FRIDAY APRIL 25, THE VILLAGE, DUBLIN

Halves – Grand Pocket Orchestra –
New Amusement – The Kinetiks – Hybrasil – The Brothers Movement – Cashier No. 9

Forty-six bands have rocked venues the length and breadth of Ireland during the IMRO Showcase Tour 2008. With eleven full capacity dates in the bag, the showcase culminates in the BEST OF TOUR 2008, at the Village in Dublin on Friday April 25th.

The seven bands that will perform have now been chosen. They are indie pop rockers The Kinetiks, ambient soundscape artists Halves, quirky electro poppers Grand Pocket Orchestra, alt indie merchants New Amusement, indietronic band Hybrasil, rock band The Brothers Movement and electrofolk act Cashier No. 9.

***** We have a limited number of guest list places available for this
showcase. Please email name(s) to showcase@imro.ie immediately if you would like to attend! *****

THE KINETIKS
Formed in late '05, four-piece north Dubliners' The Kinetiks have etched out a solid reputation as the cream of the crop of Ireland's most promising breaking buzz bands. The indie pop rockers, still in their early 20s came together sharing influences from Beach Boys to The Strokes. Confident, charming, giddy and energetic have been used to describe the group's impressive live performances. The band were nominated for the 2FM/Meteor Hope For 2008 Award. www.myspace.com/kinetiks1

HALVES
Already creating a stir with their unique live show, Halves are a distinctive new Dublin based group. Fronted by four talented multi-instrumentalists, Halves’ rich and idiosyncratic sound crosses genre, challenging convention as guitar meets accordion, violin meets melodica. Diverse and truly novel, Halves blend a range of instruments – the glockenspiel one moment, the piano the next – over guitar crescendos, haunting strings and both acoustic and electronic drums. The band release their new EP on May 11. www.ahomeforhalves.com

GRAND POCKET ORCHESTRA
Self-described as the lovechild of Pavement and Liza Minelli and sounding, funnily enough, like an orchestra you can fit in your pocket, GPO have risen through the ranks of the Irish indie scene in recent times. Having supported bands of the ilk of Fight Like Apes and Giveamanakick and played a storming set at 2007’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival, the band are now set to play in Germany, Holland and the UK and currently feature on the most recent edition of the influential US compilation Future Sounds. www.myspace.com/grandpocketorchestra

NEW AMUSEMENT
New Amusement are something unusual on the Irish music scene: A band with a refreshingly hard-to-define sound and a mature attitude to the music business. The current band line-up solidified less then a year ago but in that time New Amusement have performed a critically acclaimed show at the Hard Working Class Heroes 07 festival and shared stages with Sons and Daughters and Young Galaxy. The band's music is the product of an open attitude to genres and styles, with the music influenced as much by music they don't like as by music they do. New Amusement will be releasing their debut mini-album, "Any port in a storm" on April 25th 2008. www.myspace.com/newamusement

HYBRASIL
Having returned home after a number of years country hopping, five friends from Wicklow town decided to form a band. After squirreling themselves away in a studio for six months, indietronic rock band Hybrasil (pronounced the same as the country!) was born. The five-some made their performing debut in 2004, spending the rest of the year honing their live skills, writing material and making demos, which were duly passed out to friends and acquaintances and anyone else that would listen. Hybrasil’s electric shows became infamous on the east coast, not least for the bands ability to deliver a live melting pot of rock and electronica. To date the band have played the Bud Rising Festival, a number of IMRO showcases and the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival. They have also supported Republic Of Loose, Idlewild, The Chalets, The La’s, The Frank and Walters and The Waterboys amongst many others. Their debut EP’s We Got Music, and When I’m Yawning were released in Ireland, the UK, Germany and Japan. September 2007 saw the release of their debut album, The Monkey Pole, to huge critical acclaim and was featured in Record of The Year polls in The Sunday Times, The Irish Independent and The Star. The band are currently recording new music. www.myspace.com/hybrasilmusic

THE BROTHERS MOVEMENT
Out of the ashes of one of Dublin's finest rock n roll bands, Mainline, comes The Brothers Movement. A five-piece harmonic rock ‘n’ roll band with rootsy undertones. The Brothers Movement came into existence due to line up change in Mainline. Instead of calling it a day, the remaining members decided that time was right for a new sound and a new direction. Having spent a month recording their debut album in Philadelphia, with the Cobb’s (BRMC, Peasant, War on Drugs), they got the job done. Stay tuned in 2008 as The Brothers Movement begins to showcase the new material. Their debut album will be released this year. http://www.myspace.com/thebrothersmovement

CASHIER NO.9
The sound of Cashier No.9 was born from Danny Todd's compulsion to create music despite having little means. A cheap sequencing package, a broken acoustic guitar and a head full of Neil Diamond was the jump off point for the electronic folk pioneer. For the past two years, Cashier no 9 has been a loose project of low key gigs, self funded demo releases and chronic insomnia, while also holding down day jobs with Belfast bands Corrigan and Alloy Mental, the former a snarling punkish outfit, the latter an ambitious live techno act. The analogue charm of Danny's music has been described as intimate but never too sentimental or confessional. www.myspace.com/cashierno9

The IMRO Showcase Tour is proudly supported by 2FM and The Irish Daily Star.