Big night for the Dundalk music scene! Tickets are still onsale till the end of tonight at €45 and well, I’ll let the hosts describe the rest for you.

Just giving you all an update of how we are progressing on the Dundalk Music Awards. The public voting website is up and running at www.dundalkvotes.com. Instructions on how to vote are detailed on the website. Voting closes 6th October at 1pm so make sure you vote for your favourites before then. The judges for the panel vote categories are busy working away. We’d like to thank our five judges Dermot Lambert (Garageland), Phil Udell (editor of State magazine), Alan Corr (journalist for RTE Guide), Will Ryan (Music Manager), Vic Bronzini-Fulton (Audio Ill Record label) for taking the time to judge our panel vote categories which include Best Song, Best EP/Single, Best Album and Best Video.

A limited number of tickets are on sale in the Spirit Store for the awards night on 10th October in the Library Suite, Fairways Hotel. They are priced at 45 euro. This includes a champagne reception, 4 course meal, awards ceremony and disco with the fantastic DJ Slint. Dress code is Black Tie and admission is strictly over 18’s. Our friends the Saturday Night Concept Live will be hosting the night and we will also have a few guest presenters for certain award categories.

So what are you waiting for get out and buy your ticket. Dont miss your chance to attend this inaugral event happening in Dundalk. The first ever Awards ceremony to celebrate the musical talent in the area.

The Dublin Music Scene: As Stereotyped and Unattractive as this Picture.

A friend of ours from a local Dundalk band asked if we would print this article he submitted to online magazine “Highway 67″ http://www.highway67.net and we were happy to oblige. At TLP we support journalistic whorage of all forms. Enjoy!

Music Scenes: Dublin and Dundalk.

By Neil Dooley

There are of course honest innocent bands that I risk unjustly harming with my rather large and sweeping attacks, but on the whole there seems to be a toxic attitude of passivity enveloping the original music scene in our capital. Unlike Dundalk, young bands appear to intricately model themselves on their fellow artists, resulting in a swarm of faux Coronas, Blizzards and Kinetics, in many cases (seriously) sporting fake English regional accents. It’s hard to understand this terrible lack of inspiration and initiative when you consider all that Dublin bands have available to them. Great venues like Crawdaddy, Whelans and The Village, along with the phenomenal Phantom FM, leave no shortage of potential for something exciting to happen. Instead the most boring form of conformity imaginable, Dublin’s brand of “diet indie“, is everywhere, a watered down version of Babyshambles’ watered down version of The Clash, dominating radio playlists, Hotpress, ahem “article” space, and cross city music venues listings.

Blind Pilots @ Spirit Store

In a shortlist of ten venues nationwide, Dundalks phenomenal Spirit Store finds itself side by side with Crawdaddy, Tripod and Whelans in contention for this pretty amazing and overdue recognition.

Tiny Little Pieces wishes to endorse The Spirit Store, both as regular attendees of the frequently marvellous gigs that take place almost every night there, and as one or two of the staff members assure this writer, as musicians who have played there, claiming, and i quote: “We’ve played some of our best gigs in The Spirit Store. The sound is always perfect, the audience and atmosphere are unrivalled in any of the venues we’ve played at anywhere.”

The Spirit Store can also be said to be the epicentre of the growing North East music scene, a favourite haunt of Heritage Centre, Blind Pilots, The Flaws, Ham Sandwich, Second Nature and The Evil Harrissons. A cursory glance at any of these young acts is testament to the venue, which of course is also known for having Cathy Davey, Gemma Hayes, That Petrol Emotion and Boss Volenti over to play now and again.

Simply, a stunning venue, with a far greater respect for quality control than many of its Dublin fellow nominees.

Vote here: http://www.hotpress.com/vote/vote.php?id=4821512&action=view . Of course as this is hotpress you have to register an account, an act of pointless frivolity synnonomus with the magazine itself, read through lots of irrelevant and uninteresting bullshit before you can actually cast your vote but surely we’ve come to expect it from these guys at this stage. To their credit I didn’t notice any vomit inducing puns on this occasion.

witness some of the great nights at Georges Quay here:

Gemma Hayes:

Second Nature:

That Petrol Emotion:

A Tiny Little Pieces Staff Member Working a Job That is Slowly Killing Them

Recession in summertime bestowed the metaphysical entity Tiny Little Pieces with a life of sorts. Semi regular updates, a semi unemployed real job to provide ample writing time, a saturated schedule of events and musical plastic discs to review, the staff at TLP appeared to be on the verge of following through with the potential of the afforementioned “online professional criticism shack”, as it is best and often lovingly described as.

 However the recession with all its fruitful promises of plenty ironically turned to a sour phyrric victory. The semi unemployed job, (much resembling the manner in which conception occurs after a little too much wine), that haphazardly allowed this little mixed blessing to be born, ultimately led to its sad demise.

Suddenly the staff got poor, and were forced to find new jobs with proper 9-5 hours, monday to friday. This employee quickly learned of how fucking depressing the world is. Of how we will work 9-5, monday to friday (together with at least 2 hours travelling time) till we are 75, when we will probably die.

 This is particularly sad as it leaves little time for recreational amatuer reviews of musical goods and services.

 But there is hope! On a final sortee from the real world to the mythical realm of undergraduate college, perhaps time will be made for the occasional article.

 otherwise we will make sure to upload an academic essay which we have written already for college.

In the mean time please enjoy a video that both captures the mood of Tiny Little Pieces summer, and our future.

Supporting the intense Fighting with Wire, Artificial Flight were somewhat of a contrast. Opening with Keyboard player Jen Finnegan solo on the lo-fi track “The Fóhn”, we were unsure of what to expect. By the second song however, greeted by the sound of the full band, the sound is distinct. Haunting melodies flow through layered melancholic keys and telecaster, backed up by a subtle and understated yet incredibly effective rhythm section. Singer Gary J Conlon informs us that this is the first gig Artificial Flight have played in two years, working quietly behind the scenes instead to perfect and refine their sound. The hard work has clearly paid off and tonight’s gig sees Artificial flight take the best parts of Interpol, Radiohead and Snow Patrol (yes even they have “best bits”) and make it very much so their own. Insert “nothing artificial about them” crap joke here.

 Second Nature are what you get if you mix U2, Jimmy Eat World and Muse all together. And for some reason the result is good. Very good actually. Supporting Take The Money And Run for logistical reasons (they had been originally billed as headliners), Second Nature got the night off to a powerful start. Epic melodic vocals (apologies to anyone reading who realises the pun in this sentence) mesh with heavy almost metal guitar, confident bass and quirky innovative drumming. Songs like “One Step Forward” and “I Tried” were clear highlights and also served to illustrate the acts anthemic ambitions. The opus “Love Song”, seven minutes of contrasting distorted 7/8 guitar with quiet clean arpeggios bring an enormous performance to a suitable finish. A band to look out for.

http://www.bebo.com/secondnatureireland

Time is a difficult concept to apprehend. We understand the basics. Living things are born, they get older and they die. Seasons change, night changes into day. Time is synnonomous with change and for the individual, this is usually for the worse, i.e: grey hair, melty looking faces, old man jackets etc. Indeed, it may be argued that the term “timeless” is a meaningless one, surely, rationality tells us that everything is affected by time.

May 25th 2008 shattered my preconceived notions on the nature of time. An artist who played his first gigs in 1969 cannot sound this good. Clearly rationality must be dismissed as an illusion as Bruce Springsteen launches into “No Surrender” with as much energy defiance and sheer unadulterated power as when i first heard it on Born in the USA. Springsteen is providing the audiences sensory perception with undeniable proof he has defied time.

Timelessness becomes the key word for understanding the simply unbelievable phenomena manifolding on the stage of the RDS. Radio Nowhere sounds as damn good as anything from Springteens hey-day, we think. By the time we’ve heard “Livin’ in the Future”, “Atlantic City”, “spirit in the night” and “The Rising”, a set spanning decades, the need to reevaluate becomes clear. The Boss has not had a heyday. Or more accurately, if he has its lasted a good thirty years. The explosive energy of the man himself is met and raised by that of the leviathan which is the E-Street band, and with this combination we get the feeling if it fell into the wrong hands could be very very dangerous.

The final date of Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street bands tenure at Dublin’s RDS incorporated as mentioned a set list spanning the entirety of Springsteen’s career.  “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” sounded as vital and emotive as ever, Patti Smith collaborated anthem “Because the Night” floored the RDS, and clearly hearing “Dancing in the Dark”, “Glory Days” and “Born to Run” direct from Springsteen’s trademark Telecaster are experiences which defy description.

Immersing himself in the audience, sliding on his knees across the stage, numerous sprints and erm, crotch presentations to the crowd are not typical of your average 58 man. But we will not waste time remarking on this, clearly age is never something which has or will apply to Springsteen, what is amazing is how much the man appears to be enjoying himself. Wry smiles, jokes about his teenage children selling his clothes on E-bay and banter with Stevie Von Zandt all appear so naturally warm and endearing, his enthusiasm and enjoyment are impossible to resist.

By the end of the night we finally understand. Everything changes, that’s a fact. But maybe we need something constant, something eternal to give us all something to hold on to. This is Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. As vibrant as ever, the songs as timelessly epic as ever old and new, we realise there are somethings time doesn’t touch. And for that, it ain’t no sin to be glad we’re alive.

As Cathy Davey opens her set with the glorious “Harmony”, we are struck by a few things. Firstly, we are witnessing surely one of the best artists making music in Ireland at the minute. A quirky unique and yet unmistakably powerful voice, a solid innovative band blasting brilliant blues and southern stomp pop rock from their Fender De ville amps (*inhales sharply*), all provide the audience with a delectable example of serious yet sparkly pop.

Unfortunately we are struck by two other things. The modestly sized Táin Theatres intimate capcity is accentuated as it is filled by merely a handful of an essentially non responsive quiet, decidedly relaxed audience. The second thing which strikes us is that Miss Davey is not too happy about this. What follows is a slight dissappointment as Cathy fails to attempt to engage with the audience, the show takes on a regrettable atmosphere of passivity.This is confirmed by an unexpectedly short set and a no nonsense through the motions single song encore.

Perhaps the problems of this gig can all be put down to lack of exposure. The performance deserved a far greater attendance than it received, but this is unsurprising when there was practically no mention of it around Dundalk anywhere. However this review would hasten to be so parsimonious. The best gigs are often the small and intimate ones. Interaction with the audience is maximized, shared experience heightened, all in all an increased personal experience. At times the unquestionably brilliant music that night was let down by a clinical and impersonal delivery. Maybe Cathy Davey simply failed to embrace this gigs intimacy.

Could this gig be saved? Remarkably yes. Tracks from last years stellar “Tales of Silversleeve” and 2004′s “Something Ilk” sound better than ever, unquestionable highlights being, predictably (yet no less excitingly) current album gem “sing for your supper”, an untitled mandolin drenched newbie and a somewhat reworked “Mr. Kill”. Onslaughts of trans-band percussion and a veritable choir of vocals scattered Cathy’ set with moments of brilliance. The music is solid and after all, thats what we all came for.