The Rolling Stones, Justice, Manic Street Preachers & Biffy Clyro star in Free Music Friday

This is the week that Free Music Friday finally gives in and admits that, yep, Christmas is hurtling inexorably towards us. You will thusly find this week’s collections of downloads, streams, trailers and vids covered with a light dusting of festive tunes that won’t bring the Grinch out in you.

Susan Sarandon gets her angle-grinder out – no, we’re not being euphemistic! – in the video accompanying the new Justice single, ‘Fire’.

Not to be outdone, the Rolling Stones get Kirsten Stewart to go cruising through L.A. on the promo for Blue & Lonesome album standout, ‘Ride ‘Em On Down’.

The Melvins contribute a suitably gruff version of ‘Carol Of The Bells’ to the Indie For The Holidays album that Amazon will soon be unleashing. We’re also rather taken with the offering from Welsh head-the-balls Los Campesinos! who fully justify that exclamation mark of theirs.

Brooklyn blues blaster Eli Paperboy Reed treats us to a Live At Union Pool six-tracker, which explains those Otis Redding comparisons.

Also new and nifty from our Noise Trade colleagues are the charity album from Illinois alt. songstress Sleeping At Last who's a genius at re-working Christmas classics; a mini-album introduction to Black Jewelz who occupy the middle-ground between Lupe Fiasco and Kendrick Lamar, and Nikki Lane whose Highway Queen album is the real gritty Americana deal.

To the streams now and we’re loving the latest from US hardcore heroes Zao; Russian DJ and producer Nina Kraviz who’s letting the rest of us hear her ace Fabric mix, and Azure Ray singer Maria Taylor’s swoonsome solo offering.

The good folk from American NPR also treat us to a musical profile of the Cuban artists, both at home and in exile, who made their mark during Castro’s presidency. We then rewind the clock to February 2001 when Fidel, his brother Raul and the country's mulleted Minister for Culture were entertained in Havana's Karl Marx Theater by the Manic Street Preachers. Read all about it in the upcoming Hot Press Annual.

Meanwhile, the Manics’ pal Cate Le Bon previews ‘Rock Pool’, the title-track from her new EP, which drops in late January.

Pittsburgh punks Danvers allow you to name your price for their somewhat misleadingly titled Jazz Standards album, which rattles along at a seriously furious pace.

It’s been knocking around for a while, but it’s only recently that Coins’ spectacular Beastie Boys/Daft Punk mash-up has started receiving the attention it deserves.

After six years of following a group of 68-85-year-old Yoruba master musicians around Lagos, Nigerian/English filmmaker Remi Vaughan-Richards is about to release his Faaji Agba film. This taster suggests we’re in for a treat.

From the Noisey stable comes this cracking doc on the rise of the Blackpool grime scene, which is not a sentence we particularly expected to type.

Also on our must-watch list is Blank Tape: Electronic Cassette Culture, which proves that it’s not just vinyl making a comeback.

Naoise Roo impresses again with new tune, ‘Whore’, and its priestly lip-syncing vid, which could very easily lead to blasphemy charges.

The quality promos keep on coming with Biffy Clyro getting all rose-mantic on big ballad, ‘Re-arrange’. Don’t kill us, but it reminds us rather of Extreme’s ‘More Than Words’.

Andre Royo, AKA Bubbles from The Wire, narrates Nick Cave’s impossibly gorgeous The Lonely Giant short story.

And with that, Free Music Friday reaches for the MacBook ‘off’ button, gives its colleagues a big leaving the office hug and heads for a high-stool. Have a great weekend and keep them links coming to @stuartclark66