Hey there, very busy Nay today…. I’m looking to update the Goodies page on the right there….if you’re in a band or know one offering free downloads, let me know? I’ll update over the weekend so the more, the merrier
My favourite alternative Dublin band The Eclectic made a rare return to the stage last Friday at Death Via Satellite in Eamon Dorans, bringing with them an array of haircuts, instruments and excitingly, new tracks!
Finally receiving much-deserved recognition, the fivesome wowed their way through the headline set in no time, whizzing the minutes away to a starlit, stagestruck reservoir of memory. Thankfully I had my camera to record what was an excellent show, starting off with nombres neuvo and ending with more familiar tracks Lucky Landing, Scream and The Lobotomist…dig the sampling, which begins with a soundbyte from a man who underwent the intrusive brain surgery at the age of twelve and describes its feeling as “a screwdriver in the brain“…Decide for yourself:
Cork/London-based Margaret O’Sullivan aka Femmepop recently posted a track from her forthcoming debut EP ‘Kick‘ on MySpace. Similarly-titled, the song features Chris Geddes of Belle and Sebastian on piano and will slowlysweetly kick your eardrums out.
Don’t leg it just yet: there’s also this deaaadly Phantom fm podcast from her recent visit to the studio.
Have I mentioned that Floyd Soul and the Wolf have three songs on MySpace for free download? They’re all juice and cookies age and throw terrific tantrums through guitar…
So far this morning my iPod’s hosted Gruff Rhys, Hybrasil, Electric President, Massive Attack and now Subplots. If you haven’t already heard their fabulous EP State and Nature I recommend you get your skates on because their album debut won’t be long now.
If you knew how many dead album-in-the-making blog-bookmarks I dumped last week, you’d agree that Subplots have made a grand start on charting the process of recording in this extensive blog complete with larky photos and revealing weaknesses for equipment and ginger nuts:
Subplots and Seeping Into Cinemas will support Le Galaxie at Crawdaddy on February 29th, if the headliners are still alive, that is. The video for their new single We Bleed The Blood of Androids has left them so:
I’m a very happy blogger now we have our video embeds working. Massive coding operations lasting long into the tea-break brought many baited breaths and blank screens but it’s now been a week and the links are solid, Glory Be!
Just added to Youtube, last night’s live performance of Weeknight Lovers from The Dirty 9s on TG4’s Deis Roc. Has anyone been watching the show? In this clip judge and Kila frontman Ronan O’Snodaigh gives the young 9s a bit of flak while guitarist Cian gives judge Karen a bit of glad-eye when she says “I could hear them on the radio….”
Further into video-realm we go, this time to In Light by Aortal, band of Dublin’s most affable busker James O’Toole, though you’d never think so watching him slink menancingly through gloomy social welfare corridors. Is that an ironic fire extinguisher?
As oil prices peaked over $100 per barrel last week, the fallout’s been felt here in Ireland with a sharp fall in drummer numbers. Mainline are scraping by thanks to a stand-in but better get a shuffle on, seeing as gig biz is set to perk up soon (Mainline, Sweet Jane and SuperExtraBonus Party play Cypress Avenue in Cork on Feb 1st as part of SEBP’s Everything Flows EP tour).
Joining the scores of bands advertising for new members online, Humanzi in this case are looking for a keys/synths player for their second album due to begin production on January 24th. Ideally, candidates should be Berlin-based or prepared to travel and available to audition on January 22nd. Contact the band for more info.
Shot in Dundrum and Celbridge in October last year and directed by The Chapters‘ Simon Eustace, The Minutes‘ video for their strongest song of 2007 - Ukraine - has been released! You can download the track from their MySpace and watch the video here:
Catch the band when they play The Hub with Arch Enemies in support of Brighton disco-punks Blood Red Shoes on January 25th. Check BRS’ MySpace for other Irish dates and while you’re there, have a listen to free download How To Pass the Time, recorded live for BBC Radio 1.
On the subject of videos, Jape’s Floating has been nominated for an Antville Award and is running alongside Kanye West and Snoop Dogg. Still a teeny bit embarassed after announcing the New Year countdown three minutes early at their Whelans’ gig with Si Schroeder, bring the band a little light by voting for Floating….
House of Cosy Cushions are very excited to make a last-minute announcement that Sophie Zeyl will join their varied troupe at Whelans tonight. Support comes from ascerbic wit Ewa Gigon and Windings, Steve GiveAManAKick’s acclaimed solo venture which garnered excellent reviews from The Ticket, HotPress and EclecticHoney.
Fronted by Richard Bolhuis, HoCC formed in Amsterdam in 2003 as an opensource forum for talented musicians with one aim, to provide the ultimate in live performing. Now signed to SeaDog Records, an EP Palace of the Lost Ones was released earlier this year, a rock ‘n’ roll record with roots in blues and jazz blossoming into its own unique hybrid of sound as influences from Nick Drake to David Bowie and Sparklehorse branch out and grab your audio-goolies. An album featuring guest vocals from Cathy Davey is on the way but in the meantime feast your eyes on this animated short, included on Palace of The Lost Ones.
LargeMound launch their new album My Whole Life Is Have To at the BoomBoomRoom tomorrow night (Friday 9th)!!
Darkness and raw clarity emanate from this band especially when compared to the polished diamonds of bright new scenesters in tight blue jeans..ters. You know what I mean: at this, their third album, LM are on their mettle with latest single Your Holiday Sounds Boring, which is enjoying extensive playlisting from Limerick Green and Live’s Alan Jacques, Edel Coffey at Phantom and Today FM’s Alison Curtis. Buzzing chatter suggests tomorrow night and December’s Ballroom of Romance shows will be thronged. MyWhole Life Is Have To will be available to download from usual outlets but we’re promised exclusive merch will be available at the BBR show. Support comes from SeaDog and feisty Berlin /Waterford electro-poets You’re Only Massive. €10 will get you in with a free album. Wh00p!
Socially-conscientious Norn Iron crew Axis Of have announced an upcoming show on November 16th in The Retro, Portrush, followed by Crimbo shenanigans at Capitol in Glasgow on 23rd December (supporting delicate pansies Bleeding Rectum) and Belfast’s The Bunker on 28th Dec. Young enough to make you spit and filled with indignant energy, Axis Of chose a name to reflect what they consider the sorry state of politics in the world they’ve grown in to. Check out their song Bigoted Kids on MySpace, penned after a hungover trek home through a park saw them accosted by jeering, Protestant-hating eight-year olds. Fair play, they didn’t growl, chase or ignore the brats but instead sat them down and asked where all the hate was coming from. Surely that’s enough to get you listening….
Delorentos don’t seem to take their own advice and STOP! Those of you who missed Crawdaddy last Friday have the chance to catch SuperExtraBonusParty and Messiah J and the Expert support the Skerries fellies at one of the Ambassador’s last-ever shows on December 14th.
Get down to HMV in Shop Street at 5pm tomorrow (Friday 9th) and BPM Records, Waterford City at 3pm on Saturday to hear live in-store sessions of powerful stripey pop-rock plugging the delivery of brand-new EP Don’t You Realise? Released as a limited edition this Friday, it includes the title-track single and three brand-new songs. Judging by the success of previous EPs, DYR? will undoubtably join the highly-coveted rarity-ranks of The Rules and Senses, which can no longer be found in shops for blood or love.
If you don’t want to wait that long to hear SEBP, they’ll be supporting Terrordactyl’s EP launch, along with Belfast headers We Are Knives and Enemies, at the Lower Deck tomorrow night (November 9th). Apparently there’ll be fireworks and stuff. Pretty sparklers and maybe the super extra terror mammies will come along and make everyone hot chocolate with marshmallows. Maybe.
Fight Like Apes have just revealed that the support slot for their Whelans’ gig on 16th November goes to the exceedingly harmonic Grand Pocket Orchestra who packed out the Lennon Lounge at this year’s HWCH. Get to the FLA show early to catch their set or else this Saturday (10th) hop along to the city’s grottiest venue, Dorans’, to hear GPO sing, strum and wheeze sweet, sweet music.
Also with a new release at last are the Hot Sprockets who’ve been building a sweaty army of fans with infectious blues-rock and (not enough!) gigs. The lumberjack lovers have announced an EP to be released in the new year, containing the tracks Cherrypopper, Take It By the Hand, Sleep Shake, Solid Gold and Sonny Boy Blues.
The ommittal of anthemic Peyote is a brilliant sign that the Sprockets are confident of their wares and don’t need to rest on the laurels of the song that sticks in your brain for bloody days afterwards - if you don’t believe me, check out the free download linked in the Goodies page!
Do you like your bass, synths and cheesy neon? Love The Girls Nicotine Addiction? Calvin Harris’ UCD gig is looking to be a corker with Irish bands Noise Control and Dark RoomNotes supporting the sunglassed-one on November 23rd. Quite a bit of contrast between the three acts but top quality nonetheless…
Promoting their latest single Gravity, Suddyn made it into the Guinness Book of Records this week for posting 300,000 MySpace bulletins in an hour. Oh, okay, not really but you can bet if there was a bulletin-bursting category, they’d win it.
However they did make it to the top of the Guinness Storehouse to record the video for their single, a first for any band. #24 in the Irish charts on Sunday, the Dublin/New York foursome miraculously saw Gravity playlisted on 2 FM, FM 104 and 98FM, which is almost-unheard of for unsigned bands who are faced with the daunting popularity of turgid international shite the majority of our national stations’ disc jockeys choose to spin instead. Watch the video here. Doesn’t Dublin look marvellous when Bertie’s great unwashed are safely out of sight?
