In addition to their long musical history with Maines (he was a member of Ely's band for years and produced Gilmore's Hightone Records debut), Gilmore points out a trait that further strengthens their bond: Maines' off-the-wall sense of humor is similar to theirs. His Dixie Chick connection apparently didn't hurt, either; daughter Natalie's bandmate Martie Maguire contributed some fiddle. A who's-who of Austin sidemen (and friends) also participated: Robbie Gjersoe on guitars; Glenn Fukunaga on bass; Rafael Gayol on drums; Bukka Allen on keyboards and accordion; Brian Standefer on cello; and Pat Manske on percussion. Maines played steel, mandolin, banjo and guitar, and contributed harmonies.

Perhaps all that involvement makes him an honorary Flatlander, too. But none of them takes the designation too seriously. As with each Flatlanders album or tour, no one knows about a next one; they're a product of fate, chance, inspiration, the gods ... and come around when they come around. They've each got successful solo careers to keep up as well.

But here they are, 37 years after they were prodded into recording together the first time, still collaborating-and still the best of friends. In his soft Texas drawl, Ely sums the philosophy behind their creativity: "We might as well write music and make songs up, because there's not anything that we'd rather be doing."

"Hills And Valleys" Tracklisting:

Homeland Refugee
Borderless Love
After The Storm
Wishing For A Rainbow
No Way I’ll Never Need you
Just About Time
Love’s Own Chains
Cry For Freedom
The Way We Are
Thank God For The Road
Free The Wind
Sowing On The Mountain

STEVE EARLE

www.steveearle.com ~ www.myspace.com/steveearlemusic ~www.newwestrecords.com

::: LIVE ::: Upcoming Irish Shows
Sept 26 - Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival, Longford - €41.70 ~ Tel: +353-87-281-7825 / www.johnnykeenan.com
Sept 27 - Belfast Open House Festival - £25.00 ~ Tel: +44 (0)28 90246609 / www.openhousefestival.com
Nov 09 - Galway, Town Hall - €40.00 ~ Tel: 091-569777 / www.tht.ie

Nov 10 - Galway, Town Hall - €40.00 ~ Tel: 091-569777 / www.tht.ie
Nov 11 - Cork, Opera House - €40.00 ~Tel: 021-4270022 / www.corkoperahouse.ie
Nov 13 - Ennis, Glor - €40.00 ~ Tel: 065-6843103 / www.glor.ie
Nov 14 - Castlebar, The Royal Theatre & Events Centre - €36.50 ~Tel: 0818 300000 / www.ticketmaster.ie
Nov 17 - Dublin, Olympia Theatre - €40/€36 ~ Tel: 0818 719300 / www.ticketmaster.ie

The album was produced by Earle at his home in Greenwich Village, at Sound Emporium and Room and Board in Nashville, TN and The Nest in Hollywood, CA. The track “Lungs,” was produced and mixed by the Dust Brothers’ John King and features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/The Nightwatchman on electric guitar. Earle’s wife, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, is featured on backing vocals on “Loretta” and “To Live Is To Fly.” Three songs cut in Nashville, “White Freightliner Blues,” “Delta Momma Blues,” and “Don’t Take It Too Bad” feature a bluegrass band consisting of Dennis Crouch, Tim O’Brien, Darrel Scott and Shad Cobb.

Earle met Townes Van Zandt in 1972 at one of Earle’s performances at The Old Quarter in Houston, TX. Van Zandt was in the audience and playfully heckled Earle throughout the performance to play the song “Wabash Cannonball” Earle admitted that he didn’t know how to play the tune and Van Zandt replied incredibly “You call yourself a folksinger and you don’t know ‘Wabash Cannonball?’” Earle then silenced him by playing the Van Zandt song “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold,” not an easy feat due to its quickly-paced mouthful of lyrics squeezed into just over two minutes of song. Their bond was immediately formed. On Townes, Earle and his son, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle (named after Van Zandt) trade verses on the tune, a song the two of them have been playing together since Justin was a teenager.

The songs selected for Townes were the ones that meant the most to Earle and the ones he personally connected to (not including selections featured on previous Earle albums). Some of the selections chosen were songs that Earle has played his entire career (“Pancho and Lefty,” “Lungs,” “White Freightliner Blues”) and others he had to learn specifically for recording. He learned the song “(Quicksilver
Daydreams of) Maria” directly from Van Zandt, and taught himself “Marie” and “Rake” specifically for the album’s recording. Once a song he played during his live show, Earle relearned “Colorado Girl” in the original Open D tuning that Van Zandt played it in. Earle recorded the New York sessions solo and then added the other instruments later on in order to preserve the spirit of Van Zandt’s original solo
performances to the best of his recollection.

When speaking about Townes, Earle stated, “This may be one of the best records I’ve ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter’s feelings. Then again, it’s some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived.”

TRACKLISTING:

Pancho And Lefty
White Freight Liner Blues
Colorado Girl
Where I Lead Me
Lungs
No Place To Fall
Loretta
Brand New Companion
Rake
Delta Momma Blues
Marie
Don’t Take It Too Bad
Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold
(Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria
To Live Is To Fly

Deluxe Limited Edition 2 x CD content – Acoustic version of the album. Fold out poster of the cover art. Expanded liner notes with lyrics.

With new ball in hand, The Duckworth Lewis Method release their eponymous maiden album, July 3 – exquisitely timed to coincide with this summer’s Ashes tour.

Written by Duckworth (Thomas Walsh) and Lewis (Neil Hannon) the album was recorded and mixed in Dublin and mastered just down the road from Lord’s in Abbey Road Studios.

All the songs are either loosely or tightly connected to the beautiful game of cricket, there are no covers, extra covers or cover drives for that matter. These are all wonderfully crafted pop songs for cricket lovers and non-lovers equally to enjoy.

First delivery, ‘The Coin Toss’, spins wickedly into lead single ‘The Age Of Revolution’, released June 28.

From ‘Jiggery Pokery’, which tells the tale of the Gatting Ball and features guest cameos from Phill Jupitus, Alexander Armstrong and Matt Berry amongst others, through the Trescothian angst of ‘The Nightwatchman’, to the triple century of ‘Test Match Special’. This album really hits ‘The Sweet Spot’ (track4!) with a guest appearance from Cathy Davey.

With trademark melodies and glorious harmonies, the anthemic ‘Meeting Mr Miandad’ is yet another album highlight. It depicts Duckworth and Lewis' epic road trip to meet the legendary batsman Javed Miandad.

"The Duckworth Lewis Method is an album steeped in the love of cricket and pop. The resultant twelve songs are a cacophony of leather and willow turning through a cosmos of searing melodies and all round tunes,” says Duckworth in his post match interview.

“Soul music has always hit me harder than any other kind of music,’’ says the Boston-based Jesse, who has learned his lessons well. He puts a convincing new spin on the subject with his debut solo disc, “Bittersweet Batch,’’ which should please anyone with a love of this heartfelt style. Jesse adds a stunning vocal expressiveness and a unique ability to inject and dissect emotions. He delivers it all with a warmth that comes from analog recording and from cutting a lot of the songs live in the studio.

Jesse co-produced “Bittersweet Batch’’ (consisting of all-original tracks) with Jack Younger in the latter’s Basement 247 Studio. Younger has also produced for fellow Boston roots phenomenon Eli “Paperboy’’ Reed. The record is targeted for an April release on Munich Records.

Jesse’s love of soul is honest to the core. When you step into his home studio, for example, you may find him putting on a vinyl copy of “The Best Chess Vocal Groups,’’ including cuts on the seminal Chess Records by the Moonglows, Miracles, and Flamingos. And on the walls are paintings that he has created of faves like Jackie Wilson and James Brown. The paintings are exceptional. Jesse is a graduate of MassArt (Massachusetts College of Art and Design) and almost went into art as a profession over music.

“I’ve been painting longer than I’ve played music,’’ says Jesse. “I have studied art most of my life and have been doing both for a while, but I made my decision to focus on music.’’

Raised in the Boston suburb of Arlington, Jesse started at MassArt by studying illustration, but switched over to its Studio for Interrelated Media, where he studied performance, production, mixed-media, and composition. During college he was in the ten-piece band Decifunk, which played up and down the east coast and released an original record called “Open Your Eyes’’ on Squeezebox Records in 2001. That was followed by a stint in the group The Dirty Whites (“more like Black Sabbath meets Motown,’’ he says). They put out a five-song, self-released EP in 2006.

Then came his own group under the name Jesse Dee, which includes guitarist Matthew Joy, bassist Jim Larkin, and drummer Matt “Pie’’ Beaulieu. They’re all on the new album, as are such top-notch guests as guitarist Kevin Barry (Paula Cole, Dennis Brennan), and the soulful duo of Dwight & Nicole, not to mention an all-star horn section with Scott and John Aruda, and Paul Ahlstrand, who has played with Susan Tedeschi.

The new record has some “bittersweet’’ themes, hence the title “Bittersweet Batch,’’ but most songs reflect Jesse’s ultimately positive view of the world. The standout “Slow Down,’’ which is on his myspace page (www.myspace.com/jessedee), has an easy-loping swing groove and the message that “people try to stay with the pace but the fact is that life is not a race.’’ Other upbeat tunes are “Still Here’ and the buoyant “Alive & Kicking.’’

Jesse, who has opened for Al Green, is also a cofounder of Sea Monsters, a popular club band he started with singer Christian McNeill. It’s a true musician’s band and has featured guest appearances from other Boston roots acts such as Tim Gearan, Miss Tess, and Dennis Brennan.

Jesse still paints and freelances as a graphic designer. The painting sparks his music. “I sing when I paint,’’ he says. “I’ve composed songs while I paint a number of times.’’
But exploring and updating soul music is his true passion. “I’m just trying to get better – to write better songs, get better at performing them, and enjoy myself in the process,’’ he says.

-- Written by Steve Morse, a former staff writer for the Boston Globe

The Minus 5, led by underground icon Scott McCaughey, will be releasing a new album Killingsworth in Ireland on Friday 3rd July 2009.

Killingsworth is an aptly named thoroughfare that borders northeast Portland's "Alberta Arts District", where the tracks were primarily conceived and executed. Scott's old buddy John Moen, who has been a Dharma Bum and a Maroon and a Jick, and is now a Decemberist, wove a noose out of papyrus, and helped lasso his current bandmates and other notables to flesh out the arrangements on a dismal and disturbing array of soon-to-be-classics. The effervescent smokin' drinkin' Little Sue and the four ultra-stylish priestesses once known as the Shee Bee Gees provided welcome feminine counterpoint to the song cycle's wanton depravity (it's not truly a song cycle, nor is it a Richard Strauss tone poem, but the caliber of the material deserves a modicum of pretension). Various members of M. Ward's combo, as well as the very great Norfolk & Western (some of them the same people), played crucial roles in delivering the goods. They were poorly remunerated. Noted novelist and Richmond Fontaine frontispiece Willy Vlautin provided a golden lyrical trampoline, and Timothy Bracy of Mendoza Line fame collaborated on the dance-floor-bound "Dark Hand of Contagion". As ever, Peter Buck (REM) put twelve strings or less to optimal use whenever cajoled. Ken Stringfellow sang on a Scandinavian ferry, fully clothed.

Thus begins a new chapter in the Minus 5 saga. Different than the rest, yet barking up the same monkey tree. And if you have any questions or comments about the music itself, Mr. McCaughey would be glad to elucidate all over you, to the best of his ability, which varies according to the situation.

Killingsworth is available on CD and as digital download, full track listing as follows :

01. Dark Hand of Contagion
02. The Long Hall
03. The Disembowlers
04. Th Lurking Barrister
05. It Won't Do You Any Good
06. Vintage Violet
07. Scott Walker’s Fault
08. Big Beat Up Moon
09. I Would Rather Sacrifice You
10. Ambulance Dancehall
11. Gash In The Cocoon
12. Smoke On, Jerry
13. Your Favourite Mess
14. Tonight You’re Buying Me A Drink, Bub

 THE LEMONHEADS, who have entered into a licensing agreement with Cooking Vinyl, have announced they will be releasing their long-awaited covers collection, VARSHONS, through the label on Monday 15th June 2009.

It makes sense that the new album from The Lemonheads sounds like a mix tape slipped to you by a music-obsessed friend anxious to turn you on to something new. In fact, the idea for the band’s new covers record was inspired by Gibby Haynes, ringmaster of the Butthole Surfers, who for years has made mixes for his longtime friend Evan Dando. “Making a good mix is an art, and Gibby has it down,” says Dando. “I thought it would be fun to share these songs with other people like he shared them with me. So I picked the ‘greatest hits’ from his mixes and covered them, along with a few other songs I always wanted to play.”

VARSHONS was produced by Haynes and features Dando along with Vess Ruhtenburg (bass) and Devon Ashley (drums). The collection is filled with strange bedfellows - from G.G. Allin to Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt and garage rockers The Green Fuz. The Lemonheads make each track their own, with help from actress Liv Tyler, singing back up on Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” and Kate Moss, who sings over the dance groove of Arling & Cameron’s “Dirty Robot,” which also features lead guitar by John Perry on loan from The Only Ones.

VARSHONS unearths a pair of psychedelic treasures with “Yesterlove” – a song recorded in 1969 by the group Sam Gopal featuring future Motorhead bassist Lemmy Kilmister – and “Dandelion Seeds” from July, record collector’s Registered Landmark Band. For “Layin’ Up With Linda,” the band filters Allin’s cold-blooded tale through the swaggering country-honk of The Stones’ “Dead Flowers.”

Filled with obscure nuggets, the tracks on VARSHONS cut a wide swath, jumping from early British psychedelic to Dutch electronica and like all good mix tapes, you never know what is coming next.

Full tracklisting as follows :

1. “I Just Can’t Take It Anymore” (Gram Parsons)
2. “Fragile” (Wire)
3. “Layin’ Up With Linda” (G.G. Allin)
4. “Waiting Around To Die” (Townes Van Zandt)
5. “Green Fuz” (Randy Alvey & Green Fuz)
6. “Yesterlove” (Sam Gopal)
7. “Dirty Robot” v/ Kate Moss (Arling & Cameron)
8. “Dandelion Seeds” (July)
9. “Mexico” (Fuckemos)
10. “Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye” f/ Liv Tyler (Leonard Cohen)
11. “Beautiful” (Linda Perry)
* Original artist in parenthesis

Back From The Dead was produced by CJ Vanston, who arranged and played keyboards on the band's Break Like The Wind album and was musical director for their 1992, 2000 and 2007 tours. As a film composer, he has produced music for Christopher Guest's movies "Waiting For Guffman," "Best In Show," "A Mighty Wind," and "For Your Consideration."

TRACKLISTING
01. Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight
02. Back From The Dead
03. (Funky) Sex Farm
04. Rock 'n' Roll Creation
05. Jazz Oddyssey I
06. Gimme Some Money
07. Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare
08. Heavy Duty
09. America
10. Jazz Oddyssey II
11. (Listen to the) Flower People (Reggae Stylee)
12. Hell Hole
13. Big Bottom
14. Celtic Blues
15. Jazz Oddyssey III
16. Warmer Than Hell
17. Stonehenge
18. Short And Sweet
19. Cup And Cakes
+ accompanying DVD giving a track by track rundown from Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls (60 mins)

::: LIVE :::

04 JuneSugar Club, Dublin
19 June Pavilion, Cork
27 June Spirit Store, Dundalk
30 October - The Picket, Liverpool

IN HIS OWN WORDS: An awful man Jinx stands at the outer edge of the periphery of the Hibernian music machine picking the dirt beneath the fingernails of fading septic tiger landscape while the larvae practise their new voices in their bedrooms in front of mirror contemplating visualization for the mid Atlantic voiced shiny ''discover me'' dream that will enable them to become new chrysalis transformation and escape. Jinx once lay horizontally in early am before school unconsciously soaking up the neo nuclear 4 minute warning sirens of the nearby factory 8 am work shift cattle round up, and the spooky echoes of metallic brewery noise and far off railway line vibrato ghosts. Now he pulls out these cranial archives into new shapes and TRAUMA THEMES of word and sound along with the rage built up from border town omnipresent soccer fascism environment and mundane assembly line worlds where hard chaw lads and doomed faced women walked along the conveyor belt towards cement block Invasion of Body snatchers / Stepford Wives package existence. JINX LENNON FREE STATE NOVA is an Irish wordsmith here to primarily uplift people and squash the unseen energy vampires in all myriad forms. Making room to weave some modicum of hope and dignity Jinx is the dying light in the red leech face of disgraced solicitor contrite and pleading now no longer poster boy for the gimme gimmes, but he brings the message that one must try their best to FORGIVE THE C***S and move upwards. These sounds are not just for those tired of listening to the empty heads, but also for the helicopter Icarus people who crash land back to earth in these IDIOT TIMES.

This album deals with isolation, the sort that transforms people and leads them into difficult situations, it also deals with themes of spiritual deadness and being aware of this fact in oneself before one turns into a lifeless Invasion of the Bodysnatchers / Stepford Wives type entity. It’s slightly darker than the other records I have made so far.

Jinx Lennon is a punk / poet / performance artist whose repertoire contains elements of spoken word, electro, social commentary with a rage and rawness that is complimented by Jinx's stage partner Miss Paula Flynn and her magnificent voice.

Tracklisting

1/ TRAUMA THEMES INTRO 2/ MY HEAD IS SLOWLY DISAPPEARING UP MY OWN ARZZZ 3/ EVERYONE'S GOT A MENTAL HOME I.T.H. 4/ PROTECT THYSELF AND HOME 5/ SPLATTERED EGGS
6/ THE MEN WHO SAVED THE FACE OF FOOTBALL 7/ FUNERAL FAYSIS 8/ TAXI MAN FACE 9/ THE FERRIS WHEEL AT DOWDALLSHILL 10/ FOLK MUSIC FOR THE MIDLANDS 11/ THE ORANGE CRANES OF GREENORE 12/ 40 F/GLAZED I CLUB 13/ BIG PROTEST DAY 14/ YOU C'ANT KEEP EVERYONE HAPPY 15/ AWKWARD AND REAL 16/ ASCEND! ICEHOUSE HILL

Reviews for TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES

IDIOTS BEWARE: JINX IS BACK - NICK KELLY, IRISH INDEPENDENT
This country has produced its fair share of singer/songwriters who can't see further than their own plectrum and sing about little else but their own reflection. But with Ireland in the midst of a collective nervous breakdown, it seems like it's high time someone tried to reflect in song what's really happening right here, right now.

I remember going to see the Fatima Mansions play in the early 1990s. Cathal Coughlan would often begin a song with a tragi-comic spoken-word intro that seemed to sum up the state of the nation at any given time. Part bar-room philosopher, part punk poet, Coughlan aimed both barrels at his carefully chosen targets, the often surreal imagery of his steaming streams of consciousness braided John Cooper Clarke with Bill Hicks.

Having long since exiled himself to France, I sometimes wonder what the contrarian Corkonian would make of the fine mess we've got ourselves into now. There seems to be precious few artists out there with the smarts or the willingness to take up the cudgels. You could argue that Damien Dempsey has had a go, especially with his broadsides against clerical sex abuse ('Industrial School') and the heroin epidemic that has large swathes of our cities in its grip ('Ghosts of Overdoses'). But there are still too many shades of green in his music for my liking.

You might also point to the title track of Paul Cleary's Crooked Town album, which castigated the cubs of the Celtic Tiger for their racist attitudes towards our immigrants. Yes, but that was eight years ago.
Do any of the modern day troubadours have the spirit of Cathal Coughlan coursing through their veins? They appear to be few and far between -- but I believe Jinx Lennon is one. I like the cut of his jib. He called one of his albums 30 Beacons Of Light For A Land Full Of Spite, Thugs, Drug Slugs And Energy Vampires, which I'm sure is a favourite on the playlists of 4FM.

The follow-up, Know Your Station Gouger Station!!! featured a photo of our hero laying prostrate by the side of an anonymous motorway. A star of the County Louth, Jinx distinguishes himself from his peers by refusing to sing in the mid-Atlantic twang that has become the industry standard.

Instead, Jinx's accent is unapologetically -- and unmistakably -- hewn from the sod of Dundalk. So much so that you half expect him to declare, a la Stan, 'I'm the gaa-ffer -- what I say goes' . . . an observation which I'm sure will earn me a clip round the ear next time I find myself anywhere near Termonfeckin. (But I plead diplomatic immunity: my dad's an Ardee man!)

Jinx's trademark get-up of snazzy suit and shades would make him look like a door-to-door Mormon or shady FBI spook if it wasn't for his habit of Tipp Ex-ing his sunglasses with his latest slogan -- which instead makes one think of Northern agit-pop masters That Petrol Emotion (who pulled a similar trick on the cover of their Babble album). More than the Petrols, though, Jinx seems closer to an Emerald version of New York troubadour-poet Hammell On Trial, with whom he has toured here.

Jinx's new album Trauma Themes, Idiot Times -- released yesterday on his own Septic Tiger label -- thrusts a steel-capped Doc Marten into the underbelly of 21st century Hibernia. From heartless taxi drivers watching passively as their passenger is knocked down, to the soullessness of the new-sprung ghost estates in the greater Dublin commuter belt, Jinx casts a withering eye on modern Irish life -- and decides that, yes, it's mostly rubbish.

Combining the soap box with the beat box, Jinx is part manic street preacher, part Mike 'Streets' Skinner. He defends the right of isolated old people to defend their homes from burglars; he decries the soccer hooligans of his home town. In 'Folk Music For The Midlands', he casts a cold eye on life in a part of the country that, Pure Mule apart, has been largely neglected by our songwriters and filmmakers (with good reason, says you). From the lonely old pensioner stuffing her mattress with wads of bank notes to the smug nouveau riche upstarts, Jinx paints a picture of a people full of fear and (self) loathing.
The factories in 'Ascend! Ice House Hill' belch out carcinogenic smoke and rats with brain tumours lie dead in the ditches; sinister gangs of alcoholic middle-aged men with perverted sexual tendencies lurk on the outskirts of town . . . Local women go missing, never to be seen again.

As for the general public at large, Jinx doesn't much like what he sees "all through the offices and restaurants": "You're not even 23, and you've already got the sourball, blank, puppet, stupid, quarry-stone grey, taxi man face."

As chat-up lines go, I'd say it needs a bit of work. To be fair, there are moments where Jinx puts down the loud-hailer and tries a little tenderness, usually with 'Miss Paula Flynn' (she who sang that silky cover of Bowie's 'Let's Dance' on a TV ad) in tow to soften those Louth vowels. 'The Ferris Wheel at Dowdallshill' is positively romantic.

The worry for Jinx is that the populace, jaded from the endless drip of bad news stories from the front line of the Recession, will run a million miles from anyone banging on about life as it's really lived in this banana republic.

Somehow, though, I can't quite see Jinx queuing up for the next round of X Factor auditions. Jinx Lennon – Trauma Themes Idiot Times – (Septic Tiger)

IRISH TIMES /THE TICKET
Trauma Themes Idiot Times Septic Tiger Records
It’s impossible to decide whether Jinx Lennon is a poet, a chancer or simply a daft scoundrel. He’s
certainly a character, one endearingly out of step with the mainstream. Think John Cooper Clarke atop a beer-crate soapbox on a dreary Friday night in Dundalk. Nevertheless, the Louthman revels in eccentricity, and his latest album brandishes more of his unique social commentary. Vocalist Miss Paula Flynn provides the occasional melodic flourish, but Lennon’s lyrical deftness, combining comedy and tragedy in one fell swoop, means that the mostly jazz-poptinged soundtrack is ultimately trifling. Regardless, Jinx is a true individual, and there will always be a place for him – or at least
someone like him – in Irish music. www.jinxlennon.com
LAUREN MURPHY

TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES: ALAN JACQUES - LIMERICK INDEPENDENT
If the Louth noisemaker’s last album ‘Know Your Station Gouger Nation’ was a ‘King Lear’-like ‘madness before the storm’ epiphany with dark swirling clouds casting an ominous shadow over modern Ireland, then this time round Jinx uses that very same psychosis as a means of self-preservation as he dances rabidly on the Celtic Tiger’s mangy and reeking pelt.
With rapid economic growth in Ireland during the nineties and noughties we were happy to sell our souls for sunshine holidays, houses with two cars in the driveway, nights on the beer, golf club membership, lapdances and IKEA furniture.

Dundalk legend Jinx Lennon, a revolutionary musical figure compared by actor Keith Allen as “a cross between Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, and Ian Paisley” tolled the death knell for our boom times with intelligent and witty lyrics spat out at a bullet pace in a thick and deadly border-town brogue.

Now that the party’s well and truly over, Lennon is back with a new album ‘Trauma Themes Idiot Times’ examining our spiritual deadness and how we have turned into an Island of ‘Invasion of the Bodysnatchers’/’Stepford Wives’ type entities. However, this is no bleak winge-fest of a record but an uplifting call to arms for every Irish man, woman and child to redeem themselves of that ‘gimme gimme’ mentality and dig deep within their souls to find true hope and purpose.

In his own words this unique and inspiring artist explains, “These sounds are not just for those tired of listening to the empty heads, but also for the helicopter Icarus people who crash land back to earth in these Idiot Times”.

‘Trauma Themes’ is a much darker record than ‘Know Your Station Gouger Nation’. Throughout the album Jinx comes across like a bacon and cabbage-chomping version of Patrick Bateman, the well-groomed serial killer from Bret Easton Ellis’s ‘American Psycho’ novel. There is a claustrophobic atmosphere to most of the songs here as we are lured into the murky and unhinged corners of a mind tormented and suffocated by loneliness and frustration brought on by the apathetic nature of the world around it.

“I am institutionalised behind walls/ my house is like a purgatory box/ I use a machine of plastic, steel and glass to take me to nasty places I haven’t seen before/ without leaving my room,” Jinx earnestly confesses on ‘My Head Is Slowly Disappearing Up My Own Arzzzz’.

A visionary and poetic lyricist, Lennon walks that fine line between madness and genius as he delivers lunatic bursts of exhilarating social commentary filled with rawness and rage. But he needn’t worry about his own sanity as it soon becomes evident on ‘Everyone’s Got A Mental Home Inside Their Heads’ that he does not hold the exclusive rights on crazy.

“There’s no need to walk round town like you are a SIM Card in a new range of phobias/ Cos no matter what you do or where you go/ There is one thing that quickly becomes apparent and that is/ Everyone’s got a mental home inside their heads,” he assures us adamantly.

A man who believes in standing up for his rights, Jinx Lennon is a formidable foe that is not to be crossed. A true maverick, this punk-poet messiah has a distinct style and forceful energy that would slay you as fast as look at you with its provocative out of step beats, incendiary one-chord riffs and hot-headed bullhorn rants. He has the ghosts of Muhammad Ali, Che Guevara and Ian Dury riding in his corner so God help you if you tried to break into his Pearse Park bachelor pad. He stoutheartedly opines on ‘Protect Thyself And Home’ that everyone should be entitled to protect themselves in their own house.
“If someone breaks into your house to murder you/ You should be entitled to stick a knife in their eye and say/ Listen if one of us is going to die/ It’s not going to be me,” he proclaims with a serene calmness that would give you goosebumps.

Thankfully Miss Paula Flynn is on hand on tracks such as the poignant ‘The Ferris Wheel At Dowdallshill’ and ‘The Orange Cranes of Greenore’ to help subdue the murderous fury that streams out of Jinx’s every pore. And while her soft and sultry tones add a wonderful sense of creepiness to ‘Trauma Themes’ it quickly becomes apparent that there is no containing this barking headbanger.

He takes a swipe at nonchalant protesters on ‘Big Protest Day’ with his insightful glimpse into the psyche of people who turn out to support trendy causes just to be part of the crowd. “What is this protest about anyway? / Oh cluster bombs/ Well isn’t that nice/ And maybe later on we can get to the sales before the shops all close.”

On ‘The Men Who Saved The Face Of Football’, one of the album’s 16 highlights, it’s boorish and pea-brained football hooligans that feel the crappy end of Jinx’s stick.

While elsewhere the Mark E Smith-tinged ‘Taxi Man Face’ lets fly at the indifference of today’s society and how our selfish wants zap our lust for life. “You had a red face eager beaver/ Now you are no longer a believer/ Now you are full of rust/ You don’t believe you are going to the road to damnation/ But you must,” Jinx warns in a chipper tone like a man just gagging for the opportunity to gun down these mopish sheep.
Jinx Lennon jumps from genre to genre — electro, folk, chant, rap, and poetry — at breakneck pace. ‘Trauma Themes Idiot Times’ is a record that steadfastly refuses to be pigeonholed and while there is no question that Jinx’s ubiquitous style is an acquired taste; with music this original and rousing on the menu, you’d be an absolute idiot to not at least try and relish its mouthwatering flavours.
(5/5)

ANALOGUE MAGAZINE TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES BY KARL MC DONALD
One of Ireland’s less grumpy musical poets Mumblin’ Deaf Ro once talked about disrupting the small set of perspectives that music deals in, by writing from new perspectives. The idea was that breaking up the cosy relationship between the self-regarding “I” and the imaginary female “you” would help little-respected song lyrics move forward, and be a little more like literature. On his fourth album, Jinx Lennon goes a way towards fulfilling that mission. Over beats that are sometimes surprisingly catchy, he writes songs about the Other side of modern life - not so much angry complaints, which are plentiful and pouring out of everyone from Green Day to Lily Allen, but “awkward and real” criticisms. Rather than shouting nihilistically, Lennon seems to simply shine a light on things-as-they-are and say “see for yourself”. It works.

Some of the “trauma themes”: The fact that a football team is not a satisfactory replacement for actually living a worthwhile life, in ‘The Men Who Saved The Face of Football’. A study of the “don’t get involved” phenomenon of the unconcerned modern world in the particularly Fall-like ‘Taxi Man Face’. Sticking a knife in the eye of a house invader in ‘Protect Thyself And Thy Home’. Anything is potential subject matter.
It’s also a little refreshing just to hear the voice of the towns - a guy who speaks in a fairly thick Louth accent and makes no apology for it. There is no secondarity about it, no effort to squeeze through some sort of US/UK/urbane mould. Who else would bother with ‘Folk Music For The Midlands’, as Lennon does on the tenth track of this album? Where else are you going to hear about places like Oriel Park, Dowdallshill, Delvin Co. Westmeath or the De La Salle school from Ravensdale Forest? Or “mormons on bikes and in pairs” or even “some bollocks from Jonesboro I did an electronics course with”?

I suppose part of Jinx Lennon’s project is to make poetry out of those places and those people. There’s nothing that says they’re not worthy, and Lennon follows in a proud line of Irish poets and writers from Patrick Kavanagh through to John McGahern and Patrick McCabe by writing about them. That’s the way to get to “modern Ireland”, you see. You can’t just work in generalisations. You have to dig a little, notice things outside Dublin 2. Jinx Lennon, as much as anyone else, is writing the story of this country. Romantic Ireland is long gone and all but forgotten. What’s there now is a “tape recorder/answering machine/type voice”, a blankness with “rusted Pope’s medals” and memories of Italia 90 keeping people linked to a time long ago, but little else to permeate the bullshit of housing estates and “selfish stupid automatons”.

It’s not just a gloomy State of the Nation address though. It’s also incredibly funny, in a very dark way. And its songs, some of which come complete with potentially shout-along choruses, are eminently listenable. Which is convenient, because it’s almost important that people listen to this record, so that they can have the proverbial “one good look at themselves” in Jinx’s nicely polished looking glass.

JOHN MEAGHER IRISH INDEPENDENT
TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES
The punk-poet from Dundalk is one of the country's singular talents. Once you've heard Jinx Lennon's acerbic, witty words, you're unlikely to confuse him with anyone else. His spoken-word 'songs' can pack quite a punch. He has made his name dissecting the ills of modern society, and there's no let up on this 16-track album as he offers his unflinching take on malevolent nightclub bouncers and football hooligans.

I would recommend seeing this man in action -- this album certainly suggests the live experience is not to be missed -- but as an album, this will have very limited appeal once heard, absorbed and appreciated. Maybe that's just me. **

CONNECTED MAGAZINE
Jinx Lennon Trauma Themes For
Idiot Times *****
A punk poet in the vein of John Cooper Clarke, Jinx Lennon's one of Ireland's greatest living storytellers – a comedian, a preacher, a troubadour and a rebel but, overall, a Celtic Tiger philosopher. Track two, 'My Head Is Slowly Disappearing Up My Own Arzzz' sets the tone wonderfully. 'Protect Thyself And Home' argues that everyone has the right to 'stick a knife into the eye' of burglars. Nobody can listen to Jinx Lennon and not be affected. Instantly he becomes your best friend, your blood-brother, your cooler cousin; giving priceless advice in this f**ked up world

CLARE PEOPLE
Trauma Themes Idiot Times
Jinx Lennon -Trauma Themes Idiot Times
8/10
There is no one – and I mean no one – in Ireland making music quite like Jinx Lennon. With the release of his latest album the Louth poet come punk-songster it finally stretched his legs, ready to take flight.
And if ever their was an artist who possessed the ability to diagnose a nation in the middle of a nervous breakdown it’s Lennon.

The tone is set early with the deliciously self deprecating ‘My Head Is Slowly Disappearing Up My Own Arzzz’. What follows is 16 songs of anger and pain, fantasy and joy – no holds barred, no ideas left unchallenged, no feeling left unhurt.

But the key is that hand-in-hand with the punk-poetry comes a soundscape that is immensely listenable. Much of the credit for this must go to the increasing prominence of Miss Paula Flynn - you remember, the girl who sand ‘Lets Dance’ on the Ballygowan advert.

True, this album is still unlikely to get too many spins at your local club but you can easily listen to Trauma Themes Idiot Times without feeling like you’ve been through a soul destroying sermon.
Andrew Hamilton

SUNDAY BUSINESS POST
Jinx Lennon Trauma Themes Idiot Times
Louthmouth is back. Jinx Lennon, the soi-disant punk poet from Dundalk, has returned with a fourth album which, as ever, casts him as a sort of border version of John Cooper-Clarke, only with even rougher edges and less polish.

To a backdrop of simple, no frills garage rock, Lennon belts his yarns of Louth life out in a pleasingly unsanitised Dundalk accent, even if you find yourself thinking once or twice that Steve Staunton has wandered into the studio. But there’s a surprising amount of anger here – Protect Thyself And Home advocates murdering anyone who breaks into your house, Taxi Man Face ridicules an ageing cab driver ‘‘full of rust’’ in ‘‘a soft dull place’’, and Big Protest Day is a broadside at barricade-manning marchers who don’t even know what they’re railing against. The rough-and-ready nature of much of the music is a big problem: the bellowed, wordless chorus of Everyone’s Got a Mental Home Inside their Head sounds totally silly, and The Ferris Wheel at Dowdallshill is simply a hastily-strummed mess. You can imagine a lot of this stuff being much more effective in a live setting, so it’s no surprise that Lennon is renowned for being a fine on-stage performer – another thing he has in common with Cooper-Clarke, whose records have never matched the glory of his gigs. *** J O’B

::: Upcoming Irish Dates :::
LIVE AT THE MARQUEE -- June 18th, 2009 ~ Docklands, Cork ~ Info on www.aikenpromotions.com
LIVE IN THE PARK - June 19th, 2009 ~ Donard Park, Newcastle Co. Down ~ Info on www.planetlovemusic.com
SLANE CASTLE - Supporting OASIS -- June 20th, 2009 ~ Slane, Co. Meath ~ Info on www.mcd.ie

Back at the top of their game with the release of their 5th album ‘Invaders Must Die’ (which went straight in at No. 1 and is already one of the best selling album this year), The Prodigy get ready to release the all out monster ‘Warriors Dance’.

One of the many highlights of the album, ‘Warriors Dance’ is old skool Prodigy – a grizzly mix of 91’ hardcore warehouse rave and ecstatic diva vocals only catapulted confidently into the modern age. The perfect reminder that yes, there have been a fair few pretenders attempting to emulate them in recent years, but quite simply … no one does or could ever sound like The Prodigy.

The band are about to embark on a sold out arena tour, taking in two Wembley Arenas and have just announced a third date at 02 Academy Brixton on April 18th. This will be an all night affair with support from Dizzee Rascal, Kissy Sellout and Chase And Status. Tickets are priced at £35 and go on sale Thursday 26th March.

With the deal signed, there was no holding back a band that have been together since they met in college. Brilliant up and coming Irish producer Ciaran Bradshaw took the band through Beechpark & Suite studios to produce a fantastic album of brilliant song writing.

Debut single VIDEOTAPES was released as a digital only release charting at No: 15 on the iTunes Top 100 and No: 2 on the iTunes Rock chart making the track the highest ranking Irish track that week. The Single also charted at No: 41 in the main Irish charts, an incredible feat for a download only debut single.

Despite the initial chart success, it is on stage where The Chapters really come into their own, having sold out their Dublin return at the Academy 2 on April 30th, they now embark on a nationwide tour in support of their debut album. The tour includes;

June 1st -- Greystones Theatre, Greystones
June 6th -- De Barras, Clonakilty
June 14th -- Cyprus Avenue, Cork
June 18th -- Whelans, Dublin
June 19th -- The Stables, Mullingar
June 26th -- Electric Avenue, Waterford (w/Floyd Soul & The Wolf)
August 1st -- Castlepalooza Festival, Tullamore
August 2nd -- INDIE-PENDENCE Festival, Mitchelstown

Many more live dates and Instores to be confirmed!

What the Press said:

“The Chapters find themselves nicely positioned somewhere between Smog & Talking Heads, a rug cutting piece of funk punk” 4/5 – Kevin Courtney, The Irish Times

“The next big thing in 2009” - Claire Connellan – 98 FM

“Sh*t Hot” – Sinister Pete – Phantom FM

“Something of a best kept secret, they could be your new favourite band, just give them a try” – Gareth Maher – Totally Dublin

“….one of the best things to come out of Ireland in years…great songs that set the bar higher then its been in a long time … they have what it takes for the long haul…” – Niall Stokes – Hotpress

The Chapters debut album Perfect Stranger is one of the best Irish albums to be released this year. You only need to listen to it to believe!

::: LIVE ::: 2009 Irish Tour
May 4 Dublin, Whelan's (upstairs)
May 5 Galway, Roisin Dubh
May 6 Cork, Cyprus Avenue
May 7 Belfast, Errigle Inn
May 8 Roscrea, Leap Castle

“FOLKSONG” - THE NEW 2 DISC SET FEATURING A LIVE DVD RECORDED IN CALIFORNIA AT THE MAVERICK SALOON AND AN AUDIO CD FEATURING FOUR NEWLY RECORDED SONGS INCLUDING “ WHEN THE LILACS ARE IN BLOOM” AND “NEVER FAR FROM MY HEART” IS NOW AVAILABLE.

Coming up in spring 2009, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion will release two new projects including Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family's "Daddy's Shoes" and "Folksong," a live HD DVD capturing their unforgettable Valentine's Day 2008 show at Tales from The Tavern at The Maverick Saloon in Santa Ynez, California.

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family's "Daddy's Shoes" invites four generations of Guthries and Seegers to sing, play and clap along to 13 newly recorded children songs. "Daddy's Shoes" features previously unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics set to three new songs, two traditional children songs and nine original compositions written by Sarah Lee Guthrie and her husband Johnny Irion. Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Tao Rodriguez Seeger, Johnny Irion and seven grandkids contribute guitar, ukulele, banjo, autoharp and vocals amidst Sarah Lee's beautiful voice. Carrying on the Guthrie tradition of timeless family friendly songs, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family's "Daddy's Shoes" is a playful and charming set of down-home, country-folk tunes fit for an assortment of family occasions.

"Folksong" is a 2 disc set featuring a HD DVD film of Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion's Valentine's Day set at the Maverick Saloon and an accompanying audio-only CD of the 13 songs performed that special evening. "Folksong" includes four new compositions and highlights the duos' caressing harmonies, high-lonesome folk melodies and unadorned American roots music.

American “Rockgrass” raconteurs, Hayseed Dixie, are releasing a retrospective of their 9 year, 7 album career,
titled: Golden Shower of Hits: The Very Best of Hayseed Dixie

For Information / Interview requests / Promotional Copies contact Stevo Berube
Berube Communications: info@berubecommunications.com or phone 087-244-2695

Blending together exceptional musical skill with extreme irreverence and brash humor, Hayseed Dixie have performed over 1,000 live shows in 21 different countries since forming in the Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern United States in the Fall of 2000.

Since the release of their first album, “A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC,” in April of 2001, critics and audiences alike have been extremely divided on Hayseed Dixie, either absolutely loving the band or absolutely hating them. And that suits the band just fine. As singer Barley Scotch says regarding record reviews, “I don’t give a damn about the opinions of people who don’t have to pay for their records. But either way, we play music that we like to play while we’re drinking beer – we do it for ourselves and all the other beer drinkers around the world. And since we’ve sold over 600,000 albums worldwide, that tells me there are a lot of beer drinkers out there.”

Golden Shower of Hits collects 18 of the most popular songs from the band’s previous 7 studio albums, featuring classic original songs such as the tender love ballad, “I’m Keeping Your Poop (In a Jar)” along with their rockgrass reinterpretations of songs from acts as diverse as AC/DC, Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Green Day and Scissor Sisters.

Whether simplemindedly dismissed as a novelty or wisely heralded as musical pioneers, this album is a testament to Hayseed Dixie’s perseverance and endurance for nearly a decade as they continue to do what they love: get stark-raving plastered and rock out in their own unique and inimitable way.

From the fertile valley of Deer Lick Holler, deep in the heart of Appalachia, comes a sound that is old yet new. In an area completely isolated from outside cultural and musical influence, this band of acoustic musicians grew up playing the traditional music of their forefathers. Then, as fate would have it, one crisp fall afternoon a stranger passed through the holler. Well, he almost passed through.

Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for appreciators of great music worldwide, the stranger crashed his muscle car into a stately old oak tree at Devil's Elbow curve. Sadly, the stranger expired, but his legacy lives on. In the back seat of his car the boys found a box of old vinyl records as they went through his belongings looking for some identification. The name of the band on the records was AC/DC, and though all they had on which to listen to them was an old Edison Victrola that only played at 78 R.P.M., the boys all agreed that it was mighty fine country music - a bit different, but mighty fine just the same.

In memory of the stranger who had perished, the boys set about learning these new songs, injecting elements of their own traditional mountain style. And thus, from these unlikely beginnings, an entirely new musical and cultural synthesis was set in motion. Rockgrass was born. As if the Creator Himself had uttered, "Let there be Rockgrass!"

HAYSEED DIXIE are … Barley Scotch - singer, fiddle, guitar / Dale Reno – mandolin / Don Wayne Reno – banjo

STEVE EARLE
"Townes"
Irish Release on May 15, 2009 on New West Records

www.steveearle.com ~ www.myspace.com/steveearlemusic ~ www.newwestrecords.com

15-SONG SET COMPRISED OF SONGS WRITTEN BY THE LEGENDARY SINGER-SONGWRITER,
::: TOWNES VAN ZANDT :::

Features Guest Appearances by TOM MORELLO (Rage Against The Machine, The Nightwatchmen), ALLISON MOORER, and appearing on a Steve Earle Record for the first time, JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

Steve Earle is set to release Townes, his highly anticipated follow up to the Grammy Award winning album Washington Square Serenade, on May 12th via New West Records. The 15-song set is comprised of songs written by Earle’s friend and mentor, the late singersongwriter, Townes Van Zandt. Townes will also be available as a deluxe two-CD set, as well as double Limited Edition 180 gram vinyl.

The album was produced by Earle at his home in Greenwich Village, at Sound Emporium and Room and Board in Nashville, TN and The Nest in Hollywood, CA. The track “Lungs,” was produced and mixed by the Dust Brothers’ John King and features Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/The Nightwatchman on electric guitar. Earle’s wife, the acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, is featured on backing vocals on “Loretta” and “To Live Is To Fly.” Three songs cut in Nashville, “White Freightliner Blues,” “Delta Momma Blues,” and “Don’t Take It Too Bad” feature a bluegrass band consisting of Dennis Crouch, Tim O’Brien, Darrel Scott and Shad Cobb.

Earle met Townes Van Zandt in 1972 at one of Earle’s performances at The Old Quarter in Houston, TX. Van Zandt was in the audience and playfully heckled Earle throughout the performance to play the song “Wabash Cannonball” Earle admitted that he didn’t know how to play the tune and Van Zandt replied incredibly “You call yourself a folksinger and you don’t know ‘Wabash Cannonball?’” Earle then silenced him by playing the Van Zandt song “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold,” not an easy feat due to its quickly-paced mouthful of lyrics squeezed into just over two minutes of song. Their bond was immediately formed. On Townes, Earle and his son, singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle (named after Van Zandt) trade verses on the tune, a song the two of them have been playing together since Justin was a teenager.

The songs selected for Townes were the ones that meant the most to Earle and the ones he personally connected to (not including selections featured on previous Earle albums). Some of the selections chosen were songs that Earle has played his entire career (“Pancho and Lefty,” “Lungs,” “White Freightliner Blues”) and others he had to learn specifically for recording. He learned the song “(Quicksilver
Daydreams of) Maria” directly from Van Zandt, and taught himself “Marie” and “Rake” specifically for the album’s recording. Once a song he played during his live show, Earle relearned “Colorado Girl” in the original Open D tuning that Van Zandt played it in. Earle recorded the New York sessions solo and then added the other instruments later on in order to preserve the spirit of Van Zandt’s original solo
performances to the best of his recollection.

When speaking about Townes, Earle stated, “This may be one of the best records I’ve ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter’s feelings. Then again, it’s some consolation that I cherry picked through the career of one of the best songwriters that ever lived.”

Since leaving The Cranberries, who sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, O’Riordan has been splitting her time between Dublin and Ontario, Canada. Her interests in life extend far beyond her musical abilities; she is a devoted wife and mother to four beautiful children, and is also a gifted visual artist.

As the M.I.S. recording and songwriting process has evolved, so has the live show. It has developed from simply "pushing buttons" to incorporating a live drummer, bassist and DJ. In the past year, M.I.S. has brought the band to rock stages from Central Park Summer Stage in New York City all the way out to Japan, and the group will be performing at this years prestigious Coachella Music Festival in California in April.

In the past, Lara has attended Coachella as a fan but performing for the first time has special meaning. “For me, it is part of the Mount Olympus of rock,” he explains. “This includes feats like getting covered in Rolling Stone, Spin, Q and playing Coachella, Reading and Glastonbury. Yet another dream to cross off!”

Full tracklisting as follows :

01. Cumbria
02. Alocatel
03. Yo Digo Baila
04. White Stripes
05. Hiedra Venenosa
06. Te Quiero Mucho
07. Jalale
08. Comité Culificador Part 1
09. Comité Culificador Part 2
10. Karate Kid 2
11. Reventon
12. Sinfonia Agridulce
13. Alocatel (Ad Rock remix)
14. Chiflideur

 The Broken Family Band has announced it will be releasing its seventh album, Please And Thank You in Ireland on Friday 24th April, which includes the single Salivating.

Mixed by veteran producer George Shilling, Please and Thank You is, according to singer and lyricist Steve Adams, an album loosely centred around the uncontroversial yet indeterminate idea of “being nice to people”. From its stomping opener ‘Please Yourself’, a sceptical look at hipsters (with ‘cocaine in your moustache’) offended by his cheap guitar with nods, lyrically and musically (and not accidentally) to Elvis Costello’s classic masturbation anthem ‘Pump It Up’, to its conclusion, a gentle ode to burying the hatchet, country-tinged ‘Old Wounds’ (the only trace of their folksy origins), it covers a lot of ground. The gentle ‘Mimi’ is about a beautiful girl who worked in an 'adult' shop, according to its writer, while the drably titled ‘St Albans’, effectively a short story about a man who went to the wrong place to have sex with an Eastern European girl set to an ominous melody, started out as the more exotic ‘St Petersburg’, a title that was deemed to be “unrealistic”. ‘Borrowed Time’, with its anachronistic plea to “keep on choogling, even when we’re tired”, neatly captures the band’s split personality while ‘Cinema Vs House’, a witty dissection of the eternal dating seesaw, starts sweetly and ends up as a rock juggernaut. Eight years in, The Broken Family Band have gradually shed the accordionists, the cute girl singers, the banjo players, even the American drawl, and reduced themselves to the unchanged core of Adams, bassist Gavin Johnson, guitarist Jay Williams and drummer Micky Roman. And they’ve made their best album so far.



Available on CD and as a digital download, the full track listing is as follows :

1. Please Yourself
2. Salivating
3. St. Albans
4. You Did A Bad Thing
5. Cinema vs House
6. Borrowed Time
7. Mimi
8. Don’t Bury Us
9. Stay Friendly
10. Son Of The Man
11. The Girls In This Town
12. Old Wounds

THE BROKEN FAMILY BAND is … Steve Adams (vocals/guitar) / Gavin Johnson (bass) / Jay Williams (guitar) / Micky Roman (drums)

Music and misfits always come together. An after-hours gig in a warehouse in Dublin introduced Catherine Dowling to Gerry Horan. Some years later they formed alphastates. In the hands of music composer Gerry Horan, Dowling expressed the dark comedy of the Human Condition. "Pop is a perfect avenue for human tragedy". Shy of performances and people, they hung in the background. She sang her twisted off-kilter melodies over his guitar and electro noise assaults. Other talented misfits joined the melting pot. It started simple and their only goal was to write beautiful songs.

Champagne Glass was the first single taken from their very beautiful second album "Human Nature", the follow up to their critically acclaimed "Made from Sand". "Human Nature" will be released to the public on the 24th April 2007. Already making its way to the dance floors in New York, Champagne Glass is a pop song draped in house beats but smiling through the eyes of disco. Featuring two remixes by acclaimed production duo "Arveene and Misk" and mastered by Nilesh Patel, the face behind the mastering of Daft Punk's Homework, Champagne Glass is a hook-laden pop sparkler that won't leave your head once inside.

Having toured with Cat Power, Mercury Rev, Deus, Zero 7, Sinead O'Connor, The Beta Band to name but a few, alphastates have had their music appear on both Irish and International film productions. They've played Oxegen numerous times as well as the Electric Picnic together with an a number of high profile festivals across Europe. Currently put the closing stages to the contract with their US record label, "HUMAN NATURE" is to see a release date Stateside at the end of 2009.

With music that is beautifully pop yet ethereally alternative, alphastates have the potential to leave a massive imprint.

::: LIVE ::: Friday April 3rd, 2009 - Vicar Street - Dublin

The Presidents of the United States of America has announced it will be releasing three digital EPs next year. Each EP will feature two songs, plus a brand new video. Each lead track is taken from the band’s latest album, These Are The Good Times People (Released Backin March 2008).

Full digital EP tracklistings and release dates below:

Monday 26th January – Ladybug EP
1. Ladybug
2. Rooftops In Spain
3. Ladybug video

Monday 23rd February – More Bad Times EP
1. Bad Times
2. Ballad of the Unstoppable Female (The Anna Nicole Smith Story)
3. Bad Times video

Monday 30th March – Rot In The Sun EP
1. Rot In The Sun
2. Scrappy Puppy
3. Rot In The Sun video


Since the Seattle-based trio first burst into the public eye in 1995 with its twice Grammy-nominated eponymous debut – on the strength of radio smashes like “Lump” and “Peaches” – the band has been serving out its trademark joy-pop to crowds worldwide ever since. Their latest offering, These Are The Good Times People is an inventive, uplifting and often brilliant rock & roll album. Recorded with Northwest legends The Fastbacks’ and Young Fresh Fellows own Kurt Bloch (Robyn Hitchcock, Mudhoney, Les Thugs) and mixed by Martin Feveyear (Screaming Trees, The Epoxies, Amber Pacific), PUSA dig deep and pull off their most diverse and accomplished record yet, which shares the landscape with recent acclaimed efforts by like-minded groups The Hives and They Might Be Giants. PUSA’s eponymous debut album continues to thrive as an enduring modern rock disc since peaking at #6 on the Billboard Top 200.

::: Upcoming Irish Dates :::
LIVE AT THE MARQUEE -- June 18th, 2009 ~ Docklands, Cork ~ Info on www.aikenpromotions.com
LIVE IN THE PARK - June 19th, 2009 ~ Donard Park, Newcastle Co. Down ~ Info on www.planetlovemusic.com
SLANE CASTLE - Supporting OASIS -- June 20th, 2009 ~ Slane, Co. Meath ~ Info on www.mcd.ie

Back at the top of their game with the release of their 5th album ‘Invaders Must Die’ (which went straight in at No. 1 and is already one of the best selling album this year), The Prodigy get ready to release the all out monster ‘Warriors Dance’.

One of the many highlights of the album, ‘Warriors Dance’ is old skool Prodigy – a grizzly mix of 91’ hardcore warehouse rave and ecstatic diva vocals only catapulted confidently into the modern age. The perfect reminder that yes, there have been a fair few pretenders attempting to emulate them in recent years, but quite simply … no one does or could ever sound like The Prodigy.

The band are about to embark on a sold out arena tour, taking in two Wembley Arenas and have just announced a third date at 02 Academy Brixton on April 18th. This will be an all night affair with support from Dizzee Rascal, Kissy Sellout and Chase And Status. Tickets are priced at £35 and go on sale Thursday 26th March.

 ::: LIVE Academy 2, Dublin ~ Thurs, April 30th :::

Tickets for the Academy 2 are strictly limited and available from Ticketmaster priced at 12.50 Euro including booking fee.
www.theacademydublin.com for further details! Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.ie and www.mcd.ie

The Chapters play their first Dublin show in 8 months as they showcase debut album Perfect Stranger in the intimate setting of Academy 2 on April 30th.
Having recently become stable mates of The Coronas by signing to 3u Records and with a new Management structure in place, The Chapters have been busily putting the final touches to their debut album with proucer Ciaran Bradshaw.

For Information / Interview requests / Promotional Copies contact:
Stevo Berube / Berube Communications: info@berubecommunications.com / 0872442695
Management: Shane Dunne - shane.thechapters@gmail.com / 086 886 8612

::: Upcoming Irish Dates :::
LIVE AT THE MARQUEE -- June 18th, 2009 ~ Docklands, Cork ~ Info on www.aikenpromotions.com
SLANE CASTLE - Supporting OASIS -- June 20th, 2009 ~ Slane, Co. Meath ~ Info on www.mcd.ie

The Prodigy’s fifth studio album ‘Invaders Must Die’ has entered the Billboard European Top 100 Album Chart at #1. The chart is compiled from sales charts in 20 European countries.

The critically acclaimed album, which has been hailed as a triumphant return to form for The Prodigy, has entered the Top 5 in the Album Charts of eight European Countries.

"Invaders Must Die’ is released on the bands own imprint ‘Take Me To The Hospital’ via Cooking Vinyl. This marks a double success for the CV group as the first UK #1 for the label and for the sales division Essential Music.

Says MD Martin Goldschmidt: “After 23 years we have paid our dues - I am totally stoked!”

NEW ALBUM "Invaders Must Die"
::: Note ::: New Release Date (Ireland): 20/2/09 / The single "OMEN" Out 13/2/09
Label: Take Me To The Hospital

www.theprodigy.com

::: Upcoming Irish Dates :::
LIVE AT THE MARQUEE -- June 18th, 2009 ~ Docklands, Cork ~ Info on www.aikenpromotions.com
SLANE CASTLE - Supporting OASIS -- June 20th, 2009 ~ Slane, Co. Meath ~ Info on www.mcd.ie

The Prodigy return with the release of their fifth studio album and a free download.

‘Invaders Must Die’ is 40 minutes of having your head battered by future nostalgia, serotonin levels twisted by feel-good horrorcore and your synapses snapped by whiplash attitude. It's the sound of The Prodigy mixing up genres, contorting the past and rewiring the future, ram-raiding through the tranquility of music's status quo like a blot on the landscape of England's dreaming.

The first thing you notice about Invaders Must Die it is how complete it sounds, a consistent collection of bangers all firing from the same cannon. The next thing you notice about Invaders Must Die is just how melodic it is. Not just melody in the vocal sense but in the heyday-of-hardcore keyboard-hookline sense. Yes, if The Prodigy have learned anything from the hugely successful live shows was that those old skool rave anthems still rock hard - and are every bit as iconic to their generation as punk was to the nation's forty-somethings.

So Invaders Must Die is awash with references to the free party generation, thundering along like the mother of all E-rushes, all hairs tingling, spine jumping and lips buzzing. But not a retroactive arms-in-the-air, water-sharing nostalgia trip, but a set fuelled by punk's saliva-dripping rabid snarl. Take 'Colours', the first tune The Prodigy recorded for this set with it's 1992 polysynth riffing that sounds like The Stranglers' 'No More Heroes' parachuted into the middle of a Castlemorton circa 1992. Or 'Thunder', the 21st century bastard child of the classic 'Out of Space'.

‘Take Me To The Hospital' finds Keith and Maxim flexing over a vintage Prodigy riff. Suitably rusted, distorted and in need of urgent medication it bites like the soundtrack to Dante's Inferno. While the live favourite 'World’s On Fire' resurrects a 'flaming' theme and applies it to a groove straight out second album 'Music for the Jilted Generation. 'Omen' and ‘Warrior’s Dance’ are both beamed straight into the moshpit from rave central, while 'Piranha' rips the threads from the back of 60's garage and beats it into the filthy gutters of modern urban life.

Any old skool bonhomie floating around the riffs of this album are quickly slaughtered by 'Run With The Wolves' where The Prodigy's self-assured, gang-minded campaign turns into a maniacal, nose bleeding, heads-against-the-wall warzone. With added drum-pounding energy supplied by Dave Grohl.

And finally Invaders Must Die delivers its last brilliant twist with ‘Stand Up’ a horn-led sunrise anthem that aches with the positivity of a new dawn, walking the line of a burning horizon with the swaggering look of satisfaction that only comes when you instinctively know you've achieved what you set out to do.

Cocky? Perhaps, but wouldn't you be if you'd seen off all of the invaders with your most complete album yet, the first for your own record label?

Invaders Must Die is the unique sound of The Prodigy, still breaking and entering where other's can only dream of following.

ALBUM TRACKLISTING:

01. Invaders Must Die
02. Omen
03. Thunder
04. Colours
05. Take Me To The Hospital
06. Warrior's Dance
07. Run With The Wolves
08. Omen Reprise
09. World’s On Fire
10. Piranha
11. Stand Up

BEN LEE
"Rebirth of Venus"
NITE: NEW IRISH RELEASE DATE: March 20th on New West Records

www.ben-lee.com ~ www.myspace.com/benlee ~ www.newwestrecords.com

::: LIVE :::
Sunday, March 29th 2009 – Sugar Club, Dublin
Tickets 15 Euro incl. booking fee – on sale now ~ Info on www.mcd.ie

BEN LEE PAYS TRIBUTE TO FEMININITY WITH THE REBIRTH OF VENUS

PORTION OF PROCEEDS FROM ALBUMS SOLD TO BE DONATED TO FINCA'S VILLAGE BANKING PROGRAM SUPPORTING THE WORLD'S LOWEST-INCOME WOMEN IN ENTREPRENEURIAL EFFORTS

Ben Lee dedicates his seventh studio recording to Venus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. A bold move for a man, but Ben recognizes that the strongest feminine qualities "such as compassion, nurturing, creativity, spontaneity, intuition, playfulness, tenderness and warmth...are qualities that we all, men and women, need to cultivate." The Rebirth of Venus (February 10th, 2009) was produced by Brad Wood, who also produced Ben's breakout Awake Is The New Sleep (as well as his critically acclaimed debut Grandpaw Would and sophomore album Something To Remember Me By). A portion of proceeds from albums sold will be donated to FINCA's Village Banking program. FINCA offers financial services, not charity, to the world's lowest-income women entrepreneurs. This creates jobs, builds assets and generally improves the standard of living in these destitute communities.

The album's cover re-creates Botticelli's Birth of Venus, but with a rock and roll twist. Ben is featured in the clamshell with fiancé Ione Skye and band mates as angels above him. Other musicians who appear on the album include Missy Higgins, Cary Brothers, Patience Hodgson of The Grates, Nic Johns, John Alagia (producer of Ripe) and longtime collaborators and musicians Lara Meyerratken and Nic Johns.

Ben wears his heart on his sleeve in his songs as PASTE magazine describes of Awake Is The New Sleep, "...Lee has become a writer so adept at communicating his personality through song, that it's easy to feel like you know him after just a few listens." With The Rebirth of Venus, Ben continues to let listeners get to know him while exploring the balance between masculine and feminine nature. One song on the album that exemplifies this quest is "I'm A Woman Too." Ben urges that "until we recognize that we are all made up of the same stuff, we are bound to keep hurting each other."

The Rebirth of Venus' first single, "What's So Bad (About Feeling Good)," showcases Ben's trademark pop craftsmanship and sense of humor. Complete with catchy hooks and sing-along chorus, the song features Ben's future stepdaughter on pots and pans as well as backing vocals.

Ben Lee has been living as a working musician for over half of his lifetime. Beginning at the age of 14, he has stayed grounded and spiritually focused. Aside from the honor of winning four ARIA Awards (Australia's equivalent to the Grammy), Ben has started to make regular appearances with various symphony orchestras throughout Australia. Following the first set of sold out symphony performances with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Ben will play with the Queensland Orchestra in Brisbane featuring hits such as "Catch My Disease," "Cigarettes Will Kill You," "We're All In This Together," and more. He also wrote and produced the original soundtrack to the film "The Square," which is nominated for Best Soundtrack at the 2008 AFI Awards (Australian Equivalent to the Academy Awards).

Ben's songs have been used in over 30 film, TV and commercial syncs off his last two albums. In the last year he's had syncs on "Grey's Anatomy," "One Tree Hill," and Kohl's Department Stores in the US and Coca Cola internationally. His music was also recently used in the trailer for "He's Just Not That Into You," starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Anniston, Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson. Awake is the New Sleep (Ben's first release for New West Records) garnered rave reviews, career-high worldwide sales, and a hit in the track "Catch My Disease." The album went Double Platinum in Australia, where the single went on to become the first ever independently released #1 radio song in Australian history and went Top 10 in Canada, Spain and the Benelux, and Top 20 in the US.

The Rebirth of Venus Track Listing:
1. What's So Bad (About Feeling Good)
2. Surrender
3. Sing
4. I Love Pop Music
5. Rise Up
6. Yoko Ono
7. Boy With A Barbie
8. Bad Poetry
9. Blue Denim
10. Wake Up To America
11. I'm A Woman Too
12. Families Cheating At Board Games
13. Song For The Divine Mother of the Universe

::: LIVE ::: Jinx Lennon - Irish Tour Dates

19 March Sugar Club, Dublin - Special guests: Captain Moonlight and Stephen James Smith
20 March Pavilion, Cork - Special guests: Cajun punks Los Langeros
21 March Spirit Store, Dundalk Special guest Acoustic Dan
03 April Glen Centre, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim
13 April Roisin Dubh, Galway
17 April De Barras, Clonakilty, Co. Cork
01 May - CQAF, Belfast

IN HIS OWN WORDS: An awful man Jinx stands at the outer edge of the periphery of the Hibernian music machine picking the dirt beneath the fingernails of fading septic tiger landscape while the larvae practise their new voices in their bedrooms in front of mirror contemplating visualization for the mid Atlantic voiced shiny ''discover me'' dream that will enable them to become new chrysalis transformation and escape. Jinx once lay horizontally in early am before school unconsciously soaking up the neo nuclear 4 minute warning sirens of the nearby factory 8 am work shift cattle round up, and the spooky echoes of metallic brewery noise and far off railway line vibrato ghosts. Now he pulls out these cranial archives into new shapes and TRAUMA THEMES of word and sound along with the rage built up from border town omnipresent soccer fascism environment and mundane assembly line worlds where hard chaw lads and doomed faced women walked along the conveyor belt towards cement block Invasion of Body snatchers / Stepford Wives package existence. JINX LENNON FREE STATE NOVA is an Irish wordsmith here to primarily uplift people and squash the unseen energy vampires in all myriad forms. Making room to weave some modicum of hope and dignity Jinx is the dying light in the red leech face of disgraced solicitor contrite and pleading now no longer poster boy for the gimme gimmes, but he brings the message that one must try their best to FORGIVE THE C***S and move upwards. These sounds are not just for those tired of listening to the empty heads, but also for the helicopter Icarus people who crash land back to earth in these IDIOT TIMES.

This album deals with isolation, the sort that transforms people and leads them into difficult situations, it also deals with themes of spiritual deadness and being aware of this fact in oneself before one turns into a lifeless Invasion of the Bodysnatchers / Stepford Wives type entity. It’s slightly darker than the other records I have made so far.

Jinx Lennon is a punk / poet / performance artist whose repertoire contains elements of spoken word, electro, social commentary with a rage and rawness that is complimented by Jinx's stage partner Miss Paula Flynn and her magnificent voice.

Tracklisting

1/ TRAUMA THEMES INTRO 2/ MY HEAD IS SLOWLY DISAPPEARING UP MY OWN ARZZZ 3/ EVERYONE'S GOT A MENTAL HOME I.T.H. 4/ PROTECT THYSELF AND HOME 5/ SPLATTERED EGGS
6/ THE MEN WHO SAVED THE FACE OF FOOTBALL 7/ FUNERAL FAYSIS 8/ TAXI MAN FACE 9/ THE FERRIS WHEEL AT DOWDALLSHILL 10/ FOLK MUSIC FOR THE MIDLANDS 11/ THE ORANGE CRANES OF GREENORE 12/ 40 F/GLAZED I CLUB 13/ BIG PROTEST DAY 14/ YOU C'ANT KEEP EVERYONE HAPPY 15/ AWKWARD AND REAL 16/ ASCEND! ICEHOUSE HILL

“Brimming over with words, intelligence, humour, badly sampled beats and scary proselytizing...
...But much better” – Everett True

''A brilliant soul singer, a cross between Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, and Ian Paisley!'' -- Keith Allen - Actor - in MOJO Magazine

''The best lyricist in Ireland' -- Damien Dempsey - Musician

“Bow Lilliputians and pay due homage!” -- Patrick Mc Cabe - Author

The New studio album from Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club entitled: ‘The Beautiful Untrue’ is scheduled to be released in Ireland on April the 24th.

The album features some extraordinary guest vocal performances from two of Irelands up and coming female singers Imelda May and Carol Keogh (Automata, Tychonaut).

The first Single to be taken from ‘The Beautiful Untrue’ entitled ‘Back to Before’ (feat. Carol Keogh) Will be released to radio mid March and available on itunes as a download only single.

Produced by Jerry Fish, Recorded by Dick Meaney (The Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine) and Mixed by Phil Hayes ( The Cake Sale, Bell X1)

"The Beautiful Untrue" is the follow-up to the multi-platinum "Be Yourself" (2002) which featured no less than four chart hits,

including the immensely popular single “True Friends” which was used as the soundtrack for the Vodafone TV commercials.

March 01, Sunday - Spirit Store - Dundalk
March 02, Monday - Cyrpus Ave - Cork
March 03, Tuesday - Whelans - Dublin
March 04, Wednesday - The Empire - Belfast

The Critically Acclaimed New Album “SOAP AND WATER” out now on Cooking Vinyl (Reviews below). Featuring the singles "The FRECKLE SONG" and "WOULD YOU LOVE ME?"

"Even in this iPod era, albums can be journeys of discovery. When I started out on Soap and Water I was armed with a huge admiration for San Francisco-based guitarist and songwriter Chuck Prophet, his work with seminal alt. everything band Green on Red, and his large body of solo work. Soap and Water, however, seemed cloaked in obscurity and the music was oddly rootless. A few dozen plays later and there is not a track I'd change - though I might argue a backing vocal here or a guitar lick there. This is a monumental album of constant surprise, chilled intelligence and quietly assured song writing skill, singing, playing and production. Prophet has said it was inspired by wayward rock icon Alex Chilton, but I also hear Randy Newman's caustic amusement at the human condition, especially on the epic New Kingdom. Wonderful, but time is required."
~ FIVE out of FIVE Stars ***** - Joe Breen - Irish Times

“The odd electronic beat may beef up Prophet’s swampy blues and dusty country, but his ninth solo album is lavish and haunting, from the post-punk attitude of Doubter Out Of Jesus (All Over You) to Freckle Song’s bog riffing.” – “The best work of his career” ~ Q Magazine / ****, Q Recommends

 

Tracklisting:

Alcoholics Unanimous
DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake
The Passenger
Am I Normal?
What A Rush.
Demons Out!
Slap Dash For No Cash'
The Replacements
Twist And Shout
Summer Job
Mysterious Bruises

 Influential Kells-based band reconvene with a new album and live dates around the country.

::: LIVE :::
29 March - Sun - Crane Lane - Cork
31 March - Tue - Roisin Dubh - Galway
01 April - Wed - Dolans Warehouse - Limerick
03 April - Fri - Spirit Store - Dundalk
04 April - Sat - Headfort Arms - Kells
07 April - Tue - Whelans - Dublin
09 April -Thu - The Backroom - Meath

Little Palace went back into the studio in 2008 to record some songs written by Michael Brunnock. "They were good songs and we all felt that there was unfinished business, so why not!" says Michael. These recordings became "Invitation Time" the new album from the band.

Previously they had released two very successful E.Ps. The debut "Beekeeper" featuring the song "Gift" produced by "Dead Can Dance" main man Brendan Perry, and the follow up "Car" which were both accompanied by extensive touring of Ireland, several dates in the U.S and some shows in Paris, France.

Long term member and co-producer Martin Quinn says of the new record "This is some of the best work we've ever done and it all came together pretty easily!"

The new album features a re-working of the very popular song "Secret" with a fine piano performance by James Quinn, also a member of the band since day one, and additional strings played by Colm Mac Con Iomaire of the Frames.

Little Palace will be releasing "Invitation Time" on April 3rd, 2009 and this will coincide with shows around the country which can be viewed on our gigs page.

Band Members
Ann-Louise Mulvany - Vocals
Michael Brunnock - Vocals/Guitars
Anthony Cregan - Vocals/Guitars/Bass
Martin Quinn - Vocals/Guitars/Bass/Keyboards/Producer
James Quinn - Piano/Keyboards
Ian Melady Drums/Percussion
David Butler - Manager

Influenced by a blend of the Pixies, Kraftwerk and Tori Amos and a sick sense of humour they recorded their debut album ‘Who Are These People?’ It was released in the summer of 2006, and was very well received by the press and radio.

 Limited Edition Double A-Side Single Featuring:
"THE DAILY SPECIAL" - the 2nd single taken from the album "GRANDSTANDING"
"HIGHS & LOWS" - their debut single which featured in the DISCOVER IRELAND TV Ad Campaign.

the laundry shop ::: LIVE :::

06 February 2009 - The Stables , Meath
10 February 2009 - NUIG, Galway
12 February 2009 - Dolan’s Upstairs, Limerick
19 February 2009 - CIT (Rag Ball) Cork
22 February 2009 - NUIG Student Bar (Rag Week), Galway
26 February 2009 - 17:00 - NUIG College (Ragweek) Student bar
26 February 2009 - 22:45 - Roisin Dubh, Galway
02 March 2009 - University Limerick (Rag Week) Limerick
09 March 2009 - Griffith College (Rag Week), Dublin
15 March 2009 - Whelans, Dublin
16 March 2009 - South by Southwest Festival 2009 - Austin, Texas

The new video for the bands "Indication Street" was shot in Dublin is Directed by cult Director Eddie King and Produced by Paul Ward.
The video cast includes “Hollywood Trials” actor Emmett J Scanlon who is currently working with Justin Timberlake for an MTV production called “The Phone” and has starred in the CSI Miami in recent weeks.

View the INDICATION STREET Video on MUZU: www.muzu.tv/savingj

Kilkenny-based purveyors of power-pop SAVING J continue to tour the country with the likes of The Coronas, The Blizzards, Ham Sandwich, winning the musical hearts of all and bouncing all over the radio waves with their blitz of quality singles. Doing it the good old fashioned way by releasing a steady flow of brilliant singles, their ‘live’ following has grown to impressive numbers. Definately one to watch!

Upcoming SAVING J Live Dates:
11 Feb 2009 Pravda, Dublin
19 Feb 2009 Limerick Institute of Technology - Rag week
24 Feb 2009 N.U.I.G. - Galway- Rag week
03 Mar 2009 W.I.T - The Dome (w/ The Blizzards), Waterford - Rag week
12 Mar 2009 O Keefes Clonmel
13 Mar 2009 Wexford Arts Cenre, Wexford
27 Mar 2009 Greystones Theatre, Wicklow
03 Apr 2009 Purty Loft, Dun Laoighaire
22 Apr 2009 Whelan’s, Dublin
More to be announced; check www.savingj.com

DOUG SHERIDAN
Releases 3 Songs "Wait A While", “Ghost For You” & “I’m on Fire”

www.myspace.com/dougsheridanmusic

"Songs >From Just Outside The House" DELUXE EDITION Out 13/03/09 on Clothes Horse Music and iTunes

Two of the featured songs from the upcoming re-issue of the critically acclaimed album "Songs From Just Outside The House" DELUXE EDITION.
New single "Wait A While" and the radio hit "Ghost For You" now available on iTunes.
'Live' favourite "I'm On Fire", a cover of the Bruce Springsteen classic, has been made available due to popular demand.

A rising new talent on the Irish scene, Doug Sheridan’s bittersweet, haunting vocal style and his heartfelt lyrics are becoming a rising force across the country. Rich with raw emotion and poignant lyrics from start to finish, it takes you on a musical journey through hope, heartbreak and despair. One to watch!

Upcoming ::: LIVE ::: Doug Sheridan Shows:
06 Feb - Bewleys Cafe Theatre, Dublin
27 Feb - Passion Fruit Theatre, Athlone
08 March - The Purty SessionsDu, Dublin
13 March - Debarras, Cork

In mid 2008 Doug Sheridan releases his first album 'Songs From Just Outside The House'. It was recorded & mixed over 15 days at Sonic Eye Studios, Dublin. "The album is loosely based on a few people in a small town. It's from their perspective. Most of them are broken people I suppose. It's what they might say if they were asked how they really feel about things"

The album came about when Doug's brother introduced him to producer Rob Mac Leod. "I'd heard some stuff Rob had recorded and we talked about the kind of album I was going for. It was an intense 15 days but it turned out really well I think. I'm very proud of it. It wasn't about getting everything in tune or in time, just about getting a feeling across & I think we got that"

REVIEWS

SOUND + VISION "Graffiti"
'this album features ten beautifully written songs, all pegged by Sheridan himself. Rich with raw emotion and poignant lyrics from start to finish, it takes you on a musical journey through hope, heartbreak and despair. Accompanied by a set of beautiful melodies, the depth of these emotions is well evident throughout the album......This album is hopefully only the first of many offerings from this amazingly talented artist – GA

THE SUN
'This is a lyrical dream - well crafted, heartfelt stories with an incredibly addictive voice. He is a breath of fresh air'

THE STAR
'Songs From Just Outside The House is full of poignant and entertaining songs. The bursts of experimental flourishes show a promising future lies ahead'

HOTPRESS
Rising new Irish talent Doug Sheridan has a set of pipes that could please the angels. His voice is raw, haunting yet utterly impressive. Songs From Just Outside The House is a collection of tunes written from the point of view of different people living in a small town (something we can all relate to) and it’s a low-fi tour de force. There are shades of Thom Yorke and Jeff Buckley throughout and at times it can get a little gloomy but it doesn’t take away from the fact that as debuts go this one is world class - 4/5 Stars ****

Updated Tracklisting for the New Deluxe Edition of "Songs From Just Outside The House":

1. After All
2. Speed Dating
3. The Shakes
4. Ghost For You
5. Hanlon's Lane
6. Wait A While
7. I Knew I Wouldn't Sleep Tonight
8. The Love Being Chased
9. Is It That Time Again
10. We Won't Talk About It
11. There's The Sun

 ALBUM PRODUCED BY DAN AUERBACH OF THE BLACK KEYS

"With the edge and attitude that Kurt Cobain possessed coupled with a rich musical family history similar to Maybelle Carter’s, Jessica Lea Mayfield is the most exciting new artist in the scene today." — Scott Avett (The Avett Brothers)

The album was recorded over a two-year span in Dan Auerbach's home studio in Akron. With Blasphemy So Heartfelt features Mayfield on acoustic guitar and vocals, Auerbach on a variety of instrumentation and Mayfield’s brother (David) on upright bass. Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken and Frank McElroy provide vocal harmonies on the track “I’m Not Lonely Anymore.” Says Auerbach of the recording experience, “I think she’s dark and moody in a mysterious way, not unlike Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.” He adds, “I’m just always really excited to make music with her.”

The 18-year old first performed with her family band One Way Rider at the age of eight. In 2007, Mayfield lent her voice to the track “Things Ain’t Like They Used To Be” on The Black Keys’ album, Attack & Release, making her the first guest vocalist to appear on any record released by The Black Keys.

On September 16, 2008 Polymer Sounds released "With Blasphemy, So Heartfelt" in the USA; the European release will be on Munich Records March 2009.

The album was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and recorded over a two-year span in his home studio in Akron, Ohio (USA).

"Jessica Lea Mayfield is the American equivalent of the wave of precocious female singer-songwriters in the British music scene. She seems old before her time, tacking lust, regret, infatuation and rejection with an all-too-adult ambivalence." - The Independent

"A companion piece to Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, the album is an extraordinary debut from an extraordinary artist." - The Sunday Times

"What would strike any listener lucky enough to experience the bluesy tones of Jessica Lea Mayfield is the astounding level of maturity which pervades the 19-year-old's 12-track debut." - The Sun

"Stick with her lucid settings, slow moans and snakey charms, and a strong, dreamy spell takes hold." - The Daily Mirror

"This Ohio teenager sings about heartbreak with a bluesy conviction and a scathing eye for detail. She is an adept acoustic guitarist, albeit one who isn't afraid to electrify her arrangements." -The Daily Mail

"A fascinating and endlessly listenable contradiction." - 8.2 out of 10 - PITCHFORK

Tracklisting:

1 Kiss Me Again
2 For Today
3 I Can’t Lie to You, Love
4 We’ve Never Lied
5 I’m NotLonely Anymore
6 Hold You Close
7 Call Me
8 Greater Heights
9 The One ThatI Love Best
10 Bible Days
11 Is This Love?
12 You’ve Won Me Over

Nitin Sawhney has announced he will be releasing a new digital single, My Soul (Radio Edit) featuring Paul McCartney, on Monday 23rd February 2009.

Taken from Sawhney’s critically acclaimed eighth studio album, London Undersound, My Soul is prefaced by McCartney referring to the people who take such photographs as having "stolen your soul" - an idea once written off as superstition, which has gained new currency in the era of celebrity culture and the concomitant rise of the paparazzi. The single also includes the previously unreleased Ek Jaan (Bob Holroyd Deep Blue Mix) featuring Reena Bhardwaj.

A limited edition of 1,500 deluxe box sets of London Undersound is available now through www.amazon.co.uk and contains the following content:

	London Undersound CD, featuring guest contributors Natty, Reena Bhardwaj, Ojos de Brujo, Anoushka Shankar, Roxanne Tataei, Tina Grace, Aruba Red, Imogen Heap, Faheem Mazhar and Paul McCartney
	London Undersound Instrumental CD, featuring unique versions of ‘Distant Dreams’ and ‘October Daze’, plus 5 diverse and eclectic mixes
	Video/data DVD containing Antony Gormley / Nitin Sawhney commentary with moving picture gallery. The DVD also contains the ‘Distant Dreams’ video and multi-track sessions files for ‘October Daze’ and ‘Last Train To Midnight’.
	2 x 12” 160gsm audiophile quality 12” vinyl of London Undersound
	36 page perfect bound catalogue of Antony Gormley drawings supplied for London Undersound
	Poster of the London Undersound front cover image by Antony Gormley

Judy Collins has thrilled audiences worldwide with her unique blend of interpretative folksongs and contemporary themes. Her impressive career has spanned more than 40 years. At 13, Judy Collins made her public debut performing Mozart's "Concerto for Two Pianos" but it was the music of such artists as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, as well as the traditional songs of the folk revival, that sparked Judy Collins' love of lyrics. She soon moved away from the classical piano and began her lifelong love with the guitar. In 1961, Judy Collins released her first album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, at the age of 22 and began a thirty-five year association with Jac Holzman and Elektra Records.

Judy Collins is also noted for her rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" on her classic 1967 album, Wildflowers. "Both Sides Now" has since been entered into the Grammy's Hall of Fame. Winning "Song of the Year" at the 1975 Grammy's Awards show was Judy's version of "Send in the Clowns," a ballad written by Stephen Sondheim for the Broadway musical "A Little Night Music."

Released on September 29th, Judy's new book, Sanity and Grace, A Journey of Suicide, Survival and Strength, is a deeply moving memoir, focusing on the death of her only son and the healing process following the tragedy. The book speaks to all who have endured the sorrow of losing a loved one before their time. In the depths of her suffering, Judy found relief by reaching out to others for help and support. Now, she extends her hand to comfort other survivors whose lives have been affected by similar tragedy.

In a recent appearance on ABC's Good Morning America, Judy performed "Wings of Angels," the heartbreaking ballad that she wrote about the loss of her son. The song is currently available on the newly released Judy Collins Wildflower Festival CD and DVD, which also feature guest artists Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush and Eric Andersen. This extraordinary concert was filmed at the famed Humphrey's By the Bay in San Diego, CA. The concert was the culmination of a 25 city national tour.

Judy Collins continues to create music of hope and healing that lights up the world and speaks to the heart.

 The Datsuns will be releasing a new digital single, So Long, on Monday 16th February. Taken from their recently released acclaimed album, Head Stunts, the track is described by singer Dolf as “catchy power pop: it’s more Cheap Trick than AC/DC, even though we’re meant to sound like Deep Purple. Maybe we’re heavier than we think. It’s very much based on that pop aesthetic, with lots of hooks.” The single will also include a new track, What’s Happening To Me?

Featuring 12 new tracks, “Head Stunts” was recorded in early 2008 in Sweden, and is self-produced. From the full-throttle opener Human Error, to the dirtbike guitars and frenzied pummelling of Yeah, Yeah, Just Another Mistake and the 70’s stomp rock of Highschool Hoodlums, the album finds the band unleashing their finest work to date. Of the album, singer Dolf says, “Lyrically it’s about mind games really, ‘Head Stunts’ is an anagram of The Datsuns. We were aware of it all along but we didn’t want to make it too obvious. We got a new member of the band on drums, Ben Cole, so it was like making our first record again, with new influences and new abilities. With a new person, we were able to feed off each other in different ways, and also revive some old ideas that did not click before. Taking those ideas, and then flipping them around, just like you do with an anagram. So I suppose there is some kind of clumsy poetry there.”

Merle Haggard
From His 1978 Performance
Waylon Jennings
From His 1984 Performance

Merle Haggard
Live From Austin, Tx
Includes CD+DVD
From His 1978 Performance on Austin City Limits
Features Five Number One Country Singles

The ‘Live From Austin, TX’ series returns with a brand new look and for the first time features CD & DVD combo packs. To celebrate the occasion they have dug deep into their vaults to retrieve some classic live sets, one of the first being Merle Haggard.

When he stepped onto the Austin City Limits stage for the very first time on that brisk January day in 1978, Merle Haggard was at the top of his game. It had been over a decade since his first national hit, Sing A Sad Song, and not that long after Okie From Muskogee had firmly planted his music in the public consciousness. He had already been declared “Entertainer of the Year” by both the Country Music Awards and Academy of Country Music – in the same year (1970). He had just released A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World (Or My Salute To Bob Wills), which sparked a revival of interest in western swing. And with his band, The Strangers, it’s no stretch to say that he had the best live show in country music of his day.

• Merle Haggard’s very first Austin City Limits performance, recorded in January 1978
• 12 different songs than previous Live >From Austin, Texas release (recorded in 1985)
• Five #1 Country singles (The Fugitive Song, Sing Me Back Home, Cherokee Maiden, The Farmer’s Daughter, and Workin’ Man Blues)#
• Features 4 classic Bob Wills (King Of Western Swing) songs with Merle on fiddle

Tracklisting:

1. Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today
2. Silver Wings
3. Ramblin’ Fever
4. The Fugitive Song
5. Sing Me Back Home
6. Orange Blossom Special
7. Old-Fashioned Love
8. Long Black Limousine
9. Cherokee Maiden
10. San Antonio Rose
11. Misery
12. The Farmer’s Daughter
13. Brain Cloudy Blues
14. Workin’ Man Blues
_______________________________

Waylon Jennings
Live From Austin, Tx
Includes CD+DVD
Eight Top 10 Singles including 3 Number1 Hits!
His First Performance on Austin City Limits in 1984

The ‘Live From Austin, TX’ series returns with a brand new look and for the first time features CD & DVD combo packs. To celebrate the occasion they have dug deep into their vaults to retrieve some classic live sets, one of the first being Waylon Jennings.

Looking back, why did it take ten years to finally lure Waylon Jennings to the Austin City Limits stage for his first performance? Like everything else about the man, he did things his own way - when he was damn good and ready. Maybe it had something to do with that other Texas singer, that Red-Headed Stranger who shook things up in Austin and country music in general. Waylon wasn’t sure what the fuss was all about (as he sang, “It don’t matter who’s in Austin, Bob Wills is STILL the King!”).

• Waylon Jenning’s FIRST Austin City Limit’s performance, recorded in August 1984
• 10 different songs than previous Live From Austin, TX release (recorded in 1989)
• Seven Top 10 singles including two #1s (I’ve Always Been Crazy, I Ain’t Living Long Like This)

Tracklisting:

1. Are You Ready For The Country
2. Clyde
3. I Can Get Off On You
4. People Up In Texas
5. It’s Not Supposed To Be That Way
6. Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit’s Done Got Out Of Hand
7. You Ask Me To
8. Dreaming My Dreams With You
9. Good Hearted Woman
10. I May Be Used (But Baby I Ain’t Used Up)
11. Let’s Turn Back The Years
12. Honky Tonk Heroes
13. I Ain’t Living Long Like This
14. I’ve Always Been Crazy

Friday 13th February sees the Irish release of Petits Fours the debut album from Grand Duchy, aka Violet Clark and Black Francis. Featuring 9 tracks, Petits Fours is joint venture between Clark and Francis, rather than a solo Francis project, and contains driving bass lines, a healthy dose of synths and some excellent vocals from Clark, alongside Francis’s trademark guitar squalls.

“Once upon a time, Violet and I went into the studio together for a day as an experiment, and we came out that night with Fort Wayne,” explains Francis. “A leaked version seemed to please others, and so we decided to continue the ‘experiment’. We decided that, while we were not expert players on all rock ensemble instruments, we would play everything ourselves as we had done on the Fort Wayne session.

“She was innocent. I hadn't felt innocent for years. She digs the 80's. I had spent the latter part of the 80's doing my part to destroy the 80's. Our second recording session involved a fair amount of shouting and throwing things, much to the horror, I'm sure, of our two engineers Thaddeus Moore and Jason Carter; being pros they just smiled at us.

“A ‘band’ truce developed. Over time we threw less objects and began to enjoy our creative tension. We fantasized about the future, about success, as new bands do, and decided during a drive to the studio that we would take any proceeds and make a down payment on a house in Luxembourg (for some strange reason, I can't remember now - perhaps my longstanding obsession with micro states). I guess that's where the name Grand Duchy came from. Maybe that's where we will come from one day. Crossroads of Europe. Near to here and there, but far from Oregon. Cold, grey Oregon.

“I guess Luxembourg isn't exactly St. Tropez, either. But we could rule our Garage Rock Synth Chick Non-Stop Erotik Poussez-Poussez Dominion from a place like that. Just a little place on the river, in the ravine, in the trees, in the stars. Our pied-de-terre. A place to stop on our way to your European nite klub.”

Available on CD and as a digital album, the full tracklisting is as follows :

1. Come On Over To My House
2. Lovesick
3. Fort Wayne
4. Seeing Stars
5. Black Suit
6. The Long Song
7. Break The Angels
8. Ermesinde
9. Volcano!

The first collaboration of David Byrne and Brian Eno in nearly 30 years

David Byrne will be playing two Irish shows early next year playing songs from this album:
April 6 2009 - Dublin - National Concert Hall - SOLD OUT
April 7 2009 - Belfast - Belfast - Waterfront

BRIAN AND DAVID: HOW & WHY ....

This record was born as a dinner conversation. While dining in New York with David and some other friends, I mentioned that I had accumulated a lot of music, which, despite my intentions, I had never formed into songs. David volunteered to give them a try. By and large, we stuck to our separate territories: I worked on the instrumentals, and he generally focused on the lyrics and vocals. This arrangement seemed to work well. Upon starting this project, we quickly realized we were making something like electronic gospel, music in which singing becomes the central event, but whose sonic landscapes are atypical of such vocal-centered tracks. I want music to be inviting, to offer the listener a place inside it. I think David responded to this with sensitivity and skill, and his natural edginess made those familiar progressions sound new to me once again. Brian Eno - London

The foundations of some of the tracks are much like those of traditional folk, country, or gospel songs before these styles became harmonically sophisticated. Brian's chord structures were unlike anything I would have chosen myself, so I was pushed in a new direction, asked to face the unfamiliar, and this, of course, was a good thing. The challenge was more emotional than technical: to write simple, heartfelt tunes without drawing on cliché. The results, in many cases, are uplifting, hopeful, and positive, even though some lyrics describe cars exploding, war, and similarly dark scenarios.

These songs have elements of our previous work — no surprise there — but something new has emerged here as well. Where does the sanguine and heartening tone come from, particularly in these troubled times? As I hinted at above, some of my lyrics and melodies were a response to what I sensed lay buried in the music. My task was to bring forth into language what was originally non-verbal. In the end, we have made something together that neither of us could have made on our own. DB - Hell's Kitchen, NY

Tracklisting:

1. Home
2. My Big Nurse
3. I Feel My Stuff
4. Everything That Happens
5. Life Is Long
6. The River
7. Strange Overtones
8. Wanted For Life
9. One Fine Day
10. Poor Boy
11. The Lighthouse

 A Jockey’s Christmas is Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine’s first spoken word album backed with musical accompaniment. A Jockey’s Christmas is a dark comedy about JD, a misfit, overweight, alcoholic jockey whose career has dried up. JD spends more time betting and boozing then he does preparing for the track. The story chronicles his adventures on a journey home to Reno to spend Christmas with his family told in seven chapters. The album ends with two songs “The Track” and “The Fifth Race” written about the same race but told from different perspectives. Willy has been a long time fan of the horse tracks and earlier this year bought his own horse. Sadly things didn’t work out and he was thrown from the horse which left Willy with a broken arm and in bed for over a month….damn horses.

Willy released his second novel “Northline” with it’s own cd soundtrack at the beginning of this year which again received as much attention as his first novel “The Motel Life”. Just recently, film writer-director Courtney Hunt has signed on to write and direct “Nortline” has set her next project. Hunt won a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January for her working-class drama "Frozen River. Vlautin’s critically acclaimed debut novel, The Motel Life (2007), won the Nevada Silver Pen Award and also has been shortlisted for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction.

Willy Vlautin | The Motel Life (2007)
“…mournful, understated and proudly steeped in menthol smoke and bourbon. Slighter than Carver, less puerile than Bukowski, Vlautin nevertheless manages to lay claim to the same bleary-eyed territory, and surprisingly — perhaps even unintentionally — to make it new.” NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“A hugely compassionate, wildly original road movie of a novel” ESQUIRE

“The work of a careful and conscientious writer… Vlautin, like his musical equivalents Tom Waits and Shane MacGowan, manages to render pathos without sentimentality in prose whose tone is downbeat, fatalistic and hangdog.” HOT PRESS

Willy Vlautin | Northline (2008)
“Quiet, sad and suffused with a melancholic serenity, it begs to be read” SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Vlautin’s Northline is a wrenching and realistic novel that Velcros itself into the memory like a mournful country tune… Northline heralds the emergence of a major realist talent” SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

“... a mournful and compelling story of working-class lives in Las Vegas and Reno… Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff come to mind rather than Nick Cave, which isn’t to knock Nick Cave, only to say that Vlautin has a literary voice that feels more grounded.” LA TIMES

On Willy Vlautin
“Vlautin… is nothing less than the Dylan of the dislocated” THE INDEPENDENT

“This guy writes like the secret love child of Raymond Carver and Flannery O’Connor—just plain, true, tough, irony-free, heartrending American fiction about people living in the third-world sections of our country.” MICHAEL GRUBER

“Vlautin is becoming one of America’s most fundamental artists in words and music” MOJO

PIERCE TURNER ::: LIVE :::

December. 29th -The Sugar Club- Dublin
26 Euro including booking fee
Tickets available from the Sugar Club 01 678 7188, www.ticketmaster.ie - Tel. 0818 719 300

The Mini-Album: "Catch A Wave"
Features the song "Fading Away" - Out Now on 50/30 Sounds
More informationon www.pierceturner.com

See the video for "Fading Away", a brilliant parody of "Oh Brother where art Thou" made by John Rokonski - Click Here

Rave reviews in the LA Times, Rolling Stone, NY Times and Chicago Tribune: invited to perform a special evening of duets with Philip Glass: described by the Rough Guide to Irish Music as "a unique visionary"; his music featured in The Wire, and covered by Christy Moore. These are just some of the accolades heaped on New York-based Wexford native, Pierce Turner. And anyone familiar with his work won't be a bit surprised. In a musical landscape littered with so many shiny plastic cut-outs, here is a true flesh-and-blood artist whose music comes from the only place that matters - the soul.

His subjects are the perenniel themes - love, loss, death, interspersed with the foibles of friends and acquaintances - presented through evocative vignettes of his Wexford childhood and life in his adopted city. In Turner's work you will catch snatches of 1960's pop, The Beatles, Bach, sean-nós, Palestrina, and local ballads, but, like any genuine musical explorer, he has traversed all these stylistic territories and arrived at a musical location all his own.

If you have never been to a Pierce Turner gig here is the ideal chance to rectify that omission in the plush surroundings of the Sugar Club. Most gigs you go to, you know more or less what to expect, but Pierce Turner is one of the select few that manage to confound your expectations yet maintain a consistently high standard of composition and performance. Will the evening feature a string quartet? A rock band? A dance-on-the- table hoedown. Or will he appear alone, armed with just acoustic guitar or keyboard. Or even a child's xylophone used to both hilarious and chilling effect? A mix 'n' match of all these elements has featured in previous Turner performances, but given his versatility, God only knows what treats await you at the Sugar Club.

Whether he's belting out comic tales of provincial life, or reducing the room to awed silence, there is no-one quite like Pierce Turner. Pierce Turner @ The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson St.,Dublin

METEOR AWARD WINNER "HOPE FOR 2008"
"On the evidence of this effervescent album, Ham Sandwich could be Ireland's answer to Rilo Kiley." ~ IRISH INDEPENDENT ***
"Eclectic without being all over the place, judiciously selecting choice harmonies over dissonance, and boasting arrangements that favour subtlety over swagger, Ham Sandwich deliver, with an apparent minimum of fuss, a mini triumph." ~ IRISH TIMES
"With a name like Ham Sandwich, this needed to be good. It is so, so much better than that." ~ MAIL ON SUNDAY
"..a locker full of killer tunes." ~ METRO
"Carry The Meek is an album of beautifully sung, crisp, tight, lush, emotional and fun guitar songs that is much more than the sum of it's parts." ~ HOT PRESS
'''Carry The Meek' is a marker that other Irish albums of 2008 - and beyond - will have to match. " ~ CLUAS.COM
"While some sound the death-knell for the album ever louder, there are still plenty whose records drown it out. Like this one." ~ RTE GUIDE
“Spiky indie anthems & irreverent attitude are matched by the striking presence of lead singer Niamh Farrell" ~ SUNDAY TIMES

2008 has been an amazing year for the Kells-based band; the release of their critically acclaimed debut album "CARRY THE MEEK" back in February, a rake of hit singles, sold out shows across the country, playing Glastonbury and Electric Picnic Festivals, and of course the surprise birth of Niamh's son Oscar. Now considered on of the top acts in the country, Ham Sandwich close out 2008 in style by headlining Dublin's The Village Venue for it's annual New Years Eve bash.

"We are really looking forward to this gig! We thought our gig with Gary Cooke in The Village would be our last gig in Dublin this year, but we are so glad that it wasn't and the Village want us back to ring in the new year! We have had such an amazing and crazy year, and we want to finish with a bang!..and some confetti.." ~ Niamh Farrell from Ham Sandwich

New Single "Broken Glass" - Out Now on Route 109 Recording Company
See the extraordinary new animated video exclusively on muzu.tv : CLICK HERE
The 7th single taken from the Kells-based band's debut album "CARRY THE MEEK"
myspace.com/eathamsandwich ~ www.bebo.com/eathamsandwich

• Appearances at a number of book festivals throughout the year, with Bragg speaking about his much-acclaimed polemic, ‘The Progressive Patriot: A Search For Belonging’, published in 2006. Billy used the publication of the paperback version as an opportunity to speak out against the rise of racism in Britain. Indeed, in April 2006 Bragg embarked on the Hope Not Hate tour, a special series of concerts in support of the UK’s leading anti-Fascist organizations.
  
• The commission to write a new English lyric for ‘Ode to Joy’ from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Bragg’s new version was unveiled at the South Bank Overture Festival on Sunday 10th June 2007 as the culmination of the re-opening of London’s Royal Festival Hall. It was performed by 1500 amateur choristers accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. Bragg’s ‘Ode to Joy’ was repeated in front of the Queen on Wednesday 10th October
  
• Q magazine’s prestigious ‘Classic Songwriter’ award, presented to him by KT Tunstall at the Q Awards on Monday 8th October. In her presentation speech, Tunstall said: “I wish Billy was my history teacher or older brother!”
  
• A duet with KT Tunstall at the Talking Bob Dylan Blues tribute concert last September. The show, recorded for a BBC TV special at London’s Barbican, was also compered by Billy, who performed ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ with Tunstall

Since the release of his previous album, ‘England, Half English’ (on 4th March 2002), Bragg has also chronicled his entire career with two box sets released in the spring and autumn of 2006. They contained all of Bragg’s studio albums together with EPs, singles, B-sides, covers and rare outtakes as well as DVDs of UK television’s South Bank Show and concert footage from Billy’s shows in communist Eastern Europe during the late-80s – places where very few Western musicians played at that time.

Bragg has also been discovered by a new generation of musicians. The Nationwide Mercury Prize-shortlisted Hard-Fi, for instance, invited Billy to support them for six nights at London’s Brixton Academy in May 2006. The band later covered Bragg’s ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’ for a BBC Radio One session.

Jamie T – another artist shortlisted for the UK’s prestigious Nationwide Mercury Prize – recorded a version of Bragg’s ‘A New England’ for a recent B-side while Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, the new band led by Sam Duckworth, asked Billy to support them at a gig in London’s Wandsworth Prison. Bragg has now also performed on the band’s forthcoming album.

• Mark Olson & Gary Louris are both former members and the driving force of the immensely popular Jayhawks.
  
• Produced by Chris Robinson, lead singer of The Black Crowes.

Although they’ve toured together and renewed their friendship, this is the first recording by Olson and Louris since Olson left the Jayhawks in 1995. What would become ‘Ready for the Flood’ was recorded at Sage & Sound Studios in Hollywood with friend Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. Louris had called in Robinson, who happened to be in town at that point, for “vibe support” and he ended up producing the album; he also appears on the album playing harmonica and contributing backing vocals.

‘Ready for the Flood’ captures the stripped down, finger picked guitar playing and Laurel Canyon sound of an earlier time, with allusions to English folk – Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, John Renbourne, whom both Mark and Gary had both been getting into independently – and a simpler, live recording technique where capturing the right vibe was as important as the sound.

It’s an album that only two career musicians and friends could make – organic, intuitive and loosely confident, heartfelt and moving, echoing with the combined experience of two kindred spirits reuniting to do what they do – and love – best.
___________________________________________________

"The first time I heard Olson & Louris sing together was in the newly formed Jayhawks. They were playing the 400 Bar in Minneapolis’ West Bank bohemian area, formerly a venue for solo & duo blues and R&B performers. They might’ve been the first band to play there with a full drum kit, and what made them more interesting was that they were doing Woody Guthrie and hard core country tunes to an audience of younger kids more at home over in Uptown, where the post-punk rock bands reigned—they must’ve thought they were hearing R&R. “We played it loud and fast,” Louris recalled. “And kind of snuck it in.” They mixed covers with rootsy, but quirky originals, cut a local album on their own Bunkhouse label, and went on to a mixed mainstream fame. “We worked hard, got our big break, we went out to LA to make a record,” Olson says. “We all kind of loved acoustic music and wanted to record some, but boy—they didn’t want to hear about that.”

Now some twenty-plus years later, the duo has made a largely acoustic album that has all original material and a fine vocal blend that makes you think of old-timey and bluegrass brother teams like The Monroes, The Delmores, and The Louvins—they’ve got that intuitive ear for blending and weaving that exists on some genetic level. They’re part of that DNA loop that started back with The Carter Family and has been winding down musical trails since early last century. Add in some English folk finger picking influence by guys like Roy Harper and John Renbourn, stir in some current-day surrealist points of view a la Dylan, and you’re on the way to where the album resides."

-- Tony Glover, June 2008 [excerpt]

Press photo here: http://declandebarra.com/old_press.html

See the video for "Fading Away", a brilliant parody of "Oh Brother where art Thou" made by John Rokonski - Click Here

Whether as a singer or songwriter or performer, Pierce Turner has a penchant for the unexpected and the unorthodox, re-writing the rules for all three endeavours. Sometimes he performs from behind his trusty keyboard backed by a solo instrument (sax, maybe, or violin or trombone!). Or he can be out front-of-house clambering over tables and ordering drinks from the bar. In the middle of a song! His albums to are equally mercurial, showing influences ranging from his Catholic Irish upbringing to the decadence of Lou Reed's New York, merging the upfront rock of The Byrds, The Beach Boys and The Who to deft touches of Irish trad, folk, jazz, techno, classical and choral harmonies.

Turner grew up in the port-town of Wexford where his mother ran a record shop and led her own band. Like all his siblings he was classically trained, and his fondest early memories are of singing in the annual plainchant festival. By seven, he was a member of a traditional Irish tin whistle group, and at eight, he was playing in a brass and reed orchestra.
His first professional job was as a musician with the pop showband The Arrows. He later moved to New York and formed The Major Thinkers with fellow Wexfordian Larry Kirwan (now the front man of Black 47) and recorded several acclaimed albums.

His first solo album It's Only a Long Way Across was produced by American avant- composer, Phillip Glass. He went on to make two more albums for Beggars Banquet, The Sky and the Ground (an unforgettable carnival of highly-charged tunes, searing, soaring, poignant and funny.) In 1991 his epic Now Is Heaven was released to great critical acclaim, with Hot Press dubbing him "Ireland's greatest living poet" and his awards cabinet taking possession of a trophy for Irish Solo Performer of the Year in the Hot Press Awards by a panel drawn from the national media.

In 1998 Beggars Banquet released a Best Of Pierce Turner compilation. In June 2001, 3 Minute World hit the racks, Hot Press giving it a 12 out of 12, while Tony Clayton-Lea of the Irish Times feted Pierce as one of the most important Irish artists of the last twenty years. Meanwhile Pat Kenny pronounced "This man's a genius" on his national radio show, as Turner set off on a tour of over 70 private houses in Ireland for what he has called his "Parlour Tour", with a London-based tv camera-crew in tow for a future documentary.

Somewhere along the way, other gems from the Turner canon were featured in the film Snakes And Ladders, the HBO hit show The Wire with his extraordinary version of "Dirty Old Town"and Christy Moore recorded Turner's songs "Among The Wicklow Hills" and "Mush God Help Her." Indeed Christy's 2004 box set includes his generous tribute to Turner on the track "I Love The Way Pierce Turner Sings".

In 2005, just as Turner was about to release his album The Boy To Be With, "Among The Wicklow Hills" was voted among the top 25 Irish songs ever by Today FM in a nationwide poll. The Boy To Be With also includes Turner's heartfelt tribute to the late Irish bluesman Rory Gallagher and is the most eagerly anticipated Pierce Turner album for more than a decade.

::: Irish Acoustic Tour Dates 2008 :::
5th Dec: Sligo, Barrys
6th Dec, Monaghan, Brewery
7th Dec, Derry, Sandinos
11th Dec: Mullingar, The Stables
12th Dec, Clonakilty, De Barras
13th Dec, Waterford, Electric Ave
14th Dec, Wexford, The Bailey Live
17th Dec, Dublin, Crawdaddy

"SPOONS" - The Debut Album includes the hit singles "Blossoms In The Street" and "The Circle" Out Now on Bird Records / Island
www.wallisbird.com ~ www.myspace.com/wallisbird

IRISH INDEPENDENT - LIVE Review by Edel Coffey - 11/01/08

Wallis Bird at The Button Factory, Dublin

Wallis Bird has made a name for herself as the little spitfire from Wexford who got her first guitar when she was six months old, went to Germany and found a band, then got Universal music to sign her on her own terms. No mean feat.

Bird is still ploughing her own furrow with songs to match the multifaceted sides of her young self and a maturity that belies her years. The 26-year-old has been compared to singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, but she sounds much more contemporary than that, mixing influences as diverse as Nina Simone and Tori Amos, with the kind of blues-soul voice that can go from a whisper to a scream in seconds.
Tonight she is making the transition from small to mid-sized venue and she's nervous. "I'm freaking. Can you smell it lads?" She needn't have worried, the nerves don't show and two songs in, she has the crowd performing harmonies, clapping out complex time signatures and singing along with new songs.

She jumps, shakes, kicks and headbangs her way through an hour and a half of a set that never gets boring, in part due to Bird's absurd sense of humour and storytelling. She mixes songs from her debut album 'Spoons' with some new ones, including a protest song in honour of the pensioners who gave the politicians a kicking last week.

Songs like 'The Circle' and 'Counting To Sleep' are hits with the audience, but the showstopper comes when her band leave the stage and she plays a raw ode to love lost called 'Just Keep Going' accompanied by just her guitar. It's an astonishing display of her vocal abilities and the depth of emotion she can convey with her voice.

Wallis Bird has a winning formula of talent, charm and personality that makes her both a wonderful songwriter and entertainer. The only worry is because her music shifts so uneasily between categories, she might slip between the cracks. But with songs like 'Blossoms In The Street' (which closes tonight's set) having such a radio-friendly bounce, it's more likely she is going to get bigger and better.

- Edel Coffey

After playing to over 1500 fans on her last sell-out Irish tour, appearances on the Late Late Show and the Dustin show, an acclaimed live performance at the Electric Picnic, and being part of the best selling Irish compilation CEOL 08, Wallis is excited to be returning home: "There is no country I’d rather play than my home country as the crowds are so responsive and heartful. And the Guinness doesn’t taste as good anywhere else!“

2008 has been an eventful year for Wallis. She’s played sold out tours in Ireland, the UK and Continental Europe; she supported the legendary Billy Bragg on his UK tour; and she reached the Top 10 UK Album Charts (digital) with her debut album "Spoons". Her music even reached over the Atlantic to the United States, where Universal Records asked her to contribute a song to the upcoming Billie Holiday Tribute album in the company of Mary J Blige and Corinne Bailey Rae among others.

As an artist with a clear idea of her own musical direction and a strong need for creative control, however, she decided not to progress the relationship with Island Records in the UK (Universal in Ireland) for her next album. Wallis said: "We started from such a healthy and organic base as just me, my band and the small team around me and we achieved so much in that time before signing to a major, that it’s refreshing to be able to return to grass roots again. The time with Island was interesting and I learned a lot but it also showed me who I want to be as an artist.“

Known for her extraordinary voice and unusual style of playing guitar (she plays it upside down following a childhood lawnmower accident where she lost a finger), Wallis’ live shows and music have garnered rave reviews from all quarters, with 4 * reviews being given by publications including The Guardian, Daily Express and The Sun, who called her ‘a stunning female singer-songwriter to take note of…..a future star’.

THE GUARDIAN
"It's her humour and bold honesty that makes Bird so special **** "

THE SUN
"A stunning singer-songwriter to take note of...a future star ****"

TIME OUT
"An engaging, Janis Joplin-like holler"

DAILY EXPRESS
"One of the most energised performers around. Wonderful **** "

SUNDAY EXPRESS
"A breath of fresh air, showcasing an exciting, spirited new talent ****"

DAILY MAIL
"Quirky jazz-rock, reminiscent of Fiona Apple or a young Janis Joplin"

DAILY STAR
"Bird's confessional songs hit the soul hard - but it's her voice that'll melt the coldest of hearts"

JUNO FALLS
"Four (Is The New Magic Number)"
Out on N8 through downloadmusic.ie and iTunes

www.junofalls.net ~ www.myspace.com/junofalls