On The Record »

• Download Adrian Crowley’s “Long Distance Swimmer” for free

  December 11, 2008 @ 10:13 am | by Jim Carroll

  This time last year, Adrian Crowley released his fourth album, “Lost Distance Swimmer”. The album received rave reviews, got shortlisted for the Choice Music Prize and gave him a mighty push. Sure, we even pressganged him into penning a few on-the-road diaries for this blog.

  To mark the album’s anniversary, Adrian is giving “Long Distance Swimmer” away for free for one week via On The Record – you can download the album here.

  At present, Adrian is finishing work on album number five which will be released on April 24 next on Tin Angel. To coincide with the giveaway, we also have a brand new song, “The Wishing Seat”, from that as yet untitled album – the video is below. Enjoy!

  If you want to see Adrian live, he will be supporting Cathy Davey this month at Dolan’s, Limerick (17); Electric Avenue, Waterford (18); Cyprus Avenue, Cork (21); Tripod, Dublin (22) and Roisin Dubh, Galway (27). In January, he will be supporting James Yorkston at dates in Crawdaddy, Dublin (22), Speakeasy, Belfast (23); Roisin Dubh, Galway (24) and Cyprus Avenue, Cork (25).

  And finally, here’s the video for new song “The Wishing Seat”

  

• New text download service aims for the impulse buyers

  October 17, 2008 @ 9:21 am | by Jim Carroll

  Irish bands will find it easier to sell their music, thanks to a new MySpace add-on from Downloadmusic.ie
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• Etc

  June 6, 2008 @ 9:08 am | by Jim Carroll

  Surf’s up. Travis, Supergrass, The Zutons, Seasick Steve, Cathy Davey and more play the Cois Fharraige fest in Kilkee, Co Clare from September 5th to 7th.

  Now that you can buy Radiohead tracks individually on iTunes, the only superstars still saying “no thanks” to Apple are The Beatles, AC/DC and Garth Brooks.

  If you’re on the road to Barcelona and spot an earnest man with an acoustic guitar, it may be Damien Rice. He announced this week that he’s planning to record a new album on his current road-trip to Catalonia.

• All apologies

  December 14, 2007 @ 8:04 am | by Jim Carroll

  Music fans with a guilt complex can stop fretting, it’s time to make amends to your favourite group for downloading and not paying for their music.

  DearRockers.org has been set up by Darren Barefoot to encourage music fans to write a letter to acts, accompanied by $5, to say thanks for the music.

  Letters and cash for such acts as Sufjan Stevens, David Bowie, Radiohead, Whitney Houston, OMD and others have already been received.

• Ribit, ribit

  August 10, 2007 @ 9:40 am | by Jim Carroll

  Remember Spiralfrog, the record industry-backed firm promising free ad-supported music downloads? It missed its mooted December 2006 launch, and subsequent infighting nearly scuppered the ship.

  Now, users have been invited to test a beta version of the site, with a full launch planned by the end of the year.

  But, with just 700,000 songs and an iPod-unfriendly structure, the Frog has a lot of catching up to do

• Free Arcade Fire concert

  June 21, 2007 @ 12:58 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Steady on, steady on. I mean free concert to dowload.

  It’s the band’s show from ealier this year at New York’s Judson Memorial Church. Listen and download here (there’s also an interview with the band).

• Size matters as record industry faces squeeze

  June 1, 2007 @ 12:42 pm | by Jim Carroll

  The man who makes those snazzy “the end is nigh” sandwich-boards must be working overtime at the moment, as the major-label record industry wonders where its next tax-deductible meal is going to come from.
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• Who are you calling random? Better links than you’ll find on your local golf course

  May 30, 2007 @ 12:26 pm | by Jim Carroll

  Blogledge Nialler9 has just unearthed a top quality recording of Leftfield’s performance at Homelands in 2000. Click through now and enjoy some heavyweight, stomach-pumping bass.

  Going to the Garden Party? Prepare for your big day out with this 20 minute excerpt from Hot Chip’s new “DJ Kicks” mix-album. Lovely hurling

  Political anoraks, this is for you. Anne-Marie Power spent Election 2007 in Dublin Central tracking the ups and downs of the three female would-be TDs campaigning in Bertie’s backyard. She followed their campaigns from the get-go to the last count for a documentary called Patricia, Mary and Mary-Lou Too which airs tonight (Wednesday) on RTE Radio One at 8pm. If you miss it, check here for a podcast from tomorrow.

  KRS-One blanks Ireland! Those June dates I wrote about earlier featuring The Blastmaster and Marley Marl? Forget about them. The shows are cancelled. Read a book instead. Me, I’m about to start the new Richard Ford, if you’re wondering.

  Una Rocks tried to give up blogging for a week. It didn’t work. She blames Rick O’Shea. See, I’m not the only one who has issues with 2FM.

• More fun than cycling over Ivor Callely posters, it’s the links. Enjoy responsibly

  May 15, 2007 @ 2:50 pm | by Jim Carroll

  You may think that Fight Like Apes are a blogspiracy such is the amount of blog love coming their way of late. But they’re real and they rock like apes. For lines like “you’re like Kentucky Fried Chicken but without the taste” and “you’re a fucking disappointment to the human race” alone, they’re getting our vote on May 24th.

  More reasons to love Palms Out as they’ve outed the Prodigy as sample monsters. If you haven’t done so already, check out Palms Out’s forensic dissection of Daft Punk. More cuts, incisions and nasty bits than a monster mash of Scrubs, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Holby City, All Saints and Casualty. For some reason, there were never any nasty bits in The Clinic. Just the acting.

  Cheers to Charlie for signposting this documentary on the Amen break, the six second sample from “Amen, Brother” by The Winstons which has subsequently gone on to star on countless hip-hop and drum’n'bass tracks.

  Via the mighty Cheebah crew comes this fantastic footage of breakdancers doing it at the Cliffs of Moher as shot by Claire McGrath. Who needs a blooming interpretive centre when you can dance off on a big square of cardboard or lino on top of a cliff?

  German deep funk powerhouse Poets Of Rhythm are on their way to Ireland for dates in Dublin (Whelan’s, June 7) and Limerick (Dolan’s Warehouse, June 8). Check out what they sound like in advance with this free download courtesy of the Choice Cuts gang.

  It’s the party-friendly Missill. She’s at Tripod (Dublin, May 25) and Trinity Rooms (Limerick, May 26). Go along. Jump around. Enjoy. Smile. Or watch her latest video here.

• How many members of Aosdána does it take to write a letter to The Irish Times? (*)

  May 1, 2007 @ 9:20 am | by Jim Carroll

  It’s the Tuesday morning clickathon! A collection of random links designed to keep you away for at least five minutes from doing something useful. Like answering the door to your local would-be TD. And sticking his leaflet in your green bin. While he’s canvassing next-door.

  What the Wu? There are 215 free Wu-Tang Clan downloads waiting to be enjoyed right here.

  Last Friday, we rounded up the gigs and festivals of the summer. But, naturally because we’re human, we left out a few. There’s the Dublin City Soul Festival (we reckon Stax soul stirrers the Rance Allen Group are worth a look) and, then, there’s the full line-up for Groove Armada’s Lovebox hooley at Dublin’s Malahide Castle which also features The Rapture (we’re loving the Claude Von Stroke remix of their “Whoo Alright Yah Uh Huh” at the mo’), Toots & The Maytals, (the hugely over-rated) Super Furry Animals, V2 new boy Jape, superstar spinner Sasha and many more.

  We like that eerie version of “Lets Dance” currently featured on an ad for Ballygowan. If, like us, you were wondering who the singer is, wonder no more. She is Miss Paula Flynn and she hails from Co Armagh. Currenly a comunications student at DCU, she usually sings with Jinx Lennon but is now planning a solo album. And yes, she has a MySpace.

  Mash-ups may be so 2001 but someone forget to tell Party Ben. He’s the dude behind that Snow Patrol vs The Police “Every Car You Chase” yoke currently doing the rounds and the good news is he’s done dozens more. Our favourite is his remix of Hot Chip’s “Over & Over”. Not as good as the Diplo rerub but hey, what is?

  Thanks to Joey and Liz and their super-duper TV-DVD thingy, we saw the Arcade Fire busking their way through “Neon Bible” and “Guns Of Brixton” on BBC’s Culture Show the other week and now, you can do likewise thanks to the Beeb. Luckily, you’ll miss out on Lauren Laverne’s truly appalling interview. Man, she wouldn’t even get a gig on Xpose.

  Ah record labels, you’ve got to love them. Check the terms and conditions if you want to get your tune on the soundtrack to the new Bratz film. We should have gone to law school.

  (* Your guess is as good as mine, but they’re really splashing out their cnuas on stamps these days)

• Future is free for The Crimea

  April 27, 2007 @ 9:02 am | by Jim Carroll

  One of the albums of the year is set to be given away for free. The Crimea, the band fronted by Dubliner Davey MacManus, will give away their excellent new album, “Secrets of the Witching Hour”, as a free download from their website from May 12 *.

  While the band released their debut album “Tragedy Rocks” on Warner Music, they see the move into a download free-for-all as a new business model which will help them boost their live audience and merchandise sales.

  It’s an audacious move. While many acts are happy to give away tracks as samplers for forthcoming albums (and there are even a few band-approved sites like Free Indie and Free Albums Galore who give away large chunks of albums), The Crimea are one of the first to come out and state that CD sales are not the be all and end all of revenue streams.

  * UPDATE As MP3 Hugger notes below, the album is now available for download from the band’s site. Because there has been loads of coverage elsewhere about this, the band decided to start the ball rolling right away. As of Wednesday morning, over 7,000 people have downloaded the album.

• Fore! Random Monday morning links

  April 16, 2007 @ 8:59 am | by Jim Carroll

  Say hello to Lull. He’s the geezer who has done an amazing Music Box & Tears remix of Bloc Party’s “I Still Remember” (and he’s also done a good job on the ace I Was A Cub Scout’s “Pink Squares”). His own tunes are also impressive, if you’re into slow-motion electronica.

  No-one else rants or raves like Bob Lefsetz when it comes to the music business. Here, he compiles the blame report for the latest death of hip-hop. No need to call in Bobby Goren to help with this one.

  Miranda Sawyer’s smart guide to internet radio from The Observer. Memo to RTE: whatever happened to the great digital leap forward?

  Free the Duke! Download “When The Bear Bites”, a free five-track sampler from the mighty Duke Special.

  Aiiiiiight. Forget The Sopranos, the best TV series on the box is The Wire. Props to TG4 for getting their mitts on Series 4 before anyone else on this side of the Atlantic (it’s in full swing on Mondays at 11.25pm) – just lets hope they don’t do what RTE would do with it and start shoving it round the schedules without telling anyone. For those who’s slept on this piece of TV genius from the streets of B-More, you can play catch-up on DVD and realise why no-one needs the Bada Bing when you’ve got Orlando’s.

• Dancing Skeletons On Moore Street

  April 4, 2007 @ 11:29 am | by Jim Carroll

  Alan O’Boyle talks about “Little Sketches”, a Decal out-takes album now available to download for free.

  These tracks were recorded at home in late 2004 when I’d dismantled my studio in Moore Street and had just bought a decent soundcard and a half decent computer. I was basically just messing around learning how to use Logic and guitar seemed like the fastest way to get some ideas down. The plan was that I would eventually flesh them out into a proper album but the tracks seemed to stand on their own – not as properly finished tracks but as what they are, little sketches. Martin Kelly (The Ruby Tailights) provided the lyrics and vocals for “Wake Up With The Sun Behind You” sometime in 2005. Rather than let them gather dust on my hard drive I thought I’d put them up for download.

  Download “Little Sketches” including the fantastic “Wake Up With The Sun Behind You” and “Dancing Skeletons on Moore Street”. No DRM here.