The annual new Irish alternative/indie music showcase, line-up announced today.
From Unarocks:
202's / 79Cortinaz / A Lazarus Soul / The Aftermath / Alphamono / The Ambience Affair / Angel Pier / Armoured Bear / Mark Austin / Autamata / Bats / The Beat Poets / Bravado / The Brothers Movement / The Cades / Carly Sings / Nick Carswell & The Elective Orchestra / Caruso / Chequerboard / Cian / Class Of 1984 / Ollie Cole / Crayonsmith / Cutaways / The Dagger Lees / Deaf Animal Orchestra / Distractors / Dolbro Dan / Dublin Duck Dispensary / Exit: Pursued By A Bear / Fiach / Fighting With Wire / Valerie Francis / Fred / Gorbachov / Grand Pocket Orchestra / Groom / Halves / Headgear / Heartbreak Cartel / The Holy Roman Army / Hooray for Humans / The Hot Sprockets / Hybrasil / Kill Krinkle Club / The Kinetiks / The Last Tycoons / Le Galaxie / Lines Drawing Circles / Little Xs For Eyes / Mackerel The Cat / Tom McShane / Fiona Melady / The Minutes / Walter Mitty & The Realists / More Tiny Giants / My Brother Woody / Nakatomi Plaza / New Amusement / Noise Control / Not Men But Giants / One Day International / The Followers of Otis / Panama Kings / The Parks / Pilotlight / Pocket Promise / The Rags / The Revellions / Robotnik / John Shelly and the Creatures / Sickboy / Sideproject / So Cow / Sounds of System Breakdown / Sparks Fly / The Spook of The Thirteenth Lock / Super Extra Bonus Party / Supermodel Twins / Sweet Jane / Tidal District / Tiger Empire / David Turpin / The Vinny Club / Vodkopter / Youre Only Massive
I've never been before, for the most part because I listened to very little Irish indie music even just a year ago, but assuming I do go, these artists I'll be trying to catch: A Lazarus Soul (because there's plenty to build on the last time I saw them), Bats ('cos I need to seem them for a fourth time), Chequerboard, Crayonsmith, Fighting With Wire (as much from what I've heard of their music as for the fact that the bassist was wearing a Future of the Left t-shirt in a video I saw of them), Fred, Grand Pocket Orchestra (seen them once before, supporting Fight Like Apes the first time I saw them - while Those Geese Were Stupified reckons they're up to supplant the newly slickened headliners), Halves, Hooray for Humans (hopefully this time with a drummer), So Cow and The Vinny Club. Amongst others. And of course, the point of the festival is to discover new acts as well.
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On a slightly different note, some new like-minded hardcore/alternative-type blogs which have been added to my blogroll recently:
failing the rorschach test is a cretinous curmudgeon from Canada with a liking for Bats and their Cruel Sea Scientist EP. Only a handful of posts so far, but they're detailed and well-written and as well as posting Mission of Burma, Streetlight Manifesto and Pg.99, there is also the excellent Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack - Defeat Or Humiliate The United States Of America.
One of Mike Kirsch's numerous bands, it takes the sampling approach of the preceding project Bread And Circuits and amplifies it. Bread And Circuits used Fela Kuti, while Defeat Or Humiliate... samples Stokely Carmichael - amongst others - and separates the album into brief hardcore tracks and ambient spoken word/instrumental samples. Anyway, follow the link to read about it more and download it.
Computers That Breathe is a blog of a guy called Brooklyn Bill, which has also only been around for about a month and has about a dozen posts up. Mostly 80s-90s post-hardcore and alternative rock with Unwound, Shudder To Think, Chavez and a bizarro-universe version of Husker Du called Moving Targets which is actually really good. Or as he says,
"Listen, I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers or piss on anyone's gods but in my humble opinion MOVING TARGETS' RECORDS BURNING IN WATER AND BRAVE NOISE ARE AS GOOD AS HUSKER DU'S ZEN ARCADE AND NEW DAY RISING. There. I'm glad I got that off my chest because its been eating a hole in my stomach for 18 years".
The Art Beats the Thing Itself is not really a music blog (it's an art blog, pretty much - but hey, I've got one of those myself too) but the guy who runs it, Zack Thrower, is in a band. And not just any band, but a quite awesome hardcore/screamo band of the original late 90s/mid-00s style we all know and love - their myspace cites Shotmaker, Spirit of Versailles, Frail and Kaospilot amongst others under 'sounds like'. Anyway, they're called Nationale, they're from Georgia in the US, and they have a four-song CD demo quite excellently packaged available via their Myspace. Check it out, and the blog which follows the production of their flyers and demo artowork.
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And finally, to return a little way to the beginning of the post, The Indie Hour has been on blogroll for a while but with the last mixtape on this blog a reminder is probably in order. The Indie Hour blog is run by Aoife MC who also presents the show of the same name on 103.2 Dublin City FM every Thursday 9-10pm (I'm listening to it right now, which is kinda weird). Bats, Terrordactyl, Adebisi Shank from that mix have all been featured on the show - the second two artists coincidentally starting off tonight's show - as well as bands I've written about myself like Fight Like Apes, Hooray for Humans and Halves (I'm about to write about them, anyway). Each show usually features an interview with and live performances from an artist - tonight is Heathers, who have just returned from their US summer tour. And the best part is that the shows are available to download as a mp3/podcast after they've been broadcast.
12 comments:
"cretinous curmudgeon"
i choose to interpret this as a compliment :P
Gabba, you've never heard Moving Targets before? They're one of the greatest Boston bands ever. I presume you downloaded "Burning In Water" from that guy's blog and listened to it. Way more Mission of Burma than Husker Du, though I understand the comparisons. Totally amazing record, though. Almost every song on it is great.
It did bother me that "Burning In Water" is still in print and available from the record label, as are a couple of the other CDs he's posted in full (Chavez, Come)... but whatever.
cretinous - from your username; curmudgeon - from "whatever it is, i'm against it". It's all in your profile, man!
Also I dig the T-Rex in an F-15 picture from Calvin and Hobbes. I'm guessing that might be where the 'cretin' comes from, too. Love those cartoons; if you haven't already, check out this post on Radio Flyer - http://hardcorefornerds.blogspot.com/2007/12/radio-flyer-in-their-strange-white.html
brushback - I downloaded Brave Noise and it was pretty great; the link for Burning In Water was broken but he's fixed it now. And no, I've never heard them before - just 'cos I'm Irish doesn't mean I'm from Boston!
I can't say much about posting full albums, since I do it all the time. I do like the little streaming thing you've got, with the ability to download the particular song. But I always try to put up a link to buy - either physically or digitally - any album I post up download. If you like it, buy it... or at least, buy it if you would normally.
'out of print records from broke up bands'
oh, I see your point now Brushback. I was a bit confused before.
It's probably something I should have taken up with him on his blog rather than carping about it here, but putting "out of print records" up at the top but then posting mostly-available CDs seems kinda odd...
Anyway, definitely check out "Burning In Water"-- it's one of a handful of really essential 80's albums, in my opinion...
yeah, it does seem a bit odd.
but you know what's obviously still in print, because I bought it today? The Slint EP on 10" vinyl, probably my favourite minute-by-minute output of the band.
It was in Spin Dizzy, same shop as I bought Margin Walker, and the general vinyl section faces out on the rest of the arcade, so I hope someone was walking by the window outside so they could see the expression on my face...
ahem. anyway, I thought you'd like that anecdote. If I post up the mp3s, they'll be taken down pretty quick but I think I'm going to have to try some One Base on an Overthrow-style photography of the record. It's got a frickin' head with tentacles!
"Also I dig the T-Rex in an F-15 picture from Calvin and Hobbes. I'm guessing that might be where the 'cretin' comes from, too. Love those cartoons; if you haven't already, check out this post on Radio Flyer - "
yeah, I saw that, it was pretty good (as well as the ridiculously awesome HWM review). and I think when it comes down to it, "tyrannosaur in an f-16" will go down in history as one of the great artistic acheivements of the 20th century, right up there with 'the persistence of memory' and fellini's '8 1/2'. it's just that good.
oh, and since I'm listening to it at the moment, I'd just like to chime in that Moving Pictures is indeed quite good. I can definitely see both the Husker Du and MoB comparisons, and really, a band with those comparables is pretty much destined to be good.
Targets.
also, F-15. You wouldn't fit a Tyrannosaurus in an F-16, it's a good deal smaller [I used to be an aircraft nerd way, way before I was a hardcore nerd] :)
Sorry I'm giving you a bit of a hard time here, cretin. Good points nevertheless.
well, bugger. that's a disturbing amount of mistakes for a post where I referenced fellini.
anyway, I looked it up and it turns out it was an F-14, btw. so... I think that saves me a bit of face.
heh, you're right. burn for me... although they both have a pretty similar design - hard to tell apart in that picture, although they're clearly drawn in the other panels...
anyway, this argument is so stupid. ;)
well i specialize in stupid arguments. you could say that this is my entire raison d'etre.
For real: thanks Gabba. We've got some more art/music on the way soon. I need to figure out how to post our demo I suppose.
best,
zack
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