Those seeking a taster for David Holmes’s forthcoming album should check out the new compilation from the Oh Yeah music centre in Belfast.

Holmes has contributed a new track, McCready Rides Again, to the Oh Yeah Sessions ‘08 release.

The compilation also features tunes from the hotly tipped In Case of Fire, The Jane Bradfords, Kowalski, Panama Kings and others. Eight of the tracks were recorded at Oh Yeah’s in-house studio.

While he spends a lot of time in Ireland, Canadian producer and musician Daniel Lanois seldom plays here.

This will be redressed next month when Lanois, currently working with U2 on their forthcoming album, plays two shows to tie in with screenings of Here Is What Is, the documentary on his work as a musician and producer.

Lanois, along with drummer Brian Blade, plays Dublin’s IFI on May 31 and Galway’s Town Hall Theatre on June 1. Both shows will be followed by a screening of the documentary (trailer below)

Say hello to new Irish label Any Other City, which has opened its stall with a fine mini-album from New Amusement (video for “Lights Go Down” follows)

Good to see Dublin’s Boom Boom Room venue back in action. The excellent The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock launch their debut album at the club’s new location at Murray’s, 34 Upper O’Connell St, tonight.

Irish promoters obviously have more faith in the weather than the rest of us: outdoor shows were announced this week for Muse (Marlay Park, Dublin, August 13th) and Lenny Kravitz (Marlay Park, Dublin, August 19 with Alanis Morissette).

Putting some of that Arctic Monkeys loot to good use, the Domino label release “Slip In And Out Of Phenomenon”, a retrospective of New York punk-funk kingpins Liquid Liquid, on May 23.

The Skinny Wolves are back and they’ve got Brooklyn hipsters Effi Briest lined up for their next club night at Transformer (Thomas Read’s, Dublin) on April 18.

Kiwi with an Irish passport Liam Finn releases his debut album “I’ll Be Lightning” here on April 18 and marks the occasion with shows in Cork (Whiskey, 23), Galway (Roisin Dubh, 24) and Dublin (Sugar Club, 25).

John Cooper Clarke is the man who links The Sopranos (his “Evidently Chickentown” track below was featured in one episode) and the Arctic Monkeys (lead Monkey Alex Turner is a big fan). The poet and musician plays Dublin’s Crawdaddy on May 16.

Ben Otwell is the man with the big voice in Gomez and he’s at Dublin’s Crawdaddy on May 12 for a solo acoustic pow-wow with his band’s greatest hits.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip play Dublin’s Button Factory on May 7 ahead of the release of their “Angles” debut album

The Raconteurs have announced that they will release their second album, Consolers of the Lonely, worldwide next Friday, March 28th.

The record was finished in early March, so there will be no hanging around for reviews, internet leaks, marketing meetings or promo tours for Jack White, Brendan Benson and the other two before Consolers of the Lonely hits the shops.

The move is partly reminiscent of Radiohead’s In Rainbows campaign last year, although The Raconteurs have not bought into Radiohead’s name-your-own-price model.

Of course, there’s nothing new about rush-releases like this. It’s a common ploy, for example, in the film business, where - usually lousy - movies sometimes go on release without press screenings for critics.

Adele’s back and we bet her Irish cousins will be happy with that news. She plays Vicar Street, Dublin on May 16

Hip-hop gig of the season? That could well be the visit of Lupe Fiasco for a show at Dublin’s Tripod on April 5th. Everyone’s favourite skateboarding Muslim MCs new album “The Cool” is every jot as good as his debut “Food & Liquor”.

Mark Geary gets back in the record releasing groove with her new album “Opium” out on April 18th. An Irish tour kicks off in the Sugar Club, Dublin on April 19th.

The waiting is nearly over, The new album from The Notwist, the follow-up to 2002’s “Neon Golden”, will be called “The Devil, You + Me” and it’s released in late May on City Slang.

You can now download “Good Lies” from the album for free here.

The Notwist play Dublin’s Button Factory on June 7 and Galway’s Roisin Dubh on June 8

Cute video for “Pick Up The Phone” follows

(Thanks to Charlie for the heads-up on the download)

Believe it or not, there is musical life after a spell in a boy band.

Mark Sheehan and Danny O’Donoghue are former members of My Town, the Irish boy band who signed a huge record deal in the 1990s and released a debut album co-produced by Teddy Riley, but who failed to set the world alight.

Sheehan and O’Donoghue, along with Glen Power, are now The Script, a band signed to RCA Records who are receiving a lot of attention thanks to their We Cry track, with BBC Radio 1 and music industry magazine Record of the Day tipping the band for bigger things.

The Script are currently touring Britain supporting The Hoosiers.

Acts heading to Co Galway for this year’s Life Festival from July 4 to 6 include Max Romeo, Coldcut, Finley Quaye and Alloy Mental.

Maybe they’ll make the Picnic this time? Gnarls Barkley return in April with a new album, “The Odd Couple”.

Transvision Vamp singer Wendy James turns DJ at a special Songs Of Praise happening at The Village, Dublin on Easter Sunday.

“The Ballad of Ronnie Drew”, featuring U2, The Dubliners, Kila, Christy Moore, Shane MacGowan, Glen Hansard and an all-star Band of Bowsies, goes on release today. All proceeds to the Irish Cancer Society.

March’s must-see gig in the capital is the visit of avant-garde queenpin Baby Dee to Whelan’s on the 22nd.

The Go! Team hit the decks at Sassy Sue’s Go-Go Inevitable at Dublin’s Sugar Club on April 18.

We’re really looking forward to hearing “Jim”, the new album from electro-pop crooner Jamie Lidell. He plays Dublin’s Academy on May 3.

Anyone for some hairy psych-metal? Canuck rockers Black Mountain plug their awesome new album “In The Future” at Dublin’s Button Factory on May 13.

Torch song-singing tree surgeon Baby Dee plays Whelan’s, Dublin on March 22. Yeah! Check out her new “Safe Inside The Day” album on Drag City (co-produced by Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney) and feel the love.

Xiu Xiu are coming. Oh yes, they are. They play Whelan’s, Dublin on May 22. Dig their new album too, “Women As Lovers”

Anyone for some Man Man? They’re on their way too and will be plugging fine new album “Rabbit Habits” at Whelan’s, Dublin on May 11.

And, guess what, Black Mountain are on their way too. We’re digging their “In The Future” album quite a lot at the moment. They play Dublin’s Button Factory on May 13.

Serial On The Record comment monkey Hot Lunch now has a blog. God help us all. He will review the carvery offerings of various hotels in the Irish midlands on a daily basis and will also write about 2 Unlimited, country music and teacakes. Check it.

UNKLE are no more. National day of mourning declared in Hoxton.

Andrew Butler from Hercules & Love Affair (actually, hang on, he is H&LA) DJs at Spy in Dublin on March 16.

The only Choice Music Prize nominees named after a kitchen stove and all-round smashing guys Stanley Super 800 have joined forces with fellow all-round nice guy and RTE Cork feen Rory Cobbe for a multi-what-have-you. Based around the theme of secondhand shops, the “Thrift Store Etiquette EP” will feature both an audio-visual exhibition (at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork from next Friday) and a downloadable audio stream. More info here.

More online chatter equals more album sales according to research cited by Ars Technica:

The researchers followed the Amazon sales ranks for each of the 108 albums over a period of eight weeks (they said that Nielsen SoundScan stats would have been ideal, but they are costly and proprietary), as well as articles, blog postings, and MySpace friend counts about them. The blogosphere appeared to be most strongly correlated to better album sales—if 40 or more legitimate (written by normal people and not by marketers) blog posts were made before an album’s release, sales ended up being three times the average.

Love that line “written by normal people and not by marketers”

Seven is the magic number for Dublin label and store All City Records.

The hip-hop mini empire’s forthcoming Beatstrumental Series will feature seven different producers releasing a seven-inch record apiece over the next seven months.

The series gets under way with Snowman in March. The Detroit native and Los Angeles resident is currently working with Stones Throw rapper Guilty Simpson.

Other producers lined up for the throwdown include Hudson Mohawke (Heralds Of Change), Newman (New Jack Hustle), Mike Slott (Heralds Of Change), Fulgeance (Musique Large), Mweslee (Arkestra) and LeNeko (Le Phonik).

The new David Gray? Big in Ireland singer-songwriter Tom Baxter plays Dublin’s National Stadium on May 2.

On The Record is officially very excited. German indie kingpins The Notwist release a brand new album in May, the long awaited follow-up to 2002’s “Neon Golden”

It’s like Ri-Ra 1994-5 all over again, dudes. Hip-hop pioneers Naughty By Nature go live at Dublin’s Tripod on March 6. Hip-hop hurrah, ho, hey, ho etc

Large birthday cake for Trinity Rooms please. The Limerick superclub kick off their fifth b-day celebrations with Groove Armada DJ-ing on February 17.

Bet you didn’t know that there’s a new Lenny Kravitz album in the shops. No, I didn’t know either until I walked into HMV the other day. It’s called “It Is Time For A Love Revolution”. Nice pic of Lenny on the cover. Lenny once sat beside me on a bench in Central Park. True story.

Question - do people still buy Lenny Kravitz albums? I mean, if you have one Lenny album already and you have the hits, do you really need another one? Apparently, he has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. That’s a lot of Lenny.

A couple of weeks ago, I was discussing with someone why the new Paddy Casey album had under-performed. Their take on things was interesting. Why would you bother with a new Paddy Casey album, they figured, when you already had one lying around the house? After all, there was very little change in sound or tempo between the last one and the new one. There were certainly fewer radio-friendly hits on the album and radio is still a must if you want to flog albums in this country.

But, most of all, there was no buzz about the damn thing. Paddy hadn’t become the all-conquering hero who had broken America or Europe or even the Isle of Man. He was still the dude who had shifted thousands of albums in his own land. When your own audience says “whatever” and moves onto Tom Baxter, things are fairly bad.

Every major record label has its Lennys and Paddys. They’re the ones who sold copious volumes of albums in the past and who will continue to sell Greatest Hits collections in the future until the cows come home. But the new albums, the ones which the artist has spent a year or more slaving over? They’ll appear, they’ll get a bit of a push and they’ll quietly go back into the warehouse. They’ll sell to the die-hards and that will be that. Maybe there will be a surprise hit, but most times, the radio DJ will reach for one of the boom tunes of old when they want a bit of Lenny or Paddy on their playlist.

But that will not stop Lenny and Paddy. They will keep on keeping on. As long as there are record stores or download outlets, there will be new Lenny and Paddy records. For years to come, Lenny and Paddy will stlll be with us, chugging along. They’re the real winners from the major label poker game because they’ve already got the hits to sustain them into old age under their oxters, hits they managed to achieve with thanks to major label muscle.

Chuck Berry, the rock’n’roll pioneer who always gets paid, plays Letterkenny’s Grill on March 24.

RTE 2’s Other Voices, kicks off on February 13 with Dave Geraghty, Foy Vance, The Crimea, Cathy Davey and Ryan Adams

Kells outfit Ham Sandwich release their debut album “Carry The Meek” on February 15. “We called ourselves Ham Sandwich not because we like sandwiches but because we couldn’t give a fuck what our gang is called, the stupider the better.”

Nick Cave, Radio Soulwax and The Kooks will be playing for a beer company at Dublin Castle on May 3, 4 and 5.

If you want to hear the new Hot Chip album “Made In The Dark”, it’s streaming here.

In today’s Ticket, as part of a feature on Cat Power’s new covers album “Jukebox”, I rattled off my favourite 20 cover versions of all time. Naturally, I left tons out. Well, that’s what happens when you have only 20 slots to fill. Let me know if I missed one of your favourites.

In an era when bands struggle to get to album number two, it’s reassuring to know that some Irish acts continue to stick with the programme and pile on the releases.

Doughty power-pop combo Pugwash will release their fourth album on March 7th.

Eleven Modern Antiquities is the follow-up to 2005’s Jollity album and features contributions from Neil Hannon, XTC’s Andy Partridge, The Section Quartet and others.

Meanwhile, Anyone Who Asks from the band’s second album, Almanac, features on the soundtrack to the Colin Farrell and Ed Norton flick Pride and Glory.

He’s back. Six years have passed since the last album from Billy Bragg, but next month will see his new album, Mr Love & Justice, arrive in shops and download outlets.

Not that Bragg has been idle since releasing England, Half English in 2002. He forced MySpace to review their terms and conditions of use after noting some ambiguous legal clauses.

He established the Jail Guitar Doors initiative to buy instruments for prisoners in UK jails. Bragg marked his 50th birthday last December with a performance and public interview at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. And he’s seen a host of new-school acts like Jamie T, Hard-Fi and Kate Nash acknowledge his influence on their music.

Mr Love & Justice, which features a guest appearance from Robert Wyatt, will be released on Cooking Vinyl on February 29th.