Free Music Friday

Having gone absent without leave last week – the sun was shining so we headed to Howth – Free Music Friday is back with a seriously bumper collection of tunes, videos and trailers from all over this wonderful rock 'n' roll planet of ours.
For any Sons and Daughters of Albion who are FMF-ing today, we hope it eases the pain of having Dave 'n' Sam back in No. 10 for another five years.
Making Team Hot Press extremely happy is the three-track acoustic set, which Swedish troubadour José Gonzalez treated American NPR listeners to last week. Begging to be iTuned, 'Open Book', 'With The Ink Of A Ghost' and 'Every Age' are very persuasive reasons to rush out and buy his Vestiges & Claws album.

Editors – we've told you before, there is no the – return to the Dublin Olympia on October 10, with tickets priced €33 on sale now. Whet your appetite for the gig by downloading ace new track 'No Harm' from [link]editorsofficial.com[/link]
Having exclusively streamed it a couple of weeks back, Hot Press is delighted to bring you the video accompanying 'Skies', the debut single from young Killarney talent Amano. Catch her live on May 9 when she plays a Ceol Collective showcase in MVP, Harold's Cross, Dublin with Nella, Allie Blunnie, The Last Garcias, Alan Marshall and Steve Duffy.

Free Music Friday's old mucker Gavin Glass trails his Sunday Songs album – due on May 22, pop pickers – with 'Better Left Alone'. The Lisa Hannigan band member, Chas & Dave collaborator and much in demand producer has never in our humble opinion sounded better.

Team Hot Press is extremely taken with Born Under Saturn, the sophomore effort from Django Django whose ranks include Derryman Vincent Neff. Starting with a burst of '60s psychedelia, it then strays into surf rock, 'Blue Monday'-era New Order, Kraut, techno, industrial and blatant pop territory. A definite candidate for Album of the Year.
Also rather splendid and back streaming is the latest from And So I Watch You From Afar, Heirs.


To the rest of the streams now and [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] is also the go-to place for Crocodiles, King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard, Giant Sand, METZ, Rose Windows, Todd Rundgren, Nosaj Thing, The Holydrug Couple, George FitzGerald and Walls; [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] spoils us with offerings from moonlighting Battles man Tyondai Braxton, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Joanna Gruesome, Surfer Blood, Patrick Watson, Torres and the object of Morrissey's considerable affection, Buffy Sainte-Marie; Blanck Mass, AKA Fuck Buttons' Benjamin John Power, has the excellent Dumb Flesh previewed at [link]www.theguardian.com/music/series/album-streams[/link] and alt. folk darlings The Weather Station are this week's [link]www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=3&[/link] pick.
We're starting to think that Carlow's Auxiliary Phoenix is actually one of four quadruplet bedroom electronica merchants. How else to explain his phenomenal output? New this week is the video for the illab-assisted 'Running In Circles', which is one of his best yet.

Cult Canadian Jim Guthrie gifts us Home Is Where The Rock Is 1995, a retrospective collection which includes the most deliciously lo-fi version of Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' you'll ever hear.

Fresh from a cameo at the recent Levon Helm tribute night in the Sugar Club, The Strypes have released their Flat Out EP. Along with lead track 'Scumbag City', it includes 'Eighty-Four' and the quartet's suitably raucous rendition of the MC5's 'Kick Out The Jams'. Bag yourselves a copy now on iTunes.

Gavin James was coolness personified this week when he appeared on CBS' new(ish) Late Late Show with James Corden. Equipped with nothing more than his trusty acoustic, he performed 'The Book Of Love' with no visible signs of being concerned about the 20 million folks watching at home. The show's other guests were Arnold Schwarzenegger and comedienne Whitney Cummings.

Maverick Sabre makes us even more dementedly eager for this new album of his with the ace vid for 'Walk In To The Sun'.

If you've yet to sample the musical delights of TORRES, let us point you in the direction of her A Strange Hello primer, which features tunes from both her self-titled debut and its just released Sprinter successor. Known better to the American taxman as Mackenzie Scott, the 24-year-old has a remarkable voice that swoops, soars and generally makes us feel all gooey inside.


Also new and highly recommenced from Noise Trade is Feel It All, 11 slices of quality Banks-esque atmospheric pop from Atlanta's cap-loving CLAWS.


It's a Free Music Friday "howaya!" to Le Pie, an Australian songstress whose 'Secrets' single is a thing of free fuzz pop beauty.

Robot dancing from 1984, crowd surfing at Kasabian and now cameo-ing in the video for Peace's 'Gen Strange'; Stoke City striker Peter Crouch is a footballer with impeccable indie rock credentials. As for the rest of the promo, we're not sure if the Worcester quartet's motorbike riding conforms to Irish Health & Safety standards. Not wanting to do any proper work today, we've found a few other vids featuring professional footie players.

Finally, Hot Press Hit The North favourite Arborist has premiered the video for 'Twisted Arrow', a gorgeous slice of strings-drenched Americana featuring a guest vocal turn from Kim Deal. A sweetly melancholy affair, the promo is directed by Stephen Agnew.

And with that, Free Music Friday mounts its steely white charger and gallops off into the sunset, AKA the pub. Keep those links coming to @stuartclark66