Kanye, Massive Attack, Glen Hansard & Flatbush ZOMBIES star in Free Music Friday

As another throughly depressing week for rock 'n' roll draws to a close - Grim Reaper, would you ever feck off! - Free Music Friday returns with a throughly uplifting collection of downloads, streams, vids and trailers.

Doing his best to break Soundcloud this week was Kanye West whose new Kendrick Lamar-assisted single, 'No More Parties', is all kinds of awesome.

Brooklyn threesome Flatbush ZOMBIES - they're very particular about those CAPS - sample Biggie Smalls on the seriously braggadocious 'Glorious Thugs'. The intro also has a whiff of The Exorcist about it.

Fresh from their pair of Olympia Theatre stunners - we'll bag ourselves a job with The Sun yet! - Massive Attack preview four new tracks as part of the nifty [link]thefantom.co[/link]

Drake's mate Future serves up the excellent Purple Reign, which also showcases the talents of fast-rising Atlanta producer Metro Boomin.

This week's hot streams include agitprop singer and poet Saul Williams; avant composer Daniel Wohl; hot bluegrass property Sierra Hull and Aubrie Sellers, one of the new wave of country singers who refuses to conform to Nashville orthodoxy. We suspect she's going to be massive.

Former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley and Sarah Jones join forces with Michael Lovett, AKA NZCA Lines, on his sci-fi celebrating Infinite Summers.
Cop an earful at [link]theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/jan/18/nzca-lines-infinite-summer-exclusive-album-stream[/link]
Air, Hot Chip and Daft Punk are just a few of the reference points on a record that yields something new with every listen.
Also to be found at [link]theguardian.com/music/series/album-streams[/link] is the very fine new record from Tortoise.

Los Angeles' Two Friends do an excellent job of EDM-ing up Blink-182's 'I Miss You'. Not that necessarily ought to be encouraging this sort of thing...

Montreal acoustic duo The Matchup are giving away Cool Your Djent, a six-tracker that packs a real punk punch. Djent, apparently, being a distorted progressive metal spinoff. Educational as well as entertaining, so we are!

Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy man Ricky Warwick has a new double album, When Patsy Cline Was Crazy (And Guy Mitchell Sang The Blues)/Hearts On Trees out on February 26. The first taster suggests we're for in for a rock 'n' roll outlaw treat.

It's a Free Music Friday 'howaya' to Wicklow's Pranks who treat us to a live version of 'New Friend' from their excellent debut EP.

Also worthy of your immediate perusal is 'Eyes On Me', the take no prisoners single from New Valley Wolves who add a bit of Rage Against The Machine-angst to their most classic of rock sounds.

You're always guaranteed quality from Auxiliary Phoenix, the Carlow experimentalist whose new tune, 'Monsoonami', features live sampling and drumming. It's jazzier than some of his previous offerings and very, very good.

Free Music Friday doffs its headphones to respective Eagles and Mott The Hoople founder members Glenn Frey and Dale 'Buffin' Griffin who passed away within hours of each other last Monday. We loved them both equally so, gentlemen, thank you most sincerely for the music.

If you missed out on that brilliant Glen Hansard cover of 'Ashes To Ashes' last week, here's him performing it for the good folk at the NPR 9:30AM club. Boy, does he hit those high notes!

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band belted out a spirited 'Rebel Rebel' in honour of David Bowie at their Pittsburgh gig last weekend. The Boss recounted David inviting him down to Philadelphia to meet up during the Young American sessions and him, yet to hit commercial pay dirt, travelling there by Greyhound.
We're also liking the impromptu version of 'Changes' that Robbie Williams, Rufus Wainwright and Guy Chambers belted out around the piano, and a solo Melissa Etheridge take on 'Heroes', which includes a heartwarming preamble.
Aidan Lambert captured the flamboyant essence of 'Let's Dance' on stage in Nagoya, Japan and Grace Potter has done some wondrous things with Labyrinth's 'As The World Falls Down'.
In case you missed it early last week, we also have EL VY and Stay Human teaming up for a funky Late Show with Stephen Colbert rendition of 'Let's Dance'.

It was superstar tribute time over the weekend as Dave Grohl, Robert Trujillo, Dave Lombardo, and Phil Anselmo bashed out a brutal (but in a good way!) version of 'Ace Of Spades' for their old pal Lemmy. The quartet were taking part in the annual Dimebash gathering in Hollywood to honour Pantera's Dimebag Darrell who was shot dead on stage in 2004 by a former marine.
Meanwhile, the BBC has debuted Lemmy: In His Own Words, a mini-doc drawing on archive interviews with the great man.
Also surfacing online is footage of the time Motörhead terrorised young children on ITV's Tiswas (this is what they want!)

Having graced many a film festival and RTÉ screens, Olaf Tyaransen and Paul Duane's Don't You Know Who I Am? is now available for all to see online
A black comedy described by the Irish Times' Donald Clarke as "a cracking short on the fickle nature of modern fame", and deemed to be "supercool" by Irvine Welsh, it includes a few knowing nods to Hot Press and a cameo from our cartoonist Tom Matthews.
"Rick Rossi (Alabama 3's Larry Love) is a new arrival in the West of Ireland city of Galway," reads the blurb. "He's grieving - trying to recover from the sudden death of his best friend, also the lead singer in his band: the outrageously successful Fragrance Free. He's been told that Galway people don't care about celebrity. It turns out that they don't - but they also really want to make him aware of that fact..."

And that's where the Free Music Friday hook is slung for another week. Have a great couple of days kicking back and keep those links coming to @stuartclark66