This late gig guide is brought to you by the letters S and W and the repeated phrase, “No”.
GIGS
Ellie Goulding plays Tripod, Dublin on Tuesday November 30th. Ellie Goulding is something of a darling in the music press. She meets the wonderful people, and remixes of her songs are a delight. The thing, for me at least is, her collaborations sound better than the source material. Her lyrics (those that talk obliquely about sleeping around and and those that pin-point the love-hate relationship every leaver has about their home town) are poetry of emotion. Her tunes flip between dance-until-you-drop euphoria and mellow space-folk. What stops her being great is her instinct for production. When others produce her, its sublime, but her own (or her usual producer’s) instincts on how she should sound just aren’t there. And its these instincts that are most likely going to follow her on the live stage. Let me know if they have changed.
Formed in 1999, the Ohio-raised, Brooklyn-based band The National are playing The Olympia, Dublin on Thursday 2 December. They must have fans in high places as Barack Obama used their “Fake Empire” in his election campaign, on the soundtrack to the promotional video Signs Of Hope And Change.
We Are Scientists are back with their album “Barbara” described as one of the New York originating band’s finest work in their ten years. Long-time We Are Scientists listeners will hear a record that resembles début With Love & Squalor in its tendency to sound like three guys playing and singing and drinking and, very occasionally, cussing. Recent converts will appreciate the continuation of melodic and lyrical trends begun on Record 2, Brain Thrust Mastery. They play The Academy on Monday 29 November.
Detroit’s disco-rock-stars Electric Six have called on Dublin’s Vengeance and The Panther Queen http://www.myspace.com/vengeanceandthepantherqueen to join them at their Academy date on Saturday 4 December. Vengeance and The Panther Queen which comprises of half of Republic of Loose and is led by the fiery and enigmatic Tara McCormack delivered a blistering set at this year’s Electric Picnic. Electric have a 7th studio album coming out on September 28, 2010 that will be released on Metropolis Records called “Zodiac”.
Belle and Sebastian play a live show at the Grand Canal Theatre December 3rd. Four and a half years after the release of The Life Pursuit - a top ten album in the UK which sold over a quarter of a million copies globally - Belle and Sebastian release their new album, Belle and Sebastian Write About Love on Rough Trade Records on 8th October 2010. Unlike its predecessors, it is an album which has come together in a relatively short period of time. After reconvening in February 2010, a period of writing and pre-production in Glasgow was followed by a trip to Los Angeles for recording with Tony Hoffer (who also produced The Life Pursuit) at the renowned Sound Factory Studio B.
After releasing their debut album ‘Amoral’ earlier this year, New York three piece Violens (pronounced ‘vy-lenz’) have unveiled the video for their single ‘Violent Sensation Descends‘. Having supported MGMT on their US tour earlier this year, and playing a select number of shows in the UK and Ireland this November, Violens will join The Drums. The dates for the The Drums & Violens tour are Tuesday 30 Novemberin Mandella Hall, Belfast and Wednesday 1 December 2010 in The Academy, Dublin.
Texan singer-songwriter Kimmie Rhodes is on a Special Christmas Tour in Ireland & the UK to coincide with the release of the premier collection of her original Christmas songs, “Miracles On Christmas Day”. Kimmie’s multi-platinum selling songs have been recorded by such stellar acts as Willie Nelson, Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood, Amy Grant, CeCe Winans, Joe Ely, John Farnham, Waylon Jennings, Peter Frampton, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. A creative and prolific artist, she has recorded and released a total of fourteen solo CDs, written and produced three musical plays and a catalogue of hundreds of songs, and published a book. The dates are:
Thursday 2 December, Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Fingal, Co. Dublin.
Friday 3 December and Saturday 4 December, The Brontë Centre, Rathfriland, N. Ireland.
Following his debut single ‘Jigsaw’, Ryan Sheridan has announced his first headline Irish tour. Fans can catch the Monaghan man in December at …
Thursday 2 December in Dundalk, The Spirit Store
Friday 3 December in Galway, Roisin Dubh (Upstairs)
Saturday 4 December in Dublin, The Sugar Club
Sunday 5 December in Cork, Cyprus Avenue
From 2002’s To Let, his first studio album, through to 2007’s White Moth, Xavier Rudd gradually refined his globally-influenced collage of world music – a mixture of reggae, funk, blues, folk, and nearly every other sort of song. With 2008’s Dark Shades of Blue, though, brought a darker, more somber side of Rudd’s music. So from New South Wales comes the Koonyum Sun album marking a collaborative collection of songs with bassist Tio Moloantoa and percussionist Andile Nqubezelo. There’s also more vocal variation, with colourful harmonies in several different languages soaring atop the music. Xavier Rudd plays live at the Academy on Thursday 2 December with special guest Ben Howard.
Delorentos are putting a big countrywide tour in place in support of their new single “Sanctuary” from “You Can Make Sound”. Their provisional list (there’s more to be announced) is:
Saturday 4 December – Carrick On Shannon, The Cartown Club
Wednesday 8 December –Cork, The Old Oak
Friday 10 December Tipperary, Barcode
Saturday 11 December –Galway, Roisin Dubh
Thursday 16 December - Dublin, Workmans Club
Saturday 18 December – Westport, Walshes
Sunday 19 December – Derry, Masons
Dublin based pop songwriter Ivan St John has been quietly plying his trade over the last number of years. Ivan St John has simply been playing and writing and recording and playing and writing and recording. Having grown-up in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir, Ivan has been cocooned in music since he was eight, inspired by the juxtaposition of listening to Paul Simon and Queen on the way to school and then singing Allegri’s Miserere in the evening. Fast forward twelve years and Ivan St John prepares to release his debut LP, Up To Snuff.
Very much of the bedroom producer generation, and in the bedroom is very much where his debut album was conceived. Nonetheless, to finish the job he took the plunge and headed to a ‘real’ studio. And where better than Steve Albini’s celebrated Chicago hangout Electrical Audio. “Making the album in Electrical Audio was going to be a vastly different experience. You definitely get a sense of it being the studio of a guy who understands exactly what he wants from it and the gear at our disposal was unbelievable.” Rob Bochnik, one of the Electrical Audio founders, manned the controls on Up to Snuff:”I’d say to Rob, “Do you reckon he’d have this or that?” He’d wander off and return a while later with what I asked for, plus a bunch of alternatives. It was unreal. The studio is connected to Steve’s house and we could pan out in his living room. He had a billiards table and the biggest VHS collection you’ve ever seen.” Ivan St John Live on Saturday 4 December 4 8pm - The Workman’s Club, Dublin
And to give you an idea what to expect, here is a video of his
