Back in January 2008, I also gave away a few copies of An Offering, the album release from Inner Surge at the time, a powerhouse of progressive metal out of Canada. From the album comes this track, Halliburton Piggies.

The 17th Playlist Mix podcast saw the introduction of Broken Social Scene to the proceedings. One thing I love about the Canadian music scene is their ability to churn out quality bands and quality musicians and the collective that make up Broken Social Scene are no different.

Today’s free track for your lent listening is ‘Backed Out On The…’. Grab the MP3 below (right click, save target as etc.)

British Sea Power, easily compared to Arcade Fire, released ‘No Lucifer’ as a single back in March 2008. Two months earlier it surfaced on Playlist Mix 16 in January 2008. Enjoy the video above and get your hands on the MP3 below, taken from the album ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’

If you can turn up the bass, turn up the bass, you might need it for this one. You can also download the track here via EmpireSocial.com and follow Empire Social on Twitter.

They bit the dust in 2008 after seven years but they left some free music over at MySpace for you. This is a good one, put a little rock in your Tuesday listening.

Codaphonic released a great album in the shape of ‘The Ballad of Codaphonic’ over a year ago now with this track, Ritalin, lifted from it.

Senses Fail released their current album offering of ‘Life Is Not A Waiting Room’ in October last year and are currently touring (between February and April) as part of the Saints and Sinners Tour before starting a UK and European tour from mid April.

Enjoy today’s tunes and don’t forget to check back for the 49th Playlist Mix Podcast later on.

Chill out, stick on some Lovespirals and relax into your Friday night.

I think ‘Sun Splits The Sky’ came around for me about the time I started rolling out some downtempo playlists.

Gum released their debut album ’Low-flying Kites’ to very favourable reviews in 2003. Featuring a clutch of great tunes and some spooky instrumental touches, it brought the mellifluous vocals of Leigh Myles to a wider audience. One reviewer described the band as “sounding like Hope Sandoval fronting OK Computer-era Radiohead”. After signing to Serali Records, the 2006 release of their mini-album ’Seven Feeble Alibis’ saw them move into slightly more muscular territory. In addition to the trademark deep and brooding Gum sound, the second album showcased beefier epics like ’Beyond the Horizon’ and the would-be James Bond theme ’Cross your heart, hope to die’. And through it all, Leigh’s multi-layered backing vocals lifted those killer choruses to truly dizzying heights.

If you’re looking for more, check out Leigh Myles on MySpace.

At the tail end of October 2007 I featured this band, Pora Pora, on the podcast with this track, ‘So Cinematic’. At the time I’d said they reminded me in parts of (or their lead did) of Courtney Love. Has the opinion changed? Check for yourself and let me know what you think. Looks like I’ll also be scratching the band off the Christmas card list as they’ve been quite a bit of late. On a wee break perhaps?

Just because they don’t exist doesn’t mean it’s not worth listening to. Get some punked up rock into your Monday with this podsafe freebie.

The fifth of 46 tracks for your lenten listening comes from Low Sea Roar, featured on Playlist Mix #5. San Francisco’s Low Sea Roar was formed in the wintry throws of January 2007 over beers and burgers at the Zeitgeist by Andrea Caturegli, Jake Hosek (both formerly of The Stratford 4), Adam Hain and Brandon Tomas.

Though featured back in late 2007, it’s looking like they’ve been fairly quiet or non-existant since mid to late 2008. Still, they did have some pretty good tunes and you can still grab a listen on their MySpace or download ‘Sirens’ below.

Long one of my favourite podsafe tracks featured since the podcast began, this track wound its way onto show number 4 and show number 15 (recapping 2007). They’re from New York, they’re currently wrapping up their new album and the track – Countdown – seemingly appeared in the season three premiere of Heroes? Check out Jupiter One on MySpace

Buy the Jupiter One album here on iTunes (Ireland) or here (USA)

Your second of 46 tracks for lent is this rock nugget from Hundred Year Storm, ‘Crash And Burn’. I’d previously used the track on the second Playlist Mix podcast and looking back now, I can’t remember why I didn’t include the track on the christmas compilation of that year (2007) though it did go on to make the directors cut.

They started things off together in 2003, made a self titled release in 2004 and clocked up over 400 live shows between there and 2007. The sound of the band has changed a small bit in that time but fans should be happy to know they’ve a new LP on the way (announcement as of last week) with Dollhouse Inc. (Windows and Orphans, Knockout Kings, etc.) putting the record out. Check them on on MySpace or get a bunch of different tracks on PureVolume. You’ll find this track (download link below) as track 11 on the album ‘Hello, From The Children Of Planet Earth‘, released in 2006 on Floodgate Records.

Back when the podcast was a brain fart on a Sunday night, almost two years ago now, I’d been doing some digging around for some podsafe music and came across this gem of a track.

It’s a long one, ringing up at the post six-minute mark but it’s got a great feel to it. Very Radiohead inspired, reminding me of some of the Pablo Honey releases. They’ve been quiet (on the web front) over the bulk of the past year but last month they got around to uploading a new track, We Won’t Let You Drown, on the Infotourist MySpace.

Headquartered in Kingston, Ontario, Canada you can also find them on Infotourist.org.

This gem, ‘Have I Gone Astray’ is your first of 46 tracks for lent and is taken from Infotourist’s ‘Selected Case Studies’

While Lent itself, starting today until Easter Sunday, is 46 calendar days it seems you don’t count the Sundays which brings around the “40 days and 40 nights” idea. Sounds like I have no faith at all. So, over the next 46 days you’ll be introduced to a new track and band, or reintroduced if you’ve been following the podcast from the very beginning.

At the end of it all you should have 46 tracks for your collection. Head on over to Cubikmusik (another quality Irish music blog) and you should be able to get yourself a further 46 tracks bringing you close to 100 free music downloads over Lent. Not a bad offer really! If albums are your thing then KilkennyMusic.com are also running a series dubbed ‘46 albums’.

First track on the way shortly. If you want to run something similar, let me know!