Beautiful Day

The Frames: America Likes Ireland More Than England

One could never accuse fortune of being fickle with The Frames. Although talent is definitely involved — just look at the success of their recent album, Burn The Maps, as proof — the Irish quartet have survived everything from label shakeups to lineup shuffles to touring with Damien Rice. And, if their constant European festival slots are any indication, they might have found a little bit of fame in the process. Their next obvious step is to conquer America, one tiny club at a time, and to hopefully avoid any of those pesky assumptions that they’re trying to be the next U2.

ChartAttack managed to rouse Frames frontman Glen Hansard from a midday nap to ask about the current tour, the reasoning behind band members’ leave-takings and why Americans don't really tolerate Oasis.

U2 and Corrs duet for new film

U2's Bono and The Edge have performed a "haunting, romantic" duet with fellow Irish singer Andrea Corr for the soundtrack to a new movie by German director Wim Wenders.

The Corrs' lead singer said she was delighted to have performed the collaboration for the new film 'Don't Come Knocking'.

She said: "The Edge rang me and left a message to say that he and Bono had written a song for the Wim Wenders film but had realised they had written a duet and needed me to sing it.

"I was thrilled because I really am a big fan of Wenders' work.

"I flew out to Amsterdam while U2 were on tour and we recorded it there before their concert.

"It's a beautiful song. It's really romantic, quite heartbreaking.

"I haven't actually seen the film yet but I am really looking forward to it."

“We are to all intents and purposes a new band."

Five years ago JJ72 had the world at their feet. Along with Muse and Coldplay, they were being tipped as the forerunners of a new legion of anthemic, stadium rock for the new millennium.
But then, after numerous record company wrangles delaying the release of their second album ‘I To Sky’ and the likes of The Strokes and The Libertines being embraced like the little lost children of Benetton, JJ72 suddenly found themselves out of earshot and out of fashion.

Having lost original bass player Hillary Woods in 2003, founder members Mark Greaney and Fergal Matthews recruited Canadian bassist Sarah Fox (formerly of The Fangs) and set about writing songs for a third album. Since then, it has all been rather quiet but now they’re back, with a new single ‘Coming Home’ and their most extensive UK tour in three years.

“It feels great to be back!” exclaims an exuberant Fergal Matthews. “It’s just like starting from scratch all over again, rehearsing new versions of older songs. Now Sarah’s in the band we feel we can expand on those songs and ideas much further than we could previously.”

The dynamics of the music industry have changed dramatically since the band started out, not to mention the way “independent” guitar music is being marketed at the moment.

Two of Dolores's New Songs Leaked

Two of Dolores O'Riordan's as-yet unreleased songs leaked to the Internet today, titled "Letting Go" and "In Your Garden."

The first, "Letting Go," was posted anonymously to the Zombieguide Forums this morning, and the second, "In Your Garden," came this evening. The songs are labeled as demo versions and appear to come from a 5-track preview CD. "Letting Go" is the first track from that CD. "In Your Garden" is the fifth track.

With the verse "She’ll be with your father / And they will be one / In heaven, in heaven," the song "Letting Go" appears to inspired by the death of Dolores's mother-in-law in 2004. Mrs. Burton's illness was cited as one of the reasons for The Cranberries' hiatus in September of 2003.

A contrast to that slow piano ballad, "In Your Garden" is a yodel-infused piece with an upbeat electronic introduction that bursts in to full guitar mode for the chorus: "You can come here / you can cry / you can come here / you know why."

Of course this means that 3 more tracks could potentially leak soon, and if they do, you can bet Zombieguide will have the latest.

From The Zombieguide

Horslips stage glorious comeback

HORSLIPS, the legendary Celtic rockers from the 1970s, brought the house down in the Droichead Arts Centre this week.

Woohoo – the men who rode, horsemen-of-the-Apocalypse like through the dance halls of Ireland in the ’70s, did the business for one last time in Drogheda.

It was only the third time in 25 years they have played together.

They couldn’t escape it. The whoops of delight as the rockers hit the stage to thank fans at the opening of the art centre’s ‘History of Horslips’ exhibition meant they couldn’t leave without picking up their instruments for one last song.

The reluctant heroes gave an impromptu performance of ‘Furniture’ that thrilled the packed house. Local solicitor and ardent fan Paddy Goodwin, couldn’t quite believe his eyes. ‘They told me they wouldn’t play,’ said a stunned Paddy.

He is the main sponsor behind bringing the exhibition of Horslips memorabilia to Drogheda.

Stiff Little Fingers, Liquid Room, Edinburgh

Now well into his forties, Jake Burns, the only remaining original member of Stiff Little Fingers, retains the youthful vigour of a man half his age.

Despite a rather embarrassing line in baggy shirts (the kind usually modelled by darts players), Burns’s continuing enthusiasm for music stands in stark contrast to so many punk-era artists, who are content to roll out 30-year-old songs year after year just to earn a living.

This sense of urgency and freshness is all the more incredible in light of the fact that Stiff Little Fingers spend more time on the road than Burns does in his native Belfast sipping pints of Guinness and talking about the good old days. They tour as if record sales depend on it, but perhaps it is only their spry alter egos that demand such arduous toil.

When they bound onto the stage at the Liquid Room looking like a group of iron-jawed Irish poets, it is easy to understand why they are greeted with unbridled adulation by an audience ranging from teenagers to fiftysomething men and women in CBGB T-shirts. Time has chipped away at the feral passion fired by youthful indignation, but they still have punk rock running through their veins.

Aslan Also Rock Point

Local Dublin rock heroes have confirmed a live show at the Point in Dublin on December 27th. Rounding off a highly successful year for the band, which saw the troupe pick up a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Meteors.

Back on the write track, from Ireland to LA

THE second album is notoriously difficult. A musician or band have their whole life to come up with that scintillating debut and then suddenly they are expected to do it all over again.

Most artists talk down this syndrome, unwilling to look less than perfect to the media and the public, which makes Gemma Hayes' excited chatter refreshing. The 27-year-old Irish singer/songwriter has taken three years to come up with the follow-up to her Mercury-nominated debut, Night On My Side, but she is charmingly frank about the situation.

Saw Doctors Galway Hospice appeal

The Saw Doctors are seeking the help of Galway people to reach the United Kingdom Top 40 this Sunday 9 October.

The Tuam group have just released their new single, Stars Over Cloughanover, and will release their new album, The Cure, on 17 October.

The Docs are asking Galwegians to download the new song from Internet sites such as I-Tunes, www.woolworths.co.uk and www.karmadownload.com.

By doing so, the band has pledged to donate €1 to Galway hospice for each download this week. The cost of the download of Stars Over Cloughanover varies from 59 pence sterling to 89 pence.

The downloads from the music sites and from the HMV and Virgin websites will count towards the compilation of the UK top 40 on Sunday.

As well as the donation for the download, The Saw Doctors will contribute €1 to Galway Hospice this week in respect of all sales in the UK of the new single.

From The Galway Independent

The Frames

So there's this Irish band that forms while its members are still rosy-cheeked adolescents, signs to Island Records and begins recording smart, politically aware songs. But the year is 1993, not 1980 — U2 and the Cranberries have America's ears for Eire, thank you very much. The Frames, led by class-conscious songwriter Glen Hansard (whose face remains familiar, thanks to the classic 1992 movie The Commitments, in which he played guitarist Outspan Foster), stick it out anyway, shuffling labels and bass players, recording a couple of decent albums that hint at greatness in chrysalis. Then Steve Albini puts Hansard and his reduced crew in a Chicago studio and fusses not at all over effects, technology or even tuning. The band issues its first brilliant album, 2001's smoldering For the Birds, then ... cancels an American tour, endures another lineup shift and changes labels again. This year's furious Burn the Maps, another survey of ruined emotional and social architecture, is among 2005's best albums, but reports suggest that Hansard and his bandmates are even more riveting live. Enjoy this bizarro-world U2 while you can — two U.S. tours in more than a decade of making music don't bode well for future opportunities.

From The Pitch