Roll up, roll up, I’m emptying out my email inbox after weeks of willful neglect and there’s a plug in here for anyone who came asking. (Well, there isn’t really, there’s a plug in here for anyone who came asking and turned out to be good. Everyone else got a sort of withering look and a quick sticks visit to the ‘Archive’ button. X-Factor children and the mammies who don’t tell them to move on…*mutter*.)
Things you need to know include the fact that Villagers headline show in Marlay Park on July 23rd isn’t yet sold out, and you’ll never guess where you can get tickets either? It’s only Ticketmaster. (Just one day I want to get a press release that says ‘tickets available on Thursday at 5pm under the Spire. The contact’s called Johnny. The password is ‘kidney bean’. Just once.) I only mention because new single The Pact is being released this Friday (Friday the 13th, the bravery of it) so I’ve got Conor and Co on the brain this week. Have a gander:
From being your fever to being your tongue and your velco (it’s a lyrics thing) the Bell X1 lads have also announced a Marlay Park date for August. My oul wan memories of Marlay Park (haven’t been there since the Frames in ’05) say it’s a fine spot for a gig and they’re playing on August 6th with special guests Editors. Tickets are available under the Spire, the contact’s Johnny, the password is k…
Speaking of Bell X1, young Paul Noonan (would) features on Gemma Hayes’ upcoming ‘Let It Break’. It’s out this month (27th) and she has a bunch of tour dates.
Galway’s Spire Digital produced ‘Let’s Go to the Beach’ for Canada’s The White Wires. It’s rather poppy if we do say, and it was filmed in Athenry. Is that yore da in the background? Best have a look see. Sure there’s bound to be someone you know in it. Couldn’t throw a sheep without hitting a stone up west (did I mean it that way ’round says you? I did and all), but the human population density is so low that they rounded up all of Connaught for this one video…
If you ask Team Culch, I’m still going on about the ‘Best Day Ever’ which included taking part in a Where’s Wally flashmob to launch Street Performance World Championships (more on that when we eventually edit the video, but if you’re wondering idly just how many Culchies dressed up as wallies, the answer would be 4).
The day also featured the best gig in the world ever, The JD Set. My Mammy always told me that if you’re invited to a party and you have a good time, you send a thank you letter, so on that note: ‘Dear Neil Hannon, Cathy Davey, Romeo Magic Numbers and Richie Jape, thank you for being brilliant. As I kept saying to everyone afterwards, ‘Neil Hannon played National Express and I was close enough to see his eyelashes’. Please come back and do the exact same gig again every April 1st. And thanks to team JD for giving me a taste for applejacks.’ The big draw of the JD Set, however, wasn’t the gang performing their own music (as unbelievable as Little Red and Indie Disco were) but the fact that they’d come together to perform Vampire Weekend‘s album. They absolutely rocked out, so hit over to the website because they’ve got video of the performances up now. I recommend Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa… if nothing else you’ll learn that ‘is your bed made?’ is a song lyric and its regular appearance on The Twitter isn’t in fact meself and @seanear1ey giving it the come on. Well, mostly. On the subject of thinly veiled come-ons though, Culch’s own Andy Gaffney interviewed Neil Hannon ahead of the gig and you can have a watch here. Look at the lust in his eyes (and let’s leave that ‘his’ ambiguous).
Look closely, you can pick out several Culchies.
Moving on from the Best Day Ever (as if I ever will), I had a pretty fine Thursday the other week which largely centred around eating porridge in Avoca, but also involved Bipolar Empire‘s Feel That You Own It launch at The Workman’s Club. Did we mention that we love these guys? Clickeh. I’d ask if you’d like to see them on Tea Crowd but if i’m honest we’ve already invited them cos we just want any excuse to hang out with them more. Also spotted at BE’s launch were never-have-gotten-0ver-that-Oxegen-number-with-the-Artane-band favourites The Brilliant Things. The album is on it’s way, eeeep, and Marie’s wardrobe will continue to feature the signature tullefest skirts she’s known for. Deadly! Big up to The Workman’s Club for the very fine swing music in the main bar too, we ended up staying there ’til they started closing the place around us.
While I’m chatting about Irish up-and-comers, we were sent the video for Kill Krinkle Club‘s ‘Handwritten Novel‘ recently.
What do you think? It’s from the album Abandon and it was filmed in Venice and produced by Greg Corcoran, better known as the short film guy behind Dead Load Films.
Lastly, something a bit different from my personal heroes, Jedward. (Don’t rag on me, I think they’re marketing geniuses. I buy into how genuine their niceyness to the fans is, and I think they’ve rather sound business minds at the heart of it too.) In the week where they’ll be facing into their Eurovision semi-final (it’s on Thursday, which is also my birthday, so let’s all be clear on what I would like as a present my foreign friends…vote Jedward!) here’s something a wee bit different, their promo video for all-you-can-eat data plans on the 3 network. Not quite music, but meh!
Tenuous connection: I hope they didn’t smudge their Lipstick while they were munching those data plans. Groan!
