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.)

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Are you allow to pimp your own music in this series? I’ve recently started producing music under the name of ‘Empire Social‘. It’s a long process and it’s leading to some interesting offline collaborations. There’s a few new tracks due in the coming weeks (one due this weekend) and a podsafe album release due later in the year.

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.

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This one, from The Outside, appeared on Playlist Mix 14 back in December 2007. As they say themselves – “Embodying elements of the Deftones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Pumpkins, the New York group brands stages with an unmistakably claimed sound that, in the end, leaves raised fists and silver dollar eyed audiences everywhere “.

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.

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Still in a downtempo buzz, here’s General Fuzz with ‘Liquid Jazz’ as lent-fest continues with free podsafe music downloads. This track first appeared on Playlist Mix 13 but it’s also a track I keep on CD in the van as part of a podsafe compilation, some great free flowing jazz movement with some funky beats thrown in for good measure.

Inspired by Orbital, the Orb, Chicane, Phish, the Crystal Method and a whole host more, General Fuzz writes music to “protest to boring electronic music that is flooding the world. Every song is a distinct composition, with melody, counter point, and ample psychedelic vibes.”

Check it out for yourselves below.

Aha, the 49th Playlist Mix podcast has landed. Sure enough, we’ve another six acts and another six tracks including a second one from featured band for February, The Funeral Suits, and a new one from Donegal-based Pavesi who you’ll be able to catch gigging in Dublin at the end of the month. Hitting show 49 means there’s one podcast to go before the 50th, a nice milestone to hit considering where it all started and how long it took to get things going!

Don’t forget you can also follow the podcast on Twitter by visiting http://twitter.com/playlistmix or by dropping over to the Playlist Mix MySpace.

This week’s tracks include

• Miri – ‘Bitter Romantic’
• The Funeral Suits – ‘Modern Urban Pleasures’
• Pavesi – ‘Apology’
• Show Me The Skyline – ‘Clocks and Calendars’
• South – ‘Symmetry’
• Darragh J Glennon – ‘For My Love’

That’s it for another week. As of last week you can also pick the podcast up on the Blubrry network, something I’m happy now to be a part of and hope it will continue to raise the profile of the podcast.

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I wound up away for the day yesterday and didn’t get around to posting yesterday’s song in time so for your Sunday you get a double-helping of downloads with a track from Codaphonic that featured on Playlist Mix 11 and another from Senses Fail that opened up Playlist Mix 12.

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.

Continuing the 46 tracks for lent series, here’s number 10 for you, a few hours late but something to get into the chilled out mood for the start of the weekend. Lovespirals create some seriously good podsafe music and some seriously good downtempo tunes, this one was used on the tenth Playlist Mix podcast way back in November 2007. Seems like a lifetime ago now in terms of the life of the podcast.

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?

These guys are great. They’re catchy. They’re Canadian. I missed both bloody shows last summer when they hit Ireland as part of their Euro summer dates. Today’s track comes from The Most Serene Republic. I’ve featured them on the podcast a few times and keep going back to their tracks for more (well worthy of the repeat listen). The track itself, Present Of Future End, can be found on Playlist Mix 7 and also features in the intro/outro tune for the podcast.

Check them out on MySpace here and go buy their tunes! Click below to play / download Present Of Future End.