03. Streaming above is the band’s new single, Starting Out, a taster of debut album Long Gone, releasing via Dublin pop collective Popical Island in January.
04. The album launch happens at Whelan’s on the 27th. Stay tuned to the band’s social media for more info.
Verdict: Ramshackle indie of the variety that is staple to Popical Island and its attendant bockety-pop remit. Fun for fans of Teenage Fanclub and the like.
Yesterday, we asked YOU, to lay out your favourite listens from the year that’s been.
On the line was a €50 voucher (twice the usual} for Golden Discs, usable at any of its fourteen branches around the country.
We specified:
‘The best thing I’ve heard all year was___________________________’
It was a big year for music both major and independent, and we had some great suggestions. But there could only be one winner.
LiamZero takes the voucher with the The Dame’s surprise swansong from January.
“‘Blackstar’ by Bowie, because in just three days, it went from being the remarkable rebirth of one of popular music’s greatest careers to being the most astonishing, beautiful, witty, dignified, clever and heartbreaking farewell of them all, filled with lyrics that suddenly revealed their hidden truths. It’s a poorer world without him, but at least he gave us a fitting goodbye.”
In further finds from the running we have two categories:
The Best thing I heard this year from this year
Starina: “The best thing I’ve heard all year was Girl Band’s Holding Hands With Jamie. Slightly deranged, with clever lyrics and deadly melodies. We should hold them up as an example of how great Irish music really can be.”
Witty Name: “The best thing I’ve heard all year was Let Me Get There by Hope Sandoval and the Warm Invention, featuring Kurt Vile. Warm, fuzzy tune, with great guitar. American singers with a great Irish band (Dirt Blue Gene, Colm O Ciosóig). Lovely album, takes your mind off all the madness of 2016.”
Kolmo: “The best thing I’ve heard all year is Deantown by Vulfpeck. Nothing on Earth has come close to being this toe-tappingly groovy. Nothing. Nada. Nix.”
Garreth: “Nick Cave, Skeleton Tree. A hard, brutal listen, but hauntingly beautiful. Masterpiece.”
Marklar: “The best thing I’ve heard all year was (Girl We Got A) Good Thing by Weezer. Full of joy and back to their best.”
The best thing I heard this from from another year:
Ouch: “Only discovered this Bowie gem when it was re-released this year on the Who Can I Be Now box set that covered his phenomenal 1974 – 1976 period. Amazing tune and it didn’t even make the cut to be released at the time…”
Wilson-IRL: “The best thing I’ve heard all year was Farewell Sarajevo by Maybeshewill from the album I Was Here For A Moment, Then I Was Gone. The album is a couple of years old but i first heard it this year and it’s the first album that I’ve repeatedly listened to, in its entirety, in over a decade.” (Recommended – Mike)
Niallo: “The best thing I’ve heard all year was Superstition by Stevie Wonder… No, no, wait! Come back… on 10+ grand’s worth of hi-fi gear at the listening room on Wicklow Street, blew me bleedin’ socks off, you can hear the placement of each of the instruments as if you were in the studio, ’twas unreal.”
Zena: “The best thing I’ve heard all year was, Cherokee Morning Song by Walela. It was released before 2016 but it’s one hell of a song, it’s sang in Native American too, simply beautiful.”
Run the Jukes – collaborative beats via The Unscene
What you may need to know…
01. Galway beatmaker and high-ranking Street Fighter competitorJimmy Penguin teams up with Mikey B-Side, a.k.a Michael Fallon of Cork’s Cuttin’ Heads Collective. By their powers combined, they are Run the Jukes.
02. The Kralbum is the result of their collaborative labours, dropped by surprise last night via Limerick weirdo music propagation magnates The Unscene.
03. The twelve-minute, one-track mix can be streamed above, and downloaded for free from the project’s Bandcamp.
04. Other than telling us that apparently “Jukes reign supreme over nearly everyone“, there is literally zero other information on this particular project. This was an intentional move, according to the Unscene’s crack PR team.
Verdict: More handy, weirdy, noisy beats from the sweet spot of Irish hip-hop.
Mongoose – jazz/folk Dublanders curating special gig line-ups
What you may need to know…
01. Dublin four-piece Mongoose bring together a wide pool of influences to create folk with an alternative tinge.
02. Coming together in 2012, the release of the band’s self-titled debut album last year follows a clutch of self-released singles and extended-players.
03. Streaming above is Doing Things Wrong, a single released earlier this year in solidarity with the Repeal the Eighth campaigns.
04. They’ve recently been curating their own line-ups of musical and spoken word artists, in a series of gigs called Winter Longing. Next up: Levis’ of Ballydehob on Saturday night, with Anna Mieke Bishop and more in support.
Verdict: Solid and spirited jazz/folk with a keen melodic sensibility.
An all-star assortment of Irish artists converge on the rehearsal spaces on Castletown Rd. in Dundalk to mark the 2017th birthday of an immaculately-conceived superdude that was his own dad *and* a spooky ghost.
01. Limerick four-piece Cruiser make minor-key pop that falls somewhere inbetween shoegaze’s fuzziness, and pop-punk’s enthusiasm.
02. Coming together in 2014, the band settled on a solid line-up in 2015, and have since been a solid presence on Limerick gig bills, sharing stages with The Altered Hours, Windings and Rats on Rafts among others.
03. Streaming above is the HOT 4U E.P., released in May of this year. Available for free/name-your-price download along with the rest of their tunes on Bandcamp, including a non-loathsome take on Fairytale of New York. In fairness, etc.
04. Catch them next at Dolan’s in Limerick on Stephens’ Night, as part of I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a big, feck-off wedge of Limrock for holiday returnees, also including Windings, FONDA and Slow Riot.
Verdict: Immediately likeable, earnest music, slathered in fuzz and feedback, with a notable (and much-needed) lack of notions.
The Orange Kyte – madness escaping Dublanders via Canada
What you may need to know…
01. Dublin-rooted psychedelia/fuzz/pop, emerging nowadays via their home in Vancouver, British Columbia.
02. Led by vocalist/guitarist Stevie Moonboots, a solo recording project took a transcontinental move to be fleshed out into a functioning band, but the last year has seen exponential growth, including monthly single releases throughout 2016, and consistent gigging around their new home territory.
03. Streaming above is the band’s last single of the year, Fizzy Orange, available for streaming and download at their Bandcamp.
Verdict: A madcap rush through a whole musical idiom, from minor-key shoegazing and psychedelic walls of sound to retro-pop keys and four-to-the-floor indie-rock stomping. A treat for those what wants it.
01. Bleak yet subtly atmospheric black metal is the modus operandi for Cork four-piece Demeter.
02. Comprised of veterans of Irish metal and hardcore, including members of Kawtiks, Soothsayer, Dominus, Slugbait, Hope is Noise and one-man project Molde, the band have more than enough miles behind them.
03. Streaming above is the band’s first demo, Blight, available now for free download from their Bandcamp.
04. Catch them tonight in Cork at Fredz, supporting for Soothsayer, and on the 25th of February at the Urban Assault all-dayer, confirmed for An Spailpín Fánach on Cork’s North Mall.
Verdict: Raw and unremittant black metal with a quietly melodic sensibility, alternating between barebones riffing and blast-laden noise.
