The just announced Meteor Choice Music Prize shortlist… and the nominees are (drum roll, if you please): (PS we included a song with each one just in case you’re totally morto about any that you haven’t heard of) And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs (Richter Collective) Bell X1 – Bloodless Coup (Belly Up Records) Cashier No 9 – To The Death Of Fun (Bella Union)
I still maintain that Fanfarlo’s “I’m A Pilot” is the most sublime free download on LastFM (you can nab it for yourself here), so my expectations were higher than my Junior Cert art teacher* for the indie-pop darlings’ new song, “Shiny Things“. Expectations, consider yourselves well met. Here’s the perplexingly daft video for Shiny Things. You wouldn’t see this kind of carry-on on Got To Dance. Ashley Banjo is many things, but a crafter of gymnastic golems is not one of them (we think). Shiny Things is from Fanfarlo’s second album, Rooms Filled With Light, which is due at the end of February. *Might be hyperbole, might be a lie. Might be that I never even took art.
Dave O’Gorman is a comedian with a plan. A plan to do comedy for a year and tell the world about it day by day, step by step. So what’s it all about, I hear you ask? Well, Dave explains it better than I can. “Basically, ’365davesofcomedy’ is about me returning to comedy. After finding my way on stage after working in the Laughter Lounge whilst in college, and then getting into comedy in the Ha’Penny one night and then gigging for about 2 years in which I setup Comedy Ireland.ie and ran gigs in Whelan’s, Pygmalion and The Twisted Pepper, plus in Kilkenny, I have returned to see how good or bad it can be to do comedy for 1 year.” Here is a short video of Dave on stage.
If you’re a regular reader of Culch then you’ll know what an amazing time myself (Anto), Peter Donegan and Brian Greene had at Spirit of Folk 2011 (Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3 posts). It was a brilliant weekend from start to finish and brought together some amazing acts and people. 2012 is set to be bigger and the guys have just put out a call for band submissions. As they say themselves: We’re looking for folk music in the broadest sense. We’re looking for American folk, Irish Trad., bluegrass, folk rock, country and anything that fits our festival. Last year we had bands as broad ranging as St. John the Gambler’s eastern influenced, stomping Alt. Folk to Lisa O’Neill’s tender folk ballads. There’s no reason why this year’s line up can’t be just as diverse. Folk in its most basic sense is the music of the people so … There’s more
I reviewed Lucan Comedy Cavern a little while ago. I really enjoyed the night. It’s a great venue for comedy and very welcoming and warming. Not content with just running a comedy club however, Gary Lynch, the man behind the club has decided to branch out into karaoke from this Friday. So not only will you be treated to 2 hours (or thereabouts) of comedy from the likes of Gerry McBride and Ashley Strand, but for those brave enough, the stage is yours to sing to your heart’s content. I sat down with Gary during the week to find out why they chose this new turn of events: “Well basically, we saw that after the comedy finished on the nights, people were still finishing drinks and they didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, and we wanted to give our customers something extra, and of course have a … There’s more
