While the legality of these sites is in question, there’s some seriously great punk, new wave, no wave, metal, and a who lot of indie music to be found if you have a bit of patience. Paying for a RapidShare account might be a good investment too if you really want to make good use of your downloading time.

There’s a whole lot of 7″ records and EPs from bands that aren’t around any longer, or that were barely regionally popular. There are those items that I recognize from bands that made a bit of a splash; I even saw a copy of a SNFU EP on one of the sites today and a couple other West Coast and Pacific Northwest compilations of hardcore music.

Commercial Zone

• Einstürzende Neubauten


• Chris Connolly (Revolting Cocks, Pigface, etc)


• The Adverts


• The Damned

Thee Head Veins

• The Mummies ‘Shitsville’ 7″


• Iggy and the Stooges ‘I’m Sick Of You!’


• all sorts of psychedelia, R&B and early rock and roll

Seeeingred

• Black Flag


• Varukers


• A Global Threat


• Beastie Boys (they were hardcore punk at one time)


• Tons of singles including SNFU, nunfuckers, Government Issue, Dr. Know, MDC, Subhumans (not sure which one…), Exploited, Varukers, Casualties, etc etc etc. Another slightly more recent post has another armload of 7″ music you’re unlikely to find in any other way.
  

Licentious and Dissolute

• Butthole Surfers


• Dope, Guns and Fucking in the Streets


• The Residents


• Sonic Youth


• Crass


• Swans

I’ve barely tapped these, and I’m really surprised to see singles that I own from obscure regional bands appearing on this list. You know, when you’re sure that you’re the only person who ever heard of this band, and you own one of 300 chunks of vinyl they released in 1986? Yeah, well, I’ve found a couple of those on these sites.