Don Caballero and Ill Lit

If you have not picked up the new Don Caballero, do.  It’s a new
lineup, but the same drummer (could they be Don Cab without him? Nah) 
They actually venture into the mellow, but not often.  They’ve still
retained that frantic, heavy metal drumming and dual laser guitar
counter punch.  It’s the kind of album that will help you get up the
hills and home on your bicycle.  You must buy their new album, World Class Listening Problem! 
Boy, you’ld think they paid me to say that.  They didn’t even send
me a CD for review!  This is how much I love them.  Free
press and of course, free songs here:

Don Caballero : Savage Composition
Don Caballero : Mmmmm Acting, I love Me Some Good Acting

The
older I get, the softer the music gets.  Maybe I went too heavy on
the heavy early on, but mellow music aka ’sad bastard’ tunes are
finding their way into my record collection more and more.  I
haven’t lost love for the ‘rock’, but instead I’m learning to listen to
’songs’ as opposed to angst (except I am heavily listening to the
amazing new Don Caballero).  Here’s a nice electronic-country, cali-band called Ill Lit and here’s what others say:

Containing
the best elements of Rock, vintage Americana and electronic cut and
paste sonic pastiches, “i need you.”, ill lit’s second full length
release on Badman, finds songwriter D. Ahearn continuing to explore the
borders of country, pop and electronic music. Forging forward from the
lo-fi junkyard electronics of ill lit’s debut WACMusic, i need you.
takes musical detours in every direction. Combining infectious keyboard
riffs, 808 beats and a lachrymose acoustic finger picking style, ill
lit tap into an edgy, dark layer of earth just beneath the freeways of
an urban, beat-driven Los Angeles.

Here are some free tunes from their 2004 recording I Need You on Badman.  They have a new album coming out called Tom Cruise (oh my).

Ill Lit : Spring Chicken
Ill Lit : Freeway
Ill Lit : Preston Rules