On the 9th of Janurary Estel release their first volume of collaborations with Mike Watt (co-founder of The Minutemen and fIREHOSE, and as of 2003 bassist for the reunited Iggy Pop & The Stooges as well as many other bands) and Steve Mackay ( an American tenor saxophone player, best known for his participation on The Stooges' influential second album Fun House)
And to celebrate this Estel are playing a few dates around the country (more about the gigs at the end), but not only are they releasing this quality collaboration they're also marking Estel's 10 years together as a band which in itself is fucking huge.

As for the CD itself, well I really fucking liked it and really shows what Estel can do. The album is dark and atmospheric, sometimes slow and then jumping into full on freak out with a touch of psychedelic in the mix, this is not a band trying to play along or keep up with two legends this is full on collaboration and don't take my meandering word for it, listen for yourself.

Steve Mackay/ Mike Watt/ ESTEL - Mark

CORK- Fred's. Wednesday. JAN 7th. with das wanderlust
GALWAY- Sally Long's. Thursday. JAN 8th. with das wanderlust
DUBLIN- Lower Deck. Friday. JAN 9th.

Supporting estel on the Friday night in Dublin will be das wanderlust[uk],cian nugent and the debut performance from;the continuous battle of order[hornby and craig of we are knives].

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kinda of a round up of news here
first off...
www.richtercollective.com have a new blog/podcast they will get 1 artists a month to select 5 obscure bands from their own record collection and introduce us to them. Its a monthly thing , this month they are joined by Estel drummer, Bushy.
upcoming guests include:
Hornby (We Are Knives)
Rupert (Bats)
Vin (the vinny club)
check ithttp://5bands.blogspot.com/


Them sexual winged mammals bats are supporting Chrome Hoof on the 12th of Feb in Whelans , they also have an instore a few days earlier on the 9th of Feb in Tower Records.

Sunset Rubdown (who released one of my favorite records of last year) play Crawdaddy on May 20th. Never seen them before and really looking forward to this.
Sunset Rubdown Live in Chicago "Stadiums and Shrines II"


Why? have expanded as a band to include Fog members Andrew Broder and Mark "Bear" Erickson, cant see this being a bad thing myself.Anticon will release Alopecia on March 11, with a European release on Tomlab to follow.
heres WHY? Video for rubber traits of 2005 "elephant eyelash" LP


Up next not really news but damo showed me this class The Mae Shi video.Track taken from their forthcoming album "HLLLYH" on Moshi Moshi Records. Video directed by The Mae Shi (self-directed). check it
The Mae Shi - Run to Your Grave

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