Irish music blog. Containing gig, live and concert reviews reviews; album reviews; setlists for recent Dublin shows; album news; and basically everything from the Irish music scene.
The Villagers will release their debut EP, Hollow Kind on February 9th 2009. It could be a big year for Conor O'Brien and the Villagers, as he's widely tipped to make it big in the Irish scene.
New feature time. I'm fascinated by a topic called "Today I listened to" on a message board I use, so I thought I'd let you guys know what I'm listening to. Abuse my ears if you like, or chime in with a "Hey great album, I must listen to it". It all helps. I love the comments. So add as many as you can.
Yesterday I was in an alphabetic kind of mood. Starting off with the new Franz Ferdinand record, which gets better with each listen. It's still not a patch on their debut. Probably as good as the second one though. And 'Ulysses' has some wonderful lyrics.
This led perfectly into Franz Nicolay's debut record. The moustachioed keyboard player in the Hold Steady has gone solo and made a glorious record that so far is one of the best of the year. Opener 'Jeff Penalty' is as good as anything the Hold Steady have done, but the album as a whole sounds nothing like its parent band. It's kind of like a mix between The Mountain Goats, Gaslight Anthem and the Silver Jews.
I wanted to go old school next, and thus chose the White Stripes breakthrough. It's not as good as I used to think. or did I ever really love it? For me, Get Behind Me Satan is their best work. Maybe I should've listened to that instead.
Going to bed, I wanted something light, and Australia's Whitlams served that up perfectly. They're light pop-rock, but no Matchbox Twenty. But for me, their finest moment will forever be covering Divine Comedy's stellar 'Your Daddy's Car'. Unfortunately, there's no video on YouTube for the track. If anyone can point me to it, I'd be extremely grateful.
The other one from Band Aid is coming back to Ireland with the original line-up of Ultravox. That's right, Midge Ure and co will play Dublin's Olympia Theatre on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009.
Tickets are priced €58.90 and are on sale from Friday.
Oh 'Vienna':
My brother always complains that he never heard that song once when he was in Vienna. For shame.
Great news, I've been nominated on the very-longlist for the Irish Blog Awards. This will become a longlist and then a shortlist. I've been enterted into both Best Music Blog and Best new Blog categories. Check out all the nominations here: http://awards.ie/blogawards/2009/01/20/2009-irish-blog-awards-nominations/
And then check out all the blogs nominated in Best Music Blog:
My favourites are IndieLimerick, 2UIBestow, Nialler9, and On The Record. Hopefully these and me can make the shortlist! If not, I hope Peter, Keith or Jim wins.
How many times am I accidentally going to type 'Get Your Boots On' instead of the proper tilte 'Get On Your Boots'? Well, probably just another handful of times after Dave Fanning dropped in to give the first ever play to the new U2 single on 2FM's Colm and Jim-Jim Breakfast Show at 8 bells this morning.
The song is exactly what you'd expect from post-Vertigo U2. It has lead single written all over it. It's overdrive to the max, and seems to tumble past itself at extortionate speeds. You know the way on Top Gear when they cut to the Stig in-car, he's always listening to some classic driving music or ELO? Well, 'Get On Your Boots' was probably what Richard Hammond had on the stereo before that near-fatal crash.
It's pounding, it contains one of those "you know it's U2" riffs, and the chorus is goddamn catchy. Thus I won't be calling it 'Get Your Boots On' for much longer. I'd say it'll be a number one single for Bono and the boys. Especially with all the publicity U2 get these days. I'm just adding to it, aren't I?
But a new U2 album is important if you're in the Irish music world. Well it seems important. Every newspaper mentioned it today. But from these early signs, it looks like No Line on the Horizon is going to be How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb 2. So expect a huge worldwide stadium tour. Maybe starting in Croker and ending at the new Landsdowne next year? Could be, could be...
Passion Pit (one of 2009's most hyped bands) will play Dublin's Whelan's on March 1st. Tickets cost €15 (not three shabby), and go on sale this Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday, don't forget to check out the excellent Kanyu Tree, who are putting on a free show at 8 p.m.
New Justin Timberlake song hits the interwebs. No news on an album yet, but he's meant to be writing it at the moment, and Wikipedia has it TBA for 2009.
Great news for Nickel creek fans. The third one (the one who has to use the toilet marked 'Ladies') is releasing a solo album.
Sara Watkins' self-titled debut will be released on April 7th, 2009 in the US on Nonesuch Records.
Sara Watkins features a wide range of colleagues and old friends, including alt-country duo Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench, Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas; colleagues from the bluegrass world like Tim O’Brien, Punch Brothers’ Chris Eldridge, Ronnie McCoury, and Rayna Gellert; and her Nickel Creek bandmates Chris Thile and Sean Watkins.
She co-wrote 8 of the songs on the album, and one of the others is a cover of a Jon Brion tune. And you know how much I love Jon Brion!
Tracklist: 1. All This Time (Sara Watkins) 2. Long Hot Summer Days (John Hartford) 3. My Friend (Sara Watkins) 4. Freiderick (Sara Watkins) 5. Same Mistakes (Jon Brion) 6. Any Old Time (Jimmie Rodgers) 7. Pony (Tom Waits) 8. Lord Won't You Help Me (Norman Blake) 9. Jefferson (Sara Watkins) 10. Give Me Jesus (Sara Watkins) 11. Bygones (Sara Watkins) 12. Too Much (DavÃd Garza) 13. Will We Go (Sara Watkins) 14. Where Will You Be (Sara Watkins)
Warning, you won't be pressing play - this track loads automatically. So it frightened the life out of me.
Exclusively played on 2FM early this morning, here's the brand new U2 song 'Get On Your Boots' from upcoming album No Line on the Horizon: http://goyb.u2.com/
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