The Cast Of Cheers get the Peter Gabriel stop-motion treatment (or Bosco as Aoife pointed out) in the video for their first ever formally released single ‘Family’ out next month on School Boy Error/Co-Op. Video directed by Russell Weekes.
As the embodiment of gutsy vocalist last year, Merril Garbus’ appearance on Elephant & Castle’s ‘En Memoria’ has a refreshing daydream quality to it. It’s a gentle riposte to a year spent looping guttural vowels through alluring melodies.
Elephant & Castle is the pseudonym of David Reep and his album is out on his Transitions LP in March on Plug Research. More tracks here.
Need you be reminded that tUnE-YarDs play The Button Factory on February 12th, if you’ve never seen her live and don’t go I’m blocking all of you… SOPA-style. That seems fair.
Thanks to Alan for sending this on.
An intermission… Bon Jovi brought to you in the style of Bon Iver by The Miracles Of Modern Science.
Superb Beta Band-esque number from Django Django from their upcoming self-titled second album which is out next week. Buy the single here. ‘Storm’ is my other favourite track from this band.
Nialler9 and Jim Carroll’s On The Record are segueing blog powers together at Camden Crawl, London which happens from 4th to the 6th of May this year.
300 of the best new bands have been chosen to play by a panel including ourselves (full list below) and as part of the 3 day event, Nialler9 & On The Record will curate a night of live music with a lineup to be revealed at a later date. Camden Crawl kicks off with Death In Vegas in Koko on May 4th from 5pm (I’m doing a DJ set before Richard Fearless this Saturday as it happens)with support from four of the best new bands of the festival. The full lineup will be announced in February as will details of the Dublin version of the festival.
Highlights: Richard Fearless of Death In Vegas, Lisa O’Neill, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Certain Three Tour, Quompilation launch and Grandmaster Flash.
A list of recommended events taking place over the next seven days in Dublin. All times are 7.30/8pm unless stated. Feel free to recommend gigs not present in the comments below.
Here’s a new version of ‘<3' by Mmoths featuring Keep Shelly In Athens on vocals. This version features on Mmoths’ debut EP coming March 9th with a launch gig and debut headline show happening in the Twisted Pepper on the 18th of February.
You can read my interview with him on State.
Quarter Inch’s Quompilation is back for #2 in the series of Irish artists covering their favourite songs of 2011. For my money, Volume 2 is a better collection of covers all round than Volume 1 there are some cracking versions. Cloud Castle Lake cover Jacques Greene’s ‘Another Girl’, No Monster Club do Jedward’s ‘Lipstick’ an amazing service, Logikparty rock the John Maus look, Girl Band take on The Chemical Brothers while The Ambience Affair tackle Metronomy.
Check out the full 11-track collection of songs. The launch night takes place this Friday night in Crawdaddy with live sets from The Ambience Affair, Cloud Castle Lake, No Monster Club, Simon Bird, Girl Band, Ginola, Turning Down Sex and Rhino Magic. The compilation is available on cassette. More details at Quarter Inch.
Lethal Dialect follows up his ‘Keep It Real’ single from his new album LD50 II with this even better second single and an excellent video by Joe Dooney. Buy it.
Meanwhile in opposite land – Limerick’s – Grown Up In This Life…
Big tune from ScHoolboy Q with A$AP Rocky from the Habits & Contradictions mixtape (listen below). The track samples Lissie’s cover of Kid Cudi’s ‘Pursuit Of Happiness’ which featured here back in 2010.
“I’ve been hunting down that elusive paradox. To create something that didn’t sound like what I’ve done before. But was also unmistakably me. It’s quite a maddening task.”
Three years on from the gut-thumping twisted electronics of Totem’s Flare, Chris Clark has been busy. Recording in places like Wales with Bibio, Australia, Berlin, London, Brussels and Norway, using field recordings and lots of miscellaneous musical tools, Clark returns with a new album in April on Warp called Iradelphic and a free download of the track ‘Com Touch’ below.
“It feels like it’s been a massive test, a huge, all engulfing self imposed boundary that I had to step over, can I transform all this wild instrumentation and confounding, chaotic will into something with a monolithic unity, can I bring all of these seemingly contradictory shifts in mood into a homogenous whole? I hope I’ve nailed it.”
