Belltable Unfringed Festival is Back for 2010

With a whole program of events and as always a great music event, last year saw the great Cork band Fred play an awesome acoustic set for the festival, review can be found here. This year is the turn of Limerick band "Windings", The lads take to the stage on the 30th of this month and this is sure to be a great night of music. Dont miss it!

For more info on events in the festival and tickets for this show , check out the belltable's website : http://www.belltable.ie/belltable-event.php?eventid=52

Check out Windings here : http://www.myspace.com/windings

The Stables Tonight!

Only seeing this now.....

SongWriter Sessions @ The Locke Bar

You may have heard by now that the Locke bar are offering singer songwriters a stage to showcase their talent. This fantastic idea is named the songwriter sessions and it has already had a session last Thursday night. The next one is set for the 28th of this month and will feature Damien Drea former front man of Vesta Varro. So if you have a few tunes and a guitar why not pop down and join in.

Check out their Blog & myspace here :

http://limericksongwriters.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/limericksongwriters

Some of their performances can be found here :

http://www.youtube.com/user/LimerickSongwriters

Here's more from the blurb :

SongWriter Sessions @ The Locke Bar Thursday 28th Jan 2010 9.00pm The SongWriter Sessions@The Locke Bar, continues upstairs at The Locke Bar, George's Quay, Limerick 9.00pm January 28th with special guest Drea. Drea is the name of the exciting new solo project from Damien Drea former frontman of Limerick's Vesta Varro. Having been immersed in music all his life, Drea has decided to expand his previous band's guitar-based influences to incorporate other types of popular music into his sound. Drea will be keeping touring too a minimum as he begins work on his debut record in march 2010 set for release 2011. As usual all aspiring songwriters are invited to attend and play there songs in front of a live audience. All types of music and singers are welcome, a limited amount of instruments will be available for use on the night. There will also be an opportunity for getting a YouTube video of your performance made free of charge and uploaded to our site. Performances will also be recorded and broadcast as a Podcast at a later date. Host for the sessions are songwriters Brian Connolly, Chris Wood and Sean Macleod. As the venue develops into a hot spot for new talent in Limerick, plans are a foot to invite recording artists, producers, managers and publishers, anyone who may be looking for fresh new songs. SongWriter Sessions@The Locke Bar is a regular feature of the live music scene in Limerick and takes place every 2nd, 3rd and 4th Thursday of the month. If you wish to play contact Brian Connolly at limericksongwriters@gmail.com to book a spot or turn up on the night.

Protobaby Live at Dolans, 22/01/2010 REVIEW

I happily got a chance to get down to Dolans on Friday night after a thrilling night in Thomond Park, I wasn't expecting to get down to see the EP launch so I did not get any video footage or any decent photo (Hench the rubbish camera picture above).

Upstairs in Dolans was nicely packed to witness this local band unveil their superb "Freedom EP". My review of the EP can be found here. I last saw the these guys back in June 2009(Review here) and I knew from there they were destined for great things and tonight cemented that thought again. The band were in sublime form and each song sounded amazing. I have compared the guys to Joy Division numerous times but to hear their cover of "love Will Tear Us Apart" was almost weird the similarities to the original.

The EP tracks were all played but the crowd got a sneak peak into the potential of this band with a few unknown tracks being played. Its a testament to a bands future when you hear tracks not even released on their current EP that are standing out the most. The second last track "Too Late" left a standing impression on me and I really cant wait to here more studio tracks from the band. Keep an eye on these guys and they are a must see live band.

Setlist :

Sold you a Lie Think It’s Time Big Bang Throw It Away Life’s Too Short Slight Obsession Violence on... Love Will Tear Us Apart Too Late Freedom

The Whiskey Limbs a must see tonight in Baker Place

The Dublin based band make their way to Baker place tonight, Their myspace song offerings are just amazing http://www.myspace.com/thewhiskeylimbs . "Half way girl" reminded me of Ryan Adams alot for some reason, These guys I reckon are worth checking out live!

Protobaby unveil new E.P.

The brilliant Limerick Protobaby are set to release their much anticipated EP this Friday in Dolans. I received an advance copy of this 5 track gem earlier in the week. The Freedom EP starts off with a sound clip of Planet of the apes.

"Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother?"

The the guitar riffs brings you slowly into the opening track of "Freedom", each song deals with a feeling of some sort and this one is a feeling of Awakening. The EP trawls through these feelings such as Anger,Despair and Hope this EP offers the listener an inside into the head of lead singer Colm McGuiness. This EP is simply brilliant and way beyond the years of this band. The track "Sold you a Lie"could simply be a track on any one of Interpol's great albums and is the highlight track on this EP. The solo's being played by all instruments throughout the songs are just amazing and this EP is a serious stepping stone to the great potential of this Limerick band. Indielimerick got a mention in the sleeve and I would like to thank the band for including me, its an honor. The guys take to the stage in Dolans this friday (22nd) do not miss this gig!

Their first gig and review from me

http://indielimerick.blogspot.com/2009/06/kiernan-mcmullen-live-at-dolans.html

Check them out here

http://www.myspace.com/protobaby

Forever, In Disguise due for release soon

Way back in May 2008 I had my first Music Snippets post that featured a Cork artist by the name of Daniel Jones LINK. Daniel is set to release his much anticipated debut album this March called "Forever, In Disguise". If the lead up EP's are anything to go by this record will be immense. Below is a track from the upcoming album and in the mean time check him out here : http://www.myspace.com/danieljonesirl

O Emperor Live at Dolans 17/01/2010 Review

My first gig of 2010 was to be a three band affair upstairs in Dolans. A Sunday night in January would not attract a big crowd but tonight was different as people were streaming into the upstairs venue. The stage was adorned with a mountain of instruments and it looked like we were in for a treat. The only band I had heard of going into the gig were the headliners “O Emperor”, I had checked them out on myspace awhile back and loved what I heard. There was lots of hype about these guys and when I saw they were playing down the road I jumped at the opportunity.

The first act of the night was “Alessi’s Ark” an extremely quirky girl from London took to the stage to play a few tracks from her debut album “Notes from a Treehouse”. She is clearly all shy and awkward on stage but as soon as she starts to sing she is quite mesmerizing, her voice matches her quirky persona and her style of vibrato singing is quite something to witness. You could say an English Lisa Hannigan with a twist of jazz thrown in. All her songs lasted less than two minutes and felt like they were just snippets for us to sample but listening to the actual album these are the actual lengths all short but sweet numbers. The album is just a great collection of songs extremely well put together; I will be coming back to this album a lot. She was joined by the next band up for backing half way through her set. As I mentioned I purchased a copy of her debut album which came in its own handmade woollen pouch, which is incredibly adorable along with the artwork adoring the sleeve. This album is worth getting and she is worth check out over here http://www.myspace.com/alessisark

Next up were the Brighton 7 piece band “The Sons of Noel & Adrian”. Cellos, trumpets, keyboards, drums, bass and two brilliantly played classical guitars made up this bands sound. The video below captures their sound and feeling the best. Sea Shanty Singalong feet stomping brilliance is how I could describe this group. Their collective sound shouldn’t work but it just does so well. The layering sound of instruments make for an amazing racket. At times you could nearly here hints of Irish traditional music from a bunch of people who have never set foot in Ireland before. Great whistle intro to a song called “The Wreck is not a boat” was a highlight as it transcended into another band sing-along. Their song comprised of very little lyrics as their masterpiece was their melodies and almost battlecry vocals. Also hints of Spanish traditional music more than likely down to the picking of the classical guitars, the cellist added so much to their sound and at times the sound he was modulating was nothing short of excellent. Such a unique sound! this band will go far and these guys are well worth checking out live. I got a copy of their great self titled album and their latest EP “Rivers”, head over here http://www.myspace.com/sonsofnoelandadrian

Last up were Waterford band “O Emperor” as I mentioned these guys have been hitting headlines in the Irish music scene as ones to watch of late. Their sound is very hard to put your finger on. The sound is so diverse and different in each song, ranging from very melodic almost film score pieces to full on rock. Some songs seem like they have no structure with swirling guitar parts and they just work. The lead singers voice was clearly in bad shape from being the last Irish date of their first ever tour , they looked like they were enjoying it and looking forward to their English leg of the tour. Highlights of the night included their brilliantly released single “Po” and a song called “Don’t Mind Me”. It’s clear to see why these guys are getting so much hype, they live up to this Live and their 3 track EP “Persephone” is a sign of great things to come from this young Irish band. I wish them the best of luck to them over in England and Ill look forward to seeing them playing to a much larger audience when they are in this neck of the woods again. Check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/oemperorofficial

O Emperor Set List:

Small Town, Local Hero

December

All Worked Out

Ghost of my Heart

Don't Mind Me

To The Sea

Don Quixote

Po

Epic One

Some Small Matter

The Fat Lady Sings

A Gig Worth Checking out This Sunday

All three bands offer a great nights music in Dolans this Sunday, I have been listening to "O Emperor" through their myspace page for awhile now and I love what I hear, Hopefully ill get down there myself. Check out this tune from the aforementioned band :

Albums Worth Listening to in January 2010

Suggestions welcome as always

Blog Awards 2010 - Shameless Plug!

The blog awards for 2010 are nearly back upon us, The nominations are currently running over here : http://awards.ie/blogawards/nominations/

Would love to get nominated once again this year in the best music blog category pretty please :)

Choice Music Prize 2009 Nominations Shortlist

After a great year of albums in 2008 the Choice Music Prize Nominations have just been announced for the best album of 2009. Jape's album Ritual deservedly won the accolade last year among some good and bad nominations most notable The Script.

Paul McLoone has just announced this years hopefuls :

And so I watch you from Afar - Self Titled

Bellx1 - Blue Lights on the Runway

Codes - Trees Dream in Algebra

Adrian Crowley - Season of the Sparks

Dark Room Notes - We Love you Dark Matter

The Duckworth Lewis Method - Self Titled

Julie Feeney - Pages (Past winner in 2006)

Valerie Francis - Slow Dynamo

Laura Izibor - Let the Truth Be Told

The Swell Season - Strict Joy

A very electronic list, which includes cricket concept albums and past winners, this will make for a great competition. The winner will be announced on March the 3rd at a live event in Vicar Street, Until then I am off to dust off these albums and give them all another listen, My money is on Bellx1