The Analog festival returns to Dublin's docklands in July with performances from Hal Willner's Rogue's Gallery, Tortoise, Efterklang, Taraf de Haidouks and many more.
The festival kicks off on July 18th with the European premiere of Rogue's Gallery, featuring a cast of singers yet to be announced.
Willner was responsible for the Came So Far for Beauty tribute to Leonard Cohen, and his Rogue's Gallery album of sea shanties and pirate ballads features Bono, Bryan Ferry, Nick Cave, Antony, Richard Thompson, Martin Carthy, Gavin Friday and dozens more. Tortoise and Efterklang perform on July 19th, while Romanian gypsy orchestra Taraf de Haidouks are the main draw on July 20th.
A new stage, Analog Studio, has been added this year and will feature Johann Johansson and Chequerboard (July 18th), Silje Nes (July 19th) and others.
Analog curator Gary Sheehan from Note Productions said last year's debut "showed that people have a real appetite for something different delivered in a nice way in the middle of town. It proved that there is a niche for a progressive music event in Dublin."
This "runaway success" allowed Sheehan to go deeper and wider with his bookings for this year.
"The programme is a comparative journey because we're putting quite different music together. It's bigger and more diverse than last year, but all the artists are really serious and strong, as opposed to being new just for the sake of it."
Unlike last year, most of this year's shows will not be free. Tickets cost €49.95 for Rogue's Gallery, €30 for Tortoise and €10 for the Analog Studio shows.
"We wanted to be able to offer more music, do some commissions and raise the stature of the bands involved," says Sheehan, "and we had to raise some extra income to do that."
"We've set what we consider to be very fair ticket prices so we can offer a whole lot more than we offered last year. The event is still hugely subsidised, but we were keen to avoid the obvious beer sponsors, which would be inappropriate for the event".
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Put on some good gigs? Not such a Foggy notion
It's set to be a busy couple of months for magazine- turned-promoters Foggy Notions.
With their well regarded print magazine on hold and an online publication in the works, the focus is on putting bands who would have featured in the magazine on stages in Dublin.
Forthcoming Foggy shows in Whelan's worth leaving the house to see include the remarkable Los Angeles outfit Health (May 9th), Deerhunter (April 30th), the excellent Philly combo Man Man (May 11th), Silver Jews (May 16th) and No Kids (May 24th).
There's even a Foggy Notions festival in the works. Future Days will feature Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Dan Deacon, Baby Dee and others in various Dublin venues in June.
IMRO has best in show
The best domestic showcase for local bands? That would probably be the IMRO Showcase, which has consistently proven its worth on past tours starring The Flaws, Oppenheimer, Fight Like Apes, Rosey and others. This year's instalment has featured 46 acts and 11 dates around the country in the past few weeks.
There are three Dublin gigs to come. The excellent Cap Pas Cap, Concerto for Constantine, New Amusement and Crimes Against are in the Sugar Club tonight.
The Kinetiks and The Infomatics are the pick of the bunch at the Hub next Thursday, while the Sugar Club must-sees on Friday the 18th include Hybrasil and Readers Wives.
