stranded

It’s the Choice prize time again

stranded_aoife — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:53:29 +0000

and so it’s Meteor Choice Music Prize time of year once again. The lucky 10 this year in the running for Irish Album of the Year are

And So I Watch You From Afar “Gangs” (Richter Collective)
Bell X1 “Bloodless Coup” (Belly Up Records)
Cashier No 9 “To The Death of Fun” (Bella Union)
Lisa Hannigan “Passenger” (Hoop)
The Japanese Popstars “Controlling Your Allegiance” (EMI)
Jape “Ocean of Frequency” (Music Is For Losers)
Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands “Golden Syrup” (Osaka Records)
Pugwash “The Olympus Sounds” (EMI/1969 Records)
Tieranniesaur “Tieranniesaur” (Popical Island)
We Cut Corners “Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards” (Delphi)

(thanks to OTR from where I robbed the list and linkages!)

As always it’s a great indication of the rich variety of sound in irish music – it would be hard to listen to these 10 albums and come up with a conclusive “irish” sound – and is a great expression of the strength and quality of irish indie labels, with Popical Island, Osaka, Richter Collective, Music for Loosers and Delphi all illustrating the strength of the irish indie industry. There are some Choice stalwarts on their; with re-noms for Jape, Lisa Hannigan and Bellx1, but it’s great to see so many newbies and debut albums on the list. As always there are some that I agree with, some that surprise me and many more that could have been included, but I’d be happy with a winning result for most of the above. Of course I don’t have to make the choice, but the (un)lucky 11 who have to make the ultimate choice this year are

Brian Adams (Today FM)
John Barker (98FM)
Stuart Clark (Hot Press)
Siobhan Maguire (Sunday Times)
Naomi McArdle (Harmless Noise)
Lauren Murphy (The Irish Times)
Nadine O’Regan (RTE/Phantom FM/Sunday Business Post)
Colm O’Sullivan (Red FM)
Ed Power (Irish Independent/Irish Examiner/Metro Herald)
Rigsy (BBC 1 Northern Ireland)
Penny Rose-Hart (RTE Radio 1)

If you want to get your spoke in the best place for the debate is usually Jim Carroll’s On the Record blog – the choice post has only been up an hour and there’s already a heap of comments. Another good link is Nialler9′s blog of course- post here>, and if you want to get a listen to the albums @mrjamesfoley has made 7 of them into a Deezer playlist here>, and the others are on soundcloud – We Cut Corners, Patrick Kelleher and Tieranniesaur.

Tickets for the live award show on March 8th (at the Olympia) go on sale on Friday.

Great Gotye Cover :: video

stranded_aoife — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:05:26 +0000

This great vid has been doing the rounds on facebook this week, brilliant, simple concept, tightly filmed, and a great rendition of a great song. The difference between the views on this one, with its 4.5M views, and all of their (Walk off the Earth) other films is pretty startling too- it just shows how one great concept (and a good song choice) can have a real lift-off effect.

here’s the original tune

keep an eye out for Gotye’s album Making Mirrors – it’s already had it’s Oz release but is being held back here till Feb 10th

Soothing Sunday Sounds

stranded_aoife — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:30:32 +0000

I was delighted to discover this little video during the week. Filmed by the staggeringly prolific (does the man sleep?) and always captivating Myles O’Reilly it features a young Dublin band called Traz playing a track called Leaving.

I first encountered Traz just over 2 years ago (see the blog here) when they were in transition year and only embarking on their musical journey. I’m delighted to see they’re still together and still writing lovely music, and even more delighted to discover they now have an EP available to buy on bandcamp (listen below).

Their folk influenced sound is enhanaced by judicious saxaphone use (to great effect on Let it Rest) and some beautiful vocal harmonies; perfect music for a cosy sunday afternoon. I see from the video above that they’ve done a session for Lyric’s In the Blue of the Night and from their site it looks like the live tracks will get an airing tonight, tomorrow night and Tuesday. Traz also did an on air session with Donal Dineen for Fresh Air back in Nov ’09 which you can hear here>

Official links: Facebook / official site / bandcamp

Donal Dineen :: month of sundays footage

stranded_aoife — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:01:15 +0000

Ian from Chutney films has just uploaded a great little film of Dineen’s 2007 Month of Sundays project which features lots of chat from Dineen and some great performances by

Donato Wharton,
Lisa Hannigan,
Ronan O’Snodaigh,
Jape (an early acoustic version of Phil Lynott),
Milosh,
Si Schroeder and
Matt Elliott.

Dark Room Notes, Halves and Windings were also part of that tour, but don’t appear on film, and there’s archive info of the project on myspace (yes, it still lives) here>

Yultide Young Hearts: The Winking Glitter of a Frosty Dawn

stranded_aoife — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:07:17 +0000

Those stunning Young Hearts are back with a special yuletide show with another wonderful title ; The Winking Glitter of a Frosty Dawn, this Saturday in Dublin Co-Op. A terrific and varied line up as always, with live highlights sure to be Donal Lunny, Sunken Foal, Tieranniesaur, Maeve Higgins, Katie Kim, and, Kate Ellis. (full line up after the jump) The Co-op is one of my favourite Young Hearts venues, so get along – it’ll be a late one no doubt. These nights are a little slice of magic that you’d be mad to miss.

Acts on the night include the mighty Donal Lunny, Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, Sunken Foal, Melodica Deathship, Tieranniesaur, You Kiss By The Book, Maeve Higgins, NiamhMcCormackSings, Katie Kim, Kevin Barry, Kate Ellis

with DJ sets by;

James Byrne (Any Other City)
Niall McCormack (Hi-Tone)
Joss Moorkens (The Dudley Corporation)
Peter Toomey

and more very special guests to be confirmed!

at the Co-op, Newmarket Square, Dublin 8 on Saturday 10th December, 2011.
Admission 15euros with all proceeds going to Simon Community

Facebook Event page>