Despite being plunged into sporting despair by the combined failings of Stuart Lancaster and Roberto Martinez's men - Romelu Lukaku's unfamiliarity with barn doors and how to hit them with banjos is depressing - Free Music Friday has come up trumps again with a joyous collection of downloads, streams and vids for you to enjoy while we cry big salty tears.
Our fave 21-year-old Carlow bedroom hip hop experimentalist - the field's more crowded than you think - Auxiliary Phoenix wants you to have all the instrumentals and acapellas from his High Elders collaboration. FMF has said it before and we'll say it again - the recent Hot Press interviewee is one talented dude! 

It's been another stoooopidly busy seven days over in Noise Trade Land with the charge lead by The Golden Hippie, a Phoenix, Arizona resident whose Flowers On The Sun EP is very much in thrall to Florence + The Machine; NYC's Grand Jury label have an eight-track sampler featuring the likes of What Moon Things, Seoul, Avid Dancer and Carl Barat & The Jackals who are allied to them in the States, and from Milford Haven, Wales we have Paper Aeroplanes, a boy/girl duo whose alt. rock has a bit of a countrified twang.
They're all free but, as usual, you're welcome to tip.





To the streams now and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] has the latest from Moon Duo, Eskmo, To Kill A King, Public Service Broadcasting, Vessels, Gang Of Four, The White Birch, Joker, Colleen Green, THEESatisfaction and The Black Marble Selection; Omar Sosa, Heems, Purity Rings, Andrew Coombs and Matthew E. White are this week's quality [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] fare; if you and your device happen to be in the right place, [link]albumstreams.com[/link] can sort you out with CaveofswordS, The Last Bison, Modest Mouse, Chilly Gonzales, Toro Y Moi, The Dear Hunter, Cherubs 2, Clare Maguire, Boots, Sarah Bethe Nelson, Morbid Evils, Never Young, Cannibal Ox and, ahem, Australia's Dick Diver, and [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link] brings up the rear with Evans The Death, the punkiest folksters - or should that be folkiest punksters? - we've heard in a long while.
Our friends at NPR also have an extraordinary download session from Dan Deacon and his phantom piano. Not half-bad either is the set they were treated to by Wisconsin mates of Justin Vernon's, Phox whose singer Monica Martin is an absolute star.


Over in Seattle, KEXP Radio want you to have free tracks from perky Californian popsters WATERS and Bonnie & The BANG BANG who also have a bit of a CAPS fixation. If it's quality studio sessions you're after look no further than Steve Earle whose patented brand of alt. country gets more grizzled by the day. Which is an entirely good thing!
[link]media.kexp.org/podcasts/songoftheday/media/2015-02-26_2368_waters_-_stupid_games.mp3[/link]

[link]media.kexp.org/podcasts/songoftheday/media/2015-02-26_2367_bonnie__and__the_bang_bang_-_every_new_love.mp3[/link]

Mixtape of the Week goes to Waka Flocka Flame whose The Turn Up The God Tour features some serious special guest-ry.

Noel Gallagher has released the first in a series of Chasing Yesterday interview vids. There's plenty of insight into why he's enjoying being a dictator rather than a democrat, and his High Flying Birds songwriting process. Of course, there's even more to be gleaned from the Noel interview on hotpress.com!

Superb the other night when we caught them in Limerick as part of the Guinness Amplify festivities, Dublin hip hoppers Dah Jevu have premiered their new 'Harebell Blues' single. A jazzy, four in the morning affair it features a guest turn from fellow Guinness Amplify showcase act Amano.

He's been keeping a low profile of late, but Ed Sheeran comes up for air with this BBC Radio 1 rendition of Christina Aguliera's 'Dirrty'. In case you're wondering, yes, we're being sarcastic!

Back to the vids and we're loving Stars' promo for 'Trap Door', which the band say proves that: "1 - Torq is a bit of a dick; 2 - Videos are made out of fear and 3 - Stars play great fucking rock shows." Mr. Campbell actually being a gent aside, we're in total agreement!

As part of the channel's St. Patrick's Day celebrations, BBC Four is devoting its March 13 schedule to Irish music. The component parts are An Intimate Portrait Of Sir James Galway, which is narrated by Jeremy Irons and features contributions from Melvyn Bragg, Riverdance composer Bill Whelan and the conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin; The Making Of Irish Rock - A Tale Of Two Cities, a Belfast-Dublin round up of the island's 10 biggest-selling acts, which includes Van Morrison, The Chieftains, Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, The Boomtown Rats, The Undertones, U2 and Sinéad O’Connor; a film about The Strypes who join the Sex Pistols, the Clash and Dr. Feelgood in being given the documentary treatment by Julien Temple, and Irish Rock At The BBC which starts with Thin Lizzy performing 'Whiskey In The Jar' in 1973 and doesn't let up until it gets to Mr. Hozier-Byrne. Here are some clips you may or may not be seeing as part of it!





10.30pm on Saturday night also finds BBC 2 screening Good Vibrations, the fabulous Terri Hooley biopic, which ranks alongside '71, Hunger and Some Mother's Son as one of the greatest Northern Irish films of all-time. Starring as the much-loved punk scenester is Game Of Thrones and Fortitude man Richard Dormer who talks extensively about Good Vibrations and his other acting adventures at [link]hotpress.com/archive/9786292.html[/link] 
Which is where a bottom lip wobbling Free Music Friday must take its leave of you for another week. If you'd like to be included in our next extravaganza fire a link to @stuartclark66