Tag Archives: Limerick

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SAND – second album for post-rock solo project

What you may need to know…

01. Keen observers of post-rock/instrumental ongoings may recall North Atlantic Oscillation, an Irish/English/Scottish outfit based in Edinburgh, releasing thru KScope, that came in for serious critical acclaim in the early part of the decade.

02. They’re fronted by Dublin/Limrock man Sam Healy, whose solo project SAND surfaced with a self-titled full-length in 2013, taking NAO’s soundscaping in a more introspective direction.

03. Streaming above is Seldom-Used Furniture, taken from SAND’s newly-released sophomore effort, A Sleeper, Just Awake.

04. The album is available now on CD and digital. Meanwhile, fans of Healy’s mothership will be happy to learn that a compilation of the band’s tunes is also up for pre-order at present via the band’s site.

VERDICT: Arriving at a mad intersection of post-rock, prog, psychedelia and taking on inflections of jazz, SAND plays with the various boundaries and lines between them all, to glorious effect.

SAND

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Another fine, if F-bomb-strewn, excursion in Peppa Pig appropriation from Limerick memelord/voice artist Walshunit.

In which Daddy Pig is unable to get to the off-licence.

Yup, yup.

Walshunit

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Naive Ted – new single Down the Tubes

What you may need to know…

01. At last, an excuse to talk about the Don of weirdo Irish beats. One half of one-man duo Deviant and Naive Ted, the latter has struck out in recent times with some of the country’s most innovative music, meshing old-fashioned boom-bap and eclectic sampling with spiky noise and pop-culture references.

02. Having accosted decks around the country with his presence under various monikers and in various collectives over the past decade (including the positively outstanding Vince Mack Mahon), Ted has been a cornerstone of Irish hip-hop, from co-founding the Galway Community Skratch Games, to supplying tunes for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s baddest gaijin villains.

03. Last year’s full-length The Inevitable Heel Turn was a bold jump from beats and noise into jazzy, exploratory territory.

04. New single Down The Tubes was released last night, with a little less than 36 hours left on his their customary two days’ free download on new material. Streaming above, also.

VERDICT: Ted’s excellent adventure into the murky depths of his own frame of reference & musical impulses continues. Yurt.

Deviant & Naive Ted

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From top: Starbucks, Thomas Street, Limerick; The spat with Steamboat Music

 

Starbucks on Thomas Street, Limerick seeking a little of the post-pub live music pie, asked for local musicians to come in and play for the casual audience

But were they willing to pay for their slice of said pie?

Apparently not, looking as they were to “showcase their venue”.

This drew a rise from Steamboat Music, local instrument/record shop, who invited Starbuck’s to “showcase” their coffee for free in their own establishment, before telling them where to go.

A truce had subsequently been made between the two parties, with Steamboat offering to help the local Starbuck’s in their musical affairs, ahead of Steamboat’s post-HMV expansion into records, movies and graphic novels in October, until a customer of Steamboat’s came to them bearing bad tidings…

So we thought we had come to a friendly arrangement with (manager of local) Starbuck’s over his attempt to exploit musicians, but like his employer’s coffee, he’s full of… sugar.

Now they’re back to their exploiting ways, a very young, talented customer of ours was offered a gig for the sweet, sweet nothing of “EXPOSURE”, and we can’t allow that. We started this fight for musicians and by god, we’ll end it.

We’ve decided, just out of pig iron, when we open our new superstore in October, we’re putting in a cafe upstairs with the CDs, DVDs, records & comics, and we’re going to have paid gigs for musicians and free coffee on Saturdays until Christmas.

All discussion, conjecture and side-taking to be had with hashtag #StarbucksvsSteamboat.

FIGHT!

Steamboat Music (Facebook)

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Windings – new single and album release date announced

What you may need to know…

01. Last time we stopped in with Windings, they’d just released the first single from their upcoming album.

02. The band’s leanings toward a more foreboding mood continue with You’re Dead, albeit taking a step back from the madness unleashed by previous single Helicopters.

03. Streaming above is the accompanying video clip, produced by Stephen Boland.

04. Full-length Be Honest and Fear Not has just been announced for a September 30th release via Out on a Limb Records. A launch tour is to be announced shortly to accompany same.

VERDICT: Soaked in keyboards and chorus pedal, You’re Dead scares up tension and uneasy memories with the most unlikely tools. A journey hopefully extended by the new long-player.

Windings

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Danny Deepo – releases new album ‘Sounds from a Living Planet’

What you may need to know…

01. Limrock-resident turntablist and sonic explorer Danny Deepo released new full-length Sounds from a Living Planet last week via Bandcamp.

02. One of the foundations of Irish skratch and general weirdo beats, he co-founded the Galway Community Skratch Games along with Deviant, Jimmy Penguin and Mikey Fingers, then all collaborating as Vince MackMahon.

03. He’s manipulated decks for a number of groupings and bands, but has been exceptionally busy as a solo producer in recent years, with two albums and an E.P. to his name since the beginning of 2015.

04. Sounds from a Living Planet is streaming above in its entirety and available for download in the widget above.

VERDICT: Drawing samples and sounds from all over the world, and melding them via sampling and turntablism, Danny Deepo’s expositions journey from beats into psychedelia and experimentation.

Danny Deepo

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OST – New single from Limrock soloist’s third album

What you may need to know…

01. Artist and musician Shane Harrington’s OST project continues his ongoing observations of life in New York City, and his own internal monologues.

02. After moving to New York from Limerick in 2011, Harrington released debut album Invisible Ink for Sketching Ghosts the following year, and followed up with last year’s drone-inflected Dreams During Hibernation full-length.

03. Streaming above is new single Homeless, the first from album #3, Uncaused, releasing September 19 on iTunes, Spotify and Bandcamp. Pre-orders available now.

04. Harrington relates some of his experience with collaboration on this record:

“Guitars, bass, sequencers, synths, organ, engineering and mixing were all handled by myself. This contributed to the lengthy time it took to finish the album. Drums were played by Zoe Black, a homeless (at the time of recording) percussionist from Japan, who has since left New York.

“She was living out of a suitcase near Tompkins Square park when I met her and I feel she has elevated the songs with her unique jazz-influenced style. The final track contains a field recording of her singing with a gospel choir in Prospect Park. I do not know the name of the song, nor do I know what became of her.”

Verdict: Doing away with sampling completely has entirely changed Harrington’s trajectory, resulting in bare-bones, jazzy, post-rock excursions like this. This record could be one of the year’s sleeper faves.

OST

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FONDA – New single and gigs this weekend

What you may need to know…

01. Galway/Limerick/Glasgow garage-rock trio FONDA have emerged as ones-to-watch in Irish music in recent times.

02. Specialising in a brittle, melancholic, but warm strain of croon-along, garage-rock-inflected pop, the band formed in January of last year, and got their debut EP, Social Services, out of their systems in June.

03. Streaming above is the video for new single Dreaming, described by The Thin Air as “probably our favourite Irish track of 2016 so far”. Produced by Bloom Media, it was shot in the none-more-Limerick location of Costello’s Tavern, once described perfectly by a friend of your writer’s as “Freakscene on Craggy Island”.

04. Playing tonight at the Bernard Shaw in Dublin with Shrug Life, and tomorrow night at Fred Zeppelin’s in Cork with Limrockers Slow Riot. Catch them supporting Gun Outfit upstairs in Dolan’s in Limerick on the 16th, also.

VERDICT: FONDA bring together the existential horrors and the warm-and-fuzzies. What’s not to like?

FONDA

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Fox Jaw – celebrating ten years and a new E.P.

What you may need to know…

01. It’s been a long road for the folk-informed alt-rockers formerly known as Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters.

02. Over three-hundred shows, two full-lengths and a rash of singles and E.P.s, the lads have traipsed across Europe and America, completing the Irish festival-grind checklist in the process, including Castlepalooza, Knockanstockan, and Indiependence, among many others.

03. Streaming above is the video for most recent-single Hit It Off, a slower-moving number indicative of their rock ‘n’ roll leanings, with a promo featuring a Munster fan having a terrible evening altogether (possibly NSFW). It’s taken from their next E.P., Black Light Vignette.

04. See them next at Electric Picnic‘s Electric Side Show stage, or if you’re in Limrock, drop in to Dolan’s on the 17th of next month for their tenth-anniversary/record-launch proceedings.

Verdict: Heads-down, no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll, well-honed over the years and the result of obvious passion for their craft.

Fox Jaw