Keep It Fresh

Dark Room Notes released single “Love Like Nicotine” back in June to rave reviews. With plenty of airplay and media coverage (including a great one page spread in Totally Dublin), the band have been quickly picking up pace. I was lucky enough to see them live when they played as part of this years IMRO showcase and have been a fan every since. Their HWCH session is sure to be jammed as fans egarly await the forthcoming EP “Dead Start Program”, released October 12th through Gonzo Records, with a launch party in Crawdaddy Oct. 13th. Not to be missed.

MP3 Dark Room Notes - Love Like Nicotine

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posting. ran straight from EP into a film shoot so I won’t get back into regular posts till I’ve cleared that. Moving on…interesting month September as it sees festivals for both theatre, music and the arts. As I’m sure you know by now the Hard Working Class Heroes music festival kicks off in Tripod September 28th with the Dublin Theatre Festival also starting just before on the 27th. Earlier in the month with have the fantastic Dublin Fringe festival with its mix of music, theatre and art. That runs from the 8th to the 23rd. We’ll hopefully have a closer look at that soon. You can have a gander at the rest of our live recommendations after the jump… Continue reading ‘Supermassive September Gig Guide’

Seems fitting we should put this up now. But we’ll get to that in a minute. Betamax Format create synth driven indie anthems to make you WORK IT…or something like that. Inspired by “soundtracks from x-rated movies of the 70’s and 80’s” among other things, Betmax Format sound their best when the vocals are thrown in for good measure, as is displayed with current single ‘You Are Welcome In My House‘. That catchy number is currently the no. 1 most played song on Phantom FM (we now refer you back to the first sentence of this post) and is sure to be a live highlight at this year’s HWCH.

MP3 Betamax Format - You Are Welcome In My House

With a new EP, t-shirts (yum!) and website on the way plus supporting New Yorkers Oneida on their Irish tour (Whelans Oct. 6th), Betamax Format are sure to be busy boys all the way to Christmas - and that can only be a good thing.

myspace.com/betamaxformat

-phil

Remember this:

Well the lady behind the music is second year DCU communications student Miss Paula Flynn. Paula’s voice has that quality that we all instantly attach to no matter what your musical preferences are. A softer Regina Spektor and a less quirky Joanna Newsom, her cover of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance‘ became an instant classic among those of the Today FM listening persuasion. I hope she continues to experiment with her voice and sound as she has the potential to go anywhere. This is Sunday morning listening at its best.

MP3 Miss Paula Flynn - Time To Kill

www.myspace.com/misspaulaflynn

-phil

Claire left this as a comment in our HWCH musings post…musings no longer…

“Hard Working Class Heroes organizers are delighted to announce the “Scandinavian Invasion” that will feature as this year’s international quotient. The bands have been carefully selected in conjunction with industry insiders from their various countries.

Swedish 7-piece The Concretes head the pack fill the key Saturday night headline at the Festival leading the way for a broad swathe of emerging artists from that part of the world. In spite of a series of problems The Concretes triumphed over adversity at the beginning of the summer with the own-label release of their 3rd proper album, “Hey Trouble”, which was described as “Jesus & Mary Chain swirl and sashaying girl-group sweetness”.

In full the following Scandinavian bands will play this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival:

The Concretes (Sweden)

A Kid Hereafter (Denmark)

Cats on Fire (Finland)

El Ray (Denmark)

The Elephants (Denmark)

The Floor is Made of Lavas (Denmark)

The LK (Sweden)

LoveNinjas (Sweden)

Marybell Katastrophy (Denmark)

Murder (Denmark)

New Violators (Norway)

Oh no Ono (Denmark)

The Radio Arts (Sweden)

Soda Fountain Rag (Norway)

Thomas Denver Jonsson (Sweden)

Tupelo Honeys (Sweden) ”

No SKWBN. *sigh*
Although-The Concretes,The LK,Oh No Ono,The Loveninjas,and a few more bands for us all to fall in love with. *hooray*
God bless Scandinavia.

The bands page over at hwch.net has now gone “live”. Clicking on the band names now presents you with a mini band profile, links to band pages and a downloadable track by said band. So you can now listen to all those bands and decide who you REALLY want to see at this years HWCH. Genius. Here’s a couple to get you started.

MP3 Ham Sandwich - click…click…BOOM!

MP3 Le Bien - Something Else

A gander at the HWCH myspace page also throws up contenders for the Scandinavian invasion. Kieran already posted about Oh No Ono who sit in the top friends along with fellow Scandinavians El Ray, Cats On Fire, The LK, Marybell Katastrophy, Sambassadeur, Tupelo Honeys, New Violators and Loveninjas. During some late night musings with Claire, she also pointed out that Suburban Kids With Biblical Names were at one point riding high in the top friends. Makes sense considering the love affair this country has with them, added with their close friends status with The LK. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

-phil

I first heard about Chicks when Dan did a photo shoot with them back in 2006. The original lineup released two EP’s back in 1998/99. Their 2000 debut album was recorded but never released and the band split in 2001. After a hook up with Republic of Loose, Chicks reformed in 2006 with new members and new material. Okay history lesson over. After a good aul listen on myspace, Chicks are a band I’m looking forward to catching at the Pod complex. Definitely one of the more distinct acts on the bill and heck even the country, it’s cool to see them back and gigging.
Listen on Myspace

-phil

One of the festival highlights of the year is nearly upon us and I’m not talking about the Picnic. Hard Working Class Heroes has been pushed forward this year and now runs from Friday 28th - Sunday 30th instead of its usual October dates. The other big “upgrade” this year is that all acts will be playing across five rooms in the Pod complex instead of spreading themselves over the usual array of city centre venues that have been used in previous years. While this will save on the travel time and probably allow you to catch more of the acts you want to see, I’m slightly concerned about the human traffic flow issue that will face organizers. Pod doesn’t really lend itself to the term ‘complex’ with warren a more fitting term in my opinion. I suspect strict one-way systems will be in place however this didn’t exactly work to full effect in last year’s Spirit ‘complex’. Plus there was a certain charm to HWCH taking over our fine capital for an entire weekend. Meeting and making friends with fellow gig goers between venues injected a buzz to the city on those crisp October nights that, with out a doubt, added to the festivals appeal.

My Sunday morning bitching aside there is no denying that HWCH is one of my favorite Irish festivals. And so it was that Friday just passed I excitedly read the lineup announcement. Some familiar faces (Ham Sandwich, Butterfly Explosion, Michael Knight) are present alongside the current batch of Irish blog love affairs (Fight Like Apes, Dark Room Notes, Super Extra Bonus Party). We’ll be delving deeper into the lineup over the coming weeks, offering our recommendations on who not to miss. A three day pass will set you back a meager €33 and can be bought on Ticketmaster now. Roll on September Friday 28th.

Check out the current lineup here. And yes this years website gives me a headache too.

-phil