The last of my normal playlists for this year I think time to let more music build up.
Itsatangent Playlist Seven November 2012 Feat: Villagers, Ash, Band Of Horses, Tame Impala, St Vincent, Michael Kiwanuka, Willy Mason, A Song For Lily Mae Tiny Dancer etc.
Itsatangent Playlist Seven November 2012
This so far is my pick for a Christmas Number one, Tiny Dancer is just such a great song when the chorus kicks in it sends shivers down my spine every time. It helps that this song is for a great cause and to raise awareness of a rare disease it also features a host of Irish acts from the established like Paddy Casey and Declan O’Rourke and some smaller artists like Laura Sheeran and Storyfold. Its even been given the thumbs up by the man himself Elton John. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a decent song where the money is going to a good place at number one instead of an X Factor factory tune. Check out the Facebook here.
A Song For Lily-Mae: Tiny Dancer
Here is more info on the song:
Four year old Lily-Mae Morrison from Claregalway is suffering from Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, a rare and extremely aggressive childhood cancer of the nervous system. She is the daughter of professional ballet dancers, Judith Sibley and Leighton Morrison. When she grows up, she wants to be a ballet dancer like her Mummy and Daddy but Neuroblastoma is not playing nicely, it wants to kill her.
We want to create as much noise as possible for Lily-Mae by getting Tiny Dancer to the Christmas Number One spot, thereby raising awareness of the disease and funds to help with Lily-Mae’s care and with Neuroblastoma research. To help do this, we have come together as one voice, over 300 of us, drawn, in the most part, from AIMS musical societies from all over the island of Ireland, to sing with a galaxy of Irish stars including…
Paddy Casey, Declan O’Rourke, Gari Deegan, Mary Black, The Reverse, Rob Vickers, Shane O’Reilly (Bipolar Empire), Mal Touhy (The Riptide Movement), Mundy, Matthew Devereux & Shane Wearan (The Pale), John Spillane, Brian Hogan (Kila & Preacher’s Son), Mickey Joe Harte, Naymedici, Tom Dunne (Something Happens), Paddy McKenna & Lindsey Hogan (Storyfold), Conor Quinn, Gavin James, Arrow in the Sky, Aoife Scott, Laura Sheeran (Nanu Nanu), Camille O’Sullivan, Richie Hayes, Adela Meally & Ros O’Meara (Adela and the Meanits), Sandra Dolan (Strange Frootz), Monica & Anne Brennan, Lucia Evans, Louise Colohan, Emily Macken, Ashley Tubridy, Alan Greaney, Stephen Macken, Cian McSweeney, Monica Fitzgerald, Brian Flanagan, Frank Naughton, Robb Murphy, Declan & Noel O’Farrell, Schira & Mimi Lane, Megan Walsh, and a very special guest singer, Lily-Mae’s father, Leighton Morrison.
We really need your help and support to make this a success; we need you to be Lily-Mae’s champion; to help us make all this noise; to make Neuroblastoma a cancer that people don’t have to google; to make it so that people know that they need to target their giving to support research into a disease that is incredibly effective at killing those with the most life to lose, our children.
To find out more, please go to http://www.facebook.com/asongforlilymae or contact the producer of the project, Stephen Macken, at asongforlilymae@gmail.com.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message.
We Cut Corners: Yet
We Cut Corners have released a video for Yet from their critically acclaimed 2011 Album “Today I realised I could go home backwards” Its a beautiful animation of old photographs and 3D animation to go with the melancholic love song. Directed By Alex Roessler
For more reviews of We Cut Corners Click here.
‘Bowen’s and the Wood‘ began as a solo project of Rory Bowen’s.
After playing gigs in venues from Galway to London, supporting bands such as Frightened Rabbit and The Walls, Rory realised that he needed more noises in the background.
With this in mind he added bassist Brian Kelly and drummer/sibling Dónal Bowens and suddenly a band was born.
Rory Bowen’s is one of the most promising young Irish singer songwriters I’ve heard this year. The self titled debut ep of band Bowens and the Wood, is a great starting point for the young singer, capturing a small slice of his quirky and personal song writing in the first two tracks.The first track “Bits and Pieces” is an upbeat song about the perils of bumping into your ex’s. This song is driven by Rory’s vocals and acoustic guitar showing how easily his songs are transferred from a solo show to a full band. Track two “John” is another upbeat song this time driven much more by a rumbling bass line through out, this song has more urgency a slightly punky vibe think along the lines of Frank Turner with a full band backing him. “John” is a song about living safely and missing out on the things in life that come from your mistakes. The third and last song on the ep is a duet with Rosa Nutty called “Truth”. This song hints at a broader sound as it slows the record down leaving out the quirky lyrics that Rory does so well and focusing on something more serious and melancholic, this leans towards something akin to Ham Sandwich with the dual male and female vocals.
So in short this debut ep is a fine example of the growing talent and ability of an Irish musician finding his way and developing his sound. Live the songs become even more infectious delivered straight from the man himself. Rory Bowen’s is one to watch for the future.
We Cut Corners, I have written about before so I wont go too far into their style of music click the link for that.
I will talk about the saturday night in Whelans that was their gig though, this one I managed to bring a few friends too knowing it was gonna be a good one. The first thing to say is this was my first time to see them headline a show. I was very excited about what they would do for the show, they have so much space on a stage with only two band members and it offers the chance to do something interesting with visuals. I wasn’t dissapointed either as what looked like a giant piece of cardboard with black circles painted on it for a backdrop was actually a screen for projections. The Visuals were done by Le Tissier, I dont know too much about them but from what I saw they are farily talented and unique complimenting We Cut Corners live show completely.
Whelans was absolutely packed from the door to the dancefloor.This was the first big headline show in Dublin for We Cut Corners and its been a long time coming the boys seemed a little nervous at first with Conall mentioning how they had stood in the front row of Whelans just the year before for a Villagers gig worshipping Conor O’Brien and now they where standing on the stage. The show was a mix of new songs and songs from their highly aclaimed album ‘Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards’. The new songs seem like a step up musically from some of the album, in particular a track called ‘Best Friends’ a loud and fast explosion of guitar from John who takes lead vocals on the track. The lyrics are still as clever as always with songs such as YKK (if somebody comments what those letters are I might send them a prize if I can find something). The slower songs which these guys do so well and were the real honesty in their lyrics comes out were met with silence I could hear my foot creaking the floor boards, this was a fantastic mark of respect from the crowd for the guys, who proved they can definitely headline bigger gigs in future. Going on the new tracks heard at the show the second album will be a cracker, lets hope it is and we will see these boys headline the academy.
The Support Act
I was excited to see support act Come On Live Long as Id never seen them live before and had only heard good things. Check out their great little EP mender in the link above. I was not to be disappointed, the 5 piece live set up consists of drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, synths, samples and ukelele. This set up gives them quite a variety of sound, it floats between electronic indie and rock with a hint of Trad. The trad comes from the lead vocals which can have moments where they are almost like a dirge. Its a unique sound for definite. The crowd didnt ingore them either it was like having two headliners in some ways with Come On Live Long giving a very polished performance. I over heard some people say they were like Kings of Leon Im no to sure about that but it was meant as a compliment so maybe some one else will hear it in them. I thought their was moments sounding like Cooper Temple Clause, Dandy Warhols and The Rapture. One song even had a distinctly flamenco style intro, thats the only way I could think to describe it. The bass rumbled through the floor during their set creating an atmosphere that would set up nicely for We Cut Corners. Come On Live Long did a great job warming up the crowd so good they could’ve headlined the show themselves which sets them up for some great shows when they get around to releasing an album.
On a side note completely apparently the drummer has lovely hair according to my girlfriend and her female compatriots.
