Friday Freebies

The Pictish Trail
A normal Thursday night for me will be spent sitting in front of my laptop cobbling together that weeks Friday Freebies, so quite often I find myself getting in a bit of a spin when I have plans for that night. Tonight is one of the those nights, as I am off to the CCA to catch The Pictish Trail and Kid Canaveral. Which in a roundabout way brings me to my first freebie which comes from the aforementioned Pictish Trail who is offering a free download of a remix of his new song 'Of Course You Exist' from FOUND, which you can download from SoundCloud

  Of Course You Exist (FNDRMX) by The Pictish Trail


Seams
Having recently recorded a session for Radio One, it's safe to say that Dundee outfit Seams, are being touted as one of the most exciting unsigned bands out there at the moment. You can make your own mind up as to whether the hype is justified or not by downloading their song 'Gorilla' for free from their SoundCloud page.

  Gorilla by Seams

Fatherson
Another band who are garnering a lot of support from Radio One are Scottish three piece, Fatherson. Having recently had their song "Gone Fission" aired on BBC Radio 1's Introducing Playlist, the band decided to celebrate their success by giving the song away as a free download on their Bandcamp page.



q without u
Glasgow four piece, q without u have just posted up their second album 'do no harm' as a free download on their Bandcamp page. I have only just had the one listen through, but I am definitely digging this, if you're old enough to remeber the band Seafood, then I guess that's the closest comparison that I could compare this lot to. As always, you don't have to listen to any of the rubbsh that I spout, all that you really need to know is that this is good and it's free to download from their Bandcamp page.





Collar Up
Edinburgh dream-pop trio from, Collar Up released their new single, The Fear of Love through Permwhale Recordings on the 23rd of April. It's catchy wee bugger and it's free to download here.



Milk Maid
Last years debut album from, Yucca, was a masterclass in fuzzy lo-fi excellence from Manchester's finest, Milk Maid. My expectations for their forthcoming album, 'Mostly No', is already pretty high. If 'Do Right' is anything to go by, then it looks like FatCat's rich vein of form is set to continue.

  Milk Maid 'Do Right' by Fat Cat Records

Urvanovic
If you haven't already checked out the video for Edinburgh outfit, Urvanovic's forthcoming single 'Bubblewrap', then I'd suggest you get that rectified asap. If you liked what you heard then you can download a fair few demo tracks for free over on their SoundCloud page. Their debut single officially comes out on the16th of June on Survivalist records.

  Songs by Urvanovic


Drunk Mule
It wouldn't be a proper Friday Freebies post if I didn't have something from the Drunk Mule boys, so to round up this weeks FFs here's their new tune Pterodactyl which is for grabs from their Bandcamp page.

Fresh Meat Monday - Collar Up

Would you care to introduce yourself?

Hello, I’m Stephen McLaren, front man of Collar Up.


How would you describe the music you make?

Piano-led dream-pop, influenced by Beach House, Mercury Rev, Kate Bush, Divine Comedy, Miracle Fortress among many others I guess. Sometimes we’re uplifting, but it isn’t always possible…


How did you start out making music?

I always used to mess about with chord sequences on the piano when I was younger, but I didn’t start writing songs until I was about 21. I guess I didn’t have the confidence to do so before then, but I was quite lucky in that the first song I wrote was quite popular amongst some folk around me at the time. That encouraged me to do more.


What process goes into the way you write songs?

I experiment with chord sequences first of all. The chord sequence has to be interesting to my ear before anything goes on further. Then, I write about whatever is on my mind at the time. If the lyrics and the chords and general feel of the music “fit”, there’s a song. I spend time on the lyrics, and the songs can often (not always) take several months – so, I’m not prolific!


What can people expect from your live shows?

We like to dress well, Nora adds some glamour and class to the band and Stephen Dennis (guitarist) is worth watching just because he is skinnier with each passing gig. We’re very personable, come and speak to us after or before gigs, we like that. The live set is a bit more up-tempo than the recorded songs as people pay more attention to the lyrical content on a recording than in a live gig. Getting the attention of the listener is different in a live gig; we recognise that and our live performance hopefully do keep the mind’s attention.


What are you all listening to at the moment?

Apart from all of the above influences, Cocteau Twins back catalogue is never far away from my ears. I very much enjoyed PJ Harvey’s last album and was lucky enough to have been at the Villager gig earlier in the year. Stephen D likes the last Pheonix album and Nora and I both share a love for Dirty Projectors last album, though we’ve never seen them live.


What can we expect to see/hear from you in 2011?

We’ll be gigging around Edinburgh and beyond promoting our single, “Short Term Memories” (our Monday 26th September) and will hopefully be recording again in due course. Our next set is an acoustic daytime gig at Hair of the Dog Sundays at Red Dog Music on the Grassmarket (Sunday the 25th September) - Sorry guys, Peenko

Bandcamp
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Friday Freebies

we're only afraid of NYC
It's been a pretty good few weeks in terms of news coming out of the NYC camp, first off they've managed to recruit themselves a shit hot new drummer (the last one ran away to France) and now even more excitingly they've just posted up their top notch new single We Lived Here as a free download. Get stuck in kids, it's a great wee tune.

Poor Things
Having released their debut single 'Innocence/18' through the French Wives imprint label, Red Hat Records back in May. Perthshire three piece, Poor Things have just made their new EP 'R U Sitting Comfortably?' free to download on Bandcamp.

Laki Mera
Glaswegian electronica quartet, Laki Mera have posted up the Mogwai remix of their song 'Crater' for free on their Facebook page.

Supermarionation
Edinburgh punk powerpop three-piece Supermarionation have made their new EP 'Amongst the Northern Lochs' free to download here.

Plastic Animals
Having released the excellent A Dark Spring EP back in July, Plastic Animals are now giving away even more free tunes. To celebrate their 5th anniversary since the release of their debut EP, they've made both“The Importance Of Fuzz” and it's follow-up “Forgetting This Is Killing Me” free to download on Bandcamp.

Scottish Fiction
Fellow blogger Scottish Fiction has posted up the next in his series of free EPs, this months offering features free tracks from Shambles Miller, Collar Up, Reverieme and Where We Lay Our Heads. You can download it for nowt here.

Stormy Seas
Edinburgh indie folksters, Stormy Seas have posted up two free tracks from their forthcoming album, Of Rust and Loss (due out in November). It reminds me of a lot of stuff that's coming out of Edinburgh at the moment, with perhaps a touch of the Levellers in there too. Make your own mind up by downloading the tracks here.

monster island.
My fellow blogger Song By Toad pointed me in the direction of this freebie, so if you love it or hate it you know who to blame. Mancunian alt-pop outfit a couple of free tracks from their forthcoming album 'cathedral steps' on their Bandcamp.

Rose Parade
Ayrshire whimsical pop outfit Rose Parade have made their song 'Midnight Wine' free to download on their SoundCloud page.

Friday Freebies

Los Campesinos!
If you didn't chekc out the PopCop yesterday, then you might missed this little twitter argument between LC! and Kev from Avalanche, which from an outsiders point of view was one of the funniest things I have read on twitter in ages. Anyway, the one good thing that came from all of this was that it alerted me to a free download of the new LC! tune By Your Hand, which you can find for free here.

Trips and Falls
Wur good pal Matthew at Song By Toad has just released the new album by Montreal outfit, Trips and Falls, I have to admit that due to my 'only listen to Scottish music' policy, their first album somewhat passed me by. Although after listening to this free download I am going to have to make exceptions to that (stupid) rule.

The Rest
It's been a whole since I last listened to anything from Canadian outfit, The Rest. Having bought their debut album, 'Everyone All At Once' on a bit whim a few years back from Rough Trade (it was mega cheap), in a post-Funeral-world they were one of the bands that got me really excited about he Canadian music scene, so it's good to have them back. You can download their new double A-side single 'Always on my mind/The Last Day' for free on their Bandcamp, fucking ace it is too.

Amber Wilson
I was going to save this for a future We've Got It Covered post, but it's too good not to share now. Having charmed the pants of pretty much everyone at the Captain's Rest last Friday, the lovely Ms Amber Wilson has made her live cover of Love Will Tear Us Apart free to download on her Soundcloud page.

Blink182
Now before you start berating me for posting Blink182, just wait until you have checked out the link. In order to download their single for free you need to stop the timer dead on '182', having spent the past five minutes attempting to do it I have to admit that this was a lot of fun. So even if you're not a big fan of the band, this is sure to help kill some of your time this afternoon until it's time to hit the pub at 5.

Scottish Fiction
The latest addition to the Scottish blogger fraternity, Scottish Ficiton, has just made his latest monthly EP available to download for free. So if you want free tracks from Black International, The Celestians, velcroBrother and Lou Hickey, then get tucked in here.

Collar Up
Not content with releasing some of the most innovative music to come out of Scotland in recent times, now Sean and Fabien from Night Noise Team have decided to set up their own label together called PermWhale Recordings. Their first release is going to be with a trio from Edinburgh called Collar Up, who's song 'Short Term Memories' is free to download on their Bandcamp.

Dave Hughes
Resident folk-punk Weegie, Dave Hughes has made his track Mirrors, free to download using this link. If you like what you hear then make sure you check out his album Despite the Blackout.