IMTV nominees announced

The nominees have been announced for the 2010 Irish Music TV Video Awards:

"With a total of 35 videos nominated, we see some returning categories, as well as a few brand new ones… and of course some familiar faces. We are also adding not one, but TWO opportunities for the public to have their say – with public votes being taken for brand new categories: “Sexiest Video” as well as “Viewers Choice”."

(http://irishmusictelevision.com/?p=1709)

Here's a full list of the nominees:

BEST MALE
Fionn Regan – Catacombs
Colin Devlin – The Heart Won’t Be Denied
Mighty Stef – Thank Christ for the Kids
Simon Fagan – Damn Honey

BEST FEMALE
Cathy Davey – Little Red
Jennifer Evans – Scattered
Maighréad – SEA
Silhouette Volume – Destroyed

BEST LIVE VIDEO
Valerie Francis – Slow Dynamo
Two Door Cinema Club – Undercover Martyn
Great Lake Swimmers – Still
Primordial – Empire Falls

BEST STYLED VIDEO
The Matinee Idles - Everything
The Coronas – Far from here
Talulah Does The Hula – Don’t Panic
SWEET JANE – BLACKEYES

BEST GROUP VIDEO
The Minutes – Fleetwood
The Looks – Romeo
Fight Like Apes – Hoo Ha Henry
Delorentos – Santuary

BEST PRODUCTION / EFFECTS
Villagers – Becoming a Jackal
The Gorgeous Colours – The Creatures Down Below
shit robot – take em up
The Lowley Knights You can tell a man by how he lifts his hands

SEXIEST VIDEO (public vote – poll will be live at 17.00 on 18.11.10)
Veda – Miss You Much
Luan Parle – Why Baby Why
Patrick Kelleher – Cold Dead Hands
Nadine Coyle – Insatiable
Rubberbandits Bag of Glue

MOST ORIGINAL CONCEPT
Hunter Gatherer – Cloud
Kill Krinkle Club – Moon
Miracle Bell – Love Sounds
The Ambience Affair – Devil in the Detail

BEST DIRECTOR
Will McConnewll
Miles Reilly
Lorcan Finnegan
Jessie Ward

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
O Emperor – Don Quixote
The Gorgeous Colours – The Creatures Down Below
The Minutes – Secret History
Cathy Davey – Little Red
The Ambience Affair – Devil in the Detail

VIEWERS CHOICE (public vote – poll will be live at 17.00 on 18.11.10)
ALL NOMINEES *

Lots of great stuff to check out. Here's a few of my favourites:



Dir: Ciara Kennedy and Róisín McNamee.



Dir: Lorcan Finnegan



Dir: Stevie Russell



Dir: Souljacker



Dir: Ceara Martyn



Dir: Peter McCarthy

The event takes place November 24th in The Academy. So get voting!

Electric Picnic preview: Saturday

LEFTFIELD


One of the most influential electronic acts of the 1990's, rumours of Leftfield's imminent reformation and festival appearances seem to have been circulating forever, and if ever there was an act who suited a festival down to the ground, then here they are and here it is. Expect their 1995 masterpiece Leftism to feature prominently - and perhaps a certain J. Lydon will be joining them onstage for 'Open Up'?





LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

A certain volcano put paid to their scheduled Tripod show in April, and although the common consensus was that this Picnic appearance would be their last live performance in Ireland, some further U-turning by James Murphy has made things less clear. Whatever, they're sure to turn Stradbally into a giant, blissful dancefloor.





CATHY DAVEY

She's had a fantastic year, with her third album The Nameless reaching number 1 on an independent label and garnering widespread critical acclaim. Her set at the Picnic promises to be the icing on the cake.



Army Of Tears by schlafshane

CRYSTAL CASTLES

The ever-controversial duo throw all subtlety out the window with their live sets: expect pummelling, harsh electro-noise terrorism.





GIL SCOTT-HERON

This one's going to be emotional. Scott-Heron's late 70's/early 80's spoken-word and poetry works are regarded as a formative influence on hip-hop and black activism, but his last decade has been more distinguished by prison sentences and drug addiction. That was until the 2010 release of I'm New Here, a revelatory record featuring wary, weather-beaten, Waits-ish testimonials like 'Me and the Devil Blues' and 'New York is Killing Me'.





HOT CHIP

Picnic regulars at this stage, the Chip have the tunes to get people dancing. In particular, this year's comeback single 'One Night Stand' fits right in alongside previous classics like 'Ready For The Floor' and 'Over and Over'.





ROBYN

Should give Janelle Monae a run for her money in the pop-tastic stakes. Her three-part album Body Talk is currently on the second installment.





AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR

The face-melting post-rockers are going to bring the noise. Be there.

1. Set Guitars To Kill - And So I Watch you From Afar by TOOLBOX ROCKS



JOKER VS NOMAD

One of the most influential and acclaimed artists on the dubstep/grime scene, Joker's bright, funk-influenced sound is so unique that he's coined his own term for it: 'purple sound'. He's joined by Nomad on MC duties.





MOUNTAIN MAN

The all-female trio from Vermont deal in haunting three-piece folk harmonies.

Mountain Man - Soft Skin by Bella Union

Mountain Man - Animal Tracks by Bella Union

THE ANTLERS

By all accounts one of the highlight's of May's Primavera Sound festival, it's dark, bleak music (dealing with doomed love affairs on cancer wards) but it's evidently cathartic.





THE REDNECK MANIFESTO

Jape is already one of Stradbally's favourite sons, but as part of the instrumental collective Redneck Manifesto, it's a whole other ball-game. Defiantly independent and now signed to the excellent Richter Collective label, their thrilling, dazzling brand of post-rock has arguably been the biggest influence on the domestic Irish scene in the last few years, certainly if the music of many of their new labelmates is anything to go by. Math-rock, electronic flourishes and heavy guitar assaults will be the order of the day. It's a no-brainer.

Cathy Davey tour in October

Cathy Davey will be hitting the road again in October for a number of Irish dates. She'll be playing the following venues:

Glor, Ennis (2); Town Hall, Galway (4); The Academy, Dublin (6); Royal Theatre, Castlebar (7); INEC, Killarney (8); Set Theatre, Kilkenny (9); Savoy, Cork (13); Riverbank, Wexford (14); Dolan’s, Limerick (15); and Forum, Waterford (16)

Her superb third album The Nameless is out now, as is the latest single to be taken from the album, 'Army of Tears' - available from iTunes, it features b-side 'The Wandering' and a demo version of 'Army of Tears'.

She's also playing the Electric Picnic in September.

Cathy Davey - The Nameless

I had this album purchased a good while ago, but due to some iTunes mishaps I've only got around to listening to it very recently. And...wow. Another great Irish album to add to the pile that have been released this year, The Nameless is a gripping, engaging album from start to finish. There wasn't a whole lot wrong with her first two albums, Something Ilk and Tales of Silversleeve, but this album sees her step up to a whole new level. It's a cliche I'm not too fond of using, but she really has grown into her own voice : at this stage Davey has a truly inimitable, idiosyncratic aesthetic and style of delivery, and song-writing on her latest record glows with self-assurance and confidence.

Ranging from the pure pop thrills of 'Little Red' (which, despite its hook-filled immediacy, seems to sound better and better with each listen) to the dazzling baroque flourishes of 'Army of Tears' to the deceptively jaunty 'Happy Slapping' and the grandstanding sweep of 'Universe Tipping', this is the Dublin songwriter's first truly great album (again, the first two weren't far off), and one that's only going to grow in stature.

She's an interesting character too: there was a great interview with Peter Murphy in a recent issue of Hot Press where she spoke of, among other things, her excitement at the health of the current Irish music scene, the role blogs are playing in the promotion of new music, the taboos surrounding death in our culture, her pretty vehement hatred of X-Factor and all that shit, and her belief that the demo versions of her songs are often better than the mastered ones. Speaking of which, there's still some of those demos available to download from the Torture Garden blog:

http://thetorturegarden.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-birthday-us.html

But, really, buy the album - I can't recommend it highly enough.



Army Of Tears by schlafshane

EDIT:

'Army of Tears' is the next single released from the album, and available now for download from iTunes, backed with a demo version and the b-side 'The Wandering'. Check the live video:

Cathy Davey, Josh Ritter, Human League for Galway Arts Festival

The first names have been announced for Big Top duties at this year's Galway Arts Festival: a intriguing-looking triple-header featuring Cathy Davey, Damien Dempsey and Josh Ritter for July 23rd, followed by a Human League/Heaven 17 double-bill on the 24th.

Tickets are available from http://www.galwayartsfestival.com/, priced at €38.50 and €36.50 respectively.

Cathy Davey hits Number 1 spot in Irish charts

How heartening it is in these times of industry uncertainty to see an independently-released album hitting the top spot in the album charts. Cathy Davey has made history by becoming the first Irish artist to top both the domestic independent chart and mainstream chart in the same week. New album The Nameless, released on Hammer Toe Records, went straight in at number 1 this week, knocking AC/DC off the top spot and pipping The National's new album, which entered at 3.

Army Of Tears by schlafshane