Albums Worth Listening to in May 2014

L-R

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Only Run
Pixies – Indie Cindy
dREA - The Bravest of All
The Black Keys - Turn Blue
Conor Oberst – Upside Down Mountain
Coldplay - Ghost Stories

We Cut Corners live at Cobblestone Joes 02/05/2014 Review

Managed to catch the superb We Cut Corners recently as they headlined the wonderfully newly refurbished Cobblestone Joes last friday night.
The show was run by Seoda Shows which is now running gigs throughout the city and tonight saw the Dublin duo take to the stage as they just released their second album offering 'Think Nothing'. I picked up a copy of the album in vinyl form at the gig , Its an amazing quality record which included a cd copy within the sleeve (Nice touch). The artwork and weight of the vinyl is excellent and no expense was spared. Their debut album 'Today I Realised the I Could Go Home Backwards’ was nominated for a choice music prize and I have no doubt the new record will reach the same heights.
They played a stormer of a set to a packed crowd , The lead singer , Guitarist and drummer Conall O’Breachain puts an amazing amount of energy into the live performance. I suppose you would have to when your playing most of the instruments. Go check them out live if you get a chance! Cheers for a great night.

Albums Worth Listening to in April 2014

We Cut Corners - Think Nothing
Printer Clips - The Left Sleeve EP
Ingrid Michaelson - Lights Out
Wilko Johnson & Rodger Daltrey - Going Back Home
Eels - The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett
Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots

Albums Worth Listening to in March 2014

L-R

Elbow - The Take Off and Landing of Everything

Windings/Land Lovers - Split EP (Buy Here)

We Are Scientist - TV en Francais

Sun Kil Moon - Benji

Band of Horses - Acoustic at the Ryman

Wild Beasts - Present Tense

Suggestion very welcome!

Albums Worth Listening to in February 2014

 

L-R

Beck - Morning Phase

Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow

Hard Working Americans - Hard Working Americans

Hawk- The Sum of All Things (Buy Here)

Lisa O'Neill - Same Cloth or Not

Patrick Freeman - Perfect Fit (Buy Here)

 

As Always Suggestions Very Welcome!

Girl Band live at Bourkes 30/01/2014

Managed to catch Dublin outfit Girl Band in Bourkes last night, These lads sure pack a punch!
The musical equivalent of jumping head first into the cold sea. The massive loud sound is backed up by a singer who has no care for his vocal chords, The guitarist and bassist were equipped with a huge armament of pedals adding to the wonderful chaos with various loops and distortions. The foundations of Bourkes were well and truly tested by this young quartet as they smashed through their set. Extremely enjoyable to watch this energy fest, check out the clip below for a sample of it. Cheers Lads!

Albums Worth Listening to in January 2014

L-R

Yann Ryan - Apple Picking EP (Check out the local lads ep here)

James Vincent McMorrow - Post Tropical

Little Mammoths - Shoot the Crows (Free album here)

Boy & Bear - Harlequin Dream

Cat Dowling - The Believer
Harrison & the Devil - Cat Matters (Buy the Galway bands ep here)

Suggestions as always welcome!

Teenage Kicks coming to Limerick

RTE are bringing out a new TV series akin to School of Rock, They will be getting a band together made up of Limerick young wans aged 16-14. The criteria is below :

Are you from Limerick? Aged 16-24? Do you sing, rap or play a musical instrument? If so, the producers of a new RTÉ TV series want to meet you on SATURDAY, 8TH FEBRUARY in the Limerick School of Music, Mulgrave Street.
‘TEENAGE KICKS’ follows musician, and The Voice of Ireland coach, Bressie as he travels to Limerick with the goal of forming a band comprised of different musical talent.
For more information go to the TEENAGE KICKS Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RTEteenagekicks

Eamonn Hehir live at Dolans 30/12/2013 Review

Apologies for the delay in putting this one on the blog, Just getting back into the swing of things after a great Christmas.
 

On the 29th of December a gigging tradition was renewed as local singer songwriter Eamonn Hehir assembled a band and played Dolans..

 A couple of Decembers have gone by without this tradition so it was great to see it back.

Support on the night came from another local singer songwriter by the name of Yann Ryan. Nine days before the gig yann had released a three track ep entitled 'Apple Picking'. I managed to pick up a copy on the night and I was very impressed by the quality. His relaxed story telling much like Fionn Regan with a voice similar to the style of Belle & Sebastian and nice plucking on an acoustic guitar made for a perfect opener. You can check out Yann over here.

 

Eamonn arrived on stage with his newly formed band slightly different from his last outing back in November 2012 to release his album 'The Flag Listeners'.  (Review) .

This time the line up comprised of John Steele on guitar , James Hanley on keys , Sean Fox on Bass and Tony Brennan on Drums with backing vocals from Siobhan O'Brien and Jenny MacMahon.

The band lashed into a 21 track set on front of a packed upstairs, The band being only newly formed played a blinder and looked like they had been playing for ages The set was mainly taken from the wonderful 2012 release and also some old classics from his Toucandance days and a cover from former band mate the late Des O'Dwyer.

The line up are hoping to play a few gigs around Limerick during 2014, It would be great to see another release too. Cheers for a cracking night!

 

Set: 

Downtown

Cold Year

Angels Share

California

Rider's Song

Things Will Happen

Before the Song was over

Dry Land

Restless Kind

Carpet

Little Man

Running Scared

People are Happy in Canada

Clapham Omnibus

Almost Drowning

Lincoln

Gates of Limbo

Steve Brodie took a Chance

Joe Cocker

Cat Stevens

Women on Trains

 

Top Ten Albums of 2013 from Indielimerick

Well that's another year over, Apologies for the small number of posts throughout the year as I have been very busy and 2014 promises to be even busier. I did manage however to review 21 gigs throughout the year. (Reviews all down the right has side of the blog), Gig of the year has to go to Bruce Springsteen in Thomond Park. That gig was amazing as the city was on a high that the Limerick hurlers won the Munster final that week and having someone as big as the Boss play in Limerick was magical.
Another piece of the blog I did manage to keep up to date was the monthly album picks which all can be seen here and now its time to pick my favourite ten of the year. I have been drawing up these list for seven years now and as I always say these are records that I have personally enjoyed over the last year so more than likely I have left out some mainstream classics. In no particular order here they be, Happy Christmas!

Arctic Monkeys - AM

National - Trouble Will Find Me

Arcade Fire - Reflektor

Okkervil River - Silver Gymnasium

Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse

Phosphorescent - Muchacho

Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt

O Emperor - Vitreous

Villagers - Awayland

John Blek and the Rats - Leave Your Love at the Door

Little Green Cars live at Bourkes, Limerick 12/12/2013

Great night of music ensued in Bourkes bar last night as Little Green Cars were playing their first night of a two night sold out stint in the city. Tomorrow night sees Dolans warehouse as the host with support from the brilliant up and coming local band 'Bleeding Heart Pigeons' .

Tonight the support act were a trio from Dublin called 'Other Creatures' , This fresh faced band played a great short opening set. The lead singer played an impressive sounding vintage gretsch guitar which influenced their indie rock sound, I got a funeral suits vibe off their stuff. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.

The bar was very crammed as the main band assembled on the small stage, its great to see an Irish band like this sell out venues around Ireland and have such a great following. The band have had an amazing year with a number one album for their debut Absolute Zero . Touring with Jake Bugg, A Jimmy Fallon appearance , playing SXSW , Coachella, Lollapalooza and the list goes on.... You cant have it any better really.
They arrived out and just accompanied by one guitar and sang sans mics to the now hushed crowd for the opening number. Their harmonies were incredible all night and female singer Faye O'Rourke has an amazing range. After that hairs on the back of the neck opener the band plugged in and got down to business playing crowd favourites while we were entertained between songs about writing processes and band stories. This included the story behind their single 'The John Wayne' as lead singer Stevie Appleby regaled how we had an instant love for an American girl his brother had introduced to him back in the day and how we wrote the track that night on a small drum kit he had assembled at home called 'The Quiet Kit' and that's where the name came from as it was nearly called 'The Quiet Man'.
A thoroughly enjoyable set throughout which ended with the band walking out into the middle of the floor and singing like as they had done at the start of the set.
A great night of music ! Cheers to Seoda shows for a super night!