Friday Freebies

PET
Back in July of last year I ended up getting myself a bit over excited by Edinburgh outfit, PET (another band who seem to love their Caps Lock button). Their debut EP, What You Building? was one of my surprise finds of the whole of 2011. Their follow up, Middle Child Syndrome was pretty decent, however, for me it didn't really live up the promise of their debut release. With the release of their new single/EP, Wear Black, the jury's still out on this one. Having shyed away from their more poppy side, this new release might just take a bit more time to grow on me. You can make your own mind up though by downloading Wear Black from their Bandcamp page.

Quickbeam
It used to be that every other week their would be a new Scottish music blog cropping up, this year it feels like their is a new Scottish label starting up. Not bad thing in my eyes, not bad at all. The most recent label to crop up are Comets And Cartwheels, formed by the promoter, Paul Downie who runs Pelmet Nites and and our very own Vicki Cole from Randolph's Leap. Not being ones to hang about they've already announced their initial roster, which consists Peenko favourites, Endor, up and coming Glasgow based outfit, PartWindPartWolf and the minimalist folk outfit, Quickbeam. As a wee introduction to the label, Quickbeam are giving away their track Tide as a free download on Bandcamp.

Carnivores
With their debut  album due out later this year, Paisley rock trio, Carnivores are offering up a teaser of what to expect by giving away their beast of a track, Lion Tamer, for nowt on Bandcamp.


Black Mountain
Canadian stoner-rock oufit, Black Mountain have recorded the soundtrack to an apocalyptic surfing movie, which is going to be out later in the year. You can download a free track from the Soundtrack from Stereogum.

SXSW
If you're one of the lucky ones who's going to be out in Austin for this year SXSW Festival, then you might fancy doing some home work on what bands to check out while you're out there. As a wee handy tool the organisers have posted up a torrent featuring a whopping 771 songs (coming in at over 4GB!). If you feel up to the task of hunting down those hidden gems, then get downloading here.

Torche
Miami/Atlanta quartet are all set to release their third album, Harmonicraft, in April. As a wee teaser they've made their song 'Kicking' available as a free download.

The Darkness
I very much doubt that there is much of a demand out there for The Darkness to get back together, but reform they have. They've also been recording some new material, if you're in anyway curious as to hear what the new songs sound like then you can download new song Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us for nowt here.

Aidan John Moffat
Saving the best to last we have Aidan Moffat's retort to Donald Trump's announcement that he's going to be bankrolling the Scottish anti-wind farm group. I'm sure this sentiment will resonate with many of my fellow Scots. Check it out on SoundCloud.