www.musiclimerick.com

Shortlisted for The XFM New Music Award and now also one of 10 nominees for The Choice Music award for their eponymously titled debut album, And So I Watch You From Afar, hail from Belfast and have been playing together for the last four years. Rory “The Chip” Friers and Tony “The Grounded Pounder” Wright on guitars, Jonathan “The Bearded Dragon” Adger on bass and Chris “The Bigs” Wee on drums released this monster in April 2009. From the album opener ‘Set Guitars to Kill’, this is ferocious stuff, layers and layers of noise and melody. To these ears this is the most thrilling racket to come out of the north since first hearing Therapy? play ‘Meat Abstract’. As a live show this will be mindblowing and it’s coming to Limerick on Thursday 11th Feb with guests Maslow and Hope is Noise. Their motto: “We are the bull, you are the china shop” . Their new EP, ‘Letters’ will be released on 08/02/10 featuring ‘S Is For Salamander’. See them play ‘Set Guitars to Kill’ here on the blog limerickpost.ie/music

The race is now on to find the Meteor Awards most promising New Artist 2010, at this point in the competition the public vote will decide which acts/bands progress to the next round. There is plenty of Limerick based representation looking for your votes at this stage with Brad Pitt Light Orchestra, Supermodel Twins, Seneca, Walter Mitty & The Realists all in the bands category and Theme Tune Boy fighting the good fight in the solo category. The closing date for Round 1 is this Thursday 28th January and you can make your choices by clicking on to http://meteormusicawards.meteor.ie/competitions/complist/#band.

Up for grabs for the winners are live performances on the New Band Stage3 at Oxegen 2010 and on Pop 4 on TG4 plus CD design, mastering and radio/PR distribution. Vote soon and vote often.

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

The Irish Music Rights Organisation awarded Dolans Warehouse the Live Music Venue of the Year Award for Munster
Venues were judged on a number of criteria including ambience, staging, sound and lighting facilities, diversity of programming, venue staff and management and promotional activities. This award is decided by members of the 7,000 strong IMRO organization and confirms Dolan’s reputation among musicians for friendly and professional service. As any road-weary touring act will tell you, a warm welcome and a good meal invariably translates into a quality gig experience for artists and punters alike.
Also nominated in the Munster Category were: INEC, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Cyprus Avenue, The Everyman Theatre & The Pavilion, all in Cork.
Neil Dolan was delighted with the win. stating, “We were up against some tough competition, so to all the staff, promoters and bands, thanks a million. This is for all of us.”