Album News: Bonnie Prince Billy - Is It The Sea?

Not only will we get the excellent Lie Down in the Light from Bonnie Prince Billy Will Oldham this year, but he's also announced the release of a Live LP, Is It The Sea?

The show was recorded in Scotland in 2006. It will be released in the UK on October 20th, so you should see it in about six different shops in Ireland on the 17th! Somehow I don't expect it to go straight to number 1 either. Damn Chris Brown and his rubbish!

Tracklist is as follows:
01 Minor Place
02 Love Comes to Me
03 Bed Is for Sleeping
04 Arise Therefore
05 Wolf Among Wolves
06 Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise?
07 Cursed Sleep
08 Molly Bawn
09 Birch Ballad
10 New Partner
11 Is It the Sea?
12 My Home Is the Sea
13 Master and Everyone


Here's a clip of 'Cursed Sleep' from that same 2006 tour (also in Scotland):

Live: Ida Maria live at Whelan's

If, like me, you read The Ticket in the Irish Times every Friday (and really, you have no excuse, most of it free to read online), you would have read that the album of the week this week was Ida Maria's Fortress Round My Heart. I haven't had the chance to hear it yet, but the few songs I have heard are pretty damn good.

If, like me, you get the MCD newsletter in your mailbox every week, then you'd have read that her 4th of November performance at Whelan's is going to be her live debut in Ireland. Unfortunately, they're mistaken, as she gave a cracking performance at Oxegen: Saturday on the 2FM New Band Stage to be exact.

Either way, check her out when she returns. Tickets are on sale now, priced €14.50.

Check out her MySpace here:
http://www.myspace.com/idamaria

Live: Recommendations 25-27 July 2008

ROBOTNIK! That's all I really have to recommend to you tonight! He's amazing. And then tomorrow night, watch it again because no doubt you recorded it on your camera phone. "Well I found Jesus". Song of the Century!

Alright, alright. Hang around for Black Affair after (it's a Beta Band offshoot). Both are at CrawDaddy. You won't even have to leave your perch at the bar.

On Saturday I'd recommend Nina Nastasia, without Jim White unfortunately, but still good nonetheless!

Then on Sunday, try and get a ticket on toutless.com (or the black market) for Daniel Johnston and Friends. It's sold out for a reason. Cause it's bound to be brilliant!

This Weekend's Gigs: 25-27 July

Friday, 25 July 2008

Black Affair	CrawDaddy	23:30	€15
Blondie	Vicar Street	20:00	€49.20
Robotnik	CrawDaddy	20:00	€10
Juliet Turner	Whelan's	20:00	€22.50

Saturday, 26 July 2008

Michael Buble	Donnybrook Stadium	20:00	€59.50-€69.50
Nina Nastasia	CrawDaddy	20:00	€14-€17
Sharon Shannon	The Academy	19:00	€20

Sunday, 27 July 2008

Michael Buble	Donnybrook Stadium	20:00	€59.50-€69.50
Daniel Johnston and Friends	Whelan's	20:00	Sold Out

Live: Lambchop play TriPod

TriPod must be booked up for the month of November, as Lambchop have also announced a date for the venue: November 1st.

They will be promoting their new album OH (Ohio), previously mentioned here:
http://swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com/2008/07/album-news-lambchop-oh-ohio.html

Tickets cost €24.50 and €32.50 and go on sale this Monday. Thanks to Lauren at entertainment.ie for the info.

Live: Goldfrapp to play TriPod

So, Coldplay sold out in a few minutes (some say they sold out long ago - har har!) this morning for their O2 Point Depot show. However, tickets for Goldfrapp at TriPod also went on sale this morning. (Thanks to State.ie for reminding me).

Alison Goldfrapp's TriPod show takes place November 7th, with tickets costing €32.50 and €35.50. Her recent album Seventh Tree went to Number 9 in the Irish Albums Chart, so expect tickets to be in demand.

Watch: Native Koren Rock 'Days Go By' and 'Comes the Night'

I only posted about Karen O's new sideproject Native Korean Rock a few days ago, but already she has performed live. The original piece is here:
http://swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com/2008/07/stream-native-korean-rock-for-fans-of.html

Now, however, you can watch two other songs from their debut live performance. (Making 7 in total, so hopefully an album is imminent). Oh, by the way 'Days Go By' is not a Keith Urban cover!

Here's 'Days Go By':


and 'Comes the Night'

Setlist: Polar Bear, Crawdaddy, 18 July 2008

"It is not often that you get t see jazz musicians of the calibre of Seb Rochford in Dublin. Last Friday Polar Bear gave the small crowd in Crawdaddy a rare treat."

So says my blogging buddy Carlos of Pensamiento Aleatorio, who gave a great review of the show as well as providing the setlist, here:
http://pensamientoaleatorio.blogspot.com/2008/07/polar-bear-at-crawdaddy-dublin-july-18.html

Hope every day is a happy new year
Leafcup
I am alive
Tomlovesalicelovestom
Appears, moves and sails
The king of Aberdeen
----
To touch the red brick

Download: Nickel Eye 'Brandy of the Damned' (Strokes' Nikolai)

If Albert Hammond Jr and Karen O can go off and have their own solo careers or side projects, why can't the rest of The Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Well, that's exactly what Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture has done. He's formed side project Nickel Eye (gettit?), and even dragged along Regina Spektor and YYY's guitarist Nick Zinner for the fun of it.

He has set up a MySpace, mentions an album The Time of the Assassins but has yet to upload any music, here:
http://www.myspace.com/officialnickeleye

Lucky I'm here to help. Recently two of their songs appeared on Mark Ronson's radio show, one of which you can download here. It's called 'Brandy of the Damned' and is damned good:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1686106

Watch: Animal Collective 'Lion in a Coma'

Animal Collective could well release a new album this year, the band say that it's pretty much finished. Here's hoping. Many of the songs that could appear on it have been live staples for the past year or more, and all sound brutally brilliant.

Brian Weitz told Pitchfork "It'll be interesting to see what people say about it. Because to us, it's electronic, because of the process. Noah's record, we all found inspiring in terms of what he could do with samples. For this [album], we were trying to sample acoustic instruments, us sampling acoustic things in the practice space. So maybe for someone who doesn't know that, it'll sound like we're going back to a live playing kind of thing, but to us it feels more electronic."

You can watch a new video of 'Lion in a Coma', live at Pitchfork here:

Album News: Metallica - Death Magnetic

US Music Magazine Rolling Stone were given the tracklist for the new Metallica album yesterday. It's called Death Magnetic, is produced by beardo Rick Rubin, and is due out sometime in September.

The track titles give little away, but the inclusion of a song called 'The Unforgiven III' is definitely of note!

'That Was Just Your Life'
'The End Of The Line'
'Broken, Beat & Scarred'
'The Day That Never Comes'
'All Nightmare Long'
'Cyanide'
'The Unforgiven III'
'The Judas Kiss'
'Suicide & Redemption'
'My Apocalypse'

You can listen to snippets from the new album here:
http://www.dethmetl.com/id16.html

Of which, the latest highlights package gives you a great tease:
http://dethmetl.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/junehighlights.mp3

One of the new songs live:
http://www.savefile.com/files/1686083

Watch: The Gaslight Anthem 'The '59 Sound'

I told you they were brilliant, and the new album would be brilliant. Here:
http://swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/upcoming-brilliance-gaslight-anthem-59.html

Now you can watch the video of the first single from their upcoming album, The '59 Sound, which is also called 'The '59 Sound'. My God it is so fantastic, it makes me never want to pick up a guitar every again. The album is released August 18th, and will be phenomenal.

The Gaslight Anthem "The '59 Sound"

Album News: Dr Dre - Detox

Yes, it's here. Or well, expected. Hip-hop legend Dr. Dre returns with his long-awaited third album, Detox, and could be released late this year. While it's no Chinese Democracy, it's definitely been a while coming.

Nas, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne are expected to make guest appearances, but no word of an Eminem or Snoop guest spot yet. Give it time though. Every hip-hop album needs some Doggfather.

Dr. Dre" told USA Today: I'm just now — over the last couple of months — starting to feel that it's going to be right and it's something I can be proud of, and everybody is going to love it. In a perfect world, I'm shooting for a November or December release."

Here's hoping we hear it before the end of the year. Kanye who?

Live: Holy Fuck at The Academy

As pointed out by Lauren on Entertainment.ie, Canadian experimental rock band Holy Fuck return to Ireland after their Oxegen debut, to play the Academy on October 20th. What the Holy Fuck is an experimental rock band anyway? Were Genesis experimental, was Pete Burns? Well maybe not Pete's music, but definitely his persona. What a freak. But we love him.

Check out Pete at his best here: (Oh, and tickets for Holy Fuck are on sale now priced €17.50)

Download: Lykke Li - 'Im Good I'm Gone' remixes

After her great Irish debut at The Sugar Club with El Perro Del Mar, Swedish indie-pop sensation Lykke Li is set to release her third single (and second from the brilliant Youth Novels), which will be 'Breaking it Up'. The song will be released on August 18th, and is the follow-up to the excellent 'I'm Good I'm Gone'.

And to give you a taste of Lykke Li, here are two remixes of that previous single, by both Black Kids and Metronomy:
'I'm Good I'm Gone' Metronomy Remix
'I'm Good I'm Gone' Black Kids Remix

Stream: The Hold Steady - Live at The Current Studio

As you've probably figured out by now, I cannot get enough of the Hold Steady. Hold Steady albums, Hold Steady lyrics, Hold Steady t-shirts, Hold Steady live, and if I could, I'd have a Hold Steady dressing gown. "Charlemagne's got something in his Hold Steady bathrobe"!

You can listen to them performing on Minnesota Public Radio here:
Songs played were:
'Constructive Summer'
'Sequestered In Memphis'
'Lord, I'm Discouraged'
'Cheyenne Sunrise'

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/22/the_hold_steady/

Album News: Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong cancelled

In what is probably the most unexpected album news segment of the year, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong have announced that they are scrapping the release of their debut album.

Music Magazine NME reports that the album "did not represent them as a band now", and as a result they were scrapping it, and instead will record a new record, due for release in 2009.

Now, there is one of two reasons behind this. Either the band/label didn't like the negative feedback it was getting from those journalists who had heard it; or else the fact that it has been sent to some people, will probably leak, and as a result will become one of those "lost classics". I'd pitch with the first, but the second will probably play into the equation too.

Free Fiona Apple!

Stream: Peter Gabriel - 'Down to the Ground'

Two things I love: Pixar and Peter Gabriel.

Yes, I'm a huge Genesis fan. I even like Phil Collins Genesis. Heck, like Patrick Bateman himself I like Phil solo. Bateman, Batman, Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight, this Friday, watch it. It could possibly be the best film you'll ever see. Well, it's getting 9.5 on iMDB so far. Better than the Godfather! That'll probably go down, but it's funny to see.

I expect that film to be great. But having seen Wall-E last night, it'll take a lot of beating. Wall-E is the best film I have seen this year. Maybe best in years. It makes In Bruges look like an episode of Fair City. But I'm not here to talk movies or TV. I just recommend you stay around for the first part of the credits, where they go through the history of painting, with a new Peter Gabriel song to accompany it. This isn't the ending, so don't worry, you won't spoil it on yourself!

Live: Coldplay to play The O2 (Point Depot)

Everybody's favourite marching band uniform wearers (i.e. anyone who's not My Chemical Romance) are the first act to be officially announced for the O2. Yeah it's just called The O2, not The O2 Depot. Sounds weird. Well every time I mention it, I'll still say Point.

Anyhow, they're due to play on the 21st of December, and tickets go on sale this Friday, priced €54.80.

News from Rick O'Shea, great blog. Go and read it. Well after reading mine of course!
http://rickoshea.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/coldplay-play-the-02/

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

Live: Seth Lakeman to play The Academy

Former Mercury Prize nominee, and now UK top 10 albumer, Seth Lakeman announced details of his upcoming UK and Ireland tour today. And by UK and Ireland I mean lots of UK dates, one Belfast and one Dublin. So the "and Ireland" is just a minor P.S. down the bottom.

Anyhow, fiddler Lakeman (who I interviewed for my former website - lovely fella) plays tracks from his new album Poor Man's Heaven as well as his greatest hits collection at Dublin's Academy on 15th of November, and then in Spring & Airbrake, Belfast the following night.

Tickets for the Academy gig cost €30, and are on sale now.

Download: Mercury Rev 'Senses on Fire'

So, not only are Mercury Rev playing Kilkenny next month, they're following that by releasing not one, but two albums in September (the 29th to be exact!). The retail album Snowflake Midnight will be accompanied by another record, which will be given away free as a companion piece, called Strange Attractor. I've seen many strange tractors in my time, my Dad even more, so I'm looking forward to their accounts of the 1962 Fordson Supermajor... Oh wait, Strange Attractor! The other would be a Richie Kavanagh record probably.

Anyhow, 'Senses on Fire' is the first single from the proper album, Snowflake Midnight, and is available for download on A Reminder, here:
http://www.a-reminder.org/music/?p=1094

Live: Fleet Foxes play Whelan's

November 7th sees the return of US folkies Fleet Foxes to our nation's capital. Fleet Foxes already played Dublin this year, and the show was a sell-out success. They return to Vicar Street on November 7th, and tickets are on sale tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd), priced €21. Bargain.

After looking at On The Record, it seems we have similar content for this event. Well, that's just because the music is so good, it speaks for itself!

Watch the video for 'White Winter Hymnal' here, and tease yourself for the next four months!

Stream: Conor Oberst - Danny Callahan

No, it's nothing to do with 'Dani California' from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' double album Stadium Arcadium. My former editor hated that record, as did many other critics. Amazingly, it's the only RHCP album I actually like. 'Hey Cheetah' is a great song. I swear it is! (Oh, and that's the actor Dan Callahan, by the way)

Anyhow, 'Danny Callahan' is the lead single from Bright Eyes burning like fire himself Conor Oberst, and appears on his upcoming self-titled album along with The Mystic Valley Band. I previously reported about it here:
http://swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/album-news-conor-oberst-self-titled.html
and here:
http://swearimnotpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/streaming-music-conor-oberst-two-songs.html

Anyhow, to give you a sneak peak of the record, you can listen to 'Danny Callahan' here. Just press play:

Album News: Parts & Labor - Receivers tracklist announced

Not too much in the way of news, but it gives me a chance to post that damn cool album art again!

01 Satellites
02 Nowheres Nigh
03 Mount Misery
04 Little Ones
05 The Ceasing Now
06 Wedding in a Wasteland
07 Prefix Free
08 Solemn Show World

Oh and I hear the new drummer is meant to be excellent. And ruuude too!

Album News: Ben Folds - Quest for Fire

It seems nobody knows what the hell the story is with allegedly leaked Ben Folds album Way to Normal. The 6 leaked tracks are really rough sounding, and the lyrics on them don't match up with the "proper" ones. Also, two other websites are adding even more layers to the story. Ben Folds' livejournal talks about his new album Quest for Fire, complete with the above coverart. What the hell?

In addition, the even weirder 24-hour BenWatch has been set up here:
http://acelze.googlepages.com/benwatch

I have not a clue what the story is with the album, but as soon as I hear the actual truth, I'll let you know. But while you wait, check out those two sites, especially the utterly bizarre BenWatch!

Stream: Vandevander - The Great State of Denial EP

I'm all for highlighting new music here, and especially stuff you can listen to online for free when you're meant to be working! Vandevander are a Tulsa, Oklahoma band, which means little to me, as the only things I know about Tulsa are that Garth Brooks is from there and it's the place Chandler had to go to in Friends after falling asleep at a meeting. So to stop yourself from falling asleep at work, stream Vandevander's second EP The Great State of Denial on their Myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/vandevandermusic