News: Mercury Music Prize 2008 nominations

The shortlist for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize has been announced. As usual there's a mix of big-name artists and some lesser known ones. Here's the entire shortlist of nominations:
Adele - 19
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial - Untrue
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle - Shine
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep In The North Sea
Robert Plant And Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Rachel Unthank And The Winterset – The Bairns

The smart money would probably be on Robert Plant and Allison Krauss as Radiohead have enough publicity already for that album; Alex Turner has won it before; Estelle isn't what the judges usually go for; Neon Neon might be a bit too experimental; Elbow would get too much backlash from the cool kids; Burial and British Sea Power would probably be accepted winners, but much of the public mightn't know them; and the others are not well known at all. Except for Laura Marling who should win this award. Definitely. Although I wouldn't be annoyed if Plant and Krauss won it.

Anyhow, I'll be cheering on Miss Marling.

Album News: TV on the Radio - Dear Science,

Dear Science, is the name of the just announced new TV on the Radio album, and follow up to 2006's wonderful Return to Cookie Mountain. Like that album, this one is bound to be included on many year end lists. Well, hopefully it's good enough to!

It's called Dear Science, - comma and all. Who needs Vampire Weekend's 'Oxford Comma'? This is much more unusual. The album is due to hit stores 23rd of September.

That's about as much info as I have so far, but expect more soon. As for now, have a listen to 'Wolf Like Me':

New Music: The Minor White

The Minor White are a five piece band from Scranton, Pennsylvania. The members are Roy Williams and is brother Kevin, Ian O'Hara and his brother Shane, and Kyle Wall and his brother, well no, just him. They released their debut EP, Daily Vacation in 2007, but are now following this up with their first album proper, Old Theatrics.

Old Theatrics will be released October 21st (a while away yet) on Prairie Queen Records. What first grabbed my attention about these guys is the fact they're produced by Nick Krill of the Spinto Band. I remember seeing the Spinto Band on Later...With Jools Holland last year, and thinking "hey these guys are good". But after hearing a few tracks from The Minor White, I'm thinking "hey, these guys are even better!"

Listen to 'I've Burned Down Every House' here:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1682084

Find out more about them here:
http://www.theminorwhite.com/
and
http://www.myspace.com/theminorwhite
And check out the excellent 'Fever Scene' on their Myspace!

Album News: Ben Folds - Way to Normal tracklist

So we finally have proper details of the new Ben Folds album. It's called Way to Normal, as originally thought. A loyal reader has also informed me that the two links I posted last time around were fan-made fakes. Damn good fakes if you ask me, unlike those Britney Spears nudes I saw a while ago!

The tracklist has been announced, and also a release date: September 30th.

‘Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hits His Head)’
‘Dr. Yang’
‘The Frown’
‘You Don’t Know Me’
‘Before Cologne’
‘Cologne’
‘Errant Dog’
‘Free Coffee’
‘Bitch Went Nuts’
‘Brainwascht’
‘Effington’
‘Kylie from Connecticut’

Album News: The Great Northwest - The Widespread Reign Of

The Great Northwest are a Portland, Oregon band (home of the NBA team the Trailblazers, and a nice old-fashioned railroad bridge). They are set to release their debut album The Widespread Reign of on Kora Records next week. The album should be a treat, especially for fans of the Dandy Warhols. It's in a smiliar vein to the Dandys, and even features their guitarist Peter Holmstrom.

The album is released on the 29th of the month in the US (tomorrow week), and has a damn cool cover. This is just a tease for the damn good music that lies inside.

Download lead single 'Chief John' here:
http://www.thekorarecords.com/sounds/chiefjohn.mp3

More about the band here:
http://www.thekorarecords.com/tgn.html

This Week's Gigs: 21-24 July 2008

Monday, 21 July 2008

Eoin Dillon

Whelan's

20:00

€12-€15

Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Iris Dement	The Button Factory	19:30	€27-€30
Dierks Bentley	Whelan's	20:00	€23
The Pigeon Detectives	The Academy	20:00	€23
Jim White	The Sugar Club	20:30	€19.45

Wednesday, 23 June 2008

Antics Presents New Amusement	Crawdaddy	23:00	€5
The Blood Red Mountain Band	Whelan's	20:00	€10

Thursday, 24 July 2008

Chuck Berry	The Academy	20:00	€57.30
Butthole Surfers	Vicar Street	20:00	€28
Mark Ronson	TriPod	19:30	€25-€28

Stream: Native Korean Rock (for fans of Karen O)

So, as you may well know, Yeah Yeah Yeahs are miles better than The Ting Tings. Karen O makes Katie White look like the singer in a school band. Not that The Ting Tings are that bad. It's just that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are so much better.

Their singer, Karen O, is currently branching out and has formed a sideproject called Native Korean Rock. Bizarre name, but damn good music. It's less punchy and rocky than the Yeah Yeah Yeahs output, and is mostly just O herself and an acoustic guitar. One song is even named after herself (a bit like Belinda Belinda Belinda in this year's UK Big Brother): 'OOO'

You can stream five of their songs here:
http://www.myspace.com/nativekoreanrock