Bar owners and hawkers of products on late night television have long known that the best way to grab the consumer's interest is to toss a freebie in his or her direction. The notion seems to be catching on with bands as well, particularly bands looking to rebuild audiences that have dwindled with the passage of time (and the emergence of new shiny pieces of foil competing for those ever-shorter attention spans).

With that in mind, both Aussie alt-rock veterans the Church and ambient-dance pioneers Saint Etienne have decided to package their new discs -- both, incidentally, on smaller labels than when they were previously seen on these shores -- with bonus discs containing full albums' worth of free material.

Although St. Etienne have made the somewhat surprising move over to Sub Pop, the trio hasn't swapped its airy approach for riff-laden testosterock: In fact, Good Humor, which is due out in two weeks, is probably its most ethereal release yet -- an ambience that fully flowers on the eleven-song add-on Fairfax High disc, which boasts forty-odd minutes worth of remixes and alternate takes of new material.

Not to be outdone, the guitar gurus in the Church have also tagged a bonus disc onto their forthcoming Hologram of Baal longplayer -- and theirs is a full hour's worth of in-studio jamming aimed at the navel-gaze set. It's titled Bastard Universe, and like the St. Etienne freebie, it's a limited edition that the folks at Thirsty Ear (the Aussies' new home base) will not make available anywhere else.

DAVID SPRAGUE