to the orchestral thrumming of ‘The Yard’, Knots uses its textures to evoke something visceral. The album pulses hypnotically, each song rocking ...

Musicians, like film stars and television broadcasters, are some of the most important cultural icons in history. Furthermore, instruments can carry as much, if not more, powerful symbolism than musicians themselves. Take the electric guitar, for example, and Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton spring to mind. Or the piano: Elton John and Stevie Wonder. Or even the wobble board and, you guessed it, Rolf Harris pops up. In folk music, one of the prime instruments is of course the acoustic guitar (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Laura Marling are all a dab hand at it) but what about ...

Genre: Alternative/Folk/Rock Country: UK Tracklist CD 1 01. The Muse 02. I Was Just A Card 03. Don’t Ask Me Why 04. Salinas 05. The Beast 06. Night After Night 07. My Friends 08. Rest In The Bed 09. Sophia 10. All My Rage CD 2 – Live From York Minster 01. I Was Just [...]

Watch *Laura Marling* (http://www.absolutepunk.net/lauramarling) performing a solo version of "Sophia" for opbmusic here (http://www.npr.org/event/music/152442416/laura-marling-how-to-reveal-a-quiet-song). Submitted by luckykaruba

Eliza Shaddad is a Scottish and Sudanese singer-songwriter with influences that range from childhood days spent at English folk festivals, the underground  hip-hop scene during her teens and to more recent postgraduate jazz studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Listen to her EP January-March (along with new song ‘HomeLectric’) above and see if you agree with what our panel has to say about it, below. Your thoughts to @forfolkssake and @NicoFranks please… Catch Eliza live on the 23rd May at the Old Queen’s Head, London. Kathy Saunders: With guitar in hand and a voice as clear and ...

Artist: Laura Marling Album: Flicker and Fail Released: 2012 Style: Indie pop Format: MP3 320Kbps / FLAC Size: 14 Mb Tracklist: 01 – Flicker and Fail 02 – To Be A Woman DOWNLOAD LINKS: RAPIDGATOR: DOWNLOAD FILEZPRO: DOWNLOAD UPLOADED:...

On Saturday May 5th, The 405 headed down (well...up) to Leeds to cover Live At Leeds festival, which is a multi-venue city festival full of relatively new bands such as Novella, all the way through to big hitters such as Los Campesinos! (or Example if you fancied buying a separate ticket...which we didn't). With other festivals such as Camden Crawl, Sounds From The Other City, Simple Things and Land of Kings (all of which were city festivals) all taking place on the same weekend, how did LAL hold up? Read on to read about some of the ...

And so begins the first of three posts on the 2012 Great Escape Festival , Europe’s leading festival for new music. Thursday’s proceedings got off to a bit of a damp squib with grey skies and looming wetness, but thankfully as the Great Escape is a multi-venue multi-gig affair located around Brighton centre the weather is not nearly as significant as an outdoor camping festival. No wellies required. Here are the ten most important facts that we learnt during the day. (Disclaimer – facts may actually be opinions) 1. Everyone loves a buzz band The Great Escape being a new ...

Marling's songs unfold in quiet ways, with lyrical depth that rewards repeated listening and a clear alto voice that gives her songs gravity. Watch her perform "Sophia," from A Creature I Don't Know , in a studio session from opbmusic.

The lineup for the annual Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series in Prospect Park, has been announced. It kicks off with a Jimmy Cliff show on June 5. While most of the shows are free, BRIC Arts Media Brooklyn also puts on ticketed benefit concerts as part of the series. This year's ticketed concerts include Danny Brown and Schoolboy Q on June 26, Dirty Projectors, Wye Oak and Purity Ring on July 10, Hot Chip and Gang Gang Dance on July 18, Wilco on July 23, Sigur Rós on July 31, and M. Ward and Yo La Tengo on August 7 ...

View the full roster here. Little Dragon recently dropped by Studio Brussel. Purchase Little Dragon items via Insound. MP3: Little Dragon – Little Man (Tycho Mix)

celebrate brooklyn (more by Ryan Muir) The entire 2012 lineup of free concerts in Prospect Park is announced. The free shows include Jimmy Cliff, Laura Marling, Little Dragon/Frankie Rose, Wild Flag/Mission of Burma, and The Head and the Heart/Lost in...