Friday Freebies

Now if I had been super organised I would have had this post up much earlier today. Normally I write my Friday Freebies posts on a Thursday night whilst my good lady wife watches the soaps. Rather than sit in front of my computer all night (which funnily enough is what I have been doing this evening), I decided to head an see Behold, The Old Bear at Bloc. Bloody good it was too, even if I did I have to leave early to catch my train. Although I write a music blog I often feel that I am not out at enough gigs these days. Then again back in the day I was pretty much out every other night. Anyway, enough of my inane ramblings, on with this weeks belated Friday Freebies...

Randolph's Leap
As I already said I was out last night, normally during the week I tend not to drink, however, last night I decided to treat myself as I had a little bit of celebrating to do. In case you haven't already heard, the line up for this years T Break got announced today, featuring amongst others Capitals, Beerjacket and Randolph's Leap. I guess it's not much of a secret how much I love 'the Leap', so it's great to see all of the hard work that we've put in come to fruition. That and I can now tell my folks something that I have been involved in that they will a frame of reference for. Anyway, enough about me, you're only here for the free stuff so here we go... To celebrate the fact that they'll be playing at this years T in the Park,the band have made their double A-side single 'Counting Sheep / Deep Blue Sea' free to download on Bandcamp.



Plastic Animals
It's been a wee while since we heard anything from the Edinburgh outfit, Plastic Animals, so it's nice to have them back. The band release the follow up to their last EP, 'A Dark Spring' on the 2nd of June with another equally as good EP called Automaton. As a wee teaser, the band are releasing the lead track, 'Ghosts' as a free download on Bandcamp. You can also catch them playing live next month in Glasgow at the launch night for the Touch Sensitive album at the Old Hairdressers (across from Stereo) alongside our very own Adam Ross from Randolph's Leap.




PAWS
I don't know if it's just my Twitter feed, but it seems as if half of Scotland has relocated down to Brighton for this weekends Great Escape Festival and I can't help but be a little jealous. I mean where else are you going to get to see The Twilight Sad, We Were Promised Jetpacks and PAWS all on the same bill in an intimate venue. Certainly not in Glasgow that's for sure. On the plus side though, PAWS have a new EP coming out soon on cassette. I don't know about you, but I am really loving the rebirth of cassettes and just because they annoy Kev from Avalanche. For now though, all you need to know is that Misled Youth the lead track, is available for free download on SoundCloud.

  03 Misled Youth by Fat Cat Records


Sean Armstrong
Lo-fi expermintalist, Sean Armstrong has just released his new album Hippy Bullshit on Orange dayglo cassette. If you're not a fan of tapes or you just want to check out more, then you're in luck as the album is free to download on Bandcamp.



The Leg
Earlier tonight I found myself listening to the latest episode of Cloud Sounds, one of my favourite podcasts run by a guy called Ted from Manchester, who's patter cracks me up. In his latest episode he played a few Scottish tracks, our very own Son(s), Ambulances and The Leg. Which reminded me that I had fully intended to include The Leg in Friday Freebies fucking donkeys ago, but somehow forgot. So here they are, the Edinburgh outfit released their album 'An Eagle to Saturn' on Song, By Toad at the end of last month. I still haven't listened to it, mainly because I forgot I had it. I have heard the single from it, 'Bake Yourself Silly', which is pretty fucking damn good. Time to get my finger and give the album a listen I reckon.

Night Noise Team
Edinburgh outfit, Night Noise Team have a new EP coming out in June called Pieces, in anticipation of it's release their PR firm, the excellent, A Badge of Friendship have posted up Picking Up The Pieces as a free download on SoundCloud.

  Night Noise Team - Picking Up The Pieces by abadgeoffriendship

Eugene McGuinness
If you listen to 6Music on a regular basis then you're bound to have come across Eugene McGuinness at some point. If you don't listen to 6, then shame on you. Shame on you indeed. His last single 'Shotgun' was getting some pretty hefty airplay a month or so ago, you might recall it's the song that starts off like the theme to Batman before descending into a catchy wee bugger of a pop tune. If you have no idea what I am talking about or even if you do, all that you really need to know is that this song and his other single, Lions, are both up free download on his Facebook page.

Isobel Campbell
I will probably use this for a future 'We've Got It Covered' post, so I'll keep this brief, Isobel has released  a cover of  Franz Ferdinand's 'Walk Away', which she is giving away as a free download in exchange for your email address. Talking of 'We've Got It Covered' posts, tomorrow is my 100th cover post, so make sure yo check back in for a special wee cover that I had specially recorded for me from Monoganon.

Mike Nisbet
Last years album 'Vagrant' caused a bit of a commotion amongst the Scottish blogosphere towards the tail end of the year. So much so that he even appeared in the BAMS top ten for 2011. If you haven't already checked the Oban born singer-songwriter out, then you should start off by checking out his Coffee & Cigarettes EP, which is free to download on Bandcamp.



Luminous Monsters
If 12 minute psychedelic/progressive/drone/cosmick/freeform ecstasies/ersatz orientalism sounds like your kind of thing, then should check out Luminous Monsters EP 'Golden Scales, Blazing Plumage' which is free to download from Bandcamp.





Queen Jane
You might remember Queen Jane from a few weeks back as they were one of my Fresh Meat Monday starlets, well now that the Cumbernauld four piece have made their Denver EP free to download, you've got no excuse for not checking them out. You can catch them playing live at Scottish Fiction Presents at the Captain's Rest on Sunday, 17 June alongside Michael Cassidy, Spook School and Saint Death.



Scottish Fiction
Talking of Scottish Fiction, he's just posted up the latest in his series of free EP's, featuring The King Hats, aLCATRAZkIDz, Thula Borah and Father Sculptor. You can get yourself a copy simply by heading over to his Bandcamp page.



Bacchanal Party
Last, but not least we have Glasgow outfit, Bacchanal Party, who were also announced as being one of the bands playing on this years T Break stage. If like me, you've only just heard of them, then you get yourself acquainted by downloading their album for free here.