Free Music Friday

Sorry, Valentine’s Day, but not wanting to be complete anti-luuuuurve grouches, let us point you in the rosemantic direction of Heard On TV – Volume II, a collection of the knee-tremblers that have soundtracked the likes of Vampire Diaries, Dallas, The Middle and Pretty Little. And if in nine months time as a result of listening there’s a happy event, don’t forget to invite us to the christening!

Meanwhile, middle-aged hipster mums will be all discombobulated – in a good way! – by Vampire Weekend’s cover of ‘Con Te Partiro’, the song popularised by Andrea Bocelli. It’s on an alternative Valentine’s Day album available Stateside in Starbucks and also featuring the likes of Fiona Apple, Ben Harper and Phosphorescent.

Our favourite Free Music Friday thing this week is Suzanne Vega’s NPR acoustic download set. Along with the New Yorker’s two trademark tunes, ‘Luka’ and ‘Tom’s Diner’, there’s a brace from her new Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles album.
The guy strumming away with Ms. V is Gerry Leonard, the former Hinterland man who relocated from Dublin to NYC a few years ago, and is also David Bowie’s musical director.

FMF’s getting up early last Saturday was rewarded with the live stream of The National’s sensational Sydney Opera House gig. Curtains closed and a cheeky cork popped, we were treated to 2hrs 20mins of long distance shivers as Matt and the chaps well and truly whetted our appetites for their Dublin, Cork and Galway shows this summer.
The good news if you were still festering away in bed, is that the show has been archived.

[link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] kicks this week’s streaming action off with Temples, Cheatahs, Sunn O))) & Ulver, The Jezabels, Mark Maguire, People’s Temple, Planningtorock, The Cosmic Carnival, Crosses, Mark Maguire and Fanfarlo among those previewing their new records; Phantogram, Lost In The Streets, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Lydia Loveless, Angel Olsen, AJ Davila and Cibo Matto are all hanging out at [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link]; depending on where you and your computer live [link]albumstreams.com[/link] has upfront listens to Nina Nesbitt, Vales, Farao, Butcher Knives, Mirah, Junius, Conor Oberst, Shocking Pinks, The Tontons, New Bums, Beverly, BO, Tegan & Sara, Eric Bellinger, The Doppelgangaz, Acid Arab, SHINES, Dawn Landes, Neneh Cherry and a whole lot more and [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link] is the go-to place for Guided By Voices’ fabulous Motivational Jumpsuit.

Talking of Temples, there’s also a free [link]wxrt.cbslocal.com/2014/02/13/download-shelter-song-by-temples[/link] tune to be had, which reminds us of The Mamas & The Papas. Which is always a good thing!

You have from 4pm Irish time today until 5pm tomorrow to download the entire De La Soul back catalogue at [link]www.wearedelasoul.com[/link]
All of which is bringing back very happy memories of their partylicious Friday night headliner last year at Indiependence.

Imelda May is gifting fans the title-track from her Tribal album, which is out on May 30 and followed in June by Irish dates. Waiting for you at [link]zaphod.uk.vvhp.net/vvreg/8791-327409[/link] it’s a real rockabilly stomper, which suggests the Liberties’ favourite daughter is going back to her club roots.
That’s also the vibe we’re getting from the accompanying teaser video.

Ahead of his headlining turn at Good Friday’s prohibition-busting Barn Dance VII, Welsh house don Jamie Jones has a couple of tunes that require a mere [link]www.facebook.com/jamiejonesmusic/app_220150904689418[/link] ‘like’ to add to your iTunes library.

Having been musically MIA for a couple of years, Brody Dalle returns with ‘Meet The Foetus/Oh The Joy’, the fearsome first taster from her as yet untitled solo album.

We’re very much liking this live in the studio track from Galway’s VOIDS, ‘Crash & Burn’.
The glacially cool duo are Alison McDonnell-White – posh! –and Andrew Madec.
It’s the first in a regular series of videos from Unit1 TV, which is part of the Nanu Nanu empire.

Also putting a smile on FMF’s face is album number three from Ottawa singer-songwriter Kalle Mattson whose magnificently titled Someday, The Moon Will Be Gold can be checked out at [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link]

One of the stars of last weekend’s Other Voices Derry, Gabriel Paschal Blake, has a demo version of ‘My Father The Undertaker’ available for your free delectation.
A mere 17-years of age, the Letterkenny singer-songwriter also plays guitar with Jamaican Vampires and ‘fesses to being influenced by Villagers, The Tallest Man On Earth and Arctic Monkeys.
We have to say he has it all going on!

SOAK enlists the help of her bezzies, and Derry, on the video for new single ‘Blud’, which drops on Chvrches’ Goodbye Records on Paddy’s Day. We’re a bit miffed though that we didn’t get an invite to the skate party in the car park!
Meanwhile, Cavan Town Hall is the star of the clip for The Strypes’ ‘Hard To Say No’ 45 (we still think in imperial music measures!)
Those Christmas shows of theirs look every bit as manic as we heard they were!

And the new Irish videos keep on coming… Halves have a suitably atmospheric clip of them performing ‘Drumhunter’ in the womblike confines of Bow Lane, Dublin 2’s ‘Asylum’ studios. Warning: contains hipster beards!

Kevin Nolan teams up with Julie Feeney on ‘Aubade’, the first single from his debut Frederick & The Golden Dawn album, which are out respectively on March 3 and 31.
Described by author Rob Doyle as “a seething cauldronful of the literary, the theatrical, and the gothically flamboyant, seasoned with a smattering of infernal burlesque”, Nolan plays all the instruments on the song himself.

Cronin have a new promo for their ‘Bury Me By Your Side’ single, which includes glimpses of guest fiddler Steve Wickham, a recent Olympia Theatre gig, a very posh roundhouse, time-lapse flowers, a dolphin and lots of swans. It’s lifted from their In Loneliness Lives Love EP, which is available for free download.

Underground Australian dance label Pilerats – it doesn’t translate well! – has put together a nifty sampler featuring the likes of Odesza, Electric Mantis, Young Franco, Renz and Trippy Turtle who win the prize for best artist name.

Fresh from wowing Vicar St. and the Empire Music Hall, Anna Calvi premieres the video for her ‘Piece By Piece’ single. It’s a very colourful affair – you’ll see what we mean – with Ms. C doing things to her guitar, which frankly make us feel very jealous.

Ghost Estates, AKA Jeff Martin, has a new single, ‘The Morning Echoes’, available as a free download – and acers it is too.
Also streaming in its entirety is The Ocean From The River, Martin’s November 2013 album, which has just been released in the States and Japan.
When it comes to deliciously melancholic pop, you won’t find much better!

Actor and Other Voices anchor Aidan Gillen cameos as a chain smoking Guinness drinker – not overly stretching himself there! – in the video for I Draw Slow’s suitably festive ‘Valentine’. Its parent White Wave Chapel album follows later in the month,
The bar in question is the Hacienda on Dublin 7’s Little Mary Street, a Spanish-looking joint just a banana’s throw from the fruit market,

Hudson Taylor have recruited Liam McMahon – he of Snatch and Steve McQueen’s Hunger fame – to star in the promo for their ‘Weapons’ single, which drops on March 14 through Polydor.
Pop heartthrobs or not, the clip is seriously hard-hitting stuff and a reminder of the lyrical steel that lies behind their sweet melodies.

If it’s hipster hamsters you’re after, look no further than this beyond cute Windings video for the excellent ‘Neverwood’. The tune is taken from February 28’s split 12” vinyl album with Land Lovers, which is being co-released by Out On A Limb and Popical Island.
It works so well that we wouldn’t be surprised if the furry fivesome go solo. The genius behind the clip is one Garry Carroll.

We are mightily impressed with the four-track EP sampler from Leni Morrison, a Dublin chanteuse blessed with an extraordinary blue-eyed soul voice, and knack for penning a killer sultry tune. Expect big things of her!

Which brings the curtain down on another jam-packed and, despite our curmudgeonly reticence, damn romantic Free Music Friday. Here’s hoping the love extends beyond just today… In the meantime, keep those lovely links coming to @stuartclark66