It's that time of year again for 'The Irish Mercury Prize', and as usual the shortlist has thrown up a number of surprises. Here's the list in full:
Fight Like Apes “Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion”
Mick Flannery “White Lies”
Halfset “Another Way of Being There”
Lisa Hannigan “Sea Sew”
David Holmes “The Holy Pictures”
Jape “Ritual”
Messiah J & The Expert “From The Word Go”
Oppenheimer “Take The Whole Mid-Range And Boost It”
R.S.A.G. “Organic Sampler”
The Script “The Script”
It being one of my albums of the year, I reckon Jape deserve the gong, but this award has always been a tough one to call. I'm hearing great things about Halfset, yet haven't heard the actual album yet. Mick Flannery is another one who has up til now been off my radar. The dark horses have got to be The Script though. Shudder.
The award will be announced at a live extravaganza in Vicar St on March 4th. Tickets will be on sale next Monday for 27 euros a pop. Live performances can be expected can a fair few of the nominees, and as a bonus you'll get to see first-hand the joy and rapture that comes with receiving an award (as modeled by Super Extra Bonus Party above)
This year's judges listed in the readmore.
Niall Byrne (State/Nialler9 blog)
Edel Coffey (Irish Independent)
Ian Dempsey (Today FM)
James Foley (Record of the Day)
Andrew Hamilton (Clare People)
Kieran Hurley (Cork Campus Radio)
Paul Mallon (Irish Daily Star Sunday)
Lauren Murphy (Entertainment.ie)
Sinead Ni Mhorda (Phantom FM)
Ed Power (Freelance)
Rigsy (BBC Northern Ireland’s Across The Line/ATL TV)
Ian Wilson (2FM)
Choice Music Prize Nominations Announced
Super Extra Bonus Party Win Choice Music Prize
Congrats are due to the Kildare lads who took home the prestigious prize last night. The competition was strong, with 2007 being an excellent year for Irish albums. The nominees included Cathy Davey, Delorentos, Adrian Crowley & Dry County- but it was the Super Extra Bonus Party LP which won over the panel of judges. The prize is worth ten grand in prize money to the band, and even more in exposure and general door openings for them.
If you want to see the band live and check out just why they've deservingly picked up the Choice prize, you don't have long to wait as they play the Childline Rocks show tonight in the Acadamy. Also on the bill are the likes of Jape, Ham Sandwich & the excellent Rocket Surgery. For those who can't make it along tonight, here's a taste of SEBP with the fantastic 'Everything Flows':
M83 for the benefit of Rob
I'm sure there's quite a few of you reading this who have been enlightened to the M83 sound for some time now but for those of you who haven't and one of those, by his own admission, is our Rob I'm going to treat you to a little bit of sum'in sum'in from our Gallic friends.
As you can probably tell from that last paragraph M83 are indeed French and have been around for the last 7-odd years making their lush, electro-like and often quite heavy sounds that mix the shoegazing style of My Bloody Valentine with the ambient dream-pop of Air.
They havn't done anything since 2005's Before the Dawn Heals Us which is apparently because one of them has walked leaving Anthony Gonzalez to play on his tobler. There's a new album slated for the spring so we might see M83 doing the festivals this year. Savage.
In the meantime have a listen y'all (and Rob) to some of the good shit. And a hearty thanks to the Duffmeister over at Pascals Country Sounds for introducing me to them all those years ago.
Unrecorded from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
* from Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
And just because I like lush songs with nice videos starring unconventionally attractive girls, Don't Save Us From The Flames also from Before the Dawn Heals Us
Choice Music Prize Nominations Revealed
The Choice Music Prize is a kickass award given out to the outstanding Irish album of the year. Click here for the award site. This year's nominations were announced this evening.
Thanks to Nialler9 for the full list.
1. Adrian Crowley - Long Distance Swimmer
2. Cathy Davey - Tales of Silversleeve
3. Delorentos - In Love with Detail
4. Dry County - Unexpected Falls
5. The Flaws - Achieving Vagueness
6. Dave Geraghty - Kill your Darlings
7. Kila - Gamber’s Ballet
8. Roísín Murphy - Overpowered
9. Stanley Super 800 - Louder and Clearer
10. Super Extra Bonus Party - Super Extra Bonus Party LP
Thoughts? There are one or two in there that i haven't yet heard, so will have to be getting on that asap. Right now my favorite to win has got to be a two-way tie between Delorentos & Cathy Davey. But, as I said, there's much more to listen to.
Here is the Judging Panel for 2007:
Brian Boyd (The Irish Times), Alan Corr (The RTE Guide), Michael Carr (Cork 96FM), Ronan Casey (Westmeath Examiner), Dan Hegarty (2FM), Anne Marie Kelly (Today FM), Sheena McGinley (Entertainment.ie), Una Mullally (Sunday Tribune), Paul McClean, Leagues O’Toole (Foggy Notions), Nadine O’Regan (Sunday Business Post and Phantom 105.2) and Jon Richards (Galway Bay FM).
