We first wrote about The Sunshine Underground (pictured right) a couple of years back, loving their infectious tunes. They’ve taken a step back from the limelight of late, recording their follow up, which is almost ready thankfully.

They’ve kindly offered us a free MP3 to offer you, which won’t be appearing on their new album – to describe it, think Klaxons, but with a northern heart. Download and enjoy.

MP3: The Sunshine Underground & FC Kahuna – From The City To The Sea

We wrote about Daniel Merriweather a couple of weeks ago, and his marvellous new single, “Change” is out now. The below video is a great one with the Ozzie talking about his single from the studio and his live show at London’s YoYos night in Notting Hill

Manchester lads Starsailor (pictured top), have a new album out on 9th March, which sounds good. I loved “Silence is Easy” back in the day, and hopefully this new one will be a return to form. We’re very fortunate in being able to give you a free download of a live version of “Boy in Waiting”, below.

MP3: Starsailor – “Boy In Waiting” (Live At The Hard Rock Cafe)

Finally, something a bit different. Norwegians Casiokids have a great new song which, for some crazy reason, reminds me of Mr. Oizo’s Flat Beat, even though they sound nothing alike. I’ve been listening to this on and off for a few days, quietly building on me. Catch the video and an MP3 of the track below.

MP3: Casiokids – Fot i Hose

The amount of emails we’ve been getting this past week has been quite something – so many new opportunities, great bands getting in touch, and some quite bizarre questions too (including one genius who asked if TGTF was a “music website”…. erm, last time we checked it was!)

First up, Daniel Merriweather (pictured top) has a new single out on February 2nd. Recognise the name? Yes, it’s him from “Stop Me”, Mark Ronson’s massive hit. He’s got a great voice, and he’s embarking on a solo career at the moment, starting with “Change”, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming “Love & War” album. I have a feeling I’m gonna have this stuck in my head, much like “Stop Me”. Watch the video below, and fall in love with him…

Some of you may have spotted that iTunes have announced a new flexible pricing scheme for their music, and (perhaps the biggest news story) have ditched the irritating copy protection from their songs (Guardian news story here). It seems to have been hailed by just about everyone, with Popjustice commenting “Does this DRM-free thing mean that people have now totally given up on the idea of revenue through music sales?” (Twitter). We7’s CEO Steve Purdham (who we first mentioned last week) hailed the news by commenting that “the spectrum of choice for music lovers is now greater than ever before and the stage is set for 2009 to really open the boundaries of digital music consumption”. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Coming up on There Goes The Fear, we’re going to catch a preview screening next week of a new MTV show about Pete Doherty, and we’ll be bringing you a live review of the Kerrang! Relentless tour after the 20th when we catch the tour in Oxford. We may also be catching Keane in February, and possibly the Gaslight Anthem too. Yes, it’s all go.

As ever, if anyone wants to write for TGTF please don’t hesitate to contact us – tell us a bit about yourself, and we’ll take it from there.