One of the most exciting new bands around at the moment, Belfast’s Girls Names profile continues to rise and rise.

They’ve been described as hot shit, featured on Pitchfork, and they’ve just sold out another run of their second 12” release -You Should Know By Now on Tough Love records.

They’re currently off touring the UK (having played a great gig supporting Dum Dum Girls the other night) – it looks like the 3 piece will have a busy summer ahead.

Here’s one of the highlights:

It’s been 10 years since The Soft Bulletin saw The Flaming Lips evolve from the fearless freaks of the underground to become globally acclaimed pop-wierdo icons; and that journey has seen their songwriting take a background to lasers, balloons, confetti, UFOs and general playful gimmickry. Their 2006 release At War With The Mystics was fun, but ultimately a forgettable experience that offered little more than an excuse to take the celebratory circus of their live show around the world.

Pre-release feedback of Embryonic has been mixed, with long time fans declaring that other than Wayne Coyle’s distinctive voice; it sounds nothing like The Flaming Lips;which is good news considering the lacklustre stuff they’ve been doing since the amazing Yoshimi. There’s something a lot more dramatic and interesting unfolding in these new songs; a vintage B-movie psych feel, 60′s garage basslines and weird bleeps and hisses reminiscent of their early work…

As with any double album, there’s the danger doing a “Mellon Collie“; creating a bloated beast where the good material is smothered by filler. It’ll be interesting to see if The Flaming Lips follow through on these promising tracks and go about reinventing themselves; or succumb to double album syndrome – we’ll have to wait until September to find out.

The Flaming Lips – Silver Trembling Hands

The Flaming Lips – Convinced by the Hex

The full schedule for next weekend’s Indiependence Festival is now online – check the festival’s webpage for the full line up.

Now onto this week’s competition and this week’s question!

Which beer brand sponsors Indiependence?

Competition is now closed.

To win one of the two pairs of weekend camping tickets up for grabs this week email theguesslist[at]gmail[dot]com with ‘Indiependence Giveaway #4‘ (please note the number) as the subject line and be sure to include your answer, name and address.

This week’s competition closes at 9m tomorrow, Saturday July 25 and two winners will be drawn at random from all correct entries. The Competition is open to over-18’s only, judges’ decision is final and winners will be notified by email. Good luck!

Good news for organisers and punters alike – Indiependence has secured an on-location campsite for the duration of the festival this August bank holiday weekend.

This week the festival organisers announced that they will not charge any extra for the campsite. Anyone with a €59 weekend ticket purchased from ticketmaster, even where these tickets state “weekend non-camping” will be given access to the campsite. The site is adjacent to the festival arena and car parking facilities are less than 5 minutes walk away.

All €59 weekend tickets purchased from ticketmaster will allow access to the campsite. Any festival goers who bought €39 day or special offer early bird tickets will be able to access the campsite by paying a supplement on arrival at the site.

Now onto this week’s competition and this week’s question!

Which Indiependence headliners recently released the album ‘Dark Days/Light Years’?

Competition is now closed.

To win one of the two pairs of tickets up for grabs this week email theguesslist[at]gmail[dot]com with ‘Indiependence Giveaway 3‘ (please note the number) as the subject line and be sure to include your answer, name and address.

This week’s competition closes at 9am next Thursday, July 23 and two winners will be drawn at random from all correct entries. The Competition is open to over-18’s only, judges’ decision is final and winners will be notified by email. Good luck!

And remember, we still have 2 pairs of tickets to giveaway to followers of @guesslist on twitter. Watch out for your cue to win – we will give the first cue to win at some stage over the next 7 days…

First and foremost congratulations to our first week’s winners Joe and Fiona!

We’re giving away another two pairs of tickets this week, details are below.

As Indiependence does not have an official festival campsite itself, a number of private groups have stepped up to offer accommodation for punters over the August Bank Holiday Weekend.

TO Park is a privately run new camp site that will accommodate 300 festival goers over the August bank holiday weekend. The site encompasses some proper flushing toilets, breakfasts in the mornings and a free shuttle bus daily and at night to and from the festival site located just 4 miles away. The cost of weekend camping at TO Park is €20 per person with your festival ticket.

To book your camping place at TO Park, just contact Ballyhoura Development on O63 913OO or e-mail your details to info[at]ballyhoura[dot]org. All you need is the number on the back of your festival ticket and your credit card or laser details, your credit card and laser will just be used to hold your spot as you will pay on arrival at TO Park. The site will open at 6pm on Friday July 31st and close at 6pm on Monday August 3rd.

Meanwhile, the four star Charleville Park Hotel is located just 30 minutes from the Indiependance festival site and they are offering a special festival offer for the weekend. For just €90 per person sharing, you will get two nights Bed & Breakfast with access to the leisure centre and spa facilities. The hotel will also be providing a free bus service daily to and from the festival. Contact Charleville Park Hotel on O63 816OO for details or log onto charlevilleparkhotel.com – please quote your festival ticket number when booking.

Now onto this week’s competition and this week’s question!

“Which famous Cork venue has a stage named in its honour at Indiependence?”

To win one of the two pairs of tickets up for grabs this week email theguesslist[at]gmail[dot]com with ‘Indiependence Giveaway 2‘ (please note the number) as the subject line and be sure to include your answer, name and address.

This week’s competition closes at 9am next Thursday, July 16 and two winners will be drawn at random from all correct entries. The Competition is open to over-18’s only, judges’ decision is final and winners will be notified by email. Good luck!

And remember, we still have 2 pairs of tickets to giveaway to followers of @guesslist on twitter. Watch out for your cue to win…

* Competition is now closed and winners have being notified. Thanks to all our entrants! *

Summer’s well and truly here and that, of course means music festivals. While a plethora of events will be vying for you attention this year, few can claim to have as much bang for your buck as the Indiependence Festival taking place over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

From its humble origins as a free open air town event to an award winning showcase for the very best in emerging Irish talent, 2009 sees Indiependence take to a new green field site on the outskirts of Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, complete with three stages, the Bavaria Stage, the Cyprus Avenue Arena  and The Red Bull Village all packed to the brim with must-see acts including Super Furry Animals, Ocean Colour Scene, Fight Like Apes, Delorentos, The Blizzards, RSAG, Fred, The Frank & Walters, Villagers and many many more.

Mitchelstown will be the epicenter of a party on the August weekend, with all bars in the town granted a bar extension to keep the festivities rolling into the small hours.

The ethos of the festival has always been to promote good music and provide value for money for the punter. With this in mind two-day weekend tickets for Indiependence cost just €59, while day passes cost €39.

With thanks to Shane and the gang at Indiependence, Guesslist has 10 pairs of weekend tickets to give away between now and July 24. Starting today we will have weekly giveaways every Friday on the blog to win one of two pairs of tickets. Meanwhile, over on our twitter account (@guesslist) we will invite Twitter followers to stake their claim to one of two pairs sometime over the next four weeks.

To get things rolling here’s this week’s easy question:

In what town is Indiependence held every year?

To win one of the two pairs of tickets up for grabs this week email theguesslist@gmail.com with ‘Indiependence Giveaway‘ as the subject line and be sure to include your answer, name and address. This week’s competition closes at 9am next Thursday, July 9 and two winners will be drawn at random from all correct entries. The Competition is open to over-18′s only, judges’ decision is final and winners will be notified by email. Good luck!

More information on indiependencefestival.com | Event page on last.fm

Since I stumbled across their Myspace a few weeks ago, I’ve become rather smitten with The Parking Lot Experiments – a collective of Aussie kids who’ve been making a name for themselves around Melbourne from playing house parties and garden festivals.

Their name references The Flaming Lips Zaaikera-era sonic trickery; the influence of which you can also hear in their music, which shares elements with indie cornerstones such as the Flips and Broken Social Scene; a folky psychedelic pop sound with lots of drums and trumpets thrown on top for good measure.

The Parking Lot Experiments – Please Don’t Be Mad

Their playfulness and enthusiasm both on and off the stage has earned them a strong local following and approval from the likes of Dan Deacon, despite having no releases other than a CD-R of home demos and a bunch of Youtube snippets. Expect to hear more from them in the future!

Some of my favourite music of the year so far – a nice mellow(ish) collection of tunes. Hope you enjoy ‘em!

Luckily tonight’s particular dilemma has been avoided thanks to some clever promoter arranging, with These Arms are Snakes, Russian Circles and Bats playing early in ALT, and then the blistering art rock of volcano!, who are doing a late show in the upstairs of Whelans. Details and excitement after the jump…

The U:mack triple billing in ALT looks like this:

8.15-8.50 BATS
9.15-10.00 RUSSIAN CIRCLES
10.15-11.00 THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES

Tickets are €17.50 and will be available on the door.

The volcano! show upstairs in Whelans starts afterwards:

11.30 DOORS (no support)
12.00 VOLCANO!

Tickets are available for €10.

The first gig looks like a great array of post hardcore/rock type riffage; especially the metal leanings of Russian Circles (recommended for fans of Isis and Pelican) and the always impressive Bats (debut album in 2009, horray) which should make for a fine loud evening!

Russian Circles – Horse

These Arms Are Snakes – Red Line Season

We’re especially excited seeing the debut Irish show of volcano!; who seriously impressed back in 2005 with their debut album Beautiful Seizure, an amazingly chaotic mix of soaring vocal acrobatics and brittle, punishing guitars; all played out over meandering free-style rhythms. My first impressions visualised a reanimated Jeff Buckley; fronting a jazzy version of Shellac. The album is trademarked by tender and epic moments sporadically erupting into brutal and grating barrages of noise, constantly toying with the listener (lend an ear to Fire Fire on their myspace).

volcano!’s latest album Paperwork was released in September to good reviews, and while the same dynamics are present; the songs aren’t quite as captivating as on it’s predecessor. Less chaotic; the instruments are reigned in slightly, making more room for the vocals of frontman Aaron With.

Guess List is hoping some similar scheduling miracles can happen on November 27th (Beach House vs Foals) and on December 3rd (Mastodon vs A Place To Bury Strangers)!

Myspace Music is already estimated at being worth about $2bn, with plans to sell ringtones and concert tickets on top of music downloads. It’s quite a big deal for the The News Corp-owned website, which built its reputation as a ‘place for friends’ where bands both big and small could share their songs with the world.

Now indie labels are claiming that they’ve been blocked from uploading their artist’s songs to the online store, and complaining that the technology used is biased in favour of major label material.

The issue centres around Audible Magic; the technology used to control the database of music in the store, which sees conflict where major and indie labels own rights to the same artist in different parts of the world (as is often the case, for example an indie label might own UK rights but the major owns the US rights).

As the majors have already signed deals with Myspace / News Corp they have secured the rights for their artists on a global basis – leading to these territorial rights claims. As of now Myspace has not arranged any such deals with the indie labels; who are finding some of their music blocked and are crying foul to Audible Magic.

Concerns are also being raised of the major’s stake in Myspace and whether this constitutes an illegal advantage over industry competitors. A spokesperson for Myspace has refuted these claims, saying:

“We are not aware of any antitrust complaint or inquiry pending against either MySpace or MySpace Music. MySpace Music welcomes indie artists and is not blocking content from them or other labels. Our goal is to provide the indie community with powerful tools and monetization channels to enable them to access revenue streams previously unavailable.”

Since the peak of it’s popularity in 2006, Myspace has lost a lot of ground to Facebook, which claimed the social networking crown in April of this year (stats). Since then, the site has finally gone about overhauling itself; ditching it’s rather ugly interface and started to reposition itself as more of a social network with all the apps and adverts of its rivals.

With over 106 million member accounts, Myspace is still a vital tool for bands to share their music and promote themselves online – but with big bucks at stake in the new Myspace Music store, its indie-friendly ways may be set to become a thing of the past.

What do you think, is this the end of Myspace as a friend of the little guy? Or just a hiccup on the road to a bigger and better platform for sharing and discovering new music?

More info >
http://music.myspace.com/