We are delighted to announce details of Villagers’ gorgeous debut album, Becoming a Jackal, which will be released on 24^th May 2010 on CD (WIGCD253), LP (WIGLP253) and via digital download (WIG253D).

Villagers is the brainchild of Conor J. O'Brien, who has already toured Ireland, the UK and US and opened for Neil Young, Wild Beasts and Cass McCombs amongst others. Becoming a Jackal introduces us to Villagers’ vivid narratives, gripping poetry and melodic depth. Conor J. O’Brien’s clear and distinctive voice weaves a remarkable spell, delivering an album of rare, alarming beauty. From restrained to unleashed, from a whisper to a literal howl, Becoming a Jackal mutates, intrigues and beguiles in equal measure.

The lead single of the same name will be available on 7” from Record Store Day (17^th April) and via digital download from 26^th April. The accompanying, Ferry Gouw, directed video is available to watch here:

The full album tracklisting is as follows:

1. I Saw the Dead                             
   
2. The Pact (I’ll be your Fever)
3. Becoming a Jackal                        
   
4. Set the Tigers Free
5. Ship of Promises                          
   
6. Twenty-Seven Strangers
7. The Meaning of the Ritual            
   
8. Pieces
9. Home                                             
   
10. To Be Counted Among Men
11. That Day

Villagers (Conor solo) will perform at this year’s SXSW festival in the US and will join Tindersticks as special guests on their March UK tour.  Villagers (full band) will be supporting Wild Beasts in Ireland at the end March, returning to London and then performing a series of headlining shows in Ireland in April.

Full UK, Irish and SXSW dates are as follows:

17 Mar SXSW – 3pm show; Urban Outfitters stage; 6.30pm: Rare magazine party @ Old Fader Fort; 11pm show; Music from Ireland showcase@ ‘Friends’

18 Mar SXSW - 4.45pm: Hill 16 Day Party @ Bull McCabes

19 Mar SXSW – 1.30pm: Full Irish Breakfast @ BD Riley’s

20 Mar SXSW – 1.30pm: Domino Publishing/ Press Here Party@ French Legation; 4.30pm; Mojo magazine BBQ @ Mean Eyed Cat; 6.30pm: Kevchino.com party@ Café Mundi

22 Mar Queens Hall, supporting Tindersticks Edinburgh, UK

23 Mar Manchester Cathedral, supporting Tindersticks Manchester, UK

24 Mar Shepherds Bush Empire, supporting Tindersticks London, UK

25 Mar Roisin Dubh, supporting Wild Beasts Galway, Ireland

26 Mar Cyprus Avenue, supporting Wild Beasts Cork, Ireland

27 Mar The Academy, supporting Wild Beasts Dublin, Ireland

26 Apr Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London, supporting Shout Out Louds (8.30pm)

27 Apr Madame Jojos - White Heat, London (9.15pm stage time)

29 Apr Old Blue Last, London (9.45pm – headline show)

1 May Camden Crawl, London, venue TBA

2 May Camden Crawl, London, venue TBA

19 May Set Theatre, Kilkenny, Ireland
20 May Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland
21 May Roisin Dubh, Galway, Ireland
22 May The Button Factory, Dublin, Ireland

www.myspace.com/wearevillagers     http://wearevillagers.com     http://twitter.com/wearevillagers

In The Sun will be available via digital download (DS025D) from March 29^th. A limited edition 7” (DS025) will be released exclusively through independent record shops in a special edition Volume Two artworked tote bag, as part of Record Store day on April 17^th.

Video directed by Peyton Reed (Yes Man, The Break-Up) is below:

www.sheandhim.com

"Whoop-di-do: the eagerly-anticipated issue #2 of Loops magazine … Quake in boggled awe before Paul Morley’s essay on Michael Jackson.  They don’t make music magazines like this anymore." - Dazed & Confused

 The second issue of a wonderfully exciting, landmark collaboration between Domino and Faber – a twice-yearly journal dedicated to engaging, intelligent and diverse writing about music.

 Issue 2 of Loops, the biannual journal dedicated to music writing from Faber and Domino, hosts essays from Andy Miller (Est-ce, est-ce ce bon?: on Serge Gainsbourg's flirtation with Nazi chic on Rock Around the Bunker), Dan Franklin (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Fast: on Napalm Death and the Possibility of Life's Destruction) and Frances Morgan on Red Square's Thirty Three and the resonance of rediscovery after the event.

And then there's An Awfully Big Adventure, Paul Morley's spectacularly honest and exposing portrait of Michael Jackson and his debated legacy. Book shelves and tabloid columns have been blasting the ears of fans and critics alike since Jackson’s death, yet very little has been heard. Morley corrects this by unravelling and indulging the myth to ask just who he was, how we came to piece him together through our collective desires and fears, and why his destiny so inevitably reflected the dysfunctionality of the culture. This expansive essay takes a refreshingly imaginative perspective on a story that too often focused on the apocryphal fantasy rather than the magic of the man himself. Morley’s fascinating essay inclines us not just to look at Michael Jackson but to look at ourselves – the very forces implicit in making the man The King of Pop.

Morley sits alongside Simon Reynolds, Nick Kent, Lavinia Greenlaw, Owen Hatherley, Dan Franklin, Matt Thorne and Rob Chapman in Loops' second outing.

Loops II can be ordered from >>HERE

Loops is edited by Lee Brackstone and Richard King. Lee Brackstone is Publishing Director at Faber and Faber for pop culture titles and fiction. The Faber pop culture list has published such influential works as Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming, Simon Reynolds’s Rip It Up and Start Again and Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces.

Richard King has worked at Domino, the UK's leading independent music label for 15 years. In that time he has seen the label release records by Arctic Monkeys, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Franz Ferdinand, Pavement, Sebadoh and Robert Wyatt and build an incredible history and reputation.   He is currently working on How Soon Is Now?, an access all areas history of the UK independent music business 1975 - 2005.

A message from Domino Recording Co. Ltd…

We would like to make it clear that we are extremely concerned by BBC plans to cut BBC 6 Music from its schedule.  BBC 6 Music is an extremely important and rare outlet for much of the music that we release on Domino.  For many of us who grew up listening to, and learning about music from John Peel, we've come to appreciate this station of mostly free playlists, diversity, new things, old things, the unexpected.  Indeed we'd argue that the BBC should be making this fantastic station more readily available via the masses of unused FM bandwidth.

There's information on this all over the Internet (BBC, Times and Guardian online are good start points).  The BBC is currently inviting feedback to the proposals here: SRconsultation@bbc.co.uk. We urge you to email in, and let the BBC know your feelings on this matter.

A good general resource is the Save BBC 6Music facebook page to be found >>>HERE:

Please make the effort to do this.

Comments from just a few of our artists… 

Noah Lennox (Animal Collective/Panda Bear)

“When I was a lot younger radio used to be the place I’d go to find new music and I feel like I would find it everywhere on the dial. Since then it seems like less and less stations are willing to or have the means to play new music. I miss unpredictable radio. Please support these guys…”

Alison Mosshart (The Kills/The Dead Weather)

“Please don't leave us musicians and music lovers with such a void. We need BBC6. It is the only radio station we all listen too, and seemingly, the only station that plays anything worth listening too. It would be culturally damaging to lose this station. I highly doubt I would ever listen to radio in England again, if it were gone. And that goes for a great many friends and colleagues of mine. BBC6 has been very supportive to the bands that I have been in and supportive of my friends and label mates. We are all greatly appreciative of the fine work they do, and the open minds that they have. It baffles me why art and culture must always suffer and get the boot before sport or the generic music which EVERYONE plays already, anyway. We can get these trashy things anywhere. But we're relying on BBC6 to encourage and inspire. To shut it down would be a real shame and a real mistake. Think of it as the Tate Modern of radio. We want it; we need it... because it's unique and culturally significant.

Please save BBC 6 Music.”

Hayden Thorpe (Wild Beasts)

“The closure of BBC6 music would be a huge blow to British arts in general. I don't know any other established vehicle, which allows for inventive and contemporary music to reach such a wide audience. I'm in no doubt the unrelenting support we have had from BBC6 has massively helped our career. This sends out a damning message to creative young people.” 

Jack Barnett (These New Puritans)

“BBC6 was and is incredibly important to bands like us. In the world of 'independent music', where it can be difficult to survive by your ideas, it really is a unique and completely positive force. Its closure would be a massive blow to the possibilities of creative people doing creative things in this country.”

Dev Hynes (Lightspeed Champion) 

“The end of 6Music is such a disgrace and catastrophe, I learnt so much from it, and imagine that if I was younger I would have learnt more. A lot of people are going to remember this. This is so upsetting for music fans across the country.”

Kieran Hebden (Four Tet)

"Please don't close down 6 music and Asian network. It's important to have stations on the radio that don't just play mainstream music."

Having recently signed to Domino imprint Double Six, Steve Mason has announced the release of a new single, Lost & Found, on Monday April 19th 2010.

The single, available digitally and featuring the B-side It’s Never You, is taken from his forthcoming album, Boys Outside, which will be released on May 3rd.

The full tracklisting for the album is as follows:

1.  Understand My Heart
2.  Am I Just A Man
3.  The Letter
4.  Yesterday
5.  Lost & Found
6.  I Let Her In
7.  Stress Position
8.  All Come Down
9.  Boys Outside
10. Hound On My Heel

Having previously recorded as both King Biscuit Time and Black Affair, both largely electronic based projects, Steve Mason enlisted the help of producer Richard X and consciously made a decision to go back to basics; the album was written entirely on acoustic guitar with many of the finished tracks stripped back to reveal his undoubted songwriting talent.

Live shows are planned for 2010 after the album release. For further information prior to the release and all the social  & media links, mailing lists, free stuff and info is www.stevemasontheartist.com

In the studio footage, filmed during the making of the album, is available to view via the following link:

Further studio clips are available via www.youtube.com/pittenweem12

THE TRIFFIDS  

RELEASE EAGERLY AWAITED BEST OF 10 CD BOX SET ‘COME RIDE WITH ME ... WIDE OPEN ROAD - THE BEST OF THE TRIFFIDS’  (& ACCOMPANYING SINGLE CD EDITION)

- BOTH OUT 5 APRIL ON DOMINO -

BEFORE THEY CELEBRATE THE GENUIS OF THE LATE DAVID MCCOMB IN LONDON ON 9 APRIL WITH A CAST OF GUEST MUSICIANS, FRIENDS & VOCALISTS  

“When I was asked  to put together this collection of rarities I knew that the most difficult part would be constraining the number of CDs to single figures. That went out the window a few weeks ago - and I'm happy about that. Domino insists they are too. At least I didn't ask for a silver box”  - Graham Lee

On 5 April 2010 Domino are to release their eagerly awaited Best of The Triffids deluxe box set ‘Come Ride With Me ... Wide Open Road – The Best Of The Triffids’, which features 10 discs spanning the band’s entire career. That same day they also release an accompanying 18 track single disc compilation ‘Wide Open Road - The Best of The Triffids’.

A labour of love, the 10 CDs which comprise the box set are:

CD 1

Wide Open Road - The Best of The Triffids

The standard 18 track single CD compilation album also forms part of the Deluxe Edition. The full track listing for this is:

1. Wide Open Road 

2. Red Pony 

3. Reverie 

4. Beautiful Waste 

5. Hell Of A Summer 

6. Property Is Condemned 

7. Raining Pleasure 

8. The Seabirds

9. Lonely Stretch 

10. Stolen Property 

11. Kathy Knows 

12. Bury Me Deep 

13. A Trick Of The Light 

14. Jerdacuttup Man 

15. Too Hot To Move 

16. Goodbye Little Boy 

17. New Years Greetings 

18. Save What You Can 

CD 2

The Early Singles and EP’s

CD 3

The Early Cassettes.  A selection from the Triffids’ first, second, third and fourth cassettes

CD 4

The Early Cassettes.  The Triffids’ fifth and sixth cassettes

CD 5

Grandson of Dungeon Tape.  Dungeon Tape and Son of Dungeon Tape – A Selection

CD 6

Live To Air on 3PBS from the Regal Room at The Prince Of Wales Hotel, St Kilda - 16/4/84

CD 7

Live At the London School Of Economics – 13/10/84

CD 8

Live At Melbourne University – 27/03/88

CD 9  

Jack Brabham 2010 Volume 1 Live recordings, unreleased tracks and historical snippet 1977 to 1989

CD 10 

Jack Brabham 2010 Volume 2 Demos, Unheard Songs and Historical Snippets 1977 to 1988

 In addition, on Friday 9 April, the remaining members of The Triffids will gather together with a cast of characters, friends, guest musicians and vocalists at London’s Barbican for a special concert to showcase and celebrate the songwriting genius of their late leader David McComb, who died in 1999 (details of concert below). The band will also take the show to Hasselt, Belgium on April 16 and 17 at Kunstencentrum Belgie, and Athens, Greece on 23 April, when they appear at Gagarin 205. 

These releases continue the Triffids reissue programme which Domino started in 2006 with the release of the band’s classic ‘Born Sandy Devotional’ album, and which has seen ‘Calenture’, ‘In The Pines’, ‘Black Swan’ and ‘Treeless Plain’ all remastered and released as deluxe CDs with additional music and sleeve notes. Along the way there have been singles, a limited edition 7” singles box set, an unreleased album ‘Beautiful Waste And Other Songs’; unexpected live shows in Belgium and Amsterdam, a performance with special guests and friends as part of 2008’s Sydney Festival in Australia and even the honouring of the band with a Blue Plaque in London!   The band were inducted into the Australian Hall Of Fame in 2008.

The deluxe box set can be ordered from >>HERE

Whilst the standard CD edition can be ordered >>HERE

If you’re interested in knowing further details about our motivation to work with The Triffids then listen to this podcast: >>HERE

The transcript of this podcast also features in this book: >>HERE

The Triffids with special guest musicians, friends and vocalists LIVE in London:

Friday 9 April 2010

‘A Secret In The Shape of A Song’

Barbican Hall, London

On Friday 9 April 2010 the remaining members of The Triffids, Rob McComb, Alsy MacDonald, Martyn Casey, Jill Birt and Graham Lee will gather together with an array of special guests for a three hour performance: ‘A Secret In The Shape of A Song’.

Originally presented at The Sydney Festival in 2008, classics like ‘Wide Open Road’ and ‘Bury Me Deep In Love’ will be performed alongside B-sides, unreleased works and readings from David’s prose in a theatrical night of words and songs that will roll like perfect waves in a biographical celebration of David McComb’s work.

Domino Publishing writer, Adrian Crowley, has just been announced as the winner of the Choice Music Prize – Irish Album of the Year 2009 for the album Season Of The Sparks (Chemikal Underground).  Adrian was delighted to receive a cheque for €10,000 and a very fetching award, as shown in the attached photo.  Well done Adrian!!!

We are pleased to announce the release of the stunning debut single from Villagers - Becoming a Jackal, through Domino on 26^th April.

Villagers is the brainchild of Conor J. O'Brien, who has already toured Ireland twice, played festivals at home and abroad, and opened for the likes of Neil Young, Wild Beasts and Cass McCombs.

Becoming a Jackal is a heart-wrenching, melodic piece full of lyrical finesse; it’s the sort of song you want to play on repeat until every last note is engrained in your mind. Becoming a Jackal is a little taster of what’s to come from Conor J. O’ Brien and his esteemed colleagues’ forthcoming debut LP, details of which are to be announced shortly.

Becoming a Jackal will be available on limited edition 7” (RUG362), b/w with the track Twenty-Seven Strangers, on Record Store Day (April 17^th). Both tracks will then be available digitally from 26^th April (RUG362D). You can watch the accompanying, Ferry Gouw directed video here:

Owen Pallett releases Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (RUG360) as the first single from his recent album, Heartland, on March 29^th.

Lewis Takes Off His Shirt, a beautiful track dense with polyphony, features Owen’s trademark looped violin and vocals augmented by the Czech Symphonic Orchestra. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt features an accompanying video directed by M. Blash which you can watch here: 

Simon Bookish has delivered a remix of the song Keep The Dog Quiet which you can download for free here: http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/news/03-02-10/owen-pallett---keep-the-dog-quiet-simon-bookish-remix---stream--free-mp3/

Following his recent show at the Union Chapel in London, Owen Pallett will return to the UK and Ireland in March, including a night at Koko in London on March 26^th. Support on all shows except for Dublin comes from Next Life. Full dates are as follows:

MAR 18 DUBLIN, IRELAND              - WHELAN'S

MAR 25 CARDIFF, UK                      - MILLENIUM MUSIC HALL

MAR 26 LONDON, UK                       - KOKO

MAR 27 BIRMINGHAM, UK              - RAINBOW WAREHOUSE

MAR 28 MANCHESTER, UK             - THE DEAF INSTITUTE

Heartland, Owen Pallett’s third full length LP and first for Domino, is available now. This is what the press had to say about it:

‘a songwriter of rare complexity and ambition […] Heartland has the feel of a masterpiece’ – Sunday Times Culture– 4*

‘The record is huge and affecting. Trust me' – The Quietus

‘an overflowing well of musical creativity’ – NME

Domino are proud to announce the arrival of ‘Gold Soundz’, a compilation of 16 of Domino’s finest offerings.  The compilation is given away exclusively with this week’s issue of the New Musical Express – don’t miss it!

Tracklisting is as follows: