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Supermodel Twins has revealed that the name of their new album due for release this September 24 will be ‘Rain cloud free’. A promo video for ‘One step behind’ was put together by Shane Serrano shot at the Special Olympics Opening Ceremony at Thomond Park in June.

The Rubberbandits have uploaded their new video, ‘Wiliie O’Dea’ Filmed and edited by Dryad’s Saddle on location in Shannon.

Jesca Hoop playing tracks from her debut album Hunting My Dress at Other Voices 8

South Wind Blows Productions have announced that the eighth series of acclaimed music programme Other Voices will begin its weekly broadcast on RTE 2 from Wednesday February 3rd. The recordings for this year’s series took place in St. James’ Church in Dingle, Co. Kerry in early December and those lucky enough to bag a much coveted ticket were treated to a myriad of intimate performances from some of the biggest names in music including Snow Patrol, The xx, Richard Hawley, Suede front man Brett Anderson, Mercury Music prize winner Speech Debelle, Temper Trap and Imelda May. The line-up for each show is:

Wednesday 3rd February                        
Snow Patrol                                                                     
Speech Debelle                                                        
Adrian Crowley                   
IMRO Other Room – Low Mountain

Wednesday 10th February
Imelda May
The Lost Brothers
The xx
IMRO Other Room – O Emperor

Wednesday 17th February
Florence & the Machine                         
Brett Anderson                      
The Antlers       
IMRO Other Room – Valerie Francis         

Wednesday 24th February
Bell X1
Megafaun
Jesca Hoop
IMRO Other Room – The Chakras

Wednesday 3rd March
Temper Trap                                
Magic Numbers                
Fionn Reagan                                       
Lisa Hannigan                            
IMRO Other Room – 202s

Wednesday 10th March  
IMRO Other Room – James Vincent McMorrow
Richard Hawley
The Brothers Movement
Villagers

The debut EP from The Rubberbandits is available now. Titled ‘ DRAWING PICTURES OF EACH OTHER SMOKING FAGS’, it draws from both aspects of their adventure so far with live favorites, Bag of Glue, Up Da Ra, Pure Awkward and Antney’s Eye interspersed with phone prank classics The Wasp, The Bank and The Psychotherapist. Its available from Empire Music for 10euro. If you missed their Christmas gig, Paul Tarpey has witten an excellent review on the Cheebah blog here

TG4′s new music series Ceol ar an Imeall starts off this Thursday Jan 14th for 10 episodes with an interview with this year’s Mercury Prize winner Speech Debelle. Julian Casablancas, Grizzly Bear, The XX, Passion Pit, Delorentos, Marina and the Diamonds well as Adrian Crowley, Heathers, Delorentos, Channel One and Bitches With Wolves are due to appear. The series is fronted by Sunday Tribune journalist and music critic Una Mullally. The show is broadcast every Thursday at 23.45pm on TG4. The promo for the show is is available here.

Ceol Ar An Imeall promo from Ceol Ar An Imeall on Vimeo.

From prank phone-calls to packed arenas at the Electric Picnic to opening up for Ice Cube, the Rubber Bandits have emerged as the country’s surrealists beyond compare. The Rubberbandits Magic Christmas Mystery Tour is now the hottest ticket in Limerick this year. It’s a limited capacity gig at a secret?? location on Monday 28th December 2009, buses will leave the city from 8pm. Tickets are priced €20 + €1 booking fee from Empire Music, limited to 5 per person, when they’re gone, they’re gone. Check out their new video for Bags of Glue filmed by Shane Serrano here

RTE’s Band From School takes Irish bands and artists back to revisit their old school they attended as kids. Giveamanakick’s Steve Ryan and Keith Lawler return to Ardscoil Ris in Limerick, where they perform Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark with school band,  ‘Better than you’. They meet the the current crop of students, reminisce about their own school days, the teachers that inspired them, the mischief they got up to and relive the experiences in school that inspired their earlier music. Produced by Rival Productions, it is a fun show with teachers and band hamming it up for the cameras but also a quiet poignant one as the band embark on their final tour in the coming weeks.

Watch the show here or enjoy the band’s video for Spring Break below

Final tour dates for GAMAK
Sat 7th Nov: Electric Avenue Waterford
Sat 14th Nov: Cyprus Avenue, Cork
Fri 20th Nov: Whelans, Dublin
Sat 28th Nov: Roisin Dubh, Galway
Fri 18th Dec: Dolans Warehouse, Limerick

Limerick’s echoshell (namely Kieran Calvert and Al Sheahan) have been combining their original music and film to create innovative atmospheric landscapes with very beautiful results. This is a release called “jane song” which features in the opening credits of a new Irish/English movie called “Spiderhole” written and directed by Daniel Simpson which was screened at The Dingle Film Festival in September.

You can check out the trailer on spiderhole.com

Bela Fleck and The Flecktones @ UCH Limerick Tuesday 3rd November 2009. Multiple Grammy Award winning Bela Fleck is probably the best banjo player in the world. While still in high school he began experimenting with playing bebop jazz on his banjo, released his first solo album, Crossing the Tracks in 1980 and formed the genre-busting Flecktones, with members equally talented and adventurous as himself in 1989. Featured below is a live take of The Sinister Minister (PART ONE) Recorded on July 4th 1998 at the Spectrum de Montreal during the Jazz Club du Maurier series of the 19th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. The Limerick show starts at 8pm and tickets are €27.50.

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble @ Trinity Rooms Sunday 25th October 2009. The Chicago based 9-piece brass/jazz band hit Limerick this Sunday as part of their tour to promote their new album on the “Honest Jon’s” label. Featuring 8 brothers, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble started out as a busking street band and have since recorded with Erykah Badu and Mos Def. This “must see” show starts at 7.30pm in Trinity Rooms Clubhouse. For a flavour of what to expect check out the track “War” below and read Paul Tarpey’s excellent review of last years HBE gig on the Cheebah blog here.