Drop-d News

Sigur Rós to collaborate with Coldplay?

2009-04-01T14:54:00.002+01:00

Ok so this is all taken from theSigur Rós website.............

.....an update on what the band has been up to lately. recently we announced that Jónsi and Alex will release an album in the summer, and that Kjartan is set to score the film ‘Ondine’. We are now happy to announce that Kjartan will also be writing and arranging strings for 4 songs on Coldplay’s as-yet-untitled follow up album to 2008’s acclaimed Viva La Vida. Kjartan has already completed most of the arrangements, which are set to be recorded in late spring. in addition to Kjartan’s contribution, Jónsi will join Chris Martin on vocals on one of the album’s songs. we were fortunate enough to be allowed to visit Coldplay’s rehearsal space while Jónsi and Chris were rehearsing their collaboration, which promises to be nothing short of amazing. we filmed a short video from the session, which is now viewable on Youtube here.

Record Review, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Beware

2009-04-01T13:35:00.001+01:00

Artist: Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Source: Adam Lacey

I’m probably not the best choice of writer to do a Bonnie Prince Billy album review. I adore Will Oldham. I could listen to him sing for days, from his early croaky efforts as Palace Music/Palace Brothers, to his sparse, self-analysing I See A Darkness period to his more country-tinged Lie Down In The Light.

I suspect the foundations of this lie in the love of country music my parents have always harboured. They saw Johnny Cash in Dublin’s Carlton in 1974 and Don Williams in 1978, the latter while my mother was pregnant with me. They went to the Nashville rodeo in ‘76 at the National Stadium and have seen Crystal Gale support Kenny Rogers in their 80s hey-day. As I got older, through my punk phase and into grunge, my father’s tastes seemed to be more in tune with what I would most enjoy from their country collection:Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Cash, Jennings, Kristofferson. Yet I still enjoy the ground-breaking lyricism of Loretta Lynn and even the jaunty pomp of Marty Robbins (the latter when I’m drunk at Christmas.)

And so to Mr. Oldham - he straddles much of my musical tastes perfectly. He seems to have bloomed from an alternative music background; he is friends with Slint (he took the cover photo on Slint’s masterful Spiderland album) and Bill Callahan, is referenced as a legend by many in the alternative scene and cites Leonard Cohen as one of his musical heroes (two others being Merle Haggard and R. Kelly). He has not been one to waste time churning out the same material year after year and his work is as prolific as it is varied, with a plethora of guest appearances, EPs and albums seeming to flow out of his hairy fissóg every couple of months. On top of this, he has found time to be a bit-part film actor appearing in the wonderful Old Joy, Junebug and, recently, Wendy and Lucy.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

OvO for Debut Irish Date

2009-04-01T13:34:00.002+01:00

U: Mack present

OvO

Estel

and

Drainland

Thursday May 14, upstairs, Whelans Doors 7.30

Tickets €10 from Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar, Spindizzy, Wav Box Office 1890 200078 & online at

The mighty Italian experimental doom two piece OvO make their Dublin debut upstairs in Whelans on Thursday 14 May.

Italys Ovo are a two piece using guitar/violin cellos and drums that dump a toxic sludge with an unmistakable butterscotch scent. This sludge is in line with contemperous doom salesmen such as BORIS and the MELVINS, with the addition of vox stylings that take them to a new place entirely. The sounds coming from Stephania Pedrettis mouth as she sings go from lullaby sweet to terrifyingly raw in short intervals with Bruno Dorellas drums providing crunching headburn

Enemies Announce Gigs and 7 inch Release

2009-04-01T13:33:00.002+01:00

Wicklow based Post-Rock band Enemies, the latest addition to the Richter Collective family, are taking to the road to promote their shiny new 7", which comes complete with bonus live performance DVD.

Enemies have received much media attention in Ireland, the UK and Japan. They have recently signed to MachuPiccu (Toe's label) in Japan: a deal which will be supported by a release and tour in the summer of this year. Their sights are set high for 2009 and they are certainly ones to watch out for in the coming months.

They will be releasing their limited edition 7" vinyl with bonus performance DVD, Bits of Parrots/Feed me Seedless, on Friday 3rd April at the Quad Bar, Cork, and Saturday 4th April at The Lower Deck, Portobello, Dublin. Support on both nights comes from The Tupolev Ghost and The Continuous Battle Of Order. These dates are the first of their Ireland and UK tour to support this release. A full Ireland and UK release on April 13th will follow.

ENEMIES

Friday April 3rd - The Quad - Cork

Saturday April 4th - The Lower Deck - Dublin

Enemies MySpace

Richter Collective

Drop-D Homepage

Live Review, Animal Collective, Tripod

2009-03-31T14:33:00.002+01:00

Artist: Animal Collective
Source: Adam Lacey

Greil Marcus: "Rock 'n Roll is a combination of good ideas, dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments of unbelievable clarity and invention, pleasure, fun, vulgarity, excess, novelty and utter enervation."

Mark Archer from Altern8: “I will always love my oldskool - but I’m really into my early Detroit techno - that’s what really got me into making tunes.”

God bless Noah Lennox, Panda Bear and Geologist.

In these modern times of immediate cyber-cynicism, snarky dismissal and blog-Nazi stormtrooperology (it’s a word..) it was, and is, an absolute joy to listen to Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and have the majority of music-heads agree (for once) that, indeed, it is a masterpiece: an album to unite and infuse the world with stomach butterflies, an album to bring together everything joyous about music -mainly the almost tangible sweetness of the Beach Boys’ harmonies, the bleeping roughness of classic rave music and a playful experimentation with sound - and give us anthemic, crackers music that we crave even more with each listen.

And so it was with this unfair, ridiculous expectation that we all marched to Tripod to witness what could only possibly be the GREATEST GIG EVER FUCKING PERFORMED.

It wasn’t.

But it was enjoyable.

Animal Collective will probably always have a train load of New Age pill heads peppered throughout their fan base thanks to their psychfolk foundations and one-time druggy reps, so it was no shock to get a face full of dreadlock and a tasty bang of sweat from the teeming crowd in Tripod upon arrival.

The stage set-up owed much to Orbital and their ilk, with a huge coloured sphere dangling hypnotically over the trio and the illumination of their ‘worktops’ with sheets. It also wasn’t much of a surprise to pick up on the introspective nature of the three dudes on stage pretty quickly. Banter and interaction are not really AC’s thing; they are here to make you listen, move and possibly shit your pants.

It’s well-documented in blog land/forum world and review town that the band covered mostly

MPP

tracks with a bizarre reworking of Winters Love from Sung Tongs, Fireworks from Strawberry Jam, Slippi from Here Comes The Indian and a new one, What Would I Want Sky, as well as the MPP stuff such as My Girls, Daily Routine and a personal highlight, the ravetastic Brother Sport.

The band’s leanings towards the dancier elements of their recent music was a huge hit with the narcotically-enhanced flock - and also with those who simply wished to bop - and while some jams were too extended and the whole sound sometimes became murky, there seemed to be a seriously fun dance-off going on in the pit which I could not get near for love nor money.

Tripod can be a hit-and-miss venue and given the sonic balance of their recorded output, AC will always prove a challenge for a venue’s PA system, but it is fair to say that the sound does vary considerably depending on where you are positioned.

As a fan you know from either avid reading or repeated gigging what to expect from the current incarnation of Animal Collective. That is: expect nothing. They are not a predictable band and because of this they will pretty much remain a must-see act for the foreseeable future. What was billed as the gig of the year on the Irish music scene was certainly not that. But that is not to say they won’t return within the year to blow your mind and fill your trousers once again.

And for that I say: God bless Animal Collective.

SoundTrack: Ruari Hickson - A Futurist Theatre

2009-03-31T14:27:00.001+01:00

Artist: A Futurist Theatre
Source: Naomi McArdle

Ruairi Hickson sings and plays guitar and keys in A Futurist Theatre, which began with three other members in 2006 before evolving into a club-night behemoth, Futurism, in 2009. The debut album Caviar To Pigs was released earlier this year, quietly garnering a clutch of positive reviews. Unlike many other musicians working through the Irish rock scene, Ruairi is not one to mince his words. Drop-D futurised his opinions on music into web-space....

Drop-D: Can you pigeonhole your tastes into one particular genre or do your preferences spread through an array of influences?

Ruairi: I can absolutely pigeonhole my musical tastes, but that taste changes on a regular basis. I’ll go through lengthy periods of hating a certain style of music or band that I really don’t have any reason to; one song sounds great one day and terrible the next. Today, I’m in an indie-hating mood and I’m solely listening to Atari Teenage Riot. Tomorrow, it’ll be different again.

Drop-D: What triggered your musical infatuation? Was it a certain band/person/style/age?

Ruairi: I first picked up a guitar when I was 7 and promptly put it down again. After learning a handful of songs I just lost any desire to ever play music again, let alone write my own. Shortly afterwards, I contracted multiple eye infections at once and spent the next eight years in and out of hospital, submitted to a dozen operations to save my sight. When your eyesight starts to fade, it flicks a switch in your brain that makes the sanctity of your hearing absolutely crucial to your life. Two weeks before my fifteenth birthday I came around from the anaesthetic and was blind for three days. You start to think ‘Oh fuck, what if this is permanent?’ and when visiting hours are over, you’ve only got the radio for company.

Don’t ask me what station was on, but they played Been Training Dogs by The Cooper Temple Clause. It was exciting and it was dangerous! Nobody was making music like this, at least not to my untrained ears. The next day I had my brother [Bob Hickson - also of AFT] pick the debut album up and I heard so many creative, brilliant and original songs. I reached home and all this exciting music was around from bands like Ikara Colt, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg, Blood Brothers, The Icarus Line, At The Drive-In, Refused, TV On The Radio... I realise most of those have split up now, but all with good reason – great art has a definite lifespan. I made it my mission to find new bands, never stopping to listen to the old ones. I was raised on a steady diet of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty when my age was still in single digits, but now I was discovering music for myself, without being introduced by another fan and that was when I picked up a guitar again.

Drop-D: Is there any kind of music you'd like to know/hear more of?

Ruairi: I think the world of music goes through barren phases, particularly recently, where there is no real quality control, so many bands and yet so little focused genius. To my memory don’t think a truly great band has emerged in the last five years from anywhere, which is worrying.

I would love to hear more world music. No one’s really grabbed me since Ali Farka Toure passed away, so I hope someone will impress me soon. And I need to hear way, way more punk. As a teenager I basically never listened to punk or metal and I realise that it’s something most everyone else has and I feel like I’ve missed out on some huge part of regular human gestation. Can you recommend me an album or two?

Drop-D: What influenced your decision to choose a career in a band?

Ruairi: Performing music is the thing I am best at in this world and it’s what I love most. It wasn’t a hard decision.

Drop-D: How much time do you spend listening to music now? Has it de/increased over time?

Ruairi: I’m sad to say it’s decreased. I find myself running around a lot these days and as a result, I’m lucky to hear even one new album a week. It’s even more disheartening when that album turns out to be ‘disappointing’. I want my money back, Titus Andronicus!

Drop-d: Do you prefer live music or listening from home?

Ruairi: Always live music. When your hear something special that makes you go ‘oh wow’, you only lived that moment once and it’s never going to happen again, but you lived it and nothing else will compare. You can listen to an album and feel the same, sure, but then you listen to it again and the same buzz isn’t there, even if you can appreciate the music more as a whole. Live music is dangerously addictive.

Drop-D: How often would you spend at gigs that aren't your own?

Ruairi: I do go to as many gigs as my wallet allows, which is up to two a week now, I’m happy to say.

Drop-D: Would they be Irish or international bands? Any genre more so than the other?

Ruairi: Gigs by Irish bands generally tend to be more affordable and less crowded (happy/sad). The trouble with Irish bands is there’s usually a very narrow range of what’s available every night. I don’t particularly like by-numbers Indie, which you get an awful lot of. But every so often you hear a little spark of genius that makes it worth it.

Drop-D: Where does Irish music come on your playlists?

Ruairi: I do listen to a fair amount of music on MySpace and I get to hear a lot of Irish artists this way. We’re always looking to find a really good, talented band to play with or promote. That said, I sympathise with the many bloggers or agencies that get bombarded with material from all angles with requests for reviews and exposure, because a lot of these artists are not very good. Recording music is easy and cheap, so many slip into a trap of recording music without any love or forethought and place something that could have been great but now should never be heard in the public eye/ear. But this happens worldwide. I’m not specifically picking on Ireland here.

That’s not to say there aren’t Irish artists who do good music the right way. There are, of course. I am big fan of Channel One, God Is An Astronaut, ABAM (really brilliant), And So I Watch You From Afar, iPhoenix and a good few others. I’m really excited to see Arcadia and Butterfly Explosion live too.

Drop-d: What do you think of the climate of the Irish music scene? Is it a good place to be a musician right now?

Ruairi: I don’t think so. No, not really. I think the channels through which a band can start making a name for themselves are too few and there is a certain bias in some of those to make it even more difficult. Ireland’s music has always had a climate of backslapping and ‘it’s who you know’. I don’t know if this exists in other places, but I know it happens here for sure. There are plenty of talented individuals around, though, and I am an optimist, so I live in perpetual hope that the best will rise to the top.

Drop-D: If you could choose a musical era to experience, what would it be?

Ruairi: The one in ten years’ time. I think we’re in a slump at the moment, but that will pass. It’s happened before and will happen again. The future is always more exciting than what’s already been known and done.

Drop-D: Choose some albums you find timeless and explain why....

Ruairi:

Refused – The Shape Of Punk To Come: Just a stunning, stunning album of political intent, amazing technical ability and fury in abundance. The album sleeve was an entire goddamn manifesto! The music flows like lava into your brain and dareIfuckingsayit melts the gooey stuff inside. It’ll be too long before we see another album like this.

Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible: Then again, (see above) the Manics were capable of this sort of quality years ago. I’m really excited to hear their new album, even though the recent ones haven’t been so good, just because they say it’s the spiritual successor to this one.

Joy Division – Closer: Unknown Pleasures is probably the more familiar album, but the songwriting on this was just more complete. Songs like Colony and Isolation are just so much more compelling than most of the debut.

Jeff Wayne - The War Of The Worlds: A very brilliant girl introduced me to this a while back. Chock full of prog nonsense and over the top structures and vocals (Thunderchild) with an amazing Richard Burton narrating. It’s indirectly related to the title of our album too [Caviar To Pigs].

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – The Lyre Of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues: No other artist on the planet can rhyme 'Orpheus' with orifice and not sound up their own hole. Get Ready For Love is one of the best songs ever written too.

Asian Dub Foundation – Enemy Of The Enemy: I got the same feeling from Fortress Europe for the first time as I did when hearing Been Training Dogs. They also introduced me to reggae, hip-hop, electronica and how to put on an eventful live show. Their latest album, Punkara, is amazing too, but this one has sentimental value.

Drop-D: Now choose some modern tunes that you've really enjoyed.

Ruairi:

Heiruspecs – Hip-Hop Nerdism

The Automatic – Steve McQueen

Bear McReary’s version of All Along The Watchtower

Ungdomskulen – Ordinary Son

We Are Scientists - Ghouls

Drop-D: Who/what do you find absolutely awful crap, rubbish, dross?

Ruairi: Arcade Fire are one. I used to be swayed by their songs but it’s just becoming clearer to me every day that their melodies are thin and layering them with hurdy-gurdies won’t make them good. Bloc Party are another. I can applaud nonsensical, Morrissey-like vocals, but the music and ideas are absent now. Is every band going to try and remake Kid A when they don’t know what to do next? My bandmates will lynch me for saying this, but I’m not a massive Pink Floyd fan either.

I don’t necessarily hate a bad Irish act when I hear them so much as get disheartened because everybody is ignorant to their own quality, high or low. I find it counterproductive to start an Oasis vs. Blur-style slanging match with anyone, because it never ends well for either party.

But while we’re on the subject, any band who, in the advent of aforementioned Canadians, picked up an accordion, donned a waistcoat and bowler hat onstage is only fooling themselves; any band whose singer has a thick Dub accent and sings like Alex Turner can never be original; any artist who just writes love songs has nothing interesting to write about; any band who have been inspired by Embrace are on a long downward spiral to nowhere; any band who are just bandmates and not friends aren’t ever going to be happy.

Most bands I dislike have split up by now anyway. More emerge all the time, but I’ll give them a chance. They may come good yet.

Drop-D: You've hijacked RTE at prime time and the DJ's tied up in a corner. Choose five songs you think the nation HAS to hear.

Ruairi:

Ennio Morricone – The Ecstasy Of Gold

Temple Of The Dog - Hungerstrike

The Dillinger Escape Plan – The Perfect Design

Masafumi Takada – Sweet Blue Flag

Zig and Zag – A Tijuana Gypsy Stole My Personal Stereo

Futurism night club takes place in Eamon Dorans on Wednesday 1st April, featuring iPhoenix and A Futurist Theatre. 8pm, €5.

www.myspace.com/afuturisttheatre

Drop-D review of Caviar To Pigs

Live Review: Crayonsmith - Whelans

2009-03-31T14:26:00.001+01:00

Artist: Crayonsmith
Source: Naomi McArdle

Whelans on a Friday at 930 p.m is enough to strike simultaneous joy and dread into the heart of a seasoned gig-goer: weekend shows often pack to the rafters. On the flip side are midweek nights when modest audiences congregate around the dark edges, leaving a harsh-lit horseshoe of empty floorboards. On this occasion the balance was just right with a decent crowd clustered around the stage, anxious not to skip a beat. As it was, I'd missed support acts GiveAManAKick and Dublin Duck Dispensary. Oops.

Musical metaphor The Boat had just begun on my arrival, flowing vocals sounding really clear from the Whelans stacks, despite some chat from the audience, followed by Lost In The Forest, a stormer from White Wonder, which appears to be Crayonsmith's key song and with good reason, displaying a real handle on bass and sample-simplicity to lead the way for synths that rush in like adrenaline lessening a fear.

In fact, there's a darker tinge to Crayonsmiths' songs live, picked out and delivered in deliberate order, especially looking at the setlist: Devil's Island, We Sleep, The Boat, Lost In The Forest, Banshee, All The Elders, Dolphins, Epitaph, Scarytale and Alegre.

I only knew some of the names from that rather mixed list, the band were obviously reluctant to rest on too many old favourites. The omission of Anxious came as a suprise but it was made up for by All The Elders's old-fashioned touch of Americana in honest-to-goodness guitars, standing surprisingly strong amidst a set which had already skimmed the tops off a load of other genres.

I should butt in here to mention that Crayonsmith, in case you don't know, began with Ciaran Smith's 2006 debut Stay Loose, his experiments in Lo-Fi later completed by Ruadhan O' Meara on bass and Ronan Jackson on additional guitar, synth and drum-punching duties, which led to a second album White Wonder in 2008. To date their achievements encompass multi-date tours in the UK and US with Sparklehorse and Islands, prime supports to Why?, Juana Molina and more recently, Max Tundra, not to mention the 'Experimental Irish Indie Done Well' tag. The Dublin trio share those artists' imaginative streak, cultivating a hybrid of noisy rock instruments cross-matched with synthetic samples. Crayonsmith shouldn't be Irish, they should be from Kansas or Oz or wherever in-between it is where brick after yellow brick of sound lays down a rolling road. We should be very glad they're Irish.

Vocals play such an important role in most of the songs, a balance is struck to ensure the rhythms don't overpower the voice and harmonies chime in with quartz precision. You'd expect a touch of messiness as these sounds are pinned together, though of a different style Why? as an example are messier but both bands share a love for the ever-changing song format, the careful layering of nuances and inflections.

Returning from stronger use of samples in Epitaph, the re-uptake quickly lead on to Scarytale from Stay Loose, the second last song, we were told. Oh dear, I thought, over so soon? I hadn't seen them perform live since the IMRO Showcase Tour last April when sound problems marred their set and I walked out thinking they weren't really suited for talent shows. I was right: Crayonsmith are best seen on their own terms, in their own sweet time.

Crayonsmith MySpace

White Wonder Review

Crayonsmith Interview

Record Review, Mastodon, Crack the Skye

2009-03-31T14:25:00.002+01:00

Artist: Mastodon
Source: Paul Groome

Some of you reading this, really love Mastodon. Some of you have never heard of Mastodon but will soon realise what a sheltered existence you have been living. The remainder of the audience have heard of Mastodon, but don't like them. The Lord still loves you, but just a little bit less than everyone else. Redeem yourself. Crack The Skye rules.

A few years ago, in a land far away, a Mastodon was born. Hairy but strong. Several albums were released over the course of a short number of years. Remission, Leviathan and Blood Mountain were created. The metal community smiled, for they saw that they were good. As each release became available for purchase, so each release gained more followers. That's just how Mastodon do business. They don't fuck around. Crack The Skye has now been released and I have been informed from a reliable source, that Obama is headbanging to this motherfucker. THAT'S how cool it is. "A broader spectrum of listeners are attracted to it because of the classic rock feeling it has", Obama says. I'm inclined to agree with him. The vocals veer more toward singing than the shouting of previous years. Even Ozzy would be comfortable with some of the vocal melodies. They haven't gone soft though. No! That 'soft' word isn't even in their vocabulary. This CD could tear you a new one just by looking at you sideways.

The overall tempo of all the tracks has slowed to a more listenable level for those who wouldn't normally find hard-rock/metal very edible. Thrashy songs from previous releases like Where Strides The Mastodon or Blood and Thunder seem to have been adjusted to suit a wider audience. Structures and choruses have memorable hooks that could have you humming the tunes to yourself while you're on the bus. This strikes me as a mark of maturity in their music rather than a sell-out point though.

Divinations is a obvious single being the short and snappy choice from all seven songs. The Czar is more of a journey, including four separate sections that last for nearly 11 minutes, and it held my attention throughout. The prog-rock flare is still in the mix and the longest tune on the album, The Last Baron, is 13 minutes, and not one single boring, repetitive second can be found. Anywhere. Obviously impressed with his previous performances on Leviathan and Blood Mountain, Scott Kelly from Neurosis has been invited back to sing on the title track.

Like all new releases, the 'fancy pants' edition contains an extra DVD of studio out-takes and also the band going through the lyrical genetics of the album. This comes in very handy, because I was afraid to put up my hand and ask what was going on. Subject matter ranges from astral travel to songs about Rasputin, and from the point of view of a concept album, I was lost. Still didn't give a shit though. If they want to write about wormholes, then that's fine with me. I wouldn't argue with a Mastodon.

Mastodon Site

Mastodon Myspace

Mastodon Wiki

Record Review, The Race, In My Head It Works

2009-03-31T14:24:00.002+01:00

Artist: The Race
Source: Paddy Murphy

The Race are a bunch of five wholesome youngster from Reading that have clearly been raised on a strict diet of the best of North American and UK indie and post punk. And we're talking the good stuff here; along the lines of Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Flaming Lips, Joy Division, you get the picture.

In My Head It Works is one of those records that's nearly too good to put into words. It's the album that bands like Elbow wish they'd written. Super Furry Animals would be another one that'll be kicking themselves when they hear this, wishing to the high heavens that they'd written something like this and propel them towards the big bucks and away from the cursed cult status they've been in for years. Actually, Elbow are in a good position now, because of their Mercury win, and fair play to them too, but if they hadn't won then this is the album they'd listen to for finding some inspiration for their follow up to The Seldom Seen Kid.

It's a crying shame though that this band will remain largely anonymous and won't get any airplay, especially here in Ireland unless someone at Phantom bothers going through the bin of thrown-out CDs (which I've heard is as big as the bin on the back of a rubbish truck) and finds it. Which they won't but that's ok, that's what we're here for.

Opener, Begin sets the tone beautifully for the rest of the album, clocking in at just over a minute. A marching-band beat and vocals that pan from right to left let the listener know that they should get ready for one hell of a record. Second track and first singleI Get It Wrong should be this summer's Wake Up. God I can see it now, Electric Picnic, sunshine, weed and alcohol, your head swimming and this tune ripping through the speakers. Ya know, one of those “festival” moments. Ah well, shouldn't get excited, they'll probably never get spotted by the Picnic's head-honchos.

Second single Rude Boy build slowly but the constant driving drum beat gives it an urgency that makes you wanna get up and dance your ass off like it's the final tune before the lights come up and you've got to head home. The finale of the tune turns into an all out mosh-pit distorted guitars and a whopper of a bassline. Something that would be home on any Arctic Monkey's album.

Other highlights include Undecided, another singalong festival songs, if there's anyone listening, please somebody book this band for one of the festivals, don't care which one, just do it, make this moronic fool happy for a change and instead of booking some hyped up shite you seen at SXSW, book a band that are plugging away only across the pond. Killer is what The Killers should have done on Sam's Town, (are the band having a dig there?) if they had they'd be massive now with everyone and have the respect that they so desperately crave, but as we all know they blew it with Day and Age.

Better to Slip Away is another belter of a song, actually it's the best song on the album. Fuck it you know what, don't bother buying this album and don't bother texting your local radio station looking to hear tracks from In My Head It Works before you buy it. Naw, don't bother. It's just easier for you to listen to the tripe that's pumped and churned out daily from radio infecting your brain with shite than to find a band that, honestly, could unite the world with world peace through their music, no messing. Bill and Ted style (Wild Stallions rule!). Naw don't bother giving a break to a band that have worked on one of the finest albums of the year, no actually, of the decade, sure ,you'd prefer to listen to Coldplay and U2 and Mundy (if I ever meet that Galway Girl I'm gonna drown the bitch for inflicting such bolloxology on the nation).

Whatever, I'm getting angry, instead listen to the band. Two more songs to mention Gloves and Give Me Your Bible, awesome, excellent, massive tunes. I wish I was in this band, then I could sleep well at night knowing that I'd given something of beauty to the world. I'd probably be a bit annoyed it didn't make any money for me but, sure whatever, that's an argument for another day, to be filthy rich of to be or to be artistically supreme over your peers.....Bono? Are you out there?

Drop-d Rating 9/10

The Race Site

The Race MYspace

The Race Wiki

Record Review, Ólafur Arnalds and Rival Consoles, 65 Milo

2009-03-31T14:23:00.002+01:00

Artist: Ólafur Arnalds and Rival Consoles
Source: Paul Murphy

Described as “Iceland’s best new export”, Ólafur Arnalds has shortened the waiting period for his forthcoming album with the release of 65/Milo a split 12”/Download release with label collegue Rival Consoles.

Teaming up with Bloodgroup mastermind Janus Rasmussen, Ólafur has created a new project, Kiasmos, based around the duo’s common love for minimal, experimental techno music. With both having their own touring commitments the music composition usually begins by email.

The result is minimalist techno soundscapes that still include the post-rock sensabilities and emotive song composition abilities that Ólafur is known for. His dance music maintains the ability to open minds and his classical influences are certainly evident as the techno compositions 65 and Walled which appear on this release move through similar stages to that of a classical score, with the building and layering of textures behind a warm and catchy melody which gives life to the music.

IDM-smith, Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles from Leicester joins the Icelandic on the Erased Tapes Records’ split. Having recently released Helvetica, an epic and almost conceptual abandonment and experimentation with classical being played against dance.

These guys seem well matched Ólafur’s solo music would have provided for a great split with music from West’s Helvetica but this time around West is in full-on techno mode. With three tracks of the five on the split it’s hard to tell prior to knowing this where the Icelandic ends and the Leicester man begins as both have a flare for experimentation as their beats and their melodic and rhythmic synths flow seemlessly together.

Drop-d Rating 8/10

Ólafur Arnalds Myspace

Target Consoles Myspace

Record Review, Simon Fagan, Hired and Fired EP

2009-03-31T14:21:00.001+01:00

Artist: Simon Fagan
Source: Paul Murphy

Turbulent times and mounting Jobseeker’s benefit applications has allowed one of Ireland’s jazziest singer songwriters resurrect a song that was written about his own job-holding inabilities. Hired and Fired has become the title track for the debut EP from Meath native Simon Fagan.

Since earning musical qualifications, classically trained Simon Fagan has built a reputation as a formidable performer. While in LA he held residencies in music bars in Hollywood delivering his exciting blend of pop, soul, jazz and rock and roll. Fagan has also opened for Lionel Richie and Smokey Robinson as well as performing lead vocals in the National Concert Hall for the Beatles Love concert.

The title track, although an old personal song, is timely and musically optimistic. People standing on the dole queue could easily start clicking their fingers to its infectious rhythm while the swinging bass would set them dancing around the footpath with a spring in their step. You could arrange an entire, upbeat, musical about the economic crisis from this song.

The EP also includes the high energy Bring the Dance, which Fagan released as his debut single in June 2008, a song which captures the vibrant power of Simon’s vocals and his talent as a musician.

The EP’s other tracks The Way A Woman Should and Falling Into You are closer to the conventional style we have come to expect from singer songwriters, yet they couldn’t be confused with anyone else’s music. Using trumpets, jazzy beats and swinging bass all complimented by a layering of genres and rich vocals Simon Fagan creates timeless, easy listening, on his debut EP.

Hired and Fired is out now on iTunes and all good download stores and the good news is, if you like it, his recording deal has him set to release another EP in 2009 and a debut album in early 2010.

Drop-d Rating 7/10

Simon Fagan Myspace

Interview, Martin Moscrop and Jez Kerr from A Certain Ratio

2009-03-27T14:02:00.002Z

Artist: A Cetain Ratio
Source: Naomi McArdle

A Certain Ratio started off playing small gigs around Manchester in 1978 after forming the previous year. Their punk ethic gave them the balls to form a band, but from their humble beginnings the music was taking from band groups such as Kraftwerk, Roxy Music and Northern Soul. Factory signed the band soon after and the Manchester scene was soon to flourish. Drop-d caught up with founding members Martin Moscrop and Jez Kerr for a quick chat about the good old days, influences and the Nazi question.

Drop-d: I'm just a whippersnapper journo who doesn't know nearly enough about the history of music. However I know A Certain Ratio. How would you introduce yourself and the band to someone who's never heard All Night Party?

Martin Moscrop: James Brown on Acid.

Drop-d:Are you still partying away? Considering you're out gigging there's obviously still great energy amongst you.

M: We are still partying and the last time we played in Dublin in 2007 we had a great time and stayed up all night. We treat every gig like a party.

Drop-d: Have you enjoyed performing and tours over the years? What's been the best album to work with?

M: There was a point where continuous touring got a bit much which is why we went into semi retirement. We are really enjoying it now and like doing selective gigs. We are really enjoying playing the new songs off our new album and as with any band your best work is always the newest because it is still fresh to you.

Rest of Article here.

Lady GaGa for Cork Date

2009-03-27T13:59:00.001Z

Aiken Promotions presents….

The one, the only, the lady of the moment

Lady Gaga

Live at the Marquee, Cork – 1st July 2009.

Tickets on sale next Thurs 2nd April at 9am.

Tickets will be €39.20 seated & standing on sale from all Ticketmaster outlets nationwide

Booking line no. 0818 719 300 online at Ticketmaster

Lady GaGa Site

Lady GaGa Myspace

Lady GaGA Wiki

Live Review, Mogwai, The Academy

2009-03-23T13:52:00.002Z

Artist: Mogwai
Source: Adam Lacey and Paddy Murphy

Saturday: Adam Lacey

For those who care to search through the many folds in the belly of the post-rock beast, Mogwai are the band that really defines this Simon Reynolds-coined sub genre.

Playing a delicious blend of in-your-face instrumental metal with lush electronics, piano, some digitally-treated vocals and plenty of melody, Mogwai’s songs at once sound immediate and familiar, even to those who own not a single Mogwai long-player.

The second night of their Academy residency sees the group in fine fettle, swigging liberally from bottles of red wine and beer cups and ploughing through a set that differs from the previous night with the exclusion of some tracks such as Like Herod and Summer but with the inclusion of others such as the devastating Ithica 27 Ø 9.

The crowd is peppered with green shirts bearing the O2 logo, thanks to the earlier achievements of the Irish rugby team, and if any band is going to represent the sonic equivalent of a Grand Slam, it’s these Scottish fiends.

Saturday’s set is a pick of tunes from their impressive canon with four from their recent The Hawk is Howling: opener I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead, Scotland’s Shame, Thank You Space Expert and the sublime set closer, prior to the encore, of Bat Cat whose metal riffs threaten to tear the floor from The Academy and plunge the hordes into Hades.

Hunted By A Freak is greeted with one of the biggest cheers of the night and the band are chatty without over-indulgence, with one quip about a recent visit to Prince’s London shows nearly resulting in a crowd sing-along of Purple Rain. There is plenty of predictably reverential silence for most of the quiet bits, with the occasional roar of sheer joy proving that the sold-out crowd clearly boasts more than a handful of hardcore Mogwai fans (Moggers?)

After a 10 minute break at the end the encore begins with Kids Will Be Skeletons and then a moving rendition of Mogwai Fear Satan from their ’97 album Young Team to finish. The band are visibly comfortable with each other after such a long time together and this only serves to enhance the intricacies of their music in a live setting with all the parts coming seamlessly together to make one glorious racket.

This is a gripping show, drenched in strobe lighting and noise. Hopefully they won’t wait so long until they play a gig here again, although a 3-day residency is certainly a great way to make amends.

And a tip of the hat to the sound techs in The Academy - the sound is spot on.

Wonder how Sunday’s gig went...

Sunday: Paddy Murphy

Seeing Mogwai tonight was a bit like that thing about meeting your heroes. Walking up to the Academy in silence, mulling over what they might play, what they'll sound like, will they be wrecked after a weekend of partying in Dublin.........truly I was a fuckin bag of nerves.....

Up the stairs into the venue and the bar was silent, no messing. All you could hear was the cash registers ringing. It was eerie to say the least.

The band make their way on stage without much of a hubbub and set into a slow building set. Starting off with Autorock from Mr Beast. The band seem a bit tired as they follow that with Hunted but you can't blame them considering they're five Glasgow boys in Dublin for the first time in years. Soon following were the wonderfully named I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School and latest album opener, The Hawk is Howling, I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead (anyone see the t-shirt with Morrison's image? Genius.) Until the latter it had been looking as if we were going to be treated to a much calmer set than the previous nights. With the Morrison song it soon changed.

Xmas Steps and Scotland's Shame, named after a flag seen pointing at Rangers soccer fans, showed that Celtic fans were not in a chilled mood in any way, shape or form. The crowd were responsive for the most part. A quick look around the impressive Academy and most were nodding their heads, even the privileged on the balcony above us minnions, to the beat. There were quiet a few annoying “shushes” though through-out the night, though, which was a bit weird.

Friend of the Night get a walloping with a far angrier version than appears on Mr. Beast and it's the first song that really, properly, tested the Academy's speakers. Makes you think how the hell can the sound engineers, and indeed the speakers, still cope with the demands of a vicious assault that Mogwai have given them over the last three nights here in a row.

We're No Here leaves everyone's ear's bleeding in the best way possible and turns into full on prog-metal the likes of which Tool would have been proud of. The ten minutes between the end of the song and the time the band reappear for the encore are filled with all kinds of blips, beeps and looped drum machines. There was a silence though at the end, the crowd not quiet knowing whether it was all over or not. In fact it took one fan to united the crowd and get everyone hollering for Mogwai to get back and give us more.

They finished with an ear-shattering version of You Don't Know Jesus and the short and immensely loud Glasgow Mega-Snake.

Doubtlessly most there will have come to the gig with their ideal setlist in mind but ya know what...it doesn't matter, Mogwai are the masters of post-rock and to have seen them on their final night of the Academy's Mog-fest was a pure unadulterated privilege.

Photo: Paul Murphy

Wintersleep for Academy 2 Date

2009-03-23T13:51:00.002Z

WINTERSLEEP

ANNOUNCE ACADEMY 2 RETURN

After a stellar debut Irish show in February, Wintersleep return to the Academy 2 on Sunday 10 May. Tickets priced €13 incl. booking fee are on sale from tomorrow, Tuesday 24 March at all usual Ticketmaster outlets.

The Juno Award winning rockers formed back in 2002. Members of the group frequently collaborate outside of the band with frontman Paul Murphy and guitarist Tim D’eon having played together in the band Kary. Drummer, Loel Campbell has also played with Kary and is a member of some other projects most notably Holy F*ck. Bassist Mike Bigelow has also played with the electro rockers.

Last year the Canadian group released their third album Welcome To The Night Sky and subsequently won the 2008 Juno Award for New Group of the Year.

Live Review, Butterfly Explosion, Whelans

2009-03-19T15:03:00.002Z

Artist: Butterfly Explosion
Source: Paddy Murphy

You gotta love the people behind Club AC30, everytime they put on a show they provide the goods, last time Drop-d was here for one of their gigs we were treated to the absolute awesomeness of Amuseparks on Fire. That night Butterfly Explosion provided the support, but all was not well.

Even when I spoke to frontman Gaz Carr,after the show, he said that he agreed with Drop-d's review compared to State's. Their sound was a mess that night and we were disappointed because we'd seen them a couple of times before. We blamed the new line up of the band. For tonight's gig I was wary of what was gonna happen.

First of all fair play to the band for getting a good sized crowd into Whelan's on the night before Paddy's Day. With many other good gigs going on around the city it was a testament to the band and their faithful troop of fans that they could get the numbers in in the night before Ireland's biggest day of drunken debauchery and mischief.

Photo Naomi McArdle

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

The Maccabees for Academy date

2009-03-19T13:29:00.001Z

The Academy presents

THE MACCABEES

Wednesday 27th May

Tickets at €16 including booking fee go on sale via Ticketmaster on Friday 20th March.

Brighton’s brightest export THE MACCABEES have confirmed a Dublin date at The Academy on 27th May. Debut album Colour it In was voted best alternative pop record of 2007 by NME and their single Toothpaste Kisses was embraced by hoards of new fans. Their eagerly anticipated second album Wall of Arms is set for Irish release on May 1st.

The Maccabees Site

The Maccabees Myspace

Academy Site

Happy St Patricks Day

2009-03-17T10:50:00.002Z

Happy Saint Patricks Day to all our readers from all of us at Drop-d.

La Fheile Phadraig Duit

Record Review, Rank Deluxe, You Decide

2009-03-16T14:25:00.002Z

Artist: Rank Deluxe
Source: Paul Groome

This fits in very well with the existing 'Britpop' guitar bands. I'm not having a dig at these guys; It's just hard to make an impression in a genre of music that is already swamped withFranz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs clones, without really breaking the mould. Rank Deluxe have given it a good bash though, and what a shed load of influences they've wedged onto one CD!

Dole Queue, the reggae fuelled opener is up beat and filled with lots of social observations on what a mess those bastard politicians have made of our world. My word; What bastards. This is a common trend throughout the album, and although I have no doubt of their sincerity, punk bands already covered this territory many times over.Save It For Tomorrow is a deadly, balls out, rock song! It could possibly be something Supergrass wished they'd written. Guitar solo and everything!Nice.

That's what the problem is though. There's simply too much of everything. Genres are intermingled in a big, old pot of melted music stuff. Only a handful of bands have ever successfully fused such a wide variety of genres into their music. Unfortunately, it seems that they approached this collection of songs with a sort of "throw enough types of mud at a wall and someone will appreciate it" angle. Despite several moments that have me reaching to increase the volume, they've taken a half pint of reggae, two measures of punk and dollop of clean-tone-jangly-guitar-sound Top 40 blandness.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, The Answer, Everyday Demons

2009-03-15T23:36:00.002Z

Artist: The Answer
Source: Colm Cullen

At the start of the year, HMV named them as one of their top 10 tips for 2009. Rolling Stone Magazine put them on their 2009 Hot List. Their debut album was a critical and popular success, selling over 100,000 copies worldwide. They’ve supported AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Aerosmith amongst others. They’ve headlined their own shows in Europe, Japan and Australia. Jimmy Page is a fan, and has apparently been to a number of gigs. And they’re from County Down.

Who are they ? They’re The Answer and they’re back with their long-awaited 2nd album. Which can be a daunting prospect for a lot of bands. They come to their debut album, and a lot of bands will have been together for a while, touring with songs that they know backwards. Then comes album number two, which in a lot of cases can be less worthy than it’s predecessor.

Produced by John Travis (Kid Rock, Monster Magnet, Buckcherry), I originally thought that was the case here, but the more I listen to this the better it gets. I liked the album on first listen, but I just didn’t think most of the songs on here really grabbed you by the throat. Instead, they’ve sneaked up behind me and given me a right good kicking.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, Jinx Lennon Trauma Themes for Idiot Times

2009-03-15T23:35:00.002Z

Artist: Jinx Lennon
Source: Paul Murphy

If someone breaks into your house to murder you, you should be entitled to stick a knife in their eye and say “Listen, if one of us is going to die, it’s not going to be me.” such is the style of musing and social commentary seeping from the pores of the new album from Jinx Lennon.

On Trauma Themes Idiot Times the punk-folk-poet-troubadour continues to take the word singer songwriter, douse it liberally with petrol, light it up and piss all over the flames.

His delivery and musical style is original to say the least and inspired by the nobility of “the maverick spirits of those who stood apart and were adamant about their own peculiar vision and who never really got the kudos they deserved, to a point where most people hated what they did.” But there’s nothing to hate about what Jinx Lennon does. He even pulls-off speaking in tongues on Everyone’s Got a Mental Home I.T.H.

Ms Paula Flynn joins Jinx on a number of tracks to subdue the harsh angst that creeps out of him, particularly on The Ferris Wheel at Dowdallshill and adds the sense of hymn to The Orange Cranes of Greenore while Jinx compares orange cranes to nightclub bouncers.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

SoundTrack: Human Jigsaw - Drugzilla

2009-03-15T23:32:00.001Z

Artist: Drugzilla
Source: Naomi McArdle

Meek and mild are regularly-used adjectives, but not for Lisdoonvarna duo DRUGZILLA. Fuelled by profanity and Buckfast, their Speedcore sound is described as music so filthy you need to wear a condom while listening or else you'll get an STD and the best thing to come from the bog since Magic Mushrooms.

Factually defined by over 20,000 deranged MySpace fans before members Human Jigsaw and Manimal had so much as an EP under their belts, in late 2008 their extreme style achieved the unprecedented win of regional newspaper, The Clare People's Artist of 2008. On the back of a successful slot at UK festival I Hate Trance, DRUGZILLA recently released the Alcoholocaust EP on iTunes, and late March sees the band take to the road for a rare tour to Cork, Limerick and Dublin. Drop-D collared Jigsaw to pin down the influential sprawl of DRUGZILLA....

Drop-D : Can you pigeonhole your tastes into one particular genre or do your preferences spread through an array of influences?

Jigsaw: I listen to such a wide variety of music it's hard to pigeonhole my taste but the one thing that really gets me going is extremity in music. Be it epic stuff like Cult of Luna, harsh power electronics like Whitehouse or brutal extreme Metal like Beneath The Massacre.

Drop-D : What triggered your musical infatuation?

Jigsaw: For as long as I can remember I was into music. The first band that blew me away was The Progidy and then when I heard The Bezerker when I was 15, who mix hardcore Techno with Death Metal, my life was changed forever. It's around this time I started producing extreme electronic music and started getting into Death Metal and other extreme genres of music.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Interview, Sweet Jane

2009-03-15T23:30:00.001Z

Artist: Sweet Jane
Source: Paddy Murphy

Hot from touring with Glasvegas, Sweet Jane have been gaining quite the reputation for wonderful live shows packed full of sophisticated melodic tunes.Drop-d caught up with vocalist Lydia Des Dolles to talk about all things music, the Dublin music scene and something her mammy won't won't like to hear her saying......

Drop-d: Tell us Lydia who are Sweet Jane and how did the band come about?

Lydia: Sweet Jane are myself (Lydia Des Dolles), Danda, Ruairi Paxton and Andy Parkes.... Danda and I essentially started the back at the beginning of 2007, he had some songs and he needed a female vocal for them. When we heard the outcome of those songs and the positive response, we started the band with some friends. Then things got more serious when Ruairi and Andy joined, I think we realized the potential of the band.

Drop-d: You've got some really cool gigs coming up with some majorly cool bands, wanna plug them and give us some more info?

L: Well, the last time we toured with a band was Glasvegas around Christmas, March 31st we're in Dublin with A Place to Bury Strangers, we toured with them last year so we are so excited to play with them again and Dead Confederate. Then we're in the UK with Delta Mainline and Guile, and we're doing Alan Mc Gee's Death Disco in London with St. Deluxe in May. We've got some headline shows coming up ourselves and we're waiting to confirm a UK tour with a pretty huge band right now, but I can't give to much away on that just yet.

Drop-d: Personally who's you own biggest influence, who made you wanna be in a band? Same question but as a collective band?

L: I think I was originally influenced by records my Dad played when I was a kid, y'know, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, Ella Fitzgerald, The Eagles, The Faces, and then I really only got into music in a big way around the early 90's, the whole grunge era. Hole and Courtney Love played a big part in my early teens, then I went a bit sour and got into metal in a big big way, alot of bad metal. I missed out on the whole Britpop era when I was a kid so when I found it I was really able to appreciate it and learn from it. I guess right now, main influences would be bands like, Royal Trux, Darker My Love, Fleetwood Mac, The Kills, Black Mountain, Ike & Tina and Rolling Stones.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, The Amateurs, Homesick

2009-03-15T23:29:00.002Z

Artist: The Amateurs
Source: Adam Lacey

The Amateurs are a Birmingham four-piece who specialise in the kind of MOR twaddle that should have been taken out into a field and shot in the face years ago as a lesson to all musicians to inject a bit of passion and vim into their craft and into what they are attempting to peddle to the music-buying public.

It seems incredible that with the wealth of talent and various genres of wonderful music available any band would now pick as their template Coldplay, at their most insipid, and any combination of bland, same-y, forgettable, Scouting For Girls homogenous guff that is clogging up the airwaves these days.
It mostly reminds me of Deep Blue Something, who had that Breakfast at Tiffanys song years ago, and the least fortunate part of it is that the three soft rock songs featured on this single release (Homesick, London Sky and Mystery Thing) are so forgettable that they even lack the lasting, adhesive, abject drippiness that secured Snow Patrol their Grey's Anatomy cash-in.

That said, I'll wager The Amateurs will, at some stage, have a massive radio hit that everyone will love - thanks to it featuring prominently on the soundtrack to some Jennifer Aniston rom-com - and the chorus of which even your mother will know by heart.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, Iain Archer, To The Pine Roots

2009-03-15T23:26:00.002Z

Artist: Iain Archer
Source: David Lynch

So what kind of album is To The Pine Roots? At first listen the image of a talented teenage strummer springs to mind. Surely this is some young amateur musician on a budget Takamine, using borrowed mics and a ripped version of Garageband to lay down a few tracks for his mates. Maybe they encouraged him to send it to an indie label who distributed it and sorted out the (very) nice packaging and website. The minimalist sound and prominence of the acoustic guitar in the mix definitely points towards this. Add in vocals that are somewhere between early Tim Wheeler and Elliot Smith and it’s obvious…

Wait a second? Slots in two of the largest venues in Ireland - Dublin 's O2 Belfast's Odyssey; an Ivor Novello award and a song on Greys Anatomy! It appears that Iain Archer is in fact a total pro and has been releasing albums for around fifteen years now. He is a former member of both Snow Patrol and Reindeer Section (hence the big venue slots as support to Snow Patrol). After listening to his latest album To The Pine Roots I can’t help but feel that he should have known better.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Therapy? for Academy Date

2009-03-12T14:08:00.002Z

The Academy presents

THERAPY?

The Academy, Friday 15th May 2009.

Tickets €25 including booking fee on sale Friday 13th March.

Hard rockers THERAPY? have announced an Academy date on Friday 15th May to coincide with the release of their eagerly awaited new album Crooked Timber set for European release on March 23rd. Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster at 9am on Friday March 13th.

Read the first Irish review of Crooked Timber on Drop-d here

Therapy? Site

Therapy? Myspace

Therapy? Wiki

Academy

Sanzkrit Album Preview video & album title revealed

2009-03-12T14:05:00.001Z

County Monaghan alt-pop quartet Sanzkrit have decided to name their debut album After the Wedding with a scheduled release date in September.

Here's a preview video to whet your appetite...

Sanzkrit Myspace

Drop-D Nominated and shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards 2008 Competition Time, The Stone Roses Experience

2009-03-11T14:20:00.001Z

Midnight at The Academy presents

The Stone Roses Experience

Friday 13th March 2009

Tickets €15 including booking fee available from Ticketmaster.ie Doors 11pm

For ‘Roses’ fans who weren’t lucky enough to get a ticket for the Stone Roses Experience’s sold out December show, good news is here.. The band are returning to play a St Patrick’s weekend show on Friday 13th March. Tickets at €15 inclusive of booking fee are available through all usual Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

The Stone Roses Experience are widely regarded as the most accurate tribute to The Stone Roses. They focus on bringing the authentic live sound of the Roses to audiences who never had the pleasure of seeing the original band, using the original instruments as closely as possible and tweaking that desired classic Roses tone.

Drop-d has got 2 tickets to give away, just answer this simple question. Ian Brown collaborated with which Irish female on his last album?

Answers to paddymurphy@drop-d.ie

TSRE Myspace

Drop-D Nominated and shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards 2008 The Mighty Diamonds, Crawdaddy date

2009-03-11T14:02:00.001Z

POD Concerts presents

THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS

Support from Firehouse Skank DJs

Wed April 1st Crawdaddy, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, Doors – 8pm

Tickets €17/22.50 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets.

The Mighty Diamonds, Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson formed in 1969 in the Trenchtown area of Kingston, Jamaica and for the past 40 years have been entertaining and educating the world with their sweet harmonies and conscious lyrics.

They quickly became known as the young group with the Motown sound with their soulful harmonies and polished performances. Their first hit singles Country Living and Hey Girl were recorded on the Channel One label. Their debut album Right Time, released on the Virgin has become a classic. This is an album that belongs in every serious reggae collection. Right Time is probably their most requested song when they perform.

Pass the Kouchie also became an international hit when first released and then again when it was covered by the Musical Youth and released as Pass the Dutchie.

The Mighty Diamonds Site

The Mighty Diamonds Myspace

The Mighty Diamonds Wiki

Drop-D Nominated and shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards 2008 Health for Whelans Date with Dublin Duck Dispensary and Wounds

2009-03-10T15:48:00.002Z

Foggy Notions presents:

HEALTH

with The Dublin Duck Dispensary and Wounds, Whelans, April 17.

Tickets €13 from City Discs, WAV, Tickets.ie, Ticketmaster.ie, Road Records, Soundcellar

HEALTH`s brutal diversity is at the forefront of LA`s burgeoning experimental scene. Their self titled debut finally saw the light of day early last year via Lovepump United having already received accolades by Pitchfork and Drowned in Sound where the album was voted in the top ten albums of last year.

Having been together for six months before playing live, and eight months before releasing anything, Healths notoriety centred around LA`s The Smell venue where more often than not they played free all ages shows to those eager to lose themselves in the bands volatile experimental noise.

HEALTH have also had a hand in 8 bit glitch duo Crystal Castles` recent success. In addition to a Crystal Castles/HEALTH split 7", HEALTH remixed Crystal Castle`s Crimewave which featured on the UK release of the single. Relentless touring with Crystal Castles, Dan Deacon, and White Williams has cemeneted their status as one of the most exciting and energetic bands around.

HEALTH - / / M (CHICAGO)

Health Site

Health Myspace

Health Wiki

Dublin Duck Dispensary Myspace

Ponytail, Adebisi Shank and Jogging Tomorrow Night, Whelans

2009-03-10T12:03:00.002Z

Foggy Notions presents

PONYTAIL

with Adebisi Shank and Jogging

Wednesday 11th March, Whelan’s

Tickets €13 plus booking fee, WAV Box Office, Ticketmaster, Tickets.ie, City Discs

A four-piece multi-style rock act that have drawn comparisons to Deerhoof and Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail released their first slab of infectious sugar-fueled two-guitar trad punk (Kamehameha on Creative Capitalism) in January of 2007. The Baltimore, quartet features drummer Jeremy Hyman, guitarist Ken Seeno, and other guitarist (and Ecstatic Sunshine member) Dustin Wong, all fronted by the vast array of sounds that is vocalist Molly Siegel.

Ponytail Myspace

Ponytail Wiki

Adebisi Shank Myspace

Incoming: Halogen

2009-03-09T22:34:00.002Z

Artist: Halogen
Source: Adam Lacey

Like a bit of electronica with a smattering of glitch, ambient and unusual radio static? Say hello to Brighton's Halogen.

Drop-D: Who are you?

Halogen: I am Adam Janota-Bzowski and I’ve been hiding under the moniker Halogen for just under three years now.

Drop-D: Where are you based?

H: I currently reside very close to the sea in Hove, Brighton, UK in my purple fronted masionette.

Drop-D: IDM is your thing, it would seem? How would you define your sound?

H: IDM, of course, stands for Intelligent Dance Music but I can’t really imagine intelligent people dancing to my tracks nor do I know how someone can dance intelligently. In its basic form I guess I make ambient/glitch but I like to think of it as a surreal cinematic soundtrack where the film is everything that passes your eyes.

Drop-D: Tell us about your role as a producer and what you might have in the pipeline?

H: I really love working with as many people as possible, I grew up making music in various post-rock/metal/math-rock bands so that collaborative approach is in my nature. I’m looking to get a large collective effort from various musicians to play on an acoustic EP I’m making for the Fluid Audio label, also getting some collaborations from some singers and MCs on a free download hip-hop EP for net-lab. co. uk. Apart from that working on a bunch of remixes for Tenaka, Iambic, Cloud Ants and hopefully a few others.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

A Place To Bury Strangers for Whelans Date

2009-03-09T14:03:00.002Z

Forever Presents

A Place to Bury Strangers

with Dead Confederate and Sweet Jane, Whelan’s, Tuesday, March 31.

Tickets €15 incl. booking free from WAV, Road Records, City Discs, tickets.ie and ticketmaster.ie.

Forever Presents

A Place to Bury Strangers

with Dead Confederate and Sweet Jane, Whelan’s, Tuesday, March 31.

Tickets €15 incl. booking free from WAV, Road Records, City Discs, tickets.ie and ticketmaster.ie.

A Place To Bury Strangers have often been called the loudest band in New York. This may very well be the case, but unlike much of the loud rock and roll that is out now, APTBS is not loud simply for the sake of it. The sonically overdriven sound they have accomplished is no clumsy accident, but a carefully cultivated and well maintained entity all its own, fostered by an unbridled passion thats clearly evident in every live show they play and each recording the make.

While there are obvious reference points - Pornography-era Cure, early Ride, Depeche Mode, Blast First era Sonic Youth, MBV, and pre 90s Jesus & Mary Chain - the sound is all their own; in part due to singer/guitarist Oliver Ackermanns day job of building and designing custom guitar pedals, coupled with the solid bass of Jono Mofo and the relentless drumming of Jay Space, the APTBS is a force to be reckoned with.

Dead Confederate Myspace

Sweet Jane Myspace

Ice Cube for Tripod Date

2009-03-06T16:16:00.002Z

Pod Concerts is proud to present the godfather of gangsta rap, playing his first show in Ireland for 15 years.

Living legend Ice Cube returns to Dublin after a decade and a half, touring his incendiary latest album Raw Footage. His 60 minute show will feature all the classic songs from his 25 year career, including tracks from his time with genitors of hip-hop N.W.A.

Released in August of last year, Raw Footage has been hailed as some of the best material since Amerikkka’s Most Wanted from the pioneer of west coast rap.

Tickets on sale 9am this Friday 6th March,Ticketmaster

Ice Cube Site

Ice Cube Myspace

Ice Cube Wiki

Interview, Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai

2009-03-06T09:30:00.001Z

Artist: Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai
Source: Brendan Morgan

A dodgy phone line and thick Scottish accent. Normally I wouldn't bother, but this is Stuart Braithwaite, visionary guitarist and key-member of instrumental noise-mongers Mogwai. ''We're in France yeah, I was expecting your call' says the Glasgow man, quickly dispelling any confusion surrounding time zones. 'The tour's going great. We're having a lot of fun. People have been turning up so can't complain.'

Formed in the mid 90s as the anti-thesis to Britpop's increasingly stale format, Mogwai's seminal debut Young Team was an all out assault of the senses; heaving with vitriolic guitars, terrifyingly beautiful soundscapes and rolling basslines. In the past decade Mogwai have continued to perfect the art of noise, consistently transcending the line between tender sublimity and full-blown rock psychosis in such an intense manner it has proved inimitable. Drop-d manages to catch Stuart before the sonic-orchestrators take up residency at The Academy later this month.

Drop-d:The start of The Hawk is Howling tour was cut short when your drummer had a pacemaker problem in America. Was it disappointing to have the tour cut short just after the release of the album?

Stuart:No worries about that really, if Martin couldn't play he couldn't play. To be honest the problem was fixed pretty quickly and we were back out playing 3 weeks later. We rescheduled those shows for April and May, so all is well that ends well.

Drop-d:Why haven't you played Ireland in few years?

S:No reason, its just the way the schedule's worked out. We played there right at the start when the last record came out and i don't think we've played since, we're looking forward to it but..yeah.. no reason for it in particular.

Drop-d:It's being billed as a mini-Mogwai festival? Any other Rock Action bands lined up?

S:Yeah I think we've got Desalvo on and Remember Remember playing too and I think we're going to be Djing somewhere in the building as well. I think there's going to be a dance-off too so they're a few things happening alright!

Drop-d:Desalvo are fairly full on live, should be interesting?

S:Yeah, I think there going to be a lot of ears sore out there with the vooooice (laughs).

Drop-d:You are fairly concerned about noise level restrictions laws being introduced to the UK?

S:Yeah some places are terrible. In Italy its like 95db which in roughly how loud our drum kit alone is. It's quite oppressive and I'd be very upset if it happened. I think it's part of the whole live experience for us to be loud when we want to be.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the interview.

Record Review, Watchmen Soundtrack

2009-03-05T16:58:00.002Z

Artist: Watchmen Movie Soundtrack
Source: Paddy Murphy

Tomorrow sees the international world-wide release of Watchmen, the most celebrated graphic novel/comic of all time. 300 director Zack Synder will be putting his hand to the direction of the movie and no doubt there'll be lots of slow-motion fight sequences and tons and tons of CGI.

Many people will agree that some movie soundtracks are of the utmost importance. Think of the Fight Club soundtrack done completely by The Dust Brothers except for the final credits where Pixies play out Where Is My Mind as the financial district of Jack's/Tyler Durden's city blows to pieces. Platoon wouldn't have been as good without Samuel Barber's Adagio for String or Smokey Robinson's Tracks of my Tears. Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous and Singles had both outstanding soundtracks, thank god that was true for Singles since it was such a dire movie, Almost Famous, however, I will fight to the death defending it's honour. Quentin Tarantino fully appreciates the importance of a good soundtrack and spends a huge amount of time looking for the perfect songs to add to his movies. Steelers Wheel were broke until Reservoir Dogs came out and their Stuck in the Middle was synced with a torture scene. Would 2001: A Space Odyssey have been any good if the soundtrack had been pop music instead of some of the best classical music ever made?

But let us get back to the issue of the Watchmen soundtrack. The movie spans the 1950s up to the1980s so there ain't much popular tunes here, except for the surprise inclusion of a Bob Dylan cover by Emo kings My Chemical Romance. They cover Dylan's Desolation Row, it's quite a boring cover, nothing new added to it other than the typical American rawk cover-styling of adding too much distorted guitars and a shouty vocal. Also, The Smashing Pumpkins, probably should have been included since their The End Is The Beginning Is The End appeared on one of the trailers, no matter it was already on Batman and Robin a few years ago, indeed it won a Grammy.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, Charlie Parr, Roustabout

2009-03-05T01:53:00.001Z

Artist: Charlie Parr
Source: David Lynch

First a question, has the soundtrack from Oh Brother Where Art Thou? got a special place in your music collection? If so then, Roustabout, the latest album from folk and country blues hero Charlie Parr, is definitely worth a listen.

The man from Duluth, Minnesota has put together a fine piece of work. The record was recorded live to tape in various places; a friend’s living room, a garage, a basement, and in spare rooms next to a local bar. This provides the album with an authentic character and along with the style of music, and inclusions of traditional arrangements, echoes the style of an album that could easily have been recorded in the early era of blues.

Opener Don’t Send Your Child To War leaps out of the traps like a greyhound, with banjo and steel guitar mixed with raspy, shouted, vocals and sounds like it would be equally relevant if it had been written during the American Civil War, (obviously it wasn't). It deals with the trials of an elderly family left to look after a farm when their eldest son leaves for war. This is a consistent thread throughout the album as Parr describes the trials and tribulations of life in rural America.

Parr’s skill on guitar is incredible with blues licks, lightning fast picking and slides all interspersed on his trademark National Resonator steel guitar. Other instruments such as harmonica, fiddle and bass drum stop the album from falling into repetitive folk guitar territory.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Live Review, The Villagers, The Stables, Mullingar

2009-03-04T13:30:00.001Z

Artist: The Villagers
Source: David Lynch

After missing a sell out show by The Villagers in Crawdaddy last Saturday week there was nothing for it but make the trip to Mullingar to The Stables for their next gig seven days later. The Villagers are the new project from Conor O’Brien, ex of The Immediate and lead guitarist with Cathy Davey. With only a few songs from their Hollow Kind EP and word of mouth to proceed them there is still a relatively large crowd for the small venue by the time the band came on stage around midnight.

First up is the pounding drums, ringing piano and sinister acoustic of Down Under the Sea. From the off it is clear that this band are in a different league to many of the current crop of Irish bands and all chatter immediately ceases as the crowd hangs on to every note. The diminutive O’Brien calmly opens up a door to raw emotion with his voice and lyrics, and his appropriately scaled guitar has a deep sound that belies its small size.

Whilst the band never put a foot wrong, it still takes them a few songs to properly get into the gig and feel that they have the crowd on their side. By the time On A Sunlit Stage comes around they are totally relaxed and O’Brien, whose voice sounds a little strained for the opening line, shares a knowing smile with the rest of the band – possibly due to late night revelry following the previous nights show with Cathy Davey in Crawdaddy. The crowd is on his side though and laugh it off.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the article.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone for Whelans Date

2009-03-04T11:36:00.001Z

Foggy Notions presents

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

with Concern and Fiasco, Fiesta in Whelan’s, April 19

Tickets €14 plus booking fee from WAV / City Discs / >Tickets.ie// Ticketmaster

From Kraftwerk to Leonard Cohen, The Smiths to Suicide, and Pet Shop Boys to Smog, Chicago, Illinois, one-man musical army Owen Ashworth a.k.a Casiotone for the Painfully Alone has been bracketed with all manner of illustrious names in the course of his eleven year career. He’s returning to Whelan’s this April, with a full band, performing songs from new album, Vs. Children.

Ashworth will be joined on stage by Tyson Thurston (Magical, Beautiful), Gordon Ashworth (Concern) will trade off on piano, baritone guitar, and lap steel guitar, Nick Tamburro (The Dead Science) will play the drums, and Owen will be taking care of vocals and organ.

Vs. Children will be out on Tomlab on 6th April.

Live Review, Cathy Davey, Crawdaddy

2009-03-04T01:30:00.002Z

Artist: Cathy Davey
Source: David Lynch

There is no sign of the “R” word for Cathy Davey's sold out show at Crawdaddy tonight.

No, rock is firmly off the menu for tonight. This could never be mistaken for anything other than a polished pop show and is all the better for it. When we’re bombarded with doom and gloom in the media every day sometimes a bit of uplifting pop music is the only tonic. The diverse young crowd that mills around is at times chatting, at times dancing but always smiling and could have been taken straight from one of your stereotypical beer ads.

The show starts at 9 on the button following impressive support act Adrian Crowley. First song is a new track Long Time Gone, which is followed by the ever-present live fixture Cold Man's Nightmare from her debut album Something Ilk. Davey is in fine form looking incredible playing a black telecaster. In the interludes she chats away to the crowd, dedicates songs to friends in the audience and even declines marriage proposals, all in her own shy and unassuming manner.

The most impressive thing about the performance is her vocals and her ability to get her voice underneath a song and push it right up to the rafters, yet at the same time sounding totally sincere and soulful. At no time does it seem like her voice is strained and despite all the pop melodies on offer there is not the slightest whiff of cheese. Second album Tales of Silverslieve provides the source material for most of the show although some new material and a few oldies are included.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Adrian Crowley Myspace

Live Review: Franz Ferdinand, Olympia Theatre, March 1st

2009-03-03T14:50:00.001Z

Artist: Franz Ferdinand
Source: Naomi McArdle

As a name, he was the catalyst for World War I. As a band, Franz Ferdinand need no introduction. Drop-D was there last Sunday, and this is what we saw.

Hand-picked for all three Irish dates, new kids on the indie block The Funeral Suits went from playing Whelans' tiny Upstairs to the vast expanse of a full-capacity Olympia in just a few nights. Understandably overwhelmed, they poured out a steady stream of support nonetheless, with the crowd-pleasing Black Lemonade and Screentest. However, electing not to include the down-tempo, Blur-ish Modern Urban Pleasures, seemed an unusual decision considering its poignant structure would most likely have appealed to Franz Ferdinand's hedonistic audience.

Dubbed by some as a one-trick pony due to a deep-rooted love of disco, Franz Ferdinand's incendiary energy first came to light with 2004's self-titled debut, which stunned critics with an astute personification of lonely libido packaged in a sleek post-punk sheath. Global success and the rapid production of You Could Have It So Much Better just over a year later filled the tour calendar to bursting point, giving the band who began in a disused warehouse the opportunity to fine-tune on the world's most famous stages.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Interview, The Funeral Suits

2009-03-03T12:42:00.001Z

Artist: The Funeral Suits
Source: Paddy Murphy

Drop-d has been keeping a watchful eye on The Funeral Suits for a while now, they hit lofty heights a while ago when BBC DJ Steve Lamacq put them in his top 60 bands. Drop-d spoke to the band about supporting Franz Ferdinand for their upcoming gig in the Olympia, early influences and a groupie story involving something called an Eiffel Tower.

Drop-d: Right so, for those that don't know who are the Funeral Suits, where ya come from, how'd ya meet, what are the plans for world domination?

Michael: I started the band just over a year ago in my bedroom. I had been playing with a few different guys until Brian and Greg came along. It was sort of weird... I met Greg on the interweb and we met Brian through a friend. The bands changed alot since we started playing together but we're all havng a buzz with writing new music. We've had a bit of luck with getting on a list of the best new bands on BBC Radio 1 and supporting Franz Ferdinand... I guess what we really want is to get signed and make a really good album and play loads of gigs to lots of people where ever we can. That'd be cool!

Drop-d: Getting onto Steve Lamacq's top 60 came as a surprise outta the blue?

Greg: Yea I suppose it came out of nowhere really. I mean we sent him our cd like we would any other dj and we were lucky that he had a chance to listen it and actually liked it. Its great when you can make music that people will remember the day after they hear it and especially when people like Steve Lamacq take notice its great, makes you feel like your doing something right.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the interview.

Competition Time, Findlay Brown, The Academy, This Thursday

2009-03-03T12:10:00.001Z

FINDLAY BROWN

LIVE IN THE ACADEMY 2 THIS THURSDAY

Singer songwriter Findlay Brown returns to Dublin this Thursday for a date at the Academy 2. Tickets priced €13 inclusive of booking fee are on sale now at all usual Ticketmaster outlets.

With A new album due out later this year Findlay Brown is fast building a steady fanbase. He ended the year supporting Duffy on her recent tour in November. Best known for his hit song Come Home which featured in an ad for Mastercard, Findlay Brown released his debut album, Separated by the Sea in 2007.

Drop-d has a pair of tickets to give away for the show, just answer this simple question. On which advert did Come Home appear. Answers to paddymurphy@drop-d.ie

Findlay Brown Myspace

Findlay Brown Wiki

Drop-D Homepage

Drop-D Forum

U2 will release another album this year

2009-03-02T16:42:00.002Z

U2 are up to their old money-making shenanigans

The Dubliners have told The New York Timesthat they plan to release a companion album before the end of the year, which will have a more "meditative and processional" tone.

It will feature music from the same recording sessions as No Line on the Horizon. Bono had said previously "We were going to release two EP sets, Daylight and Darkness; we had all these ideas, but in the end we just took the best songs and made the one record."

U2 are continuing to promote their new record. Tonight they begin a five-night residency on the David Letterman Show.

U2Myspace

U2 Wiki

Record Review, The Dickie Rock Collection, The Irish Daily Mail

2009-03-02T13:54:00.002Z

Artist: Dickie Rock
Source: Paddy Murphy

Here's a quote to start “Biggie was a fat, foul-mouthed, sexist, talentless, gun-toting drug-dealer from Brooklyn, who followed his dream, of turning himself into a fat, foul-mouthed, sexist, talentless, gun-toting millionaire rapper”. The Mail on Sunday ain't known for being the nicest paper in the world but this weekend it did give away a Dickie Rock cd, Drop-d couldn't resist a review

It would be too easy to hate Dickie Rock. Way too easy, he's supposed to be an arrogant old so-and-so, he was in a successful band during the hay-day of the Showbands era. He was the first artist to ever debut at number 1 in the Irish charts. He's had 25 hits, yea read that again, 25 big cash money earners. Only the Beatles, Elvis, Sir Cliff, Bowie and the Rolling Stones have done better than that. Even Westlife haven't got there yet. He also represented Ireland in the 1966 Eurovision coming forth behind, the classic Merci Cheri from Austrian crooner Udo Jurgens. The phrase Spit on me Dickie came into being because the young ones at the time would do anything for the sexbomb, even begging him to at least spit on them. He was the first Western star to play in communist Russia. He's also had sex with many many women. Many women.

History lesson over, lets talk about what Dickie's good at. (No sniggering down the back). Surely if somebody is that successful then they have to have some amount of talent. Remember this was a simpler time, long before Louis Walsh's and Simon Cowell's evil antics. A time when priests would go to local discos and separate young couples if they stood too close to each other for fears of another immaculate conception . Britain and the Yanks had punks and hippies while we had showbands, we got the short end of the stick for sure but wasn't it good honest-to-God living.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Camera Obscura for Andrews Lane Date

2009-03-02T13:50:00.001Z

Foggy Notions presents

Camera Obscura

and Attic Lights

Andrew’s Lane Theatre, April 30, Doors 8pm

Tickets €18 plus booking fee from WAV/Road/City Discs/Ticketmaster/tickets.ie

Camera Obscura announce a new single, the forthcoming album release of My Maudlin Career, and a worldwide tour.

With John Peel as an early champion, Glasgow’s Camera Obscura are fondly regarded by many as one of the UK’s finest acts; having built up over the years a dedicated following with must-have records and tours throughout Europe, USA, Mexico, Australia and South East Asia. Their 2006 album Let’s Get out of the Country was to prove pivotal for the band, taking them out of the shadows and to long-deserved new heights.

Now Camera Obscura are ready to release the follow-up, My Maudlin Career; their first for their new label 4AD, and fourth overall. After his successful touches on their last record, they returned to Sweden to work again with Swedish producer Jari Haapalainen (Ed Harcourt, Peter, Bjorn & John, The Concretes). His wonderful understanding with the band continues to flourish, again fully realizing not just the potential of Tracyanne Campbell’s songs and remarkable voice, but also the ensemble musicianship of the group as a whole.

My Maudlin Career is out April 20 on 4AD

Camera Obscura Site

Camera Obscura Myspace

Camera Obscura Wiki

Glasgow’s Attic Lights will be opening for Camera Obscura on their UK/Irish tour. Camera Obscura have previously remixed two of the band’s singles. Their debut Friday Night Lights was released to critical acclaim on Island Records last year.

Live Review: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster - Crawdaddy, February 27th.

2009-03-02T13:48:00.001Z

Artist: The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Source: Liam Tyrrell

Some 12 days ago, buried in the mire of bad followed by worse news, a low-key announcement of a charity gig to be held in Crawdaddy was made. Big whoop says you, and indeed said everyone, until a small buzz began to build as we entered the back end of last week. On Thursday, Drop-d's unbelieving eyes finally caught this news-wave and our tiny minds almost exploded with excitement. For you see, this performance in aid of Concern was to be headlined by none other than Brighton's finest export, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, who had never before played an indoor venue in this country.

Crawdaddy was less than full at the outset of the evening, although maybe those not present had some inkling to the fact that the main event would not get underway until well after midnight. Drop-d was under the impression that another show was due to begin at 11, the people at POD do so enjoy putting two gigs in the one venue on the one night, and so we had trundled the miles to Harcourt Street in very good time.

There was another reason for our impeccable punctuality. Sickboy, who are now just a fortnight or so away from a ten gig jaunt to the U.S. of A. to include the iconic SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, were due to open the show. The Sickboy boys have been just that recently, sick, suffering all kinds of ailments, but they did as Jesus would have wanted and picked up their beds and rocked. They seemed a little rusty, understandably given that they haven't been able to practice for some six weeks or so, but this loosener will serve them well for next Friday's fundraiser in Transformer ahead of their American adventure.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Photo by Nay

Mogwai Announce more detail on Mog-Fest, The Academy

2009-02-24T14:20:00.001Z

MOGWAI ANNOUNCE SUPPORTS AND DJ SET FOR ACADEMY RESIDENCY

Mogwai have announced supports acts for when they take over Dublin’s Academy for a weekend residency next month on Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of March.

Glaswegian rockers Desalvo will open for the band on Friday night and Remember Remember will join the band as support for the remaining two nights.

Mogwai’s Stuart and Barry will also be taking to the decks after Fridays gig as special guest DJs at No Disko in The Academy.

Mogwai are live at The Academy on Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March. Tickets priced €30 incl. book fee for each night are on sale now at all usual Ticketmaster outlets.

Desalvo Myspace

Remember Remember Myspace

Mogwai Myspace

Drop-d Home Page

Drop-d Forum

Drop-D Nominated and shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards 2008 Live Review, 2009 Green 17 Tour, Flogging Molly, with the Aggrolites and the Mighty S

2009-02-24T13:56:00.002Z

Artist: Flogging Molly, The Aggrolites, The Mighty Stef
Source: Diane Weisheit

A crowd of fans dressed in kilts and newsboy caps flooded the lobby of The House of Blues both Friday and Saturday night for the 2009 Green 17 Tour featuring Flogging Molly, with The Aggrolites and The Mighty Stef.

The Dublin-based The Mighty Stef, kicked off the night featuring songs from their second studio album, 100 Midnights. Lead singer Stefan Murphy opened things up with the first track from their album, Downtown. It was immediately apparent from Murphy’s grungy, almost growling, Irish voice that this was a great choice for an opening band. They set a vibrant mood for the crowd as they casually sipped beers while belting out A Pretend Sailors Goodbye. The great harmonies and melodic beat of Sunshine Serenade brought the audience to life, clapping their hands cheerfully along with the beat. Perhaps the most enjoyable performer on stage was the keyboard player, constantly uprooting himself from the giant couch pillow on which he was seated in order to get a little more into the groove as he pounded the keys. He even surprised us by busting out a trumpet for closing song, Poisonous Love. Murphy wished the crowd goodnight and brought the set to a close as the lengthy strings twirling off the end of his guitar glistened in the stage lights.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Interview, Jeremy Hickey, Rarely Seen Above Ground

2009-02-24T13:55:00.001Z

Artist: Rarely Seen Above Ground
Source: Liam Griffin

Rarely Seen Above Ground (RSAG) is a one man band who records all his own material and plays drums live alongside some pretty interesting visuals. His debut album Organic Sampler, was released last year and gained him a nomination for the Choice Music Prize. His sound is energetic, exciting and well worth checking out. Drop-d spoke with the brain of the operation Jeremy Hickey over the phone last week, just before he played at a Jameson Film Festival party in Dublin.

Drop-d: Playing live as a drummer accompanying virtual band mates is a pretty unorthodox approach. How did you come up with this idea?
Jeremy: It came about because I'd played in bands for years and I always wanted to get my own thing going. It was easier to do it all myself, I'm a drummer first and foremost but I also play guitar and other instruments. Back in about '96, I made a demo and it came out pretty well. After that I got involved with a band called Blue Ghost. But it was actually always since about the age of 20/21 that I was going to do a solo thing. There were a lot of people making and performing music on their own at the time, like DJ Shadow, there was a lot of stuff that you didn't need a full band, so it was in the air for me.

Drop-d: How do you get the images for your show?

J: I make the images for the live show myself with help from my friend Paul Mahon. We both film the stuff and then we both sit down and cut it up. Its more or less the same way the music is done, as in its recorded and cut up. Like how the music is done, except it's visuals. That's why I think it works so well.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the interview.

Drop-D Nominated and shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards 2008 Stiff Little Fingers for Academy Date

2009-02-24T13:53:00.001Z

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS

Friday 22nd May 2009

Tickets €25 including booking fee go on-sale 9am Wednesday 25th February
Ticketmaster

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS were formed in Belfast in 1977 and have become one of the best bands to emerge from Ireland. With punk rock classics such as Suspect Device, Wasted Life and of course Alternative Ulster, with their infectious energy and distorted guitar hooks, SLF have been a major influence on bands such as Green Day, Bad Religion, Sugar, Rancid and fellow Ulster band Therapy. Tickets go on sale at 9am Wednesday 25th February through all Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

SLF Site

SLF Myspace

Academy Site

SLF Wiki

Drop-d Home Page

Drop-d Forum

Gomez Announce Academy Date

2009-02-23T10:02:00.002Z

GOMEZ ANNOUNCE ACADEMY GIG

Almost ten years after the release of their brilliant Mercury Music Prize winning debut album release Bring It On Gomez have announced an intimate date at Dublin’s Academy on Thursday 30 April. Tickets priced €26 incl. booking fee are on sale at all usual Ticketmaster outlets from Wednesday 25th February.

Gomez sixth studio album, A New Tide marks a return to the always-freewheeling British band’s more experimental roots, with songs like Win Park Slope and Airstream Driver evincing a spirit born of boundless imagination and a longstanding collaborative relationship.

With the band members now scattered across two continents, from Brooklyn to Brighton, England, early tracks were written and recorded individually and then merged online. The process allowed for an open and adaptive songwriting approach, the material taking on its ultimate shape when Gomez officially convened in studios in Chicago and Charlottesville, VA, with producer Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine, Counting Crows).

Record Review, Without Thought, Get Down and Give me Infinity

2009-02-23T01:14:00.001Z

Artist: Without Thought
Source: Paul Groome

When situations arise in life where you feel your instincts, opinions or even emotions may not be reliable in finding a conclusion to a situation, science is always the way forward.

For the album, Get Down And Give Me Infinity by Without Thought, I used the “Thirty Second Method". This is the proven scientific rule that prevents infections of the inner ear through frequent, or in some cases small/concentrated, exposure to tripe. The Thirty Second Method adheres to a strict procedure of listening only to the first thirty seconds of each song of a previously unheard album, thus preventing excessive amounts of shit from entering the bloodstream via the ear canal. In situations where further analysis of songs is required, they can be reviewed individually. Here are my results........

Hailing from Guildford in England, Without Thought have an endless list of obvious influences. Any of the current list of "post-punk" bands in the charts should fit the description here, with Green Day and The Offspring probably being quoted as the godfathers of their genre. There are some distinctly metal hooks in their songs though, and some of the breakdowns give glimpses at some heavier idols. But just when you think they've turned a corner, they lapse back into the same rhetoric.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Live Review, Charlie Parr, Crawdaddy

2009-02-21T15:26:00.001Z

Artist: Charlie Parr
Source: David Lynch

”What time is it? What’s that? Twenty five to eleven? Twenty five to eleven eh… I don’t even know what twenty five to eleven means! Anyone know what time I started?” quizzes Charlie Parr from the stage during his informal gig in Crawdaddy last Wednesday.

The reason for this question was to figure out how long he had before it was time to pack up. The predominantly male, mature looking crowd scratched their heads and decided he was best off playing until someone told him to stop but it was clear that ideally they wanted him to play all night.

Following a decent set of murder ballads by support act Barry McCormack, Parrs entrance to the stage is very low key. He simply ambles on, picks up his beaten up old National Resonator steel guitar (with a very cool painting of a big red rooster on the back) and starts tuning. Out of the tuning comes opener Far Cry From Fargo from his new album Roustabout followed by a lot more tuning, some good natured mumbling and about two hours of top class blue-grass and blues.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, Trap Them, Siezures in Barren Places

2009-02-21T15:24:00.001Z

Artist: Trap Them
Source: Mike McGrath Bryan

Every so often, a band comes along and grabs your reviewer with such conviction that he's shaken out of his usual state of jadedness and wired awake, awestruck at what unfolds before him sonically. It doesn't happen often these days, but when it does you can be sure this act is of seismic proportions. Trap Them are just such an outfit. Forget everything you know about metal. These guys have just redefined it...

Hailing from Salem, New Hampshire, Trap Them offer a hardcore-inflected grind with an intensity that blows all these perfectly coiffured scene kids right out of the water. Seizures in Barren Praise, the continuation of an ongoing musical concept begun in their 2007 debut, Sleepwell Deconstructor, is their clear declaration of future greatness, and a genuinely menacing piece of malevolence, executed with the precision and purpose of a contract killer.

The minute you hear Day Twenty: Flesh and Below<>Ryan McKenney's vocals come off somewhere between bewildered howl and directly threatening growl, with a vengeance not seen or heard in a long time. Day Twenty Nine: Reincarnation of Lost Lones sounds like Pantera jamming with Napalm Death in the bowels of hell. Blastbeats pepper the soundscape like machinegun bullets while chords the size of the world serve to crush the listener into submission. Day Twenty Eight: Targets lashes at the ears with all the subtlety of a kick in the teeth, beating upon your senses at feral pace.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, Kevin Blake, You Are What You Hear

2009-02-20T14:16:00.001Z

Artist: Kevin Blake
Source: Paul Murphy

The best thing about electronic music is that it never stops expanding, advances in technology and improved accessibility have made it easy for anyone with a musical ability to make records from their bedroom. Kevin Blake is a man who's played in experimental rock bands since he was 15 and Electric Underground's live resident has released a six-track debut gem, an EP called You Are What You Hear.

Electric Underground, purveyors of cutting edge techno, dubstep and electronica live in the southwest have chosen their first release as a record label wisely. Experimental rocker and Warp-influenced Blake has played or toured with and the likes of 65Daysofstatic, Ten Past Seven, Altern-8, Giveamanakick, Max Tundra and Donal Dineen.

The EP opens with an eerily catchy Holy Smoke as Blake's experimental influences take hold as the song moves with snare fills and synth bass riffs with minimalist sensibilities.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

JazZstePpa Tomorrow night, Underground Kennedys

2009-02-20T13:59:00.002Z

Big Dish Go present JaZZstePpa live.

Underground at Kennedys

Saturday 21st 10.30pm. Tickets available on door priced €14.

It is sure to be a interesting night of fresh music. On the night there will also be Kormac and Tu-Ki cutting and scratching together an eclectic mix of jazz, hip-hop, swing, funk, electro, dubstep, breaks, house, DnB and finally a live performance by JazZstePpa

Jazzsteppa Site

DJ Tuki

DJ Kormac

Dan Deacon, Andrews Lane Date

2009-02-20T13:58:00.001Z

Foggy Notions presents

Dan Deacon and Ensemble

+ Adventure (Carpark Records) + Future Islands (Wham City)

Andrew’s Lane Theatre, Wed June 3, Doors 10pm

Tickets €17.50 plus booking fee from WAV [lo-call 1890 200 078]/City Discs/ Tickets.ie and Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

“A laptop-clutching oddball who will take you on a reckless joyride…remorselessly entertaining.” – Observer Music Monthly

“Deacon is the Salvador Dali of electro…a refreshing example of someone rewriting rules of music as he goes along.’ – The Guardian

By now you’ll know Baltimore’s Dan Deacon. Dubbed “oddball” by some, “inspiring” by others, he’s just one guy treading many thin lines, confidently straddling between nut-job and genius, downright brilliant and insanely mind-bending, and with a live show from another world inducing more audience participation than a seriously skewed pantomime.

SoundTrack: Conor McIntyre - BATS

2009-02-20T01:11:00.002Z

Artist: BATS
Source: Naomi McArdle

Conor McIntyre plays guitar with BATS, a progressive metal band based in Dublin. Late 2007 saw the release of their Cruel Sea Scientist EP followed by a varied run of live performances across the country. A debut album is scheduled for release later this year. Before they flit off to record, Drop-D collared Conor to find out what he flies to....

Drop-D: Can you pigeonhole your tastes into one particular genre or do your preferences spread through an array of influences?

Conor: My tastes certainly span across all genres. That said I go through phases where I stick to one genre at a time for instance last month I was listening to a lot of Post-Punk and now I’m listening to a lot of Hip-Hop.

Drop-D: What triggered your musical infatuation? Was it a certain band/person/style/age?

Conor: When I was around nine or ten my Dad bought Queen's Greatest Hits on CD when CDs first came out. I think I started listening to it first because I was intrigued by the fact that lasers were used in CD players. After that I acquired a copy of NWA's Straight Outta Compton from my sister. My buddies and I used to walk around the playground taking turns listening to it on a Walkman. It felt pretty badass at the time.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the idea.

Live Review, Asobi Seksu, Crawdaddy

2009-02-20T01:07:00.001Z

Artist: Asobi Seksu
Source: Aoibheann Maguire

The epic soundscapes created by New York’s Asobi Seksu quickly engulfs the cavernous space downstairs in Crawdaddy, but from the minute singer, keyboardist and sometime drummer Yuki Chikudate pitches her high octane voice to the crowd -it’s clear who’s calling the shots. Her haunting vocals doth this band make.

They are back in Dublin, this time, to showcase material from their new album Hush. They do a good job of it. Chikudate is certainly in playful form tonight trancing out on her keyboards as she works her way through most of the multi-layered pop melodies from Hush. While James Hanna, the bands founding member rocks out and moshes about in his own intrinsic guitar playing style. Think Peter Hook-like stage stances – though with a lot more swashing of the head and sounding, of course, nothing like Peter Hook at all. Hanna is more of an avid Kevin Shields fan - it shows, and it pays off wonderfully.

Blue fairy lights twinkle from the corners of the stage while the blissed out crowd nod along to the celestial, stunning melodies of Familiar Light, In The Sky and Sing Tomorrow’s Praise all from their latest album Hush. They proceed to take the crowd off guard by turning it up a notch for the latter part of the gig and for their infectiously catchy new single Me and Mary. Showing us that the captivating dream-pop they create for our bedrooms can quickly transform into a frenetic wall of sound, and a high energy night out. Rest assured none of their songs lush drowned out qualities, were harmed in the process.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Interview, Mark Cullen, Ponyclub

2009-02-20T01:05:00.002Z

Artist: Ponyclub
Source: Aoibheann Maguire

There’s nothing quite like a band with a tragic history, and Dublin’s Pony Club are definitely one of those bands. At the height of their career they deserved to be huge indie stars. It didn’t happen. The legendary kiss of death from Morrissey didn’t help matters much either- not that they’re complaining. In fact even though it has taken years to release their current album Post Romantic-they’re still not complaining because as front man Mark Cullen explains to Drop-d that music isn’t everything.

Drop-d: Are you happy with the way things are going with Post Romantic, now that you’re finally getting the chance to promote it?

Mark: Yeah, we have got some really good press. We’re also starting to pick up some decent TV and Radio. In the past you’d always get good press, but you’d never get radio or any of the other things. It can be a difficult place-it’s hard to keep putting records out and getting them ignored all the time, or getting great press and then no one ever buying them.

Drop-d: It took a long time to finally release this album…

Mark: My wife was very ill and it just changed me completely. For a couple of years I couldn’t face doing all the things I had to do with the album. I just wanted to be at home all the time-we have two small kids. When things happen to you like that it gives you some perspective. Music or anything else is for fun, I just want to try and get as much enjoyment out of life as I possibly can. It knocked me sideways, and I just forgot about the record. The label that we were on in England went into liquidation so we had no one to put it out so we just forgot about it.

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Record Review, The Mighty Stef, 100 Midnights

2009-02-16T14:23:00.002Z

Artist: The Mighty Stef
Source: Paul Murphy

The Mighty Stef's second studio album is the same mixture of folk and folklore that makes Stefan Murphy an artist that really stands out from the crowd. His storytelling techniques which have been likened to Nick Cave have continued developing since his 2006 debut The Sins of Saint Catherine and last year's Death Threats EP which saw appearances from folk legend Ronnie Drew and a couple of punks from Flogging Molly. 100 Midnights continues in the same vein fusing noise, country and folk together with a raw Irish-ness in the delivery that steadily places Stefan Murphy along the same lines as Phil Lynott.

The album, recorded in Dublin and co-produced by Frank Murray (Thin Lizzy, Joe Strummer) with Stefan Murphy, showcases this artists diverse songwriting ability from paranoid duets with Cait O'Riordain to “the most romantic song in the history of romance" to drunken lullabies. The unique thing about Stef is that he really can't be pigeonholed into any particular genre and the combination of influences and dark themes played with a subtle grace makes this more than something you'd expect a booze-hound musician to start banging out after a few jars, down in the local.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the articles.

Doves for 2 Irish Dates

2009-02-16T14:21:00.001Z

DOVES ANNOUNCE IRISH DATES

Doves return to Ireland this April with two Irish dates at The Ulster Hall, Belfast on Sunday 19 April and the Olympia Theatre, Dublin on Monday 20th. Tickets are on sale from 9 am this Friday, 20 February at all usual Ticketmaster outlets for £23.50 and €28.

It has been a long time between drinks for Doves, four years in fact since their last broadcast Some Citiesflew to the top of the charts. Some feared they had flown the nest permanently. Thankfully, that was never going to be the case, and now they’re back to attest all the fans, writers, DJs and pundits that have been restlessly awaiting new material since February 2005. That Album is Kingdom of Rust-- an album that is the Doves most sonically adventurous, intimate, cerebral, propulsive and most eclectic record to date.

Record Review, Its a Misery Business, Various Artists

2009-02-13T14:05:00.002Z

Artist: Various Artists
Source: Colm Cullen

Don’t buy this, it’s arse. Right. Now that’s out of the way, on with the rant….

Most of this album will end up in some Lindsay Lohan movie, or a “loser gets a babe coz he’s, like, not really a loser’ piece of crap. This is purely about who they sound like and being radio-friendly. That seems to be Rhino’s(the record company behind it) plan anyway, and fair enough – it is a business after all. And misery is definitely the business they’re in. Bar a handful of tracks, you wonder why the fuck you’re wasting your life listening to this drivel.

There’s not enough quality here, and there’s sure as hell not enough originality. Artists like (and no, they’re not on here) Johnny Cash, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Beatles, or Elvis all took what was there before, and moved it forward. I’m not looking for the new Chuck Berry; just a spark of originality would be nice. Bar the standout tracks, no-one here will invent a whole new sound like Berry did. Too many of them are just plagiarising what is popular on American radio.

For fuck’s sake – be original! I’m not even saying I’ll like their originality, but at least they’d be trying. I’d respect them for that. Some of these bands are complete dross. If I said what I really thought about some of these, I’d probably be in court for the next 5 years.

Don’t get me wrong – good luck to any band that can get a record deal but has it become that fuckin’ easy ?

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the article

Live Review, Wavves, Upstairs Whelan's

2009-02-13T12:59:00.002Z

Artist: Wavves
Source: Adam Lacey

We’re all upstairs in Whelans: hairy bloggers, bespectacled musos, hacks, hot chicks, headphone-sporters and haircuts…and we all want to see 22-year old San Diego scuzz-prodigy Nathan Williams, AKA, Wavves.

Unfortunately, I manage to miss Weil Rats (apparently a fine performance) but I do catch Dublin Duck Dispensary who deliver a solid display of reluctance, fun, noise, irony, smart-arsedness and fuzz.
Shortly after 10pm, a miniscule, not-as-skinny-as-I-imagined, extremely young-looking Nathan hops onto stage, nearly tripping over his Flock of Seagulls-meets-a mountainman-rapist haircut. It’s just he and his drummer, Ryan Ulsh, and as he nervously plops himself in front of the mic, Nathan mumbles that he has ‘nothing to say’ before introducing 'a new one’ and strumming out the doo-woppy Weed Demon.
The duo proceed to blast noisily through a set that includes California Goth, Beach Demon, , No Hope Kids, Summer Goth, Wavves and crowd-favourite So Bored with many of the tracks bleeding jaggedly into one another but, in a live setting, boasting a far fuller, more definitive sound than comes across in his recorded work.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the article

Live Review, Testament, Megadeth and Judas Priest, The O2

2009-02-12T14:38:00.002Z

Artist: Testament, Megadeth and Judas Priest
Source: Paddy Murphy

When the triple-hearder of Testament, Megadeth and Judas Priest was announced many many Irish rockers creamed their jeans at the prospect of seeing two of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time....and then Judas Priest too.

If ya ain't been to the New Point, (I refuse to call it by the sponsors name) and you probably haven't seeing as the selection of bands that have played there thus far have been fuckin piss-poor. But the place is just as good as they've been saying it is. There's a fair few bars around, a few merchandise tables, the food sucks though, only cinema food like popcorn, and ice-cream, who the fuck's gonna eat top-dollar Ben and Jerry's at a metal gig? Anyway none of that really matters, well, except for the bars, the most important is what the place sounds like. The sound in theOld Point was akin to being at a barn-dance in the arsehole of Leitrim, all great craic but you're too pissed to notice how shit the band are. But it's all changed now baby. The place has gone so up-market that, for a change, we were led to our seats by an angel sent from Heaven instead of being asked to leave by some beefcake Eastern European security guard with an attitude.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the interview

Live Review, God Is an Astronaut, The Academy

2009-02-12T13:18:00.002Z

Artist: God Is An Astronaut
Source: Brendan Morgan

Quietly dominating the post-rock scene internationally without a hint of arrogance or hype, God is an Astronaut have always struggled as something of a enigma is this country. Last time this writer spoke to frontman Torsten Kinsella, after their storming, albeit half-empty, gig in The Button Factory over a year ago, the softly-spoken Glen of the Downs man was less than enthusiastic with the domestic media/scene's bullish rejection of their apocalyptic music.

Compounding this disappointment was a supposed appearance at Electric Picnic, which fell through, and a devastating end to their successful American tour after €20,000 worth of the band's uninsured equipment was stolen from their van in New Jersey. Thankfully, the fiercely independent trio have somehow bounced back, with a cracking new self-titled longplayer and a full-to-the-brim attendance at the Academy tonight.

Warming up tonight are Dublin trio Saints of Decent. Unfortunately,we arrive just in time to completely miss most of their set. Accomplished musicians with GIAA-produced tunes in the pipeline means Drop-d shall be keeping an eye on this lot.

Clicky Clicky here for the rest of the article

Interview, James Hanna from Asobi Seksu

2009-02-11T15:45:00.002Z

Brooklyn-based shoegazers Asobi Seksu (Japanese for playful sex) are back with a brand new album titled Hush. Their musical style harps back to the high vocals of a Couteau Twins record teamed with the grittier pedal preferences of Kevin Shields. In an age where even seemingly clever lyrics wear rapidly thin it’s an added bonus, that front woman Yuki Chikudate sings in a mixture of English and Japanese –sometimes even her bandmates don’t know what she is singing about. Asobi’s guitarist/vocalist James Hanna spoke to drop-d on the eve of their Dublin gig.

Drop-d: You’re playing Manchester tonight? Do you have any affection for the musical history of the city?

James: Yeah there are always a lot of good bands from Manchester, and we always have really good shows there. It’s our third show this tour. We played in London last night and Southampton the night before. They were both pretty good- London was definitely pretty awesome.

Drop-d: Are you happy with the way the songs on your new album Hush are translating into a live setting?

James: It’s cool; it’s really exciting for us to try new stuff. It’s definitely really something to play new shows again. I just take things one day at a time on tour.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the interview

Live Review, Benjamin Excoriza, Button Factory

2009-02-10T14:39:00.001Z

2009-02-10
Artist: Benjamin Escoriza
Source: David Lynch

The slippery, icy footpaths and cutting east wind seemed a million miles away as Benjamin Escoriza and his companions took to the stage at the Button Factory last Friday. With the predominantly Spanish audience and the Spanish on-stage banter one could easily imagine that they were watching the gig in a smoky bar in Tarifa- the town in the southernmost region of Spain, and only a few miles from North Africa, where Escorizas' previous band Radio Tarifa formed their musical identity.

The former lead vocalist is ploughing a similar furrow to Radio Tarifa, who sadly parted ways in 2006, except that he places slightly more emphasis on flamenco. In fact some of his old band mates lent a hand to Escoriza on his debut solo album Alevanta and as tonight's performance showed if it aint broke don't fix it.

Clicky here for the rest of the article

Live Review, This Town Needs Guns, And So I Watch You From Afar and Adebisi Shank, Whelan's

2009-02-09T15:06:00.001Z

The terms Math Rock and Post Rock do come across as being quite scary, you think Math Rock and images of Weezer fans that wear tweed, talk about algebra and wear hats inside, why do people wear hats inside? It's strange. Anyway it's not as bad as it sounds, Math Rock is, in simplier and friendlier terms, loud guitar music which changes time signature from time to time. It's noting new, especially in metal and is a constant in classical music. Same goes for Post Rock, think rock but without the chorus and lyrics and loud, very fuckin loud.

Adebisi Shank get us started early tonight, the bands are under strict orders to be finished by 10.30, which sucks, who wants to go to gigs that start at half eights? Way too early.....Anyway whatever, we're here now so stop giving out. If you ain't seen of heard of The Shank by now then you, my friend, ain't cool nor with it no-more. Adebisi Shank are the greatest Irish band working their asses off at the moment. It's been more than a couple occasions now that they've giving me temporary tinnitus but it's always worth it. But what worries me about the Shanks is will they become a favourite of the critics of the land but others will not follow. Most publications (both physical internet) are in love with them but will they go Kerbdog or Whipping Boy? I pray to holy St Lynott that they will not, this band are far too important to fail. They could well save Irish rock, make it cool again and kill off all singer-songwriters. Adebisi Shank are Ireland's most important band.

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Tomorrow Night, God Is An Astronaut, The Academy

2009-02-06T14:07:00.001Z

Tomorrow Night

GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT

Plus special guests Saints of Descent

The Academy Saturday February 7th 2009

Tickets €19.50 including booking fee available now.

Post-rock instrumental trio GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT have announced a Dublin show as part of their European and U.S. tour in support of their new self-titled album, God Is An Astronaut. Dublin band Saints of Descent have just been added to the bill.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and all outlets nationwide.

Interview, Tim O’Donovan, Neosupervital

2009-02-06T13:57:00.002Z

Artist: Neosupervital
Source: Aoibheann Maguire

Tim O’Donovan (aka) Neosupervital is Ireland’s best known purveyor of synth-pop, but his musical outlets don’t end there. Like fellow Irishman David Holmes, he’s lending his musical talents to soundtracks (albeit on a lesser scale).He’s also busy putting the finishing touches to his new album, but he took time out to talk to Drop-d about the complexities of Girls Aloud, 707 drum machines and why synth-pop isn’t all about style.

Drop-d: Hey Tim, I'm excited about hearing the new Neosupervital record; you must be really looking forward to its release? What can we expect?

Tim: Yes, I can't wait to get it out there. I had my first show on Friday, at the Hoot night, at the Sugar club. It was just breaking the ice really- because I haven't been on stage in a year now. It was just an excuse for me to get up on stage and sing. From the album, you can expect songs to make you dance, with lyrics that will hopefully tickle your fancy too. There is less of an emphasis on it just being synth-pop and drum machines. I'm drumming a lot more on it, so there are live drums as well as drum machines and there are a few guitars in the mix as well.

Drop-d: Not to mention all the mad antics you get up to on stage? Are there plans for lots of high-energy Irish dates?

Tim: There have been lots of changes over the past year. I used to drum in Bell X 1 and I don't anymore. Also the two girls who were in Neosupervital have joined up with the two girls from The Chalets, and a guy on drums, to form Talulah does the Hula. I went to their first gig and they have a 50's style rock/pop thing going on. It's back down to me now so I have to be as self-sufficient as possible.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the interview

Tonight This Town Needs Guns, Adebisi Shank, And So I Watch You From Afar

2009-02-05T15:38:00.003Z

Murmur and Richter Collective presents

This Town Needs Guns

Adebisi Shank

And So I Watch You From A Far

This Town Needs Guns are a math/indie-rock band from Oxford in the United Kingdom. The bands music is technical; but heavily melodic. Kerrang compares them to mathcore men Minus The Bear covering seminal Mancunian miserablists, The Smiths. TTNG have recently signed to Sargent House [Daughters, Russian Circles,Maps & Atlases] Support on the night from Adebisi Shank & And So I Watch You From Afar.

Here are a few videos from each band, this is the years most important gig so far

TTNG Site

TTNG Myspace

Adebisi Shank Myspace

ASIWYFA Myspace

Drop-d Home Page

Drop-d Forum

Live Review, Altern 8, Kennedys Underground

2009-02-05T15:33:00.001Z

Artist: Altern 8
Source: Brendan Morgan
"I'm still on one', Altern-8's defiant response to the police at the now legendary Shelley's Car Park Rave in Stoke circa 1992. Judging by tonight's DJ performance, they still are.

In the early 90s Altern-8 came to the fore as the court jesters of rave; pranksters in boiler suits and masks with tunes as big and their stunts. While king clowns The KLF fired blanks at audiences and burned unthinkable amounts of cash, Altern-8's myths were never about anarchy or art. Mark Archer and Chris Peat were mascots for the ecstasy generation; cartoon characters who doubled sales of Vicks Vapo Rub (they smeared it on their masks claiming it enhanced ecstasy), ran for general election (and didn't finish last) and held countless unofficial raves across Britain on the back of an articulated lorry- all-the-while manipulating and exploiting the media's misunderstanding of club culture.

Clicky for the rest of the article.

Interview, Max Tundra

2009-02-05T15:31:00.002Z

Artist: Max Tundra
Source: Liam Griffin

Londoner Ben Jacobs makes computer-structured pop under the name Max Tundra and recently released his third album Parallax Error Beheads You. His songs are cheerful, strange and funny. He combines technical complexity with pop's approachability and ends up with tracks that make you laugh, frown and dance. Drop-d caught up with Max for a chat before he played a wild and engaging show at The Roisin Dubh recently.

Drop-d: When did you first start making music?

Max Tundra: When I was very young, six years old or something at home messing with things banging around. We had a piano as well. I was messing around really and I'm still messing around today.

Drop-d: What influences your music?

Max: I'm quite often motivated by music that I don't really like. I might hear an awful song on the radio and feel that I have got to make something to give people a choice. Then sometimes I hear something that I really love and I decide that I'm not going to be really like them at all.

Drop-d: So your reaction to bad music pushes you on?

Max: Yeah, I know that I can do better. It isn't always a musical thing [that inspires me] it might be the kind of day that I had, food I had, something to do with the girl I'm seeing at the time.

Drop-d: What are the influences on the technical side as opposed to the lyrical side of your music?

Max: Its very important for me to be as original as possible, but if you listen to a Max Tundra track it's always possible to see that I listen to Frank Zappa on the one side and maybe a Destiny's Child song as well; there isn't any conscious sort of influence to be like another act but if people hear certain influences it means that I've been listening to, say, Steely Dan over the previous week etc.

Clicky for the rest of the interview.

Record Review, A Futurist Theatre, Cariar to Pigs

2009-02-04T15:40:00.001Z

Artist: Futurist Theatre
Source: Dave Sheehan

/Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man. /We are on the extreme promontory of the centuries! What use is looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible?

The previous paragraph is an excerpt from the Futurist Manifesto, sent with the press package from the band. Although the prose can be difficult to digest, it certainly speaks truth about the general attitude towards bands in this country that dare to meander away from the path of perfect radio-friendliness. This Dublin-based band serves to fuse the gaps between Pixies-esque yelping and Thom Yorke-style vocals with the lyrics of a discontented and disillusioned soul, the furious drumming of punk music without the technical limitations of your average punk musician, and the musical stylings of an array of influences ranging from the Smiths and the Manic Street Preachers to Dillinger Escape Plan and Mike Patton.

Clicky for the rest of the article

Interview, Robotnik

2009-02-03T15:21:00.002Z

Artist: Robotnik
Source: Paul Murphy

It's been a while since we last heard from Chris Morrin(AKA)RobotniksoDrop-dgot in touch to catch up and see if he enjoyed Blue Balls, his current affection for Pat the Baker and getting to meet the men behind national heros Zig and Zag.We've also got the Pat the Baker video at the bottom of the artcile

Drop-d: How have you been? Did you have a good Christmas and New Year's?

Chris: To be bluntly honest I'm feeling OK, Christmas was jammed packed with personal ups and downs. That's life huh? I love Christmas. It's always good to see the family and spend time with them. On New Year's Eve I was glad to see 2009 pop its head in the door. HELLO!

Drop-d: When we last spoke, back in July, you were packing your bags to head of to Switzerland for the Blue Balls festival. Did you manage to get out into the crowd during the festival shows for part of your performances or bring a catapult for water balloons?

Chris: Yeah I got into the crowd, I always do. Doing the festival in Switzerland was an incredible experience, playing in front of a couple of thousand people, selling CDs, getting paid for it and being put up in a snazy 5-star hotel. It was really surreal and something I'll never forget. Having said that, big hotels are kind of lame and lonely, full of wannabes in my opinion. I'm just not use to it I suppose.

Drop-d: How has the news of the closure of Road Records hit you?

Chris: Did it close down? I had no idea. Oh well, that's business. Two points do come to mind: 1) Recession and; 2) Free torrent downloading.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the Interview

Soundtrack Interview, Ronan Carroll, Tenaka

2009-02-03T14:40:00.001Z

Artist: Tenaka
Source: Naomi McArdle

Tenaka's colourful debut EPonymously Titled hit ears across Ireland in early January and has since gathered steady acclaim from musical camps across the country. Known as Ronan Carroll in the real world and hailing from Limerick but residing in Galway, the mind behind our latest electronica love-affair offered to share his thoughts and passions with a SoundTrack of his own.

Drop-D: Can you pigeonhole your tastes into one particular genre or do your preferences spread through an array of influences?

Tenaka: I think a few years ago I probably could have pigeonholed my tastes in music, being a fan of bands like Oasis, The Beatles and Radiohead. All the obvious choices really. That all changed when I heard Radiohead's Kid A. I vividly remember the day I played it for the first time and thinking "I've no idea what you'd call this style of music but it's exactly what I've been looking for..." I'd always been a huge music fan but had never actively sought new music so the radio was my main and limited source of new bands. Kid A was complemented by Four Tet's Pause shortly afterwards and I was hooked. It opened my eyes to the diversity and originality of new music available and it felt like a darkness had lifted. I finally had ears.

Drop-D: What triggered your musical infatuation? Was it a certain band/person/style/age?

Tenaka: I think it had to be that Kid A moment. It really was defining and certainly shaped me as a person. Finding a deeper love of music and expression frees you from every-day stresses. It opens your eyes to the important things in life.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the interview

Mogwai for Academy Residency

2009-02-03T14:02:00.002Z

MOGWAI Live at The Academy Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March

Scottish post rockers Mogwai have announced a stellar three night residency in Dublins Academy on Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March. Tickets for each night are priced €30 inclusive of booking fee and are on sale from this Wednesday, 4 February at all usual Ticketmaster outlets.

Influenced by musical heavyweights such as Joy Division, Pink Floyd, Jesus and The Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine Mogwai’s music is of epic scope and grand ambition much like the three nights they are to play in the Academy.

Mogwai released their sixth studio album, The Hawk Is Howling, last September receiving favourable reviews from the likes of NME and Q magazine.

Girl Talk for Andrew's Lane Date

2009-02-02T15:23:00.001Z

Foggy Notions presents Girl Talk with Spilly Walker and DJ PCP.

March 20, Andrew’s Lane Theatre Doors 10pm.

Tickets €14 plus booking fee from Ticketmaster, WAV, City Discs, and Tickets.ie

Pittsburgh artist Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) has scrupulously created music from samples for over eight years. His fourth album Feed the Animals continues his sonic evolution towards his party-infested live show. While his first album, Secret Diary, was full of purposeful glitches and noise, his subsequent albums, Unstoppable and the groundbreaking Night Ripper, moved closer and closer towards dance-able mixes of varying genres, often including dozens of audio sources in a stream of juxtaposed hooks. With the fourth Girl Talk album on the Illegal Art label, Gillis steps even closer towards a creation that is centered on pop musicality rather than attention-deficit sample splicing.

Here is a vid with a Smashing Pumpkins Sample and many more besides.

Incoming Interview, Fungi Girls

2009-02-02T14:55:00.001Z

Thanks to the internet, music is now easier to get than ever before. We happened across these guys, Fungi Girls, through influential music blog Gorilla vs Bear and decided, based on their faultless musical influences and our penchant for noisy shit, to get onto them and ask what they were all about. Fungi Girls' sticksman, Skyler, was only too happy to oblige.

Drop-D: Tell us who the band are.

Skyler: I'm Skyler Salinas. I play drums. Jacob Bruce plays guitar and sings. Deryck Barrera plays bass.

Drop-D: Is it the internet's fault that I'm talking to you now? Bloggers and the like seem to have alot of 'power' these days.

Skyler: Yes. I think most of the little popularity we have right now is due to blogs and features on certain websites. None of us consider it a bad thing, though. For most people these days, it seems blogs and sites like Last FM and Myspace are really the only source for finding new music, as opposed to going to a record store and searching through the bins for new music.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the interview

Maximo Park, Academy Date

2009-02-02T14:27:00.001Z

MAXÏMO PARK ANNOUNCE DUBLIN SHOW .

With a new album due this Spring, Maxïmo Park return to Ireland this April for an intimate show at the Academy on Monday 6th while on their upcoming UK tour. Tickets priced €25 incl. booking fee are on sale now at all usual Ticketmasteroutlets.

Formed in 2000, Maxïmo Park released their debut album, A Certain Trigger in 2005 and quickly rose to indie fame with some critics labelling it as one of the best releases of the year. Produced by Babyshambles and Bloc Party producer Paul Epworth the success of the record lead to a series of large UK yours culminating in a headline slot at the NME Rock & Roll Riot Tour. To top of a fantastic year for the band A Certain Trigger was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Last summer the band returned to touring duties, headlining the Lovebox Festival in Marlay Park. During their set the band tested out new material from their third album. Recording in L.A. with producer Nick Launay who is known for his recent work with Nick Cave and Grinderman, the record is due out this Spring.

Live Review, Amusement Parks on Fire, Whelan's

2009-02-01T17:29:00.002Z

Artist: Amusement Parks on Fire
Source: Paul Murphy

Nottingham's masters of sound and re-inventors of rock, Amusement Parks on Fire, delivered an epic set at the Club AC30 gig in Whelan's on Thursday, kicking off their Irish mini-tour. Despite a few early difficulties with sound and broken strings the band continued to inspire with their rule bending manipulation of guitars and sound.

Lights Over Phoenix kicked off the show followed by DC Experiment and the return of Butterfly Explosion to the stage with their new line up. It was here that the sound troubles began, the rhythm section of the Butterfly Explosion was very low and Gazz's vocals were far too loud making the band seem like a very disappointing shadow of their former selves.

Clicky for the rest of the article

Altern 8 Tomorrow Night

2009-01-30T14:20:00.001Z

Big Dish Go are delighted to welcome back old skool legends Altern-8 to The Underground.

These hardcore ravers from Stafford, England, Altern 8 comprised Mark Archer and Chris Peat, and was an offshoot of their Nexus 21 project. Of the two, Archer was the house music aficionado, while Peat was a former music technology student with an interest for computers. They crashed the UK charts in 1991 with Infiltrate 202 and Activ-8 (come with me), two chaotic slices of hardcore, the latter reaching number 3. They were aided in their chart aspirations by the circulation of fictitious press stories concerning their alleged activities, which included promoting the decongestant Vicks Vapo Rub, which, it was claimed, heightened the effects of Ecstasy; and standing as local candidates for the 1993 General Election.

Their live events were also designed as eye catching performances, where the band donned RAF chemical warfare suits and dust masks. They were aided by their resident dancers Crez, Jon Parkes, and MC MkOne, in the case of their gig at Stafford’s Bingley Hall, an actual shaman. His job was to cleanse the venue of its rock n roll, prior to performance.

Tickets available on the door for €14./p>

Record Review, Analogue Mindfield, Visionsin Sonic Sense

2009-01-30T13:05:00.001Z

Visions in Sonic Sense is Analogue Mindfield's third instalment in their quest to create auditory sound-scapes of challenging yet accessible music, whilst retaining an inspired socially conscious theme. In the usual Mindfield style the Dublin based trio Gizzy D, Snapper J and Kitty B are joined by a host of special guests including MC Ishu (Step 13, Manesseh Soundsystem), MC Jaz (DJ Reeza, Scribble Orchestra), Yolazy (The Pale), Asian Dub Foundation's Dr Das and many more for 17 tracks that encompasses dub to drum and bass to trip hop and reggae.

Ever influenced by the golden age of conscious music, roots reggae, Analogue Mindfield bring 21st century updates to the roots message, both lyrically and musically, delivered with sensitivity and passion over stellar riddims.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the article

Boys Noize for Academy Gig

2009-01-30T12:34:00.002Z

BOYS NOIZE ANNOUNCE ACADEMY DATE

Boys Noize return to Dublin for a summer date at The Academy on Sunday 31 May. Tickets priced €26.20 incl. booking fee are on sale now at all usual Ticketmaster outlets.

Under the moniker of Boys Noize, German electro tech producer Alexander Ridha has remixed tracks by Michael Jackson, Depeche Mode, Feist, Snoop Dogg as well as British indie anthems Banquet by Block Party and Kaiser Chiefs.

2007 saw the release of Boys Noize debut album entitled Oi Oi Oi which includes the track & Down that features in the Grand Theft Auto IV video game and also used as a sample from Estelle.

Boys Noize Myspace

Boys Noize Site

Boys Noize Wiki

Drop-d Home Page

Drop-d Forum

Competition Time, Tom Hingley, Inspiral Carpets, The Academy

2009-01-29T15:56:00.001Z

The Academy presents the launch night of FREAKY DANCIN.

Room 1:

Tom Hingley Inspiral Carpets

Trev Radiator Trashed

Room 2:

The Brothers Movement DJ set

NoDisko DJs Rory Fitzgerald and Anto Molloy

Friday 30th January sees the launch of a brand new monthly clubnight at The Academy – FREAKY DANCIN. 2 Floors of Fun is what’s on offer with Madchester sounds in the Main Room while downstairs the NoDisko DJs pump out their trademark electro-pop in the Academy 2 alongside special guests THE BROTHERS MOVEMENT.

We have got 2 tickets to give away for this special event, just answer this question, which Gallagher brother was an Inspiral Carpet roadie before finding fame with Oasis.

Answers to paddymurphy@drop-d.ie and be quick its on tomorrow night.

To celebrate the opening night, Inspiral Carpets frontman TOM HINGLEY is flying in for a DJ set alongside Dublins indie prince TREV RADIATOR. Tom will also deliver a live set of Inspiral Carpets classics. If you’re a fan of all things Madchester, and aswell as the very best of contemporary pop & electro Freaky Dancin is the party for you. Tickets on sale now through all outlets nationwide.

Super Furry Animals to Release New Album in March

2009-01-29T11:56:00.000Z

The best thing to come outta Wales, except for Katherine Kenkins Super Furry Animals will release a new album on March 16 digitally via Superfurry.com, followed by a full physical release on April 21.

In a statement the band said of the album: Musically its based around riffs and grooves we have been playing around with over the last few years. We have enough now for a whole album so even though it is still very melodic we thought we could leave off the acoustic ballads for the time being.

"Its recognisable as a melodic SFA record, but is very focused musically as a cohesive album. And no country rock as Daf [Ieuan, drums] has developed a pedal steel phobia. Which has confined the great Nashvillian instrument along with the saxophone to the banned instrument directive of the SFA board. Theres only one slow number, which isn t slow at all."

The working tracklisting of the album is:

The Very Best Of Neil Diamond

White Socks/Flip Flops

Inaugural Trams

Sounds Familiar

Cardiff In The Sun

Where Do You Wanna Go?

LLiwiau LLachar

Mountain

Moped Eyes

Inconvenience

Crazy Naked Girls

Earth

Prick

SFA Site

Here is a video too, and it has that fat bloke from The IT Crowd

Record Review, Nikolai Fraiture

2009-01-29T11:39:00.002Z

Artist: Nikolai Fraiture
Source: Paul Murphy

Boredom can be a terrible thing for a musician, particularly one who has already spent time in the lime light and sold millions of albums. Nikolai Fraiture, bassist with The Strokes delved deep into his shoebox of memories, as his band's hiatus (due to end in Feb '09) began taking longer than expected. Finding rants and poems, written years ago, Nikolai set out to add to them music and melody. Following the footsteps of fellow Strokes members Nikolai created a side project, called Nickel Eye, and has compiled his memories into a debut solo album called The Time of the Assassins.

Musically inspired by the likes of Neil Young, Frank Black, Leonard Cohen and the Kinks, Nickel Eye fuses indie, folk and post-punk monotony into 11 tracks that certainly have the lyrical simplicity of the Kinks' "Apeman" but lacks the honesty of Neil Young and the charisma of Leonard Cohen and Frank Black.

Clicky clicky for the rest of the article.

Record Review, The Trews, No Time For Later

2009-01-28T15:23:00.002Z

2009-01-28
Artist: The Trews
Source: Robert O Connor

One of the negative affects of grunge, was the Post Grunge scene. Bands like Nickleback, Matchbox Twenty, The Goo Goo Doll’s and Creed managed to tap into a family friendly, almost Christian market with their sleek sounds, wholesome content and overly whiney radio friendly ballads, all masquerading under the guise of ‘Rock’. Because of the clean living ideal that surrounded the bands; parents were more inclined to pick up the latest Everclear or Bush album for their children, rather than allowing them to listen to the likes of Marilyn Manson, Green Dayor Nine Inch Nails. Of course, money comes before integrity in the world, these days, and a slew of imitator’s are still being snapped up by record companies, hoping for a big pay off when one of them releases’ the next How you remind Me or With Arms Wide Open. Nova Scotia locals, The Trews are such a band. Their third album, No Time for Later is filled with feeble attempts at meaningful power ballads, run of the mill stadium rock anthems, that reek of Mitchelstown’s finest and the odd gem thrown in for good measure. Almost everything on this album sounds like something else that bored you to tears a hundred times before. However, there are some notable efforts, nothing to get majorly excited about mind you.

Clicky Clicky for the rest of the article

Record Review, Tenaka EPonymous Titles

2009-01-28T13:28:00.001Z

2009-01-28
Artist: Tenaka
Source: Adam Lacey

Des Lynam, Richard Harris, Terry Wogan.

Limerick (It's in the west of Ireland for all you Dublin types) has given us some of the greatest people ever created and musically speaking she has been no slouch either with wunder-rockers giveamanakick and the Out On A Limb posse all hailing from that direction.

Enter Ronan Carroll, who, according to himself, may currently reside in this writer's hometown of Galway, and who peddles his aural wares under the moniker of Tenaka, a mysterious tag with Manga overtones.

EPonymously Titled is his debut EP and the love and care positively oozes from the speakers, delivering top drawer, chill-out electronica with Mr. Carroll demonstrating an enviable ear for melody and IDM noodling...........

For the rest of the article clicky clicky

Meteor Awards Nominations

2009-01-27T15:50:00.000Z

Award season is certainly coming, first we had the controversial Choice Nominations, now we have got the predictable Meteor Awards.

Highlights include Tony Fenton, Ray Foley, click here for a Facebook group dedicated to his downfall. The Script, Boyzone, The Script, The Blizzards, The Script, The Coronas and sone new band called The Script

Drop-d is giving its support to Jape, Messiah J, Damo, David Holmes and The Script coz we know what its like being the underdog.

Best National DJ

Tony Fenton TodayFM
Dan Hegarty 2fm
Alison Curtis Today Fm
Dave Fanning RTE Radio 1
Ray Foley Todayfm
Rick O’Shea 2fm

Best Regional DJ

Dermot, Dave & Siobhan Dublin’s98
Keith Cunningham Red FM
Leigh Doyle Beat 102.103
The Zoo Crew Spin South West
Mark Noble FM104
Jon Richards Galway Bay FM

Best Irish Band

The Blizzards
Republic of Loose
Fight Like Apes
The Script
Snow Patrol

Best Irish Male

Mick Flannery
Damien Dempsey
Duke Special
David Holmes
Jape (Richard Egan)

Best Irish Female

Enya
Lisa Hannigan
Gemma Hayes
Imelda May
Tara Blaise
Camille O’Sullivan

Best Irish Pop Act

Boyzone
The Blizzards
The Coronas
The Script
Westlife

Best Irish Album

Fight Like Apes Mystery Golden Medallion
Snow Patrol A Hundred Million Suns
Lisa Hannigan Sea Sew
Messiah J & The Expert From the Word Go
The Script The Script

Best Irish Live Performance

The Coronas
The Blizzards
The Swell Season
Fight Like Apes
Republic of Loose

Live Review; Fighting With Wire, Think Tank

2009-01-27T14:17:00.004Z

2009-01-27
Artist: Fighting With Wire
Source: Paddy Murphy

The day you realise that you're getting old is a hard fuckin day to stomach. It's ok that you've hair is thinning, it's ok that you can't run as fast, it's even ok that you can't dance to save your life anymore. But what really sucks is goin into a pub to see a band and be the oldest person there by about seven years, except for one or two, but me thinks they were connected with the band.

It's a lonely feeling, being the old guy at a young rockers gig, even the sight of the emo chicks did nothing to liven up the soul. This must be what it's like to be Jim Carroll.

Think Tank, the venue with the second worst name in Dublin, first has to be the Button Factory, tonight plays host to the North's new great rock hope Fighting With Wire. If you ain't heard of these then you ain't obviously buying Kerrang anymore, shame on you. Didn't you know that it's the only music magazine in the world who's sales are actually going up every year.

Read the rest of the article here.

One Day International For Whelan's Date

2009-01-27T12:47:00.003Z

Aiken Promotions are proud to present…

ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL

LIVE at WHELANS APRIL 3rd

Support from: The Hedge Schools

Tickets €15 incl.booking fee from Ticketmaster

One Day International released their debut album Blackbird on October 3^rd, 2008 on Independent Records to critical acclaim. Stealing precious early hours and extended late evenings from each of their numerous music and theatre day-lives, the five piece have crafted an album that gently reveals a wealth of beautiful, simple songs. Hot on the heels of their outstanding performance at the Button Factory last December the band will be performing live in Whelans this April 3^rd. Tickets are €15 on sale now through Ticketmaster and other usual outlets nationwide. Booking Line: 0818 719 300.

ODI Site

ODI Myspace

Interview, Micheal Ferrick, Amusement Parks on Fire

2009-01-26T15:40:00.001Z

2009-01-26
Artist: Amusement Parks on Fire
Source: Paul Murphy

Ahead of Thursday's Club AC30 gig at Whelan's on Thursday, which kicks off a mini Irish tour, taking in Galway and Cork Amusement Parks on Fire's founding member Michael Feerick takes time out to talk about a new album, touring later this year with 65Daysofstatic and his hopes for 2009.

Drop-d: How have you been, are you looking forward to getting back on the road?

Michael Feerick:Yeah, we can't wait; we've been practicing a pretty epic set so it should be good. We've always had to fly over before but this time we're getting the ferry so we can bring all our own gear and our light show, which is just lots of strobe lights basically. It should be really good, I'm really excited. It'll be really nice this time we're getting out of Dublin for a bit and going out to Galway and Cork which should be really cool. It's really exciting, I can't wait.

Clicky Clicky here for the rest of the article

Fred to play Whelan's March28th

2009-01-26T15:17:00.002Z

FRED are a five piece from Cork who take the anguish, angst and pain out of rock n roll opting instead to just be really good. They will be performing live at Whelans March 28th. Tickets are €16 and go on sale this Thursday at 9am through Ticketmaster and other usual outlets nationwide. Booking Line: 0818 719 300.

Its a gig that almost never happened thanks to the recent robbery of all the bands gear down in Cork, however, everything was later returned to the band after the cops actually did some work.

Their third album, Go God Go, is being received with such critical mass it is being honed as one of the strongest Irish releases of 2008 (Startingly good music Hotpress, Go God Go is the album Fred have always promised to deliver. Fred are one of Irelands finest live acts and this album is a perfect showcase of their uniqueness, talent and musical abilities. Drop D).Read that article here

With the first two singles. Running and Skyscrapers, taking over the national airwaves simultaneously, their live reputation and fanbase has grown at a rapid pace, enlisting droves into the Fred army, everywhere they go.

Fred Site

Fred Myspace

Fred Wiki

Record Review, Telepathe, Dance Mother

2009-01-23T20:00:00.000Z

2009-01-23
Artist: Telepathe
Source: Adam Lacey

There is very little about Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais, AKA Telepathe (pronounced telepathy) that is not, well, cool.

Hailing from the currently ubiquitous hipster-haven of Brooklyn, the pair met as part of experimental punk outfit Wikkid, having cut their individual teeth in respective bands First Nation and Bloodlines with guitarist Ryan Lucero nowadays joining up sporadically to help out on the live circuit.

Versions of Can't Stand It and Chromes On It had the online music collective wetting themselves with anticipation last year as Telepathe moved forward from the drone, avant garde sounds of their Farewell Forest EP and Sinister Militia 12" - released last year through Social Registry - and appeared to have developed a sound that is as at once spooky, dissonant and catchy as fuck.

Clicky Clicky to read the rest of the review

Massive Attack to Release Samlpes Album

2009-01-23T14:41:00.002Z

Massive Attack are releasing a collection of songs they have either sampled or covered.

Protected Massive Samples will have 12 tracks and includes material by artists such as Isaac Hayes, John Holt and Billy Cobham.

Released by Rapster, It follows on from their 2007 release of Discovered , a similar collection from Daft Punk’s record vault.

Protected will be available from 2nd February.

Track listing
01. Wally Badarou – Mambo
02. Lowrell - Mellow Mellow
03. William De Vaughn - Be Thankful For What Youve Got
04. Al Green – Im Glad Youre Mine
05. James Brown - Never Can Say Goodbye
06. Isaac Hayes – Ikes Mood
07. Billy Cobham – Stratus
08. Lewin Bones Lock - Five Man Army Dub
09. John Holt - Man Next Door
10. The Blackbyrds - Rock Creek Park
11. Pieces Of A Dream – Its Time For Love
12. Rufus & Chaka Khan - Any Love

Massive Attack Myspace

Massive Attack Site

Massive Attack Wiki

Franz Ferdinand Streaming New Album

2009-01-23T14:01:00.002Z

Franz Ferdinands new album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is being streamed on Myspace Music.

Clicky here for your listening pleasure.

And do not forget that Glasgows finest will be kicking off their European tour in Dolans, Limerick on Feb 28.

Saturday 28 February, Dolans Warehouse, Limerick

Sunday 1 March, Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Monday 2 March, Mandela Hall

Interview, We Kill DJs, Anacrusis

2009-01-23T13:59:00.001Z

While trawling Myspace for new Drop-d victims we stumbled on a one man force of music Liam Christopher Anthoney O Connor Golding... (not his real name we're told) guitarist of Ambient/ experimental Cork outfit Anacrusis and head-honcho behind We Kill Djs. Drop-d caught up with Liam to talk all things about music and a favour behind a bicycle shed that led to them getting blackboard before he head off to become a cast member in Home and Away.

Drop-d: Well Liam, how the fuck are ya?

L: I'm not bad at all now,just re-cooperating from a binge of wine gums and bits of rainbow,Yourself!

Drop-d: What's new with ya? Anything strange in the lands of Anacrusis and We Kill DJs?

L: Nothing new really,well with We kill DJ's anyway still have loads of new stuff just sitting here,i gotta try get somthing up soon,this may inspire me to do so,as for Anacrusis, (little tiny bitsy exclusive)we may record 2 tracks before I venture into the land of unknown and "Home and Away"!

Clicky HERE for the rest of the interview.