The Gorgeous Colours - Button Factory, 10 November 07

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Were you at The Village last year when to see Saviours of Space wow the crowd? Fancy showing past winners Delorentos how it’s really done? Well, the heats for the National Student Music Awards have been announced and it’s time to get your demos in….
Organisers have confirmed the regional heats as:
Thur March 6th UCD
Thur Mar 13th NUIG
Wed Mar 19th Cyprus Avenue, Cork

The best will be selected to compete in the finals in Dublin later in the year.

Last year The Blizzards strummed and sweated their way through a headline slot. No news yet on who’ll do the honours next year…I’d love it to be last year’s contenders The Kinetiks but am thinking The Flaws may be more likely…

The prizes are feckin’ brilliant:

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…Paul Buchanan might not be waiting longer but us ordinary joes still have a fortnight to go.

After a long hiatius from the madness of Ireland’s gig scene, The Rags are back and they’ve brought presents!
I caught up with the scandalous six on Tuesday afternoon in Apollo Studios in Temple Bar, as they polished off a free album sampler ‘Bin Bag’ which they’re making available as a free digital-only release from their website therags.com on November 30th.
“On the surface of things we’ve been keeping a low profile the past year
or so but we’ve been busy recording our debut album,” explains frontman
Daniel Anderson. “At the moment we’re putting finishing touches to it, and
making ‘Bin Bag’ available for free is our way of saying thanks to all the
people who’ve been contacting us asking us when the album is going to be
out. They’ve been very patient.”
Bagsies I be first to hit the site at the end of the month! As if that’s not enough, The Rags also play a special Christmas gig in the Button Factory on December 20th…gearing up for what will undoubtably be 2008: Year of the Rags….

“…what’s going on?” Here’s my round up of the latest gigs, releases and general newsworthy nuggets.

Ethereal thinkers Tidal District are playing Pravda tonight from 11pm. No admission charge or stringent security means you can save a fortune by smuggling in your own medicinal tipple thus ensuring an fiine kickstart to your plastered weekend.

If you’re in the red county tonight, why not check out Television Room on 95FM at 5pm, psyching themselves up before their first Cork headliner at Cyprus Avenue? Having already graced Phantom and Phoenix radio earlier this week, it’s been a whirlwind ride for the fray-mous five (tatty-chic) since releasing Tinabelle three weeks ago.
I bumped into James (it took seven hours to dig myself out of the ground after calling him Brian at the Button Factory on Sat…scarleh’!) at Apollo Studios on Tuesday and promised to hit Crawdaddy for what will be TVRoom’s best show to date, tomorrow night.

It’s all happening outside Dublin tonight: Queen Kong and Sticky Digit will hit Dolans Warehouse like a…Kong-sized Digit later this evening. Shit-hot new Irish Krautrockers VoxPopuli will do the support thing. Get your industrial ass in gear and go! Do I need to tell you twice? Fine. GO!
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Not content with a great reputation for scintillating live shows, good looks and rockstar appeal, The Kinetiks, Penfold DM and DC Tempest now have to show off what big hearts they have.

Organised by the father of three year-old Sophie Andreucetti, who was born with hypopituitarism, this show is a one-off fundraiser aimed towards buying special gifts for children in Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin, who are too sick to spend Christmas at home with their families. Read the rest of this entry »

…That’s Cowboy Logic, Every Cowboy’s Got It - Cowboy Logic,  Michael Murphy

Are you a Cowboy X fan? I’m a Cowboy X fan…oooh, spooky coincidence: their song Shot Down has just shuffled on in iTunes!
Despite hearing the band several times at different gigs over the past year, the CX vibe only recently hit me hard after buying Who Are These People?, 2006’s synthy rock-pop debut. Generously polished by the best lessons learned from a diverse range of influential acts such as The Pixies, Television, Tori Amos and Kraftwerk, WATP? harvested a steady stream of new fans over the year since its release, owing to definitive refrains which echoed through the head long after the LED light died. Unlike other bands’ offerings where a single member’s talent holds the reins, seperately powerful layers of drums, guitars and vocals flawlessly gelled the sound which made Gabbi, 2nd Second and snippy Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Better all hold their own in a densely-populated minefield of electro-pop songs favoured by Irish listeners.
So the announcement of a headline Saturday night show at the newly renovated Button Factory was warmly received in this camp. Now was the chance to make an informed comparison of live vs scintillating studio while grabbing up-to-date live shots of Wicklow groovers Hybrasil and The Gorgeous Colours along with CX.
Check out the photos….

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