And So I Watch You From Afar “And So I Watch You From Afar” (Smalltown America)
Bell X1 “Blue Lights On The Runway” (BellyUp)
Codes “Trees Dream in Algebra” (EMI)
Adrian Crowley “Season of the Sparks” (Chemikal Underground)
Dark Room Notes “We Love You Dark Matter” (Gonzo)
The Duckworth Lewis Method “The Duckworth Lewis Method” (1969/Divine Comedy Records)
Julie Feeney “Pages” (Mittens)
Valerie Francis “Slow Dynamo” (VF)
Laura Izibor “Let The Truth Be Told” (Atlantic)
The Swell Season “Strict Joy” (Plateau)

Our thoughts? Well, there’s no Best Of, so it’s already an award more worthy than any mobile-phone prize. Aside from that,  I can see this year’s ‘How the hell are they nominated’ ire turn to Bell X1 (‘The Defector’ alone should rule this LP out of any award, ever) and questions as to how the so-hot-right-now Hunter-Gatherer didn’t make the list.

Personally I thought David Kitt deserved at least a short list not and my big surprise is that Super Extra Bonus Party weren’t even in the final ten given that their second album Night Horses is by far better than their self-titled debut – which won the 2007 prize.

Richie Egan appeared on Ian Dempsey’s breakfast show last Friday where he played a great acoustic version of Graveyard – clicky here to listen.

State has put up its Choice Music Prize Podcast.

The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, acting and doing Bond themes clearly isn’t enough for Jack White who is now in another band as drummer- The Dead Weather also features Allison Mosshart (The Kills) on lead vocals, Dean Fertita (QOTSA) and Jack Lawrence (also of The Raconteurs). Check them out here.

Kill loads of time with this fun Daft Punk Keyboard.

Congrats again to Jape for winning the Choice Music Prize 2009.

Please support Blackout Week, which started yesterday – campaigning against IRMA’s plans to censor and block websites from Irish Internet users.

U2 had a busy week of promo for new album No Line On The Horizon (see what Joe thought of it); having New York’s 53rd St. renamed ‘U2 Way‘, performing a 5 night residency on Letterman, and ultimately securing the #1 spot in album charts the world over.

Oxegen looks amazing this year, with lots of additions to the lineup including Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction,Pet Shop Boys and more. Tickets are onsale as of now…

Still no word on the EP lineup, though we still reckon it’ll mirror a lot of Bestival.

BITS & BOBS

Bob Dylan will release a new album this year, sometime around April.

Indie royalty got a bit bitchy this week, with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyle doing an Oasis by having a dig at The Arcade Fire, calling them “pricks who treat their fans like shit“. Win Butler’s reply was a bit more reasoned; “I hope I was less of a “prick” then telling Rolling Stone that a bunch of people I don’t know at all are really assholes“.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Grizzly Bear albums have leaked online. We hear both are well worth a bit of a listen.

The Bernard Shaw is hosting a record fair on Sunday at 2pm, with the following sellers offering their goods: Bold Lump (deadly noise + drone selections) / Beatfinder Records / Choice Cuts, Mark Allton / John Mahon (Stereotonic) / Eoin Cregan (Pogo) / Tom Beary (12) / Da Wiseguy (Illicit Grooves) & more…

Fabchannel is shutting down. The online concert footage archive will disappear in 7 days time, so get watching while you can!

GIGS

Shoulda-been-a-Choice-nominee Ian Whitty is playing the Pavilion in Cork tonight.

In Dublin, there’s a fine noisy lineup of bands for tonight’s Ballroom of Romance in the Lower Deck, headlined by Action Beat (featuring no less than 9 guitars), while tomorrow Peter Bjorn & John are playing in the Button Factory.

Devo are going to play their 1978 classic Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo in it’s entirety, as part of  ATP ‘s Don’t Look Back series.

More additions for the excellent Primavera Sound in Barcelona:

Saint Etienne / Herman Dune / Liars / Jeremy Jay / Jesu / Rythm & Sound feat. Tikiman / Dead Meadow / DJ Yoda / DJ Rupture / La Bien Qerida / Los Punsetes / Tim Burgess DJ / Dr. Kiko / Daniel Devine / Meneo

New gig announcements from Neil Young, Anvil, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Telepathe, Black Lips, and  NASA,

ThrillPier is giving away tickets for the Ponytail & Adebisi Shank show in Whelans next week. It’s gonna be a good one!

Grizzly Bear performing While You Wait For The Others on KCRW:

The other nominees on the night were

Fight Like Apes “Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion” (Model Citizen)
Mick Flannery “White Lies” (EMI)
Halfset “Another Way of Being There” (Casino Gravity Records)
Lisa Hannigan “Sea Sew” (Own label)
David Holmes “The Holy Pictures” (Canderblinks)
Messiah J & The Expert “From The Word Go” (Inaudible)
Oppenheimer “Take The Whole Mid-Range And Boost It” (Fantastic Plastic)
R.S.A.G. “Organic Sampler” (Psychonavigation)
The Script “The Script” (Sony Music)

We’re pretty happy with the Choice, and the usual blogosphere anger directed at the Award will be less so this year I reckon!

This is an album that may not have made many critics’ lists for the Choice Prize (then again no one thought The Script would) but Caller No. 9 snuck onto mine from very much under the radar. The whole point of the Choice Prize is to champion Irish music, and the aim of this feature is to go a little further in discussing unheralded gems – with that in mind this album fits this purpose perfectly.

The biggest joy I get from blogging is the interaction, I love when people comment on this site and in turn I love engaging with a fellow blogger when they spark my interest. It wasn’t until our poll on the Best Irish Albums of ’08, and the subsequent and all too predictable comments over our omissions that I was introduced to Ian Whitty, picking up his album on the back of Donal and sweetoblivion’s recommendations.

After numerous listens it boggles the mind as to how Caller No. 9 hasn’t received more attention, especially considering how we as a nation seem obsessed with propelling singer-songwriters into superstardom. It’s an absolutely beautiful album from start to finish, Whitty’s lyrics climb into your brain and project a faded movie reel of imagery of love, dingy pubs, shipwrecks and hope. This is indie pop supreme.

Sonically it is striking without overwhelming the story told in each track, with strings and brass used in moderation to add depth to the tunes whilst lo-fi electronic flourishes such as on ‘Not On Your Side’ keep the approach original and interesting.
‘City Friend’ is one of my favourite opening tracks of ’08; driving beats with a jangly rhythm guitar all kept at a breathtaking pace with uplifting strings. ‘She Knocks Me Out’ is a beautiful storytelling ballad that shows up most current writers’ love songs for the vapid Hallmark tokenisms they really are.

Whitty’s lyrics are cutting and observant, and his weary take on the Celtic Tiger in ‘Bought & Sold’ grows more and more relevant with every emerging scandal in the news of late:

“And the bank it owns my future / Yeah it owns my politics / And if I should thrive at this 9 to 5 / It’ll own my house of bricks”

Caller No 9 should be an album that gets more recognition than it does. It’s understandable that this low profile album didn’t make the Choice list. What isn’t understandable is how this great LP has slipped by unnoticed. Donal and sweetoblivion, thanks for the feedback.

As always there’s been much debate over this year’s Choice Music Prize, with much of the heat aimed towards those responsible for throwing The Script into the mix and giving the Dublin 3-piece a nod ahead of other Irish acts.

Rather than vent our spleen and spit vitriol at the judges involved we hope, in a new feature* to praise those that didn’t make it into the Choice List this year and deserve a nod. Whether you like the nominees or not, the Choice Music Prize is about highlighting and talking about Irish music, and those not recognised this year will benefit more from bloggers talking about them rather than bitching about who got in. With that in mind here’s our first album, a fairly obvious choice given the reaction of the last week…

Adebisi Shank: This Is The Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank

Given that this was one of our ‘Have You Heard?’ features back in September, Adebisi Shank were always going to be Guess List hopefuls for a nomination. Adebisi Shank have generated a buzz because of their no nonsense approach (The album title has a certain Ronseal does-what-it-says-on-the-tin charm to it) and visceral sound.

Unashamedly math rock (Both the E.P. and album have graph paper covers?), angular riffs rule the day here but are backed up with an unrelenting drum and bass combo that are both visceral and disciplined.This album is instrumental throughout bar the distorted vocals of ‘You Me’, and you get the feeling that any vocals would have diminshed the overall power and impact of the album.

For the unyielding aural assault of TITAOABCAS it is at heart a strictly regimented affair – this album’s tight. Coming in at a lean 24 minutes Adebisi Shank say what they want with little indulgence. By the first time we got to see the Shank in The Whiskey in Cork, word had gotten round that this was a band to see. Packed into the tiny venue was a mixmatch of gig goers – shoegazers at the front jolting in a seizure like appreciation, hipsters at the back nursing a pint and all in between.

All had come for one reason – to see the emergence of a new act like no other on the Irish scene, and who have a debut as deserving on a place on any end of year list.

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(*Knowing this blog and our best made plans etc “we hope, in a new feature” means we hope we do this at least twice anyways)

…are the 10 acts who will compete for this year’s Choice Music Prize (List and links pinched from Jim’s blog). It was a strong year for Irish music and the news will no doubt be met with several ‘I can’t believe…’ statements across the island – what were your surprises?

To be honest there are some strong contenders that didn’t make the list – Adebisi Shank, Heathers and Ham Sandwich being just some names that were much touted yet never nominated.

Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin…

According to Jim the prize, won last year by Super Extra Bonus Party, will be awarded on March 4 at a live show in Vicar St. The shortlist of 10 albums will be announced on Wednesday January 14.

Poll after the jump.

[poll id="3"]

Your thoughts? No doubt we’ve forgotten someone!