Archive for ‘free music’

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March 23, 2012

Some musical things for the weekend

by sweetoblivion26

Happy (almost) weekend! Here’s the latest Sweet Oblivion show (click) and playlist

Artist / Track / Album

THEESatisfaction – Enchantruss – QueenS

Big Star – Ballad of El Goodo – #1 Record

Grandaddy – He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot

Townes van Zandt – Waiting Around To Die

Yawning Chasm – Seen Like A Bird’s Cold Cold Eye – Snarl

Woven Skull – Cattlemart Crows – Moods of the Hill People

Leyland Kirby – A fluid wilderness of nothing – Sadly, the future is no longer what it was (Limited edition)

Áine O’Dwyer – In A Fugue State of Mind – Music For Church Cleaners

Robert Glasper Trio – Mood – Mood

Cogar - There Are Dreams Where They Speak

One track I’ll definitely be playing next week is from S Carey, whose new EP ‘Hoyas’ is due out on Jagjaguwar in May. I loved his debut, and this new track is a confident, electronics-tinged progression on the subtly affecting, gently-creeping feel of his earlier work.

Sweet Oblivion will be on 2FM this Sunday at 11pm. It’s the weekly 2XM on 2FM slot and it’s a great one to be included in! I’ll be playing some tracks from the likes of Little Xs for Eyes, Lower Dens, Balam Acab and Orcas.

In other news, this gig sounds extremely interesting: Resound playing the Button Factory on Thursday April 19, doors 730pm and tickets: €12/10.

The gig features Resound, You Can Call Me Frances, Buzz Aldrin Allstars and Ryan Taylor Doyle, and the visuals will be looked after by Donal Dineen, Hector Castells and Jane Cassidy. If you’re wondering who Resound are, they’re a talented bunch indeed:

Crash Ensemble Cellist and Kaleidoscope co-curator, Kate Ellis. RTE Lyric FM composer in residence, Linda Buckley. Rising star aka Glitterface of NanuNanu, Laura Sheeran. Jazz maestro and world music specialistFrancesco Turrisi. The inimitable John Lambert aka Chequerboard. Old-time and traditional fiddle player (amongst other things), Adrian Hart. Words of wisdom from the award winning poet Billy Ramsell and visuals from the uber talented Jane Cassidy.

You can call me Frances is a band of four dancers, Justine Cooper, Jessica Kennedy, Emma Martin and Áine Stapleton, They formed in Dublin in 2010 and taught themselves to play an instrument.

The Buzz Aldrin Allstars are a collection of like-minded musicians from the following bands – Si Schroeder / 3epkano / Halfset / Strands / United Bible Studies / Beautiful Unit.

Finally, Ryan Taylor Doyle says he is a solo artist “after years of trying to put the perfect band together and failing miserably”.

Finally, I’m currently putting a feature together for The Ticket on Limerick, and if you’re in the Limerick area on Sunday then I highly recommend you head to A Love Supreme in Leddins Bar, where the Cork Shape Note Singers will be performing. It’s a daytime event (4pm – 8pm) that promises to be the perfect place to raise your spirits and invigorate yourself for the week ahead. More info here.

One of the organisers behind the event is mynameisjOhn, who has just released a video for one of the tracks from his new EP:

Pics: From my Golden Half

Posted in Discussions, events/gigs, free music, new music | Leave a Comment »

February 11, 2012

Latest Sweet Oblivion shows plus playlists…

by sweetoblivion26

Hey folks, here’s a little update on the most recent Sweet Oblivion shows.

You can listen to them all on the RTÉ Radio Player, which is a really handy addition to the site.

Here’s the link to the most recent show – if you click through to this, you will then be given the option to listen to even more Sweet Oblivion shows. Just click on ‘Listen Back Further’.

As always, thanks to everyone who listens in, I couldn’t do the show without you.

Here are the playlists for the most recent shows:

[Artist - Track - Album]

9 February 2012 (click)

Jens Lekman – 17 Maple Leaves [7' Version]

Cloud Nothings – Fall In – Attack on Memory

Wild Nothing – Nowhere

Sharon Van Etten – Serpents  – Tramp

PJ Harvey  – This Mess We’re In – Stories from the city, stories from the sea

Ghost Estates – October

mynameisjOhn –  The Cumulative Recorder – The Thinker & The Prover EP

Twin Terrace –  You Keep Coming Back – Twin Terrace

Kim V Porcelli – I Want Your Love – Chic

Mark Lanegan – Harborview Hospital – Funeral Blues

Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day – Come on Feel the Illinoise

Benoit Pioulard – Ailleurs – Lyon

Olafur Arnalds – Film Credits – Living Room Songs

Deadball Specialists – Trapatoni’s Men – Wingnut Fundraiser EP

2 February 2012 (click)

Kayfabe – Bicycle Day In The Cosmos

Peaking Lights –  All the Sun That Shines – 936

Logikparty – Anti Omerta

ESG – Erase You

Fela Kuti – Everything Scatter (Toby’s Indigo Edit)

Arthur Russell – See Through Love

Blonde Redhead – Melody – Misery is a Butterfly

Bill Ryder-Jones  - Leaning From The Steep Slope – If

Sharon Van Etten – Serpents  – Tramp

Wild Nothing – Nowhere

07-Perfume Genius – Dark Parts – Put Your Back N 2 It

Perfume Genius – Put Your Back N 2 It - Put Your Back N 2 It

Songs of Green Pheasant – Deaf Sarah – Soft Wounds

26 January 2012 (click)

Perfume Genius – All Waters –  Put Your Back N 2 it

Kayfabe – Bicycle in the Cosmos

Nicolas Jaar – And I Say (ft. Scou Larue and Will Epstein)

Come on Live Long – White Horses  (REID Remix)

Simon Bird – Nightcall (Kavinsky Cover) - Quompilation #2 

Slow Place Like Home – Carte Blanche – Coastal Hubs for Chivalry

Bantum – Elephants and Time – Come on Live Long Remix

Mark Lanegan-  Ode to Sad Disco – Funeral Blues

Lower Dens – Brains

Perfume Genius – Hood – Put Your Back N 2 it

Perfume Genius – Normal Song – Put Your Back N 2 it

Elliott Smith – Rose Parade – Either Or

Orcas – Carrion

19 January 2012 (click)

Yawning Chasm – Stars are Going Out

Peter Delaney – If You Become Impossible – Duck Egg Blue

Marisa Nadler –  Box of Cedar – Ballads of living and dying

Sharon Van Etten – Love More – Serpents

The Unthanks – Nobody Knew She Was There – Here’s the Tender Coming

Orcas – Carrion

Band of Clouds – No Maps No Compass – Outside Broadcast

A Winged Victory for the Sullen – We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced, for the Earth Had Circled the Sun Yet Another Year

The Caretaker – Tiny Gradiations Of Loss (excerpt)

Brigid Power Ryce – Wild Grin

Gillian Welch – Everything is Free –  Time (The Revelator)

Mary Margaret O’Hara – Body’s in Trouble – Miss America

12 January 2012

Songs of Green Pheasant – Teen Wolf – Soft Wounds

Songs of Green Pheasant – For People – Soft Wounds

Seamus O Muineachain – Down I Go – Between Islands

Band of Clouds – So Long Bitter Root Hill – Outside Broadcast

INTERVIEW – GIB CASSIDY

The Lives of Millionaires – Chrysalis

The Star Department – Antlers

Logik Party – Anti Omerta

Slow Place Like Home – More Chlorine in the Gene Pool – Coastal Hubs for Chivalry EP

Toby Kaar – Fela Kuti – Everything Scatter (Toby’s Indigo Edit)

Faws – Camille – Antonym

5 January 2012

Mitten – Similar Sense- See You Bye

Toro y Moi – New Beat – Underneath the Pine

M83 –  Midnight City – Hurry Up We’re Dreaming

Kuedo – Ant City – Kuedo

THEESatisfaction –  Do You Have Time – Transitions

Hauschka – TwoAM – Salon Des Amateurs

A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears – s/t

Olafur Arnalds – Fyrsta – Living Room Songs

Dirty Beaches –  True Blue – Badlands

Widowspeak – In the Pines – Widowspeak

Arborea – Phantasmagoria in Two

Low – Especially Me – C’mon

Meg Baird – Share – Seasons On Earth

Gillian Welch – Tennessee – The Harrow and the Harvest

Posted in free music, new music, Sweet Oblivion 2XM | Leave a Comment »

January 20, 2012

Lightbox tour, Rest & Ten Past Seven gig, new Daniel Rossen song

by sweetoblivion26

The past two years have seen a huge rise in the amount of young electronic musicians emerging from their bedrooms and plonking themselves onto blogs, radio shows and into the ears of many.

It’s not like Ireland wasn’t a place for great electronic-based music before, but it’s very easy now to get your hands on the software needed to make purely electronic tracks, and even easier to get your music online and into people’s heads. You don’t even have to release a full album – look at Toby Kaar, who is wowing people on the strength of a handful of official tracks, great remixes and awesome live shows.

That all brings me to Feel Good Lost, and the Fundit campaign set up for this Cork-based duo’s new project, The Lightbox Tour.

This tour will involve a number of young Irish producers – here’s what Brendan Canty of Feel Good Lost had to say about it:
We are organising a short Irish tour taking in Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Galway, Belfast and Waterford over a week at the end of February. The tour will have 7 acts wich include Bantum,Feel Good Lost, Monto, Reid, Sert One, Simon Bird and Tenaka.

The tour will go under the banner ‘Lightbox’ as each of the acts perform using visual based music hardware such as Monomes, Kaoss Pads, APCs and iPads. Feel Good Lost will be providing live visuals for each of the acts over each of the nights.

Workshops will be staged before each night which will allow people to come and see how each of the acts interacts with the software/hardware so as to provide an even more interactive elements to the nights.

Each night will also host DJ sets in secondary rooms which will include guest DJs such as Nialler9, Jim Carroll, Logicparty and Ian Malaney as well as several of the featured acts.

Ten Past Seven/Rest gig
Two Cork-based bands are teaming up to play in a nicely unusual venue: Rest & Ten Past Seven will play at WRKSHP, which is based in Sample Studios. This in turn is based in the Old FÁS Building in Cork on the second floor and is a great example of an abandoned space being used for a creative purpose.

The gig will take place in Cork on Saturday, February 4 and admission so far is TBC but I will update as soon as it is confirmed.

This is instrumental rockers Rest and Ten Past Seven first co-headlining bill since 2006 (I feel a bit old reading that!).

They say that the capacity for the show will be very limited, so you can expect to get up close and personal with Corkonians on the night. I expect it will be intense!

Rest:

Ten Past Seven:

To find out more, visit:

http://www.facebook.com/wearerest

http://www.facebook.com/tenpastseven

http://sample-studios.com/category/cork/

Daniel Rossen

Finally, here’s the new tune from Daniel Rossen,  he of Grizzly Bear/Department of Eagles fame. It’s sweet, it’s piano-based, and it’s suitably minor-key-mournful for all us Grizzly Bear fans out there.

You’ll find it on his solo debut Silent Hour/Golden Mile, which will be released on 16 March this year.

Posted in Discussions, events/gigs, free music, new music | Leave a Comment »

January 13, 2012

Pick n’ Mix: Choice Music Prize, Out on a Limb Records, Winged Victory for the Sullen

by sweetoblivion26

It’s Friday, so how about a little catch up on what’s been going on this week? Music, radio, juicing (!) and more are included here.

Choice Music Prize

By now, we all know that The Choice Music Prize nominees have been announced – was your pick in there? I have to say that I’m delighted to see Tieranniesaur and Patrick Kelleher and His Cold Dead Hands in there, and overall the list is really solid. It’s never going to satisfy everyone, and it’s nigh on impossible to put together a list of 10 nominees that every single person will be happy with.

I did have fears based on the new sponsors, Meteor, given how disconnected the old Meteor Awards were from the Irish independent music scene, but overall the decisions here are down to the judges, a very trustworthy and knowledgeable gang.

That said, it is perhaps inevitable that the music would all come from one corner of the Irish music scene – I wonder how this could be remedied, or should it be up to other awards ceremonies to reward the best albums in Irish hip hop, metal, trad, etc?

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Free music: Out on a Limb Records

Out on a Limb Records have been giving away free downloads of albums from their back catalogue all during the week. So far, Owensie, Windings and Giveamanakick have been featured. Who is on offer today? Check out their website and twitter for more info.

Free music: Orcas

Orcas is the new musical project by duo Rafael Anton Irisarri (The Sight Below) and Benoit Pioulard. The first inklings that they were working together came when they released a haunting cover of the Broadcast song Until Then, in tribute to the late Broadcast musician Trish Keenan. Now they’re back with their first original release, which is available for free download (see below). Combining their ambient sensibilities and love for layered, ghostly sounds, Carrion is both stark and beautiful. Expect a full album later this year.

via Self-Titled Mag

Katie Kim

Fancy listening to some incredible old Katie Kim songs? Check out VAULTS Vol 1, which is only available to buy on tape during her forthcoming tour, and is on Bandcamp now for your listening pleasure.

Walpurgis Family

I achieved one of my dreams a few months ago when I got to sing as part of a small ‘choir’ for a song on the Walpurgis Family album. The album, Dawn, is released this month and it has already gotten a rave review from Patrick Freyne in Hotpress, who really knows his stuff.  Here’s Let’s Go Camping from the album – listen closely and you might hear me (ha!). Congrats to Jeroen and Popical Island on the release!

Accessible venues

Is your favourite venue fully accessible to all people of all abilities? You might be surprised to hear the truth about whether wheelchair-users can get to gigs in their favourite haunts, as this fantastic article by Louise Bruton in The Ticket in the Irish Times shows today. Good on Louise for highlighting this!

Many venues tick the boxes but do not go further than the token requirements. The wheelchair area often has a restricted view or limits you to having one mate with you, even if you’re with a gaggle of mates.

First Fortnight

This great event, which aims to challenge mental health prejudice through creative arts, brings Royseven, Cashier No9, Le Galaxie and dREA together at The Button Factory at 8.30pm on Saturday night. More info here.

Whelan’s: Ones to Watch

What homegrown acts should you be listening to in 2012? Whelan’s have put on a showcase aiming to tell you just that. The gigs have been going since Wednesday, and run until tomorrow (Saturday), when the following bands play:

Depravations

Bouts

Spies

Alarmist

Redwoods

Dying Seconds

CFIT

Holy Roman Army

The Gandhis

Come On Live Long

Nanu Nanu

Trap Door

Futures Apart

Raglans

Gypsies OnThe Autobahn

Hush War Cry

My tips are Nanu Nanu, Depravations, Alarmist, Bouts, and Come On Live Long – but heck, it’s a bloody great list of bands.

Radiolab

I love Radiolab in a big way – it’s like the younger, more rambunctious sibling of This American Life. Its latest show is about the bad things that people do, like, er, commit murder. Expect to feel very informed (and a bit wary of humanity) after listening to this.

Elastic Witch

Gib from the independent record store Elastic Witch had a chat with me for this week’s Sweet Oblivion. You can listen to it by following the link here.

Gig of the Week

My gig of the week next week is definitely going to be A Winged Victory for the Sullen. They play the Sugar Club on Thursday 19 January and it’s going to be a guddun’. Tickets are just €13.50 and you can find out more here.

Drink yr Juice

Courtesy of the great Home Organics, a blog post about juicing for all you vegaholics out there.

Instant Love

This looks great – it’s a book about taking photos with Polaroid cameras, and it comes out in May. I’m doing one of Susannah Conway‘s photography e-courses at the moment and loving it.  It’s really changing the way I see things, even if I’ll never be the next Cartier-Bresson ;)

Jon Cohen interview

Montreal-based musician Jon Cohen is playing Ireland next week – Dublin’s Grand Social on Friday 20 January to be exact. If you’re a fan of Brendan Benson, The Dears, and Broken Social Scene, I think you’ll really dig his stuff.

Here’s a link to the interview I did with him for Thumped.

Dirty Beaches

Finally, I’ll leave you with this video from Dirty Beaches. I really love his stuff and so does Cohen – we had a chat about how he really wears his influences on his shirt sleeve, and yet manages to maintain his own originality.

His album Badlands and other releases can be found on Bandcamp.

Here’s the video for his song True Blue:

What have you been enjoying this week?

Posted in Discussions, events/gigs, free music, Music interview, Record Stores, Sweet Oblivion 2XM | Leave a Comment »

January 8, 2012

New Irish music: Seamus O Muineachain, Band of Clouds, Songs of Green Pheasant

by sweetoblivion26

These days, I find myself playing more and more Irish music on the show – more and more Irish songs that I adore. So much so that in planning this week’s show I’ve realised I won’t have any room for anything outside of Ireland (plus I’ll have an interview hopefully on the show too, with an Irish music-making and music-supplying person, all going to plan).

It’s a wonderful way to be, particularly as Sweet Oblivion is not an Irish-only show, and I try not to confine my playlists by location/gender/genre/etc. I try to be mindful and have some balance there, but it’s got to be something I really like or love (and/or think others will love) before I play it.

Here are two recent releases from Irish musicians that I’m particularly enjoying, and one from an Irish label.  I love the atmosphere that they create, and I think you will too.

I’ve played tracks from Galway-based Jimmy Monaghan aka Seamus O Muineachain on the show consistently throughout the year (and was absolutely chuffed and surprised when he asked to use a photo I took on the cover of one of them).  I got the first EP out of the blue, and hadn’t realised that Seamus was Jimmy of Music for Dead Birds, one of the many great bands to have released albums on the Rusted Rail label.

So I literally listened to it blind, so to speak, and was blown away. It was magical. Later, I met Jimmy while interviewing the equally prolific Tony Higgins – but I didn’t actually realise his identity as ‘Seamus’ until after the interview. “You’re HIM!?’ was my reaction when I found out.

Here’s his third EP, and as usual it is available for free download. While keeping the focus on the piano, Jimmy has added more musical flourishes to these tracks compared to the previous EPs – a scatter of cymbals, a rather yearning violin and a touch of electronics to add drama.

On the subject of bands who released on Rusted Rail, the next album to come from the micro-label, which is run by Keith Wallace, is ‘Soft Wounds’ by Songs of Green Pheasant. The delicate, double-tracked vocals and plaintive horns on opener Teen Wolf had me hooked from first listen.

Made by Sheffield-based Duncan Sumpner, this is the 4- and 8-tracked album of your dreams, if you love nothing better than sinking into an aural bed of softly-sung, lo-fi, feathery goodness. It’s pop, in the most understated sort of sense. If the B-section of your record shelves contains Bedhead, Beirut, and Belle and Sebastian, you’ll want Soft Wounds to do your ears some subtle damage.

Find out more – and pre-order before its January 12th release – here.

Keeping with releases that are perfect for grey winter nights in, the Band of Clouds album is another one for you sensitive types. When you’re listening to this, close your eyes and pretend that John Haggis and friends have gathered in your home to play you these songs. The lights are dimmed, the turf fire is blazing, and outside there’s a storm a-gatherin’.

Outside Broadcast is the perfect companion to Songs of Green Pheasant and Seamus O Muineachain, because there is a similar energy running through it, one that you can feel in the pit of your stomach.  It’s perfect winter listening because, just like the other releases, it has a smudge of mournfulness on it, a sadness that’s simmering beneath.

It’s no surprise, really, given its genesis:

John Haggis pieced this long player together while he was recovering from an operation which helped him to walk again. No longer able to play music live with his friends, hiding away and making this album became a music therapy of sorts.

The album was made by John, who’s from Granny It’s Ok To Experiment studio in Waterford, and features a host of acts including Katie Kim and Deaf Joe.

It’s just 7 euro to download the digital version of Outside Broadcast, or 10 euro for the CD/vinyl.

Happy listening! Let me know if you enjoy any or all of the above releases.

I’ll be playing tracks from all of these on Sweet Oblivion this Thursday at 5pm, on RTE 2XM.

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December 1, 2011

Two years

by sweetoblivion26

My radio show, Sweet Oblivion, has been broadcast on RTÉ 2XM for more than two years now (it goes out at 5pm on Thursdays), but up until recently the only way you could listen back to an old show was if I uploaded the show to Soundcloud.com.

That was fine and all – but I can’t afford a costly subscription to the site so I could only fit 12 episodes on there at any given time.

So I’m over the moon to say that RTÉ’s recently launched Radio Player features 2XM shows, all broadcast on a high-quality stream.

Here’s the link to my most recent show (click).

If you want to listen to older shows (they’re archived for the past month and a half, no earlier than that unfortunately) to the left of my toothy face is a link that says ‘Listen back further’.

I’ll be putting my set lists up here as there’s currently no facility to do that on the player.

If you have any feedback, requests or otherwise, please tweet me or comment here.

I really appreciate when anyone takes the time to listen to my show, so thanks to my longstanding and new listeners. And thanks to the bands who send in their music – you all rock.

The show’s on tonight at 5pm and features Minnie Riperton, Marvin Gaye, PJ Harvey, THEESatisfaction and lots more… but in the meantime:

Here’s the setlist for Sweet Oblivion // 24 November

Twin Sister – All Around and Away We Go – Color Your Life EP

Burrows - Milk and Glass – In Winter

LINK

Kuedo – Ant City – Severant

LINK

M83 – Wait -Hurry Up we’re dreaming

Benoit Pioulard – I walked into a blackness and built a fire – Lyon

LINK

Laura Sheeran – Save Your Heart – Murderous Love EP

Bill Ryder-Jones – By the Church of Apollonia – If…

Rachel’s – A French Galleasse – Selenography

LINK

A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Minuet for a Cheap Piano – AWVFTS

Olafur Arnalds – Fyrsta – Living Room

LINK

Come on Live Long – White Horses – Mender

Girl Band – Elastic – Girl Band

LINK

Peaking Lights – All the Sun that Shines – 936

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June 18, 2011

Focus on Galway: Rusted Rail, Brigid Power Ryce, So Cow & Yawning Chasm

by sweetoblivion26

Ah, Galway. I’ve had visions of this little city running through my head for the past few weeks, all because of a series of interviews I did for the Irish Times‘ music supplement The Ticket a few weeks ago. The article came out yesterday – you can read it here – but due to word counts I simply couldn’t include everything I spoke to people about.

Usually that’s not an issue – I’ve worked in this business long enough to know you just have to forget about what you cut to make your word count, like scraps of scribbled-on paper thrown in a bin. It’s just part of the job.

But I enjoyed doing these interviews so much, and felt so welcomed into the fold when I visited Galway, that I’ve decided to put some longer versions of these interviews on the blog. There is so much going on in Galway at the moment; for such a relatively small city there are great little pockets of people working away at their music, putting on gigs in their own homes, setting up nights to bring more Irish music to the city, even buying their own vinyl-pressing machines so they can press their own records.

Yet at the same time, Galway isn’t necessarily the place people flock to for gigs – except for the Roisin Dubh, which has a fantastic reputation in Ireland and abroad, people don’t tend to visit the West for gigs unless for special occasions, like the upcoming Galway Arts Festival. This can be reflected in the audience numbers at the smaller local gigs, where I’d venture they don’t always get full houses.

Will Oldham playing the Roisín Dubh a few years ago

While not having a jammed-to-the-rafters gig doesn’t indicate that your gig is of a low quality, people can get discouraged when they feel that their work is being taken for granted. It’s great to have your work acknowledged and to feel that you are making a contribution to the local ‘scene’ or scenes, even on a very small scale.

read more »

Posted in Discussions, events/gigs, free music, Music interview, new music | 1 Comment »

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March 21, 2011

Soundcloud sounds: Toby Kaar, Sacred Animals remix

by sweetoblivion26

I’m not too sure how this one almost passed me by, but Toby Kaar has a new remix on his Soundcloud, this time of the Sacred Animals track Wired, Islands.

What I love about Toby’s remixes is that they’re never what you expect – there are twists and turns, jolts and jerks and moments when you think you’re being brought down one path only to end up somewhere else.

The focus starts off on the falsetto vocals and shimmery synths before blossoming into a riotous and colourful explosion of noise.  It’s somewhat ironic that the vocals feel downbeat but they’re brought to a happier place thanks to Toby’s colourful approach.

A winner.

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March 16, 2011

State vs…Sweet Oblivion

by sweetoblivion26

Hey folks, if you’re out and about in Dublin tonight and hankering for some live music to go with your beer, then pop along to the Mercantile on Dame St for some State vs Sweet Oblivion action.

The lovely folk at State (where I have contributed articles over the past couple of years) asked me did I want to do one of their State vs...gigs and I was only delighted to take part.

Unfortunately, Laura Sheeran, who I had asked to play the gig, had to drop out due to a family illness, so we will be without her wonderful presence on the night. (I’m sending good thoughts to her and her family).

But we do have two rockin bands playing – nordy band Kowalski, and Dublin’s Kid Karate, neither of whom I’ve seen live yet so I am rather looking forward to it.

The gig kicks off at 9.30pm, it’s FREE in and if it’s like any of the other State gigs, it should be a fab night.

See you there!

Aoife

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February 16, 2011

My Lithium & Me – David Bowie covers with a twist

by sweetoblivion26

Here are six David Bowie songs like you’ve never heard them before.

Cast aside your thoughts of face-painted glam-rock monstrosities, because in the hands of musician Leah Kardos, aka My Lithium & Me, they become a totally different beast. Take Criminal World (itself a cover), for example, which becomes a dark slice of trip hop, or The Man Who Sold the World, which gets a totally unanticipated dub swagger. To my ears, Leah brings the songs forward by a few decades, giving them less of a 70s and 80s feel and instead creating a 90s electronic vibe.

It’s pretty impressive that this project happened by accident. It all began when Leah was asked to sing some Bowie covers at a 40th birthday party – there was no great masterplan involved, but her approach and voice hit a chord with fellow Bowie fans, who encouraged her to record the tracks. So crucial was their support that the news even made it onto the huge Bowie site BowieNet.

Leah’s a dedicated Bowie fan, as she explains here:

You know I’m a massive David Bowie fan, right? I’m not ashamed to say I’m a little bit obsessed. Hidden away in private fangirl seclusion, I’ve often enjoyed bashing out the odd cover version to myself – mainly the piano-driven ones (Time, Changes, both Ladies, Grinning Soul and Stardust, that kind of thing). Almost like a ritual, it’s another way to experience and appreciate the music from the inside out.

Generally speaking, I despise most cover versions of songs that I love – why mess with something that already exists and is pretty much perfect? For this reason, I’ve never done this sort of thing in public often, and when I have it’s only ever been for an audience of friends and fellow fans.

Fellow hardcore Bowie fans might pick up that Leah has taken samples from his back catalogue to use in the arrangements, and more will love that Rex Ray did the artwork for the release. But you don’t have to be a hardcore fan to appreciate Leah’s approach to re-recreating these songs that she adores.

Described as ‘a valentine to David Bowie’, these covers show that a fan’s love can transform a musician’s work into something deliciously unexpected.

Check out the website here.

Posted in free music, new music | Leave a Comment »

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