Irish Rockers News & Articles

• ‘Houndstooth Shirt’ will be available for download from iTunes, eMusic and indiestore from April 18th 2008.

Ian Whitty: Houndstooth Shirt.

Houndstooth Shirt is the first single to be taken from Ian Whitty’s full length debut album. The song was written about a shirt that Ian bought in a thrift store in New York whilst doing some gigs there a couple of years ago. “I guess the song itself is about the feeling of promise and release that comes with a Friday after you have been dragged by the eye balls across your working week,” is what Ian himself says about the song.

The single features vibrant string and brass arrangements, and was recorded by Ian Whitty and his recording and touring band ‘The Exchange’ with top Irish producer Ken Mc Hugh last year.

Since Ian’s emergence, he has been a highly active figure in the thriving Cork scene as well as being invited to perform with many of the luminaries of the Irish scene including Declan O’Rourke, Bell X1, Josh Ritter, Damien Rice, The Frames and Roderigo y Gabriella, to name but a few. Most recently Ian has been invited to perform as part of the IMRO tour 2008.

Ian is a songwriter who firmly believes in craft and in always placing substance over style. He is most often praised for his distinctive vocal delivery and lyricism that manages to be urgent, humorous and razor sharp without ever sacrificing the storytelling that underpins his songs.

Some of the new Ian Whitty recordings have already been selected for use in multiple documentaries, compilations and short films.

Praise for Ian Whitty:

‘Ian Whitty holds his audience spellbound’ ~The Kingdom

‘One of the finest at his craft in the country.’ ~Cluas.com

‘Ian Whitty has managed to carve out a personality, a sense of identity and idiosyncrasy, which is becoming increasingly difficult to do within the Irish scene.’ ~Hot Press

‘Ian Whitty’s new stuff sounds bloody good!‘ ~Michael Carr, Cork’s 96fm - The Green Room

‘Not On Your Side is a great pop song, and we will be hearing a lot more from Ian Whitty‘ ~Alan Jacques, 95fm - Green and Live

‘I love it! It’s different and different works for me‘ ~Roddie Cleere, Irish Nightlife WLR FM

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Fittingly enough for St. Patrick’s Day, Irish Acts are in the top two spots of the Billboard independent and internet charts. Last Thursday the number one spot was taken by Flogging Molly’s latest album ‘Float’, bumping another Irish album - the soundtrack to Once with the music of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - from the top spot to number two. Flogging Molly’s album has also taken the number four spot on the Billboard top 200 album chart, the highest position for any Irish artist other than U2 since Enya’s 2000 album.

Flogging Molly, who play a brand of Celtic infected punk, are fronted by Dubliner Dave King and Bridget Regan, and consists of both Irish and American members. ‘Float’ is their fourth album and was recorded at Grouse Lodge studios in Westmeath last autumn. The band have a huge following in the US where they do most of their touring but are not nearly as well known back in Ireland. They are planning a upcoming tour of Ireland which they hope will raise their profile back home.

It’s been the opposite story with Glen Hansard and The Frames until the success of the movie ‘Once’ - they have been very successful in Ireland but have not enjoyed large scale success Stateside. This seems set to change as Hansard has recently signed a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell which also includes songs Hansard has written for The Frames.

Irish artists other than U2 have had mixed success in the US in recent times. Damien Rice and The Thrills enjoyed some success, with both managing to have their songs used in leading US television shows. However neither managed to get near the top of the Billboard charts despite selling large numbers of albums.

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Voodoo Loons are tickled pink to announce the release of their new album, Euphobia.  Recorded at Middleground Studios in the U.S., the album is available beginning 14 December exclusively on the Loons website (http://www.voodooloons.com), and will be distributed via iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo, etc. as well as via CD Baby in early 2008. 

To celebrate the release, the Loons are offering a special perk for fans who order the CD from their site:  a limited edition FREE bonus disc full of demos, outtakes, and various oddities.  You  can order here.

Voodoo Loons were formed in 2005 by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Dennis O’Hagan.  O’Hagan, a dual citizen (Ireland & U.S.) who bounces between the two countries, had a collection of demos that were getting a lot of attention online and contacted old school friend and session drummer Bill McCarthy about putting a band together.  McCarthy suggested local workhorse Chris Hooks for bass, and a band was born.  The three immediately started preparing to record some of O’Hagan’s material, and in the process a wealth of new songs emerged.  In the Fall of 2006 the Loons took to the stage for the first time at the U.S.’ MidPoint Music Festival, where their set commenced in legendary fashion… O’Hagan’s amp caught fire during the first song.  Thanks to a backup amp the set continued and went on to earn rave reviews, and the trio knew they had a winner.  Around this time the album was delayed by a family illness, but by Spring 2007 the band was back in fighting shape and spent most of the Summer and Fall at Middleground Studios.  The result was the release of Voodoo Loons’ debut album “Euphobia” in December 2007, which immediately received critical acclaim.  The album draws deeply from O’Hagan’s American and Irish influences, and features guests mandolin virtuoso Mark Daly and pianist Michael Sokolowski (side note: O’Hagan & Hooks recently worked on a track with Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds for the upcoming Soko disc) on several tracks.  The band is currently working on new songs for their follow-up, and plans to spend much of 2008 playing select music festivals and shows to their rapidly growing European and American following.

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I recently added Google Analytics to the site which provides me with a range of interesting stats about the site. One piece of interesting information that I’m going to share with you is the most artist viewed pages. Here’s the top 30 for the last month:

1. Mama’s Boys
2. Van Morrison
3. 18th Empire
4. Dropkick Murphys
5. Blood or Whiskey
6. U2
7. The Pogues
8. Horslips
9. Celtic Legacy
10. 20 Bulls Each
11. A Lazarus Soul
12. Autumn Owls
13. Rory Gallagher
14. Flogging Molly
15. No Sweat
16. A Plastic Rose
17. Arm The Elderly
18. Black 47
19. In Tua Nua
20. Band On An Island
21. Bagatelle
22. Barry McCabe
23. Chrome Horse
24. Angel Pier
25. Archie The Leper
26. Aslan
27. Cruachan
28. Frantic State
29. Young Dubliners
30. The Saw Doctors

I found it quite unexpected that Mama’s Boys is the most visited artist page on the site. It’s amazing the amount of interest still there for this 80s metal band. They’ve got quite a few comments added to their page over time as well. 18th Empire’s name is working to their advantage, being the first listed band their page get’s a lot of hits.

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Kevin Shields has confirmed the reunion of My Bloody Valentine and a forthcoming album comprised of previously unreleased material, material that the band was working on around the time of their break up in the mid-90s as well as some new material. According to Shields the album is already 75% finished. Shields was speaking in an interview on VBS TV, an online TV broadcaster. The full interview is scheduled to be released on vbs.tv on 12th November.

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The man behind IrishRockers.com, Aidan Curran, has launched a new venture, called MusicianSites, which builds websites for bands and musicians at very affordable prices. The website for this new venture can be found at musiciansites.net. MusicianSites‘ first launch was the website for Frantic State, a four piece alternative rock band from Kilkenny. MusicianSites is currently offering introductory promotional rates to all their customers.

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Belfast man Mark McClelland who along with Gary Lightbody formed Snow Patrol in 1994 is now suing the band for a quarter share of the bands earnings since he was booted from the band in 2005. And that must add up to quite a heafty sum which I’m sure is a great source of regret for McClelland who could be a rich man if he had remained in the band during it’s meteoric rise of the last couple of years. So now he is resorting to a legal battle to get his hands on what he thinks are his just deserves.

When the band booted McClelland they claimed their working relationship had deterioated from the pressures of touring to a point where they couldn’t work with him any more. But according to Mark it came as a complete surprise to him. At the time he was quoted in the Glasgow Daily Record as saying - “I didn’t see it coming because there was no real indication of these pressures they were talking about. I went down for a meeting to discuss what I thought was about when we were going to start rehearsing and writing for the new album. And it was just sprung upon me. It’s quite a surprise.”

Since the split McClelland formed a new band called Little Doses.

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There are reports circulating about an expected reformation of the pioneering band My Bloody Valentine. According to a report at the Daily Swarm, the band is close to signing a deal that will see a reunited My Bloody Valentine headline the Coachella music festival in April of next year, before embarking on a world tour later in 2008.

A new album is also expected. The bands singer/guitarist, Kevin Shields, said in an interview published earlier this year in Magnet magazine - “We are 100% going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless we die or something”. Back in 2004 there were rumors of that recordings were taking place in Berlin but nothing ever surfaced. My Bloddy Valentine’s last recorded song made available for release was a cover of “Map Ref. 41N 93W” by Wire, appearing on Whore: Tribute to Wire in 1995.

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Dublin based rock trio The Chapman Society are releasing their debut single ‘Blood Red Room’ via digital download from www.downloadmusic.ie on Friday 31st of August.

To purchase the single simply text ‘music 443′ to 57501 (text costs 1 euro). The single is not available UNTIL Friday 31st of August. You must then use the password automatically texted back to you to collect the song from www.downloadmusic.ie in order for it to count as a registration on the Irish charts!!!

The band are holding a launch gig at the Crawdaddy venue the following day, Saturday September 1st. Support comes from The Neon stars and Brian Mc Guinness Admission is 5 euro.

Support much appreciated!!!

www.thechapmansociety.com

www.myspace.com/chapmansociety

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Ireland has produced two guitar ‘Gods’ that often get ranked among the greats such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, etc. Our guitar heros are Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore. Their playing styles are quite different but both men have much in common - they have crossed some of the same genres - mainly hard rock, blues and blues rock, both have had long-running careers starting at the end of the 60s (but sadly Rory’s was cut all to short by his untimely death in 1995). In the late 60’s Rory came to prominance with his power trio Taste which shared the stage with (and some say upstaged) the great Jimi Hendrix at the legendry Isle Of Wight festival in 1970. At this time Gary Moore was making a name for himself in Dublin as a teenage guitar prodigy and member of the eclectic psychadellic rock outfit Skid Row. He continued his genre hopping career as a member of hard rocking Thin Lizzy, jazz rock outfit Colosseum II and had a long solo career as a hard rock/heavy metal axeman in the 1980s before morphing into a bluesman in 1990. The most obvious difference in playing styles between Rory and Gary is that Gary is more of a slick and flashy player whereas Rory is more raw and rootsy in his playing. Gary has done more experimenting with different genres but in my opinion was at the top of his game as a guitar shredding heavy metal axeman, mostly during the period of late-70s to late-80s. Rory generally kept to the same path throughout his career, alternating between blues and hard rock but getting a bit more into the heavy stuff in the late-70s/early 80’s. In my opinon his best output was during the 70s. Now I’m not going to get into which one is better than the other, that’s just personal taste, instead I’m going to present 2 videos of each of these guitar men in action, and you can make up your own mind who you like best or just do as I do and enjoy them both. The first video for each of them presents their all out rocking side while the second set of videos shows them making their guitars cry. Enjoy.

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