The kindly old beardos in Toronto’s Great Lake Swimmers are just one of many bands jumping on the Internet bandwagon

Music lovers were spoiled during September with the overwhelming amount of quality albums released. A quick look at October and November release schedules reveals that listeners’ bank accounts are more likely to run dry before the wealth of music slows to a manageable trickle. Of course, marked-up record stores are no longer the only place to legally acquire good music. More and more artists are dumping their releases on the Internet for the world’s listening pleasure. Here are a few of the better, free, legal works currently inhabiting cyberspace.

• May or May Not — A Kaleidoscope of Egos (www.thehoodinternet.com/2007/09/hood-vs-musical-instruments.html)

DJs STV SLV and ABX have been making quite a name for themselves in online circles as mash-up kings The Hood Internet for almost a year now. The duo also play in May or May Not. The band is a far cry from their Hood gig mixing current hip hop and R&B hits with instrumentals from some of indie rock’s best recent releases, but still employs the same “anything goes” attitude. A Kaleidoscope of Egos puts its roots down in mildly psychedelic, jangly guitar pop, but has branches that reach into shoegaze, ’90s grunge and even the jubilant territory of Phil Spector girl groups.

Though Kaleidescope is a worthwhile listen in its own right, STV SLV and ABX are undeniably at their best when playing with bastard pop. They recently released The Hood Internet vs. The Pack (www.thehoodinternet.com/2007/08/hood-internet-vs-pack.html) a track-by-track remix of The Pack’s Skateboards and Scrapers, featuring backing tracks from the likes of Chromeo, Caribou and Hot Chip. Additionally, The Hood Internet Mixtape Volume One (www.thehoodinternet.com/2007/06/mixtape-volume-one.html) is probably the artistic peak of bastard pop to date. Heck, mixing Dizzee Rascal’s “Fix Up, Look Sharp” with Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna have Fun” alone makes up for all those terrible “Bittersweet Symphony” mash-ups lurking in cyberspace.

• Black Kids — Wizard of Ahhhs (http://www.myspace.com/blackkidsrock)

Most people are probably getting sick of a bunch of amateur musicians haphazardly recording some demos, throwing them onto a MySpace page and becoming overnight sensations — even if only on the Internet — but Black Kids, whose debut Wizard of Ahhhs is only available on the social network site, are worth the fuss. The four-song EP is bursting with endless hooks rolled into Wolf Parade-like synth rock with vigorously shouted gang vocals and processed strings that would fit in comfortably on an old soul classic. The endless cheer of Wizard of Ahhhs can get a little tiring, but it’s an interesting listen and is free, making it well worth hazarding MySpace’s perils.

• Great Lake Swimmers — Live From the Church of the Redeemer EP (www.nettwerk.com/forms/goto.jsp?link_id=635)

Awhile back, Toronto’s folk darlings Great Lake Swimmers recorded their performance in front of a capacity crowd at the Church of the Redeemer. Nice guys that they are, the band decided to give the recordings away for free in the form of a five-song EP.

Though live albums often aren’t worth the bother, Great Lake Swimmers’ delicate folk actually benefits from the live treatment. On record, front man Tony Dekker’s lyrics can sound hollow, but here his voice is a perfectly haunting match to the band’s laid-back instrumentation. Basia Bulat and Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet also show up to flesh things out a bit, adding backup vocals and violin layers that combine to make the Church of the Redeemer EP arguably the best example of the Swimmers’ charm.

• Southerly — Song-A-Week project (http://www.songaweek.greydayrecords.com/)

Portland singer-songwriter Krist Krueger, who goes by the name of Southerly when making music, has recently embarked on an ambitious project only really possible thanks to the powers of the Internet. Krueger plans to write, record and post a song a week for the remainder of 2007, a feat which brings to mind Bishop Allen’s EP-a-month project of last year. To date Krueger has posted a month’s worth of material. He doesn’t deviate much from standard folk-rock territory, but each song is surprisingly well formed and rich considering the limited gestation period.

Oh yeah, there’s also this band named Radiohead that is releasing its latest album, In Rainbows (www.inrainbows.com), online as of October 10. Though not technically free, the download costs however much the buyer deems appropriate. Apparently, the band’s supposed to be decent.