nialler9Irish-based MP3 blog - Indie, Electronica, Hip-Hop - A Chronicle of Musical Delights

I finally got around to listening to the Friendly Fires album and I’m enjoying quite a lot. My initial judgement was coloured by a performance on BBC where I was blinded by the lead singer’s moccasins / short-fitted trouser combo. Unlike the footwear, their music is an adaptable, seductive beast inspired by ’80s synth pop and funky dance music. It kinda reminds me of Foals do disco and that’s a lovely thing.

Jape has been touring with these guys in the UK (who was great last night in the Button Factory by the way) and they have remixed ‘Strike Me Down’ into a 6 minute ambient percussive tune. A good match for each other I’d say.

Friendly Fires - Jump in the Pool

Friendly Fires - In The Hospital

Jape - Strike Me Down (Friendly Fires Remix)

Myspace

Buy the album: Amazon UK | eMusic.

If things ever go tits up for Coldplay, here’s the market they can move into.

I hate that name. I haaate it. It’s the ultimate “sad-loser-in-his-bedroom-playing-plinky-plonky-music-on-his-keyboard-in-the-dark” stage name. Totally emo. Pity then, that Owen Ashworth’s music is mostly sublime and not at as depressing as the name suggests (only just). If you know his album Etiquette (and if you don’t get it), you’ll know what to expect: melancholy-tinged, synth-led story songs.

This new EP, Town Topic consists of thirteen short instrumental pieces, book-ended by the two vocal tracks that were recorded specifically for the film Stay The Same Never Change by Laurel Nakadate.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Ice Cream Truck

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Young Shields

Myspace | Official

The Bonus Party boys are putting on a party (fittingly) to celebrate the remix album of their debut which is called Appetite for Reconstruction and is out on Monday via free download. The gig is taking place in Andrew’s Lane tomorrow (Friday 10th) from 8pm til 2.30am. A mammoth night of music and visuals is lined up with live sets from Nouveaunoise, Ikeaboy, The Vinny Club, R.S.A.G, Caipirinha Band from Brazil, Super Extra Bonus Party and DJ sets from T-Woc, Richie !Kaboogie.

Should be a cracker of a night and the cheap €10 admission includes the first 300 in the door (tickets on door) get a free limited addition CD copy of the album that’s not available anywhere outside this gig. The reason for that is that the album will be available from superextrabonusparty.com as a free digital download from Monday 13th in lossy MP3 128/320, AAC, Ogg Vorbis and lossless formats AIFF and FLAC.

I haven’t even got to the album yet which contains 17 remixes from Decal, Deep Burial, DeadFader, Thalamus, Jape, Cadence Weapon, Ikeaboy, Ed Devane, Prince Kong, Friction=Fire, Nouveaunoise, The Vinny Club, Ambulance, T-Woc, Judas da Bimboy and 2-Bit. Also, the cover was originally conceived to take the direct piss of this, but became a wholly different beast thanks to the artwork of Dave King.

The night and the release is a celebration in honour of the remixers and to begin Nouveaunoise have made a succinct 19 minute mix of tunes which features tracks from Alan Braxe and Fred Falke, Eddie Bo, Jackson 5, Erykah Badu, Lords of the underground and more. Tracklisting after the jump.

Nouveaunoise - Mezcla mix

Super Extra Bonus Party - Erosion (DeadFader mix)

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Having hit a half century of issues, AU magazine started a poll to find out the best songs to come out of Northern Ireland since the magazine’s inception five years ago. The top 20 can be seen after the jump. How does it stack up NI music fans? I’ve only heard most on the list by name so I’m thinking of the top 50 as an enabler to get over my ignorance of NI bands. Of course, My favourite right now would be Cashier no.9.

The 50th issue magazine has a metallic cover, plus a CD featuring tracks from the top ten artists as voted for in the poll so you should be able to spot it easily enough if you want to see the full list.
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How apt is that chorus in today’s economic climate? Like those Anglo Irish Bank fatcats who sold their shares before the bailout. How convenient. Hey, this is a music blog, I can say what I like about politics here.

Roll with the winners.

Jenna pointed this video out, Thanks Jenna!

Whatever happened to Tom Vek?

Vek reminds me of that time in 2005 when music bloggers were starting to exist (including me), everyone posted the latest Phones remix because it was so good and the M.I.A/Diplo mixtape. Let’s take a trip back shall we?

Fact: Vek helped christen the best UK music blog going.

Tom Vek -Nothing But Green Lights

Tom Vek - I Ain’t Saying My GoodByes (Phones 12″ version)

The Futureheads - Hounds of Love (Phones remix)

This new EP from GPO prove why they are one of the better new Irish bands around at the moment. Three reasons. They are 1. Fun. 2. Fun. 3. More fun. They write catchy indie-pop songs that are under two-minutes and feature xylophones - an instrument with a special place in my heart ever since I learnt how to spell the word from an early age.

I’m really enjoying it. Thanks GPO.

Grand Pocket Orchestra - Using the Body

Get Make Happy War from Downloadmusic.ie

http://www.myspace.com/grandpocketorchestra

Linkage time!

• Album Covers in MS Paint.
• Does Red Star Belgrade ring a bell with anyone? If so you’ll be pleased to know that MP3Hugger is now releasing their out-of-print debut album from the mid ’90s digitally here for just €3.50.
• El-P wants to tell you your horoscope. Make sure you get the awesome We Are All Going to Burn in Hell Mixtape.
• Check out the latest My Tip Five podcasts under the themes of protest, genre, unrequited love and travelling.
• Max Tundra is releasing a limited edition soup can / digital download of his new and souperb latest album Parallax Error Behead You? Oh Ben..
• DubstepForum.com - the place for dubstep has shut down indefinitely. More info.
• A New Animal Collective album due in January? Or is it a visuals DVD?
• Thursday night sees Jape play The Button Factory. The night before the South Rakkas Crew takeover Tetric in the same venue. It’s good to see promoters and DJs blogging these nights like on The Climaxxx Blog (with South Rakkas MP3s too).
• A new blog which reviews Dublin lavatories? Bums on seats.
• You can watch the full Cornelius Sensuous DVD for a bit longer this week on Pitchfork.
• Oh the horror. Scooter turn Status Quo into a jumpstyle nightmare.
• Stress gigs for October in Galway:10th Oct: Juana Molina, Gareth Dickson, Vertigo Smyth, 21st Oct: Milosh, Chequerboard, 23rd Oct: Daedelus, Daddy Kev, 26th Oct: Jerry Dammers (The Specials) DJ set, 30th Oct: Stress Halloweeeeeeen Party.
• How good is SNL these days? First Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Then a spot on Mark Wahlberg impression. Watch them at Una’s blog.

Did I miss anything? That’s your cue for the comments.

So Daniel Rossum from Grizzly Bear has teamed up with his pal Fred Nicolaus to release an album under the name Department of Eagles. The project actually predates Rossum joining GB and the duo had already released an album in 2003 called The Whitey On The Moon UK LP. Tomorrow, they will release their second album In Ear Park on 4AD, poignantly named after a park which Daniel and his now deceased father used to visit. As you may expect, there are A LOT of similarities with Grizzly Bear in tone but also in quality. In the absence of a GB record until next year, this is absolutely perfect. Listen to the first two tracks from the album (’No One Does It’ is the most immediate) and watch their debut public performance on Conan last week in the read more.

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

Department of Eagles - No One Does It Like You

FYI: After searching google images for a picture of an eagle fighting a bear (IT COULD HAPPEN), I stumbled across this piece of Nostradamus related propecy: The Eagle (US) and The Bear (Russia) join forces to fight The Dragon (China). So Grizzly Bear are going to be responsible for World War 3? Shit. Maybe this is why Dan Deacon told me to watch Zeitgeist The Movie. I’m off to listen to In Ear Park in a bunker somewhere.

Myspace | Official

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Details about the new free issue which is out *from* today and features Kings of Leon, Flight Like Apes, The Virgin Prunes, The Blizzards, Messiah J & The Expert, The Roots and more. We are still adding to the list of places you can get it so suggestions would be preferable over a moany comment. Contrary to popular belief, State is run by a small team of staff so we need a bit of help every now and again.

On another note, I’m very proud to my Kings of Leon feature grace the cover. They said some interesting things. First naysaying comment gets a dig in the arm. It’s positivity Friday folks. Read State Issue 7 right here:

Open publication in full-screen

Head on down to Whelans tonight for the launch of One Day International’s album Blackbird. I mentioned the album a few weeks back. Extra incentive tonight as Cathy Davey and Conor O’ Brien aka Villagers are supporting. They have dates coming up in Limerick, Cork, Dundalk and Cork too.

Another band playing this week are folky math rock London band Cats and Cats and Cats. I’m hearing great reports about last night’s Dublin show. Catch them over the next few days in Limerick’s Baker Place tonight (with Hooray for Humans), Kilkenny’s Cleeres Theatre this Saturday, Galway’s Roisin Dubh (with Hooray for Humans) on Monday and The Whiskey in Cork on Tuesday (with Hooray for Humans). They are releasing a limited edition vinyl on The Richter Collective. The below MP3 is a remix by a member of Do Make Say Think which will be given away with the first 50 orders of the vinyl from the shop. other remixers include Diverted and Dans Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip.

One Day International - Lead Balloon

One Day International - Black is the Bird

Cats and Cats and Cats - Brilliant the Brillant (VFU remix)