The 2006 Frequency-Ireland Music Awards!

Here's a run down through Frequency-Ireland's favourite albums, EPs, singles, gigs and demos from Ireland over the course of 2006.

2006 album of the year: Crayonsmith

The album of the year is Crayonsmith's Stay Loose. At the time it was released, I hinted that it could well be my favourite for the year. Well, it turned out that way. I've never really put the album down. Whereas a lot of albums shrink over time, this one has grown personal. It's not just that there is influence from many favourites here, everything from Sparklehorse to Pavement and Grandaddy to Sebadoh, but in essence this is an album bursting with endearingly personalized songwriting. A real favourite. Anyway, here's my choice top five albums of 2006:

1. Crayonsmith - Stay Loose
2. Humanzi - Tremors
3. The Ruby Tailights - Dressing up
4. The Hollows - It was On Fire When I Lay Down On It
5. Si Schroeder - Coping Mechanisms

Related Links:

http://www.crayonsmith.com

http://www.myspace.com/crayonsmith


2006 mini-album/EP of the year: Butterfly Explosion

This was quite a difficult category to narrow down to just a top five, as 2006 has been a particularly good year for the mini-album from bands from Ireland. However, the choice EP as overall favourite was quite a straight forward one, and is the Butterfly Explosions' Turn The Sky EP, an EP which contains some of the most beautifully haunting and mesmerising shoegaze sounds to come out of Ireland in a long time, and leaning into some more generally accessible indie-rock melodies, it is an EP which has a much broader appeal than others of the genre. All in all however, these are five really excellent EPs listed here, none of which should be missed:

1. Butterfly Explosion - Turn The Sky
2. Glenwash - Bottle Of Cop
3. The Star Department - Flickering Lights
4. The Terribles - Mistake: Do Over
5. Sanzkrit - Yeah But What If

Related Links:

http://www.butterflyexplosion.com

http://www.myspace.com/butterflyexplosion


2006 single and/or music video of the year: The Things


What I consider a great single is one that grabs you by the balls and arrests you, demands your attention. In that sense, this has been quite a massive year for those associated with Sound Foundation Recordings, who dominate this years' top five. The Things could well be the best garage punk band to come out of Ireland in the past 10 years. Some Kind of Kick was their anthemic single from last summer, indulging everything from Hammer Horror to Elvis to The Stooges. When this has also been a damn good year for Humanzi (a truly rebellious band, who were unfortunately over-hyped and over-embraced by the media here, perhaps to their disadvantage) and the superbly unique Twin Kranes (is it psychedelic kraut electronica punk or what?), it seems that Sound Foundation Recordings have managed to sweep up most of the best of what has festered in 2006. Here's my choice top five singles/vids of 2006:

1. The Things - Some Kind of Kick
2. Humanzi - Out on a Wire
3. The Rags - Razors & Ropes
4. Sickboy - The A-Tune
5. Twin Kranes - Plateau

The videos to these, amongst others, can be streamed from the Frequency-Ireland myspace page.

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/thethings

http://www.thethingsireland.moonfruit.com


2006 live band of the year: Whipping Boy

If the focus of Frequency-Ireland had not been on emerging bands in Ireland, I would have mentioned Whipping Boy long before now, one of my all time favorite bands from Ireland. It's almost a decade ago now back to when I first enjoyed and grew to love songs such as 'We Don't Need Nobody Else' and 'Twinkle', but while those songs had grown to become a massive part of my past, they had more or less been confined to memories. It was a real awakening to see them back on the circuit in Ireland this year again. I caught them live when they played in Dolans' Warehouse in Limerick in March of this year. A night which started with a very fine performance by emerging band Dry County (new to me at that time, but whom I now rate very highly), and then led into a rather polarising Jinx Lennon (whom I openly derided, although I was not amongst the bottle throwers), finally saw Whipping Boy take centre stage. It was quite a late showing, and I was quite pole-axed already from many beers, but highlights of the night still ring vividly clear - first to hear tracks such as 'So Much For Love' and 'Bad Books' live, I'm not quite sure if it was my first time hearing those songs live, but it was certainly my first time hearing them live in familiarity, as Whipping Boy had split before that third album from which they were taken was released, but also being there again for 'We Don't Need Nobody Else', and to witness them giving equal measure to some of the older material. On the night the performed 'I Think I Miss You', which really struck a chord with me. I think I miss you? I know I missed you, Whipping Boy. An immense gig by a legendary band.

Here's the choice top five local gigs by Irish bands attended this past year (i.e, in the Limerick area), with the supports indicated also an important deciding factor:

1. Whipping Boy - Dolans' Warehouse. Mar 2006 ( /w Dry County).
2. Crayonsmith - Limerick Boatclub. May 2006 ( /w Windings).
3. Berkeley - Limerick Boatclub. Nov 2006 ( /w Walter Mitty & The Realists).
4. We Should Be Dead - Underground, Baker's Place. Dec 2006 ( /w Hatch77).
5. Coldspoon Conspiracy - Dolan's. Nov 2006 ( /w Givamanakick, Crayonsmith).

Related Links:

http://www.whippingboy.net

http://www.myspace.com/dublinwhippingboy


2006 best demo by an emerging band: SUPER-8

This catagory is specifically for bands who have yet to release any material to date and who either sent Frequency-Ireland their demo material for review over the course of 2006, or who first made their demo material available online this year.

This was a really tough catagory. More than anything, what has perhaps differentiated Frequency-Ireland from other webzines/blogs has been a focus on demos and unsigned bands. There has been a lot of material waded through over this past year, both of bands uploading material online and those who have taken the time to post me CDs of their demo material. Apologies to bands who have sent in demos I have not had the time to write a review on, but I can assure you that I have listened to just about everything I received this past year, and I thank you all for sending on the material. The very best demo I received this year hailed from Ballymena in Northern Ireland. The band are called Super-8. They have still yet to perform any live shows, but their home-recorded material is exemplorary (ok, rock n'roll for those who love feedback-drenched melodies), I've chosen their track 'Undercover Blues' as the winner, but I could have just as easily picked out one of a half dozen which could have fulfilled the purpose. Here are the top five demo tracks of this year:

1. Super-8 - Undercover Blues
2. Black Soul Strangers - Down and out in Vegas with Amphetamine Psychosis
3. Star Belgrade - Disconnect
4. The Ugli Violas - Sick
5. Carnival - Sunday Morning

Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/wearesuper8