Free Music Friday

Our favourite Free Music Friday thing this week is the 12-track label sampler from the good folk at (PIAS), which includes Mew, Roisin Murphy, PINS, Hannah Cohen, Ezra Furman and Hooton Tennis Club among its bounteous delights.

Neil Young's rich vein of form continues with The Monsanto Years, which is the most melodic and upbeat we've heard Shakey in ages. We're also very taken with the new offerings from Vince Staples, Joy Williams' first album since de-coupling from The Civil Wars, The Velvet Teen and Matt Pond PA.





NPR also has quality acoustic download sessions from the Neil Young worshipping Timothy Showalter, AKA Strand Of Oaks, and Hop Along, a Philly freak folk outfit whose live acquaintance we're very much looking forward to making.


Returning to the streams and the new collections from Le Le, Chagall, The Orb, We Were Evergreen, Sean Taylor and Christopher Paul Stelling await at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link]
Cork's Young Wonder have done wonderful electro pop things to All Saints' 'Pure Shores'.

Also coming up with the SoundCloud goods this week are Here To Help You Out, winsome Dubliners who know how to push our jangly pop buttons.

From Florida come Stereodyssey with this rather lovely chillwave offering.

You probably know by now that Free Music Friday has a bit of a thing for Amano, the Killarney songstress whose take on Mic Cristopher's 'Listen Girl' makes us even more convinced that big things await her.

Little Hours come up trumps with this poignant diner-set promo for their 'Tired' single, which is produced by Andrew's filmmaking bro Jon Hozier Byrne. The Donegal duo are doubly in our good books by dint of them joining Damien Dempsey, Mundy, Mick Flannery and Walking On Cars in the INEC this weekend for the charity gigs that have sprung Phoenix-like from the ashes of the Killarney Festival.
“We're very disappointed to hear that the Killarney Festival isn't going ahead," them Walking On Cars boys say. "We've never cancelled a show before and we don't intend on starting now. We're putting on a show in the INEC on Saturday night. All of the proceeds will go to Cuan Counselling and the Tralee Oncology unit.”
A doff of the Hot Press headphones to everyone who's helped turn a negative into a big positive.

If you missed The Script's storming Croke Park show last weekend, fear not, because the whole glorious two hours can be relived below. Conor McGregor has nothing on Danny & Co. when it comes to making a big entrance!

You can also enjoy a sizeable chunk of U2's recent Vancouver show courtesy of some zoom-happy fans. Our man at the gig, Olaf Tyaransen, is right in saying that the chaps are tearing it up at the moment.

Heading down the coast to Seattle, the very fine KEXP Radio this week opened its studio doors to Palma Violets who were in top guitar-shredding form.

It's good bye and "thank you" to the wonderful Patrick Macnee, a man who considerably enriched Free Music Friday's younger years by playing John Steed in The Avengers. The proper one, not this superhero malarkey.


And that is almost your Free Music Friday lot for another week. We're decamping en masse tonight to Whelan's where tribute will be fulsomely paid to our fallen comrade George Byrne. Here are a couple of tributes, one from his media colleagues and the other from Richmond Fontaine who were good pals of Mr B's.

George Byrne – from Hot Press on Vimeo.