FREE MUSIC FRIDAY~!

Hot Press Towers may be gripped by pre-Music Show madness, but we’ve still found time to compile a seriously bumper Free Music Friday featuring the likes of Lana Del Rey, Sleigh Bells, Perfume Genius, The Ting Tings, Public Image Limited and a whole host of others.

We kick off this week's batch with this superb Bon Iver session recorded recently in London’s Air Studios. Enjoy!

Also treating us to some hot video action this week are War On Drugs who are in Whelan’s on Friday night. The wonderful ‘Brothers’ could just be the tune which crosses them over to the mainstream.

The War on Drugs - Brothers from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

There’s more quality videoage courtesy of Dark Room Notes whose ‘Baby Don’t Hurt Me No More’ is as thrilling an Irish single as we’ve heard in years.

This week’s free album streams start with the School Of Seven Bells’ most excellent Ghoststory which can be sampled at [link]stereogum.com/955361/stream-school-of-seven-bells-ghostory/mp3s[/link]

Next to our Dutch radio friends at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] who have Perfume Genius, Tindersticks, Chairlift, Damien Jurado, Lambchop, Ting Tings, Sleigh Bells and Band Of Skulls album streams for your delectation.

Not to be outdone by the Cloggies, our American National Public Radio friends are streaming Fanfarlo, Dirty Three and Y La Bamba’s latest at [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link]
Elsewhere on their fab site [link]www.npr.org/event/music/133687905/adele-tiny-desk-concert[/link] has a fantastic acoustic set from the bird flippin’ Adele.

This week’s streams don’t end there with [link]www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/02/album-stream-the-wooden-sky---every-child-a-daught.html[/link] and [link]prettymuchamazing.com/reviews/albumreviews/djangodjango/2[/link] the respective places to check out the new Wooden Sky and Django Django (so good they named them twice) elpees.

Finally on the stream front, [link]music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/#/1[/link] has try-before-you-buy listens to Corrosion Of Conformity, Angelique Kidjo and, er, the latest Glee monstrosity. Well, the kids love it…

Not content with guesting on the new Chieftains album, The Civil Wars are gifting us a live album at [link]wxrt.radio.com/2012/02/13/free-album-from-grammy-winners-the-civil-wars-listen-download[/link] which is the dog’s proverbials.

Next to [link]illeatyourface.bandcamp.com/album/hot-brains-terror[/link] where there’s some distinctly uneasy listening courtesy of Kerry’s I’ll Eat Your Face.

We are seriously loving The Kills’ Velvet Underground cover residing at [link]soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/the-kills-pale-blue-eyes[/link] and the epic Black Mountain tune, which can be found at [link]soundcloud.com/jagjaguwar/black-mountain-mary-lou[/link] and is making us hungry for a new album from the hirsute Americans. The accompanying video is pretty damn cool too.

YEAR ZERO TRAILER from GLOBE on Vimeo.

It’s welcome back to John Lydon and PiL whose new single – their first for 20 years – is a dubby delight. Check it out at [link]soundcloud.com/slicingupeyeballs/public-image-ltd-one-drop[/link]

“One Drop is a reflection of where I grew up in Finsbury Park, London," says Mr. Lydon. "The area that shaped me, and influenced me culturally and musically, a place I will forever feel connected to. But within this I am also saying it doesn’t matter where you come from, we all go through the same emotions especially the disenchanted youth of today, yesterday and the future. Bearing in mind the Olympics are in London this year and who knows what that could bring for London and our country….”

The new Windings single, 'The Space I Occupy', is very lovely and accompanied by this video.

Flying the rap flag this week is Juvenile whose Mardi Gras mix tape is available gratis from [link]datpiff.com/Juvenile-Mardi-Gras-mixtape.317123.html[/link]

[link]soundcloud.com/thecubanbrothers/you[/link] is the place to go if you want to hear the not entirely serious Cuban Brothers covering Jermaine Stewart's straight edge anthem 'You Don't Have To Take Your Clothes Off'.

Crocodiles' somewhat bawdier 'Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) can be found at [link]soundcloud.com/souterraintransmissions/sunday[/link].
It's our first time hearing the San Diego noise poppers and we're highly impressed.

One of the highlights of this weekend’s Music Show in the RDS is the official launch of the WholeWorldBand project for which Ronnie Wood, Danny O’Reilly and Mick Pyro have all recorded exclusive tracks that you can jam along with.

We’re indebted to our Noisy Nordy correspondent Edwin McFee for pointing us in the direction of Mudbitch whose guitar abusing oeuvre can be sampled at [link]mudbitch.bandcamp.com[/link]. We suspect these Belfast boys will go far.

If you’ve ever wondered what a hip hopped version of Shirley Bassey’s ‘Big Spender’ featuring Lana Del Rey would sound like, you have your answer courtesy of American rapper Smiler.

Remember the sitar-tastic ‘Living On The Ceiling’? Well, Blancmange have a new track streaming at [link]soundcloud.com/blancmange/come-on-now[/link]

Ash touring duties completed, Charlotte Hatherley has formed a new outfit who say “hello” at [link]facebook.com/SylverTongue?sk=app_190322544333196[/link] with a free track in return for a “like”. Like? We love it Chaz…

Those small but perfectly formed Cov rockers The Enemy return with a new single that’s available for free @ [link]www.theenemy.com[/link]

Daft but brilliantly so, somebody has come up with a chiptune Daft Punk covers album that’s being given away at [link]soundcloud.com/dachip/son-of-flynn-rushjet1[/link]

Bluesy – and very possibly boozy – Dubliners The Rambleers have a twangtastic free song for you at [link]soundcloud.com/risingstars/the-rambleers-roots[/link]

LA’s Stone Throw Records have a load of stuff at [link]soundcloud.com/stonesthrow[/link] including the first tune from Quakers, the 35-piece hip hop collective assembled by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow.

We’ve saved the best for last. Click on to [link]play.converse.com/blog/2012/02/23/doyathing[/link] and discover what happens when you put Gorillaz, James Murphy and Andre 3000 in the same studio. A 12-minute version will be available soon from the Gorillaz website.

Which is where we have to leave it for this week. Tweet your Free Music Friday links to @stuartclark66