Friday Freebies

Father Sculptor
Sadly it looks like Johnny Reb have called it a day, the good news however is that some of the band have gone on to form Father Sculptor, a cracking wee pop band, who I think it's safe to say might own a few Smiths records. Their new double A-side single 'Ember/Blue' is free to download on Bandcamp and it comes highly recommended.




The Last Battle
Edinburgh folk-pop outfit The Last Battle are set to release the follow up to their cracking debut album, Heart Of The Land, Soul Of The Sea later in the year. They are due to release their first single from said album in June, to celebrate the release of 'Hope Is Gold', they're going to be playing a wee gig at Pilrig St Pauls Church in Leith on the 22nd of June. Support on the evening comes from the 'mysterious' William Henry Miller and Where We Lay Our Heads. As a wee prelude to the gig, the band have made their EP, The Springwell free to download on Bandcamp. The band are also going to playing an instore gig at Avalanche tomorrow as part of the Record Store Day celebrations, they've even promised to play a couple of covers too.



Kowalskiy's free EP 
Bloody nora, we're now up to #22 in Kowalskiy's free EP series, not one for dropping his standards he's lined up another corking line up, including Father Sculptor, Miniature Dinosaurs, Kill The Waves, Zefs Chasing Cara and Toy Machene. Find out more and get downloading here.



Damon Albarn
Next month see the release of Damon Albarn's next release,  'Dr. Dee', an album of music taken from his opera of the same name. The album which was recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra is out on the 7th of May, as a wee teaser the NME have gotten an exclusive free download of 'The Dancing King' which can be dowloaded in exchange for an email address.
 

Pixies 
Frank Black and co are giving away free four-track EP on their official website. The EP consists of four live tracks which were recorded during the band's set at Coachella in 2004 and is available to be downloaded now from Pixiesmusic.com.

 

No Comet
Fans of drone music take note, Glasgow outfit, No Comet have posted up a couple of demos for free download. Get downloading over on their Bandcamp page.



Richard Hawley
If you head over to Amazon you can find yourself a free download of 'Standing At The Sky's Edge', the lead track from the new Richard Hawley album.

Friday Freebies

Le Reno Amps
This weeks freebies have a bit of Halloween theme to them, our first spooky free download comes from those effervescent pop maestro’s fae the Highlands of Scotland, Le Reno Amps. Just head on over to their homepage for some trick or treat action, if you're lucky then you'll find yourself a wee download of their track ‘Never Be Alone’, which should whet your appetite in anticipation of their forthcoming album which is due out on Armellodie Records in Spring 2011.

Tapes 'n Tapes
I fucking love this band. Their gig at Nice n Sleazys a few years back still rates as one of my all time favourites. It feels like ages since they did anything, so their return is a more than welcome one in my eyes. You can download their new track, 'Freak Out' for free here.

Remember Remember
Next Friday, Mr Ronald celebrates his 30th birthday with a special gig in Glasgow in support of his new EP. Of course none of you will be going since you're all coming to AvsP, right? You can console yourself at missing out on this gig by downloading free track, 'Get Good' taken from the EP here.

Yusuf Azak
I know I go on about my fellow blogger, Song By Toad an awful lot on here, but fuck it, he deserves your attention as he's very good at what he does. He also has a cracking wee label too, jealous? moi? fuck yeah. Anyway, that's enough brown nosing, he's got yet another wee corker up his sleeve in Yusuf Azak. His debut album is due out in a couple of weeks, as a wee taster he's giving away a free single to promote it, download it here.

John Knox Sex Club
I am not sure if I have ever mentioned JKSC on here before, I guess they are just one of those bands that have been on my 'to-do list' for quite a while, but kept getting shunted back. I bought their album ages ago, it is quite possibly the greatest album design ever. So if you like their song, 'John the Revelator, which you can get for free here, then I'd urge you to invest in a copy as it's a beautiful bit of work, and the music's pretty good too.

FOUND
I nearly forgot about this weeks FOUND freebie, I feel kind of bad about that. I am starting to questions myself whether I have become too complacent and just taken them from granted. thankfully though I have managed to reprieve myself by adding it in at the last minute. This weeks freebie is Halloween themed and it's called Something Under The Bed Is Drooling. Go get it here.

Pixies
Mind I posted a link last week that came from the Pixies, but was actually about Interpol, confusing wasn't it. Well at least it was for me. Thanks to Jim Ayetunes, we have the real deal this week, as he very kindly pointed out that they had posted a free download of their set at Coachella 2004.

El Dog
Taken from the soundtrack to Scottish film, 'Wasted' which was on BBC2 last Saturday (it's still on iPlayer if you fancy giving it watch), these three tracks are all pretty damn good. You can download them for free here.

Now Wakes The Sea
It's funny how life works out, sometimes you make friends and then they just drift out of your life, never to be seen again. Or at least that's how it's supposed to work, right?
A month or so ago an old friend got in touch and he mentioned that he was now in a band called Now Wakes The Sea. After a wee catch up, one thing lead to another and I put him in touch with our pals at Elba Session, who asked them to play at their last gig of 2010. Their lo-fi songs did it for me, you can make your own mind up by downloading some free tunes from their Bandcamp.

Girls
Try 'googling' this and not getting shit off your wife, I guess I shouldn't have added the words 'dancing' and 'naked' in there too. Shit. Going off on a ramble. Trying to be amusing and failing and now my wife thinks he less of me, who'd have thought that could be possible. Aye, so there's a band called Girls, they have an EP coming out, Stereogum have a free download from it, blah blah blah porn blah.

Lykke Li
Man that was tough to spell, or at least it was for me in my tired state as I try and work my through this post late on a Thursday night. All you really need to know is that you can download a free copy of single 'Get Some' for free here.

Davies Versus Davies
This freebie came courtesy our friend Drunk Country (if you don't know who this, make sure you go and check out his excellent radio show by clicking the link), who tweeted about it earlier in the week. Apparently it's a side project from John Mouse (being rubbish I have no idea who this is), but seeing as it comes with the DC seal of approval it goes straight into this weeks Freebies.

Crystal Castles
They're not my cup of tea, but I am sure some of you will like this, it's a new version (featuring Robert Smith) of their Platinum Blonde cover, which you can download for free.

Futuristic Retro Champions
Last week I featured these guys in my Fresh Meat Monday post, two days later they announced that they were going to be calling it a day. See the power that I have to destroy a band (NB I am clearly talking bollocks here). The band plan to go out on a high with live dates in December. Until then you can console yourself by downloading their cover of 'Robert De Niro's Waiting' here for free.

The Caretakers
Normally I don't like to just lift bits out folks emails, but I really liked the honesty of the email I got from The Care Takers wondering if I would consider featuring them in Friday Freebies. After I gave them a quick listen and really enjoyed their tunes I couldn't not share this with you... "I’m a PR/marketing professional and college/university instructor by trade, but on the eve of starting my first true musical endeavor I became disillusioned with the corporate world and began feeling contempt for the less-than-ethical mainstream public relations profession. After more than 20 years I decided to give up my day job and devote myself completely to making music; something my body and mind have been screaming at me to do since I was a teen. The album ‘Unfinished Thoughts’ came together with an amazing group of friends, inspired by our working class surroundings, and a call for political insight. We’re not packaged. We’re not young and shiny. We’re not about to be the subject of an 18-year-old’s tweet, but this music is who we are." So there you have it, I was genuinely inspired to listen their songs after reading that, I am glad that I did as it's pretty fucking good. You can make your own mind up though by heading downloading three songs for free from their Bandcamp.

Bullets in Madison
I have no idea where I got this freebie, I must have saved it to my favourites earlier in the week, so I can't credit to anyone as my memory has failed me sadly. There's loads of tracks and you can get them for free here.

CMJ
I know CMJ was last week, but it's worth noting that Insound have a cracking wee compilation up for grabs for free, go get your hands on it here.

Friday Freebies

The Kays Lavelle
The second single ‘Ten Times’ from the Kays forthcoming debut album ‘Be Still This Gentle Morning’ is available for free digital download through the good folk over at Wiseblood Industries.

Blur
I guess that most of you will already be aware of this, but in case it passed you by Blur's new song 'Fools Day' that was released as part of Record Store Day has been made available for free download in exchange for your email address.

Kid Carpet
If you've never heard of KC then now's the time to get yourself acquainted, I first came across him in one of the wee tents at Belladrum a few years back. Seeing a grown man play toy instruments and making some of the most fun dance music known to man was my highlight of the weekend. My second biggest highlight was stumbling across him playing the same tent a few hours later, due to the fact that some of the bands had been forced to pull out. The man is a legend on his pink toy guitar. Anyway, enough shite about me, he has put a new collection of songs entitled 'The Advert Break' up for free download, here.

Bob Hillary and the Massive Mellow
If you are heading up north to this years Insider Festival then you might have spotted this lot on the bill. If you fancy hearing what they sound like, then you'd be advised to subscribe to their mailing list, as they'll send you a free MP3 of their song 'It's All Good'. Ain't that kind of them.

HEALTH
City Slang have posted a free download of the LA band's song 'USA Boys', just right click save and hey presto you've got yourself some new tunes for nowt.

Caribou
Also up on City Slang is Odessa (David Wrenchs Drumapella) by Caribou, once again, right click save. Easy peasy.

Pulled Apart by Horses
Give Transgressive Records your email address and they'll give you 4 free tracks from their 'Live at Leeds', 12" which came out as part of the Record Store Day celebrations.

65daysofstatic
The Sheffield post-rock band have a couple of free downloads up for grabs, 'Tiger Girl' is up on the NME's site and 'Crash Tactics' is free over on Indie Shuffle.

Unkle
I'll admit that I have only really heard one tune from Unkle, that one with Ian Brown, yes I know shame on me, etc, blah blah. Apprently they have a new album out, I think it's supposed to be a bit pants, but then I'll never know. If you would like to get an idea of what it's like then you download yourself a couple fo free tracks here.

.Scores
The Glasgow indie pop-rockers ahve free download of their song 'intro' up on lastfm for free.

Elliot Smith
A couple of tracks by the late Elliote Smith are up on RCRD LBL for free,'Last Call' from his Roman Candle album and 'Twilight', from the From Basement On A Hill album.

Stolen Recordings
The indie label has put a free sampler up for download on their Bandcamp, it features tracks from Pete & the Pirates, My Sad Captains and TAP TAP.

Pixies
Give them your email address and they'll let you download a free MP3 and video of 'La La Love You'.

Mystery Jets
Their third album is due out soon, to promote it's release they're giving away a free download a new track called 'Flash a Hungry Smile', just click here.

The Dandy Warhols
Mind these guys, they were on advert, everyone LOVED them. Then everyone forgot, I liked that song they sang about heroine, or somehting like that. Do I care what they're doing nowadays, not really no. Some of you lot might though, so here you go it's a free download of 'Little Drummer Boy'. Is it just me or are there far too many freebies out there these days....

Ólafur Arnalds
Icelandic fella, has a new album, it's not about volcanoes, actually I have no idea wtf his songs are about. He does have a free download up of one of a new song up for grabs, taken from the album ''Þú Ert Sólin', which translates as 'pure minging by the way'...or perhaps not, is up for grabs here.

Iron & Wine
yep that folky guy with the huge beard, aye him, he's got a free song up fro grabs over RCRD LBL. It's called 'The Trapeze Swinger' and it's rather nice, download it here.

The Mountain Parade
Another last minute edition from Ian 'too pretty to blog' Bawjaws from Have Fun At Dinner, as I just got this I can't tell you much. Apparently they're a folk pop band from Oxford, we'll just have to trust my little dragon loving acorn. You can download their EP 'Living Room Songs' for free on their Bandcamp.

Stornoway
Although Kowalskiy keeps banging on about this lot I must admit that I haven't given them much of a listen. Saw them on Jools Holland once, they didn't impress me much, might need to get them another chance. There is a free download of their song 'On The Rocks' up for grabs here. Talking of Kowalskiy it's time for his we Korner (please note the KKK idea was mine, he's not a big racist or so he says.....)


Kowalskiy's Komplimentary Korner

The Northwestern
From the ashes of one of one of my favourite bands, Hope Of The States comes The Northwestern. There are two free downloads of their songs "Rot and Gin" and "The Number" available here, all that they ask for is an email address in return.

Go Go Bordello
Personally I don't know too much about these guys, I liked that Start Wearing Purple song, that was class. David, sorry Kowalskiy swears by them, hence the reason why he's given us two freebies this week. What a wee star he is! Anyway, if you head over to Rolling Stone, then you can download new track Pala Tute.