The New Irish Music Stage

@ The Courthouse, Catherine St

Spraoi presents a new space at the Courthouse Waterford, and some brand new sounds lined up over two days of the festival. From rocking out on Saturday to the more mellow laid back groove of Sunday, it’s an eclectic mix!

Getting the party started on Saturday are Dublin rockers, The Riptide Movement, currently riding the crest of a wave with a phenomenal live show. Waterford singer-songwriter Joe Harney is next, and then it Enemies, playing a blend of ambient, progressive rock. Squarehead is a three piece garage pop band, playing the songs they want to hear in the hope that others will enjoy them too. Headlining on Saturday evening are the extraordinary The Jimmy Cake. Be prepared for an extraordinary instrumental-prog-post-space-rock experience.

Sunday starts with the unique experience that is The Everly Pregnant Brothers from Sheffield. Then come The Gorgeous Colours. With accomplished arrangements and blissful four part harmonies, they ooze pure sunshine. They’re followed by Windings, blending alternative rock folk. Katie Kim is up next, and this Waterford musician is described as hardcore idol pop with songs that feature some lovely background instrumentation with subtle touches of slide guitar, brushed drums and mellow electronic effects.

Headlining on Sunday is Parish, a great new line-up featuring some of Ireland’s top musicians, with DJ Donal Dineen. On stage with Donal will be Rónán Ó Snodaigh from “Kila”, Niwel Tsumbu, “Republic of Loose drummer, Andre, and they’re accompanied by Aminah on vocals. The perfect end to a great two days of music.

Parish

DJ Donal Dineen is on the cool-end of legendary status. Music is at the heart of his work for decades. More recent journeys into film and photography have opened-up new experiences and frontiers for audiences.

The Parish project embraces fellow pioneers Rónán Ó Snodaigh from “Kila”, Niwel Tsumbu, “Andre” drummer with the Republic of Loose, and vocalist Aminah Dastan from Madu. This is a festival must-see event for lovers of music and artistic adventure.

The Parish recording project assembled by Donal Dineen late in 2010 began life three years previously with a show he put together for Body & Soul at the Electric Picnic in 2007 with Liam O Maonlai & Ronan O Snodaigh. That spectacular night ended with a promise to try & get together in the studio whenever time allowed. So finally, this January, Donal spent a fortnight in the Exchequer Studios in Dublin with Liam & Niwel Tsumbu a Congolese musician he has been working with regularly over the past two years.

The Riptide Movement

Dublin rockers The Riptide Movement are riding the crest of a wave, in little over 18 months they have produced a top twenty debut album “What about the tip jars?”

and four successive Official Irish charting singles, and with cumulative sales of 20,000 copies, The Riptide Movement are a band on the rise.

Renowned for their phenomenal live shows, 2010 was a busy year on the live circuit with a 30 date national tour, sold out shows at Whelan’s, supports with the Coronas, Jack L, The Jim Jones Revue, Johnny Flynn, The Delorentos, Lissie, and The Walls.

“A Thrilling live proposition, that leaves crowds wondering how on earth they haven’t passed out!” Hot Press.

“An Awesome band, Hendrix himself would be shaking in his boots!” Eric Bell- Thin Lizzy.

http://www.myspace.com/riptideeire

Deaf Joe

Joe is anything but deaf. Well.. maybe a little deaf to the noisy ebb and flow of fashion and fad, but not to the source of his soulful and dreamlike songs. Joe writes, arranges and plays everything on his recordings except for a trusted collaborator sitting in on drums. His romantic leanings are further portrayed in his work for music in theatre and dance.

His third release, ‘The Holy Water EP’ released in March 2011, received much critical support and led to several sessions on the national airwaves. He has recently put the finishing touches to his first full-length, due for release later this autumn.

‘Joe emerges pearl-like from his shell. Sublime songs and divine inspiration; a potent mix.’ – Donal Dineen, Today FM

https://www.facebook.com/deafjoemusic

Enemies

Enemies formed in the summer of 2007 in the village of Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow which has been a epicentre for DIY independent music in Ireland over the last few years with bands like Adebisi Shank, Kidd Blunt and Heathers first forging their

sound in the area.

In Spring 2008, encouraged by that burgeoning local scene, Enemies released their debut EP Alpha Waves which led to two Japanese labels Machu Picchu Industries and Stiff Slack picking up the band for releases. A two-week tour of Japan followed in which they played sold-out shows in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Kyoto.

Back closer to home, the band played gigs in the UK and Ireland on bills with bands like And So I Watch You From Afar, Bats, Not Squares, Marvins Revolt and Blakfish. The quartet followed their debut EP with a free double-A side single. In June 2010, Enemies released their debut LP released by Richter Collective.

http://www.myspace.com/enemiestheband

The Jimmy Cake

At the forefront of Ireland’s instrumental-prog-post-space-rock scene for over a decade now, The Jimmy Cake started life in summer 2000, quickly garnering a reputation for their ferocious live performances before releasing their debut album, Brains(2001) to almost universal critical acclaim. The following year the Jimmy Cake played Witnness, before the release of their second album Dublin Gone Everybody Dead. More critical acclaim, album of the year awards and sold out shows followed.

The Jimmy Cake continued to record, releasing the e.p. Superlady in 2003, headlined The Roundstone Arts Festival, Spraoi and filled the Rising tent at the ultimate Witnness festival. After a tour of Europe and more festival dates, the Jimmy Cake took a break to work on that difficult 4th record. In 2008 Spectre and Crown was released to yet more rave plaudits. This is the sound of the upcoming apocalypse, the sound of a thousand morbid feet, marching toward you in a shuffling unison, the sound of guttural moaning, and ancient urges. Are you prepared?

http://www.myspace.com/thejimmycake

Squarehead

2010 was a great year for Squarehead by all accounts. What initially started as a low-key solo acoustic thing, grew into a full three-piece band, and ended up capturing the ears of Irish music fans throughout 2010.

It all started with singer and guitarist Roy Duffy playing solo acoustic sets around Dublin in 2009. After some local support slots and a two week tour with Hands Up Who Wants To Die in Eastern Europe where Roy played “wimpy pop to crusties” , he enlisted childhood friend Ian McFarlane to play bass on a debut 7” release. The lead-track ‘Fake Blood’ was the first song to draw attention to Squarehead’s music. It was featured heavily on music blogs, on Popical Island’s seminal compilation of the Dublin indie-pop scene Popical Island #1 and was released on vinyl on Any Other City Records backed with the song ‘Mother Nature’ in August 2010. The song went on to be chosen as the number one Irish song of 2010 by readers of Irish music blog Nialler9.com.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Squarehead/46434757229

Katie Kim

This Waterford musician is described as hardcore idol pop wrapped in a mellow veil. Her songs feature an extraordinary voice underpinned by deceptively simple backing arrangements with subtle touches of slide guitar, brushed drums and mellow electronic effects. It’s that kind of eclectic collection that’s a reminder of the glory days of labels like 4AD and their collaborative This Mortal Coil projects. A voice to die for and a low-key festival highlight.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/katie-kim/48489112110

The Everly Pregnant Brothers

It began as a dare, and the success of the dare prompted band members Pete McKee and Richard Bailey to draft in a bunch of disparate members. These chaps have three things in common – a love of beer, ukuleles and having a laugh. A national treasure in their native Sheffield, the Brothers playful tampering of classic songs has won them friends and fans far and wide. This is their first appearance in Ireland, and no doubt they’ll gain new fans with their very different style of music!