The Old 97’s Go All Kanye West, Decide To Offer Fans Free Music Once A Month Starting Today

OK, so it isn’t quite like what Kanye West did with his “G.O.O.D. Fridays” series, where he released new music unto the public every week. No, the Old 97’s aren’t doing that. But they are, as they did a few times late in 2010 when they offered up some old Too Far to Care and Ranchero Brothers demos for free, giving their fans some free songs to add to their playlists.

In the case of today, the launch date of the series called so cleverly “New Music Mondays,” the band is offering up a bootleg of a 2001 New York City solo show from frontman Rhett Miller — although, really, it’s not a completely solo show, as, a few songs into the set, guitarist Ken Bethea shows up and backs Rhett up for some songs, not too shabby.

Download the bootleg right here, and return to that same page every first Monday of the month, as that’s when the band plans on releasing unto its fans more and more material. Oh, and after the jump, check out the webmaster for the Old 97’s take on the performance. In that person’s words, the bootleg is “unique.” Is that good enough for you super fans? Better be.

This month, we’re kicking things off with a great bootleg of a Rhett Miller solo acoustic show at a little club called Fez under Time Cafe in New York City from 4/4/01. Rhett did a series of shows in this venue around this time period, back when he still lived in NYC. There’s probably a dozen of these bootlegs in circulation, each one offering the unique charm of a Rhett solo show, filled with old favorites and many new songs that went on to become favorites themselves. This particular show is unique in that a few songs in, Ken Bethea shows up to play along for several songs. If you’re a budding drummer, this is the show for you to practice along with.