I like this song a lot.

Carl Spidla playing with Merril Garbus

Ideally I would write more and say more. Ideally, I would convince you of the simple beauty of this song and explain why it doesn’t need a proper studio-recorded version because this live performance captures his warm, casual style so perfectly. But today is a day for simple facts, dispensed without emotion. Here is a song by a man who seems to reside in the Montréal area. He does not appear to be signed yet, nor has any recorded output available for purchase. He appears to have some sort of friendship with tUnE-YaRdS (see above) and/or her other band Sister Suvi. Credit where it’s due: I first found this song last year on the excellent Said The Gramophone blog’s Songs of 2008 which, looking back, is a fantastic and mildly prophetic list. Spidla claims he has a girl’s voice, though this is debatable. The lyrics may well have fallen out of a daydream mid-performance. This song is for fans of The Tallest Man on Earth and similar folky Dylanites.

MP3: Carl Spidla – Blackfly Rag

Fun Rabbit Stuff

Frightened Rabbit on MUZU

I don’t know about you (“and frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”), but I’m very, very excited about the impending release of Frightened Rabbit’s third album. There’s something about that unique Scottish ability to find misery and a damn good song at the bottom of every bottle of cheap whiskey that I find irresistible. If you haven’t heard their previous album, The Midnight Organ Fight, you’re missing out on a thrilling, visceral break-up record full of lyrics to knock you out of your passive listening position. It was one of 2008’s finest records and, lucky for us, they’re following it up with another!

Having already released a teaser late last year in the form of “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”, the band are releasing a fantastic new single, “Nothing Like You” on Feb 22nd to push expectations even higher for the new album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, due March 1st (all through FatCat). With the early signs showing a new, more diverse sound things look promising for what should be an album with broader horizons but no less focus on sharp lyrics. Unfortunately, there’s no album just yet, but the full tracklist is below for your perusal. Also, there’s no sign of an Irish gig yet, but UK dates are below the jump as well. But to keep you happy until then, here’s one of the new b-sides, “Fun Stuff”.

MP3: Frightened Rabbit – Fun Stuff

But that’s not even the best part! In the run-up to the album release, the band are taking the title literally and are running a cool competition to see what drinks you’ve been mixing this winter. So, the deal is you have to come up with your own outstanding cocktail and post a video recipe to their MUZU page (where you can find the full details). The winner gets a proud hangover as well as tickets to one of the band’s upcoming gigs in the US or UK where they can raise a glass of their creation with the band themselves! Closing date is the 15th, so start experimenting.

Brought to you by the letter K

Pretty much what we're hoping for.

Why? Well, you’d have to ask someone else. Alls I knows is that I’ve always been fond of the letter k, as you might have guessed. It’s a funny little letter, it’s worth 5 points on Scrabble, it can be hard or silent, it can “help” you lose weight over two weeks or really fuck you up on a night out. We’ll be doing our best to do all of the above and more tonight as the Come As Soon As You Hear crowd present The Letter ‘K’ in their first venture down Portobello way in the Bernard Shaw.

Whether the theme begat the line-up or vice-versa, we’ll likely never know, but Kid Karate will be playing live while I’ll be trawling through the depths of the K section (R Kelly) of my record collection (but probably not). But you don’t care about the music, do you? You care about the free stuff. Luckily, there’ll be plenty of k-themed fun, food, prizes and challenges. Expect chocolate to be in abundance with KitKats and Rice Krispie buns as well as kola and, eh, kolouring kompetitions. Of course, there’s alcoholic drinks that include a k… which to me says Buckfast. But most things say Buckfast to me, including the kats. The non-racist K worship will kick off at 8pm and as usual it’s free in and the ol’ blue bus might be selling those delicious pizzas out the back. I might well play this…

MP3: Phoenix – Lisztomania (Alex Metric remix)

SEBP – Comets video

Catching up on a few bits and pieces at the moment and just got round to watching the new video for Super Extra Bonus Party’s single “Comets”. I forgot how nicely those hummed harmonies in the background from Heathers are. Not only has it reminded me how good the song is, but it is a quality little video that recalls the uber-expensive madness of that Michael & Janet Jackson video for “Scream” back in the day. Well done to video director Donal Mangan for a job well done. Also, the Bonus boys will be stomping around the country in the near future to play a few gigs. They’ll be visiting the Roisin Dubh, Galway (13 Feb), Waterfront, Belfast (20) and finally Whelans, Dublin on the 26th.

Photos of System Breakdown

Sounds of System Breakdown

Festival bookers take note. This was clearly a gig by a band who have played everywhere imaginable in the last couple of years and their hard slog in the muddiest of fields has paid off. Not to dwell on the similarities to Jape, but during Sounds of System Breakdown’s set at their album launch in The Village on Saturday, I kept remembering Richie’s afternoon set in the Red Bull tent at Oxegen last year. These guys could easily do a similar job this summer with an ability to please such a wide variety of audiences with their clever, powerful riffs and wry lyrics layered over unstoppably danceable beats. This weekend they belted through the songs from their self-titled debut album in a set that sounded impeccable and made me forget why I didn’t like the place as a venue. The packed house seemed to love it and with a free copy of the album included in their €8 admission, why wouldn’t they? Expect the album and the band to pop up more and more as the year goes on. More pictures below and on Flickr.

Sounds of System Breakdown – Debut Album

Sounds of System Breakdown

Well, that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? Dublin electro-indie messers Sounds of System Breakdown are releasing their debut album this weekend with a big, fat launch gig in The Village on Wexford Street. After several years of good, solid gigging all over Ireland, the guys are ready to unleash their digital beast. Rob’s original solo venture of choppy guitars and knob-twiddling has been bulked up with the addition of extra musicians and their live shows are always packed with an impressive amount of bounce-about energy. Sure, the comparisons to LCD Soundsystem and Jape are likely to continue, but it’s hardly a bad thing, especially when they’re doing it this well. You can grab a free taster MP3 of “Vinegar Joe” below and for your €8 on the door tomorrow night you’ll receive one of the better Irish albums likely to be released in 2010.

MP3: Sounds of System Breakdown – Vinegar Joe

The State Social #1

More than the other State have ever done for you!

With a collective record-bag and musical knowledge comparable to ten Alan Partridges, along with an unhealthy love of a good night out, the State team are delving into the realm of club promotion with all the class of Dickensian hooker. By which I mean that tonight is the first of the State Social monthly nights in Shebeen Chic on George’s St. Once a month, State will be getting members of staff to prove their musical worth by spinning some decent tunes rather than just writing about/photographing them. Tonight, Loreana and Niall are the ones who have been glove-slapped and challenged to a duel. They should be able to handle themselves though, as Loreana has DJ-ed in every square inch of this city before and Niall did a great job headlining Oxegen last summer (I think). If you can find better music, in nicer surroundings on a Wednesday night… well, go there then. But otherwise, if you’re out and about, it’s free in and starts at 9pm! Perfect for after the Hugh Lane exhibition, if you’re popping down.

There’s a Facebook group and event an’ all that, if you’re so inclined. Which I bet you are!

Safe Inside The Day

Baby Dee

Great news (via State)! February 26th will see the “enigmatic” Baby Dee come to Dublin to play Crawdaddy. All the Antony comparisons aside, I really enjoyed the last album and seeing her perform live should be something quite special. The sometime performance artist is re-releasing a previously limited release entitled A Book of Songs For Anne Marie. Tickets priced at €15 are available from the usuals. There’s also a gig in The Crane Lane Theatre in Cork the previous night. Here’s the stunning opening track to Baby Dee’s last album, Safe Inside The Day, released on the excellent Drag City label in 2008.

MP3: Baby Dee – Safe Inside The Day (Feat. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) – [Buy]

Beaches & Friends

Beaches & Friends EP

This is an interesting one. Wisconsin brothers Robert and David Perlick-Molinari who go by the name of French Horn Rebellion decided to team up with Brazilian duo Database recently to record a song calld “Beaches & Friends”. They didn’t really though. Instead they recorded the main parts for the track and then scattered these seeds amongst their friends and asked them to see what they could come up with. According to David, “Every track is a variation on a theme, a similar idea to Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. In fact the Beaches & Friends EP is kind of a modern-day Enigma Variations.” Indeed.

The result is the Beaches & Friends EP, which contains the NYC Version, Database’s Club Edit, The Twelves Club and Radio remixes and this one, the Hey Champ version. On this version, the track is brought a little further into funk territory, recalling the disco-electro of MGMT with a smattering of Chromeo. The EP comes out March 1st on Once Upon A Time Records.

MP3: French Horn Rebellion vs Database – Beaches & Friends (Hey Champ remix)

The Golden Bough: Katie Holten

The Golden Bough: Katie Holten

The Golden Bough series at the Hugh Lane has been running for quite some time now. After several successful outings in the past year or so, the first venture for 2010 is a solo show by Katie Holten. The show will feature a mixture of drawing, sculpture and text as she continues to delve into her interest in our relationship to, and effect on, nature and organic life systems. Though she tends to work in black and white, we are told that in this project, she will “incorporate the ‘average’ colour of the universe as determined by astronomers at the John Hopkins University, Baltimore; – both the ‘correct’ and the ‘incorrect’ versions”. Interesting.

Katie Holten hit the big time when she represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2003 at the age of just 28. This lead her to exhibit all over the world and goes some way to explaining why this is her first solo show in Dublin since 2002. Last summer she opened “The Tree Museum” along the Bronx’s Grand Concourse in New York. You can read more about her commission – which celebrated the centenary of this major construnction by installing 100 trees along the street with audio recordings of local tales – in this recent Irish Times article.

The show opens on Wednesday 27th January at 6pm and runs until April 2nd at Dublin City Gallery: The Hugh Lane on Parnell Square North. The picture above is of the limited edition invite card that only the cool kids received.