The Saw Doctors added to Cois Fharraige line-up

Venerable Irish rock and rollers The Saw Doctors have been added to the line-up for this year's Cois Fharraige festival, to be held in Kilkee on September 11-13.
The Saw Doctors, who won a Lifetime Meteor Award last year, will celebrate their 21st year on the road as a touring band this Summer and are the latest additions to an impressive line-up that already features Doves, The Zutons, Newton Faulkner, Noah & The Whale, The Hold Steady, Stereo MC’s, Lightning Seeds, and Jerry Fish.
Tickets for the three-day festival went on sale this Tuesday at the early-bird price of €89.
On the Beat is expecting more acts to be announced in the coming days, so keep it here for updates.

Album reviews - Grizzly Bear and Pocket Promise

Grizzly Bear
Veckatimest
(Warp Records)

IN 2004 Grizzly Bear - then largely the solo project of Ed Droste - released the hypnotic Horn Of Plenty, an atmospheric record dubbed “anti-folk” in some quarters. Whatever about that baffling label, in 2006 Grizzly Bear released Yellow House, a more complete offering, featuring a full band for the first time.
The journey this quartet have come over the release of these albums is interesting, and relevant to the album. This third offering from Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest, was released earlier in the summer but is already shaping up to be one of the finest of the year.
Veckatimest is definitely the group’s most complete offering in their short career. The band have said they feel it is their most accessible, but that is a debatable point. This is an album that will take weeks to sink in, but as it does, it will insert claws and refuse to be put to the back of the pile.
Opener Southern Point feels like a folk song, but is suffused with a polka beat, driving it forward. Interestingly the band are one of the few non-electronic outfits signed to Warp, but, for all their folk-indie leanings, there is an electro feel to some of the songs on this.
Fleet Foxes comparisons are inevitable, if a little lazy; although likely to be this year’s best release, as that self-titled debut was last year, there is more complexity here, an element of darkness that does not feature on Fleet Foxes pastoral folk offering.
However, the cheery, uplifting doo-wah of clear album highlight Two Weeks feels like it could have made it onto Fleet Foxes album, if not a Beach Boys one. The epic All We Ask features an opening spine-tingling central guitar part that Jeff Buckley would have been proud of, while the song itself goes through at least three distinct phases, rising and falling through thumping bass, military drums and soaring vocals.
This is an example of the genre-mixing, experimental rock that Grizzly Bear excel at and shows why this band are Radiohead’s favourites.
Listen to While You Wait For The Others and fail to be impressed, the band coming together sporadically for glorious multi-vocal choruses.
Superb.
RATING 5/5



Pocket Promise
I’ve Been Here For Ages
(Stop Go Music Limited)

THERE IS so much good music coming out of the North of this country that, at last, the notion that the anaemic Snow Patrol are the sole ambassadors for Northern Ireland should be counteracted.
Hard rock outfit And So I Watch You From Afar have already impressed this year, while this debut from the hugely promising (and aptly titled) Pocket Promise appears ready to add to the strength in depth among the booming scene in Belfast and beyond.
Where And So I Watch... are all screeching guitars and a Rage-esque wall of sound, Pocket Promise have produced an album full of lush instrumentation, indie-rock with an intelligent bent. The band released a double A-side before the album came out and one half of that single opens this album, the excellent, Radiohead influenced If Not The Tide Will Change.
Surprisingly the other half of that single is one of the lower points of the album, Talking Over Talking just a bit too standard soft-core guitar rock for us.
However, if this is a low point - there are many high points, an impressive level of depth, melody and heartfelt harmony on several of the songs.
The lush, sweeping strings of Deja Vu is preceded by the seven minute epic Sorry, while the skiffle lullaby beat of Inside Out will drag you under its spell.
There is an energy prevalent throughout all the songs on this offering, which at a little under 50 minutes, feels a little short.
However, if this album gets heard by the right people, you will find it difficult to wander past a radio without Pocket Promise’s indie rock blasting at you.
RATING 3/5

Nick Carswell and the Elective Orchestra in Dolan's tonight

HIGHLY rated local band Nick Carswell and the Elective Orchestra are gearing up for a national tour this August, one which will see the band play six towns in seven days.

The Elective Orchestra’s ‘Great Southern Tour’ will begin Upstairs in Dolan’s this Tuesday evening, before the band decamp to DeBarra's Clonakilty, Phil Grimes Waterford, Gallery 126 Youghal, Kilkenny Arts Festival and Wexford Song Club.

To celebrate the tour, the band will also be releasing the single Oceanview as a digital download from downloadmusic.ie.

“The release of the single will make this the Great Southern Oceanview Tour,” laughed Nick, well known local musician and Spin South West DJ.

“We are planning to release our debut album later in the year and this will be our second single release, so we thought we would travel around and try and spread the word a bit,” he explained. The soft acoustic nature of Oceanview is a long-time favourite in the band's set, and has already enjoyed national success, reaching the Top 10 in the Vodafone Bright New Sounds Competition in 2008.

It displays the subtler side of the Elective Orchestra's lush instrumentation, and the quiet musings of Nick's delicate songwriting that contrasts nicely with debut single When I'm Not Around, a much more up-tempo affair.

The tour kicks off in full in Dolan’s, Tuesday August 11. For more details see www.myspace.com/nickcarswell.

Review Lisa Hannigan in Daghdha

SINGER LISA Hannigan held an audience in her thrall last week as she performed a stunning set in Daghdha Dance Company’s St. John’s Church, delicately mixing her set with some impressive new songs as well as songs from her Mercury Music Prize nominated album.
The Meath chanteuse declared herself “mesmerised” by the venue when speaking to the Limerick Leader before the gig, but it was the large audience that were transfixed to the sight of Hannigan and her merry band, most of whom used to form part of Damien Rice’s band along with the beguiling singer.
Eminently more confident than the last time she played in Limerick little under a year ago, many months of gigs across the US and UK has seen her attain an almost symbiotic relationship with her band, consisting of Gavin Glass, Donagh Molloy, Shane Fitzsimons and Tom Osander - all of whom still play with those broad grins that were prevalent on their faces in their first few gigs with Hannigan. It is clear that they are also under her spell.
While still quite shy between songs, Hannigan has become a much more solid performer, opening her set with Pistachio, Sea Song and Splishy Splashy, three songs from her by now classic album Sea Sew.
However, it is the unsettling and eery Courting Blues that still transfixes, Molloy screeching a violin bow over the keys of a xylophone, Hannigan reduced to an almost zombie-like state as she sings, eyes closed.
Bob Dylan’s Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues is a favourite of Hannigan’s and sat comfortably either side of her Venn Diagram with John Martyn’s epic I Couldn’t Love You More, Hannigan’s “favourite song of all time after the Ghostbuster’s theme tune”.
Her whispered performance of the latter is a particular highlight, stunning in execution. The jaunty Ocean And A Rock is followed by My Pirate Disco, which didn’t make it onto the album for some strange reason, and the excellent I Don’t Know.
New song Brolly Beats shows that her new material is strong, while the epic Teeth and Lille finish out the set. Hannigan returns for a solo encore, playing another new song, Passengers, by herself. This song is clearly influenced by her recent tour of the States, namechecking American cities in a winsome manner.
The group return for a final track in Keep It All, the standout track on the album and on the night, before they depart.
“This is a beautiful room, thanks very much for letting me bring my uncoordinated dancing in here,” whispers Hannigan before she vanishes.
Here’s hoping it won’t be long before she returns.

Cois Fharraige to go ahead - Doves to headline

This hot off the press, with barely a month to go before it is due to take place, Cois Fharraige is to go ahead and Doves are to headline the three day festival, taking place September 11,12,13.

Also included in the line-up are The Zutons (returning again), Newton Faulkner, Noah & The Whale, The Hold Steady, Stereo MC’s, Lightning Seeds and Jerry Fish - with more acts to be announced in the coming days.

As exclusively revealed on these pages and in the Limerick Leader, the festival has been in the pipeline for the last weeks and months, but sponsorship and licencing issues and recession problems have meant it was touch and go to go ahead.

With the support of local businesses and all relevant parties on board, MCD have today announced that the hugely popular festival - which has drawn in excess of 15,000 people into the seaside village in the last two years - will go ahead, with a rather impressive line-up.

More from the blurb:

Early bird weekend tickets are priced 89 euro inclusive of booking fee up until September 1 and 99 euro incl. booking fee after. Tickets go on sale this Tuesday August 11 at 9 am.

Please note: There is no on site camping available. For further information please contact Western Tourism on www.discoverireland.ie/west

Keep it here for more updates, interviews, giveaways to come.

Interview with guitar duo Tucan

THERE IS something about a clash of cultures and influences that makes the best combination - opposites attract and all that.
This clash is one of things that makes Sligo acoustic guitar duo Túcan sound exciting and invigorating, the very different musical backgrounds of Donal Gunne and Pearse Feeney combining to form something different.
“Donal, when I met him, was a big metal head, and that hasn't changed - he is even more into it now and probably will be until the day he dies,” laughs Feeney when he speaks to the Limerick Leader.
“He came from that metal, hard rock background but when I was younger, I liked nothing more than the sound of an acoustic guitar just strummed. We are always trying to find out how we can mix these different influences that we bring, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” laughs Feeney.
It certainly works on the duo’s debut album, released earlier in the summer. Aliquot Strings is a delightful nine track collection of instrumental guitar music, the duo chasing and challenging each other through a rich repertoire of classical and 60’s rock, heavy metal, trad, flamenco and jazz. ‘Aliquot’ means several in Latin, which is somewhat apt.
“Donal came up with Aliquot and I liked the idea, it does tie in with the many different sounds that we encompass,” explains Pearse.
“We are two very different people and it is very hard for us to agree on anything! Even down to the name of the band, album, the songs - everything, we always have to find a happy medium and I think we have,” he adds.
The self-financed debut was also self-released, requiring a hard slog to promote it and get it out there.
“We released it and got it charted - we spent a few weeks touring around all the record shops in Ireland. We got into the charts at no 29. If we sold seven more cds we would have been higher than the Pussycat Dolls,” laughs Pearse.
The album is exceptional; a buzzy, energetic affair, suffused in the guitar skills of the duo, but benefiting from the presence of drums and bass, filling out their sound.
“When we went into record the album we decided to get a rhythm section,” says Pearse. “
Since we recorded and started touring the album we have started bringing the full band. It will be the first time playing Limerick with the band, so we are looking forward to it.”
The inevitable comparisons will be made with Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, who have had such huge success in Ireland. Pearse says Túcan have been heavily influenced by the duo and see no harm in comparisons.
“We have learned that comparisons are inevitable, even if I don't think we would see comparisons any more,” he says.
“When we started off we would have listened to their music and it was a great learning tool to try and figure it out, but I suppose we have developed our own sound as time has gone on. I'd be a big fan so I would hardly take it as an insult,” he laughs.
Túcan play Upstairs in Dolan’s next Friday, August 7. Aliquot Strings is available now in record stores.

Album reviews - La Roux and Temper Trap

La Roux

La Roux

(Polydor)

THIS IS an album I really didn’t want to like; is that highly unprofessional to say?

Billed from the first of this year as one of umpteen female-led electro-pop outfits to watch by music magazines (exclusively British-based publications) my hackles were raised when I heard about La Roux, along with Florence and the Machine, Little Boots etc.

However, even a mere half-listen to this album will induce a disco-high, foot-tapping, enjoyable-against-better-judgement, aural experience.

La Roux, the electropop, synth duo of Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid have pulled off that most impressive of feats, namely living up to the hype.

Where Jackson is the singer/synth-playing La Roux persona, Langmaid is the shadowy co-writer and producer, willing to leave Jackson in the limelight. But Jackson is no window dressing, there is real talent and spikiness in her voice and performance, while the former Faithless contributor Langmaid has clearly done much to encourage her out of her shell.

The interesting thing is not just that they have co-written most of the offerings on this 12-track debut - but that Jackson comes from a folk background, and that comes through in the songs, despite being twisted inside out with synthesizers and drum machines.

First single Quicksand is not as dancy as expected, a synth-pop sound in evolution and an interesting contrast with In For The Kill, the second single from the album, Jackson allowing her personality to filter through.

The effortlessly cool and unflinchingly dark Tigerlily is an eye-opener, right down to the clearly Thriller-inspired spooky voiceover.

Things hot up on the bouncy disco-beat of Bulletproof, the duo’s first UK number one, “I’ve been there done that, messed around / I’m having fun don’t put me down / I’ll never let you sweep me off my feet”, declares Jackson boldly.

The best thing about this is that the album is so much more than the sum of its singles; the gentle, relaxed beat of Cover My Eyes is stuffed with emotion; the acerbic I’m Not Your Toy is a smash waiting to happen, while Armour Love will seduce you with its angular rhythms.

A thrilling debut, worth the hype.

RATING: 4/5

Temper Trap

Conditions

(Infectious Records)

THIS Australian four-piece have literally mined every known influence under the sun and produced an album suffused with bits from here and there; U2/Edge jangly guitars, Bloc Party’s angular drumming, the Killers’ thumping bass-lines, Coldplay harmonies, Stars/Broken Social Scene vocals, Sufjan-strings - the list could go on. Do they succeed?

Yes, in a word.

Hailing from the musical hotspot of Melbourne - there is literally a bar around every corner groaning with any manner of new, up and coming bands - this indie quartet have recently decamped to London and it is hard to see them remaining relatively unknown for long.

The plodding beat of opening track ‘Love Lost’ echoes with these influences and more, finding peaks and troughs, rising and falling along with Dougie Mandagi’s (what a great name) vocals.

‘Rest’ is stuffed with pulsating rhythms and atmospheric guitars, no standard run of the mill indie music here. The Unforgettable Fire-esque Sweet Dispositions impresses, “Don’t stop till you surrender”, sings Mandagi and we are tempted to agree.

The epic ‘Soldier On’ is the centre-piece of this album, a whiff of Empire of the Sun about it despite its acoustic nature, building to a booming conclusion.

‘Resurrection’ exhibits the confidence this band has in spades; what could be a bad Scissor Sisters-style disaster instead veers toward a bouncy, Zeppelin influenced - check out the falsetto vocals on this - breakout, all jangly-spacey guitars and thumping drums.

Oh yes, I’ll have some more of this please.

RATING 4/5