This August bank holiday sees a tonne of adventures at the ready for music fans. We have Castlepalooza in Charleville Castle, Tullamore showcasing some of the best Irish music currently doing the rounds. Expect great things from the sublime Ambience Affair, the boisterous Super Extra Bonus Party, Prodigy-esque antics from Noise Control and get in fancy dress for the ultimate Rocky Horror Picture Show performance.
For ravers and rockers, Marley Park is where to head this weekend with Metallica, Alice In Chains and Mastodon all playing there on Saturday August 1st. David Guetta, Fatboy Slim and Fake Blood shall then be pumping out beats of the large variety on Sunday August 2nd. Lastly for the adventurists this weekend, check out Field Day Festival in London's Victoria Park. It has a pretty darn great lineup with Mogwai, The Horrors, Micachu and The Shapes, Mystery Jets and Final Fantasy all ready to ear please. You also have the chance to bring out your inner kid with The Young Offenders Ping Pong, Onion Peeling Contest and the Egg and Spoon and Sack races all taking place throughout the festival. What more could you want.
I was unsure whether I liked this song when I first heard it but its contagious and summery notes have me bopping along every time I listen to it now. Sean Sullivan or Sean Bones, who is also a guitarist with indie poppers Sam Champion, released his debut album Rings last week and Dancehall is the first single to be taken from the reggae inspired album. If that wasn't enough to keep Sean Bones busy then, Sam Champion also have a new album ready for the listening on September 4th called Heavenly Bender out on North Street Records. Check them out!
If 70's influenced kaleidoscopic disco is your thing, then check out the video to The Emporer Machine's latest track Kananana, from his new album Space Beyond The Egg. Andy Meecham is probably better known as one half of Chicken Lips but this is his second record as the The Emporer Machine, however, some of his remixes on their own have become dance floor and DJ favourites, notably his version of Late Of The Pier's, The Bear's Are Coming track and Juan Maclean'sOne Day.
Friendly Fires return with another addictive single called Kiss Of Life out on XL Recordings on August 28th. It certainly has all things summery about it and the wonderfully picturesque video will have you dreaming of the wonderful sunshine we had about a month ago.
It's been a great week for Friendly Fires after receiving their first Mercury Music Prize nominations for their self titled debut, however Kiss Of Life is not included on the album. It should do pretty well as a stand alone single after the fantastic reception it received at Oxegen a couple of weeks back and Ed's dancing would put anyone in a good mood.
Calling all fans of Graffiti Art, Breakdancing, Parkour, Skateboarding, In-line blading, bmxing and beats! This weekend, July 25th and 26th sees the return of the Kings Of Concrete Jam in the lovely park behind the Civic Offices at Wood Quay in Dublin.
Expect body poppin' and lockin' with the B-Boy battles, world class murals from IAMDOOM, Jor, Kube, Rask and Filthy Lucre, Skateboard ramps galore, MC battles and tonnes more surprises.
All ages are encouraged as there really is something for everyone over the two day event.
The main B-Boy battle takes place on the Saturday starting with the heats at 2.30pm and the final at 4.20pm.
For those of you willing the party to never end, then you can check out the live art battle in the Bernard Shaw after everything is wrapped up on the Saturday evening.
For those of you who didn't know yesterday there was the longest eclipse of the sun in the 21st century to date. Of course Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore aka Empire Of The Sun knew this and decided to celebrate this occasion with a 6 and a bit minute live performance at the exact time of the eclipse yesterday in Australia. It happened at London GMT this morning at 4am for those of you wondering why you didn't notice anything different. Wacky costumes at the ready and the band delved into quite an eccentric performance playing Breakdown and Swordfish Hotkiss Night, showcasing what to expect from their stage performances that kick off down under in September. Fans in Europe will have to wait until next spring/summer to catch EOTS live as they don't intend on playing here until then.
So here it is, the 2009 Mercury Music Prize shortlist:
Florence and the Machine-Lungs Kasabian-West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Bat for Lashes-Two Suns La Roux-La Roux Glasvegas-Glasvegas Speech Debelle-Speech Therapy Friendly Fires-Friendly Fires The Horrors-Primary Colours Lisa Hannigan-Sea Sew The Invisible-The Invisible Led Bib-Sensible Shoes Sweet Billy Pilgrim-Twice Born Men
I would like to see Friendly Fires, The Horrors or Bat For Lashes to scoop the prize, three very fantastic and addictive albums.
I managed to take a few snaps out of the rain in the Imro New Sounds Stage on Saturday night at Oxegen. Dublin band C O D E S & Northern Ireland's finest And So I Watch You From Afarare featured and you can view morehere.
French duo Cassius release a brand new EP today July 14th titled Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes on their own Cassius Records. It is a four track EP and the tracklisting goes as follows:
It's good to see the Cassius boys return on form and hopefully an album shall follow in the near future. You can here the first two tracks from their EP on their MySpace now and the video to accompany Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes features clips from cult film Gummo.
So even though it was last minute I headed down to Oxegen at the weekend, slinging about in the mud filled Punchestown racecourse. I missed the Friday celebrations due to other commitments but made an effort to wade about on Saturday and Sunday.
Highlights included first band of Saturday for me,Messiah J And The Expert, who brought the noise and packed out the Red Bull Academy tent. It baffles me as to why this band are not bigger than they are, as the stage show it clean cut, animated and fun. With Messiah J's stellar showmanship and The Expert's ingenious use of samples and brilliant beats bringing the tent to boiling point, The Boys Have Had Enough, Keep The Noise Down and Abandon Ship all had the crowd in an ecstatic frenzy as Turn The Magic On and forthcoming single Geography encouraged a joyous sing-a-long.
Another highlight for me was the Friendly Fires in The Green Spheres tent late on the Sunday afternoon. Having caught them two months previously in Waterford I was expecting good things and I was far from disappointed. Their audience was a mish mash of people of all ages who just wanted to dance and sing to their favourite FF songs. While the tent erupted momentarily for Jump In The Pool and Skeleton Boy, it was Jack Bevan from Foals' drumming presence on album favourite On Board that added to the party vibe of the set alongside front man Ed MacFarlanes consistent pleas for everyone to dance. Hope they get back over here soon.
Next up was Foals in the same tent as FF. It was my 5th time catching them live and they didn't disappoint. Yannis Philippakas may have inspired a new generation of haircuts and check shirt wearers but I doubt his stage theatrics and guitar playing are easily mimicked. Foals as a band are tight and deliver each track precisely. Olympic Airways, Electric Bloom and Balloons all dazzled with heavy riffs and erratic chunky drums while the popular Cassius and Two Steps, Twice inspired some much warranted moshpit action up the front.
This years hype-o-meter was all about Florence and The Machine. Her debut album Lungs bolted into the Irish Charts at number 3 on Friday and the UK Charts at number 2 yesterday, yet whoever thought it was a great idea to put her on the relatively small Red Bull Academy stage need to have a bit of a re-think. Stuffed to the gills is the only way to describe the scene before Florence Welch took to the stage with, undoubtedly the most rapturous reception of the weekend. It seems every person in the place knew every word to every song and deafening roars of approval, human pyramids and crowd surfing came with Dog Days Are Over, Cosmic Love, Kiss With A Fist and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up). A true talent with a powerful voice, Florence is only just beginning.
Other honourable mentions from the weekend: Nialler9's warm up DJ set for the weird and mellow Fever Ray. Some excellent tracks including Your Love My Girls (Animal Collective/Frankie Knuckles mash up), the Duke Dumont remix of BFL Daniel and Simian Mobile Disco's Audacity Of Huge were witnessed and danced to by the White Lies boys. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's trying their level best to to fight off the pouring rain and poor sound on the main stage on Saturday as did Bloc Party. And So I Watch You From Afar tearing the Imro New Sounds stage to pieces with their thrilling set and lastly Digitalism playing Zdarlight to a load of 'mad out of it's' on the Saturday evening. Goodbye mud it's been special to say the very least.
Last night a super energized !!! or Chk Chk Chk played to a solid crowd in Whelan's and I was there for a dance off with some good friends. This is the bands fourth time playing in Dublin in the last 4 years and I enjoyed it as much as the last time I caught them which was at The Electric Picnic 2 years ago. New songs were introduced last night which made me a happy punter as well as "the hits" including, Must Be The Moon and the rapturous Heart Of Hearts.
Here are some snaps I took of the band and you can check out my Flickr for more.
Dermostat aka Dermot O'Leary to his real friends and family, is a singer songwriter from Carlow who started making music with his former band Alanalda. He decided on a recent name change since going solo, as he made most of the music himself anyway and his first offering under Dermostat is the very wonderful song and video to accompany, Comfort Food. It has underlying notes of Belle and Sebastien partying it up with The Lemonheads (yes a very interesting party at that) but with a quirky tone delivered similarly by Grandaddy. Dermot who also is a member of Dublin based band The Evening Watch (formerly known as Incommunicado) plans to write and record more material in the near future so check him out and let us and him know what you think. The video for Comfort Food was directed by Doodler Films.
The Bloc Party lads have decided to go down the dance route once more with their new single One More Chance on Wichita Recordings. It's no surprise when the track was recorded with Jacknife Lee and mixed by one half of French duo Cassius', Philippe Zdar. The band have been touring since the start of the year and drop by Ireland to play Oxegen this Saturday.
Baltimore rapper Rye Rye (Ryeisha Berrain) is the first artist to be signed to M.I A's label N.E.E.T. Her debut album is set for release any day now and Rye Rye has worked with the likes ofDiplo and The Count And Sinden on various tracks. Single number one to be released is Bang and features the vocal talents of M.I.A herself, with whom she has previously worked with on a remix of the now famous Paper Planes.
The video for Bang features some funky dancers and was also directed by M.I.A.
This August bank holiday sees a tonne of adventures at the ready for music fans.
