Friday Freebies

Y’all is Fantasy Island
Under appreciated, is the phrase that springs to mind when anyone mentions now defunct Falkirk outfit, Y’all is Fantasy Island. I am not going to start kidding myself that I wasn't one of the folk that didn't fully appreciate what we had until they were gone. Thanks to Wiseblood Industries we can all do some much needed catching up as they've re-issued the whole of Y’all is Fantasy Island’s entire back catalogue digitally for free. This includes five LPs, totalling 55 tracks all in. So if you're not Home Game-ing this weekend, then this should pretty much be your weekend sorted.

State Broadcasters
It feels like ages ago since we last heard anything from the Glasgow's finest twee-Americana band. In fact it's been that long that I actually thought they'd called it a day, so it was good to hear that not only were they still going, but they've also been busy recording new material. They've just made new song 'Kittiwake', which comes from their forthcoming album due out in the summer, available for free download.

Steven Milne
At the tail end of last year I got sent a copy of Aberdeenshire singer songrwiter, Steven Milne's album Chasing Phantoms. Really good it was too, somehow I seem to have misplaced my copy of the album so it slipped out of my mind. Admittedly I do feel kind of guilty about that now, I am going to have to do some much needed hunting to find it. Anyway, what reminded me of all of this was that his label Bedford Records have made a remix of his song Best Of Times available for free download.

The Little Kicks
It's funny that I just mentioned Steven Milne, as he crops up twice in this weeks Friday Freebies. This little freebie comes courtesy of his other project, The Little Kicks, who are going to be out touring for a lot of this month. They've made their new single 'Call of Youth' available to download for free on their Bandcamp.

Fucked Up
I had forgotten quite how much I liked the last Fucked Up album, I must go and give my copy a a good airing. If you're already a fan then you might be chuffed to hear that Stereogum have a free download of their new song “Queen Of Hearts” for free.

Dropkick
One of the reasons I reckon a lot of folk like to search out new music is because it can be quite daunting when you find a band with a back ground as it requires a lot more effort to try and sift through a more established artists back catalogue. Knowing where to start can be pretty off putting when you have so much stuff to listen to. Which in a roundabout way brings me to Dropkick, as East Coast outfit whose music flirts between alt country and power pop. They've recently made 59 of their previously unreleased songs available to download for free on their website. Some of which I am assured are "reasonably good". Having already built up a bit of a cult following in Spain, the band are set to release their new album 'Time Cuts The Ties' on the 14th of May. If that sounds like your cup of tea then you can download a tonne of free songs from their website.

The Spinto Band
Mind the Spinto Band, whatever happened to them then? One great album, one stinker, then I never heard of them again until now. They've apparently been away recording a cover of theme music for Arthur. I am sure that makes perfect sense in Spinto-land, if you fancy hearing what it sounds like then you can by downloading the track for free in exchange for your email address.

Smack Wizards
The up and coming new Glasgow 3-piece , featuring members of Plaaydoh/Mr Peppermint, have made their debut album available for free download through Winning Sperm Party.

The Son(s)
In the midst of everything going on at Olive Grove HQ, it might seem as if we have overlooked some of our artists. I hope that isn't the case, as we love each and every one of our 'children' equally. It's been a while since we talked about the Son(s), so this feels like as good a time as any to be mentioning that they're giving away a free track in exchange for a tweet. So if you were wondering what all the fuss was about then you can find out for yourself here.

Jonathan Sebastian Knight
He of My Cousin I Bid You Farewell fame, has made a whole host of tracks available for free download on his Soundcloud page.

RM Hubbert
I am afraid that this freebie is only open to folk in the US, so if you're not from across the pond then you might want to look away now. He might well be currently be holed up in a studio with Alex Kapranos recording his new album, but we've not forgotten about wur pal Hubby. If you haven't already checked out his album 'First & Last', then you're missing a trick. Chemikal Underground were smart enough to reissue the album, so if you don't trust me, trust them. Our American friends are also in luck as they can download my personal favourite track 'For Maria' for nowt on Amazon. Everyone else, well you've been told enough times, by now you should've already bought the album.

The Dawn Fanfare
This freebie comes courtesy of our radio pal, Pop Goes The Revolution, who are planning on posting a free download every Monday for the next few weeks. So if you fancy a freebie on a Monday get following their Facebook page. This week they came up with The Dawn Fanfare, who are new to me, possibly because they're not Scottish.

Rock The Fort
The mini festival held up in Fort William, finishes up tonight with Bronto Skylift, Homework and James MacKenzie & the Aquscene. From what I have heard from folk who have played it at it, it's been a rather successful start to the festival. What does that have to do with free downloads you might be wondering, well there's a free mini album featuring Bronto, Mitchell Museum and Pareto among others. Get it here.

Bear Driver
Mind we like this lot, they make me smile. Their new demo Colours Run, works for me, see if it does for you by downloading it for free here.

Friday Freebies

FOUND
In what is inevitably going to end up being called 'FOUND's Friday Freebie', Chemikal Undergrounds latest signings are very kindly going to be giving away a free song every Friday (it's like it was they did that just for me - they didn't though), until the release of their new album in March. That's a hell of a lot of free stuff! As I am doing this in advance I don't know what the first track they're giving away is, what I do know is that you can download it here.

French Wives
I know I already mentioned this at the start of the week, but this if something's good then it's worth mentioning again. The cracking French Wives have posted up new song, 'Welcome, in the night' for you ro get your hands on it for free . Just head on over to their Myspace and you'll find details on how to get your grubby little mitts on a copy. As I already mentioned on Sunday, the band also have a couple of gigs lined up this week, tonight night they'll be at The HAC in Irvine, followed by a headlining showing tomorrow at Stereo in Glasgow.

Chemikal Underground
If you haven't already signed up to Chemikal's mailing list you clearly are a bit of a muppet, it's not as if I don't harp on about the bloody thing every month. I guess there's just no telling some folk, here's what you missed this month. A new song by The Phantom Band called 'Walls', which is taken from their forthcoming album, 'The Wants'. Plus as if that wasn't enough, they've also posted 'You're Really Quite The Catch' (feat. Lisa Lindley Jones) from their new signings FOUND. The song is taken from their 2009 download album 'Snarebrained' which the band released to fun their appearance at last years SXSW festival. Now just make me a promise that you'll get yourself signed up to that mailing list....

My Cousin I Bid You Farewell
Another band joining in with some Friday Freebie thinking are Glasgow five piece, My Cousin I Bid You Farewell, who have posted up their track 'I'm Yours', on their Bandcamp page completely gratis.

How To Swim
If you are looking for something to do tonight (1st) in Glasgow, then look no further. Local indie-pop starlets, How To Swim are celebrating the launch of their new album, 'Retina (or More Fun Than a Vat of Love)' <> with a gig at Stereo alongside The Low Miffs and Over The Wall. Should you need a little bit more convincing, then head over to their Bandcamp where you can download their track, ' High School Apocalypse' for free.

UWS Freshers Festival Mixtape
This freebie ame courtesy of my fellow blogger Favourite Son, thanks for the tip mate! It's a wee mix tape featuring tracks from loads of cracking local bands, including Aerials Up, Pacific Theatre, Make Sparks, Trapped in Kansas and Aspen Tide. Just click the link to get downloading.

Skibunny
Fancy an MP3 from this lot? Well normally all you'd have to do is give them you email address and in exchange they'd send you their track 'Ooh Ah'. Now you don't even have to do that as their mailing limit is full (really?!), so you can just click this link to download the song directly.

Bear Driver
It's been a few months since I ran a wee introducing feature with this lot, if you missed it then now you can do some well deserved catching up. The band have posted up a free download of their brand new song 'Golden Touch' on their blog, give it a whirl it's a cracking wee tune.

Alanna Takes a Solo
Fancy getting yourself on some lo-fi indie pop folk, well look no further as there's a whole albums worth of it free from Alanna Takes a Solo. Just click here to download 'Stories of my earlier years'.

Erin Mckeown

What a beautiful name..... Aye so Erin Mckeown, if you haven't come across this American singer song writer before then you are in for a bit of a treat. I caught her a good few years back at Tuts, where she made the great judgement/major faux pas (delete as you feel appropriate) of wearing a Celtic shirt on stage. No it wasn't one of those kind of gigs, she just liked to buy 'soccer tops' from the cities she was playing in. Anyway, I digress she's been churning out cracking albums for years now, so if you haven't heard her before then now is the time to do some catching up as you can download her song 'Queen of Quiet' for free here.

Smoosh
Here's one for you old-school hipsters. I featured this duo in Freebies a while back, but now they are giving a whole album away for free. You can download their new album 'Withershins' for free on their Bandcamp page.

The Cinnamons
"As the weather takes its annual turn for the worse, this definitely means Summer is well and truly over. With it brings the end of The Cinnamons - 5 Songs of Summer Project. Sometimes is now available for free download from The Cinnamons Bandcamp so please go and fill your ears".

Distiller Records
Having nicked my idea of running features on record labels*, the NME are forgiven this week as they ran a feature on the rather excellent Distiller Records. Home to rather excellent Sparrow & the Workshop, the label also has a whole host of amazing bands just waiting for your attention, some of which you can check out for yourself by downloading this free compilation.
(*I might well be talking bollocks here)

Kowalskiy's Komplimentary Korner

Unkle Bob

This weeks freebie from the doc comes from Glasgow four piece, Unkle Bob, if you head over here and give them your email address they will send you a copy of their song 'In My Head'.