Iggy Pop, Otherkin, Interpol, David Bowie and Therapy? star in Free Music Friday

It's a lean, mean Free Music Friday that stands before you today with lots of killer but absolutely no filler.

As incestuous as it may be, our favourite FMF thing this week is the [link]hotpress.com/Iggy-Pop/news/LISTEN-Iggy-Pop--Josh-Hommes-Post-Pop-Depression-album-in-full/17079918.html[/link] stream of the new Iggy Pop album, which finds him running amok with Josh Homme, Matt Helders and Dean Fertita. If it really is Iggy's studio farewell, what a way to bow out! Incidentally, the record company has to promote it with an Iggy Pop-up shop. We'll get our coats...

The hot streaming action continues with Southern Family, Dave Cobb's Americana concept album which includes Jason Isbell, Brent Cobb, Zac Brown, Brandy Clark and Shooter Jennings among its allstar cast; alt-folker Damien Jurado's trilogy-concluding Visions Of Us On The Land, and the newbie from American acoustic picker Glenn Jones.

The SXSW preview samplers keep on coming with Lissie, Basia Bulat, Lily & Madeleine, Run River North, Wild Child and The Peach Kings starring on the 22-track Frye Days Mixtape.

Also free - but you're welcome to tip - from Noise Trade is the seven-track collection of local talent assembled by Queens, New York blog Play Too Much, and a full length offering from southern flavoured Raleigh rockers American Aquarium who come on like a younger Steve Earle.

It's a hearty Free Music Friday "howaya" to Down Memory Lane, a Montreal combo whose Recycled Punk Rockers EP ain't going to win any prices for originality but is good rambunctious fun.

Panda Bear's acid squelch version of 'All The Rage Back Home' is one of the tracks that will feature on Interpol's Record Store Day celebrating remix album. Tim Hecker, The Field, Factory Floor and Ghost Culture also get their fader fingers on the sharp suited New Yorkers.

Therapy? have premiered 'Tides', a song inspired by Andy Cairns' time living in Dun Laoghaire, and which got one of its first acoustic airings in the Hot Press Storeroom.

The Irish video premieres continue with this frenetic number for 'I Was Born', the new Otherkin single which Annie Mac played t'other night on her BBC Radio One show. It also got an acoustic runout when the Dubliners recorded a couple of tunes for Holland's The Wild Things Are Festival, which - cue infantile tee-hee-ing - were engineered by Fokke de Wit.

Having last year announced her retirement from the music business, Sinéad O'Connor returned to live duty last weekend. The Dubliner joined David Bowie tribute band, Silent Age, in Chicago's Metro venue for stunning versions of 'Life On Mars?' and 'Sorrow', the McCoys' 1965 chestnut which Mr. B covered on his 1973 Pin Ups album. Also making an appearance was Ava Cherry who was one of the fabulously funky backing singers that performed with Bowie from '74-'78.

Swiss radio listeners got a full-blooded blast of Gavin James when he dropped into the SRF 3 studio this week for a live session.

The Frank & Walters comprehensively whet appetites for April's Songs For The Walking Wounded album with new single, 'We Are The Young Men'. With a killer chorus and sleeve to match, they remain the dictionary definition of 'evergreen'.

There's quality Irish hip hop to be had courtesy of Rapthor x Alan Newman's 'The Advocate's Way', which is lifted from their album, The Advocate. Available now from iTunes, it also includes the equally impressive 'Kamakazee'.

The first trailer has been released for Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the Lonely Island comedy crew's America's Allegedly Got Talent spoof, which features cameos from Joanna Newsom, Snoop Dogg, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Simon Cowell and a holographic Adam Levine.

David Bowie fans will be fascinated by The Image, his first short film dating back to 1969, which is about an artist's painting that comes to life and haunts him. It's all very dark, atmospheric and low-budget with Mr. B starring as the bouffant haired apparition. His co-star, Michael Byrne, went on to feature in the likes of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Apt Pupil, Braveheart, Coronation Street and Casualty.
Due to the violence at the end and hints of homo-eroticism, it got an X certificate when it originally came out.

And that is your Free Music Friday lot for another week. Here's hoping that Ireland get to kick Luigi Foreigner's ass and that the sporting gods also smile tomorrow on Everton. In the meantime keep those lovely links coming to @stuartclark66