One of the country’s best live acts, TKO have announced that their debut single is to be in aid of ‘2 Lads And A Cinquecento’, a campaign to support safe driving. Influenced by jazz, funk, folk and rock, the band are certainly versatile: it’s a pity then that ‘Let’s Go’ is such a standard affair. There’s not a whole lot wrong with it. But there’s a MOR blandness that the band appear to be trying to shake off for most of the song and it just doesn’t happen.
Originally released last year, the Dubliners’ Hats Off EP receives a re-release thanks to the lad’s recent Vicar Street support slot with The Frames. As a result, the EP captures the group at a point they’ve long since departed. The acoustic ‘Crashin Down’ and ‘My Fault’ may be fleshed out to a full band sound here, but it’s only on ‘(Jammin’ In) Room 5’ that the group sound like the more cohesive unit they’ve since become. An own-goal in some respects; TKO have better than this in their canon.
Minimalist electro-pop duo The Ting Tings emerged from a Manchester artists' collective with a love of Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads and a reputation as one of this year's most original new acts.
Cathy Davey’s summer has just become even busier with the Tales Of Silversleeve woman headlining the Eurocultured Festival in Smithfield Plaza, Dublin this August.
As his singular contribution to the birthday party, guest writer Elvis Costello offers a handful of stories from his ten years on the beat, which serve to illustrate why, in his own words, “I’d rather be a folk music fan than a teen idol.”
