Download: Justin Townes Earle with Jason Isbell

Oh Jesus, oh Jesus. I am so disappointed to be missing the current tour of Jason Isbell and Justin Townes Earle. They've made my two favourite records of 2009, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit and Midnight at the Movies. However, some recordings of Justin's shows from the tour are available. One of which comes from the Turf Club, St Paul, MN on April 15th.

In it, Jason guests on Justin's cover of The Replacements' 'Can't Hardly Wait', as well as the entire 400 Unit on 'Birmingham Jail'. I suggest you download the entire show, but you can sample these two songs now.

Download:
Justin Townes Earle ft. Jason Isbell - 'Can't Hardly Wait'
Justin Townes Earle ft. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - 'Birmingham Jail'

Download the entire show here:
http://www.archive.org/details/jte2009-04-15.adkTLmtrx.flac16

Watch: 202s - Ease My Mind

Great news, 202s are supporting Reverend and the Makers at Heineken Green Spheres. Better news, there's a video for new single 'Ease My Mind'.

The video was made by Paddy Cahill & Jules Hacket and is hugely entertaining.

Watch it here:

Watch: Passion Pit - The Reeling

I get more excited for the new Passion Pit album each and every day.

Manners Tracklisting :
1.Make Light
2.Little Secrets
3.Moth’s Wings
4.The Reeling
5.Eyes As Candles
6.Swimming In The Flood
7.Folds In Your Hands
8.To Kingdom Come
9.Sleepyhead
10.Let Your Love Grow Tall
11.Seaweed Song

Watch 'The Reeling':


More info:
www.myspace.com/passionpitjams

Blogs What I Like: Whelan's 20th Birthday post

2uIBestow has a great post about the party at Whelan's for their 20th Birthday (or Anniversary) here:
http://2uibestow.blogspot.com/2009/04/whelans-20-years-of-live-music.html

He's got some excellent videos and downloads for you, plus a link to download some bootlegs, one of which is Béla Fleck and the Flecktones from 2002. I saw these guys supporting Dave Matthews Band in Randall's Island New York a few years back, and they blew me away.

Download the full Whelan's show here:
http://www.archive.org/details/bfft2002-11-18.shnf

Sample:
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - 'Cheeseballs in Cowtown'

Live: Castlepalooza 2009

Great number of Irish acts announced for Castlepalooza 2009. This year's festivities take place on August 1st and 2nd at Charleville Castle , Tullamore. Tickets are €89 and on sale now. Much better value than Oxegen, and they've got a host of great acts - David Kitt, RSAG, Robotnik, The Ambience Affair, Dark Room Notes!

David Kitt
Project Jenny Project Jan
R.S.A.G
Channel One
Robotnik
The Lost Brothers
Dark Room Notes
Noise Control
8 Ball
Glint
Le Galaxie
Nell Bryden
The Ambience Affair
Followers of Otis
Patrick Kelleher

More info:
http://www.castlepalooza.com/inner/index.php

Download: Olafur Arnalds - Found Songs

Olafur Arnalds Variations of Static is incredible, you should really check it out. You should also check out, Found Songs, a collection of songs that make up an EP, each posted on a website via twitter last week. Very clever idea. All the songs are now up and you can download them all as mp3.

Download:
Day I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII

More info:
http://foundsongs.erasedtapes.com/

Follow him on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/olafurarnalds

Album News: John Mayer - Battle Studies

No release date, but small snippets of news, and a studio video preview thingy. Steve Jordan is to produce as well as play bass, and the other Trio member, Pino Palladino is back on bass. Good news indeed. But we do have a name, the new John Mayer record will be called Battle Studies!

Watch:

Live: Adrian Crowley at the Sugar Club

Tonight! It's going to be great. Tickets for Adrian Crowley's album release party are ten euro, and that is a bargain to see one of Ireland's finest singer-songwriters. His last album Long Distance Swimmer was amazing, and the new one, Season of the Sparks, promises to be just as good.

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/adriancrowley

Stream the album here:
http://www.irishtimes.com/theticket/adriancrowley/

Tickets available here:
http://www.ticketmaster.ie/event/180042639A032A70?artistid=964630&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1

Live: Groom at Whelan's

Groom are having an album release party this Friday at Whelan's. It'll be upstairs, costing 10 euro. The good news is that anyone who does come (and pay the 10 quid) will get a free CD. The gig is to promote their new album At the Natural History Museum, and they will be supported by the ever excellent Neosupervital.

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/groomtheband

Live: Reverend and the Makers at Dolan's

There's no Heineken Green Energy Festival in Dublin this year as far as I know, so the only thing that can come close is Heineken Green Spheres in Limerick which will be launched by Sheffield band Reverend and the Makers in Dolan's next Wednesday, April 29th. They'll be supported by Tom Middleton, and the gig is sure to be excellent.

Tickets and more info here:
http://www.heinekengreenspheres.ie/

You do have to be over-18 though.

Reverend and the Makers 'Heavyweight Champion':

Live: Stephen Fretwell at the Academy

'Emily' songster Stephen Fretwell (yes, he's done more than that, but it's his masterpiece) returns to Ireland to play four dates down south and one up north. He comes to Academy 2 in Dublin on 4th of June with tickets priced at €16. Tickets for the shows go on sale this Thursday, the 23rd of April.

Sunday, 31 May: The Limelight, Belfast
Monday, 1 June: Roisin Dubh, Galway
Tuesday, 2 June: Cyprus Avenue, Cork
Wednesday, 3 June: Dolan's, Limerick
Thursday, 4 June: Academy, Dublin

Watch 'Emily' live:

Download: Winter Gloves - Smells Like Teen Spirit

There have been many many awful 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' covers. There are few exceptions. Tori Amos's haunting stripped-back version is one exception. This rock tribute from Winter Gloves is another. They've recently released their debut album about a girl and are touring the US with Thunderheist.

Their website is really clever, and you really should check it out. It was Professor Plum in the Billiards Room with the Candlestick Holder!

Download:
Winter Gloves - 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'

More info:
http://www.winterglovesmusic.com/

Download: Official Secrets Act - Sell Sell Sell

I must say I really enjoyed Lawrence's guest blog last week. It seems him and the rest of Official Secrets Act had a great time. In order to thank all the fans who came out to the shows, he's given me a B-Side of an exclusive single they put out last year, a song which they rediscovered while in Galway.

Download:
Official Secrets Act - 'Sell Sell Sell'

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/officialsecretsact

Download: Jarvis Cocker - Angela

Yes, another one of those insert email here free mp3s, but they're all worth it, right? My inbox is full of awards from an alleged European lottery, so a newsletter from Jarvis Cocker can hardly hurt. 'Angela' is taken from his Steve Albini-produced upcoming album Further Complications. It's released May 19th and is sure to be a treat.

Download it here:
http://jarviscocker.net/

Setlist: Pink, O2 Dublin, 19 April 2009

First of Pink's nights at the O2 in Dublin where she had a lyrical error during 'I Don't Believe You' which led her singing 'Redemption Song' instead. Who says nothing good can come of a mistake?

Setlist:
Highway to Hell (Intro - AC/DC Cover)
Bad Influence
Just Like A Pill
Who Knew
Don't let me get me
It's All Your Fault
I Touch Myself (Divinyls cover)
One Foot Wrong
U + Ur Hand
Ave Mary A
Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)
So What
Family Portrait
I Don't Believe You >
Redemption Song (Bob Marley cover)
Crystal Ball
Trouble
Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You (Led Zeppelin cover)
Sober
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen cover)
Funhouse
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)
---
Get The Party Started
Glitter In The Air

Watch 'I Don't Believe You' > 'Redemption Song' from last night:

Setlist: AC/DC, O2 Dublin, 18 April 2009

My brother is off to see these legends during the summer when they return - they're playing Punchestown as far as I can recall, but on Saturday they stopped off at the O2 on their Black Ice tour.

Setlist:
Rock N' Roll Train
Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
Back In Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Shot Down in Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack
Hells Bells
Shoot To Thrill
War Machine
Anything Goes
You Shook Me All Night Long
15. T.N.T.
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
---
Highway To Hell
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

'Hells Bells' live at the O2:

Live: Wilco at Vicar Street

Great news Uncle Tupelo fans. What? Isn't everyone an Uncle Tupelo fan? Well you should be. Especially if you're a fan of Jeff Tweedy's current brood, Wilco. Anyhow, that current brood will be playing Vicar Street in Dublin on August 27th. Tickets go on sale months in advance - i.e. this Thursday (the 23rd of April), and are priced at 40 euro and 20 cents.

Watch 'Impossible Germany':

Guest Blog: Official Secrets Act Part 4

The sun is shining down hard and full on the hills of North Wales as OSA head home from their first Irish tour. Tired, happy and not as eager to get him as they thought they'd be after a month on the road.

Dublin was pretty perfect yesterday. The sun was shining as we rolled into Grafton Street, the Liffey was all shimmery and thick and we could have almost hear Joyce's words leaping off the street. THe only problem being that they were all in crazy grammer experiments and only Alex could decipher them cause he's clever like that.

Pulling up at the venue there were 20 or so 15 year old girls milling around and looking fan esque. Now we're building a fan base and taking our time to play every place we can get to, but I don't think that we have had a massive breakthrough in the 10-15 year old pop market yet. Low and behold we find out that upstairs in the academy tonight a new boyband called clozure are playing. (What is wrong with an S I wonder?). If there could be a more graphic demonstration of the difference between the pop world and our world it was this. 1000 screaming girls, choregraphed dance routines, tribly hats and no live band in the venue, and then upstairs you had Clozure. (ArfArf)

We supped Guiness down the road with some fans/friends who had come up from Galway and over from London and Al finally got to sample the delights of the Super Macs. We also got some lovely One Euro Fifty sunglasses which i would later have pickpocketed while walking through Temple Bar later that night.

The gig was probably the sparsest attended of them all, but we did have some people going pretty crazy for it all at the front, and we tried to give everything for our final show including the most aggresive version of Girl From The BBC ever. It was like Metallica up there or something. When we'd finished and guitars were strewn around the stage and some in the audience someone was heard to shout with solid timing"You Don't Get That With The Kooks!". Too true sir, too true!

After load out, and signing some OSA posters for frustrated Clozure fans (Anyone wanting to launch a pop band, two tips. 1) People love free stuff. THe minute we got out free posters we were suddenly flavour of the week, 2) Let your act go out and see the fans after the show. There must have been 30 kids waiting for 45 minutes and no one came out to see them. If we ever start selling out big venues then I will do my best to still be on the merch stand. Even if i just get in the way.)

Then it was partying at Thomas Reids till stupid o clock with some fine folk who had come to see us play, and then an hours sleep on a sofa in Waterlooville and a ferry back home.

We are now driving through the most insanely beautiful scenerey I think i have ever seen in the North Of Wales. Sun shining through the trees, lambs in the field, steam trains rattling by. You do get to see some amazing crazy stuff when touring in a band, and we definitely got our share in Ireland and are pretty keen to come back, so hopefully see you in Autumn. Please come check our stuff out at myspace.com/officialsecretsact if you haven't already, and I will leave you, sitting comfortably in the van, somewhere in North Wales with The Decemberists playing so beautifully on the stereo. Good times, definitely good times.

Kind Regards
Lawrence
OSA