The Dublin Community Blog

We in Dublin had our fair share of festivals this year already – the Dublin Writer’s Festival, the Dublin Soul Festival and the Latin America Festival to just name a few – but we’re not done yet. Which is a fact I very much appreciate. So, without further ado, here are my favourite festival picks for the upcoming months:

Image by Absolut Fringe

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Remember the friendly guys from Friend?, one of the first bands we featured in the Discovered in Dublin-series? The 5-piece has intensively toured in the last year, and has also secured a deal with local label Eleven:Eleven. And they are playing in Whelan’s this week. On Thursday, to be more precise. Together with two other Alternative/Rock bands from the North, Kasper Rosa and Axis Of.

So, if you are interested in getting a glimpse of the next generation of Irish alternative hopes from both sides of the border, why not head to Wexford Street on Wednesday – even to celebrate the German win over Spain after the game on Wednesday. To whet your appetite, here are Axis OF with the video for their new single “Port Na Spaniagh”:

In my opinion, one of the most interesting events that is currently happening in Dublin city is this monthly themed night of music, spoken word and performance: The Brown Bread Mixtape. Happening upstairs at the Stag’s Head is an evening full of great entertainment, prose, poems, song, laughter, fun and the odd Swedish pop song. MC’s, chief organisators and jacks-of-all-trades Kalle and Enda present a hand-picked array of artists, and are spicing it up with their own performances in between.

Dublinblog sent some questions their way, and here’s what the two main men had to say:

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Big thanks to Declan for letting us know about a gig happening in The Button Factory this Friday night to benefit relief efforts in Haiti. Attention Bebe and Mob Fandango headline the show and The Button Factory have offered their venue for free so that all proceeds can go to Partners in Health in their efforts to bring relief and humanitarian aid to the people of Haiti. CLICK HERE to see the Facebook event page. Tickets are €10 at the door.

Sending Letters to the Sea were already introduced in Brandon’s recent post; but I’d like to use the opportunity to feature the two ladies and four gentlemen in this month’s Discovered in Dublin. After a successfull release-show in St. Columba’s Church in Swords last week (were some of the material for the debut album were recorded), Dublinblog spoke to main main and initiator Mark Garry about future plans for the project and the reason to merge visual art and music in this band/collaboration.

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I have to confess that I completely nicked this off the good people over at culch.ie, but this is so incredibly good it has to be reposted. Visual artist Eoghan Kidney’s video for Underworld vs Mark Knight and D.Ramirez, played “on” Liberty Hall. Could someone please convince Dublin Tourism to make this the official video representing our city?

This morning, as I was getting some work done, my attention was drawn to the MySpace page of a collaborative music project assembled by Mark Garry called Sending Letters to the Sea. As I let the music play in the background, I found it very relaxing and yet interesting enough that it actually began to distract me. It doesn’t seem to have any pretenses of being an ambitious hot new act in Dublin. Instead, one gets the sense that this is a collective of artists who merely wanted to get together to express their creativity, and in the process had a lot of fun and (maybe accidentally?) created something rather special. Be sure to have a listen for yourself and tell us what you think.

Letters to the Sea will be releasing their first album and performing on the 19th of this month at St. Columba’s Church in Swords, where much of the album was recorded. After having a listen to the tracks on their MySpace page, I have a feeling that there will be no better place to experience this music than inside the walls of an old stone church.

And if you are still looking for something to do at the weekend we recommend the 2009 edition of the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival. But to be honest, you must have been deaf & blind if you did not hear anything about it yet – mega mega mega.

(image via)

Hard Working Class Heroes is 7 years old this year. 7 years building what is now a staple in the Irish music calendar. A festival of newness, 100 bands, 6 venues, 3 nights.

In one weekend, in six venues you can see the 100 best new acts in Ireland. We know they’re the best because we have 35 experts from Ireland and around the globe helping us to pick them. Not only are they good but they are very different from each other and come from all over the country. Diamonds who have played previous HWCH include Heathers, The Lost Brothers, Jape, Adrian Crowley, Duke Special, Fight Like Apes, The Coronas and a lot lot more.

I am not even trying to give an overview of what’s happening where and when, please see for yourselves. The acts I am going to see however include Dublinblog darlings The Spook of the 13th Lock, C!ties – which have recently opened for the incredible And So I Watch You From Afar, Fionn Regan and of course the lovely Ham Sandwich . And there’s also a street performance initiative called “HWCH and the city”, featuring acts who are performing at the festival playing on the streets, record stores and bookshops all over Dublin city centre, so don’t forget to mark your calendars.

The gigs will all take place during the day, so if you’re lucky you’ll be able to see some of the bands playing plugged at night doing an accoustic-stunt in daylight hours. To know who’s playing where you’ll need to follow the festival on Twitter.

See you around.

Almost October, but still time to squeeze in the September-”issue” of Discovered in Dublin. And this time we are featuring a young lady whose hypnotic sounds are quite fitting for the upcoming autumn season – and who likes knitting. Abigail Smith is a singer/songwriter hailing from Dublin, has played the Electric Picnic in 2008 and has recently released her debut album  “Night Time Walking”. And she’s also the sister of Dublinblog’s very own Roseanne.

Without further ado, here’s what Abigail has to say:

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The August installment of Discovered in Dublin bears a more sombre tone than the previous articles. This time we are featuring an upcoming folk band, if you wanna call it like this. The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock are weaving rock sounds and traditional influences together into what the Evening Herald calls “haunted, rabble rousing folk” – I’d call it folkrock with a dark twist. Quite fittingly for a band who calls themselves after a haunted canal lock. After releasing their self-titled debut in 2008, the band played a tour in Japan in the beginning of this year and has played together with New York’s O’Death in Whelan’s recently. Dublinblog spoke to band-mastermind Allen Blighe.

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