It’s easy to lose yourself in a sea of unsolicited e-mails. Sometimes you stumble upon something you definitely wouldn’t have had an unknown artist not made the approach. That was definitely the case with this afternoon’s message from Eric Zeiler of Brookyln based Xylos. After a few quick spins through their tracks on myspace, I downloaded their Bedrooms EP. Quickly rising to the top was the first track, “In The Bedroom,” grab it for yourself as a free and legal MP3 below. A refreshing and melodic listen that makes you forget the winter’s wrath is forthcoming.

Myspace: Xylos
MP3: Xylos – “In The Bedroom”
MP3: Xylos – “Yellow Flip Flops”

Today former Wilco member, turned soloist, Jay Bennett digitally releases Whatever Happened I Apologize. Excitement aside, it’s pretty nice that this release comes absolutely free. Head over to Rock Proper to download your copy today. “Rock Proper is an online music distributor providing free, high quality, album-length downloads with the legal consent of their creators.”

“It is stark, stripped down, and acoustic based—more so than any other record I have made. I really wanted to capture the simpler and more emotional nature of the songwriting, and I knew that the only way I could do this was to put it together quickly, with no second-guessing, and no heavy deliberating about minor details. Consequently I would have to learn to embrace the resultant imperfections—and I have. All of the vocals are done live to my own acoustic guitar accompaniment, so it has some “warts,” but, in my effort to not forsake integrity for technical perfection, the album ended up feeling more honest, immediate, naked, and cohesive to me. I am very proud of presenting myself without my typical voluminous bells and whistles. I am left wondering why I haven’t done this more often in the past.” – Jay Bennett

Myspace: Jay Bennett

Find more MP3′s at The Hype Machine or buy stuff from Strictly Discs | eMusic

Here are the Wisconsin and Chicago shows we recommend you take in this week. Check them out below and let us know which ones you’ll be attending or ones you think should really make our list.

Upcoming Wisconsin Shows:

11/26 – James Hunter/Susan Tedeschi – Northern Lights Theater, Milwaukee
11/29 – Think Floyd USA (The American Pink Floyd Show) – Shank Hall, Milwaukee

Upcoming Chicago Shows:

11/25 – El Guincho/Lemonade – Empty Bottle
11/26 – Kid Sister – Metro
11/28 – Nomo – Schubas
11/29 – Nada Surf – Metro

+Bookmark our Wisconsin and Chicago shows pages for all your concert announcements+

Last night The Avett Brothers headlined the Chicago Blues & Bluegrass Festival at the Congress Theater. Plenty of great discoveries and old-favorites. We’d love to hear from you about your favorite sets and any bands that took you by surprise. We’ll leave you with some pictures of The Avetts set from Erin Drewitz.

Myspace: The Avett Brothers
MP3: The Avett Brothers – “Will You Return?”
MP3: The Avett Brothers – “If It’s The Beaches”
MP3: The Avett Brothers – “Matrimony”
MP3: The Avett Brothers – “Swept Away”

Find more MP3′s at The Hype Machine or buy stuff from Strictly Discs | eMusic

There are a few records due next year that we’re pretty excited about. If you’ve had the good fortune of being in a venue completely silenced by power of William Elliott Whitmore, you’re probably just as anxious as we are about hearing some new material. Anti- will release Whitmore’s Animals In The Dark on February 17th, 2009.

That certainly seems like a long way off, but thankfully we’ve got the a taste of the record for you below. Grab a free and legal download of “Old Devils” that “highlights both a man fed up with the state of his union and an artist exploring another facet of his craft. The result is a very human, very timeless protest song told with Will’s signature old-soul voice and fervent acoustic guitar playing.”

MP3: William Elliott Whitmore – “Old Devils”

The Grateful Dead were known to bust out a cover song at most of their live shows. Many of them wrapped The Dead’s signature sound around an already popular composition. Today, I thought I would pull some favorites and new discoveries from the Live Music Archive. While there is a plethora of covers, dates, and versions to choose from, we’ll start you out with the ones below. Due to the large number and variety, it’s likely we’ll do several rounds of posts like these.

MP3: Grateful Dead – “Johnny B. Goode”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Day Tripper”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Gloria”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “All Along The Watchtower”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Hey Jude”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Bobby McGee”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Big River”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Mama Tried”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Wake Up Little Susie”
MP3: Grateful Dead – “Werewolves of London”