Free Music Friday

We don’t know what was more exciting this week – being treated to a playback of Arcade Fire’s remarkable Reflektor album or Eamon Dunphy’s rant after Noel King dared to question the wisdom of the RTÉ pundits.

You were but a shooting managerial star Noel, but Free Music Friday salutes you!

Getting back to rock ‘n’ roll business, and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] gets the streaming ball rolling with new albums from Red Fang, Teitur, NYPC, Crystal Antlers, Jonathan Wilson, Tim Hecker, Dr. Dog, Man Man, To Kill A King, Sleigh Bells and The Dismemberment Plan; Starlito & Don Trip, Patrick Cowley, Polica, Brandy Clark, Omar Souleyman and The Avett Brothers want you to sample their wares at [link]npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link]; Ducktails, DJ Rashad, James Ferraro, MØ and Special Request are hanging out at [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link]; [link]nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=0[/link] has the latest from JD Samson & MEN and Black Hearted Brother, the floppy-fringed supergroup featuring assorted ex-members of Slowdive, Mojave 3 and Seefeel, and [link]albumstreams.com[/link] has Kevin Devine, Polly Scattergood, Radical Face, Active Child, Palehound, The Can’t Tells, Future Of The Left, July Talk, Showrunners, Strange Atttractor, Dosh, Stano and Euros Childs among its embarrassment of riches.

Free Music Friday’s favourite thing this week is Goodbye Summer, a generously endowed name yer’ price sampler featuring the likes of Stars, Midlake, Gogol Bordello, Drive-By Truckers, Caitlin Rose, Alabama Shakes and loads more choice ATO Records acts.

“Stunning.” That’s the only word we can think of to describe ‘Cavalier’, the first taster from James Vincent McMorrow’s Post Tropical album, which drops in January.

Accompanied by a smouldering brass section, McMorrow delivers a vocal tour de force that’s more funk than it is folk and suggests he’s going to be a very big deal indeed next year.

Also new from them lovely Noise Trade people are a Pledge Music CMJ EP featuring two tracks apiece from Holychild and Hot Press Hot For 2013 picks Firehorse; a full-length set from psychedelically-inclined Canadians Elephant Stone and Black Joe Lewis, a rambunctious Black Keys/Jack White-loving Texan outfit whose EastSide Manor session is deliciously raw stuff.

Maxim takes time out from recording the new Prodigy album to drop this jungle-y Jay Z, Todd Terry and I Am Legion-encompassing mix.

Cop an earful of Matthew E. White’s new Eyes Like The Rest five-tracker at [link]rollingstone.com/music/news/matthew-e-white-shows-range-on-outer-face-ep-premiere-20131014[/link]; the American rock ‘n’ roll bible is also offering free Mansions, Blaenavon, Those Darlins, Halsted, Echosmith and Post Louis tunes at [link]rollingstone.com/music/daily-download[/link]; Motörhead show zero signs of mellowing on the [link]zumic.com/music-videos/aftershock-motorhead-album-stream[/link] stream of guitar-shredding new album Aftershock, and if it’s some Joy Division-style post-punkery you’re after look no further than these album preview giveaways from Italy’s Soviet Soviet.

LA trio Clipping justify the alt. rap hype with this stunning name your price album, which gets a live airing on October 28 in Dublin’s Twisted Pepper.

You mightn’t want him going out with your daughter, but there’s no denying that Chief Keef is Planet Rap’s hottest property at the mo. The Chicago teenager has just dropped his DJ Scream-assisted Almighty So mixtape, which explains why Kanye wanted him on his last album.

It’s somewhat less cheery on the legal front with 18-year-old Keith Cozart currently serving 18 months probation and undergoing random drug tests following a spate of arrests. Keef is also in trouble for not paying child support, with his next court appearance a week from today.

They Might Be Giants whet appetites for next month’s Belfast and Dublin shows with this free tune from their Nanobots album.

Much-fancied Swedish new wavers The Sounds treat us to the title-track from their Weekend album.

Tenonsaw return with a brace of free songs from their Avenging Angels EP, which drops next Friday and, as usual, is choc-full of electro-folk deliciousness.

Our favourite potty-mouthed lady NYC spitter – sorry, Azealia! – Angel Haze has a new tune awaiting your download delectation at [link]stereogum.com/1525761/angel-haze-worst-behavior-freestyle/mp3s[/link]. Her debut Dirty Gold album is allegedly out soon.

From the same source comes this introduction to free-sampling Saint Pepsi who offers up wonderful warm waves of sound at [link]stereogum.com/1524691/saint-pepsi-burn-stereogum-premiere/mp3s[/link]; loopy ear candy awaits at [link]stereogum.com/1525062/computer-magic-all-i-ever-wanted-demo/mp3s[/link] from Computer Magic, AKA Danielle Johnson who in a perfect world would be bezzies with Grimes and this freebie from Philly alt. pop label Weathervane Music whose star signings are jerky new wavers The So Slos.

We Cut Corners have debuted their new single – and a playful little blighter it is too! ‘YKK’ drops on November 25, and has us seriously looking forward to the follow-up to its parent album, which is due in the New Year.

Bruce Springsteen has recorded an ace cover of Suicide’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’ to accompany the end of Wrecking Ball tour video below.

There’s also a “thank you” letter on [link]brucespringsteen.net[/link] to “all the tramps and travellers” – a good 200,000 of them Irish – who made the trek so special.

It’s not downloadable – boo! – but nevertheless we’re loving this Washington DC gig by Bon Iver’s new outfit, Volcano Choir, who are Vicar St.-bound on November 9.

The whole of Jay Z’s Made In America concert doc is available for streaming.
Directed by Ron Howard and featuring cameos from Beyoncé, Run-DMC, Pearl Jam, Janelle Monae, Rita Ora and Skrillex – to mention just six! – it’ll hopefully ease withdrawal pains following Jigga’s Dublin O2 stormer.

Free Music Friday’s laissez-faire attitude towards the new Eminem album has totally changed after hearing ‘Rap God’, a six-minute epic that includes such glorious rhymes as: “But for me to rap like a computer must be in my genes/ 
I got a laptop in my back pocket
/ My pen'll go off when I half-cock it/
Got a fat knot from that rap profit
/ Made a living and a killing off it/ 
Ever since Bill Clinton was still in office/ 
With Monica Lewinsky feeling on his nut-sack
/I'm an MC still as honest
/But as rude and indecent as all hell.”

The fluency and speed of his raps suggests that The Marshall Mathers LP2, due here on November 1, is going to be a killer.

Sharon Corr has just released the video accompanying ‘Take A Minute’, the first tune to be lifted from her second solo album, The Same Sun.
Sharon has a Jackie O thing going on as she’s driven round in Barcelona in a very flash convertible.

Which is yer’ Free Music Friday lot for another week. Make sure to zap your links through to @stuartclark66 for our next orgy of zero euro, zero cent tunes!