The weekend beckons and with it a feast of outdoors music from The National and the dozens of artists who are Marlay-bound for Longitude. Veritable Padre Pios, we’ll be at both with reviews and lots of lovely photo galleries at [link]hotpress.com[/link].
When not being giddy with gig excitement, we’ve trawled the darkest recesses of the ‘net to bring you another jam-packed Free Music Friday. Let the good times roll…
Our favourite Free Music Friday thing this week is John Grant treating American National Public Radio to stripped down versions of ‘Where Dreams Go To Die’, ‘Sigourney Weaver’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter To Him’. Lightning strikes in the same place twice with an equally awesome set from Hank’s granddaughter Holly Williams.


Those of a metallurgic disposition will want to bag the Roadrunner Records 2014 Summer Sampler, which features a track apiece from the likes of Trivium, Stone Sour, Killswitch Enage, Gojira, Dream Theater, Opeth and Black Stone Cherry.


Also new and free - but you can tip! - from the Noise Trade stable are Clearing Stones, an eight-tracker from North Carolina alt. folker John Lucas and PUJOL, a Nashville resident whose hyperactive vid is direct by Police man Stewart Copeland. He both looks and sounds like a bubblegum pop Andrew WK, which is an extremely good thing!



To the streams and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] wants you to check out Fink, Electric Citizen, Sebastien Tellier, Fire! Orchestra, White Fence, Honeyblood, Watery Love, Paws, Trampled By Turtles, Soft Powers and DJ Maestro; Alvvays and Joyce Manor are the offerings at [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link]; [link]albumstreams.com[/link] has upfront listens to Lydia Ainsworth, Weird Al Yankovic, PS I Love You, Georgia, Oslo Parks, Dikembe, Vaults, Bear In Heaven, La Roux and Zero 7, but only in certain territories; [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link] is the go-to place for Dikembe, The Amazing Snakeheads, Liam Betson and the Hyperdub 10.2 compilation; the reconfigured version of Mogwai’s Come On Die Young can be feasted upon at [link]www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/14/mogwai-come-on-die-young-bonus-material-exclusive-stream[/link] and it’s quality as opposed to quantity at [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link] where you can check out the latest offering from Austin psych merchants The Black Angels.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers whet appetites for their new album by airing five of the tunes on Soundcloud.
The pick of the very good bunch is ‘American Dream Plan B’, which bears a striking resemblance at the start to Cameo’s ‘Word Up’. No, really!
Hypnotic Eye drops here on July 25.





The first trailer has been released for 20,000 Days On Earth, the Nick Cave mockumentary, which went down a storm at Sundance and goes on general release in September.
“Drama and reality combine in a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave,” reads the blurb. “With startlingly frank insights and an intimate portrayal of the artistic process, the film examines what makes us who we are, and celebrates the transformative power of the creative spirit.”

Mixtape of the Week goes to Adrian Marcel, the smooth Bay Area operator whose Weak After Next collection features Kelly Rowland, Casey Veggies, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Kirko Bangz and his mentor Raphael Saadiq.

Also gifting us new music is Waka Flocka Flame whose I Can’t Rap Vol. 1 includes his takes on Drake’s ‘0 To 100’ and Kanye’s ‘Blood On The Leaves’.

Kildare’s Kill City Defectors are back in action and streaming Drone, a rock ’n’ roll record of varying moods and lots of loud guitars.

US alt-rockers Spoon are letting you download their ‘Do You’ single for a limited period at http://found.ee/doyouxrt
Don’t dilly or, indeed, dally because it’s ace.

Walking On Cars have premiered the video for ‘Hand On Hand’, the title-track from their new EP which we’re expecting to make an Irish chart incursion over the coming weeks.
As is the Kerry outfit’s wont, it’s a massive stadium-filler of a tune with a chorus that Coldplay and the Kodaline boys would be proud of.

Damon Albarn was in exhilarating form last week when he played the Days Off festival in Paris.
His French isn’t the best, but he well and truly nailed the tunes from his Everyday Robots solo debut.
There are also some choice Blur, Gorillaz, Rocket Juice & The Moon and The Good, The Bad & The Queen tunes to, if not rock, sway along to.
Watch all 114 minutes here…

And with that, Free Music Friday slathers on the Factor 30 - we refuse
to countenance rain - and heads off for The National.