The sun is out and Free Music Friday’s tomato plants are furiously multiplying in size. Our parsley plants have never been so bushy, and without wanting to be unnecessarily boastful you’ve never seen anything quite like our sprouting spuds.
To celebrate the official onset of summer, we’ve a bumper crop of downloads, streams, vids and trailers to further brighten your lives.

windings are letting you name your price – don’t be stingy! - for ‘Stray Dogs’, the first taster from the Limerick outfit’s Be Honest And Fear Not album, which Out In A Limb are releasing in the autumn. Also up for grabs is ‘Helicopters’, a collaboration with fellow Shannonsiders Naïve Ted whose own The Inevitable Heel Turn long-player is also well worth grabbing.

James Blake has taken pretty much everyone unawares with the sudden release of his The Colour Is Everything album, which can be checked out at [link]spotify.com/ie/?utm_source=open-spb&utm_medium=spb-logo[/link]

This week’s bumper Noise Trade crop includes Nate Curran, a Georgian whose Americana is of the dirty ‘n’ gritty variety; Ben Abraham, an Australian who believes in doing his acoustic thing rather more gently and Thad Cockrell, a Nashville resident who’s also of the quiet is the new loud persuasion.

Also on a name your price tip – as they used to say back in the ‘90s – are rowdy Salt Lake City punk types Wicked Bear.

Glaswegian “obtuse grunge pish” practitioners Closet Organ return with the wonderfully petulant ‘Paul Is Dead’.

To the streams now and Philly hardcore merchants Nothing, the gospel-tinged Jennifer Nettles and Oddisee, a Brooklyn rapper with a seriously smooth flow, all have new records awaiting your aural delectation.

It’s a Free Music Friday “howaya!” to Dead Horses, a Milwaukee folkgrass outfit who gift us the gorgeous ‘All I Really Need To Know’.

We’re also delighted to make the acquaintance of Swim To Drown, a scuzzy metal group from Zaragoza in Spain.

The reunited Busted will swap you new track ‘Coming Home’ in return for signing up to their [link]busted.com/cominghome mailing-list[/link]

The same deal applies to people registering at [link]midnightoil.com/newsletter-signup[/link] which also brings news that the celebrated Aussie politico rockers are doing the resurrection shuffle in 2017.

Kyla and Amy Jay guest on The Rolling River, the latest from Belfast Americana (with a twist of pop) merchant Shay D. which you can try before you buy.

Paul McCartney paid hometown tribute this week to Prince when he swung by Minneapolis’ Target Center.

Red Hot Chili Peppers trail June 17’s much-anticipated The Getaway album with this typically funky taster, ‘Dark Necessities’. Produced by Danger Mouse and mixed by Radiohead’s pal Nigel Godrich, it’s available from the band’s website as a very limited-edition cassette.

Hot Press faves Otherkin up the ante with ‘Yeah, I Know’, a grungey delight that’s due on June 17.

As rumours of a Talking Heads reunion intensify, Mark Ronson and Lady Gaga jammed this excellent version of ‘Burning Down The House’ out the other night in NYC.

Fangclub’s barnstorming ‘Bullet Head’ single has a new, paint-splattered video to go with it. Currently running amok in Toronto, the trio return home for Cyprus Avenue, Cork (May 19); Dolan’s, Limerick (20) and Roisin Dubh, Galway (21) dates supporting The Academic and then pay festival visits to Sea Sessions, Bundoran (June 24) and Indiependence, Mitchelstown (July 29).

Róisín O has premiered this sumptuous looking video for her ‘Give It Up’ single, which was shot in one take in a warehouse outside of Dublin.

Gerry's daughter and Lottie's sister Bonnie Ryan releases her debut single, 'I'm Out', on May 20. Hair, make-up and clothes on fleek, Bonnie is lit and out on the sesh with her crew of girlos, which is us all out of youthspeak.

Also tearing up dancefloors with her new 45, ‘Hotter Than Hell’, is Ed Sheeran’s mate Dua Lipa who was one of our Hot For 2016 picks.

The Nigerian-born, Dublin-raised rapper Huva opens his account with the excellent 'Prize My Soul'. A deliciously laid-back affair, it's accompanied by a cut 'n' paste video that includes footage of the late and very great Fela Kuti. It turns out he's an old mate of Original Rudeboy Neddy Arkins who says: "We used to make tracks way back in the day as kids. Great to see him finding his own sound." We've said it before and we'll say it again; the Irish hip hop scene has well and truly come of age.

Dublin outfit Pretty Beast have premiered the video which accompanies their moodily atmospheric 'Afraid To Remember' single, which is out on May 13. Directed by Doug Farra and starring American actor Paul Tumpson, it gets the same day launch treatment in the Grand Social, Dublin where This Other Kingdom and Farah Elle are also on the bill.

September Girls go psychedelic desert walkabout in the video for new single ‘Jaw On The Floor’. For a moment we thought someone had slipped some peyote into our morning cuppa but, no, it was just the cameraperson getting all arty.

Power Rangers meet GWAR in Mad Tigers, a documentary about cult Japanese performance art band Peelander-Z who spectacularly implode on camera – or do they?

Which is us done with this stooooopid working lark for another week. Have a wonderful weekend and keep those links coming to @stuartclark66