The Rubberbandits aim for Christmas number one

IN AN unlikely but hilarious turn of events, Limerick's dastardly, comedic-rap plastic bag wearing duo, The Rubberbandits, have seen their odds of beating the X-Factor and securing a Christmas no.1 slashed by Paddy Power bookmakers.

Paddy Power have made The Rubberbandits 5/4 to pip the X Factor winner to the post with their new single ‘Horse Outside’, which has clocked up an amazing quarter of a million views on YouTube in just over 48 hours.

The single is also riding high in the Itunes download charts - a best estimate was put at it being number one over the weekend - but punters seeking to secure a Christmas number one spot for the Limerick duo are being urged to wait until after December 19 to buy the song, when the sales that go toward the official Christmas top spot are measured.

The 'Bandits debuted their hilarious video for 'Horse Outside' - previously 'Amanda's Wedding' - on the RTE's Republic of Telly on Wednesday night, posting the uncensored video on You Tube not long after the show aired. Between then and this Friday afternoon, the video has been seen by more than 253,000 people.

The hip-hop duo have had an amazing year so far and are to return to Limerick in December to play two Christmas shows in Dolan's - both of which are now sold out, we are told.

For more on this story, see Tuesday's Limerick Chronicle.

Northside Learning Hub and Sunday Times Host Leviathan Political Cabaret

THE THOMONDGATE based Northside Learning Hub are to co-host the city’s second Leviathan Political Cabaret event this Wednesday. The event is being held in association with the Sunday Times and takes place in Dolan’s Warehouse.
Late Late Show band leader Paddy Cullivan (of The Camembert Quartet fame) will host the evening of musical satire and lively discussion, with a debate to be held under the heading “Is Music Worth Paying For?”, to form the central part of the evening.
Among the panel to discuss this topic are Spin South West DJ Michelle McMahon, Mick Dolan of Dolan’s Warehouse, Kathleen Turner of the ICO, Alan Owens of the Limerick Leader and Chronicle, David O’Connell, principal of Limerick School of Music, James Blake of the Brad Pitt Light Orchestra and the Learning Hub and David O’Donovan of Eightball.ie and the Limerick Event Guide.
This event is to mark the launch of the Learning Hub’s brand new Music Hub at Kileely House, which will house a fully equipped recording studio and music rehearsal space.
For more information see here. Please come out and support this event if you can.

Local band to open Bob Dylan Thomond Park gig

LEGENDARY singer songwriter Bob Dylan has personally requested that an “up and coming local band” open up his Thomond Park concert on July 4.

Entry forms carried in today’s Limerick Leader and this week's Limerick Chronicle offer a local band the chance to open for Bob Dylan at his July 4 Thomond Park concert.

Aiken Promotions have teamed up with the Limerick Leader and Chronicle newspapers, plus Live 95FM and Dolan’s Warehouse, to offer an up and coming local band the chance to share a bill with the legendary singer-songwriter.

Concert promoter Peter Aiken revealed on Friday that Dylan had personally requested that a local band open the show, which will also feature Alabama 3, Seasick Steve and David Gray.

“We are going to get a local Limerick band, an up and coming band to open it up. Dylan wants it to be a young band to open up the show - a good band,” said Peter Aiken.

A shortlist of acts will be compiled, with entries closing on May 28.

A showcase night will be held in Dolan’s on Friday, June 25 to select the winning act.

Mick Dolan said: “It’s an amazing opportunity for a young band. It doesn't get any better than sharing a bill with Bob Dylan”.

Peter Aiken also revealed that Dylan, who he called “one of the greatest icons of the 21st century”, was looking forward to coming to Limerick.

“He is looking forward to coming here. They have been looking up Thomond Park on the internet - he knows exactly where he is going,” said Mr Aiken.

Mr Aiken also revealed that he had “made a commitment” to John Cantwell, Thomond Park stadium director, to keep returning to the €40m stadium to stage two gigs a year.

“It is our intention to keep coming here and we are going to keep doing two gigs a year,” said Mr Aiken.

Mr Cantwell said Peter Aiken had “provided the goods again in terms of headline acts”.

“It doesn't get much bigger in terms of names, and the reaction has been very positive. It is going to be a great day out and the city can put its best foot forward in terms of profile and image and positive publicity,” he added.

Gates to Thomond Park will open at 2.30pm on July 4, with the first band on at 3.30pm. For tickets - priced at €60, €70.70, €81.25, and seated at €67.50 - check out www.ticketmaster.ie and other usual outlets nationwide. Booking line: 0818-719300. See page 3 of the Leader 2 section for entry forms for the chance to perform on the Thomond Park stage on July 4 with Bob Dylan.

The Limerick Chronicle - first for news every week

This week's Limerick Chronicle hits the streets within the hour and features an interview with Zonad actor Simon Delaney, a feature on Niwel Tsumbu's gig in Shannon Rowing Club, review of The Redneck Manifesto's superb new album, gig of the week - plus all the best local news, first to you every week..

Review of Arctic Monkey's new album 'Humbug'

Arctic Monkeys

Humbug

(Domino)

HERE’S A question. What to do after releasing the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, scooping the Mercury Music Prize and a nomination for your second album, both reaching number one in the charts and having already moved in a different direction with your side project the Last Shadow Puppets?

The answer for Alex Turner and his fellow Arctic Monkeys was to take themselves into the desert with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and record a much more considered and deliberate third album than the frenzied Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and Favourite Worst Nightmare, the first two Monkeys albums, the latter which Turner has admitted they “banged out in two weeks”.

Homme brought the band to Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree to record the bulk of this album, before it was finished with James Ford in New York, who worked with the band on album number two.

Turner has revealed that the band listened to Hendrix and Cream while writing the album and this is apparent. There is an old-school scuzzy rock feel to this album and fans of the pepped up offerings of the first two albums might be put off by the spacey rock on offer here, the only throwback to the style of those albums appearing on ‘Pretty Visitors’ and the early parts of ‘Potion Approaching’, which descends into a Doors-esque space out for a finish.

Turner’s songwriting is also as lyrical and imaginative as ever, plumbing deeper depths here than ever before, allegories and dark themes twisting their way around and through the ten tracks on offer. However, while he is at pains to dismiss the notion of him as merely cheeky chappy, his wry wit still abounds here - ‘What came first, the chicken or the dickhead?’ he sings on Pretty Visitor.

But it is the eerie menace of this album that is eye-opening, plus the liberal use of keyboards and guitar solos, the latter in particular which have never graced a Monkeys offering before, beyond short two or three second bursts.

This is clearly Homme’s influence at work.

It is clear from the opener My Propeller that Homme has steered the Sheffield unit away from the urgency of Riot Van and Mardy Bum, the song growling with reverb and thumping bass - oozing decadence.

The first single, Crying Lightning, shows the influence of the Shadow Puppets, an eerie wail in the background while a military style drumbeat greets Turner’s hushed vocal – “I hate that little game – twisted and deranged, I hate that little game you had called crying lightning”.

‘Dangerous Animals’ boasts the most obvious classic rock influence, a deliciously dark riff pumping through the song.

It is ‘Secret Door’ that might cause jaws to drop however, as Turner hits higher notes than heard before, definitely a follow on from the vocal heights hit with his pal Miles Kane on the Last Shadow Puppets album. There are echoes of the Doors Unknown Soldier on this, Turner warbling as his band mates ‘ooh and aah’ in the background.

The rattlesnake opening of Fire and the Thud is chilling, evocative of the desert location it was recorded in. Out of nowhere the song tears into psychedelic rock territory before slowing to a satisfying crawl – guest vocalist Alison Mosshart of the Kills helping out on vocals.

This is one of the highlights of the album.

The shimmering guitars and heavy drums of Dance Little Liar cover more harmonies and hushed vocals; this, the second longest track on the album boasting yet more guitar solos.

The album climaxes in the opaque rock offering of The Jeweller’s Hands, all tingly xylophone keys and military drums - a jaunty, almost strangely hope-filled offering, considering its menacing beat.

The infectious throb of the song will ring in your head for days, but while clocking in at nearly six minutes, there is no over-indulgence here, rather a dizzying climax to a most unexpectedly different album from the Sheffield band.

Who would have thought the Monkey’s would evolve to this point when they first blazed onto the scene?

Thankfully for us all, they have, and how splendidly.

RATING: 4/5

'Humbug' is available in shops this Friday, August 21.

In the Limerick Chronicle today

Loads in the Limerick Chronicle today, Limerick's finest weekly city paper including:

Interviews with the Derry dance music superstars the Japanese Popstars and Birr singer songwriter Roesy; a full and complete dissection of the new Arctic Monkey's album Humbug (and it's good!); an interview with local up and coming band Better Than You; the inside scoop on Giveamanakick's split; and full listings for gigs etc for the coming week.

Also, check out our two page spread on the problems facing city businesses in the recession, plus get the full scoop on the plane crash that happened in Coonagh yesterday.

All this for €1 in shops at 12pm! The Chronicle, top quality, full-colour reading!!

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