Video: Local Natives - Wide Eyes

If you haven't already watched the video to Local Natives Wide Eyes then you are in for a treat.

The story revolves around some poor bloke who is stalked by a crazy and in your face shark but finally cracks after one too many encounters with the big fish!

A lighthearted 5 minutes to a sublime and elegantly performed track. Wide Eyes is from Local Natives' 2009 critically acclaimed debut Gorilla Manor.

Video: YACHT - The Afterlife

Judesays is responsible for yet again another video from Indie electronic duo YACHT and this time it's for the uber addictive The Afterlife, from their album See Mystery Lights. The video sees both Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans being immersed in various masses of water as if being cleansed or baptised. From waterfalls to even a paddling pool, it is visually quite a gorgeous and serene video.

YACHT are set to join label mates LCD Soundsystem on their tour of Europe which includes two night in Tripod, Dublin on April 20th/21st.

Video: Hudson Mohawke - Joy Fantastic feat. Olivier Daysoul

To promote his up and coming Pegasus Rising tour of the US and UK, Hudson Mohawke has just released the video to the wonderfully animate Joy Fantastic, taken from his superb debut album Butter released last year on Warp Records.
A colourful track featuring the vocal talents of Olivier Daysoul with an equally vibrant video, directed by Konx-Om-Pax.




The UK dates are as follows but sadly no Irish date announced so far.

UK Dates - April with Olivier Daysoul
Thursday, 22 - Inertia, World HQ, Newcastle, UK
Friday, 23 - Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds, UK
Tuesday, 27 - FAC251, The Factory, Manchester, UK
Thursday, 29 - Monkey Knife, The Thekla / Bristol, UK
Friday, 30 - Dummy 1st Birthday, The Macbeth, London, UK
Saturday 1 - The Plug/ Sheffield, UK
Sunday, 2 - Detonate indoor festival/ Nottingham, UK

Video- Wild Beasts We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues

The mythical new single from Wild Beasts released at the end of March times well with their UK and Ireland tour. We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues is another ethereal offering from the bands Two Dancers album and as shown below it's accompanying video duplicates this affection.

Wild Beasts Irish dates are as follows:

The Roisin Dubh, Galway-March 25th
Cyprus Avenue, Cork-March 26th
The Academy, Dublin-March 27th
Support on these dates comes from Villagers and Lone Wolf.

Local Natives - Airplanes Video.

I love the Local Natives album Gorilla Manor and they have just made a delectable video to Airplanes, a wonderful song with stunning harmonies that represents Local Natives finely.
They are due to play in Academy 2 in Dublin on March 10th and tickets are a steal at €13.50.
Take a peek at their video and enjoy what they are about.

The Maccabees Feat. Root Manuva-Empty Vessels Video

A collaboration I was surprised to hear about was the coming together of indie rockers The Maccabees and Roots Manuva, while despite being slightly sceptical at first I am glad to say this works a treat.

This track is featured on the bands current album Wall Of Arms under the title No Kind Words, but with the new lyrics input from Roots the song itself was re-named Empty Vessels.
It was released as a single back in November but the video to the track has just surfaced.

"If you've got no kind words to say, you should say nothing more at all". Well I am going to be kind and say this is a fine re-working of an already great song.

The Dodos-Longform Video

The second track on The Dodos 2009 release Time To Die is the alluring Longform, a pounding and fast paced concoction of drums and guitar that they have just made a video to.

The video to Longform has me dreaming of summery days in the countryside and temporarily wipes away the winter blues. The perfect antidote to a cold day. Enjoy the warmth!

Fever Ray-Keep The Streets Empty For Me Video

The Fever Ray album is definitely one of my favourite albums of this year. It's eerie demeanour throughout is somewhat unusual, yet comforting because of that and an array of ghostly video's have accompanied the album's strange manner since it's release earlier this year.

So Keep The Streets Empty For Me is no exception to their ongoing theme. It's dark and features a girl creeping around a deserted area of a city at night and is shot beautifully.
Directorial duties came from Swedish duo Jens Klevje and Fabian Svensson who wanted "to catch the feeling in a very direct and true way and create a video where dream and reality intertwine", a feeling they definitely have captured well.

Twin Atlantic-What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? Video

Twin Atlantic return with the raucous What Is Light? Where Is Laughter?, the third single to be released from their sterling debut album Vivarium. The band shot the video in sunny LA last month and despite no sun actually featuring in the video it's still extremely slick.
The lads have just announced details of another headline tour of the UK to kick off in January with Irish dates to be added soon. Watch this space.

Simian Mobile Disco feat. Beth Ditto-Cruel Intentions video

The third track to be released as single from Simian Mobile Disco's latest release Temporary Pleasure is the fabulous Cruel Intentions featuring The Gossip's leading lady Beth Ditto.
Already a favourite on dance floors all around the world it's no wonder this is next choice of release for the SMD lads.
The video itself is weird and a little sinister but I like it. Happy weekend folks.

Introducing Blackchords...

Blackchords are from Melbourne, Australia and I think by the end of the year they shall be on every hot tipped list for 2010 if they are not already. They have been likened to early Radiohead, Elbow, Jeff Buckley and Explosions In The Sky and while yes, there are elements in their sound to suggest such comparisons Blackchords stand out on their own.
Despite drawing from various influences they are a genuine indie rock band who are really great at being just that, a great indie rock band with no gimmicks. Their self titled debut is available now on Dust Devil Music in Europe and the first single to get some form of recognition this side of the planet is At World's End, which you can check out below.

Jamie T- Man Machine video

Mr T as in Jamie not the bling wearing Snickers addict, releases his third track from Kings & Queens next month with the very brilliant Man Machine. If you haven't checked out Jamie T's second album yet then do so as it's pretty damn awesome. Man Machine will be released as an EP with three brand new tracks; Jenny Can't Rely On Me, Man Not A Monster and Believing In Things That Can't Be Done. This is the third EP from Jamie this year following the release of Sticks N' Stones and Chaka Demus and while he may have postponed his UK and Irish tour due to a bout of Laryngitis he promises to reschedule as soon as he is fit enough.

In the mean time enjoy the very catchy Man Machine.

Florence & The Machine-You've Got The Love video

The wonderful Florence Welch (of And The Machine) is set to release her excellent version of Candi Staton's, You've Got The Love on November 13th. A crowd favourite when performed live, Flo's version gives this soul classic a wonderfully modern twist. The video for this is shot with Florence perched on a glittery, silver quarter moon dressed in feathers and sequinns, whipping her red mane into shape with the music. It's pretty girly so I am not gonna complain.



Florence and The Machine | MySpace Music Videos

Twin Atlantic live @ The Academy photo's

Last night I hit the Academy 2 for the mighty Twin Atlantic who are currently on their Irish tour and while I was there I took a few snaps. The band took in Belfast, Galway and Dublin while their Cork show is tonight.
Check them out below.

Ross McNae


Craig Kneale


Barry McKenna


Sam McTrusty


You can see more on my Flickr.
www.twinatlantic.com

Twin Atlantic coming to a town near you this week.

After playing to a largely under age audience in The Academy supporting Taking Back Sunday in July, Twin Atlantic have released their debut album Vivarium and played a tonne of gigs all over the place including the hugely popular Sonisphere festival. Their own headline tour has seen them grace the stages of venues up and down the UK and they are about to return to Ireland for 4 gigs of their own.

Starting this Sunday the band are in to play the following dates:
Sunday October 4th- Auntie Annies, Belfast
Monday October 5th- The Roisin Dubh, Galway
Tuesday October 6th- The Academy 2, Dublin
Wednesday October 7th- Old Oak, Cork

Last month I wrote a wee piece about the band and their video for You're Turning Into John Wayne but check out the video to their first single released from Vivarium, Lightspeed.

Royksopp feat. Fever Ray - This Must Be It video

When Fever Ray are featured on one of your tracks, it's a given that the video must be equally as kooky and Royksopp's latest offering, This Must Be It is no exception.
The story in this is about a grey haired, half naked, drumming man whose "car" is designed around a drum kit and is powered off him playing the drums. He visits a cult like movement that in the middle of nowhere and he teaches them how to drum. Visually odd yet fantastic a combination I like.



This Must Be It is taken from the current Royksopp album Junior.

The Flaming Lips Feat. Karen O: I Can Be A Frog Video

The Flaming Lips have just released the video to I Can Be A Frog, their new song featuring Karen O on added vocals and when I say added vocals, I mean animal noises and not really singing. The track itself is taken from the bands new album Emryonic which is due out here on October 9th.
Check out the crazy lady pretending to be various animals through out the video.

Girls-Lust For Life Video

Lust For Life has been around for a couple of months now but I love it and thought it worth a mention today. It's wonderfully summer filled melodies have me pining for San Francisco and that's exactly where this duo are from. Girls are Christopher Owens and JR White, yes the band is made up of two males whose lyrics are less than sugar sweet against the pleasant musical façade.
In Lust For Life Owens sings about being crazy and fucked up in the head, good for you mate, it's good to know, but it is one of those songs that you end up humming and for hours on end and really enjoy. Definitely worth checking out.!



Girls debut album is out this Friday on Fantasy Trashcan and is titled Album while the bands UK tour kicks off on October 9th.

Interview with Irish band CODES

A couple of weeks ago I sat down and had a chat with newish Irish band CODES. With Dad jokes (Daragh) firmly put to the side, we talked to Paul, Eoin, Daragh and Ray about their forthcoming debut album TreesDreamInAlgebra which is released here on Friday (Sept. 18th), their music loves and how it's all going being signed to a major label.

Your debut album TreesDreamInAlgebra is about to come out in a few weeks time are you excited? Nervous?
All- Yeah we're excited. A little bit nervous more excited than nervous though!
Daragh-We recorded it in the UK in Gloucester and worked with a producer called Greg Haver who has also worked with The Manic Street Preachers and The Super Furry Animals and anyone Welsh. He basically did some demo's for us in Cardiff where he is based himself and when we worked with him we were really happy with the results and one of the songs made it onto the album.

Which track was that?
Daragh- Memorial is the track that made it onto the album. Greg was really really cool to work with and good fun, he helped us relax and get the best out of us rather than producing us too much and he recommended a studio in Gloucester that we would get really good results from. It also was within our budget, because we paid for it ourselves and that was very much on our minds. So basically he chose where to record the album and where he would be more comfortable doing it.

So you obviously would be fans of the Manics and Super Furries then?
Collectively-YES definitely. Their albums seem to have quite a big sound and are slickly produced.
Daragh-He says he doesn't make small albums so that's great.

What process did you go through to write the album?
Daragh- It all started off in the rehearsal room I think. We've been together since 2007 and so there was a lot of material floating around and we kind of got thinking to ourselves before we even thought about going and working with Greg, about what songs would make the final cut. We picked the final 13 songs ourselves and we were very calculated before we went into the studio about what we wanted to achieve in the time, so everything was kind of done before hand.

So there is 13 tracks on the album. Did you record more than that before choosing what songs made it?
Daragh-13 in total that's it. Memorial came from the Cardiff sessions, which we intended to do. We thought we might go back and do a few bits and bobs extra on it
Ray- For the most part it ended up being up to scratch.
Daragh. We remixed it a bit but it was pretty much the same version as we did in Wales.

Do you think if you hadn't signed to EMI Records that the whole process would be much different? How you chose your producer, studio etc?
Daragh- I think we would always be conscious of how much money we would spend because it's something you learn very early on in your musical careers that nothing comes for free. Even if we had signed to a label like we are now and they fronted the money we would still be conscious of how much we would spend because ultimately it's like a bank loan.
Eoin- We don't want to end up like Guns N' Roses and wait god knows how many for years to release and no matter how much money is spent it still wouldn't sound better for that.
Daragh- Yeah. The difference is in music is that usually the longer you take in making an album the better it is but sometimes and from bad experience the more you deliberate over something the more you end up wrecking it. I think if we were to do it again we would try and impose ourselves the same restrictions.

Do you find you still have that same creative freedom you would have had if you had decided to release on your own? Are there any restrictions?
Daragh- No not at all. I think one of the reasons we went with the EMI deal is because one of the things we had on our list when we were pitching it to labels, was that we didn't want to sign to a label who wanted to change any of the songs on the record or wanted it remixed because we are really happy with how it sounds and I'm really proud of it. So that's one of the reasons we chose the EMI deal. I don't feel any creative pressure at all I feel really comfortable.

A few people have commented that you guys could become quite a big success do you feel pressured by such statements?
Eoin- We don't see it as pressure, more of a compliment.
Daragh- If they hear something in the music that they relate to artists who are already successful and big then we are doing our job correctly, obviously not in the way where we are trying to emulate anybody, it just affirming again being told 'Yeah your record is good enough to go out via a major label', so yeah, we've done something right. People who have come to our gigs and seen us in Whelan's go 'I can see you guys playing on a bigger stage', that's the kind of affirmation you long to hear.

Your sound is quite epic and big and you used a lot of instruments on the album to get that sound. How are you going to bring it live with that amount of instruments?
Paul- They way we rehearsed it before we even went into the studio was us playing the songs as we are now on the album with the exception of a few strings, but all the synths and all the pads were all played live, we wrote the songs with that in mind.
Daragh- There is no layering on the album, when we were rehearsing everything, we rehearsed it live so we knew what sounded good with the four of us playing. Albeit we switch a lot of instruments a lot on stage. Ray will be playing guitar for a few seconds then you'll see him on keyboards and then he is hitting the keys with the top of the guitar. Paul will be on drums then electronic live drums so we're always running around on stage, there is lots going on. That is part of why we sound so big.
Ray- I think our logic was if someone is capable of playing their part they will play it.

Speaking of playing live. You are about to head on an expansive tour of the country. Have you done that before?
Ray- We have done it on a smaller scale when were promoting our own self released singles beforehand but this is first time we are trying to cover as many different counties as possible in a short space of time.
Eoin- It's about giving people the chance to see us and try and win them over as well.

Would you have any pre stage rituals to get you ready to play?
Daragh- Pint! Why are ye all looking at me? (laughter from the rest). We just relaxed and hang out together and try and detach as much as possible. We usually do some vocal harmonies, I know that sounds cheesy, warm the old voices up before we sing. Usually we don't stick around for other bands sound checks because you get a bit more nervous. We did the Academy last year but we are quite conscious that we were under the radar a little bit. We have been busy doing the album and behind the scenes work with the label so we are approaching it as a brand new thing not as expecting any particular crowd or reaction. So we're hoping most people coming to the gig will be coming to it completely fresh.

You have toured a bit with Keane and the Delays how did those support slots come about? Daragh- Keane actually asked us to do the Irish leg of the tour so that was pretty cool and we did Dublin and Belfast with them. We supported the Airbourne Toxic Event as well in the Academy in March and they ended up liking us and invited us to come along to play with them in London a week later which we were surprised about.
Paul- It was a last minute decision, they were surprised with us and wanted us to come along. I think Darren their drummer said that he would be so much happier to have a band like us opening for them rather, than, what they usually would be getting which would be two local bands which were terrible and they much preferred a great opening act to keep the crowd entertained before they came on. They are really cool guys.
Daragh- Sometimes you get lucky where bands are in a position to ask you so it's nice and I think it was the same with Delays. Karl our manager was in contact with their management, sent them a CD and they liked what they heard so we played with them when they came over and I think we are going to be returning the favour.

Is the UK next on your list then?
Daragh- I think that's on the "What's next with Codes' list, which is stuck on the back of the rehearsal room door. Hopefully it will take on it's own legs and we're going to work as hard as we can to get as many people as possible to hear it in Ireland and if they like it, it spreads a bit organically as well as us pushing it. Then the UK next.

We have discussed loads of bands but who would be your influences? Obviously it's an individual thing.
Daragh- Interpol, Radiohead have always been a constant influence, personally Jeff Buckley and lots of soundtrack music for all of us, some Ennio Morricone and Murray Gold. Then Sigur Ros, Bjork. It's like even really shit things are an influence because it reminds you that you really ever don't wanna do that.

Are there any Irish bands that you would be fans of or admire?
Daragh-Yeah Halves are fantastic, Lines Drawing Cirlces I've been listening to a lot on MySpace, they are a really good band. Holy Roman Army, they are good. Villagers are pretty cool pity about The Immediate I really liked them when they were floating about. There is so much out there and because we were at the back of this trend, where lots of stuff was being influenced by this angular post-rock stuff like the Bloc Party-esque type of band, we were having a lot of bands in Ireland of that kind of ilk. Now that trend seems to have passed, you're not seeing so much of that type of stuff, so what is emerging is more original and quite different and I think it's really healthy for Ireland musically. It's not productive for a scene to encourage emulation, because what you'll get is loads of Irish bands trying to mimic what's going on in England and in the NME. When that happens, because we are little bit behind with scene setting in we often look to the English media as a stand point as to what's next and cool and a lot of people do. You then find that bands are at the back of a trend, when a genre stops becoming popular you still find Irish bands still doing it and it's not healthy, because you shouldn't look at what to copy but should be doing your own thing.

What would be you favourite albums of 2009?
Ray- I like the Doves album Kingdom Of Rust
Daragh- I really like TV on The Radio's Dear Science (we discussed it after being an '08 album). A discussion then ensues about the Bat For Lashes album Two Suns with the band collectively agreeing on Fur & Gold being the better album. (I disagree)
Paul- I started listening to the new Placebo album (Battle For The Sun), it's not too bad but i've listened to very sparingly.
Daragh- The new Mew album No More Stories, which came out there last week.
Eoin-Yeah it's not bad but it makes more sense when you listen to it as a body of work. Daragh-Crazy Danes
Ray- It's a little mental.
Ray- I like the Lisa Hannigan album as well, it's great.
Darragh- The new Mars Volta record, I want to support them but I don't think they would really go for us (laughter follows).

What sources would you use to discover new music? Particular websites, blogs?
Daragh- We're aware of the blogosphere as well as Pitchfork and Sterogum which is where I would find most new music.

Lastly before we finish. What would be your personal highlight this year so far?
Daragh-Probably getting the album finished and done and then....
Ray- The O2 maybe? Joint agreement there.
Ray- Also Oxegen, I always enjoy Oxegen. I think because between this year and last year we are new to it. This year more people knew who we were and we had interest in the media centre. I really liked that just going to various radio stations and got a beer per station.
Daragh- Just being busy in doing what we do. It's nice, you've been growing up doing it your whole life and you put everything of yourself into trying to make it a career and it's finally becoming a career this year. People finally take you seriously and there is artistic merit in what you do. We are really enjoying doing it all.



TreesDreamInAlgebra is released in Ireland on September 18th and they play The Academy on September 26th. Check out the CODES official MySpace for more tour dates around Ireland this month.

Empire Of The Sun Without You new version and video

Empire Of The Sun keep it as kooky as they like in the video to Without You, taken from their hugely successful album Walking On A Dream. Luke Steele goes solo for his performance (Nick Littlemore is working on some new Pnau material) in what seems like a couple of scenes from The Neverending Story and The Labyrinth jumbled up together.
The track itself is not as slow as the album version thanks to the mixing skills of Jeremy Wheatley who gives it more appeal with the introduction of faster beats and more guitar. He has also mixed tracks previously for Simian Mobile Disco, Royksopp and Sam Sparro.