Keep It Fresh

Following on from the success of their debut single Love Like Nicotine, Dublin-based electronic pop act Dark Room Notes are set to release their first EP Dead Start Program on 12^th October. There’s something instantly appealing about Dark Room Notes with the band being compared to likes of New Order, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads and Interpol. Dead Program Start is sure to be an instant hit, comprised of tracks that proved popular during their high energy live performances. We pegged the band as one to watch at HWCH and from what I hear they were a huge success, playing to packed room. You can preview the entire EP by heading to their myspace…

The Dead Start Program tour kicks off this week with gigs at Cyprus Avenue tonight, Spirit Store tomorrow and Tower Records (2pm) / Crawdaddy on Saturday 13th.

***COMPETITION***

To celebrate the launch of Dead Start Program we’ve got a copy of the new EP and a pair of tickets for Saturdays Crawdaddy gig to giveaway. First answer this simple question:

Name Dark Room Notes debut single?

Then email your name and answer to freshcompetitions@gmail.com. First email in the door wins!

-phil

The ever amazing Anton Corbijn’s “Control” opened in the IFI today. Corbjin’s first feature film (having previously photographed the likes of U2, Depeche Mode and The Killers), Control is a biopic of late Joy Division front man Ian Curtis and is based on the book written by Curtis’s wife entitled “Touching From A Distance“. The film stars newcomer Sam Riley (who funnily had a small role in Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, a film which loosely follows the life of late Tony Wilson and his involvement with the Manchester music scene including bands Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays) as lead man Curtis and Samantha Morton (In America, Minority Report) as Deborah Curtis, his ever suffering spouse. Shot in stark black & white the film has the added appeal of all it’s cast members playing their instruments live. This looks like a must see for both fans of music and cinema. I’ll hopefully get a chance to check it out over the weekend but until then here’s the trailer.

-phil

The post title should give you some sort of idea of how much fun last night in the new look Whelans was, when Los Campesinos! front man Gareth informed the crowd of guitarist Tom’s celebrity look-a-like, which had been pointed out by a passing crowd member before the band took to the stage. But let’s backtrack a little first.

Support band Betamax Format played a blinder and rustled up some impressive crowd numbers for a support act. Thanks to some good airplay and HWCH hype, single “You Are Welcome In My House” went down a treat. Some material from the forthcoming EP wormed it’s way into their set sounds pretty damn good. That’s touted for release early 2008. Talking to the band after the set, I found out there’s been a wee hitch with their new, extremely sexy t-shirts but expect the first batch in a couple of weeks.

Some quick sliding to the front, a brief encounter with Sarah, Lisa, Tracey and Sarah’s new camera and it was Campesinos! time. After the band wrapped up their opening track the crowd when mental. Singer Gareth tried to address everyone but couldn’t get a word in edge ways as the crowd kept cheering. Eventually hellos were exchanged and the gig really kicked off. Predictably the roof was kicked off Whelans when You! Me! Dancing! dropped and I fully believe the band when they hoped that the rest of the tour dates where this much fun. The set came to a perfect climax when un-released track Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks (one of the tracks that helped them pick up blog fame a year ago) started up. It had everything from Gareth charging into the crowd to full band dance routines. When all this came to a close a genuinely humbled band said their goodbyes and thank yous then made their exit. Not a bad start to your first major tour with only one EP under your belt. And all this in Dublin on a Tuesday night.

Heres the video for forthcoming single “The International Tweexcore Underground” which is released through Wichita.

-phil

Stereogum return with another impressive cover project. Which makes perfect sense after the success of July’s OK Computer aka OKX. It’s a simple concept. Stereogum pick a defining album, gather together a bunch of artists, give them each a track from the album and present the results to you. For free. This time they present Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic for the People and the album contains covers from the likes of The Meat Puppets, The Wrens and The Shout Out Louds. Well worth a listen, you can download or stream the album at Stereogum. Also included are liner notes and an essay from Fluxblog founder Matthew Perpetua, who would appear to be THE R.E.M fan.

Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic for the People via Stereogum

-phil

Another act, another exclamation mark! And we need to inject some dirty electro back into this blog. Heidi Cannon & John Bourke are !Trash Yourself. They’ve teamed up Toxic Avenger to produce a track that has me quite excited. I haven’t been this excited since the Rage Against The Machine/Mr. Ozio days. The track in question is a cover of Blur’s Song 2 and it fucking rocks. That is all.

MP3 !Trash Yourself - Song 2

MP3 !Trash Yourself - Touch

Be their friend. Not for those of an epileptic disposition.

-phil

A surprise hit (in my opinion) on Phantom FM, I only discovered Gavin Glass while having a gander over this years HWCH lineup. Turns out he also plays with a friend of mine, N.C Lawlor, and combined with a few other heads you’ve got Gavin Glass and the Holy Shakers. With a voice made for this kind of music, current single “Older Than My Years” is a classy Ryan Adams like number thats hard to come by in this country. Debut album “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” was released in 2005 and 2nd album, simply titled “Gavin Glass & The Holy Shakers” is released this Friday, just in time for their HWCH slot at 8pm. It’s sure to be one of this years more unique HWCH performances.

MP3 Gavin Glass & The Holy Shakers - Older Than My Years

Video:

-phil

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

After many months of eager anticipation, Iron & Wine (aka. Sam Beam) is finally back with his latest offering, The Shepherds Dog. Looking at his back catalogue, you can see the progression that Sam’s work has taken from first album of lo-fi, self produced, bedroom recordings (The Creek Drank The Cradle) all the way up to the bigger, more polished and professional sounding Woman King, with Our Endless Numbered Days bridging that gap nicely. The Shepherds Dog is a nice continuation of this journey towards a more mainstream sound, but I for one think that it may go slightly too far, almost crossing the line into mass-produceable, radio-friendly pop.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing necessarily bad about this, it’s just that for me, the whole charm (and the whole point) of Iron & Wine was the feeling that you were listening to genuine songs from a genuine guy who wasn’t making this music for anyone but himself. Since then, Sam has found himself an audience and (perhaps unfortunately) started playing for them.

The character and old world charm of Sam’s uniquely smokey voice sometimes seems lost amongst all the production, and I cannot for the life of me fathom why anyone would think that putting a digital effect on the vocals (track 4, Carousel) would be a good idea. Having said all that, it’s not by any means a bad album. Any existing Iron & Wine fan will appreciate it for what it is, and it’s a nice introduction for anyone else.

Check out Iron & Wine’s MySpace here, and the official site here.

The Shepherds Dog goes on general release September 25th.

-Dave.