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The Download

Published 01 August 2005

Whither American indie? US underground artists have always found it difficult to thrive in the hyper-capitalist Stateside "entertainment industry": small fish in a big pond and all that. In the US, even college radio stations operate major-label-dominated playlists at the expense of new up-and-coming bands. To rub salt in the wound, when the Yanks do latch on to some navel-gazing indie rock, it invariably comes from the UK: U2, Radiohead, and now Coldplay have all scored remarkable successes in the US charts, while home-grown songs can go take a running jump if they don't feature 50 Cent or Gwen Stefani somewhere. (Fairly or otherwise, it's usually worth blaming this on MTV.)

All of which is a grand, grand shame. The country that brought us such unambitious scruffs as the Pixies and Nirvana still produces swathes of bands whose fans like to wear NHS-style specs and more pin badges than is sensible.

My latest pet American label is Polyvinyl, home to so much vivacious creativity and so many free MP3s! Saturday Looks Good To Me is the cream of the crop, boasting lush Motown drums, handclaps, shimmery guitars and lovelorn (but never cutesy) vocals. The band tours the UK in August. From the website www.slgtm.com you can download a couple of free tracks - put the brass-led "Underwater Heartbeat" top of your list - then head straight to www.polyvinylrecords.com (steer clear of www.polyvinyl.com unless you want the leaders in the custom plastics extrusion field) for more freebies in the "Audio/Video" section.

There are more than 60 free MP3s by 30-odd artists available here, and when faced with such a daunting list, it's best to go on gut instinct (except with the Saturday Looks . . . songs, which are empirically good): hence I recommend ZZZZ's divertingly sincere "Assassination Polka", "In Green" by the ludicrously monikered Volcano, I'm Still Excited!!, and Matt Pond PA's "Bright Eyes"-esque lighter-waver "Canadian Song".

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