Music archive

2010 – The year of Frightened Rabbit?

After listening to the new Frightened Rabbit album The Winter Of Mixed Drinks over the last few days, I’m convinced these Scots will have a great year and deservedly so. Their third album is the sound of a band who are sick of strumming an acoustic in reflection and are ready to project outward with the result being some swelling, epic tunes.

I already featured ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ on our last podcast but since I received the album I’ve got a renewed sense of love for it, listening to the song over 25 times in a few days. It rarely happens to me. The album as just better than previous albums especially with the expanded now five-piece lineup: big sounding band arrangements rooted in folk compositions with singer Scott utilising his lilting Scottish accent to great effect while reigning in elements of his voice that were once a tad whiney for me.

Here’s a Youtube playlist of the two videos from the album so far:

Here’s the B-side to ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’:

MP3: Frightened Rabbit – Fun Stuff

The album is released on the 1st March. Buy it here.

Beach House – Teen Dream

What a month it’s been for albums. It’s January, traditional dead time but we’ve already had beefy albums from Owen Pallett, Vampire Weekend, These New Puritans and Four Tet with the knowledge that great records from Yeasayer, Two Door Cinema Club, Gorillaz and Massive Attack to name a few are coming soon.

I guess we already know you can add Beach House’s Teen Dream to that list. Their third album is by far their best – an instantly enveloping, rich and beautifully woozy collection of songs with Victoria Legrand’s stunningly atmospheric vocals and it’s out today in Ireland (next week elsewhere) so this is your reminder (and mine) to get it. Vinyl please.

Gorilla Vs Bear debuted five music videos from the DVD album of Teen Dream this week and here’s the last video, directed by Legrand herself and one of my favourite tunes from the album – ‘Silver Soul’.

MP3: Beach House – Norway

Grizzly Bear played Vicar Street

gb1 ..and it was amazingly awesome.

Kicking off with Veckatimest’s opening track ‘Southern Point’ is a smart move. It’s a song that is complex and dizzying on record, and live, the tune’s dynamics can really be felt, from the quietly strummed guitar parts to the raucous loud crescendos. Grizzly Bear’s big strength lies in their musicianship. They may not move around much but when the three voices of Chris Taylor, Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen rise in concordance, it has a magical, calming effect.

My full review of the show for State can be read here. Pics and a short video clip of ‘He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)’ below.

More..»

The Mercury Music Prize – place your bets

friendly fires Tomorrow (Tuesday) sees the announcement of the shortlist for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize and the BBC Music Blog have asked various blogs (myself included) to give their thoughts on a possible shortlist. The Mercury Prize is awarded to albums of any genre, with the only key entry condition being that they had a UK/Ireland release between July 15 2008 and July 13 2009 (full rules here). Where possible, I’ve linked the album name to the Spotify page so you can listen yourself. So let’s start building my list: More..»

Win tickets to XXXChange (Spank Rock)

xxxchange

XXXChange is dropping on Dublin this Saturday for his first ever solo DJ set in The Button Factory and thanks to Shock and Transmission I’ve got a pair of passes to giveaway.

All you gotta do is leave a comment below by Friday at noon to be in the draw. Check out a recent mix and a couple of productions below.

XXXChange Quickie Mix

More..»

Nialler9 in Melbourne – Radio heaven?

tripler We wasted no time getting into the Melburnian muso mindset. A mere six hours after we touched down we had a meeting with the lovely, passionate folks at Triple R . This independent community station which first started broadcasting in 1976 is a shining beacon of how a radio station can become lifeblood to a city’s alternative music community. There is no playlist, no corporate sponsorship, no outside interference, the DJs play whatever they like at any time and say “fuck” an awful lot considering it was noon when we visited and heard the expletive on air a few times.

We met Simon Winkler and Jacinta Parsons from the station who explained to us (no doubt as we sat there with mouths agape) that the station is largely funded by its listeners in the form of subscriptions which they do a drive for for two weeks every year called the Radiothon. Listeners, Bands, DJs and local businesses are largely responsible for keeping the station afloat. Some even go so far as to subscribing their pets and their plants (the station has a popular gardening talk show as 30% of its programming is talk radio) to support it. Last year’s Radiothon added over 11,000 subscribers to the station. Add that to the government-funded and similarly non-playlisted Triple J and you’ve got a superior resource for alternative and independent music in Melbourne and the surrounding areas of Victoria.

The station moved home five years ago to a former lingerie factory in Brunswick East, about ten minutes on a tram outside of the city centre. The new home has afforded the station with extra space to play with and some of this space has been turned into a large in-house venue where all-ages gigs, radio sessions and live broadcasts take place. For a community station, it truly is totally involved in the local scene even going as far to delve into matchmaking – the upcoming Show Us YA 7 Inch musical-speed dating event pairs single music lovers up with like-minded Triple R subscribers. Everyone knows your music collection says more than you ever could about yourself in five minutes so Triple R are asking people to bring along their favourite piece of music – be it CD, cassette or vinyl to be judged by potential suitors. More..»

Nialler9 in Melbourne – the pre-music menu

fedsq

Federation Square at night, City Centre, Melbourne.

There’s probably no better way to blow away the cobwebs of any remaining jetlag the day after a 24 hour plane trip to the Southern Hemisphere than taking in Melbourne on the back of a Harley Davidson. On 9am on a brisk Saturday morning this is exactly how we conquered our body clocks the day after Aoife and myself arrived. It’s also a fantastic way to see Melbourne which was after all, recently voted the third most livable city in the world. Crossing the Bolte Bridge which encircles the Harbour and crosses the Yarra river, passing through the seaside suburb of St. Kilda and doing a quick lap of the official Formula One track around Alberta Park Lake was the best way to get into the Aussie mindset on the second day of our blog discovery trip.

We’ve only been here for 48 hours so far but already we’ve punched some serious holes in our itinerary. Aoife’s been representing the foodies with two great meals (she’s already blogged about our first night in Taxi). Our motorbike chauffeurs dropped us off at the Queen Victoria Market (the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere) where we were taken on a two-hour trip sampling the finest food that Australia has to offer from pasta to fruit to cheese to dips to wine and yes, we tasted some kangaroo and crocodile while there too (More on weird meats tomorrow).

Pics, videos and more of the first part of our Melbourne trip >>

Nialler9 goes to Oz!

australia2 This day next week, the focus of Nialler9 will be shifting to the the land of Antipodeans in the Southern Hemisphere. Yes, myself and Aoife will be making a ten day visit to Australia for blogging purposes courtesy of the kind people at Tourism Australia as part of their Visiting Opinion Leaders program!

We will be visiting Melbourne from the 12th-16th of June and then Perth from the 16th to the 20th of June and blogging on the way. We’ve got a whole host of things lined up:

Of course as Aoife is travelling too, our trip will have a foodie slant so expect things on I Can Has Cook like:

It’s gonna be AMAZING. So if you’ve any suggestions for bands, venues, bars, touristy things, Aussie music blogs and scenes to check out do pop them in the comments. For example, I’d love to find out more about this Grrilla Step/ Krumping dance craze that DJ Dexter seems is involved in…

More..»

Patrick Kelleher – You Look Cold

kelleker Ever since ‘Coat to Wear’ was brought to attention last year on the Analogue vinyl release, the name Patrick Kelleher has been slowly gathering a buzz in Dublin circles.

This Kelleher chap makes all the tunes himself (extensive list of instruments on the sleeve notes include a hazelnut spread jar, a door, a bouzouki and a Boss loop station amongst others), is 24 years of age, grew up in Rugby in England, is in the band Children Under Hoof and his own live band used to invariably change names per gig – from the now-standard “And His Cold Dead Hands” to names like:

Patrick Kelleher and the Sick Fucks
Patrick Kelleher and the Cybill Shepherds
Patrick Kelleher and the Beauty School Dropouts
Patrick Kelleher and the Failed Junior Certs

Awesome. The textured album You Look Cold which is released through Osaka on June 19th is a brilliant first release. You can clearly hear influences of early 90s hip-hop, leftfield electronica, experimental/ambient music, lo-fi folk like Animal Collective, film soundtracks and spaghetti westerns. Not one track on the album truly represents his aesthetic but I’m quite partial to this 80s cop theme romper stomper at the moment. You shouldn’t judge the album on this track alone, perhaps the brilliantly arranged ‘Coat to Wear’ is more indicative, but there’s no denying his talent. In fact, you should just buy the thing. You have my word, it’s another of Irish music’s great releases for 2009, a soon to be vintage year it seems.

Patrick Kelleher – He Has To Sleep Sometime

The launch gig takes place on the 18th of June in Academy 2, Dublin with support from Hulk and Angkorwat for a fiver. The album is available for pre-release from Osaka. Grab a free release from Pascal Country Sounds before that.
More..»

Nialler9 Interview Podcast – ASIWYFA

asiwyfa Holla folks. This is Aoife Mc here.  Below you’ll find a 40 minute podcast for your downloading pleasure.  It’s along the theme of my last Irish based Nialler9 podcast, only this time we’re focusing on one band.  The almighty And So I Watch You From Afar.  The Derry born Belfast based band blew the heads off of myself and Niall when we saw them play a State.ie gig out in The Purty Loft in Dun Laoghaire a month back.  They inspired me so much that I thought I’d dedicate this latest Irish podcast fully to them.  I really hope you like them as much as myself and Niall do.  They’re so playing at our wedding. LOL.

We’re off on our holidays in about three weeks and I’d like to get another Irish only podcast up on the site before we head off, as the last couple of months have been rife with great talent releasing stuff on our wee island.  In the meantime though, here’s an insight in to the world of ASIWYFA.  Word.

Tracks heard on this podcast are all from the self-titled debut album of ASIWFA and they play as follows:

  1. Set Guitars to Kill
  2. Clench Fists, Grit Teeth… Go!
  3. A Little Bit of Solidarity Goes a Long Way
  4. If It Ain’t Broke…Break It!
  5. Don’t Waste Time Doing Things You Hate

You can buy the album here.

Mind now, it’s a bit loud.  Enjoy!

Nialler9 Interview Podcast – ASIWYFA

 
 Standard Podcast [43:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2118)

Video: K’NAAN – T.I.A

K’NAAN was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and grew up during the Civil War. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia’s most famous singers. K’naan’s grandfather, Haji Mohamed, was a poet. If there was ever a male candidate for M.I.A-like stardom, it’s this guy. This song bolsters that sentiment by being called T.I.A. (This is Africa) and displaying the same global-centric sounds. Lovin’ this tune.

http://www.myspace.com/knaanmusic

Page 112345..Last »
Music Blog network