Kevin Bronson on January 26th, 2009

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Dispatch from the Midwest: Casey Meehan [left], the Chicago-based artist who launched the online music distributor that offered free downloads of Jay Bennett’s album last year, today releases the album by his new project, Jitney. The album, “86-300,” is available for free at Rock Proper.

Jitney’s album – which is quite a tour de force – was inspired by two long years Meehan spent as a graveyard-shift taxi driver in Chicago (“86-300” was the number on his chauffeur’s license). It’s one of 12 albums Rock Proper is offering for free, with three more (including a new one by David Vandervelde, who cameos on Jitney’s album) on the way in coming months. Also recommended: Meehan’s previous album, “Violet,” and the self-titled album by (ex-Lying in States) Kleinfelter. Good stuff.

All this for free? “The main strategy behind the site is to get the music out there and embrace the technology of today,” Meehan says via e-mail. “My friends have been making a ton of good music and with the site we can be more immediate, more green and more widely heard than with our previous options.”

Bennett [right], the ex-Wilco multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, released his fifth post-Wilco album, “Whatever Happened I Apologize,” late last year via Rock Proper. He also recently announced that he is finishing off some previously unreleased songs by his original band, Titanic Love Affair – which makes those of us who knew their three albums (1991-96) fairly giddy.

Here’s a taste, and the links:

||| Stream: Jitney’s “Love Draws Blood” [audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/wnjjzxnmzgf/Jitney_Love Draws Blood.mp3]

||| Download: “86-300”

||| Stream: Jay Bennett’s “How Dull They Make the Razor” [audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/ezydmm2xgmn/Jay Bennett_How Dull They Make the Razor.mp3]

||| Download: “Whatever Happened I Apologize”

||| Flashback stream: Titanic Love Affair’s “Pull You Through” (1996) [audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/mwdzm1z3ymz/Titanic Love Affair_Pull You Through.mp3]