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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.

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.

Not Squares play Animal Disco at the Spring and Airbrake tonight with support from Wounds, Yes Cadets and Ed Zealous DJs.

EdwinMcFee.wordpress.com

You know what I’m talking about. Oh yes, the pure mental craic in Portrush at the start of the year that stained my vision Stella-yellow for daaaays after. What a brilliant night…this time there’s no need to feel left out – I’m putting you in the loop. What time you wanna get the bus up?

Read on for more about The Wiggers’ Brawl from Team Fresh‘s Slaine:

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Music-mecha And So I Watch You From Afar yesterday revealed details to release their debut album on Smalltown America Records in March 2009. The London/Derry label are directly responsible for some of the most exciting releases of recent years: cuties in this cradle include local heroes along with 65 Days of Static, The Go! Team and Lovvers. The eponymous eleven-track album features their new double-single Set Guitars To Kill/A Little Solidarity and a slew of new material ( Start A Band /Tip Of The Hat, Punch In The Face / If It Ain’t Broke, Break it / Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate / Eat The City, Eat It Whole).

This latest news of signing to Smalltown America adds another layer to a cloud of 2008 activity: moonwalking into orbit with a distinctly soaring brand of urban instrumental rock (someone set a street-fight to I Capture Castles!), mini-albumThis Is Our Machine And Nothing Will Stop It launched from Belfast and strafed the rock press with incredulity. Venturing south before long for gigs in Dublin with ClubAC30 and Galway’s Stress!! in the first half of the year, the ASIWYFA brothers in arms returned to not only record an album but commandeer airwaves – download the new ATL podcast – , festivals, and tour the UK and still found time for madness with mates…and a spot of agriculture. Mhm, rumour has it that Portrussian guitarist Rory and younger bro, Axis Of‘s Ewan Friers, have a sprawling old farm they’ve been renovating with friends. Heave-ho!
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Rockin’ Socks scooched along to The Hot Sprockets‘ Country Dirt EP launch in the Button Factory last Friday. It started off hairy and got hairier: an invited stage-invasion led to the burly BF security plucking errant dancers for the stage for mass expulsion. The full skinny over on the fashionista’s photoblog…

In continuing with the theme of decent folks doing good work, it’s time to turn an eye towards fledgling digital blog label Indiecater. An off-shoot of MP3Hugger, mysterious Kevin’s daily music review blog, Indicater arrived with the summer solstice of this year with the announcement of a compilation album of overlooked Irish and international tracks. At about €3.50 a pop, the digital archives contain original artwork and mp3s, user-friendly circumvention of the higher risks of releasing in physical format. Check out the bandcamp stream players.

So Indicater vol. 1 was born, featuring Belfast’s Burning Codes along with Storkboy Choons and Michael Knight. In August, Spook of the Thirteenth Lock and Mumblin’ Deaf Ro found their way into the collection of volume 2 followed shortly by the reissue of North Carolina’s RedStar Belgrade album of 1996,  Where The Sun Don’t Shine.
In recent weeks we’ve seen Indiecater v.3 hit the shopping carts with goods from The Dying Seconds and Angel Pier, and two fully-Irish album reissues: Sunbear’s self-titled Nineties’ debut which looked in danger of slipping off the radar despite the band’s succesful metamorphosis into The Ruby Tailights and Youth Is Wasted On The Young, the first record by Indicater faves Michael Knight. Check out the albums listed here: each page on the Indicater site features an interview with their creators and the artwork, like this lickable cover:

Michael Knight – Youth Is Wasted On The Young

www.indiecater.com

www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar