Free Music Friday

As Ireland basks in almost 20 degrees of heat, Free Music Friday has rounded up a super-cool selection of new tune age which won’t cost you a cent.

One of our favourite FMF  things this week is the mixtape previewing July’s Forecastle festival in Louisville, Kentucky.
Among those featured are Local Natives, Flume, Lucius, Sun Kil Moon, Black Lips, Chrome Sparks, Benjamin Booker and our very own Foy Vance who’s making quite the name for himself Stateside.

Also new from Noise Trade is a three-tracker from recent Hot Press interviewee Ben Watt which comes bundled with a PDF of the first two chapters from his ace memoir, Romany And Tom.  If the name’s naggingly familiar but you can’t quite place it, he used to be one-half of Everything But The Girl.

Manic Street Preachers crank up the promo for their new Futurology album with a lyric video for ‘Europa Geht Durch Mich’, which features a cameo from German film star Nina Hoss. Awesome doesn’t even come close to describing it.

While going totally unplugged wasn’t an option, Chvrches were pretty stripped down when they dropped into NPR for one of their lovely free download sessions. Longitude-bound in July, the Glaswegians played, as is their wont, an absolute blinder.
There’s another new Tiny Desk Session from Timber Timbre, the Canadian swamp folkers whose new-ish Hot Dream album is a cracker.

This week’s streaming action starts at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] where new records from Eastlink, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Amen Dunes, Bird On The Wire, Black Bombalm, BadBadNotGood, Sean Nicholas Savage, The Horrors, Atmosphere and Folly & The Hunter await;  depending on where you and your electronic device are residing, [link]albumstreams.com[/link] can sort you out with Sharon Van Etten, Ed Scraeder’s Music Beat, Bob Dylan, The Everymen, Sworn Enemy, Seahawks, Anna Calvi, Tom Williams & The Boat and Princess Nokia; [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] offers pre-release listens to Conor Oberst, Jolie Holland, Yann Tiersen and Haley Bonar; over at [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link] there are upfront listens to The Roots, American Football, Traxman, Arto Lindsay, Emma Ruth Rundle, K. Leimer and Copeland; [link]www.theguardian.com/music/series/album-streams[/link] throw Blondie and Nick Mulvey into the mix and [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link] has a cracker from 81-year-old Jamaican reggae legend, Ernest Ranglin.

Mixtape of the Week honours go to Mac Miller who will let you have his Faces 24-tracker in return for making him a sandwich. All is explained at [link]oldjewish.com[/link]
With ScHoolboy Q, Sir Micheal Rocks, Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, Thundercat, Rick Ross, Vince Staples and Da$H among the guests, it’s a seriously full-on affair.

Running Mr. Miller a close second is Nas who comes up against Cookin Soul on his SoulMatic mix.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks are the latest indie types to drop by KEXP Seattle for a session and in fine form they were too.

Bitter Rocc has come up with an eye-catching promo for ‘Run These Rats out’, one of the standouts from his MMXIII album which having been released as an exclusive [link]hotpress.com[/link] free download last year makes it on to iTunes on May 30 in deluxe re-mastered form.

Mr. Rocc has also shot the video for ‘Left For America’, a gorgeous tune from alt. Northern Irish folkster Ciaran Lavery.
‘Left For America’ is taken from his Kosher EP, which has already caught the ear of Messrs McClean and Bailie at BBC Radio Ulster.
We’re expecting big things of this gentleman!

Our old pal Auxiliary Phoenix has come up with another stonking left-field electro tune, ‘Where Y’all At’, which will whet appetites for his Balii EP, which Little League Records release on June 13 in digital and cassette formats.

Free Music Friday is delighted to make the acquaintance of Women’s Murder Club, a psychedelically-inclined Dublin outfit who offer up a free taster from their soon-to-be-released Pop Music EP.

And that is your Free Music Friday lot for another week. We may come indoors for the Cup Final, but otherwise it’s all about topping up the tan. In the meantime, keep those links coming to @stuartclark66