New LaFaro Interview From AU

With a second album in the bag and gigs lined up, it’s about time we uploaded our last feature with LaFaro, from this Spring. In an entertaining and revealing chat, the Belfast band tell AU about touts, tours and Tuppenny Nudgers.

ASIWYFA Voted Best Record Of The Decade: Alternative Ulster

Belfast-based AU Magazine polled thier readership for the best Irish albums of the decade and the results are out in the new issue. Thanks to everyone who voted ASIWYFA the best Irish record of the 2000s - the full list which includes 3 STA releases in the Top 10 and another 3 bringing the total to 6 is below.

It's also good to see friends of the label such as Bats, Adebisi Shank and the Jane Bradfords place high in the rundown. All told, NI music is in rude health!

AU Top 50 Irish albums of the Decade

1. And So I Watch You From Afar – And So I Watch You From Afar (2009)
2. Jape – Ritual (2008)
3. David Holmes – The Holy Pictures (2008)
4. Oppenheimer – Oppenheimer (2006)
5. Fight Like Apes – Fight Like Apes and the Mystery Of The Golden Medallion (2009)
6. Damien Rice – O (2002)
7. The Frames – For The Birds (2001)
8. Fighting With Wire – Man Vs. Monster (2008)
9. Snow Patrol – Final Straw (2003)
10. Jane Bradfords – Jane Bradfords (2008)
11. Adebisi Shank – This Is The Album Of A Band Called Adebisi Shank (2008)
12. The Immediate – In Towers and Clouds (2006)
13. Ash – Free All Angels (2001)
14. Snow Patrol – When It’s All Over We Still Have To Clear Up (2001)
15. David Holmes – Bow Down To The Exit Sign (2000)
16. BATS – Red In Tooth & Claw (2009)
17. Duke Special – Songs From The Deep Forest (2006)
18. Mumblin’ Deaf Ro – The Herring And The Brine (2007)
19. Simple Kid – 1 (2003)
20. David Kitt – The Big Romance (2001)
21. Clone Quartet – Well-Oiled Machine (2007)
22. The Redneck Manifesto – thirtysixstrings (2001)
23. The Redneck Manifesto – I Am Brazil (2004)
24. Desert Hearts – Hotsy Totsy Nagasaki (2006)
25. The Thrills – So Much For The City (2003)
26. Republic of Loose – Aaagh! (2006)
27. Fionn Regan – The End Of History (2006)
28. The Divine Comedy – Regeneration (2001)
29. Cathy Davey – Tales Of Silversleeve (2007)
30. Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew (2008)
31. Jetplane Landing – Once Like A Spark (2003)
32. Bell XI – Music In Mouth (2003)
33. Delorentos – In Love With Detail (2007)
34. Oppenheimer – Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It (2008)
35. The Chalets – Check In (2005)
36. Three Tales – Three Tales (2008)
37. Bell X1 – Flock (2005)
38. The Divine Comedy – Absent Friends (2004)
39. JJ72 – JJ72 (2000)
40. Desert Hearts – Let’s Get Worse (2004)
41. Jetplane Landing – Zero For Conduct (2001)
42. Gemma Hayes – Night On My Side (2002)
43. Boxcutter – Glyphic (2007)
44. So Cow – These Truly Are End Times (2007)
45. Si Schroeder – Coping Mechanisms (2006)
46. Robyn G. Shiels – A Lifetime Of Midnights (2006)
47. Patrick Kelleher – You Look Cold (2009)
48. Alloy Mental – We Have Control (2007)
49. Damien Dempsey – Seize the Day (2003)
50. Boxcutter – Oneiric (2006)

Shut Em Down - ASIWYFA/AU Secret Show

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About And So I Watch You From Afar But Were Afraid To Ask

The latest from ASIWYFA HQ...

Well, here we are at the end of an epic months touring, we've had more people at the shows this time round than we've ever had before, we've had 7 sold out nights, we've sold almost all our merch and we haven't killed each other. these all add up to make this a very positive time in camp ASIWYFA. Check out Tony's tour diaries for full reports.

Anyway then, no time to be hanging around, here's whats coming up in our ever busier diary -

Clutch Tour - June (UK & EU)

First off.... AWESOME!!! WE'RE GOING ON TOUR WITH CLUTCH!!!!! These guys know how to rock, and we're honored to be joining them on their UK and European leg of this tour. If you're near by please come down and give us hand wrecking the joint. If you're in Europe and are coming down to the show please come and say hello on the night, we've had so much amazing response from mainland Europe to our music and we'd love to meet you all and thank you for the kind words and support.

AU Mag Tour - July (IRE)

Once we're back from Europe we have 3 days off then back to business, AU Mag Irish tour with the mighty Adebisi Shank, both bands have been threatening to tour together for a while now, and a lot of people have been asking if it would ever happen, so here it is. Big shout out to AU mag who are really stepping up to the plate on this one, boarder shmoarder, this tour will melt faces, full stop.

ASIWYFA Headline Tour - Sept/Oct (UK)

We will be heading out for another long one in the UK in Sept and Oct, we're still to announce details on this, so watch this space. Needless to say we'll be playing as many places as we can, bring your hard hat.

This Will Destroy You Tour - Oct (UK)

We're also over the moon to announce we'll be heading off on tour with Texas noise merchants This Will Destroy You in October. Have a nosey on our myspace dates to see where we're playing, and get your tickets now as we hear some of the shows have sold out already.

FESTIVALS

Oxegen: We'll be playing this year's Oxegen festival on the IMRO stage, we're on around 11pm, I think theres some band called Kings of ... something playing on another stage but we ain't heard of them so come see us....ok.

Pukklepop: We jet to Belgium on 21st August to join with the likes of The Jesus Lizard, Faith No More, Placebo, Squarepusher, My Bloody Valentine and a heap more at this years Pukklepop Festival. We get to share the same stage as The Jesus Lizard, nuff said, you know how we feel about this one.

Nova Rock: We do this bad boy during the Clutch tour next month, great slot on the big outdoor stage a few slots below Machine Head! If our teenage selves could see us now. Though we do get to drive from Leeds to Vienna for this one, 2000km, yey, but we get to play with Metalica, Slipknot and Mastadon so it kinda evens out. RAWK.

Truck: We're playing the Sunday at Truck this year, we can't wait, it's top to tail awesome bands, and we get to hang out with a lot of the good folks we've met on tour over the past year, awwww.

Aeon: We headline the Saturday night at this year's Aeon Festival in Devon, it's up for Best Small Festival, Best Grassroots Festival, Best Line Up and Best Loos in this year's UK festival awards. It's 100% independent, it's awesome and this years theme is Sci-Fi.... brilliant.

Glasgowbury: The greatest festival on earth, if you've never been, go. If you have you know what I'm talking about.

Forfey Farm: This will be our last NI appearance for a while, every year this festival is amazing, the vibe is unbeatable, the people are incredible, and it's cheap as chips. We're gonna be doing a day time slot this year, it's gonna be great.

EP and Single - SOLD OUT

We're both happy and sad to announce that we're all sold out of our debut EP "This is Our Machine and Nothing Can Stop it", we had 2,500 pressed up and they're all gone now. We've no plans to re-press this anytime soon, so if you have a copy hold on to it.... or get it up on ebay. We've also sold out of our debut vinyl pressing of double A side single "Set Guitars to Kill/A Little Solidarity Goes A Long Way".

Writing

We're taking a week off after this tour to head to a little house in Sligo, literally in the middle of no where, to get down to some of what we love most, writing some new music. It'll be our second time down there in the past few months and it's such a great place to relax and be away from any distractions. After our last jaunt we came back with 6 new tracks, one of which we've been playing on this tour called "S is for Salamander". We hope it will be a productive and relaxing time, tea cups and cigarettes at the ready boys.

Recording

We will be doing a bit of recording in July, we haven't decided exactly what form these songs will come out as but watch this space, we'll have new music for you very soon, and it's really good.

Album 2 - the plans

We will be recording the new album after the summer at some point, we will announce all the details of this soon, but we have a bunch of tracks we already think out-do anything on the last record, and we can't wait to get them out and to you guys.

JAPAN

We've just heard news from Japan that the record is doing really well over there, if this continues we hope to get out for a tour some time before Xmas, fingers and toes crossed.

THANKYOU

Before we go we just want to say a massive thank you to everybody who's making this possible, to all the people who are coming to our shows, to all the people who are buying our music, to anyone who is spreading the word about our band, to our label for be so supportive and believing in us, to our families and friends who never get to see us any more and still tirelessly support us, to all the promoters, writers, photographers etc who push this band, to the amazing people we meet everyday who give us beds, food and generally treat us with kindness, you are what makes all this possible and we're forever grateful.

Do You Remember The First Time? Review

As a precursor to Andrew's feature on Public Service Blogcast Episode 34 which will be online over the Easter weekend, here's Alternative Ulster's morning after the night before on last month's celebration of Northern Irish music.

So, last night was Do You Remember The First Time?, the huge gig at the Ulster Hall in Belfast, organised by trans and BBC Across The Line. And it was something special. The old hall looks magnificent following its refurbishment, all buffed-up, modernised and showing off every inch of its Victorian splendour, and it says something for music fans here that the place was utterly packed out from 7.30 until the whole thing drew to a close four hours later. 14 acts played, all from Northern Ireland and including five unsigned acts - Lowly Knights, Kowalski, Cashier No.9, Panama Kings and LaFaro - next to Ash, the Divine Comedy, headliners Therapy? and a guest appearance by Gary Lightbody and Nathan Connelly from Snow Patrol.

Each band got a chance to play one of their own songs and a cover of a band they saw play the Hall, which threw up some treats. As much as it was great to hear the newer bands play their stuff to over a thousand people in a packed hall (Cashier No.9 gave a storming version of ‘When Jackie Shone’, looking like they were born to play to big crowds, while a brand new Foy Vance song stunned the hall into awed silence), the fun was in the cover versions. Some played it pretty straight - Duke Special, whose band includes a member of The Waterboys, played a great version of their ‘Fisherman’s Blues’, LaFaro tore through The Strokes‘ ‘Juicebox’ and Fighting With Wire did the same for ‘You Really Got Me’ by the Kinks (apparently bassist Jamie saw a reformed version in 1994) - while a notable few put their own spin on things. Panama Kings turned Ash’s ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ into a fantastic cosmic disco track, Neil Hannon rattled through ‘Gigantic’ by the Pixies, just him and his piano, and The Lowly Knights paid tribute to the Divine Comedy with a gloriously huge arrangement of ‘Something For The Weekend’.

And there were surprises. Ash’s decision to play acoustic and without drums was disappointing, while we could probably have done without ‘Chasing Cars’, but it seems churlish to complain when the whole thing was done in such good spirits. Fighting With Wire were joined by Jetplane Landing’s Andrew Ferris for storming versions of Jetplane’s ‘Calculate The Risk’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’ by Rage Against The Machine, which seemed to bemuse as many people as it thrilled.

Finally, Therapy? came on and gave the people what they wanted. Andy Cairns looked like he was having the time of his life on stage as they rattled through a 100mph version of ‘Screamager’ (bless them for wheeling out their biggest hit), followed by (yes!) Stiff Little Fingers’ ‘Alternative Ulster’, then being joined by every band on the bill (and some that weren’t) for a mass ‘Teenage Kicks’. No bullshit, just dozens of artists and hundreds of people together in a glorious venue, paying tribute to the music and memories that have shaped their lives. A total celebration of Northern Irish music that must rank alongside the recent A Little Solidarity event.

After the party, the afterparty, as we adjourned upstairs to see Andy Henry from Clone Quartet play a solo laptop set before Not Squares embarked on a delirious assault on our ears with their schizoid punk-funk. And all this on a school night. Incredible.