Lazybird, Dublin's original experimental live music night, is four years old this weekend
Music Review | Album
50% | 20 Apr 2007
Jackie Hayden
Dry County's unique brand of electro-rock mixes conventional instruments, drum loops, synths, buckets, boxes and a nutritious diet of influences, from the Boards Of Canada to Kraftwerk, The Propellerheads and Radiohead.
Faction records is to release a new compilation of Irish acts, Faction 2, next month, featuring ten up-and-coming artists including The Flaws and Television Room.
With 25,000 albums released in Ireland every year, keeping tabs on new music has become an increasingly expensive hobby.
Staying abreast of what has become a fast moving, ever changing domestic scene is especially challenging. A handful of specialist shows aside, one rarely encounters bands such as The Amazing Pilots or Dry County on radio. Often checking out emerging groups means trial and error purchasing.
Thank God, then, for HMV’s Irish Playlist CD. Given away free with selected titles, the HMV Playlist has established itself as a gem of a compilation album. June’s Irish Playlist is exceptional throughout.
Cathy Davey’s Tales Of Silversleeve has been installed as the 5-2 favourite to win this year’s Choice Music Prize, which is worth a none too shabby €10,000 to the winner.
Snowman FC from Cork won the Irish heat of the JD Sets, played live in the legendary Jack Daniel's Distillery in Tennessee and recorded with REM man David Barbe in Nashville.
Dublin’s Sofa Records have put together a 2CD sampler, Music For Long Ears, which features tracks from 30 of Ireland’s premier independent and underground acts.
How many bands can you fit into a weekend? One more than you thought, because it's just been announced that Paddy Casey has will headline a night at Hard Working Class Heroes.
Many Irish holiday-makers will be heading for the United States this year. But there’s much more on offer in that vast playground than the dubious prospect of sweltering in the crushing heat of an Orlando football stadium in June. Jackie Hayden travelled with a bunch of media types to the small town of Lynchburg in Tennessee and visited the source of one of the world’s great spirits, Jack Daniels, making some musical connections along the way.
The incredible visuals give each accompanying track a unique persona, and the number of mobile phones held high to capture the images onscreen are a testament to that.
Fresh from wowing the crowd and walking away with the prize at the National Student Music Awards The Delorentos will play Whelan's, Dublin in May as part of The IMRO Showcase Tour.
Has an award ceremony in Ireland ever created such an optimistic buzz, or such a feverish sense of righteousness among the music community as the Choice Music Prize?
There’s no shortage of showcase events vying for the attention of young acts these days, but IMRO’s tried and trusted model remains refreshingly free of bells and whistles.
hotpress.com can exclusively reveal the hundred or so acts that are getting offered a slot at the prestigious Hard Working Class Heroes Festival 2005. Selected by over 25 judges including the likes of Thrills & Humanzi manager Allan Cullivan
