Live Recommendations: 7-10 July

After a pretty much uneventful weekend gigwise, there are some treats in store this week. You probably were too busy watching the Wimbledon Finals or the Hurling to go out on the lash anyway. Tonight sees hip-hop superstar Lupe Fiasco make his Irish debut (I think) at TriPod. Don't expect any Kanye West piggybacks here, but do expect material from his two albums as well as some pretty neat sampling.

Tuesday night hosts a whole load of smaller acts as well as one legendary one. The Magnetic Fields are definitely worth a look atVicar Street, while The Miutes and Operator Please are also worth checking out if you're not willing to spend thirty quid on a ticket. Meanwhile, across town, the Bat duo... no wait, that's a line form the 1966 classic Batman film starring Adam West. I watched it at the weekend, hilariously ridiculous. Another classic however, is Little Feat who take to The Academy. And are sure to pull out hits like 'Dixie Chicken' as well as some material from their new duets record Join the Band.

The Minutes perform again on Wednesday, as does David Turpin who put on a fine show last week. On Thursday, American alt-rockers Counting Crows come back to the nation who embraced them most (like David Gray) for an intimate warm-up gig before their Oxegen appearance. The Crows have had a longstanding affinity with Ireland, and our very own Stephen's Green is mentioned on their new album (which has nothing to do with the Albert Sillitoe novel or film of the same Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings (which has nothing to do with the Alan Sillitoe novel or film of the same name - a wonderful film, far better than that Batman nonsense).

Watch a live recording of 'Dixie Chicken' with Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris:

This Week's Gigs: 7-10 July 2008

Monday, 7 July 2008

Eoin Dillon	Whelan's	20:00	€12-€15
Lupe Fiasco	Tripod	19:30	€34-€39.50

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

Joe Bonamassa	The Village	20:00	€26
Little Feat	The Academy	20:00	€30
The Magnetic Fields	Vicar Street	20:00	€30
The Minutes	Whelan's Upstairs	20:00	€10
Operator Please	Crawdaddy	20:00	€14

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Antics Presents The Minutes	Crawdaddy	23:00	€5
David Turpin	Whelan's Upstairs	20:00	€10

Thursday, 10 July 2008

Counting Crows	Ambassador Theatre	21:30	Sold Out
The Gorgeous Colours	Crawdaddy	20:00	€10
Steve Young	Whelan's	20:00	€10

Album News: The Avett Brothers - Untitled Rick Rubin Album

The Avett Brothers' new EP, Second Gleam, will be released July 22nd, much to the delight of me (and everyone else who loves good music). But even better news was revealed yesterday about their upcoming album. The following nugget of information was posted on the band's website:

"We have recently begun working on a new full length album with Rick Rubin. The recording process has been, and will no doubt continue to be, an experience defined by heightened levels of commitment and conviction. It is our distinct pleasure and honor to be in such fine company as we build and bring this most current chapter of songs to fruition."

Along with news that the album will be released on American Records. But Rick Rubin baby! Yeah. He did a great job with Neil Diamond and the Dixie Chicks, so no doubt he'll do a great job with The Avett Brothers. Oh and he may have produced some other legendary records, but we're all Diamond/Dixies fans here right?

Album News: Cold War Kids - Second Album

Cold War Kids return in September with their second album, it does not yet have a title, but who needs names: "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" and all that. And an album with any other name by the Cold War Kids would definitely rock. There is precious little information about the follow-up to their excellent Robbers & Cowards, and what information is available can be seen in this video:



Expect more news as it becomes available.

Live: Oxegen 2008 Site Map

I said in a recent post about the newspaper coverage of Oxegen 2008, that the only reason to buy last Friday's Irish Independent was for the sitemap. I hope you didn't spash the cash (€1.80 or however much it costs), as the Oxegen Official website has the full sitemap for download in PDF format:
http://www.oxegen.ie/2008/files/OXEGEN08_SITE_MAP.pdf

Unfortunately, these are the best maps available. While cute and all, they're not very practical, no sense of scale, or even direction! The Red Campsite and Blue Campsite are right next to each other in the map, no long trek or anything. And all the stages look bundled up. If only GoogleMaps did their own version!

Setlist: Goo Goo Dolls, Ambassador Theatre, 4 July 2008

Not too different from the previous night's set, but my housemates went to Friday's show and were full of praise for the band formerly called Sex Maggots.

dizzy
slide
feel the silence
black balloon
smash
tucked away
big machine
naked
name
Stay With You
transformers
slave girl
better days
Let Love In
acoustic 3
iris
real
broadway

Video of 'Real':

Album News: Annie - Don't Stop

Annie's brand-spanking new website is up and running at http://www.anniemusic.co.uk She has posted a nice little intro to get the site up and running and has this to say about her new single, 'I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me':
"This was actually one of the first songs I wrote for this album. I had a period of time where I was listening a lot to Prince... and I had this idea about making a song where the drums and the guitar would be a little bit like 'Kiss'. Of course it ended being nothing like Prince...but that's where the inspiration came from. A bit snappy....and ruuuude:-)

"I'm not gonna tell the whole story about the lyrics, cuz I like to keep a little bit to the imagination of the listeners...but it's based on a true story. I have a friend of mine that is a very beautiful attractive, funny smart girl....she's always surrounded by loads of guys....but one of the guys had a girlfriend that was not too happy with the situation...and rang her door saying 'you better leave my boy alone girl......or I'll break you'...

"I've been going through something similar myself, so I thought, hmm.... seems to me like a lot of people relate to situations like that...... I'll write a song about it."

In other news, she has also announced a tracklisting for Don't Stop, due out in October:
01 My Love Is Better
02 I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me
03 Sweet
04 Loco
05 Bad Times
06 I Can't Let Go
07 Marie Cherie
08 When the Night
09 Heaven and Hell
10 What Do You Want (The Breakfast Song)
11 Take You Home
12 Songs Remind Me of You