DEAF are kicking things off a little early this year with a fundraising event on the 21st of August in Meeting House Square (which will have a temporary roof & full bar for evening – let’s hope that addresses the sound issues.) Tickets are €10 from tickets.ie and in the shops below from Friday.
Bringing the public polls to a close for another year we have a podcast consisting of the top Irish tunes of 2008, as voted by the readers of Nialler9. We decided not to announce a tracklisting for this one so that you’ll have to listen to it to see who charted where. There are some surprises in there but I will say that songs from the likes of Hunter Gatherer, Lisa Hannigan and Jape all appeared. As for the other ten you’ll just have to listen to Aoife count them down in our 54 minutes special. Go go. Shoo Shoo!
Don’t listen to the naysayers. 2008 was one of the best years for Irish music in a long time. The results of the third album poll demonstrate the breadth of talent this small country has to offer. Please support the artists you’ve never heard and intrigue you by buying their music using the links below. Thanks to everyone who voted. If you needed some late Christmas ideas this collection would be a pretty cool present. The entire list of 64 albums voted for is available on Google Docs.
An Irish songs of 2008 podcast as voted by you is to follow.
Twin sisters, a guitar and heart. Listening to Ellie and Louise McNamara’s intertwined melodies has brought shivers down the spine of many lucky enough to hear them. Clearly the synergistic nature of these Dublin 18 year olds’ relationship has enabled them to produce an inspiringly simple and singularly brilliant record.
With Chequerboard! And Adebisi Shank! And a 15 piece band! Recession be damned! I ain’t gonna miss this. The Jimmy Cake would like you to register your intention to go to the gig by buying tickets in advance. Giving today’s wallet-tightening economic mindset, they are worried they might not get enough heads in to the gig. You can buy tickets here for a reasonable €20.
The band recently recorded a MUZU session featuring ‘Jetta’s Palace’ and a new song ‘Electric Domino Effect’. There’s an old interview from No Disco as well as vintage Jimmy live footage from John Kelly and Other Voices on their channel too.
It must be a personal triumph for the nine musicians in The Jimmy Cake to have finally released their third album Spectre and Crown after such a long recording period. It certainly felt like a very personal album launch – a long overdue return. The album is an evocative, organic and rich affair with strong classical motifs and understated tones, largely abandoning the crunch of previous work. Fitting then, that the band added a string quartet and extra brass to last night’s album launch.
An apt dedication to a deceased uncle before ‘Red Tony’ lent personal weight to proceedings and was no doubt acknowledged by extended family, many who were seated in the balcony. The new songs sounded wonderfully precise – ‘Haunted Candle’ and ‘Jetta’s Palace’ were rapturous renditions. It’s hard to believe the band only practised with the string quartet for the first time a mere six hours or so before the gig. As Aoife said, Dip the bass player was a dominating presence but each member contribute equally to this band. The accordion player Jurgen and keyboardist Paul Smith were front and centre, backed by the two guitarist Vinnie and Mike. The drummer John does a fierce job keeping the band together rhythmically and the three brass band members – Lisa (clarinet), Parx (trumpet) and Alex (saxophone – his last gig for the band) are esssential to The Jimmy Cake sound.
A slew of older songs showed the transition between then and now, but were also no less than awesome, including the raucous ‘Limestone Cowboy’, ‘This Used to be the Future’ and set-closer ‘The Opposite of Addiction’. If any band deserve an accolade for achievement this year, it’s the Jimmy Cake. Godspeed.
It took us a while to get around to this one with everything going on but the tunes below are representative of what I’ve been listening to for the last month. Most importantly, they are still getting played. Think of it as a snapshot of February. Thanks to Aoife for presenting.
Judging by the version of The Jimmy Cake’s new album that Aoife played to me, it’s shaping up to be one of the best Irish albums of 2008. If you head over to The Indie Hour blog, you can hear three new songs “Jetta’s Palace”, “Red Tony” and “My Brass Buttons” from the wonderful, yet untitled record due out in February 2008 as well as an interview with them.
DEAF are kicking things off a little early this year with a fundraising event on the 21st of August in Meeting House Square (which will have a temporary roof & full bar for evening – let’s hope that addresses the sound issues.) Tickets are €10 from tickets.ie and in the shops below from Friday.
