- Music
- 08 Apr 16
Also on the musical menu are David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Merle Haggard & The Libertines
With our VIP red carpet invites to the IFTAs lost in the post, Free Music Friday is planning to park its ample bottom on the sofa and revel in our latest collection of downloads, streams, trailers and vids, which will cost you nary a cent.
Current Hot Press stars Rusangano Family have premiered the video for ‘Lights On’, one of the numerous standouts from their Let’s Bury The Dead album, which you can try before you buy below. Prepare to be comprehensively blown away by the Clare/Limerick trio.
Maverick Sabre continues to turn up in interesting places with a guest turn on ‘A Prince’, the brilliant new single from 18-year-old Walsall soulster Jorja Smith who is, we reckon, going to be insanely big. Mav gets to both croon and rap on the deliciously laid back track, which has been getting lots of love from Spotify.
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To the streams now and our friends at NPR are treating us to newbies from the extremely alt. country Sturgill Simpson, the reconvened Santana who sound as evergreen as ever, Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop’s exquisite Love Letter For Fire collaboration and a fine offering from another of rock’s enduring greats, Graham Nash.
Mixtape of the Week honours go to DeJ Loaf, the Detroit spitter who almost manages to out-potty mouth Azealia Banks on her All Jokes Aside mixtape. We reckon it’s the start of something massive.
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It’s a Free Music Friday “howaya” to Hamsphire metalcore merchants Our Hollow, Our Home who do a neat line in guttural death growls on name your price single, ‘Throne To The Wolves’. There’s also a comparatively tasteful acoustic version.
Premiering Stateside this week is the Artists Den episode featuring Hozier in an extremely posh LA theatre. There’s preview footage at [link]artistsden.com/hozier[/link]
The Libertines were among the guests as John Cale performed 1967’s legendary The Velvet Underground & Nico album in its entirety last week in Paris. We have to say that ‘White Light/White Geat’ sounded pretty damn awesome! Also helping out were Animal Collective, Mark Lanegan, Etienne Daho, Lemon Jelly man Nick Franglen and Lou Doillon. Here’s the fan footage evidence…
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Making us equal parts happy and sad is the new lyrics video for David Bowie’s ‘I Can’t Give Everything’ Away. It’s directed by Blackstar album designer Jonathan Barnbrook who says: “This is really a very simple little video that I wanted to be ultimately positive. We start off in the black and white world of Blackstar, but in the final chorus we move to brilliant colour. I saw it as a celebration of David, to say that despite the adversity we face, the difficult things that happen such as David’s passing, that human beings are naturally positive, they look forward and can take the good from the past and use it as something to help with the present. We are a naturally optimistic species and we celebrate the good that we are given.”
Bringing much light and warmth to HP Central this week is Soundtrack To Summer, a 13-track collection of contemporary Nashville talent including Kyle Cox, Brooke Waggoner, KOPECKY and Conner Youngblood.
The hot Nashville sampler action continues with Ten Out Of Tenn, which has quality offerings from the likes of Butterfly Boucher, Matthew Perryman Jones, Katie Herzig and Tyler James.
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Also new and nifty from the Noise Trade stable are Should This Noose Unloosen, a full-length collection from yet another Music City act, Civilian, who make a Death Cab For Cutie-esque noise and Andrew St. James, a San Franciscan who’s very obviously into Dylan. And nothing wrong with that!
We are seriously loving Adventure, the new album from Shonen Knife, the perennialy teenage Japanese girl group who are Whelan’s-bound on April 30.
Who’s The Most Intelligent?’, ‘Who’s The Funniest?’ and ‘Who Has The Best Taste In Music?’ are just three of the questions that were posed to Russell Brand and Noel Gallagher by the folk at West Ham United TV. Needless to say, much Morecambe & Wise-style hilarity ensued including rows over the merits of Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell' and the former’s ‘When I’m 64’ cover.
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The first trailer has been released for David Brent: Life On The Road, the big screen reboot of Ricky Gervais’ classic comedy creation, which is out on August 19. The former general manager of the Slough branch of Wenham-Hogg has gone rock ‘n’ roll whilst still doing some repping on the side. Not since Shane Lynch decided it was a good idea to do a spoken word version of ‘Don’t Go’ have we cringed so comprehensively.
There’s also a first look at Florence Foster Jenkins, the new Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant vehicle, which tells the true story of a New York heiress who obsessively pursued her dream of becoming a great singer, even though she was tone deaf. Out on May 6, it’s directed by The Queen and Philomena man Stephen Frears.
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We can't wait to cop an eyeful of Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Words, which use archive interviews and rare TV and concert footage to tell the great man’s story. Bill & Ted actor Alex Winter is also going the Kickstarter route to fund Who The F*@% Is Frank Zappa?, which will plunder the personal archive that only his family have previously had access to.
Also on our ‘must see’ list is One More Time, which stars Christopher Walker as an aging romantic crooner who’s desperate to be hip and happening again.
Free Music Friday was deeply saddened by the death this week of Merle Haggard, one of the country outlaw greats. The Californian was in superlative voice last year when he guested on Don Henley’s Cass County album.
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And that’s where the Free Music Friday hook is slung for another week. Keep those links coming to @stuartclark66, especially if you’ve something up your 7” or 12” sleeve for Record Store Day.