MusicMonday: Olympic Performances, Pearl Jam Update and Free Downloads

Olympic Performances

Was it just me or were most of the performances at last night's closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics really bad? Canada may have won the most gold medals -- but some of the nation's accomplishments were tarnished by the music that followed. The Olympic committee should have ended the day on a high-note for the country -- right after their victory over the U.S. in hockey. Performances included:

• Inward Eye -- with a rendition of their song "Day After Day"
• Neil Young, who took center stage with just his guitar and harmonica to croon "Long May You Run"
• A trio of young Canadians -- pop star Nikki Yanofsky, singer/songwriter Derek Miller and "Canadian Idol" winner Eva Avila -- joined together to perform "Let's Have a Party," a song written especially for the games
• Michael Bublé, who sang "The Maple Leaf Forever"
• Avril Lavigne, who sang her hits “My Happy Ending” and “Girlfriend”
• Nickelback, who sang "How You Remine Me" and "Burn It to the Ground"
• Alanis Morissette, who sang "Wunderkind"
• Marie-Mai, who sang "Emmene-moi"
• Hedley, who sang "Cha-Ching"
• Simple Plan, who sang "Your Love is a Lie"

Pearl Jam Update

It's official -- I will be heading down to New Orleans for the second weekend of Jazz Fest to see the headliners, Pearl Jam! Yes, the scope of the festival has broadened to include rock acts, but I'll be looking forward to lots of authentic jazz while there, too. Here is a list of acts performing at the festival this year. Meanwhile, check out this awesome fan video of the Pearl Jam song, "Unthought Known:"




Free Downloads

Here are this week's free offerings:

• More than 20 concerts by Metallica from 1982-2003 are available here.
• Download "Seven" from the Dave Matthews Band here.
• Compliments of Amazon, comes singles "Detroit City" from Alice Cooper here and "Wake Up!" from Shooter Jennings & Hierophant here. Links for other free downloads from Amazon appear below.
  
• Like the songs from the Lincoln commercials? Well now you can download four of them here -- including the Shiny Toy Dogs' version of "Major Tom."
• Download "Enchanted" by the Moonlighters here.