Harmless Noise

Hello to you, January. It’s been ages but you haven’t changed much. Still doing that grey sky/pale sunlight look I see. Suits you though. Fancy a cuppa and some tunes?

Beauty is near. You might remember that I blogged about A Shadow a few months ago? As promised, Keith Murphy’s EP Ebb and Flow will be released through the good people at Second Square To None. Beautiful artwork by Chris Flynn to match the fragility and magic of the music.

On a similar note (website-wise, we’re talking a whole different sonic sphere here), Ed Devane has a new EP Room Full of Empty People out now. Hand-on-heart, despite holding the tracks in my download folder I haven’t heard it yet because it’s been such a busy period readjusting after a slovenly-slacking period off work but judging by the madskills on Molten Membrane, we can expect inventive, intensive dancebeats that never shift too far between the range of human hearing. Niamh De Barra provides guest vocals and you can download it from Juno.

The Alphabetset.net are giving away a free EP by Cignol by the way. They’ve always been good like that.

Started off my year with one EP I really should have been paying attention to in 2010, Liars Call Me King by Spies. For some reason when I heard people talking about it, I thought they were some new Brooklyn/LA outfit – wrongzo! It’s imensely promising stuff, I now have to go and find out when they’ll be playing live next. According to Facebook, that’s 21 January at a live in-store at Trout Records in George’s St Arcade, Antics on 2 February followed by their own Crawdaddy headliner on 21 April. Time heals all wounds.

Speaking of which, Wounds are working really hard on their album which is nothing short of miraculous good news. You can understand why if you read this :: woundswoundswounds.tumblr.com

And without saying too much…there’s an album being readied. It involves snakes, bats and rainbowed zebras.

Did you know that Squarehead‘s debut album is coming out on the Richter Collective? Mmmhm! That’s three of the best labels in the land so far, how do they do it? Pure deadliness I’m afraid. Download the single Baseball Ghosts free for the price of a tweet ahead of the spring launch.

Respect to Villagers whose sales of the debut album Becoming A Jackal hit platinum status last week! Surprised there hasn’t been an update on the website but I suppose that’d Conor J. O’Brien’s unassuming nature all over.

Solar Bears remixed Sun Airway’s American West and were subsequently featured on Pitchfork a few days after their album She Was Coloured In got a review from the same site.

Nick Kelly is sound. Writing for the Irish Independent, not only did he rank Groom‘s Marriage, one of my favourite albums, as the #1 Irish album of 2010, he also tipped Logikparty for the year ahead. Classy dude.

On the subject of the Independent, the UK version this time, Great Lakes Mystery got a lovely write-up and rightly so because the new songs are gorgeous entities. Be sure to catch Gareth Averill’s set at Thursday’s Ones To Watch at Whelans. Dylan Haskins’ Roll Up Your Sleeves also got a nice wee mention.

Ahead of performing at Ones To Watch this Thursday, here’s a sneak peek of the album artwork of the forthcoming Catscars‘ record Construction. Released on 28 February through White Plague Records, that kitty’s gonna scratch deep ::

Ooh I sort of feel like I stumbled on the arctic crystal I just read about in Moby Dick. Sacred Animals‘ cover of Twin Shadow’s Castles In The Snow for the Quarter Inch Quompilation. It’s pristine….I am so excited to hear the full album of cover versions by Irish artists!

Time for serious business. The week in gigs is megahefty.

Tonight (11 Jan), Sacred Animals / We Are Losers and The Holy Roman Army play Upstairs at Whelan’s. It’ll be massive, you really should go before SA jaunts off to impress the massive crowds at Eurosonic  along with James Vincent McMorrow and Heathers, as reported by On The Record back in November.

Tomorrow (12 Jan), Daithi O’Dronai is amongst the line-up for ‘Where The Mugic Happens‘. Try to ignore the promoters’ annoying spelling and drop by to have a listen, sure it’s free in? He’s just posted three new songs on Breaking Tunes by the way.

Preparing to release their second album No Is Not An Answer, Mike Got Spiked go on tour this week starting with Belfast (12 Jan, Auntie Annies), Dundalk (14 Jan, Spirit Store) and Dublin (The Workman’s Club on 15 January), before winding down in Cork (Crane Lane, 21 Jan). It’s been almost six years since their last album and the Monaghan rockers have their steadfast, loyal fans to impress with the new material as a three-piece.

While this week is pwned by the Whelan’s Ones To Watch showcase, there’s a lot going on. It’s a bit like HWCH without the mayhem. Check out Nialler9′s post of line-ups and tunes to plan your social love and music life down to a tee.

Thursday 13 January is a bit special because it’s the first gig in a while for the purveyors of sexy surf rock, super-fantastiche The Pulpit at the Grand Social.  They’re so classy but you’d never guess by the amount of bargain prices on offer at the show.

Over in Galway, Fred and Bob play the the Roisin Dubh late show on 14 Jan. As you can see, they’re not two guys named Fred and Bob.

Speaking of gigs and new tunes, this week sees The Certain Three tour get underway; Windings, We Cut Corners and The Ambience Affair. Dates are as follow:
13 January Roisin Dubh – Galway, 14 January The Workman’s Club – Dublin, 15 January The Spirit Store – Dundalk, 20 January The Pavilion – Cork, 22 January Gonzo Theatre – Cavan, 28 January De Barras – Clonakilty, Co. Cork and 29 January Dolans – Limerick.

Here is the new song Weeds, a rousin’ teaser from the Ambience Affair’s debut album. Buybuybuy.

On 14 January The Richter Collective Post-Xmas Party takes place in the Button Factory  and will be nothing short of full-blown hefto. With eight of the label’s best bands performing you wouldn’t expect anything less. Tickets are a mere €12 squidwards.

Upstairs in Whelans on the same night, Clockwork Apple present Little Xs For Eyes, Henrietta Game and Norabelle. Admission is €10 and kicks off at 8pm. Check out the Apple’s website for full info and free downloads.

15 January sees And So I Watch You From Afar, Le Galaxie, Codes and Dark Room Notes play the Button Factory for the First Fortnight to promote awareness of mental health issues. Only ten mindbucks for a wealth of goodwill.

Cashier No.9 will be Dublin-resident this weekend for a string of shows. Check em all out on their website, make a window and prosper accordingly.

Gemma Hayes plays Crawdaddy on 15 January.

!Kaboogie celebrate their fifth technobirthday on Saturday 15 Jan at the Twisted Pepper. I’ve no idea how to incoporate the invitation into this post so you’ll just have to click and be consumed with headcandle-urges. After you download the free gift of a new label sampler, that is.

Musicbuzz that zinged my way in the last week or so include ::

Bad boy of pop Bobby Aherne aka No Monster Club‘s new video for Slow Learner.

Okay so it’s probably uncool to say VisionAir can do no wrong at the moment. I never claimed to be cool though.

20 minutes uploaded by VisionAir

Unblinking and somewhat anachronistic, Berlin-based You’re Only Massive can be a bit of a trip to get your head around but there’s no denying that Maebh Cheasty is very much an artistic soul with a yen to explore and expand on her vocal and musical skills. And y’know, that’s exactly how it should be. This is the new video for the YOM song Out Of Time which is released in conjunction with the Fourth Quarter Mixtape Vol. II – I’ll Be Right Over. Have a listen…it’s good-different.

Dublin City FM interview and two songs of Big Monster Love buzz. Now I know they’re not new but who says they have to be? Sure BML has an album soon. That’ll hold your whist.

I love the way Myles O’Reilly views the world. It’s a beautiful place of music and people. This is a special video following Julie Feeney‘s recent trip to the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. Julie is currently in America to perform as part of Imagine Ireland’s cultural envoy of 2011 along with several other well-known artists.

At lasssst…New stuff from Friend? is definitely on the way. So excited to hear the EP! This is called Dan2 and is a pre-mix taster.

Quality acoustic video of Junah‘s song Burning In The Hallway.

Oh LOL yknowha? I actually did think for a minute that BellX1′s David Geraghty had done the musical equivalent of flipping out in the boardroom when I heard this. Sneak preview of an upcoming release on Long Lost Records ::

Following on from the Thread Pulls post last week, here’s another live video of the band from the Workman’s Club at their album launch in September. Another band you really should catch this Thursday at Ones To Watch.

I’ve just found these tracks by Alice Jago. It’s 4am. I feel soothed. This is Cotton On Girl and is taken from Alice’s new album Born Stubborn.

Wowza viddyo of young Shane Hennessy‘s guitar cover version of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams.

Say It Ain’t So is the second single from the debut album First by Battle For Second Place. Glasgow-based, fronted by Mayo’s Orla Prendergast, BFSP will play Whelan’s on 13 February for their first headline Irish gig.

I had to stop at this week, still some newsiebits to do in posts for the next few days. Let’s cross the gig-bridge of next week when we come to it…if I missed anything, I probably wasn’t told/wasn’t arsed trawling through dratted Facebook where all the action seems to be these days.

Just a word of advice to anyone following me on Soundcloud – I get so many notifications from randomers all over the world that I’ve started glossing over the emails. If you’ve just uploaded new tracks and would like to share them, drop me a line, the address is an obvious gmail yokeybob. I listen to pretty much everything that comes my way from an Irish band so let’s get efficient.

And finally: this is a big week for music award events! The Choice Prize shortlist will be announced tomorrow, while the Digital Sockets follow on Friday – exciting times! However, indulge me as I don the blog equivalent of a wicked widow’s black lace mantilla to mourn the passing of the Meteor Music Awards. After ten years, a million bucks to charity and that sum squared in bandspam/Westlife wins, the orange carpet will remain in the warehouse for 2011. Mercy on my inbox’s soul at last.

Featured image used on the main page is taken from The Shepheardes Calendar.