A successful week for Irish music all-round! Firstly congratulations to Jape on winning the Choice Music Prize – many have already said it went to the nicest man in Ireland and of those on the final shortlist, he was certainly amongst the most deserving. Halfset made a really good album and R.S.A.G. certainly set tympanics trembling with Organic Sampler but in the end the award went to one whose music played truly massive role in 2008. Despite fear and suspicion on the night due to the presence of David Holmes and The Script, Richie Egan is now wealthier to the tune of ten thousand fruits and a smooth celebratory trophy declaring Ritual the most critically-acclaimed Irish album of 2008. Thank you Jape.
There’s an interview with Choice founder Jim Carroll over on Analog. It’s a decent read…have Phantom really been binning bands’ CDs? In this age of carbon neutrality I thought unwanted promos found a home in charity shops. It’s all a wicked lie!
Salulations are also in order for Falter Ego who won the DIT Battle of the Bands in Think Tank on Wednesday (by the by, how fantastic is the new Cylon ceiling in the Eustace Street club?! Totally makes up for the naff Diet-Cokesque mural and porn-star toilets…!) Falter Ego beat off competition from Bojangled, Flying Columns and The Harm to win the first heat. Myself and two judges from Drop-D were level-pegging at 3/4 time and prepared for a fight amongst Indies when the three metallers rocked on and settled the score with four great, catchy songs. Look forward to hearing from you lads but if I can make one teeeny suggestion – introducing online visitors to your music with “The Official…Myspace Page” is a bit naff. Just sayin….
Before I launch into the plethora of upcoming releases and shows, take a moment to consider Parhelia‘s words on the effects of illegal downloading on small bands.
The Dublin post-rockers released Shifting Sands in early February and yet to date there have been over 500 downloads from one filesharing site alone – more than the album’s total legitimate sales. That ain’t cool. Support your local music industry people – it’s the only way to survive without selling out.
The other gigging biggie is The Urges in Whelans, also tomorrow – biggie because it’s their last Irish date before they descend on the not-so-sleepy town of Austin, Texas for SXSW….did you know the city has a bat population of 1.5 million? Sounds like a kind of haven!
Monaghan’s Green Lights played their last gig on Friday in Whelans’ Upstairs…it was a jolly affair and absolutely loads of heads turned out to wish them well. It was great to see so many different faces in various stages of happiness/inebriation/lamentation…the gig itself was like these pictures – colourful, fuzzy, slightly strange and to use Colin’s words, messy. “Messy’ in a matey ‘let’s just play ‘em to bits’ kind of way…not the standard terminology of messy which was certainly applicable to the next Irish band I saw that same night….
Anyway, check out all the props and oddities that filled out the trio’s final barnstorm.
While March hares have yet to come bounding through this neck of the docks, here’s some upcoming madness to pay heed to : Adebisi Shank and Jogging join the bill for the return of Baltimore’s highly-feted four-piece Ponytail on 11 March. This undoubtably hangs down the back of The Vinny Club‘s storming display of support in September. I didn’t go to that but after checking out the latest Ponytail album Ice Cream Spiritual I wish I had.
Foggy Notions have kindly offered two double passes to lucky parties. I’m sure you’ll be beating down the door for these so give the following challenge a bash and send your answers to rockeroffher[at]gmail[dot]com:
Shank’s Pony, Jogger’s Nipple, Blogger’s ….??
Entries close on 9 March. I’m not that finicky about time so 23:59:59 if you’re determined to wrest one.
How many times have you fallen in love with a record only to discover, much to your horror, that the band have broken up? Such is the fate of unsuspecting Irish indie music fans who have not yet discovered Green Lights – this Friday 27 February sees the band’s final performance with good friends The Funeral Suits in Whelans.
Born in a student gaff in Monaghan, Green Lights began in 2006 with guitarist Colin, drummer Daniel and a lot of bad songs. Of which, some (Fold, Threading Ice, Glove Box) survived and make up the live set list.
After about a year of Colin and Daniel jamming away, synths player Nigel moved into said gaff and the line-up of Green Lights was complete.
Colin: We had no bass and we liked it that way.
Drop-D: That’s quite surprising though, Green Lights seem like the kind of band who would have a bassist. And I hadn’t realised you were knocking around for a while…you seemed to just emerge last year in a flurry of EPs, Small Curious Things followed by Time To Tell The Parents.
Colin: We did release quite a bit in 2008. It annoys me to see great bands not getting their material out there. Sure, it costs money but it’s so much fun to do. They were like mini projects that kept me busy when I was unemployed.
Nigel: Yeah it’s much more rewarding if you do all the press release, photoshoot, managerial stuff yourself. Less people to get pissed off with!
Drop-D: It’s quite unusual for Irish bands to produce so quickly though. I’m not sure if it’s entirely financially-driven either, there honestly doesn’t seem to be enough good material to keep releasing….
Colin: Well I think it’s because we live together? Also people can forget about bands very easily in Dublin. I’m not too sure. I do think a lot of bands are scared to fork out money on what can be quite daunting project. My advice is go for it, regret it later!
Nigel:Colin will admit he can be quite prolific with the songwriting if Daniel and I lock him in his bedroom and only give him Sugar Puffs until he writes something new!
Drop-D: So what spurred the advance from bedroom band to really hitting the live circuit?
Nigel: Back in the middle of 2007 we decided Dublin was finally ready for a big onslaught from us and so we started just taking whatever gigs we could get, ranging from support slots to club nights and even barn dances…
Colin: It was hard starting out mind…coming from Monaghan where there are zero bands apart from The Flaws, it was almost impossible to get gigs. Then we started showcasing with the brilliant Garageland which proved a great starting point for us, met lots of people and bands and it got easier….
Fancy some Americana-driven blues rock to hound yaw dawgs to? This here’s The River Valley Band accompanied by them low-down, no-good, keister-kicking Hot Sprockets and Whelans’ own enigma of Sunday night slide-guitar, NC Lawlor:
You will of course recognise Paul Noonan of Bellx1 who was secretly in situ in Bewleys yesterday for a once-off private performance for Hot Press competition winners. All very hush-shush and lovely I hear.
While Friday night previously saw the launch of Heritage Centre‘s EP The City, The Tree and The Fox:
Last time I saw Lights was months ago in Dorans and they were bloody brilliant, danciness. Now they have emerged into a burgeoning spring with new single I Don’t Know Myself and it’s blissful electro blammer.
I need danciness! Once again Club AC30 Dublin steps up to the plate with yet another well-rounded serving of Irish:
Goood-o, I just stumbled across the blogginess of none other than champion of new Northern Irish tunes, Edwin McFee. Don’t mean to say it’s brand news: his archive goes back six months and a perky blog-button woulda found it sooner but…perky’s for pigs!
The McFee name’s become intrinsically linked with Belfast’s thriving musical hub as he covers latest developments, bringing a harder, ballsier edge of soothsaying with unabashed passion for hairy high volume.
cc: NME/Edwin McFee
I am bloody glad to have another asiwyfa header in the Hot Press house. Not just HP either – in the NME this week he’s done justice to the local scene, giving the post-rockers and Not Squares‘ thrash disco a deadly push. After the fabulous support slot that saw NS steal Cap Pas Cap‘s single-launch limelight at the Twisted Pepper show recently I wholly agree with his choice – of many ventured, those two bands were chosen as top tips for our first issue this year.
Pretty neat footage from the Team Fresh support to dan le sac and Scroobius Pip in the Stiff Kitten last Friday. I want to be in this band. There must be something I can do. Maybe Rory and I could ukelele-battle or something…
