Artist: Spook Of The Thirteenth Lock

The full line-up for Spirit of Folk Festival , which takes place September 21st-23rd at Dunderry Park, Co. Meath has been revealed. This weekend celebrating Irish music, folk, bluegrass and country will feature live performances from John Spillane , The Lost Brothers , Lisa O'Neill , I Draw Slow , Spook Of The Thirteenth Lock , Tucan , The Hot Sprockets , Mossy Nolan , The Henry Girls , The Young Folk , Tir na nOg , Aoife Scott , Jig away the Donkey , [...]

Here's the top 50 acts in Ireland according to my humble tastes. The list acts as a guide to the recently released music which excites me at this moment in time. It excludes bands not currently working in Ireland or who have been dormant for some time. So in basic terms here's a list of bands to watch out for on a random night in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Dundalk etc .... 50. Heritage Centre http://www.facebook.com/theher itagecentre [...]

On Friday, Irish music critic extraordinaire Niall Byrne aka Nialler 9 wrote a fantastic post called "Five reasons why Irish trad has been reinvigorated in 2012". It's the kind of piece that made Nialler9 so popular in the first place, and it's wonderful to see him taking the time to [...]

"The Brutal Here & Now" is the second album from Dublin's folk/rock/trad band ' The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock' . It's gathering the band some fine attention from media and fans for their high energy and hard to define sounds. In my mind 'The Spook ....' are a great Irish band with fantastic musicianship and a sound that blurs traditional genre lines. 'The Spook' sound like the result of a jamming session between Sonic Youth and Planxty in that every song off [...]

Trad is as a big a part of our heritage as its perceived that Aran jumpers, sheep, Guinness and leprechauns are. So it's not surprising that the genre of music, in terms of a modern context, is often maligned as old-fogey music or music for pubs and rural areas. It's understandable that trad will be disregarded by succeeding generations who hit upon their twenties who have grown up with it their whole lives in favour of a Skrillex drop or the more global R&B chart pop or something. But there are movements afoot. Just as those who [...]

Oh dear. The Brutal Here And Now is an album that promises much - furious titles, a taste of Gaeilge and a mix of disparate genres - but delivers far short of the expected confident, spirited record. Simply it lacks leadership as every musical whim is pandered to. 'The Tantarella' is an atmospheric piece while 'Shudder In The West' a bog standard indie pop track, both scattered among basic banjo based rock songs, often sounding like a compilation of songs by bands with the same singer. The trad aspect is what grates in particular. Traditional Irish music can [...]

When I'm browsing blogs I love them big massive news posts with details of great events and an opportunity to listen to some new music. Here's a roundup of great things happening over the next few weeks. DOI: Below are two events I've helped to organise for Boyles of Slane. Happy Birthday to The Song Room run every Wednesday Night in The Globe by Hamlet Sweeney. This weeks line up (note early start this week! First act on at 8.30): The Ikonics [...]

Tweet Of course the beauty of Dublin's The Spook of The Thirteeth Lock is that they somehow utterly appeal to both the traditional and foraging-for-new-music people sets. I choose to say 'sets' for that is the type of foot activity that I tend to adopt on hearing their rangy banjo and intrepid vocals, bound together in the style of a schoolbus full of children set loose on a field of naturally growing smarties. It's as joyful as that, as pushing the boat [...]

• The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock - The Brutal Here and Now (Part I)

With a spring in my step I'm looking forward to a Summer of fun with potential visits to 5 or 6 of the best Music Festivals in Ireland! It's all full stream ahead for the following festivals where I guarantee people will not miss the big O! Find news from Sunflower Fest, Sea Sessions, Body & Soul, Westport Festival and Vantastival below! Vantastival News: http://www.vantastival.com/ The site map went online and is [...]

Ireland's finest example of a modern trad band The Spook Of The Thirteenth Lock will release their second album The Brutal Here and Now on April 13th. I featured their 2008 self-titled debut in my eMusic top 20 Irish albums of the last five years list last week. 'The Brutal Here & Now' is the first listen of new material in nearly four years and the song is a sprightly tune "in the style of the Irish jig". The album was produced by Stephen Shannon with the [...]

Without the usual attempts at making folking jokes I've put a mix of news and tunes from the folk world together for this post! First up is news from Mossy Nolan whose debut album sounds wonderful these nice Spring days in the car. He's supporting English folk duo Johny and Lucy in Whelans on Sunday night with tickets at €12! More details here: http://www.whelanslive.com/ind ex.php/archives/7198 ------------------------------ ------------ The Spook Of The Thirteenth Lock have announced that their new album 'The Brutal [...]

There's a really nice mix of acts confirmed for this year's Vantastival. In particular I'm delighted by the inclusion of blog favourites such as I Draw Slow, Marc O'Reilly, Ana Gog, Huey & The Hobgoblins, Miss Paula Flynn and the hardest working band in Dundalk 'Redtwelve'. More info: http://www.vantastival.com/ A limited number of earlybird tickets now on sale from the website at €70 for three nights [...]

The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock are being talked about in high regard as they have begun gigging again in the run up to the release of the band's second album. Here's my favourite track from the self-titled debut. In Country Dark by The Spook of The Thirteenth Lock In fact for just a fiver you can see the band with 8 other superb bands in Whelans this Saturday in the Hefty Fest: [...]

.... is a new website bought to you by the lovable Mp3Hugger. http://www.sweetindietunes.com / Visit the site if ya want some free and legal music by the likes of Arcade Fire, Songs: Ohio Explosions in the Sky, The Very Most as well as Oirish acts like Nina Hynes, Director, Conor Furlong, and The Spook of the 13th Lock, Before you get an mp3 from Conor Furlong over at Sweet Indie Tunes check out his [...]

Here's the decent line-up for the Knockanstockan Independent Music Festival 23 / 24 / 25 July, Blessington Lakes, Wicklow 4th year running | 3 stages | Over 100 acts http://www.knockanstockan.ie/ Praire Dawgs | Mute Fish | The Rye | Hot Sprockets | Dirt Blue Jene | Spook of the Thirthteenth Lock | Alright the Captain | The Amazing Few | Noisemachine | Ross Breen and Band | Spirit Riders | Erik Noon and the Future Gypsies | Intinn | North strand Kontra Band | Fusion Family | Enda Reilly | [...]

This week on the blog I'm bringing the best posts from my first blog 'Mixtape4Melfi' over to 2uibestow. With the IMRO thing I've decided to delete that first blog altogether from the internet archives! Ruby Tuesday was a feature where I plugged a band that was at the very least new to me. I did find some wonderful jems. Here's part 1 of the archive! Ruby Tuesday – Odi [Appeared on 9th Sept 2008] [...]

At very short notice Foggy Notions have organised two cracking gigs to be held at Whelan's on Wexford St, Dublin in aid of Concern's Haiti Crisis Appeal . "The appeal is seeking emergency funding for desperately needed food, water, shelter and medicine." More information below David Kitt's brilliant cover of Womack & Womack's 'Teardrops' from his last Whelan's show. Sunday February 14th - Planxty's Andy Irvine will bring some folk to the stage supported by The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock , Mumblin' Deaf Ro [...]

This Sunday Glen Hansard will be performing in Whelans for a special charity gig for Haite. There's more .... Sunday 14th Feb sees this .... HAITI BENEFIT featuring ANDY IRVINE (Planxty, Patrick Street, Mozaik) THE SPOOK OF THE THIRTEENTH LOCK MUMNLIN DEAF RO' THE HOUNDS & BIG MONSTER LOVE There's more Weds 17th Feb..... DAVID KITT JAPE (solo electronic) LEGION OF TWO PATRICK KELLEHER & GOODTIME JOHN ..... I'll have to make [...]

So next Friday in The Lower Deck you will have the pleasure seeing four of Ireland's best acts. The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock Mumblin' Deaf Ro Groom Owensie Alternatively I might pop up to Drogheda for the first Purple Session of the year including Hugh Patrick, Stephen J Smith, Heirs to Nothing, Bobby Noonan and Mister Ebby. Difficult choice!

FRIDAY 16TH OCTOBER ______________________________ __ ANDREWS LANE 7.30 - 8.00 - MIRACLE BELL 8.10 - 8.40 - WE CUT CORNERS 8.50 - 9.20 - SUBPLOTS 9.30 - 10.00 - THE DEAD FLAGS 10.10 - 10.40 - THE AMBIENCE AFFAIR 11.00 - 12.00 - VILLAGERS (12:00 - 2.00AM HWCH CLUB) IRATE SOUND SYSTEM & CHEWY BUTTON FACTORY 7.15 - 7.45 - MIDATLANTIC 8.00 - 8.30 - ALRIGHT CHIEF 8.40 - 9.10 - THE BROTHERS MOVEMENT 9.20 - 9.50 - A PLASTIC ROSE 10.00 - 10.35 - DARK ROOM NOTES THE ACADEMY 2 7.30 - [...]