What's on around the place tonight and the weekend..

FREE gig in Dolan's tonight as Live 95FM presenter Alan Jacques serves up three bands for your delectation..

Top of the bill is Dublin five-piece Heritage Centre, who are promoting their debut EP 'The City, The Tree and The Fox'. Haven't heard it yet (sitting on my desk at home) but their sound is described as somewhere between Weezer, Elliot Smith and Pavement. Now there's an eclectic bunch you wouldn't normally see in the same sentence.

Support from acoustic pop duo Star Crossed Enemies and Limerick's own Pio. Upstairs, Doors from 8pm.

Also tonight, American guitarist, composer and instrumentalist Gyan Riley takes to the stage in the Warehouse, a guest of Limerick Jazz Soc. Should be a good one. 8.30pm.

Out in UL, students from from the Irish Academy of Music are to play a 24-hour session this Thursday in order to raise funds for a fellow musician.
24 beats in a bar will begin at 10pm and the music won’t stop until 10pm on Friday. The 24-hour gig is in support of Luis Asturias, a Spanish musician who has lived in Ireland for the past 12 years.

Another FREE gig in Baker Place this Thursday as The Buzzmonkeys, Drumming Room and Hammered all play in the Tait Square venue.

Onwards:

Friday:

Baker's - Idle Hands/ Underground - Nu Killa Beats (9th Birthday)

Dolan's - Mark Geary (Upstairs - 18 bobs) / The Truth (Warehouse - 12 bobs)

The Club @ Au Bars - The Release Party (it's great fun - 11pm - 5 bobs)

LIT Millennium Theatre - Mundy (20 bobs - 8pm)

Trinity Rooms - The Block (9pm - free until 11pm - 8-10 bobs after)

Saturday:

Baker's - Built For Comfort, Beastmen (6 bobs) / Underground - Roots Factory - Brother Culture

Dolan's - Franz Ferdinand (Warehouse - sold out)

Trinity Rooms - Paul Webb, Mac 3, A2DF and Leon (9pm, free before 10pm, 10 bobs after)

Sunday:

Baker's - Bad Reputation present: Defect, 6 Feet Or Above Ground, Raised To The Ground

Trinity Rooms - I Love the 90s (Free before 11pm, 5 bobs after)

It's simply not all bad.. Meteor Award Nominations

I'm going to say something that many might find distasteful, or even outrageous.. The nominees for this year's Meteor Awards are actually (gasp, shock horror).. really not that bad.

In fact, they are the best list of nominations I have seen the corporate event go with in years and years - ever, probably..

Now I hold no sway to the fact that I was actually asked to be a member of the voting panel of judges* - as probably every other media hack in the country was, I'm not blowing any trumpets here, believe me - but if you look at the list, well, let's say the evidence speaks for itself.

Fight like Apes and the Loose are nominated in the best Irish band category (ok, so are the Script, Snow Patrol and The Blizzards - but two out of five ain't bad)

Can you believe it? Jape (Richie Egan), David Holmes, and Mick Flannery are all nominated in best Irish male. (Even the others, Damo Dempsey and Duke Special aren't too bad)

But wait, it get's better.. Lisa Hannigan (a shoo in), Gemma Hayes and chanteuse Camille O'Sullivan are all nominated for best Irish female..

I'll skip best Irish pop act (bet the house on the god awful The Script) and run straight to Irish album of the year. Consider the evidence:

FLA.. and the mystery of the Gold Medallion

Lisa H - Sea Sew

Messiah J and the Expert - From the Word Go

and (The Script and Snow Patrol - again, three out of five ain't bad)

Absolutely three of the best Irish albums of last year (and all due to play in Limerick in the next weeks and months, more on that soon)

(The lovely Lisa H on stage in the Belltable last year, gigs to come in the city soon, but I'm not allowed tell yet)

Not as bad as you would expect from a brash, industry driven event like the Meteor's. I'm hoping to go along for the craic (once I convince the LL that it is in their interest to let me go) so stay tuned for a report..

Wait, there's more!! Bon Iver in best International male, and Elbow for Best Band!

*The fact that I voted for the final two (and Lisa H, Jape and FLA) convinces me that my vote actually was hugely important, more so than any other media hack. So there.

Full interview with Mick Flannery

Full interview with Mick Flannery, who played in Dolan's last Friday. For thoughts on the live gig, see further below..

MUCH has been written about Mick Flannery’s reticence, the almost shy nature that he has, which sits in direct contrast to the emotionally frank and descriptive songs that he sings.

Contrasts abound with this young singer, his frank lyricism at seeming odds with his stonemasonry background. Flanney is himself hewn from something solid, his gravelly growl capable of soaring to great heights - his music diverse and encompassing, possibly reminiscent of a young Tom Waits.

We say possibly because it is almost impossible to pigeon hole the Cork musician, whose second album White Lies has been chosen as one of the ten best Irish records of last year, nominated for the Choice Music Prize. He is also nominated for a Meteor Award, but you get the feeling that he is probably less concerned with that honour.

But Flannery doesn’t seem overly concerned by anything, interestingly so for a man signed to a three album deal with EMI, who has (we think) massive potential, which is only beginning to be filled with this album.

Is this reticence a sort of act or front? Not world weariness, but just a refusal to deal in any of the music industry’s bullshit, a buffer against bluffers, if you will.

Although he released well-received debut album Evening Train in 2005, it was with the September 2008 release of White Lies that people began to sit up and take notice, and the last few months have been a whirlwind, as Flannery recognises.

“Yeah it has been interesting anyway - hectic. I didn't expect anything, I didn't really think about it - I just kind of drifted along, I suppose I'm still drifting along, which is probably a bad idea, but we'll see how it goes.

I suppose there are a couple of more people coming to the gigs, it could be word of mouth - maybe it is the record company, I don’t know. It would be easy to be overawed by the whole thing, so I try not to think about it too much.”

Behind the wall Flannery has constructed around himself lurks the easy humour of a joker, self-deprecating to a fault, but engaging. It is clear he wasn’t used to talking about himself when he got into this game.

“Yeah, I'm starting to get used to it now and I don't know if I like that either. This is grand now because you didn't start the conversation with (adopts tone) 'Mick Flannery - your rise has been described as meteoric, how does that make you feel?’” he laughs.

“I'd be very quiet most of the time. I suppose it is easier for the two of us if I talk. I can't say I look forward to interviews, but I don't mind them. It's a strange thing, I don't know you like, and it's a one way conversation, I'm not asking you questions. I wouldn't know where to start, we'd have to be sitting over a few pints."

Laughter punctuates this little speech, and talk moves to the album, which was recorded after he signed with EMI. “The record company lads wanted me to use a producer. I had never looked into producers before, what they did or what their role was - they said it gets things moved along, it's good to have an extra pair of ears around. It turned out anyway that I didn't know who to pick - the only person I would pick was Rick Rubin, and they weren't getting me him,” laughs Mick.

“Anyway, they got me this lad and it didn't really work out - to my mind anyway, he was more pop-orientated. We didn't really see eye to eye. It was uncomfortable and a big contrast to the previous time we recorded, because that was with a family friend in Cork.

Dublin was totally different. It felt like we were in a cave, starting at four in the evening and working till four at night - and there was often problems and tensions. That didn't work out that well so we had to go and re-record a couple of things with a different guy. I ended up getting a producer credit. I had been fighting my corner with this other guy all the time, so it ended up with me trying to call all the shots anyway, because I wasn't a huge fan.”

Although he says the end result was “close” to what he wanted, he says he can’t listen to it, laughing at his own seeming pretensions.

“I can hear the uncomfortableness in my own voice listening back to it, I can just imagine the scene as it was when we were doing it, me in front of the microphone, blood boiling and ready to punch someone. So I didn't listen to it much and I haven't in a while because we have been playing it so much.”

The contrast between recording his first record, which failed to make a huge impact, and the travails of recording his second are apparent. But is clear that that was necessary to produce this astonishingly diverse and personal record - even if this hasn’t yet dawned on Flannery.

He laughs when I suggest that he is only pretending to be grumpy - “Ah, when it suits me” - and I question him about the indifference he expresses, and if he set out to impress people in the beginning.

“Well, I would have set out to impress people alright - you're not going to want to leave people disappointed. But, it wasn't for adulation or for my own ego or anything like that, I just enjoy it.”

Five things I did in the last five days..

A fairly eventful last couple of days, here's the top five, in sort of reverse order;

5 Took a trip to the Kodak Theatre:

Yup. Took the hit, arranged a day off work and watched the Oscars live, 'till the wee early hours of this morning, five o'clock to be exact. The first time I've watched them live in a few years, glad I did too, must say.
Delighted for Slumdog, Danny Boyle was a very earnest and deserving winner, as was Sean Penn, who took the opportunity to admonish the many watching who had voted against the gay marriage bill, no doubt there was a few shifting uncomfortably in their sits. Felt for Mickey Rourke though, thought he deserved it every bit as much as Penn.
The highlight? Philippe Petit - star of Man On Wire - balancing the Oscar for best documentary on his chin.
The lowlight? The director flashing to Brad and Angelina when Jen Aniston was presenting, the flicker of annoyance on Jolie's face said it all.
Hugh Jackman did a good job, though he was relegated to the sidelines for a lot of the show.

4 Had a hangover:

See posts 3,2 and 1, below

3 Took a trip to old Ireland:

Ok not that old, but ventured out to Dirty Nelly's in Bunratty on Saturday evening, the first time I have spent any great time in the notorious tourist trap. Surprisingly good fun, watched the Munster match, eat, drank and enjoyed the music on offer. Sore head for my troubles afterward of course.

2 Took a trip to see a grizzled roar:

Went to Mick Flannery on Friday night. Had many an argument after.
Clearly the Corkman is going to divide as many as he inspires, owing to the nature of his personality and performance.
Incredibly introspective - "this is going to be mostly miserable" - and performing a clutch of songs that should send the audience running for the door, and it did, in some foolish cases.
This is a show that just should not work in any way, shape or form.
Yet it does.
At times stunning, mostly riveting and almost always stirring, Flannery sits, head down at the piano, growling out his tunes - not in the depressive vein of a bog standard Irish singer-songwriter (go on, you can think of a few), but in the gruff tones of a man who appears at least twice the mere 25 years of age he apparently is.
As the show progresses, Flannery picks up the pace slightly, allowing his very fine band to stretch their legs slightly; Near Or Far, California, Goodbye and Wait Here the undisputed highlights.
Afterward I catch Flannery for a quick chat.
"You caught me on a talkative day," he says of the day we conducted our interview, and then stares at his feet for a couple of minutes, before he is surrounded by young girls, eager for a photograph - and each time, though obviously uncomfortable - he obliges, cigarette dangling from his mouth.
It might all be an act, and it shouldn't work. But it does. Superbly.

1 The "God particle":

Went to see the Gentlemen's Tea Drinking Society in the Belltable on Thursday night.
A weird, Faustian blend of Stephen Hawking, Martin McDonagh and Quentin Tarantino - and some other elements I haven't decided on yet.
Ransom Productions were behind this stage show - featuring a specially commissioned David Holmes soundtrack, well, at least one track - which deals with life, the universe and everything. Specifically, the society are a group of old Cambridge friends who meet once a year to get drunk and discuss physics - and to rant and rave at each other, driven by central character Brian, a demented physicist who believes he has found a way to trap and control the "God particle", using a Hadron collidor that the British government have secretly constructed in the subway tunnels under London.
This was a mad, crazy, funny, violent, coarse and thought-provoking piece, powered by the strong performances of the actors, and the innovative set design. For more, see here.

Not another Friday the 13th

This sounds cool, fair play to Ciaran for the heads up. Nice to see the Rowing Club in use every so often. Good knows we need plenty of diversion at the mo.. and the Kerrynini boys are always good at what they do..

Worryingly tho, and brought to my attention by this poster, is that there is to be a second Friday the 13th in March. Christ, I only just about survived the first one...

Currently listening to..

I'm currently listening to the following, and liking them very much:

Howling Bells - Radio Wars
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Bell X1 - Blue Lights on the Runway
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Mick Flannery - White Lies

A rather diverse collection. I'll be back with my impressions regarding the above when I get a few spare minutes/hours.

The Release Party gets its release

This thing got born out of anger and frustration..

You can say that again, I was there..

We want a release. We're tired of bad news, tired of the knot in our stomach.

Right on..

We want something to look forward to.

Yes, we do..

Big records, on big speakers, in a nice room, with friends and family and a smile on our lips.

Sounds great..

'Cause we just want to say something, and we just want to play something.

Cool..

Music is the answer they say. People are the answer, we add.

Yes!

Soul in the speakers means soul in the speaker.

I like the sound of that, very catchy..

So let's speak. Let's think. Let's dance and drink, laugh and kiss, once a week.

Every week.

You may have seen this rather crytic speech make its around town on little fliers, seeking to let people know about a new party, happening once a week. It began as a bile-filled rant about the state of the nation (I was there), but became something much better. As the idea grew, it became a night for people to relax, have fun, hang out, listen to some good music and, well that's essentially it.

So last week saw the launch of the Release Party, and 300 people turned up to the newly refurb'd club downstairs in Aubars to celebrate and listen to Stevie Wonder records. And dance.

This turned out so successful it is planned to run weekly in the same location, with similar nights taking place in Cork, Galway and Dublin very soon. Plus potential interest in Edmonton, Shanghai, New York and Sydney (I'll go set these up shall I?)

Respected Djs such as Aim (Fri, March 6) and New York's Qool DJ Marv (pic above - Fri, April 3) are due in town for shows in the near future. This has all been made possible by Eightball and full info is available here and here.

The release party is about having a party, and a release. The release party is yours, made by you, for you and yours. Simple.