Free Music! The Hood Internet and Empires Unleash Albums Online

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 27, 2008 6:41PM

Two local musical outfits, The Hood Internet and Empires, have decided to release a whole mess o' free music today. On the hip-hop side of things, The Hood Internet has a "Chicago mix up, mashing up all types of Chicago musicians with each other to create a megamix on confounding proportions. Kid Sister versus Walter Meego? The Changes versus Rhymefest? Kanye West versus Tortoise? We have to give this DJ duo kudos for tackling such an ambitious project even if not every single result knocks us out. It's well worth a listen.

MP3: The Hood Internet vs Chicago Mix

(You can also go here to choose other versions of the mix, including the individual tracks unmixed.)

Over in the rock and/or roll world, local outfit Empires has released their debut album for free online. We caught the band opening for Air Traffic a few weeks ago and were struck by the number of teenage girls crowding the front of the stage screaming their heads off in-between Empire's songs. Live we thought the kids might be onto something as the band offered up a charged and endearingly scrappy set. The group stumbles when it embraces faceless emo tunes like "I Want Blood," but when they allow them to swagger, as on the bouncy "Valmont," it ain't half bad. Heck, it's free, so give a listen and judge for yourself.

Download: Empires - Howl

Empires plays a CD release party for Howl at Subterranean, 2011 North, June 4, 6:30 p.m., $10, all ages