TMS035: Details Of New Release DEATH THREATS E.P. May 23rd
Plans for the next TMS album are well underway at the moment. In the meantime I have put together what i hope will be a satisfactory little nugget called DEATH THREATS E.P. - 4 folk songs from the underbelly of modern Ireland.
1. Death Threats 2. The Mero [Ft. Ronnie Drew & Flogging Molly] 3. Where The Nightmares Begin 4. Romantic Ireland Is Dead And Gone [It Lays With 2pac in the Grave]
The first two songs were recorded around christmas '07 at westland studios with Greg French and feature The Mighty Stef band of men line up plus a few special guests. The latter two songs were recorded quite recently at Redlab Studios with TwinKranes whizz-kid Andrew Rooney and feature Dan & Steve Tycoon from the new 'honky-tonk nosebleeds' line up.
Death Threats EP will be available in shops and online from May 23rd. ill have more details about how you can preorder the CD next week.
Ill also be having a couple of secret events to add a bit of fun to the record release...there will be no launce gig but if you check our live scedule on myspace youll see that we have plenty of gigs coming up so come along.
THE MIGHTY STEF & HIS BAND OF MEN play special guest to THE JOSEPHS @ CRAWDADDY DOORS ARE 8PM WE'RE ONSTAGE @ 8.30 ADMISSION - 10EU
**LAST EVER SHOW AS THE BAND OF MEN**
Tomorrow night in crawdaddy is a very special show for the mighty stef ... anyone that has supported what we have done over the last 3 or 4 years will know that my ever changing backing group was known as the 'band of men' two members of the line up that were very rarely missing over that period of time were Des Bracken on Bass and Shane Walsh on Drums. Due to personal committments both have amicably decided to call it a day. Sadly, Des is not available for tomorrow but Shane, as well as the soon-to-depart backing vox section Rayne, Lucy & Georgie will perfom one last waltz as The Mighty Stef & His Band Of Men.
Myself and Bren will miss playing With Shane Des and the girls very much but welcome with open arms our new additions, borrowed from fellow dublin rock n rollers 'The Last Tycoons' comes 'Downtown Dan' Fitzpatrick [piano/ banjo/ trumpet / backing vox] Steve 'The Sexiest Voice Ever' Fanning [bass / backing vox] and The Hog [drums/ nothing else]....im really greatful to the lads for their services to the cause over in the US in feb/march and for staying on to help consolidate the new live set up....THE MIGHTY STEF & THE HONKYTONK NOSEBLEEDS special thanks also to Aoife Ruth and Matt Roddy from the Last Tycoons for thier flexibility and support.
ive been playing music with Shane Walsh for 10 years now and will be sad to lose him but would like to congratulate him and his partner Nicola on the birth of their beautiful baby daughter Ella who came into this world on march 27th.
Dessie Bracken is a prince among men, he stepped into the group in 2005 and has a dedicated member ever since. The 3 girls known more commonly [by shane only] as walshies angels...brought some such needed glamour into the group for the 2 year spell they seved under the crel hearted mighty stef....i thank them and will miss the sweet sounds and the banter too.
im not a fan of goodbyes or closure...so this is very shitty for me
im making a video for death threats with a brilliant young director called evan from the tisch school of design in new york city. he has asked me to put out a call for as many extras as i can possibly get for a seedy bar scene that will be filmed between 9am and 6pm next tuesday at the voodoo lounge on arran quay. you would be required to dress in a color scheme of black white and red...and make your attire pretty old school looking, gimme a shout back if you need more details on that.
All are welcome, evan has asked for the guys to look rough, and for the girls to look their best [as you always do ladies!!!] im retty nervous that a lot of pretty blokes and rough lookin mots will show up but well see what happens!!!...serioulsy though we really need as many people as we can get so ask around your mates and get on down to the video shoot of death threats on tuesday...its gonna be a lot of fun.
I havent posted a blog in quite some time, i could say that life has been too busy to stop and write about it, but id be lying. I think i just got lazy. Anyway, in anticipation of a fairly hectic few days i decided ill send this out and let folks know what im gonna be up to and maybe if our paths meet you'll come and hay hello.
Tonight [Wednesday 21st] Acoustic Nightmares in the village, these nights have been going really well so i wanna thank everyone that has been coming. hopefully it keeps on going from strenght to strenght into 08. Tonight well be paying tribute to Leonard Cohen so come on down.
Thursday 22nd. First off ill be spending the day and evening with the band rehearsing for the recording of Death Threats, our next-single-elect. im hoping to bring in some real trumpet to play on the part where my mouth trumpet solo usually comes in. My apologies in advance to mouth trumpet fans. Later that evening ill be supporting Matt Berry, comedic songwriter and performer and star of such TV hits as the mighty boosh and gareth marhengis dark place. that should be interesting. its in Crawdaddy.
Friday 23rd Back in crawdaddy again, this time supporting the mighty Jape.
Saturday 24th Two gigs in one day. somthing im infamous for. early doors ill be taking part in merchantsville an all dayer devised and curated by the hassle merchants. this takes place in mc grudders on thomas st. later on ill be up in the Lower Deck supporting the things with the full band in a celebration party for their US release of wild psychotic sounds EP. hopefully i can get to bed at a reasonable hour as ill be in the studio from early on sunday.
Sunday 25th All Day In Westland Studios making death threats & other bits with the band and some guest musicians.
Monday 26th. im anticipating that this might be the first day i get to let my hair down in the whole weekend. im putting on a night in the Hub headlined by Gringo Star from Atlanta GA, the hot sprockets will also be playing and i myself will be playing an acoustic set. its the eve of my birthday so im planning a major celebration into the wee hours so id urge everyone out there to come down and sing and dance and shout in the hub on monday, i know its a school night but its gonna be great.
Thanks very much to everybody who played and everybody who attended the Benefit night that Radiator organised to help raise a few bob to help me along. I was really taken aback when i learnt of it and the money raised will help me along greatly. Thanks especially to Trevor for his thoughtfulness and To Neilo Thing for getting his make up pouch out midweek...i heard it was a rockin performance by all the bands. Nice One.
I was approached a couple of months ago by a production company called Paradise pictures and asked if id be interested in being featured in a documentary about 'upandcoming working musicians' i said id be into it and met with the people and they were very sound. they had a few other candidates in mind also but i found out last week that they have decided to have my sorry arse in it. The documentary is part of a series called diaries and it will ber shown on TV3 and on loads of satellite channels that i dont have...im not sure when, i wont start working with them for a while but ill post more info when i know it.
Starting on the 4th of July in the downstairs bar in the Village im gonna be running a weekly thing called acoustic nightmares, it will run every wednesday from 9ish till 2ish. Each week it will feature a Mighty Stef acoustic set of about 40 minutes, DJs and a second acoustic set featuring weekly guests performing acoustic tunes according to a selected theme...there will also be films and other wierd and wonderful stuff. Its free admission and hopefully will evolve into a good regular midweek event.
Acoustic Nightmare No.1 will have an all american theme considring its July 4th, It will feature a Creedence Clearwater Revival Tribute set, it was suggested to me by Robbie Thing that nothing is more american than CCR.
Wednesday July 4th @ The Village [Downstairs Bar] Acoustic Nightmares Salutes Creedence Clearwater Revival + Mighty Stef [Acoustic Set] + DJs playing All [and anti] American Tunes
If anyone has any ideas for themes please feel free to suggest.
TMS029 - Crime And Punishment In The Sunshine State
Im Just about to leave Fort Lauderdale Florida and head back to my home base in Chicago after 3 hardworking days on the road with Flogging Molly and one additional day of mourning spent against the sunny backdrop of Ocean Drive; palm trees, beaches, tourists and one miserable pale irish sap.
The reason for my misery? im glad you asked me that...After three great nights in New Orleans, St Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale respectively playing to 3 packed venues of really amazing audiences i stepped into an after hours pub called 'The Poorhouse' with some of the Flogging Molly lads took my eye off my bag and guitar and they were stroked [stolen, for those not from Ireland] The Guitar belonged to my good friend Ciaran Dwyer from BOAI, the bag contained a video camera belonging to my manager Frank Murray, my passport, wallet, a large sum of cash money [you wouldnt even believe me if i told you how much] and some other personal affects. Im not even sure if the airline will let me fly cos i have no ID but thanks to the co-operation of the Fort Lauderdale Gards [police. for those outside of Ireland] i have some documentation and hopefully the airline and airport security will be good to me and i can get out of this god forsaken paradise.
After a day of total deression and reflection i have arrived at a state of mind today that 'shit happens' and nothing is beyond replacement. Ciaran Dwyer is one of the most generous and non materialistic people that has ever walked the earth and was very understanding of my plight, this is amazing considering its the second time he has loaned me a guitar for a tour and its been stolen, in fact, he bought this one with the money i repaid him for the last one i got robbed on him which was in liverpool in 04...you can imagine my embarrassment. Frank was very understanding about his camera too which eased my suffering somewhat. in 05 i founded an organisation called 'United Artists Against Common Theivery' we held 2 fundraisers since then, watch this space for details of a third fundraising show to try and replace Ciaran and Franks stuff.
Anyway, thats my situation, i thought id share it with you...'a problem shared..' and all that. Donations of Cash and Sympathy would be greatly accepted...particularly the few bob!!!!!! ill sign off with a quote from a sympathetic email i recieved from Rambo from The Hassle Merchants, he happened to randomly email me yesterday in my hour of darkness and i filled him in..
"Stef, if we find out who did it we'll shit on their backs, no mercy!!!"
The whole experience was worth it just for that soundbite!
This Monday sees the launch of 'Poisonous Love' which is a Single that i have released for radio only to try and raise profile and get airplay. I have put a listenable version of the tune on myspace for all you nice people. let me know what you think.
You can help me make this project a success in any or all of the following ways: 1. Place 'Poisonous Love' as your profile tune...it spreads the word like crazy! 2. Email The DJs on your favourite radio station and urge them to play the record [they all have it in Ireland Already] find out the email address and text number for requests and let them have it. 3. Come Down To Voodoo next week and celebrate the launch with me and the band
Day 1 After a very early rise in NYC and two terrifying flights, the second of which [houston to austin] taking place in the midst of a storm. I finally arrived at SXSW on my own with two bags and a guitar. The streets of austin were packed full of people and it seemed like a million bands were hiding out in some place or other. it was overwhelming and i felt microscopic. I didnt go to see any bands that day. Instead i met up with my kind host Anders and we hit up a few dive bars that were unscathed my the music industry's attack on this wonderful city. I was pretty exhausted and drank enough local brew to ensure a good nights kip.
Day 2 I rose early and headed into the city to leave my equipment at the venue i was playing. Todays show was a free outdoor party at the back of a restaurant called 'home slice pizza' i had visions beforehand of playing an acoustic set in the window of Roma II on wexford street but thankfully it wasnt that way at all. It was a great set up of 2 stages, i was playing on the smaller of the two. I did 3 twenty minute acoustic sets in between the 4 later acts of the evening. The organizers were dead sound and they did an amazing job there were some great bands playing. most notably the teeth from philly and the hazey j anes from glasgow. i got a great response from the crowd for all my sets and sold a bit of merch so i was happy. After that i nipped across the road to see a band called Loxley from madison wisconsin. i really enjoyed them, they were like rock n roll era beatles mixed with early libertines a real fun band to watch. after that i headed to the T1 BMX ramp on the other side of town to see Jape, i also caught the previous band whose name i didnt catch, they were drugged out old school metal from portland oregon. good stuff. Richie and Matty got the place dancing it was great. It was good to see and have a few beers with some familiar faces too. After that i finished the night early in a couple more local bars cos i had an early gig the following day.
Day 3 This was the day of my irish showcase, and it was an early one. i arrived at the venue at around 11. the biggest thrill that day was meeting and chatting to the great damien dempsey, hes a great bloke. he went on before me and i got serious goosebumps when he sang the colony. i wasnt alone. he had the whole place in the palm of his hand. it was a tough act to follow but i enjoyed it so much that it put me in great humour to perform and i did a good job. the best part is that damo stayed and watched and was the first one up to me afterward to say how much he enjoyed it. that was the biggest triumph of sxsw for me personally. he also gave me a bollikin for using his own special mic which he accidentally left onstage. i was apologetic, as only you could be to a man of his stature. after me came simple kid who was deadly, he did an interactive cover version of 'its not easy being green' with kermit the frog on a video screen. this deservedly got one of the biggest cheers of the day. i also seen oppenheimer from belfast who were cool and very nice blokes, fionn regan who is a great performer and the delorentos who gave it loads for the occasion and pulled a great crowd. Jape as always really rocked the gaf, they had even the mad owl-ones who walked in off the street dancin to the beats.
At one point i snook over with the Jape lads to the main conference centre to see the 'legendary' daniel johnston perform, it was a short gig in which he twice made anti semitic comments, he also covered paul mc cartneys 'band on the run' i said the same thing after seeing him live that i said after seeing the film 'god help that poor bastard'...it was interesting to see. on the street beforehand richie stopped and was talkin to some homeless person, me and matty went back to hurry him on..it turned out it was gruff rhys from super furry animals, top bloke. not actually homeless either, its amazing who youd meet on the streets in austin...right after we met the delorentos!!!!! they invited us to go to a nudey bar with them, which we eventually did. i suppose no SXSW would be complete without a nudey bar jaunt. as the night went on we took a cab out of town to a free party with free gargle and DJs, i got takin to the lead man out of the horrors who was sound, i told him he needs to work on being more of a prick like neilo from the things . it was shaping up to be a great buzz until the cops shut it down. pricks.
I found myself wandering the road with fellow dublin tune maker mano le tough his girlfriend shonagh and a mate of mine paddy maguire who's currently exiled in texas for work. we didnt know how we were gonna get back into town until a pick up truck roared up beside us and said hop on the back. so we did some redneck surfin back into the city. good times. we finished our night in the blind pig where we seen a great band whose name i didnt catch and i also lost my bag. not so good times.
Day 4. my first concern on waking up was to go back to the venue and se if my bag was found. it wasnt. i then met with the Jape lads to have breakfast and recount the harmles fun of the previous day before setting off to the airport. there was some bad news and some good news when i arrived. the bad news was that my flight was delayed 5 hours. the good news was that the blind pig called and said they found the bag. i had more than enough time to nip back down town and retrieve it. happy daze!! after that i spent most of my st patricks day in austin airport hungover and tired and longing to get back to chicago to my adopted reality and my own bed.
