When not chain-watching sport – it really has been a rugby GAA footietastic week – Free Music Friday has managed to assemble an equally adrenaline-fuelled selection of downloads, streams, videos and trailers. Here's hoping Ireland and England do the World Cup business again over the next 48 hours, with a fully fit Robbie Henshaw living up to the high standards we demand of all Hot Press cover stars.
Our favourite FMF thing this week is the download EP the Gang Of Four are giving away in tandem with North American tour mates The New Regime. Bag yourself a copy below and let us know if you manage to catch them Stateside!

Having played Electric Picnic blinders on both stage and in the Hot Press Chatroom, CHVRCHES are streaming their eagerly-awaited Every Open Eye album. We have to say we're loving every electropop second of it!

It's been 15 years in the making, but Don Henley's Cass County album justifies every second of that long gestation period. It's a star-studded affair with Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Dolly Parton, Lucinda Williams, Lee Ann Womack, Trisha Yearwood, Alison Kraus, Vince Gill, Merle Haggard and Mick Jagger all on the guest-list. While predominantly a return to his Texan country roots, the Eagles man also gets to rock out on more than one occasion!

The American NPR streaming doesn't end there though with equally essential offerings from Eagles Of Death Metal, Born Ruffian, Wavves, Deafhaven, new maverick on the block Autre Ne Veut and Childbirth, a punky Seattle trio who take absolutely no prisoners.


 

Hot Press is loving the mini-documentary former Rags man Daniel Anderson has made to accompany his Patterns album. Directed by Colm Russell of Eyebrowy fame – bring it back, we say! – Door To Door Sales Will Save The Industry finds the Finglas man knocking on doors and trying to convince the people who open them to part with twenty for a vinyl and CD bundle of his solo debut.
As well as selling a fair few dozen that way, this back-to-basics marketing approach caught the eye of Ryan Tubridy who invited him on to last week’s Late Late Show.
“It’s just about to come out,” he says in the video, “but I’ve no money, no record label and nowhere to sell it, So, I’ve decided to take things into my own hands.”
As for the music, anyone partial to quality maverick pop – Neil Hannon, Conor J. O’Brien, Ben Folds, Ray Davies etc etc – will love it.


The Academic comprehensively do the business with 'Northern Boy', their new single which went down a storm recently at Electric Picnic. The Mullingar outfit have also confirmed an October 23 hometown show in The Fence with tickets priced €14.

A chance online encounter has resulted in this fabulous line dancing video for 'Getting Ready To Get Down', the flagship single from Josh Ritter's Sermon On The Rocks album, which is available worldwide from October 16 in lots of lovely bundles. 

There's more music video goodness from Ash whose 'Machinery' clip finds Tim Wheeler looking extremely dapper. A class tune, it has us seriously pumped up for their Irish dates before Christmas.

It really is all about Glen Hansard this week with our old pal in promo-overdrive for the release of his Didn’t He Ramble album.
As well as playing a not-so-secret free gig on Wednesday in a disused Dublin 2 building – see the report elsewhere on hotpress.com – he recorded a session for CBS; also appeared on Canadian radio; chatted to the FaceCulture people, and was joined by John Sheahan of The Dubliners on a stunning version of LP standout ‘McCormack’s Wall’. It was shot in – where else? – Whelan’s with Myles O’Reilly directing.

There's a feast of quality alt. folk and Americana to be had on True North Essentials, a free – but you're welcome to tip! – sampler featuring the likes of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bruce Cockburn, The Wailin' Jennys and Catherine MacLellan.
Signing up to Editors' [link]show.co/ywPlCq9[/link] earns you a free download of 'Life Is A Fear', one of the standouts from their imminent In Dreams album.
Sam Smith’s eagerly-anticipated James Bond theme, ‘Writing’s On The Wall’, has received its world premiere at [link]play.spotify.com/album/0iOC24pLNQ6BsEU74GuhNe[/link]
As expected, it’s dramatic stuff with falsetto delivered lines like: “If I risk it all/Could you break my heart?/How do I live?/How do I breathe?/When you're not here, I'm suffocating” accompanied by a wall of sound orchestra.
“I’ve been dreaming of this moment for a long, long time,” the singer tweeted earlier this morning.
With Disclosure on production duties, it’s a thoroughly British Bond affair, which will accompany new 007 mission, Spectre, in late October.
Josh Ritter continues to drip feed us tunes from his new Sermon On The Rocks album, which drops on October 16.
The latest, ‘Homecoming’, can be heard at [link]thewildhoneypie.com/josh-ritter-cements-his-poet-status-on-new-track-homecoming-premiere[/link] 
“Josh Ritter continues to be one of the best songwriters, storytellers and musicians I’ve ever heard,” reads one of the reactions and who are we to argue?


And that is your Free Music Friday lot for another week. If you've a killer tune you'd like featured next time out send the link to @stuartclark66 and we'll do the rest!