* Experimental Milwaukee singer-songwriter Jay Flash adds his name to the list of local musicians who have released free albums online this week, posting his new LP-length EP Property Is Theft to his Bandcamp page. This one's a stunner, an amorphous psych-folk set that balances electronic minimalism with lavish, outsider pop, reinventing itself with each track. Highly recommended.
* Recorded music isn't the only kind being offered for free, either. Seizure Chicken and Battlecry promotions are also embracing the city's favorite price point with a free monthly music series at the Irish Pub in the Third Ward. It begins on Tuesday, Nov. 9 with a performance from the Philadelphia indie-pop band The Powder Kegs. The Chicago guitar-pop group Young Man plays the Dec. 14 installment.
* If all that money you're saving is burning a hole in your pocket, consider kicking some to WMSE 9.17, which is hosting its fall pledge drive through Nov. 12. And make sure you tune in. Where most public radio stations treat pledge drives as a joyless necessity, WMSE uses them as an excuse for some very ambitious themed programming.
* Old-school hip-hop resurrectors Dope Folks have begun taking orders for their third release, a reissue of a long-lost 1989 single by Chicago's Ruthless Rod & MC Dollar, "Loud As a Banshee"/"1 - 1," which includes an unreleased third track. You can hear one of the tracks, a scratch-heavy cut in the Eric B. & Rakim mold, on YouTube.
* New York/Milwaukee rapper Signif is prepping a new EP, Significant Wi(z)dom, for release next month, but first she's premiered a new video for a cut off her last album, "Drifting." Directed by Darren Cole and filmed around New York's transportation hubs, it's embedded below.
