With Ireland plunged back into winter again, there’s never been more need for a quality smörgåsbord of tunes to warm your heart.
We shouldn’t be indulging in self-trumpet blowing, but Free Music Friday reckons it’s risen to the challenge.
 
We can’t get enough of this four-song acoustic session, which The National recorded this week for Americam National Public Radio. Having only hours earlier come off stage Matt’s voice is a bit glitchy, but that just adds to the charm!
The even better news is that all 18 min 8 sec are available for free download.
 

 
Gunplay celebrates being free from house arrest by – as you do! – unleashing his new Acquitted mixtape. A sensitive soul, Miami’s most wanted has included a tune that celebrates the falling of pussy from the sky. We hope that the poor moggy in question wasn’t injured.
 

 

 
Adult Swim kick off their new run of free singles with ‘Run The Jewels’, a collaboration between El-P and Killer Mike.
Find it at [link]video.adultswim.com/music/singles-2013/killer_mike.html[/link]
Check in every Monday for similarly tasty offerings from Metz, Dan Deacon, Lil B, Miguel, Andy Stott and loads more.
 
There’s no shortage of streamable treats with new albums from Sonny & The Sunsets, Valient Thorr, Stellar Om Sauce, Jeffrey Foucault & Cold Satellite, Headphone, Grim Tower, Future Bible Heroes, Savoir Adore, GRMLN, Austra and Jagwar Ma to be found at [link]3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/albums.html[/link]; [link]www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen[/link] adds Lemuria, Primal Scream, Statik Selektah and Gold Panda to the mix and [link]pitchfork.com/advance[/link] has fresh offerings from Zomby and High On Fire.
 
[link]www.self-titledmag.com/2013/06/12/listen-to-the-replacements-last-show-a-grant-park-gig-from-1991/#more-32929[/link] is the go-to place for a free Instiutionalized: July 4, 1991, Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois live album from The Replacements. How they managed to avoid becoming househould names we really don’t know.
 
Italians Do It Better man Johnny Jewel dishes up a free mix that includes exclusives from the likes of Chromatics, Glass Candy, Mirage, Symmetry and Desire.
 
 

 

 
 
The release of his Summer Knights mixtape may have been put back to July 1, but recent Hot Press interviewee Joey Bada$$ compensates with this fabouls free taster, ‘95 Til Infinity’.
 

 
Wu-Tang celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Enter The Wu-Tang debut, with quality new tune ‘Family Reunion’. The sample is a classic O’Jays soul cut, and the interruptions by the Hot 97 New York DJ they gave first dibs on it.
 

 
 
Former Melodrone man John Bates debuts his new Big Black Delta project at [link]wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/06/11/big-black-delta-side-of-the-road-free-download[/link]; the much anticipated – especially by us! – Dear Mark J Mulcahy, I Love You is streaming at [link]www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2013/06/album-stream-mark-mulcahy---dear-mark-j-mulcahy-i.html[/link] and Chicago’s JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound bring the soul noise at [link]wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/06/09/jc-brooks-the-uptown-sound-rouse-yourself-free-download[/link]
 
 
Former Bikini Kill and Le Tigre singer Kathleen Hanna introduces the world to her new punk-minded outfit The Julie Ruin with ‘Oh Come On’, the second taster from their Run Fast album, which drops at the start of September.
 

 
Amtrac have come up with this vocoder-tastic remix of Two Door Cinema Club’s ‘Handshake’, which has had us buck leppin’ round the FMF office all week.
 
 

 
Shane MacGowan turns producer on ‘In My Garden’, the new single from Candice Gordon whose travels have taken her from Botswana to Berlin via-Dublin, Croatia and Turkey. A former circus juggler – hence the globetrotting – Gordon graces the Body & Soul Main Stage on June 22.
 

Candice Gordon | In My Garden | Live in Berlin from Candice Gordon on Vimeo.

 
Hot on the heels of their All Hell Breaks Loose album, Black Star Riders treat us to this ace performance video for ‘Hey Judas’.
It sounds incredibly like prime time Thin Lizzy, which we suspect is the whole point!
 

 
 
 
U2 have premiered the new acoustic version of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ they performed Beatles-style on the roof of New York’s Electric Lady studio a couple of weeks back.  It’s noteworthy both for some subtle lyrical changes, and also Adam Clayton manning the keyboards.
 

 
It’s in aid of the agit8 campaign, which is calling on western leaders to help end extreme poverty by 2030.
It’s being mounted by Bono’s ONE organisation, which also has the musical support of Ed Sheeran, Tom Morelo, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Amadou & Mariam, Disiz & Freddy Evans, Kid Rock, Sean Lennon, Rea Garvey, One Direction and Elvis Costello and Mumford & Sons who’ve collaborated on a killer cover of Bruce’s ‘The Ghost Of Tom Joad’.
Says Bono: “This week we are reminded of the words of the great agitator Nelson Mandela – ‘Like slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome. Millions of people… are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free. Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.’
“Since the 1970s Nelson Mandela has called upon artists and bands to use their platform to fight injustice. We were honoured then, we’re honoured now.”
Find out more at [link]www.one.org/protestsongs/?eml=2013June12/599296/6010037[/link]
 

 

 
John Blek & The Rats have come up with a deliciously melancholic vid for ‘The Barman, The Barfly & Me’, which was filmed by Barra Vernon in Cork City on Good Friday – hence all that melancholia!
It’s the closing-track from their debut album, Leave Your Love At The Door, which is officially launched on Saturday in The Pavilion.
 

 
 
Which is sadly where Free Music Friday has to go and either sit in our darkened bed-sit listening to Nick Drake or shake a pop leg to Robbie in The Aviva. Don’t forget to bombard @stuartclark66 with your links and suggestions.