Month: March 2014

JACE EVERETT

Jace Everetts theme song from True Blood “Bad Things”

Terra Rosa is Jace Everett’s most ambitious album to date, a raucous, revelatory song cycle exploring tales and themes from the Old and New Testaments.

Roadworks Tours presents

AMANDA SHIRES

plus guest

Amanda Shires is someone you simply can’t ignore and she’s back in Ireland 2014 to support her extraordinary new album “Down Fell The Doves”. She supported and accompanied husband, Jason Isbell, during his Dublin appearance late last year and now the Texas “Artist of the Year in 2011 is returning for a series of headline dates across the country.

Just in case the title alone wasn’t a dead give away, “Down Fell the Doves” is not a record for the faint of heart, faith or spirit. Not that anyone who heard her previous album would have expected such. “Carrying Lightning”, the critically acclaimed 2011 breakthrough that put Shires on the map as one of Americana music’s most arresting new voices (and Texas Music magazine’s 2011 Artist of the Year), was a tangled web of frayed heartstrings and combustible desire that revealed the one-time “little fiddle player from Lubbock” to be a grown woman unafraid to “get wrecked in love” and dish out the same with keen poetic insight and unnervingly mature, femme-fatale conviction. But as striking as Lightning was, “Down Fell the Doves” (Shires’ debut for Lightning Rod Records) is where the gloves really come off.

The album featured in many “best of 2013 ” lists. Featuring her expressive violin, ukelele and quivering vibrato, it was produced by Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, R.E.M.) and recorded in Athens, Georgia. Juxtaposing the, at times overwhelmingly grim emotional terrain, are songs that deliver just enough light to keep the shadows themselves on edge. Noting that “all of the songs are reflective of what I’ve been doing the last two years,” Shires — who was married Isbell in in early 2013 to coos unashamedly when asked about the tender-hearted “Stay.” “Oh, that’s a cute one,” she gushes playfully. “Pretty sappy, huh?” And then there’s the flirty but reverent “A Song for Leonard Cohen,” in which she fantasizes about “comparing mythologies” with her favourite songwriter over a drink or 12.

“This was the first record I’ve made where I really let the producer ultimately make the call of how things were going to go. I brought demos in — which was another first for me — but I just left a lot of stuff up to Andy, which worked well because we had a lot of the same ideas.”

Though not without its share of mood-enhancing embellishments, like the horns on “Stay” arranged by Shires and trombonist Chad Fisher, the sonic landscape of Down Fell the Doves is as haunted and provocative as Shires’ lyrics and melodies. Not to mention as rich with compelling contrasts, with the scrape and howl of Isbell’s guitars offsetting and perfectly complementing the delicate “drop and lift” of Shires’ quavering vibrato and almost supernaturally expressive violin — an instrument that, just like the devil’s in “Deep Dark Below,” “sounds like your deepest desire, lonely and bruised getting over being used.”

“It’s a lonesome instrument,” marvels Shires, who picked up her first violin at age 10, played Western swing music all through her teens (with the legendary Texas Playboys, no less) and continues to find new and interesting sounds on the versatile instrument that surprise even her. “I like the ways you can make it sound like wind, or fire, or … like wild. And I like that it can also be pretty”.

“But that’s not me,” she hastens to add with characteristic humility. “That’s the fiddle, because they’ve got their own minds. I just follow mine around and make sure it stays in one piece.”

“Languid and elegant …. marvellous songwriting” Daily Telegraph

“Shires is a damn talented and idiosyncratic song-writer…She is a fiddling maestro. At times her energetic, jittery vocals and eccentric lyrical subjects mark her out as a young female heir to the godfather of strange, Mr. Tom Waits. In her more conventional moments Shires sounds like the weird young niece of Dolly Parton.” Americana UK

ARCTIC TERN

Arctic Tern is the name 23 year old Belfast based musician Chris Campbell goes under. He released his debut EP in September 2013 with a sold out Belfast show. 2013 was a quiet introductory sort of year for Arctic Tern while he worked on his music, but he still gigged extensively with artists such as Frank Turner, Mick Flannery, Nathaniel Rateliff, Cold Specks and more, as well as his own headline shows here and in parts of Canada and America.

2014 has seen Arctic Tern go full-time at music. His second EP will be released in May and to coincide with this, a tour is being booked for May and June with dates confirmed in Ireland, England and at least 7 shows across Europe.

TICKETS

AFTER THE GIG

Raglane presents

SARAH JAROSZ

plus guest

Since signing to Sugar Hill Records at age 16, Sarah Jarosz has barely stopped to catch her breath, even as she leaves audiences and critics alike breathless. Rolling Stone has compared her to Gillian Welch; Mojo labeled her a “newgrass prodigy” for her skills on banjo, guitar and mandolin; and the normally reserved New York Times hailed her as “one of acoustic music’s finest talents,” with songwriting chops to match her instrumental prowess.

Exciting as that all may sound, that was before. For with her new albumBuild Me Up From Bones, Sarah Jarosz, now 22, has graduated in every sense of the word. The album came to fruition as she finished college at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and Bones incorporates the many lessons she learned there as she delved into other artistic realms.

Ask the Austin, Texas native how she feels about the disc, and her reply is decisive: “It’s the truest representation of my music at this point.I wanted to create a rollercoaster of different sounds, emotions and feelings, and not one even line. It has rocking numbers, and it also features the trio I play with—it incorporates those guys more. It feels true to me: unique and new.”

She adds: “I feel like I’ve grown as a person, especially in these last few years. I latched onto music as a child and it became my main way of expressing myself. But through college I got into other creative outlets: art, painting and poetry. It helped me to come back to music in a deeper way, to follow deeper trails and meanings and feelings.”

That depth manifests itself from start to finish on this 11-song record, as Jarosz creates sonic atmospheres that shimmer with equal parts acoustic majesty and electrifying mystery. “Mile on the Moon” ambles along with a familiar folky stride. Yet the melody and slipstream musical track suggest somewhere far away and beyond, a translucent vision where ardor blooms in nocturnal hues: “I dreamed we fell into the night/ Your darkness shined the brightest light/ We drove for miles on the moon/ I’d go anywhere with you.”

Did lunar forces tug at Sarah’s songwriting tides? As she puts it, “I never go into a record thinking I want a recurring theme throughout. But after the fact—and I certainly didn’t plan this—there are four songs that mention the moon in some way. For me, songwriting is an ever changing nature; it’s always fresh, and the moon is sort of like that: always changing, always pulling.”

That the song also takes on love as a subject matter shows Jarosz growing, enough so that she tackles this oldest of topics in surprising new ways. “I feel like my favorite songwriters leave enough things in the song to keep you digging,” she says. “The goal is to write songs that people will make personal to themselves—even if they may be very personal to me.”

That said, it’s a neat trick that Jarosz covers songs by two artists with fiercely loyal followings, and makes them all her own. Her version of harpist Joanna Newsom’s song “The Book of Right-On” stays true to the original’s freak folk funkiness, but Jarosz goes a step further by giving the song a winsome honey-gilded vocal to pine for. And as for taking on Bob Dylan — which she did on her 2011 disc Follow Me Down—Jarosz didn’t expect she’d do it again. But a backstage jam session with cellist Nathaniel Smith (part of the trio behind the new album, along with fiddler Alex Hargreaves) proved, indeed, “A Simple Twist of Fate.”

“We just kind of played that song for ourselves, not even thinking we were going to work it up, and it happened so naturally—we said, ‘Man, that felt good,” Jarosz says. “Live, it’s gotten a very good response.”

Speaking of the live stage, Jarosz finds it a big plus that she’s yielded an album that puts the focus on her and her trio. While much was made of the guest stars eager to join her on past albums, Jarosz found herself eager to fly on the strength of her new material, and capture a performance-friendly vibe as much as possible. More songs on Build Me Up From Bones were cut live than on any of her past studio efforts.

“A lot of it feels like it will translate well into the trio setting,” she says, “And it’s always fun to see these songs take on their own life on the stage; you don’t have to hear it live the same way as on the record.”

As for how she wrote many of her new songs, the alchemy might prove challenging for a lesser artist to imitate. For starters, she finds that whichever instrument she picks up on a given day—and Jarosz plays quite a few—determines how a song took shape. She’s recently taken to octave mandolin, and on “Rearrange The Art,” the song blossomed the instant she switched it from guitar to banjo. Its rollicking rhythm unfurls with sublime cinematic scope, like the soundtrack to a movie where a songwriter takes wing: “The ruby hues that outline all my words/ Are chapped and humming chords/ I’ve never used before.”

“Rearrange The Art” also reveals how Sarah’s college training taught her to view songwriting from new vistas, especially in her final year there. “I had the melody circling in my head for a long period of time, and it’s a great example of how the poetry and art worked their way into my music.”

With this new album, Jarosz speaks of an invisible line where, after she nurtures a song long enough, it now becomes something organic she carries with her: “I’ll play something, leave it alone, come back to it, and play it and play it and play it. The songs almost need to settle within me before I can play them for anybody.”

That said, she has a trusted compatriot in co-producer Gary Paczosa, who worked on her last two discs and returns once again to help her bring these new recordings to life. She also singles out the contributions of Dan Dugmore (Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks), whose guitar work lights up tracks such as “Mile on the Moon” and “Over the Edge.” “It was really magical: He played what I heard in my head all along,” Jarosz says.

Yet it’s clear that what Jarosz carried in her head and nurtured in her heart brandished plenty of magic to begin with. In the conservatory setting of her final college days, she assailed the dual challenge of crafting new songs and cramming for exams. Instead of bowing to the pressure, she flowed with it, harnessed it, and passed with flying colors … leading a musical graduation day of a distinct and rare kind.

“There were days where I thought, ‘I really need to get this homework assignment done, and I need to get this song written,’” she says, laughing. “But in the end it was great, because it prodded me to go forward. So here I am, at the end of school, and I’m finishing up this album, and the timing couldn’t be better. It’s like turning the page.”

TICKETS

€22.50 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings)

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required

AFTER THE GIG

Whelan’s Indie Club /// ZEBRA /// [Live Bands and guest DJs] w/ Late Bar from 10:30pm (Free entry before 10:30pm).

Skinny Wolves presents:

GIRLS NAMES

(Slumberland / Tough Love)

plus guests

SQUAREHEAD

Formed in January 2009, Girls Names quickly garnered recognition outside of the confines of their hometown of Belfast with the release of their eponymous debut EP in 2010 through New York’s Captured Tracks. A mini album through London imprint Tough Love soon followed, setting the foundations for their critically acclaimed debut LP Dead To Me, released in April last year again by Tough Love in Europe and cult West Coast label Slumberland Records in the US.

Girls Names released their critically acclaimed second album, The New Life, in February and it marked a new direction for the band altogether. That directional shift is emphasized even further by a new limited edition 12” EP , entitled The Next Life.

With the artwork making a playful nod to Bowie’s latest record, it’s not surprising that the EP should see the band experiment with the sonic make up of their last album. On the A side is a cover version of Brian Eno’s ‘Third Uncle’. Recorded in August of this year, it is the first recorded Girls Names track to feature new drummer Gib Cassidy and offers a telling glimpse at what creative steps the band may next take. On the flip are two incredible remixes of tracks taken from the sister record. The first is by producer/composer/dance don legend David Holmes, who lends a somewhat European elan to the titular track. The second sees Gabe Gurnsey from Factory Floor add his band’s characteristic dance floor focus to Girls Names’ motorik groove, turning in something that jitters and pulses in a manner befitting of any track attributed the Factory Floor moniker.

TICKETS

Tickets €12 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings)

Strictly over 18’s ID required

AFTER THE GIG

OLD SKOOL

the evolution of hip-hop

9PM – MAIN VENUE – GUEST LIST HERE

Live seven-piece hip-hop group, oldskool, play classic to modern rap & hip-hop by artists such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC, N.W.A., Missy Elliot, Kanye West, Eve and Jay-Z

TICKETS

I-NV-U Records presents

PAUL BYRNE

plus guests

Catchy-country-soul, thats what he calls his music. Most people would love to have just the vocal or drumming talents of the ex In Tua Nua writer/drummer but to play drums and sing at the same time the way he does live has to be seen.

TICKETS

€10 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone or creditcard bookings)

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required

AFTER THE GIG

Whelan’s Silent Disco from 10:30pm – 2 DJs, just pick the one you like best [Free before 11:30pm, €5 after] plus Late Bar.

u:mack Present

THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION!

plus guests

SEPTEMBER GIRLS

Judah Bauer – guitar | Russell Simins – drums | Jon Spencer – vocals & guitar

Meat And Bone is the first studio album by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in eight years. This is straight-up, Grade A Blues Explosion, mixed by Mr. Spencer himself, with no special guests. Meat And Bone is 12 prime cuts of raw rock ‘n’ roll, recorded on Sly Stone’s “Riot” Flickinger console at the legendary Key Club Recording Studio in Benton Harbor, MI, and mixed in the jungles of New York City. Judah Bauer, Russell Simins and Jon Spencer continue to blow minds with their fusillade of energy and rhythm, and have once again proven that the Blues is #1!

The new album comes on the heels of the meticulous and loving 2010 reissues of the band’s Matador albums, including the classics ‘Extra Width’, ‘Orange’, and ‘Now I Got Worry.’ (And more recently, the re-release of the long out-of-print seminal Pussy Galore catalog.) It was amid this period of looking back, that Spencer, Simins and Bauer began the process of moving forward.

Says Jon Spencer: “We still have that psychic glue that allows us to create music together. Over the course of a year touring and writing new songs and recording, we rediscovered our shared history as a band. We circled the wagons, and went back to our roots. In a way this is almost like another first album.”  

On stage and in the studio, Judah Bauer, Russell Simins and Jon Spencer have destroyed and rebuilt American roots music with such ferocity and wild abandon, that it’s hard to believe there is anything left. It’s been twenty years since The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion first pressed ‘record’, and twenty years since Spencer and his A-Team of sonic terrorists tore up the indie-rock landscape with fever and a visceral, untouchable vision of rock’n’roll that did for a new wave of blues-punk primitivists what Helen of Troy’s face did for the armada.

But make no mistake: The Blues Explosion was there first. They are the original. It was their sanctified outbursts and mind-bending riffs that began the new-fangled roots rock revolution and spawned countless imitators. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has blazed a furious trail into the future with incendiary spirit built from courage, audacity, and revolt. Nothing has been the same since.

TICKETS

€20 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings)

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required

AFTER THE GIG

Whelan’s Indie DJ in the bar and Sonntags upstairs from 11pm til late, Free Entry.

SHOUTING AT PLANES

Shouting at Planes are a five piece alternative blues/rock band hailing from Cavan. Formed in 2010, the band have played a number of gigs around Ireleand and abroad.

Whelans25.com presents

SEVEN QUARTERS

featuring

KATIE KIM & JENNIFER EVANS

Seven Quarters is an exciting new club night starting this April in Whelan’s of Wexford Street, as part of the venue celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Its official launch is Friday April 25th with a double headline show featuring the extremely talented Katie Kim and Jennifer Evans.

Seven Quarters is different from any other club night happening in Ireland, as we will be giving punters a different limited edition seven inch vinyl, featuring previously unreleased tracks, from the artists performing each club night. This seven inch vinyl will be given away for free to the first 150 people in the door as part of the club entry of €10.

Seven Quarters is a new project by Barry Lennon (Richter Collective, Community Of Independents and Hands Up Who Wants To Die) and is set to feature some of the most exciting acts in the Irish music scene. “I am very excited to launch this club with Katie Kim and Jennifer Evans playing, it’s a great honour to work with these two amazing acts. I hope each limited edition release the club does will help document and highlight the amazing inspirational musicians and sometimes unspoken talent we have in Ireland” said club creator Barry Lennon.

The name of the club Seven Quarters is based on the idea of the word seven referring to a 7” inch vinyl and the Quarters part is based on the fact the club will happen four times a year with the second club set to take place on Friday June 20th

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KATIE KIM is the pseudonym of Waterford singer Katie Sullivan, who performs slowcore, ethereal, ambient folk/pop.

Her debut album Twelve was praised throughout Ireland and prompted collaborations with a host of other artists including David Kitt, Milosh, Halves, Mike Scott and Ten Past Seven. She joined the Waterboys, singing the parts of the dark faery queen and playing guitar and bass on their WB Yeats tour.

Katie scored and performing an original soundtrack in conjunction with the French Film Festival for Germain Dulac’s 1927 controversial masterpiece, The Seashell & The Clergyman, which is believed to be one of the first avant garde, surrealist films ever made.

She released her second album Cover & Flood on a double vinyl on Flaming June records in January 2012. Her third album will be released summer 2014.

Listen here:

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JENNIFER EVANS has recently put the finishing touches to her debut album with Irish producer Stephen Shannon (aka Strands).

Jennifer skilfully combines jazz, blues and dark folk influences into a unique style that’s ‘art rock’ while remaining soulful, ardent and graceful in equal measures. Emotional experiences and daunting but lush perceptions of being feed the debut album.

Jennifer Evans’ vocals are soulful and lyrically unique in origin, focusing on empirical knowledge, exoticism, a questioning of identity and home.

The album will be out in the Summer of 2014 on Delphi and is much anticipated after the excitement created by her debut EP ‘Salient Point’.

Listen here:

Facebook event – https://www.facebook.com/events/667593633298528/?source=1

Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/sevenquarters

Twitter – https://twitter.com/sevenquarters

TICKETS

€10 on the door only – First 150 get a free 7inch.

Confirm on facebook HERE

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.

AFTER THE GIG

Whelan’s Indie Club w/ Late Bar from 10:30pm or check out the bands playing The Midnight Hour in the upstairs venue (FREE ENTRY, 12am).

Ubangi Stomp Club presents

MALCOLM HOLCOMBE

plus guests

“Not quite country, somewhere beyond folk, Holcombe’s music is a kind of blues in motion, mapping backwoods corners of the heart.” ~David Fricke- Rolling Stone Magazine

ST. PATRICK’S DAY LIVE MUSIC PARTY 2014

featuring

Segrasso Thieves Houdini Silent Noise Parade Soldiers Can’t Dance Loop Culture Whitetrash & The Spear Headed Sparraw Hawks Watch the Sky Galants Bear Plays Spoons Birds

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For Guestlist just click attending on the Facebook Event HERE 2PM-3AM

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As everyone in the whole world celebrates being Irish. People in the USA eat green eggs and drink green beer. Germans drink very large beers and sing Luke Kelly songs, while Canadians get dressed up like leprechauns and kiss strangers on the street. At Whelan’s we’re putting on an amazing night, showcasing incredible Irish bands…

So come down and party with us. ————————–

TICKETS

B-team promotions are hosting a pre-paddy’s day trad session in Whelans on the 13th of March 2014. Bands include:

THE DAILY HOWL THE UKERISTICS ON THE BREW

Doors open at 7.45pm Admin/tickets €5 Student admin/student tickets €4

Also be in with the chance to win some alcoholic prizes 😉 Just post #PrePadTrad and share the event page!

TICKETS

€6 Adv / €5 Door / €4 Student

Advanced tickets available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings)

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.

AFTER THE GIG

Whelan’s Indie Club /// ZEBRA /// [Live Bands and guest DJs] w/ Late Bar from 10:30pm (Free entry before 10:30pm).

***THIS GIG HAS BEEN POSTPONED***

Due to a delay in the release of their new EP Fight Like Apes have had to postpone their gig in Whelan’s. More info as we know it. Original tickets will still be valid or refunds are available from point of sale.

Whelanslive.com presents

FIGHT LIKE APES

plus guest

TICKETS – POSTPONED

AFTER THE GIG

RACKHOUSE PILFER

plus guest

OLD HANNAH

Cheaplist HERE

New Album ‘LOVE AND HAVOC’  – Out 28^th March 2014

The rise of RACKHOUSE PILFER is unstoppable.  They have been enthralling crowds throughout Ireland and Nashville and were Special Guests to Imelda May at SLIGO LIVE in October