Friday Freebies

Frightened Rabbit
As part of their recent US tour the Frabbit boys were selling a limited edition EP, so now that their state side adventures are all finished up (for now), they've decided to make it free to download. Rather nifty it is too, featuring collaborations with Camera Obscura's Tracyanne Campbell and Scottish folk singer, Archie Fisher, you can nab yourself a free download of the EP simply by signing up to their mailing list. A pretty good deal if I do say so myself.

White Denim
I know that I ban on about Scottish music a fair wee bit on here, but on the odd occasion I do actually turn my ear to things outside of this remit. One such band who have been turning my head for a good few years now are Austin's finest sons, White Denim. If you haven't already checked out their most recent album 'D', then I would suggest you do as it's one of the finest things I have heard all year. If you want a wee taster of what to expect you could always down their free live EP, 'Live at the Ghost Room' which consists of four songs from said album, performed and recorded live in their home town.

Spanish Prisoners
I know I have said this a few times, but one of the first ever blogs that I read a back in the day was the I Guess I'm Floating, a cracking wee site based in Brooklyn in the US. Over the years the site has turned me onto numerous bands, although in recent times I haven't checked out as much stuff as I'd like to (the Scottish music scene some what dominates my time nowadays). This week though I did get the chance to check out their latest tip, Spanish Prisoners, who's Gold Fools LP is pay what you want on Bandcamp. I don't often find myself enjoying dreamy pop songs, but I fucking love this, check it out kiddie winks then go and say thanks to the good folk at IGIF.

Kowalskiy
Bloody hell time fairly does fly in, it feels as if it was only last week that I was mentioning the last free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP from my fellow blogger Kowalskiy. Now he's up to his 16th EP, which features among others the fabulously named If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now, The Stormy Seas, Supermarionation and Vladimir.

Yusuf Azak
Until recently I hadn't quite made my mind up about Yusuf Azak, my friend Ian described him as being a bit Marmite-esq, i.e. you either love him or hate him. Having given his new acoustic EP, Prizefighter, a good few listens I think I might now well be sold. You can make your own mind up by downloading the EP for nowt via his Bandcamp.

The Belle Hops
Inspired by girl groups of the 50s and 60s, Glasgow's The Belle Hops have made their song 'The New Boy's Really Great' free to download on their SoundCloud page.

Age Of Consent
Former Shit Disco-ers, Age Of Consent are busy touring Australia at the moment, but they've not forgotten about everyone back home as they've made The Toxic Avenger remix of their song, The Beach free to download here.

The Hazey Janes
The Dundee outfit have made their new single, 'Girl In The Night’ free to download on their SoundCloud page. The song is taken from their forthcoming album, The Winter That Was' which is due to be released on Monday 24th October 2011.

My Tiny Robots
Edinburgh four piece My Tiny Robots have released their song ‘Rock Bossa Nova Four Beat Black’ as a free download. The song is a precursor to their series of three singles which will be available on digital download and as a special limited edition release starting in October.

The Wynd
If you're looking for some alternative indie pop rock from the capital, then look no further as here's The Wynd who's single 'Favourites' is free to download on Bandcamp.

Yusuf Azak - Vic Galloway Session (16/12/10)

Track Listing

1. Lay Me Down
2. Turn On The Long Wire
3. Gazelle
4. Eastern Sun

Download

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

Yusuf Azak
You can catch Aberdeen-born artist Yusuf Azak supporting Merursault in a few weeks at thei album launch. If you fancy having a wee listen to what he sounds like then you might be pleased to learn that he has put his two self-released two EPs, "Gazelle" and "Light Procession", to download for free on his homepage. Kudos goes out to David Kowalskiy for this tip.

Pink Pills
You might remember that I featured Ryan J Gallagher, aka Pink Pills in a previous Friday Freebies, well now the Edinburgher low-fi pop troubador is back with with a free album, 'Concrete Heartbeat'. You can download the album for free here in MP3 and here using FLAC.

Ready Set Go
It used to be just kids at gigs that used to make me feel old, now I have the pesky buggers making me feel fucking ancient. readysetgo is a 14 year old music producer/composer, yes you read that right. He's from Aberdeenshire and he's one talented wee bugger. His album,
"Who the hell needs cover art anyways?" is available to download for free here. If you like your electronica check it out, be prepared to feel old as fuck though.

Healthy Minds Collapse
They remind a bit of Therapy?, China Drum and the Wildhearts, actually they remind of a lot of the bands that I was listening to in the 90's. They have a free download of their song 'Best Intentions' up for free download, all they ask in return is your email address.

Pavement (covers)
Like Pavement? Like covers? then you'll love this compilation 'show me a word that rhymes with Pavement'. It even has Rod Jones from Idlewild covering 'Shady Lane', double bonus. Yep, it's free and you get it here.

Broken Social Scene
The Canadian super-group are giving away a track from their forthcoming album, 'Forgiveness Rock Record' on their website. The track 'World Sick' is up as a free download here.

Bonnaroo Compilation
The Bonnaroo Festival are giving away a free compilation for climate change, featuring Wilco, Pearl Jam, My Morning Jacket and The Decemberists. Download it here.

Capitals
I heard these guys on Vic G's Monday night show, liked it a lot. You can too!! As they're giving away a free download of their song 'A Spectre Is Haunting Europe', go and download yourself a copy here.

Donna Maciocia
The former lead singer of Amplifico (not sure if they've split or if they're just on an indefinite hiatus) has a whole host of the MP3's up for free download on her website. Go feast here.

Crystal Antlers
Uncut described them as being 'fried psychedelic punks', does that make any sense? It just seems like journalistic bollocks to me. Anyway, if you fancy finding out what they eally sound like, then you might be interested to learn that they have put up two new songs for free download on their website.

Foals
Mind these guys? they had the guy that looked just like Sylar from Hereos. They never did much for me, but fuck it, it's free and you can't really grumble at that. Sign up for their mailing list and they'll send you a remix of a new song.

Alec Ounsworth
Mind Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, remember how good their debut album was? Now you're thinking how disappointing their follow up was, right?
Want to hear what their lead singer has been up to, then head on over to his homepage and download a live version of the song 'Modern Girl'.

Silver Columns
So the big 'secret' is out and the Silver Columns have been un-masked as The Pictish Trail and Adem. Who'd have thunk it?! Anyway, they have a new single, 'Cavalier' coming out on April 19th through Moshi Moshi. In anticipation of its release the NME have put a remix of the song by Time And Space Machine aka Richard Norris from Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, up for free download.

Waskerley Way
Matthew from Song By Toad posted about this on Wednesday, sounded not bad, plus it's free. We like free things round here. If you like your shoegaze, then this five track demo, 'Yonder' might be right up your proverbial street.

the Banana Sessions
The Edinburgh 'mutant folk-pop' band the Banana Sessions, have two demo tracks up on their site which can be downloaded for free, just head on over to their homepage.