Free Music Friday

Apparently there are a couple of minor sporting fixtures happening this week, but what really matters is the quality of the Free Music Friday tuneage we’ve managed to assemble.
So, hands up, how many of you stayed up until six o'clock on Sunday morning downloading, listening to and comparing Twitter notes on the My Bloody Valentine album? It was rather sweet; a community of rock 'n' roll nerds ooh-ing and aah-ing over Kevin Shield's FX-laden fretwork. In the unlikely event that you haven’t already checked mbv out, it's streaming in its entirety below.
 

Mr.  Shields also contributes to the very fine Upside Down: The Creation Records Story, which has suddenly popped up on YouTube and also features Bobby Gillespie, Noel Gallagher, Norman Blake, Guy Chadwick, Jim Reid, Bob Mould and, natch, Alan McGee who made the whole crazy adventure possible.
 

 
This week’s hot streaming action starts at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link] where new offerings from Jacco Gardner, The Machine/Sungrazer, Trixie Whitley, Sin Fang, Night Beds, Dobie, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Frightened Rabbit, Fidlar, The Ruby Suns, Darkstar and Sir Yes Sir await; [link]music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/#/1[/link] is the go-to place for Josh Groban, Joe Budden, Funeral For A Friend, Holly Williams and Coheed & Cambria; [link]music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/spinner#/1[/link] chips in with Jim James, eels, The Virginmarys, The Bronx, Nico Vega and Ron Sexsmith; new kid on the streaming block [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link] adds  K-X-P, Lisa Germano, Applescal, Jacco Gardner and Screaming Females to the mix and [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] has Ballake Sissoko, The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, Wayne Shorter and Richard Thompson for your aural delectation.
 
Our Noise Trade pals come up trumps again with this six-track Stars tour EP, which also features Milo Greene, Cold Specks, Yukon Blonde and Said The Whale who all special guested with them.
 

 
Other Noise Trade releases this week come from Brooke Power who’s equal parts Kate Bush and Cat Power and spent the last year playing with Jack White’s all-female ensemble The Peacocks, and kick-ass San Franciscan guitar merchants The Stone Foxes who short of calling themselves Empire of Stone Crystal Foxes couldn’t have come up with a more hackneyed name. Killer tunes though. The aforementioned are all free, but tips are much appreciated.
 

 

Apologies for using the C-word, but this new track, codename: ‘Thunder’, is the most commercial thing Adebisi Shank have ever come up with… but in a good way! A thrilling 4:35 of candy-coated noise pop, which includes the tiniest hint of a vocoded vocal.

 
Paul Simon’s boy Harper has unveiled the video for ‘Bonnie Brae’, the first single from his soon-to-be-unleashed Division Street album.
 

Harper Simon: Bonnie Brae on Nowness.com.

 
This week’s mixtape-ry kicks off at [link]www.datpiff.com/mixtapes-detail.php?id=451069[/link] with a fabulous Diplo-assisted set from Sasha Go Hard, a kindred Chicagoan spirit of Azealia Banks and Angel Haze’s.
 

 
Next to [link]www.datpiff.com/Waka-Flocka-Flame-Duflocka-Rant-2-mixtape.451580.html[/link] where Brooklynite spitter Waka Flocka Flame is gifting us the second installment of his Rant trilogy.
 
Joey Bada$$’s mates The Underachievers drop Indigoism at [link]www.datpiff.com/The-Underachievers-Indigoism-mixtape.449545.html[/link]. The mix has a punky rawness that the FMF collective are loving.
 

 
 
Inc. limber-up for the release next week of their debut no world album with a free [link]4ad.com/artists/inc[/link] taster; Darwin Deez’s hipstertastic new Songs For Imaginative People album is streaming at [link]goo.gl/nrvIg[/link]; and [link]www.xlr8r.com/mp3[/link] has free dancey downloads from Soosh, Nubian Mindz, Auntie Flo, Donso, Leech, The Organ Grinder and Last Japan.
 
Our visual treats continue with the promo clip for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ ‘Jubilee Street’, a saucy little number, which finds Ray Winstone horizontal jogging with a woman who’s probably not his wife. It lasted 32 minutes before YouTube took it down for breaching their terms and conditions, only to return a few hours later with an ‘adult content’ warning attached.
 

 
Free Music Friday was deeply saddened by the death this week of Troggs legend Reg Presley, a lovely man whose 1992 interview with our man Stuart Clark can be found in the [link]hotpress.com[/link] archive. Briefly as big as The Beatles and the Stones, their story is brilliantly told in this BBC documentary.
 
 

 

 

 
Little Green Cars have come up with a super-nifty video for ‘Harper Lee’, which makes us even more eager to A) See the in The Button Factory on March 8 and 2) Get our mitts on their debut Absolute Zero album, which will be with us on April 26.
 

 
HBO have released the first trailer for their Phil Spector biopic-cum-courtroom drama, which hits screens Stateside on March 24 and will doubtless get a Sky Atlantic airing shortly after. If not murder, the Wall of Sound man was certainly guilty of crimes against hair as can be seen from the fabulous array of wigs Al Pacino gets to sport while portraying him. Free Music Friday’s favourite dame Helen Mirren co-stars.
 

 
As you’re doubtless aware by now Free Music Friday is rather partial to young Galway guitarslinger Chris Haze whose ‘World Outside’ tune and vid features Alexi Duce and a cast of Dublin street characters.
 

 
Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy have produced a fabulous short documenting the making of their What The Brothers Sang Everlys tribute.
 

 
Which is where Free Music Friday takes a bow and exits stage-left for this week. Here’s hoping that Ireland v. England and Man U v. Everton turn out to be titanic struggles, and that the right sides win… As always @stuartclark66 is where your links, praise, abuse and general comments should be directed.