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!
Awwwh, the stories, the joys, the highs, the lows. The nostalgia, the fresh waves of energy. Though I don’t see or hear them often, The Revellions are close to my heart.
Congrats on their succesful transition to London’s Dirty Water Records and this weekend they bring the Dirty Water to Dublin…this launch at Radio City looks set to be a low-down of all things raw and real. The Revellions. The Urges. The Hot Sprockets. Dandelion…and YOU.
Though news of And So I Watch You From Afar‘s UK album release on 14 April was reported on Monday, I can reveal their eponymously-titled debut gets a southern soil airing on 3 May in Whelans. Not only that but the Causeway post-rockers will be joined by good mates Maybeshewill, whom they supported extensively on a 2008 UK tour.
Aaaah!
So high time to post these pics, I think: ASWIYFA rolled in from two nights in Cork and Galway for a Sunday finale in Whelans and I snaffled them before soundcheck for cameraderie. Thanks be to chipper windows, beacons of light in the winter gloom.
A few hours later they were on-stage for their second ever Dublin show with Club AC30 and a storming set it was too. I have a feeling there won’t be as much room for dancing at the front from now on…
I wanna throw up music videos more often, not only when they’re new or promoting stuff but also when I’m sitting at my desk thinking, damn, I love this song…
MEGAKUDOS to Estel for a) going ten years strong, b) recording a truly legendary EP with Mike Watt and Steve Mackay of The Stooges, c) raising the bar on live Irish music performance: the Lower Deck on Friday night was like sitting backwards on a static, LSD-reared carousel horse while the room span at 900mph.
Bloody hell but the music sphere is fucking boring today. I’ve been looking for something to talk about all day and no go…but thankfully, Jim Carroll interviewed Hideaway House‘s Dylan Haskins and the transcript is On The Record.
For those who aren’t sure, Dylan is the mind behind the DIY Counterculture documentaryRoll Up Your Sleeves, exploring the role of youth culture in Irish society and how it compares to our European neighbours.
This is something we desperately need to address: what are young people doing for fun? What provisions are made to encourage and nurture burgeoning creativity? Beyond pubs and venues, where is music made accessible, taking away the financial aspect of profit, what remains?
I’m a bore on this subject, I know, I know…it does seem as though I expound the failures of our society to treat our musicians and artists with the respect they deserve, and deserve it they do. Considering how many gigs I attended last year (more than 100 but I ain’t arsed counting exactly), only ten were all-ages shows. I’d say 25% were signed bands, the remaining number of acts promoting, managing, releasing and supporting themselves financially. As far as public and media interest goes, the reaction to this hard work is ignored on a large scale but at least a number of people do attend shows, do buy records, do spread the word.
But what of those who aren’t making music? Who just love it? Record labels with barely any cash take chances on obscure bands with great sounds, risking something uncommercial in a grossly over-commercialised culture. I have some very good friends running gigs and have seen first-hand what a difficult job it is, how little thanks and recognition is involved, and yet the releases and gigs continue as expenses grow.
And what of those who love music but can’t make it, for lack of equipment, experience, space, confidence?
What of those who want to see bands but are too young, broke, demoralised? What about those who’ve never even experienced “the spit of the singer in your face kind of thing” because they don’t even know such a scene exists here, just like me, three years ago?
While bands are hard-pushed to support themselves as it is, labels have their hands full simply keeping their heads above water and promoters work for hardly anything other than the buzz of a great show, who’s left to propagate the seeds sown?
Us. It is up to decent, idealistic music lovers to take matters into our own hands now. We must reclaim this nation from the crap DJs, the useless media, our insipid programmers and mindless chartbusting cretins who continue to buy the latest imported dross. It’s time to take a hard look at what our country has become, its potential – music, art and space – and ask ourselves how we can change that. And Dylan has the answer:
“[DIY] can spring up in a little town in the middle of nowhere because somebody finds out about some band and realises the whole idea about DIY culture and spreads this to all their friends.
“We used any space we could get that wasn’t a pub. The old parochial hall in Greystones, Paddy’s Hall, had closed down to be turned into apartments but it was lying dormant for ages so we eventually got to use that space through the father of one of the girls who used to come to our gigs. We turned it into our own building for our collective, the Basta Youth Collective. We showed movies, put on loads of shows and built up a really good community of young people who were coming to the shows.
“One of the important things for me is that it is not always an audience that I know. I like to have a mix of new faces and old faces. It’s not a party or a club or an elite. I do want to encourage new people to come in. A house is always seens as something very private and closed off from the world but I want to get people thinking about how a space can be used in all these different types of ways. They don’t have to be this set definition as we understand them.”
I respect this guy Haskins so much, not because of his age (21), his inspiration (Kilcoole punks) or reputation (tipped by the Sunday Tribune as Hot to Watch in 2009) but rather, his recognition of Ireland as desperately lacking support it needs to further the creative potential growing amongst young Irish art and music lovers. While I’d love to do something to make a difference, I haven’t a clue where to start. I’m not a great writer, photographer or blogger but I feel inspired to be, if it results in more people supporting our culture. Dylan’s vision has already begun to make a difference here. People are waking up to the idea that you don’t need gold medallions or a mirrored ceiling to support bands, just an open mind, spare hours and a real desire for Change?.
2009 marks Estel‘s decade-landmark of personificating music in Ireland. It must give them great pleasure to move forward to even greater heights with the start of this year: volume 1 of their recordings with Steve Mackay and Mike Watt of The Stooges will be released this week: first in Freds in Cork tomorrow night, Sally Long’s in Galway on Thursday and then Friday 9 January at the Lower Deck.
I tipped this in my EP round-up as one of the first to watch out for this year: it’s a blammer, dark, heavy and strong. I never know how to write about music literally but get this:
Anyone get a nifty new camera for Christmas? Anyone lose theirs?!
If you’re fed up with having nothing to do, here y’are. Change? is open for submissions until January 15th. It’s an interesting project addressing unused potential in Dublin brought to you by the same minds behind Hideaway Records and Roll Up Your Sleeves, the critically-acclaimed 2008 documentary examining DIY Counterculture.
Photographer – person who takes photos. Fire off an email and get involved, it’s a positive and interesting project, one that could shed some insight on how to move ahead. “Year of the Recession” has already become the most over-used phrase of 2009…on day 6. What’s really being done to inspire and encourage our culture? Do you see endless waste of space and resources or a lack of amenities?
The point is not high maintenance or obtuse art, just vision. What you see, what you think we need. Free music for all, more than one penned-in skatepark? An ice rink that doesn’t cost a family €45? Empty orchestra halls or scores of people at gaff gigs?
Adrian Crowley‘s rather splendid Long Distance Swimmer is available to download free from JC’s blog. Fourth LP from the Galway musician, the album was nominated for the Choice Prize 2008 and described by HP soundsmith Ed Power as “goose-bump inducing collection of folk ballads and bare-boned post-rock/stacked high with brooding melodies and taut, threatening riffs“, LDS was released late last year, scooped raves, bagged that list and is still considered a necessary staple for any self-respecting alt-folk fan. Record #5 follows on Tin Angel in April 2009.
