The Pickled Onions are back with their sophomore effort ‘The Mines’ out on July 10 2020.
Originally an electronic artist, The Pickled Onions, continues his foray into joy-inducing laid-back indie rock.
Four years in the making from his home studio in Dundrum, ‘The Mines’ represents a culmination of work and perseverance from Paddy McGovern helped along the way by some talented friends.
The intention of the project has always been to make lo-fi, homemade music for music’s sake.
Drawing influence from yesterday’s inspirations each track on the record is uniquely different while still maintaining a strong sense of musical identity.
The lead single ‘Room’ described by Remy’s music and film blog as; “a juggernaut of congenial columns of sound which are brash and delightful in equal parts. A straight-up, no frills indie-rock punch” is streaming on YouTube.
and is available now as a free download on Soundcloud
The Bonk is a musical project based around compositions by Waterford musician and songwriter, Philip Christie (formerly of O Emperor). Gathering influences from 60’s garage, jazz, and experimental pop, recursive rhythms and improvised melodies are brought together in loose minimalist song forms.
The group’s first collection of recordings, ‘The Bonk Seems To Be A Verb’, was released as a limited edition cassette via Drogheda label thirtythree-45 in October 2017. In the time since, the band has been writing and recording new material for a planned LP release later in 2020.
With the hiatus on live gigging in place from March 2020, and the ensemble separated geographically for an indefinite period, Phil Christie, composer and frontman with the group, has been writing and self-recording some nuts-and-bolts songs, a mini-project during housebound isolation.
Available from today, ‘Songs For The Mean Time Vol.1’ is a three track collection comprising the first fruits of those efforts. Exploring the plight of the contemporary imbecile and spanning a range of musical references from vintage exotica to lo-fi pop, each song is presented as a concise vignette.
The lead song ‘Fool Me Twice’ chronicles the ecstatic discovery of truth on the internet by a presumably reliable human being.
Phil Christie of The Bonk says: “‘Fool Me Twice’ is a one-sided conversation, dealing with how people use the internet as an oracle that gives access to ultimate knowledge, and the weird things that emerge when our wide variety of ignorances collide online. Some craic.”
The Bonk will perform an online live show 10pm this Thursday 9th July as part of the new Live From Guerrilla Studios series. The new live music show is a collaboration between John ‘Spud’ Murphy and Ian Chestnutt of Percolator/Guerrilla Studios, alongside Ray Wingnut and Zara Hedderman. The show aims to showcase Irish underground art and music. The first episode will feature The Bonk, John Francis Flynn, and Vicky Langan, and can be viewed via the Guerrilla Studios YouTube channel.
Almost thirty years since the release of their seminal debut album, ‘Immigrants, Emigrants And Me’, Power of Dreams are set to release a double A-side on FIFA Records that encapsulates the different sides of the band’s musical coin and the multi-faceted songwriting of Craig Walker. ‘America’ / ‘Across the Shannon’ is the precursor for Power of Dream’s first studio album in twenty five years, titled ‘Aüslander’, and a wonderful re-introduction to one of Ireland’s most enigmatic bands of the nineties.
‘Aüslander‘ will be followed by a special 30th anniversary remastered release of ‘Immigrants, Emigrants And Me’, that will also feature a special collection of previously unreleased material. In the meantime however, Power of Dreams return with two tracks to whet the musical palette of fans both in Ireland and internationally who have been waiting patiently to hear music from the band’s classic line-up.
“Many of the new songs are tracks that I have been keeping to one side in recent times in my job as a songwriter,” explains Craig, “they were very obviously Power of Dreams songs. I have found the experience of looking back and reflecting a really interesting one. I would only have ever done this when I felt there was an artistic purpose to a new record.”
There are several connections between ‘Immigrants, Emigrants and Me’, and ‘Aüslander’, perhaps most obviously in the albums’ titles (Aüslander meaning ‘foreigner’ in German) and Walker’s years of touring living outside Ireland in England, France and Germany have obviously informed many of the songs, including one of the lead tracks, ‘America’, but there is as always a deeply emotive and personal aspect to the lyrics, as evidenced on ‘Across The Shannon’ and others.
“There’s a lot of personal stuff in the album,” says Craig, “that only worked in the context of a Power of Dreams album. There’s a song for my mother, who played a huge part in the band’s beginnings. She allowed us to rehearse in her kitchen, garden shed for years and never complained once. I wrote the song ‘Margaret’ in 2000 when she was dying in hospital.”
‘Aüslander’ is due for release later this year, but in the meantime ‘America’ and the beautifully-crafted epic ‘Across The Shannon’ will serve as a timely reminder for those who loved ‘Immigrants, Emigrants And Me’, on its release in 1990 and perhaps as a sonic gateway for new Power of Dreams fans of to retrace the legacy of a not-so-well-kept secret.
“I am doing this for the fans who have been asking for it for 25 years. But also for myself and the guys in the band. It was a special time in our lives and I hope the new album is a worthy follow up to ‘Immigrants‘,” concludes Craig.
The Academic are pleased to release a new track, ‘Acting My Age’, available now.
Streaming now, it’s lifted from their brand new EP, of the same name, out on Friday 10th July via Capitol Records.
The track, and resulting EP was produced by Kaiser Chiefs’ Nick Hodgson. It’s a razor-sharp, guitar track by a band who do razor-sharp guitar tracks in spades. Adventurous and propulsive, it showcases one of Ireland’s best new bands on the cusp of becoming the best new band in Ireland, the UK, and beyond.
As Mullinger’s finest (with much respect to ¼ of One Direction who also trod the very same turf growing up), The Academic are already deemed hometown with a number one album to their name. And of you were a betting person, you’d probably fancy a flutter on The Academic repeating their chart success further afield. The songs are the sort that make a quick impact; sharp, buoyant and explosive. By second listen you’ve got the melodies nailed, fizzing around in your cranium. Instant gratification. Time is precious.
That The Academic make music that embraces the electric guitar and aren’t shy of arena sized choruses suggests that guitar music could well be heading straight back to the mainstream after a decade or more laying resolutely fallow. Some would confidently argue that we’ve been in rude health for the past few years. With Idles and Shame’s state-of-the-nation punkish potency swinging open the doors for the likes of Fontaines D.C. and Murder Capital to burst their heads above the underground, over in the mainstream Sam Fender has been marrying critical acclaim with solid sales (a rarity), his chest-thumping Springsteen-esque tales of a community’s heart and struggle flying straight to the top of the charts. Meanwhile, The 1975, veritable stalwarts on their own podium, now feel positively pop, yet at their very soul is an innovative, smart-talking guitar band with surely one eye on stadiums having long since slayed the festival fields and arenas. Catfish & The Bottlemen and Blossoms also tease arena sized audiences, whilst off the media radar you’ve got the likes of Gerry Cinnamon, Sea Girls and The Lathams cautiously bothering bigger live rooms to ever increasing audiences. But this feels palpably different. The odds feel less of a risk. The door is swinging wide open.
Despite being in the infancy as a global concern, The Academic have already sold out rooms across the UK in semi-regular forays outside of Ireland, and they’ve also received the props of Mick Jagger who personally selected them to support The Rolling Stones in Dublin. That Mullinger has them down as hometown heroes and local-boys-about-to-explode, will doubtless be of importance to those who have studied the rulebook of city specific era-defining guitar acts from Oasis to Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender to Kasabian. Primed now as Ireland’s most likely to, The Academic are ready to become what they deserve.
Fronted by Craig Fitzgerald, a man who gives good quote without over-selling the product, the young four-piece sit at the centre of a venn diagram that draws from the likes of Phoenix, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and Vampire Weekend.
A fine introduction to a band you’d yet to hear, right on the cusp of becoming inescapable.
‘The Invitation’ is the first single from the forthcoming self-titled debut album of My Sweet Beloved. Filmed in Dublin by Laura Sheeran with art direction and editing by Danielle Harrison Byrne, the song and video are a dark, atmospheric exploration of an unconventional love story and the broad spectrum of emotions that go hand in hand with it.
For musicians, there’s no way out. Like Michael Corleone in The Godfather movies, some pull away from the centre of what they love doing, but then they’re dragged back towards it –kicking and screaming, perhaps, but always because there’s nothing they can do about it. Instinct connects. It takes over. They capitulate and then triumph because the music they make synchronizes with a united mindset. That’s the way it is for Dublin-based band My Sweet Beloved, whose debut single, ‘The Invitation’, has just been released.
‘The Invitation’ (the first track taken from their forthcoming self-titled debut album) sees My Sweet Beloved merge the intensity of a fever dream with the kind of subtle, sultry pop smarts you thought had gone to Hell in a handcart. With brooding, atmospheric textures seemingly conjured out of the ether, the song (and album) is the cumulation of many months of artistic endeavour and some years of collective experience. The voice of Danielle Harrison Byrne (ex-Skindive) floats on music activated by musicians Derek Byrne (Autumn Owls), Anton Hegarty (Future Kings of Spain, A Lazarus Soul) and Dan Devlin (Moskowitz).
When Skindive split up some years ago, Danielle – who arrived in Dublin from Los Angeles specifically to join the band – knew her true voice hadn’t yet been revealed. When that band fell apart, she was, she remarks, “a singer with no songs,” yet the determination to match her creative vision with her vocal skills never wavered. Slowly, assuredly, one song followed another. The process was painstaking yet precise, the lessons learned invaluable.
The forthcoming album, says Danielle, is the result of a “long journey that I am now able to fully appreciate.” With producer/musician Les Keye, Danielle produced and mixed the new album, her vision of what she wanted in perfect alignment with what she knew her bandmates could instinctively deliver. Call it fate, but for My Sweet Beloved the stars have arranged themselves in such a way (it might well be in the shape of an arrow pointing directly at you) that ‘The Invitation’ is one you can’t refuse.
Dermot Kennedy has just announced an exclusive one-off live performance at the Natural History Museum in London, broadcast live via YouTube on July 30th and time-zoned to specific regions around the world. The show, penned ‘Some Summer Night…’, will feature Dermot’s full band as well as additional special appearances. Tickets will be available via Driift.
The performance will be a pay-per-view event with pre-sales tickets going up Wednesday July 8th and on general sale July 10th, and will include an optional charitable element with funds being donated to the BLM Global Network. The show will feature incredible new arrangements of fan favourites including Dermot’s brand new single ‘Giants’ as well as a special appearance from Irish actor Paul Mescal from the hit BBC show ‘Normal People’.
On the event, Dermot said;
“I’m incredibly excited to be playing a show at the Natural History Museum in London. To have the opportunity to bring my music into a place filled with so much history and wonderment means so much to me. We’re going to do something truly unique and I can’t wait for you to see it. This is easily one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been involved in and it feels like a privilege to get to put this show on and in this time when I can’t play shows as I normally would, it gives me so much joy to be able to share this event with you. Poetry, music and history will all come together for this event and it’s going to be so special.“
‘Some Summer Night’ will be Dermot’s first live show proper since his headline US tour in March where he sold out New York’s prestigious Radio City Music Hall. He also recently announced rescheduled live dates from April of this year that have now been moved to April & May 2021, with two nights a piece in Glasgow, Manchester and London’s Alexandra Palace.
Alongside his #1 selling debut album ‘Without Fear’, Dermot has now reached over a billion streams globally and single ‘Outnumbered’ has gone multi-platinum across the UK, Europe and Canada. With shows selling out everywhere he’s sold over 300,000 tickets globally in the last year alone and was also nominated in the ‘Best International Male’ category at the 2020 Brit Awards. The debut album ‘Without Fear’ was recently announced as spending the most weeks at #1 this millennium of any Irish debut album.
‘Some Summer Night…’ live via time zones:
Live #1 : Ireland, UK & Europe (9pm IST & BST / 10pm CEST) Live #2 : East Coast North America and South America (8.00pm EDT / 7.00pm CDT) Live #3 : West Coast North America and Central America (8.00pm PDT / 9.00pm MDT) Live #4 : Australia, New Zealand & Asia (8.00pm AEST, 10pm NZST & 7pm JST & KST) July 31
The shortlist for the Ivor Novello’s new Rising Star Award has been unveiled – with Irish electronic artist lullahush, aka Daniel McIntyre, named among the five nominees.
Daniel McIntyre has been conducting the secret affair of poetry and production. “A game changing producer,” (Earmilk), multi instrumentalist and lyricist, he began playing in bands at age 13 and soon took to the laptop to get to the heart of it all. Working with several emerging Irish artists, his unique style led to him being chosen for the Red Bull Music Academy in Berlin. This experience gave him the confidence to pursue his own project, lullahush, a measure of the distance between ambience and pop. In 2019, the 23 year old artist released three pieces, ‘Terracotta Slow Dance’ (“deftly original and innovative” – Nialler9), ‘Elysium’ (“frantically beautiful” – District Magazine) and ‘If Spring Had A Spare Room I’d Rent It With You’ (“sweetly lilting yet thoroughly unique, as beautiful in writing as it is to listen to” – The Line of Best Fit). His self made videos for these pieces “add yet another gorgeous string to lullahush’s bow” (TLOBF). This year also saw him create his first audio/visual piece, an interactive installation based on his music and videos. Currently locked in the studio creating his debut album, lullahush is writing a story set at the point where beauty and imperfection merge, a slow dance through the anxious energy of a late night mind.
The Rising Star Award with Apple Music is the first new Ivor Novello Award category to be introduced in 10 years and honours young British and Irish songwriting and composing talent who demonstrate exceptional potential and ambition.
The new award helps discover, support, and accelerate the careers of the most promising music creators in the UK and Ireland.
The award includes a new mentoring scheme from Apple Music whereby all nominees receive a year-long mentorship from a well-established Academy member to help develop their networks, discover new opportunities and better understand how to navigate their careers. Representing an incredible array of talent and experience, this year’s mentors are: Nile Rodgers, Fraser T. Smith, Kamille, Anna Meredith and David Arnold.
The winner will be announced on Wednesday 2 September 2020.
JaXson is the brainchild of Wexford singer-songwriter Luke Jackson.
JaXson is the brainchild of alternative singer/songwriter Luke Jackson, a moniker that the 24-year-old Wexford native has been playing under since January 2017.
Having gained placements on Spotify playlists New Music Friday UK and A Breath of Fresh Éire with previous releases, JaXson was named as One To Watch in 2019 by GoldenPlec in its Plec Picks series, while Today FM’s Fergal D’Arcy recently labelled JaXson the “future of Irish music.”
JaXson sold out his debut headline show in Whelan’s in 2019 following a successful run of summer festivals including Indiependence, Kaleidoscope and Vantastival and has also played support slots for Hudson Taylor, Little Hours, SPINN and Adam French among others.
The Wexford Singer/Songwriter recorded ‘Moving On’ whilst on lockdown with the rest of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was in Wexford, my producer was in New York, my guitarist was in Galway, my mixing engineer was in Louth and my mastering engineer was in Washington D.C! It was something I’ve never experienced before”
The song was produced by New York based producer Marty Mullally (Josh Gray), mixed by Windmill Lane Recording Studio engineer Sarah Branigan (Ailbhe Reddy, Sorcha Richardson) and mastered by TJ Lipple (Adebisi Shank, Remember Sports)
The heart-breaking song tells us the story of how hard it can be to move on from hitting rock bottom.
“I can’t tell you how hurt I was when I wrote this song. I still get emotional whenever I sing it live. It’s a song that was written a while back now, and it always reminds me of how far I’ve come. Everyone has times in their lives where they can’t see how they’re going to survive, but there is a way out, it just takes a little bit of time to get there!”
‘Moving On’ is out on 10th July on Spotify and all major streaming platforms.
What? CMC are presenting a series of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events throughout July, at no cost to participants.
When? The sessions will commence at 3.00pm on Tuesdays throughout July 2020, and it is anticipated that each session will last about 45 minutes.
Forum? While the sessions themselves will be on zoom, bookings will be managed via eventbrite. Once you have booked on eventbrite, CMC will send a zoom link to the email address you use for booking on eventbrite.
Format? These events will be interactive with a chance to get answers to questions you may have. It is recommended that you to submit questions in advance via rsvp@nullcmc.ie so that the presenters can consider them in advance and deal with them during their presentations. However, there will also be a live Q&A session following an overview by the presenters at each event.
CONTEMPORARY NOTATION IN SIBELIUS CLINIC – 7th July 2020
The series will start with a standalone session by composer and guitarist Anselm McDonnell in the form of a clinic in relation to contemporary notation in Sibelius.
CMC will also be presenting the following trio of CPD events about creating, monetizing and marketing online performances on 14th, 21st 7 28th July 2020, respectively.
Further information about this trio of events after the 7th July event, including separate eventbrite links for booking each of the three events.
#1 on 14th July – Creating Online Performances by Eoin Callery (audio) and Sean James Garland (video)
# 2 on 21st July – Monetizing Online Performances by Nick Roth, in which Nick will also go beyond this in terms of how musicians can survive generally in an online world
# 3 on 28th July – Marketing Online Performances by Naomi Belshaw, in which Naomi will also go beyond this in terms of career strategy generally and how to present oneself depending on what path a composer wants to take
Robert O’Connor has announced the release of his new single, ‘Over (Before It’s Begun)’, set to drop on July 31. The track is the third in a series of collaborations with EDM artist Skynem GT, who won a competition to remix Robert’s single ‘Real Good Fight’ in 2019. The pair went on to enjoy streaming success with ‘Older ‘20’, which proved a slow-burn hit, landing on Spotify playlists and receiving steady radio play, as well as strong reviews. Indie Buddie said: “‘Older ’20’ is a wholesome, passionate track backed sublimely by lush intricate electronics.”
Discussing his decision to work again with the Peruvian producer, Robert said: “During the global pandemic, I took the opportunity to look back through my catalogue and release a bunch of reissues and remasters. When I listened to ‘Over’, I felt it was a song that had never reached its full potential – the lyric and melody is one of my favourites I’ve written, but the production fell short.”
He added: “Since we were in lockdown, and I was experiencing monumental growth in my streams – up by 743% on Spotify – I felt that it was important to release something, but quality control is important to me, so I decided to take something I thought already had the makings of a great song and allow Skynem GT to work his magic.”
The pair sent files back and forth, eventually settling on a soundscape described by Robert as “Ibiza chill”. Opening with a sole acoustic guitar, the track reveals itself as a sad-banger that Robert says is lyrically a prequel to ‘Older ’20’. He explains: “It’s about the same relationship, the one you build-up in your head as being “it”, and then you get stuck in the friend zone!“
A restrained synth breakdown leads to a lively second verse that houses some tongue-in-cheek lyrics from Robert: “Cause I was sold on you, on the very first view/If you’d been on auction, I’d bid out of reach for you.” If there was any doubt that Robert’s lyrics reflect his real life, take into consideration that the singer works by day selling houses. His approach to songwriting has been commended by critics, with Room Full of Music calling his lyrics “captivating”, and Pop, Rinse, Repeat hailing his work “Honest songwriting the world needs a lot more of.” Speaking of his commercial expectations of his music, Robert reveals: “Positive reviews are great, radio play is always welcome, because of course you want your music to be heard and enjoyed, but to me the most important thing is legacy – to be able to look back through your output with pride and see growth, experimentation and integrity – success will come and go, but great music lasts forever.”
