3-4-FREE - 17/05/2011 - THE PRIMITIVES, FLEET FOXES and DEMS

Hello again, I'm not going to be around on Thursday so this weeks 3-4-FREE is coming at you a bit early. Don't worry though, it's top notch stuff.

THE PRIMITIVES - NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET
http://www.fortunapop.com/free_downloads.php



So, off we go with The Primitives and a stunning track off their new EP Never Kill A Secret. You may know the band for their 1988 single Crash, which reached number 5 and number 3 in the UK and American charts respectively. The new EP is a collection of covers of lesser-known female-fronted tracks, with Need All The Help I Can Get being a reworking of Suzi Jane Hokom's 1966 track. The Primitives give it a slightly more polished feel, but keep the edge and groove from the original to produce a kind of fresh-retro feel that rivals Hokom's version for sheer quality. (You can check out the original here)

FLEET FOXES - HELPLESSNESS BLUES


Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by subpop


Hopefully by now you don't need me to tell you how fantastic Fleet Foxes are. Their debut, eponymous album garnered praise from all over the place, and rightly so. This taster from the second album, which also happens to be the title track, is 5 minutes of utter majesty, with urgent guitars powering around a magical vocal singing words of profundity. I don't think I've gone more than a few waking hours without listening to it over the last few days, it is truly amazing.

DEMS - JARNDYCE VS JARNDYCE

OK, so I'm a bit late getting in on the dems (to give the proper, grammatically incorrect name) love-in with Tom Robinson, Rob Da Bank, NME and Vic Galloway, but better late than never. The music is a kind of lo-fi urban-tinged folktronica and Jarndyce vs Jarndyce is rather poetically described as "a story about waiting for things". The XX and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. are the most obvious recent touching points when describing the sound of dems' mellow vocals and pulsing electronica, but the waves that are being made by this London-based outfit are likely to mean they step away from such comparisons and become established in their own right.

So there you go, that's your 3 free, legal tracks for this week. Enjoy them and I'll be bringing you another Lend Them Your Ears on Monday.