Free Music Friday

Bank Holiday Weekends are always things of wonderment, but when they're festooned with festivals, hell, we just want to sing and dance and suck every ounce of ambrosia out of life.
To help soundtrack your own singing/dancing/sucking, Free Music Friday has assembled another quality collection of downloads, streams, vids and trailers from the dark nest recesses of the 'net. 
Paul Weller was in ripsnorting acoustic form when he popped into American NPR this week. He performed three new tunes from Saturns Pattern - 'Dusk Till Dawn', 'I'm Where I Should Be' and 'Going My Way' - and a classic from 1995's Stanley Road, 'Out Of The Sinking'. By the way, Paul, don't think that the FMF Grammar Nazis haven't noticed the missing 'Saturns' apostrophe!

Veritably spoiling us this week, NPR also has soul sensation Leon Bridges' guest DJ slot and the new Josh Ritter single, 'Sermon On The Rocks', available for free download 

Twin Shadow generously invites you to bag a nifty Night Rally collection of demos and rarities from [nightrally.twinshadow.net/?
The Artist Also Known As George Lewis Jr. appears to have his mojo well and truly working again following a nasty bus crash.
Mixtape of the Week honours go to Erykah Badu whose magnificently-titled Feel Better, World! ... Love, Ms. Badu clocks in at 1h 23m and is quality from soul start to funky finish. 
Coming in a close second is that young scamp Machine Gun Kelly whose disgruntlement with his record company has resulted in Fuck It, a 10-tracker that pulls absolutely no lyrical punches.

FEEL BETTER, WORLD! ... LOVE, MS.BADU by Erykah She Ill Badu on Mixcloud

The New York Times outdoes itself this week with Greatest Hits Vol. 1, the debut offering from rock 'n' roll supergroup Teenage Time Killers whose members include Nick Oliveri, Corey Taylor and Dave Grohl (he just can't keep his beak out, can he?)
The hot streaming action continues at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] with Titus Andronicus, Ducktails, Seven Davis Jr. and excellent Oklahoman singer-songwriter Samantha Crain, and NPR (they've been busy this week, haven't they?) weigh in with newbies from industrial popsters Health, punky Brooklynites Worriers, the dark but delightful Chelsea Wolfe, Seattle surf rockers La Luz and Night Beds, a folky flight of fancy from Colorado Springs native Winston Yellen.




The pick of this week's Noise Trade bunch is Making Heads & Tails Of Wax & Gold, an album-length introduction to NYC's Tracey Bonham who's got a bit of a Lucinda Williams thing going on. Also available for free - but you're welcome to tip! - are a mini-LP from Nashville quirk popper KiND and Days Are Shorter, Nights Are Long, five very good reasons to fall for Detroit's Holly Miranda who sounds like Rilo Kiley kicking back with The xx.

It's audio only - boo! - but The Libertines sounded damn fine when they treated Annie Mac and BBC listeners to their first radio session in 11 years.

Aslan are back with a new single, 'Secret Smile', and an accompanying silent movie-themed video. It's the handiwork of longtime band associate Jim Gibbons whose previous clip for 'Crazy World' has been viewed over 600,000 times.

KEXP Seattle listeners were treated to a full-length set this week from Calexico, the Latino-loving Tuson outfit who were plugging their Edge Of Sun album. Interestingly, it's died a commercial death in the States but has gone top 10 in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.

John Lydon bemoans some poor quality plumbing in the video for 'Double Trouble', the first tune to be lifted from PiL's What The World Needs Now... album, which drops here on September 4. It all points to the ex-Pistol and his cohorts being in top musical form!

Matthew E. White has recorded motel room versions of Carole King's 'You've Got A Friend' and 'No Easy Way Down', which can be downloaded at [link]aquariumdrunkard.info/upload/01%20You%27ve%20Got%20A%20Friend.mp3[/link] and [link]aquariumdrunkard.info/upload/02%20No%20Easy%20Way%20Down.mp3[/link]
FMF is extremely excited about Elli Ingram, the Brighton songstress who's currently assembling her debut album with a number of producers and beatmakers including Wexford's very own New Machine. She's been described as "Adele if she did hip hop" and, well, it's hard to disagree!

New Order have premiered 'Restless', their first single in over a decade, which trails September 25's Music Complete. It's good but, hell, we it's not the same without Hooky!

And that is your Free Music Friday lot for another week. Whether it's Indiependence, Castlepalooza, Beatyard or Le Cheile you're heading for, have a blast and keep those links coming to @stuartclark66